WarHammer 40K MMO: Concept Art

With Warhammer online consolidating their servers due to lack of player base the statement I keep hearing over and over is, they really should have made a 40K game. Well there is a 40K game in the works and has been for quite a while. Information on it has been scarce, but today Koaku posted some concept art in their gallery.

While the final models and look will be different the shots provided look pretty bad ass. They were created mostly by Billy Wardlaw, an environment and character artist at Vigil, with a little help from character designer Kolby Jukes, who’s most recently done a little work on Mass Effect 2.

What else do we know about Warhammer 40K MMO? Not much. However, an interview done by PC Gamer sheds some light on the game.

General Manager David Adams from Vigil Games said the following:

First off, unlike a fantasy MMO, guns play a major role in the dynamic of combat. The gameplay will be much more intense, focusing a lot on fire-fights, tactics, cover and general brutality (which is befitting a game set in the grim future).

Secondly, the sheer scale of Warhammer 40,000 lends itself to experiences players have never seen in an MMO. The term “Battleground” takes on an entirely different meaning. Our battlegrounds will be more epic in scale, more intense, and more true to a game with the tagline, “In the grim darkness of the future, there is only war.” This doesn’t preclude the more intimate battlegrounds that other MMOs have, only that we will also be including more grand affairs, that give a player the sense that they are immersed in an actual Warhammer 40,000 battle.

From the interview we also know the game is set in the 41st millennium, well after the Horus Heresy and more contemporary to the tabletop game. We also know they plan to have all the races important to 40K’s lore though a full list has yet to be released.

Studio Creative Director Joe Madureira made a bold statement in saying 40K will have “the coolest looking characters of any MMO”.

While I am not one to post links the interview is worth looking into, you can read it on Gamesradar.

I personally know a ton of people who love the 40K universe. I have spent many hours playing the RTS and at one point it dominated our LAN party. Since Star Wars Galaxies and Anarchy Online, Sci-Fi fans have been chomping at the bit for a new game. The question is how will a 40K MMO coexist with a Knights of the Old Republic MMO?

Maybe the most important question is how Vigil will make sure 40K does not turn into another Warhammer online. I must admit I am getting tired of looking forward to games (I’m looking at your Conan and Aion) only to be disappointed when they are released. Perhaps with a long development time and the fact that people will demand a perfect 40K game we will get what many of us want, our expectations to be lived up too.