WoW: The Burning Crusade Collectors Edition with Time Card and Strategy Guide (PC)

Before this expansion was released, World Of Warcraft was already a hugely engrossing game. It's charming cartooney graphics may appear dated now when compared to some of the more recent releases such as Lord Of The Rings Online: Shadow Of Angmar, but nevertheless it still retains the most important aspect of any video game in existence: it's damn good fun. With so much to see and do it's almost impossible to get bored with the game, and now with ...
...lot more fun to be had...

The brand new FMV that comes with the expansion pretty much sets the mood for the game. This is much darker, much more foreboding than it's predecessor. With the Burning Legion (bad guys) threatening to invade and a host of all other nasties doing their own evil things, Azeroth has sent it's mightiest heroes (you) through the dark portal to help with the fight and end the Burning Legion's advance. Oh, and ... more

Before this expansion was released, World Of Warcraft was already a hugely engrossing game. It's charming cartooney graphics may appear dated now when compared to some of the more recent releases such as Lord Of The Rings Online: Shadow Of Angmar, but nevertheless it still retains the most important aspect of any video game in existence: it's damn good fun. With so much to see and do it's almost impossible to get bored with the game, and now with the release of The Burning Crusade expansion there's a whole lot more fun to be had...

The brand new FMV that comes with the expansion pretty much sets the mood for the game. This is much darker, much more foreboding than it's predecessor. With the Burning Legion (bad guys) threatening to invade and a host of all other nasties doing their own evil things, Azeroth has sent it's mightiest heroes (you) through the dark portal to help with the fight and end the Burning Legion's advance. Oh, and if you have the time, kill Illidan Stormrage while you're there (bad, BAD guy who mocks you menacingly during the FMV by saying 'YOU ARE NOT PREPARED.') This expansion... well it expands on everything that's been great about WoW since it's initial launch.

I wanted to wait before writing a review for this. I wanted to experience most of what the new continent of Outland had to offer me before giving a definitive verdict. It's all well and good spouting off a list of the extra features that the expansion boasts, such as the level cap being raised from 60 to 70, two new playable races, new abilities and spells, flying mounts, the new jewelcrafting profession, socketed items, new instances and end-game content, as well as the aforementioned new continent, but without actually playing and getting to know these features the review would be nothing more than me spewing the exact same words off the back of the box. But now that I have seen all of Outland and reached level 70, soared through the skies of Netherstorm atop my Snowy Gryphon mount and frozen more ogres to death using my mighty frost spells I am finally ready to tell you exactly what I think of World Of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade...

... and it's good. Very good. The expansion manages to build upon everything in the original game and extend it's lifespan almost infinitely. The new continent and instanced dungeons will take time to fully master, especially some of the higher levelled dungeons such as Karazhan and The Black Temple, with even more content being packed into the game with semi-regular patches and updates. This game isn't even nearly on the way out.

Let's go through some of the expansions features in a little more depth. The new playable races, the Blood Elves for the Horde and the Dranei for the Alliance, were much anticipated before the expansion was launched. The Blood Elves in particular were eagerly anticipated as for the first time you didn't have to play as a "monster" character to play as the horde. Plus, also for the first time, Blood Elves could choose to be Paladins, a class previously specific to the Alliance. Conversely, the Alliance got to play as the formely Horde-specific Shaman class through the Dranei. As you can imagine, on launch day there were mobs of Belf Paladins charging around their new starting area of Eversong Woods yelling 'lol i r healadin rofl.' (Translation: I have the IQ of a glass of water). The Dranei, in my opinion, are less exciting. OK they're blue and have octopi hanging from their chins, and they even sound Russian. But if I'm completely honest I'm not a fan of Azuremist Isle and The Exodar starting areas, and the Dranei jokes would haunt me for 70 miserable, joyless levels whilst the Blood Elf jokes are classic. ('I'm trying to give up on arcane magic... look, I got the patch'... brilliant!) The downside to both races is that after reaching level 20 or so the race specific missions end, and you ender up filtering back into the same game you've probably already played before. Until you reach level 58, that is...

Once you reach level 58 you can enter the mysterious Dark Portal that's located in the Blasted Lands. I remember the moment before I ran through the portal I experienced a moment of excitement and anxiety. I had not seen any screenshots of Outland and I really wasn't sure what to expect. So when I did finally step through my heart skipped a beat. The first thing I noticed was the sky. A recurring theme in Outland, the sky is a truly beautiful thing with constant mystical lights swirling their way overhead. Giant planets loom overhead to remind you that you are indeed in another world... a world full of demons and evil. The Burning Legion has many new recruits in Outland, and whilst most of them are similar mobs with different skins and attributes it is nice to experience a new challenge. And the different zones within Outland are all very different aesthetically with Hellfire Peninsular resembling a barren, dusty wasteland, Netherstorm a crumbling chunk of land being torn apart by the Twisting Nether, Terrokar Forest being... well... a forest, and my personal favourite Zangarmarsh being home to giant mushrooms. Each zone is massive too, meaning there's lots to do before moving on to the next zone. Which is good, because the experience needed to level up once you hit level 60 is ridiculously high. OK you do get more experience points for killing mobs and completing quests, but still you're looking at a long time playing before that last ding to level 70.

Whilst there are a bunch of new spells and abilities included in the game which may alter the way you play slightly, the main meat and potatoes of the game remains the same. Which is a good thing as too much of a change may have changed the core of the game, and driven away the fathful masses. Over 8 million people can't be wrong, and if it ain't broke don't fix it. Item-wise I can imagine many of the old-school who have spent months grinding end-game instances for epic gear will be gutted that the loot in Outland is far superior to that of Azeroth. All those level 60 epics will be useless by the time you reach Karazhan at level 70, where they will be replaced by the brand new level 70 dungeon set epics, or the tier 4/5 items. The arena and PvP rewards have also been spruced up with level 70 varieties, making player vs player combat much more rewarding.

Jewelcrafting, the new profession, is not one that I've managed to try myself. However, I have seen the benefits of it, with many people wanting specially gut gems for their new socketted items to give them an extra boost, jewelcrafters are making a mint from high-level players desperate to make themselves "imba" once again.

I myself am still running Karazhan, and I still have a long way to go with end-game Burning Crusade content. But the quest for epic items is no easy one, and you'll be constantly switching and upgrading to find the best combination of gear for use in different situations. Those in a decent guild will have fewer problems hitting some of the 25+ man raids included, and will ultimately find the whole high-level game much easier. But there's still plenty to do solo, such as questing for extra cash so that you can afford your normal and epic flying mounts. These winged beasts allow you to soar through the air for the first time, and it's a great deal of fun dive-bombing down on a hapless enemy player and attacking them before they know what hit them. It is an immensely fun part of the game, even to just soar around the skies of Outland without a care in the world. It's a shame that they can only be used in the new continent, although I can fully understand the technical difficulties they would have had trying to make flying in Azeroth and Kalimdor work.

One minor niggle I have with TBC is the install time. Another hour on top of the hour it took to install the original? Pffffft. Maybe it's just my computer being slow, but even so it would have made more sense to include a DVD version for those of us with DVD drives instead of spreading it out over four discs. Then again, both games are now available for download from the World Of Warcraft website with a free 10 day trial, so it's always worth a look at.

Basically, if you've never played World Of Warcraft then you probably don't understand a lot that I've been saying in this review. I still seriously suggest you go and buy the original as it's a great deal of fun. And while you're at it, pick up this expansion too as not only is playing as one of the new races incredibly fun, but you will definitely need it once you hit level 60. 

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