The graphics do a great job bringing the world of Warhammer to life in ways both gross and subtle. The game's opening zones, for example, are filled with atmospheric details that throw you into the Warhammer mindset immediately. The Empire opening area takes place during a full-fledged Chaos assault on a small town filled with explosions and cannon fire. As the player works his or her way through the world, there's always something beyond just NPC mobs to indicate the war, whether it be as big as a burning windmill or the old bone fragments that litter the ground.

Even better, players are involved in it from the first moment their level one character appears in the world until their level 40 character goes on their first city raid. Mythic has essentially dropped the early-game "leveling process" in favor of an MMO that's pretty much all "endgame."There are individual elements of Warhammer Online that merit praise, but the game's greatest achievement is actually the integration of its PvP, RvR and PvE experiences into a consistent whole. The "meta-game" of Warhammer Online is the constant state of war between Order (Dwarfs, High Elves, Empire humans) and Destruction (Greenskins, Dark Elves, Chaos humans) to dominate enough of the game's landscape to open the enemy's capital city to looting and pillaging. Everything in the game from basic quests against NPC mobs to instanced PvP battles called "scenarios" to open-world RvR struggles over fortresses in the middle of the landscape all contribute in various ways to that struggle.