Upcoming MMO Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning has finally been given a release date by the guys over at EA. It had previously been slated for release on September 23rd but that was retracted and is now followed by, surprisingly, an earlier release date of September 18th. This ‘Day of Reckoning’ will be a simultaneous worldwide release, although EA’s ‘worldwide’ definition only includes Europe and North America.

I’m actually a pretty big fan of Warhammer, although it usually only extends to the Warhammer 40,000 variety and only includes the literature as I’ve never touched the tabletop game that started it all. Video game wise I did enjoy Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War immensely and can’t wait for its sequel. However, I’m not too sure about this MMO.

Firstly, the MMO market is completely saturated and it really takes something completely unique and original to stand out from the crowd these days. Secondly, any aspiring MMO developer has to take on the incredible beast that is World of Warcraft. This leads me on to my final point, as Warhammer Online doesn’t really seem all that different from WoW. It’s got the same colourful visuals and a similar combat system, plus it’s the fantasy genre. Now obviously Warhammer has always been fantasy and I’d bet my left leg that WoW was inspired by the Warhammer universe, but do we really need another fantasy MMO? I’d have thought that a 40k MMO would be more appealing to a market that is yet to make a decent effort in the sci-fi genre.

In my opinion the only thing going for it (apart from it being part of the popular Warhammer franchise) is the Realm versus Realm combat. This allows players of either side to capture various zones across the world, eventually culminating in the invasion of either sides capital cities.  Again, this is an attempt to make players feel like they’re important and that they’re playing a major part in the events of the virtual world and, on paper, it does sound pretty cool. However, even WoW has something similar to this in the form of Battlegrounds - Warhammer Online simply takes it to the next level.

Maybe Warhammer Online will take a lot of players who are fed-up with WoW and want something new. However, when you’re offering an experience that is all too familiar you only really have your franchises popularity left. The Matrix was a popular franchise but it’s MMO counterpart (The Matrix Online) left many people with a bad taste in their mouth. I truly hope I’m wrong as I think it’s time that another MMO got a large share of the market, I just don’t believe that Warhammer Online has what it takes to topple WoW right now.

Official Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning European site.

Update:  Joystiq has the news that the open beta will kick off on September 7, which gives you 11 days to try the game out before release. Unfortunately the only way to gain access to the beta is to pre-order the game or already be part of the ongoing closed beta.