Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat

"Make a horn out of cardboard, stick it on a rat and shove the rat under the lights and you get a Shadow of a horned rat!"

Introduction

Ah war. There are no winners in war is one of the quotes that have emerged in this world that just reeks of anti-war feelings. It is somewhat true, in reality war is usually fought between humans and humans alone. Dogs, horses and the grass all get ''accidentally'' slaughtered during this war between humans. (Note: It's debatable whenever grass is actually a living thing so make your own minds up over that.)

So when humans fight humans, one side wins the other loses, both with huge amounts of loss of lives but for what result? Peace? To take out the big nasty guy who pulls the strings behind the scenes and ''free'' the country? Peace only lasts so long before another war starts up, you can remove dictators but another one will show up. Generally it's a matter of opinion whenever war is a good thing or a bad thing, whenever there can be a winner in war or whenever both sides that get shooting each other are actually… losers.

Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat (a mouthful I know), brings the one question that probably no one has ever asked before. What if humans went to war to save the human race? In this world seeing how every war is humans against humans the biggest threat to the human race is if anything the human race itself (that's excluding viruses, diseases etc.) Warhammer throws you into a fantasy world filled with orcs, goblins, mutated rats who can talk and other such vile creatures. Humans are in this fantasy world obviously and they do as in our real world fight against each other but to a lesser extent, and the reason is quite clear with the hordes of otherworldly beings stampeding across their borders and flattening their wheat fields all the while roaring with joy as the chop off a defenceless citizens head!

In such a fantasy world it's survival of the fittest and Warhammer gives you the chance to lead, fight and save the human race from destruction. In Warhammer, there is a winner in war and in Warhammer it's the only place you'll ever get a fight where SKILL matters not some computer controlled smart bomb.

Story

Warhammer SOTHR puts you in the boots of Morgan Bernhardt commander of the mercenary army known as ''Grudgebringers''. Named quite fittingly after Morgan's sword, which possesses magical powers enabling it to fire a few fireballs from the blade (I'm just wondering how many people out there are WISHING such a thing existed in reality!).

Morgan Bernhardt and his hardy warriors from the northern lands have travelled south to the borders of the lands of mankind. Starting out at the wonderfully named ''Border Princes'' (because it's on the border and the princes live there?) Morgan and his men start looking for some action on the battlefield. At first you'll only get a simple mission such as protecting a village from attacks from the neighbouring country that is home to the Orcs and Goblins. Fighting off a few raids from the Goblins and you'll finally get your hands on a few gold coins and as all aspiring warriors should have… A mug of beer!

At first the story is pretty slow, after defending the village you'll find yourself under contract to one of the Princes and after a few missions under your new boss you'll suddenly be drawn and sucked into a plot that starts the war for the battle of the human race. While the Orcs and Goblins build up an army under the wonderfully named ''Urgat Rip eye'' (because he had an eye ripped out and he says urrrrr a lot ;)) the Skaven beasts who live beneath the ground (those rats I was on about earlier) build up their own army planning to destroy the entire world slaughtering humans, Elves, Dwarves and every other race in the land.

As Morgan Bernhardt and his ever growing army continues to cut through rat fur and green skin you'll be slowly and surely realising what's really happening around you. However as the player you get that kind of benefit while Morgan doesn't so you don't really get a chance to do anything about it until way later in the game. The story builds itself up brilliantly and there are plenty of mini-stories that weave fantastically around the bigger plot allowing you and Morgan to continue to fight and spill blood in the name of the human race.

Those fans of the fantasy genre need not fear that this game focuses entirely on the human race. In fact the storyline wonderfully weaves around the entire world almost chillingly perfectly to draw in the Dwarves and Elves into the fight. As you advance through the game with the help of an Elf warrior you suddenly slowly begin to figure out what the real villain of the game is intending to do. While you and Morgan battle the invading Orc and Goblin army the game does brilliantly to keep you guessing at the true intentions of the real threat. For example at one point in the game the villain's horde of ratmen will storm towards you and you may well be forgiven for assuming they're trying to do an invasion until suddenly they stop attacking, turn tail and flee and not because you were constantly beating them but merely because they had got what they wanted while you were busy chopping them to pieces (and I'm not talking about haircuts here.)

Truly in my honest opinion a fantastic story that's bound to keep you gripped to the game right up to the end.

Gameplay

Warhammer: SOTHR is easy to get to grips with provided you spent a few minutes to read the manual book's control section. Everything was made with the Playstation's controller pad in mind and to make it even easier once you select a unit of men in the game you get in the bottom right hand corner a box with 4 icons positioned at the top, right, left and bottom (representing Triangle, O, Square and X), all with icons of what each button commands the unit to do.

In battle attacking the enemy is a simple matter of selecting the unit you wish to use and hovering the cursor over the enemy ''flag'' and hitting the attack button. Depending on what type of unit you chose they'll either storm up towards the enemy and fight them hand to hand (mages included unless you choose to execute a magic attack) or fire their arrows at them (or cannonball if you chose a cannon). Movement is simple as well you select the unit and simply click on where you want them to move.

Some people may be asking do you actually participate in the battles? The answer is a flat no. Morgan does the hand-to-hand fighting in your place but otherwise the only things you get authority over is choosing which battle to do, which units to use and once in the battle scene where units go, attack and so on. That's not to say it's a simple matter of moving a unit attacking and then waiting for luck to choose whenever you win or not. Warhammer focuses mainly on strategy. Early on you can most likely run headlong into battle and win but later in the game you have to think carefully about what to do. For example do you move your Cavalry up to attack the enemy commander now or sit back and wait for them to come in case the enemy have placed ambush parties along the path?

Warhammer boasts many varieties of battles all requiring a range of skills, which should easily keep you occupied. Ambush scenes require quick thinking (or none if you pause the game but where's the fun in that?), attack scenes require you to plan carefully how to break the enemy down, defensive battles require you to carefully think how to hold off impressive numbers of enemy troops. And did I mention those battles where NPC units are fighting and you have to quickly think and plan on how you're going to back them up? There's even rescue missions requiring you to not only take out the enemy but defend the fleeing captives of the enemy. One of the best battle scenarios is the type where YOU happen to be the ambush party! There's no greater thing than the feeling of success as your units drive into enemy flanks and rare slaughtering them to mere pieces because of your brilliance strategic positioning.

Outside of battle there are plenty of things to do that affect your chances of victory in the next fight. You can hire new units giving you more attacking and defensive depth or you could head out into the training fields and practice using two different units together. You can hire new soldiers to replace those who died in the previous battle, check what items the unit has and of course see how close they are to levelling up!

Units in Warhammer level up depending on how they do in battle. If they killed hundreds of goblins they won't get much experience points, as goblins are not really much of a threat (i.e. they aren't good fighters but have huge numbers). While killing a huge unit of Orcs who are on par with humans when it comes to fighting will net you a decent amount of experience points. Units that level up become stronger, tougher and generally better in battle than units who sit in the reserves doing nothing for most the game.

Overall the layout, control and gameplay of Warhammer is quite simple and easy to understand. However Warhammer stands out in one particular area and this is the difficulty. As a fan of war games requiring thought to complete I rarely come across games that are downright hard. Warhammer however takes the award for being one of the most difficult games of its genre I've ever happened to play. Luck determines a small part in the game as well as the various hidden stats explained in the manual book. Without extensive thought and planning you'll find yourself constantly being defeated with a strategy you thought to be ''perfect'' especially in the final 2 battles.

Warhammer prides itself on being insanely difficult before the final two battles anyway, and if it's not the battles that prevent you from progressing onwards it's balancing the books that will! Yes, Warhammer also has the sneaky feature of paying those who fight under you, so not only do you have to win battles to get money but also you'll have to try not to lose many men (as replacing them costs a fortune!).

If you wish for me to sum up the difficulty of Warhammer you only need to look to it's fan base and ask how many have managed to complete the game without sheer luck or extensive research beforehand. There'll be very few hands raised and Warhammer clearly deserves the title of being ''So hard it's almost impossible to defeat the game''. If you're a genius at strategy and tactics this game will give you a tough run (you'll renounce that self-proclaimed ''genius'' mark after this game) and if you're new to this type of game you can expect NOT to complete this until you at least have some experience in the field. On a side note it may be easier if you played the tabletop game ''Warhammer: Fantasy Battles'' of which uses the same battle system of the game.

Graphics

Graphics are one of the low-points of Warhammer: SOTHR. They aren't fantastic and most ''graphics not story makes a good game'' people who seem to plague the world will probably rate the graphics as utter crap. However in my opinion the graphics do the job fine for the game.

Looking down to the Earth from the sky (The eagle cam view I believe it's called), you'll easily make out the soldiers of each unit. You won't see the eyes and such but you will be able to see them, what they're wearing and using. Warhammer has the interesting inclusion of the ''flag'' or H.U.D system. This system means that allied units off the screen can be selected by simply clicking their flag, the handy thing being that the camera instantly zooms over their position so you won't be stuck having to find them. In order to make everything more clearer to see the flags have a border around them in one of three colours, Blue, Red and Dark Blue. Blue being allied units, Red being enemies and Dark Blue being NPC allied units.

Also in battle scenes, buildings are better detailed (considering they're bigger than the average human this is understandable). The terrain is also well detailed allowing you to see whenever you are on plains or the slope of a hill or even just outside a forest. They aren't the best graphics ever made but they do quite well.

Outside of battle character portraits are nicely done in 2D. Their mouths move when they talk although I have to admit there is no facial expressions whatsoever so don't expect to have angry face portraits and such.

Sounds and Music

Voice acting in Warhammer (along with the subtitles) are nicely done. There are some areas of voice acting that doesn't quite sound interesting or important (when they should be) but provided you can ignore those moments the general voice acting is pretty good.

War music blares out before battle setting the mood nicely before a big drum roll starts off the actual battle. The music is actually one of the strong points of Warhammer, not only as a mood setter but also as a general tune to keep you in the game.

Screams, war cries and shouting are the general sounds you'll hear throughout the entire game. Other than those few sounds I don't believe there is practically any other sound in the entire game! Oh there is a few squawks from those birds that fly above dead bodies for some bizarre reason but you'll only ever hear that if you make an effort to stay and watch a few splattered brains on the grass for the next few minutes and not bother with the actual fighting!

Conclusion

Overall Warhammer: SOTHR is a fantastic game perhaps a tad bit too difficult for newcomers to the genre. It requires tough thinking and planning, which may not be everyone's slice of cake. However it more than makes up for it with a great story and a huge variety of battle types to get involved in. If you can ever find a copy of this game I strongly suggest you get it (even if you are new seeing that this game is quite a few years old).

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/31/03, Updated 01/31/03