I usually tend to associate, in a down-right narrow-minded fashion, the wares of Games Workshop and their products with a band of bearded-types who tend to have a penchant for real Ale. The games have always been similarly styled, but since the explosion in popularity of and the renaissance of all things Tolkien, the similarly mythic games, creatures and environs of Warhammer are undergoing something of a resurgence in fame. This new found popularity and acceptance should be helped in gaming-circles no-end by the arrival of Warhammer Online too, a new ‘social’ twist on the theme, as the Warhammer world makes it into a massively role-playing title, based on the original table-top fantasy game.

Warhammer Online is currently in at UK-based Climax, most notably famous for such titles as Theme Park World and Populous: The Beginning. Redmond’s own, Microsoft, are also lending a hand, to help Climax perfect the net side of things thus ensuring a (hopefully) smooth massively-multiplayer launch. Which would be something of a first.

Indeed, Games Workshop appear to placing a lot of faith in the success of Warhammer Online, with the formation of Warhammer Ltd., the corporate bracket under which the new game will fall. General Manager Robin Dews had this to say, “The success of our game - based on an exclusive license from New Line Films - has encouraged us to take a more cheerful approach to media relations rather than simply communicating directly to customers through the pages of our own White Dwarf magazine or website.” Thusly I begin this preview…

The game itself originally began life as a affair, based heavily on the world and tactics of the table top games, however this has rapidly evolved into a game that “offers players cooperation and in equal measure” – hence a fantasy was the logical choice, with players entering the game as humble adventurers. Through exploration, co-operation and occasional dismemberment, the adventurer will then battle against his environs, rising to fame to become an eventual hero.

It really is quite a prospect, but not one without some very stiff competition, the apparently fairly traditional RPG ethics behind Warhammer being very similar to the likes of Everquest II and Dragon Empires, two other high-profile role-playing games competing for subscriptions.

Those who are familiar with the creations of Games Workshop, will be pleased to note the familiarity of the world in Warhammer Online, the landscape for the first episode being the area of the Empire between the River Reik and the Grey Mountains, stretching from Marienburg in the north to the foothills of the Black Mountains in the south. “This is a landscape that is well known to Warhammer players be they tabletop gamers, role-players or simply fans of Games Workshop’s comic books and fiction.” Sadly, I’m neither – but it promises to be a truly vast area and diverse fantasy realm to explore.