Mark of Chaos is another game based on Warhammer universe. In early 1983, Games Workshop released its first edition of the game Warhammer Fantasy Battle (a table top wargame). Since then, many stories and additions have been made to that universe. There is a "dark and gritty" aspect to this fantasy world. Here the forces of Chaos (baddies) are attempting to destroy the mortal world. We find a variety of races, more or less familiar to fantasy fans: humans (of course), high elves, dark elves, dwarfs, orcs, undead, ogres, and many more.
Relic has done a fantastic work in bringing it's game into the computer industry with the dark, futuristic Warhammer 40000 series, also inspired from Warhammer table top games. But while Warhammer 40000 is a pure Real-Time strategy, Warhammer: Mark of Chaos is a strange combination. It combines Real-Time Tactic elements (mostly), with RTS and some RPG. If I had to compare this game with a popular title, it would probably be EA's Battle For Middle Earth.
When you start the game the first thing that stands out is the excellent introduction movie, made by Digic Pictures. Just when I got my hopes up, the main menu came up - boring and really not much attractive. At least it's simple and it does the work. A friendly advice: if you plan switching applications while playing this game, forget it! Even if you manage to switch out of game, you will never get back in. The game just freezes. So you may want to close your messenger client, and/or all other programs that can "pop-up" windows. To make it worse, you are unable to save in missions, just between them, on the world map, so if you make the mistake that I did (left messenger opened) you can say bye bye to 3 hours of play.
That being said, let's proceed to the game. In Single-Player you can choose between 2 campaigns: Empire and Chaos. Each one has 4 chapters. Empire is represented by the hero Stefan von Kessel while the Chaos champion is Thorgar the Blooded One. The campaigns are even, overall the empire is weaker individually but better organized, while chaos is opposite – fights better individually, but less organized. Either way you choose, you have to fight your way through 4 "big maps", one for each chapter.
Each "chapter map" has a pre-defined road where the hero and his army can pass. Thus, the two campaigns are really linear. Points of importance on the map are marked with different icons: Towns (friendly or enemy), Crossroads, Duels, Special Places, etc.
If you're blue and you don't know/ Where to go to why don't you go/ Where fashion sits...
In the towns you can for example visit the temple, to bless your army and recruit more soldier replacements in your regiments; or the armory for troops and heroes upgrades; the alchemy shop for potions; and barracks, where you can purchase more regiments or heroes if available. Money for repairs or upgrades can be gained by completing a mission (who would of thought). Apparently you can find up to 5000 gold on the dead bodies left after the battles... It is amazing how much money these guys carry on them, especially knowing they are going to war. It's even more surprising for the forces of Chaos, that basically have no use for gold at all.{pagebreak}
After the big impressive introduction movie, the rule is one cinematic for every completed mission in the campaign. But these cinematic moments are really disappointing, both the quality of the script/dialog and the video compression quality are bad. If you're a patient player and you won't skip the first ones, it won't be long until you start to skip them (I don't, but hey! I get paid to do this, you shouldn't suffer!).
FMVs made with the game engine, pre-rendered. I bet the game would be much smaller without these.
When you reach a conflict point on the map, you enter the battle. Really really big loading times in this game, even on the most powerful computers will make you want to go on a sandwich break before you enter a mission. Inside missions, the map is 3D, and you can zoom in and out well. You cannot rotate the camera, but let's say they have an excuse on "wanting to keep a strategic view". The troops and heroes look good, textures are nice on them, and like in Total War a company has different models for each soldier, making it personalized and making the game look more "natural". Spells and special effects are not extraordinary, but decent nevertheless. But these good aspects are ruined by the animation of the characters. Real choppy and basic animation, that makes this game look bad in action. Also, in the heat of a big battle, the frames drop like crazy. You can add the sometimes dumb AI to that, that is making units undecided on what to attack, while they are under fire. Pretty annoying.
I think this is the best picture that i got from the game. Looks sweet doesn't it?
On top of that (I could be wrong – it's just a feeling) I find that the interface, 3D terrain, graphics, cinematics and animations do not fit together somehow. It's a strange remark I know, I had it for some other strategy titles too: for example the old Myth if you remember, the 3D terrain was really blend and uniform while the units were really well defined. I somehow don't think that it fits well. Same here: sometimes it feels like all these could work individually, but not together for some reason.
I don't know if this is relevant, but you may get the general idea...
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Like most recent strategy games, legendary heroes are added to the game. They can of course level up and they posses special abilities. You can also train/improve these abilities, by allocating points on the special abilities page. For each level up you gain, you can spend one point. I wish I could say you have ability "trees" but it's not the case, as you can see, they aren't linked:
Notice the 3 tabs: Combat, Duel and Command – I will discuss them in a moment
Heroes can really boost your army, they are strong and can do impressive damage, depending on the class that you pick and on what abilities you spend your points on. On some occasions, you will get to duel with the enemy heroes, one vs. one. Winning will greatly boost morale, not to mention it will get you some artifacts from the dead enemy, and good experience. There is a "Duel" tab where you improve your dueling abilities. You can also team a hero with a regiment, and the "Command" tab abilities will help improve the whole regiment. Finally, the "Combat" tab is designed for the defense or offense of your hero.
Army regiments also gain experience from combat, making them veteran units. Add to all this the fact that you carry all your army through the campaign, and that you can upgrade your troops (with armors, weapons or siege weapons) and your heroes with a full equipment set. So you cannot complain from the RPG elements of the game. The only bad thing is that you will have a hard time swapping equipment between heroes, even if the game says it works just by dragging and dropping them from one to another.
Hero's inventory and backpack. Contrary to "popular" beliefs, drag and drop items on another hero doesn't work...
Combat involves tactic elements: placing your infantry in front of your archers, or protecting your siege units will win the day, and you stand no chance otherwise. It is annoying that sometimes enemy units pop just behind your army, attacking the siege units and archers, when they couldn't possibly get there. They just appear behind you.
Siege missions lack something, and they are not too often either. It's not really a siege, more of a normal attack mission that has to be completed in a certain time, and you have to right-click on a fortress walls to climb your troops on or set gunpowder at the walls.
Because my archers have increased range, the "boss" enemy hero decided not even to move... why bother?!
The multiplayer is ok, and for it (or for the Skirmish matches) there is a really good unique customization system, where you can personalize each unit to your liking.
Multiplayer/Skirmish match options
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Gameplay: 70
Something is lacking. Not dynamic enough and some bad decisions make this game average. If you really like the style, you would probably be better off playing Battle For Middle Earth. Good customization of heroes and armies nevertheless. The campaigns are linear and boring. Fans will play it anyway.
Graphics: 76
Half good, half bad! Heroes and troops are nicely drawn. Spells and special effects are good but not extraordinary. Animations and cinematics (except the intro) are bad, and the terrain is generally blend.
Multiplayer: 88
Can be fun, but nothing special. It is somehow similar with Total War. Great customization screen for your army and heroes.
Sound: 72
Boring! 3 sounds at most for "clicks", and I can't say the music comes to my mind now. Explosion and shooting sounds have nothing special. They work, I guess...
And loading... and loading... and...
Hardware: 68
Loading takes ages, and frames drop like crazy in big battles. It can be annoying on medium systems to click on units in battles, with low fps. You need luck to do it!
Overall
It's disappointing. Comparing with the success Warhammer 40000, this game is nowhere near that dynamic and good looking. Nothing shines and it seems average in all aspects.
