Metareview - Warhammer: Mark of Chaos
Still smarting from the disappointing Mage Knight Apocalypse, Namco Bandai really needed a hit with Warhammer: Mark of Chaos. Adding to the pressure was the success of THQ's Warhammer series (the excellent Dawn of War), and competition from other fantasy-themed strategy titles such as Battle for Middle-earth II and Heroes V. The good news is that Hungarian developer Black Hole Entertainment delivered the dark and gritty aesthetics of the Warhammer universe, and the scores reflect their efforts. However, like many publishers of late, Namco Bandai may have compromised quality assurance to stay within the all-important holiday launch window.
IGN (80/100) enjoyed the game's deep customization and attention to detail: "The visuals in general are very good. All of the unit models are finely crafted pieces of art. The modeling is great and the textures on top are excellent. They do some nice things with lighting and heat shimmer effects that make magic come alive. All of this comes with a price. The framerate can drop substantially in large battles."
1UP (70/100) is holding out for the first patch: "It's a real mess sorting things out when you get into scrums where unit overlap turns organized regiments into brawling blobs. In short, you get plenty of detail under the hood, but too few helpful barometers. It's hard not to fall under Mark of Chaos' 'almost-there' spell. Prize-winning? No, but certainly promising...if we can hold our breath for fixes."
Game Informer (68/100) thinks the combat system could use some tweaking: "Lacking any sort of base-building or resource-gathering, Mark of Chaos has to get by on the RTS combat that makes up the majority of the gameplay. Unfortunately, the battles fail to distinguish themselves in any meaningful way from what we've seen in the genre for years. Hero duels (no armies allowed) invariably go to the person who spent more points in their 'dueling' skill tree – which, of course, gimps them in terms of leading an army."
