There's nothing like the satisfying sound of your arrow piercing the skull of a rival – and therein lies the beauty of War of the Roses. This FPS is medieval melee combat at its best and the fight is as brutal and bloody as you would expect it to be.
Maps can support up to 64 players, pitting the houses of Lancaster and York against each other in an incredibly massive throwdown. This is actually based in history and marks the time prior to when the two houses combined to form the Tudor dynasty. Although in the end, the Lancaster house won out, this FPS gives the Yorks the chance to take down the smarmy red bastards.
The amount of customization within this game is almost intimidating. The slight adjustments that can be made to each individual character – from armor to the curvature of a blade – will form fit the experience to any anal-retentive style of gameplay. When you are done deciding what finish you would like your armor to have – I go with rusted, I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my gob – you can work out what perks you would like your character to have.
I set up my longbowman with a series of power boosting and speed upping stats that left him incredibly vulnerable to any attacks. I called the build "The Long Shot" and went to town, taking out other players. I am no savant at this game, believe me, and when my K/D ratio jumped over 1, I was audibly excited.
War of the Roses isn't a game that you will walk into and instantly dominate. The slow-paced combat adds more strategy to the decision making process, and setting up a true attack plan with your compatriots. Creating a functional team involves discussing strategy prior to the match begins, knowing the map well, and utilizing every member of the team. I was doing my group no favors as I ran out into the middle of the tournament ring, shooting arrows like I was a poor man's Legolas.
Paradox Interactive has shown off War of the Roses before, but this hands-on session featured three previously unreleased maps – Edgecote Moor, Clithroe Forest, and London Tournament. The new maps featured amazing atmospheric effects, cover variation, and loads of research on the part of Fatshark. The developer took great lengths to make sure the environments, characters, and weaponry were all period-accurate, and that effort shines through.
Throughout the hands-on demo, the collection of journalists fighting with and against each other were shouting, emphatically cheering, generally having a fantastic time. When our time with War of the Roses was up, the general concensus was to disregard everything else and continue playing. Paradox broke out the tranquilizer guns, sedated the media, and pushed forward with their fantastic conference.
Of all the titles coming out of Paradox Interactive – and there are quite a lot – War of the Roses stands out as the most entertaining title yet. It has huge potential to become another amazing FPS that gamers cannot walk away from and already has players wanting more.
If defending the honor of your house sounds like a good time, you are in luck. The second week of August will see the start of the public beta – signups are currently open at waroftherosesgame.com. Over 62k gamers have already pledged their lives to the Royal House of Plantagenet.
