Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Let loose the Chaos Hounds of war.

Mike Bantick
Sunday, 26 November 2006 14:45

Your IT - Entertainment

Bringing the table top experience of Warhammer Fantasy Battle to the computer has proven to be a difficult task.  So difficult it has only been tried once before.  Now comes the latest attempt to wield unfeasibly large weapons using only the power of your keyboard and mouse.

The 'Games Workshop' company have spent over a decade and seven iterations in fine-tuning the rule set of their high fantasy miniatures game.  It is a dark world of mutation and endless war. 

The characters driving the battles are larger than life, and the armies they direct are fantastical amalgamations sourced from myth and real ancient world cultures.  So we see Ghengis Khan type hoards made of Orc warriors, and so on.

Here we harness the power of the PC in an attempt to capture the deep experience of tabletop gaming.  Instead of collecting metal miniatures, cleaning, assembling, undercoating and painting them, you can enter the virtual battlefield, put together a bestial evil, or a force of good and take on people all round the world.

First the good, Mark of Chaos does indeed capture the atmosphere of the Warhammer world.  Units are available as per the miniature rule system and the choice of playing the single player campaign as either Empire or as a Chaos Warlord is satisfying enough.

Furthermore the choice of playable races is reasonable, with players able to select High Elves or the rat-men race of Skaven as full armies in Multiplayer.  With many others controllable during the single player Campaign.