Warhammer: Mark of Chaos

8.2

Format PC

Developer Black Hole Entertainment

Publisher Namco

Genre Sim / Strategy

2 Comments

Why are they always Scottish? Dwarves, that is. I've often wondered who it was that originally decreed that these stunted beardy hedonists should speak with a Glaswegian twang? Same goes for elves - pompous, meticulously spoken, stupid feather caps; and what about humans - unreliable weak-minded fools who unwittingly find themselves as the only race capable of opposing a darkness that threatens to enslave the world.

As you've probably already guessed - and if you're already a Warhammer fan, you'll already know - Mark Of Chaos is an RTS that indulges these fantasy mainstays in a world where humanity, elves and dwarfs must hold back the
tide of the rampaging Hordes Of Chaos - or monstrous, gravelly-voiced bad people with large axes for the uninitiated.

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Despite its somewhat predictable premise, Mark Of Chaos proves itself to be a deep and compelling romp through a world ravaged by war, perfectly complemented by an excellent plot and two semi open-ended campaigns utilising rolling resources and offering both optional and story-essential missions.
So, we're off to a pretty good start. Which is always nice.

WAR'S A BREWIN'
Mark Of Chaos kicks off just months after Emperor Magnus's victory against the Hordes, plopping you into the conflictravaged Warhammer universe and instantly immersing you in a world where diametrically opposed factions attempt to cleave each other into submission.

With two campaigns on offer, you can choose to guide either the Empire or the Hordes Of Chaos to glory. Playing as the Empire sees you assuming the mantle of Stefan von Kessel, a commander in the Empire's army, branded with the Mark Of Chaos as a child due to his daddy and grandpappy's dabblings with the dark side. As the campaign progresses, you'll discover the truth behind your family's past, one that will ultimately forge your destiny - and that of your people - and see you uniting with (and commanding) both elves and dwarves.

If that's all sounding a bit too namby-pamby and you fancy ripping out some entrails while sacking villages instead, then you'll probably be wanting to head straight for the Hordes Of Chaos (backed up by the Greenskins and the Skaven) campaign, a rampaging romp of destruction and death that sees you attempting to wipe out the Empire and install yourself as the new champion of the Chaos gods.

A NEW CHAPTER
Whichever side you end up opting for, the campaign's format remains unchanged. Divided into chapters, each segment presents you with a map dotted with towns, caves and enemy strongholds, which must be liberated from your foe. In this sense, Mark Of Chaos bears more than a passing resemblance to Rise Of Nations: Rise Of Legends, tasking you with moving your army through the land with the chance to deviate from your main objective via optional side quests.

Though Mark Of Chaos never quite manages to hit the same ethereal heights as Big Huge Game's closet classic, and while the campaign map is so ugly that the likes of Medieval II would only ask it out as part of a pig-orientated dare, there's still a game of genuine intelligence to be found here, an RTS bristling with ideas and hours of slaughtering entertainment.

Once you reach a hotspot on the campaign map, the action switches to a 3D battlefield in which your upgradeable Hero units lead your troops into action. Each Hero has an abundance of abilities and spells that can be called upon, ranging from scorching fireballs to magical shields that protect an entire regiment from enemy onslaughts. They can also pick up dropped magical items from the battlefield, which further swell their powers. Much like Warcraft III and Rise Of Legends, these Hero units are integral to your success and used shrewdly, can turn the tide of even the bleakest of battles.

Before hostilities commence, you're given the opportunity to position your troops within a deployment zone. However, unlike Med II where your pre-battle positioning is paramount to eking out an advantage over your enemy, Mark Of
Chaos's deployment phase often proves about as productive as trying to hack off someone's head with a nail file (don't try it at home kids, it bloody hurts). And with the majority of missions tasking you with exploring the map, your starting position often proves obsolete, though defensive levels are a notable exception.

THINK ABOUT IT
While your army's starting position often proves unimportant to a level's outcome, the same certainly can't be said for the strategies you employ during skirmishes. Forced to think tactically at every turn, there's a genuine sense of strategy from the moment you advance to the moment the final foe falls.

Missile troops are deadly when raining down volleys on your foes, but leave them
isolated and they'll be flanked faster than Daniel O'Donnell in an old people's home. Maybe faster. What's more, with the game thankfully shying away from the build-and-rush mechanic still employed by so many modern-day RTS games - instead opting for a more mature, rolling resource model, which sees you retaining your armies from one battle to the next - you can never just send your troops into a mass brawl and hope for the best.

Utilising height advantage, line of sight, flanking manoeuvres and combined arms
are skills you'll need to call upon if you're to walk away grasping victory in your bloodcaked fist.

You'll develop genuine attachments to your regiments as they survive to fight another day alongside you. You'll also beam proudly as they gain experience and skill, bask in the glow of smug self-satisfaction when they emerge victorious from a battle with minimum casualties, and shed a tear as you pack them off to college with only your old black-and-white TV set for company and a pocket full of £20s to spend on piss-weak booze. Actually, ignore that last one. Maybe in the expansion pack, eh?

WATCH YOUR HEAD
Preserving your troops doesn't only involve preventing the enemy from cleaving them up, as your men can also take damage from your own weapons. Pounding massed enemy ranks with roaring cannons may be a devastating tactic, but neglect to cancel their attack orders in time and they'll do just as much damage to your forces as they engage the enemy.

There's also an excellent morale system - which sees decimated regiments turn and run for their lives - that further swells the game's tactical core and several top-notch missions that allow you to work in unison with an AI ally. All of which means it doesn't take a level-99 mage with +100 Wisdom and an amulet of Perspicacity to work out that Mark Of Chaos is an RTS brimming with tactical substance and brutal, unforgiving realism.

CRUMBLING
So what about the game's siege battles? Well, I'm glad you asked, as they're a bit... Well... Shit, actually. Which is a damn shame considering how much fun their battlefield counterparts are. Damn shame.

It's hard to shake off the nagging sense that Mark Of Chaos's siege levels are embarrassingly clumsy, like a fatigued father falling off the stage at his son's parent/student talent contest. For starters, the game's somewhat clunky and unintuitive camera interface is compounded by its inability to gauge height and distance during siege warfare, regularly leaving you staring at a fortress's walls as your painstakingly preserved, upgraded and loved army is massacred somewhere out of sight.

As a result, attacking castles is tedious. Yes, that's the word, tedious - utterly bereft of the visceral brutality you'd associate with this kind of onslaught. These castle battles often end up degenerating into mechanical chores, tolerated only in the hope that the next level will be better, or as a means to an end to reach the next segment of the compelling plot.

Defending fortresses is slightly more entertaining (only slightly, mind), but even
these battles lack the desperation and excitement you'd expect from holding back the tide of a superior force, with the poor camera controls further sapping these situations of any genuine sphinctershrivelling moments.

While we're on the subject of let-downs, I'd better mention the smattering of Hero
missions, which are even flatter than the siege missions. Placing you in command of a handful of heroes, these novelty levels are bereft of any tangible tactical substance, often degenerating into mindless click-fests as you unleash your Heroes' spells on hordes of cannon fodder enemies and a couple of tricky bosses, while waiting impatiently for them to regenerate enough power to cast them again. Frankly, it's a bit of a waste of time.

MARK OF QUALITY
So as you can see, Mark Of Chaos isn't without its problems. So why should you buy it? Well, for starters, it faithfully and competently milks the Warhammer licence like an ambidextrous farmhand, providing an entertaining and twisting tale of conquest and redemption.

What's more, despite its shortfalls, it's actually a damn fine RTS and while not
quite fit to frequent the hangouts of the upper echelons of the genre, it still more
than warrants a long, hard stare, followed by a thoughtful exclamation of excitement and a rifle through the wallet for a cluster of crispy notes.

Sure, we've seen much of this sort of thing before - in some cases done better - but if you're happy to ignore its smattering of shortcomings and patiently sit through loading times that can be measured in ice ages rather than in seconds, then you'll find that Mark Of Chaos is more than worthy of championing. Or as our Glaswegiantwanging dwarven friends might say: "Och aye, it's grand, laddie," or some such clichéd, racially stereotypical bollocks.

PC Zone staff