Friday, December 31, 2010

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Direct Link

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos
Publisher: Namco Bandai Games America
Developer: Black Hole Games
Genre: Real-Time Strategy
Release Date: Nov 14, 2006 (US)(more)
ESRB: MATURE
ESRB Descriptors: Blood and Gore, Violence, Language
Hoster: Direct Link


Orcs and elves have been done so many times at this point that it's easy to be jaded about the arrival of yet another fantasy game. So it's a credit to Warhammer: Mark of Chaos that the game makes you sit up and pay attention when its gloriously detailed 3D units come up onscreen. This strategy game, based on the popular Warhammer Fantasy Battles miniatures game, is a visually impressive affair, though the first chapter in what will probably be a long-lived series doesn't quite live up to its own potential and is saddled with some frustrating technical issues.

The battles in Mark of Chaos are just like the ones in Total War games, only these feature orcs, demons, elves, and other fantasy creatures.

With its beautiful real-time 3D battles, it's natural to want to compare Mark of Chaos to the popular Total War games, which have the same sort of epic battles, only with real-world historical units instead of fantasy ones. And, like the Total War games, Mark of Chaos comes with a turn-based campaign to tie those battles together. Unfortunately, the campaign in Mark of Chaos doesn't feature anywhere near the amount of strategic depth or replayability of Total War. There are two campaigns to choose from in Mark of Chaos. One lets you play from the perspective of the mostly human Empire and its elven allies. The other lets you play as the forces of the orc-heavy chaos faction and its skaven allies, which are essentially humanoid rodents of unusual size. Those four factions are the only ones in the game, which doesn't come close to the number in the miniatures game, but at least there are three variants of each faction. Plus, we must admit that there's something almost sinisterly cool about the Empire faction and the Germanic undertones in its reiksguard units and elector count heroes.

Both campaigns are very linear. All you do is move one army along a predetermined path and engage in scripted battle after battle. Along the way, you'll need to assist a besieged city, crush an encampment of enemy forces, and engage in a one-on-one duel against the enemy hero. There's an occasional branch that happens every now and then where you can pursue an optional mission, but for the most part, the campaign map gives you the illusion of control as you move your army to the only place on the map where it can go. It doesn't help that the map itself is incredibly dark and plain, to the point that it's usually just a brown background. Even the story is drably told, as it's conveyed mainly through static dialogue screens with obligatory growling voice acting for the forces of evil and haughty voice acting for the forces of good. This seems like a lost opportunity considering the incredible prerendered movie that opens the game; it's so amazing that you want the designers to stretch it out to a 90-minute movie and put it in theaters.

Minimum System Requirements
System: 2.4 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent AMD Athlon or equivalent
RAM: 512 MB
Video Memory: 128 MB
Hard Drive Space: 3000 MB

Recommended System Requirements
System: 3.2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent AMD Athlon or equivalent
RAM: 1024 MB
Video Memory: 256 MB
Hard Drive Space: 3000 MB
Other: Sound Blaster Audigy, X-fi or equivalent

Screenshots

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