Finally! A place to vent my opinionated rantings of randomness! Look out, world, here I come! (Woot!...
Finally! A place to vent my opinionated rantings of randomness! Look out, world, here I come! (Woot! Blue! Thanks, all!)
Member since:01.11.2006
Reviews:21
Members who trust:9
OK, I'm going to start with a few little niggly problems that I have with World of Warcraft and get it out of the way straight away. The quests, whilst having differing storylines, are fairly samey. They're mostly of the "Kill these" and "Collect that" and "Talk to him" variety. The game comes on FIVE discs that eat up a fairly significant 6Gb of hard drive space. I am having MAJOR trouble registering with the community forum. And to top it all off, it eats £8.99 a month from my bank account for the privelege of playing...
... but WHAT a privelege! The second you boot up the game you're teated with a beautiful cinematic trailer for the game that sets the tone for the rest of the game. Creating your first character is a fast and fairly painless process, assuming you know what race and class you want to play as. There are 8 different races which are split up into two factions. The Alliance consists of Humans, Dwarves, Night Elves and Gnomes, and the Horde are made up of Orcs, Trolls, the Undead and the cow-man like Tauren. Choosing your faction is important, as it determines not only where you start but who you can interact with. The Horde and the Alliance are warring enemy factions so it is wise to choose the same faction as any friends you might have who play otherwise you cannot trade or quest together. There are also 9 different classes to choose from with varied skills and attributes from sneaky Rogues and melee focused Warriors to shape-shifting Druids and powerful Mages (my personal class of choice). Once you've chosen your server, set your character's appearence and given him/her a name you're done, and after a brief introduction to your chosen
race you're thrust into your designated starting village ready to embark on the adventure of a lifetime.
Unlike some games (Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind I'm looking at you...) you aren't thrown in at the deep end and abandoned. The game starts you off slowly giving you very handy hints and tips about where to go and what to do to start with. Initially you won't stray too far from your starting village, but before long as your familiarity with the game begins to grow you'll be sent further afield into new territories. And it's at this point that you'll realise that the subscription fee is absolutely justified.
The game world is absolute HUGE! Each territory takes around 5 minutes (estimate, I've never timed it) to run across non-stop. Off the top of my head, that means it will take approximate 45 minutes to span a continent from North to South. And there are TWO of them, each territoy containing differing terrain features from the dense forest of Elwynn to the snowy peaks surrounding Ironforge. And within this gargantuan world are hundreds, possibly even thousands, of NPCs (Non-Playable Characters) who have various functions, from quest giving to item vending and weapon repairing.
Of course, what is an MMORPG without the multiplayer aspect? The scope for interaction within the game is huge, with guilds for permenant alliances, parties for temporary questing, raid parties for up to 40 (Yes, that's FOURTY!) players and a whole host a various emotes and interactions to communicate with other players, along with normal chat functions. And what's better, since everyone is paying for their accounts there are very few players who will act up and deliberately cause trouble or be rude towards anyone through fear of being banned. In fact, the WoW community has to be the friendliest in any online game I've ever played.
PvP (Player Vs Player) killing is a constant fear in most online games. One of the most annoying things about playing some of these is that you're busy doing something or other minding your own business, when another player (usually a higher level) comes along and kills you randomly. This is made even more frustrating when you drop some of your items which he then picks up and runs off with while you sit there and watch. Thankfully, in WoW, this is no longer an issue. If you choose to play on a PvP server then you can still be attacked, but only if you wander into Contested or Enemy territory. If an enemy player walks into your territory you must attack him before he can hit you. Plus when you die you NEVER drop anything. No items, no money, nothing. This means that the worst thing that will happen if you die is your armour will take a slight beating, and you'll have to run back to your corpse, which will usually take no more than a couple of minutes. It makes the whole death aspect of the game a lot less frustrating.
Fighting within the game is a lot more complex than the simple "right-click to attack" method of some other MMORPGs, yet it never gets so complex that it becomes a nuiscance. In fact, choosing your attacks and performing them in game never becomes more difficult than dragging the appropriate icon to an on screen bar and then clicking them or pressing a single button. There are over 1000 different spells and abilities available to players, meaning that there are many ways a battle can be fought. Do you rush in and hope for a quick kill, or do you stand back and pummel them with ranged attacks? Or do you attempt to freeze your opponent to the spot or force him to run away from you in fear? Or maybe you want to turn him or her into a sheep? The possibilities are almost limitless, and since the game is played in real-time the battles play more like an adventure game, which is fine in my book!
The graphics aren't spectacular on a Half-Life 2, Doom 3 level, but they are more than adequate for the job. Even on the lowest settings the textures are detailed enough, and despite the short draw-distance you can see enough to know where you are and what is coming up for a fair distance. On higher settings, of course, this isn't a problem. In fact, running into Stormwind for the first time on the highest settings is a truly wonderous thing, especially when accompanied by the simply brilliant orchestral score in the background. (One reason to buy the upcoming Buring Crusade expansion's Collector's Edition alone is that it comes with the soundtrack!)
Despite my short moan about the quests being samey earlier, they never really get boring. Especially considering you can accept a quest and then go do something else, coming back to it later when it's more convenient. And there's plenty to do other than questing. In fact, half of the fun is simply exploring. A friend of mine and I decided to go on a little adventure. We sailed from our starting continent to the other and ran straight into the Troll starting village. We got slaughtered by the NPC guards, but it was brilliant fun running up to confused Horde players and dancing in front of them! (Before they killed us for being in their territory)
Basically it boils down to this. If you have a computer and you have £8.99 to spare every month, you should already be playing World of Warcraft. No excuses. If however, you have not purchased the game, go do so and join the online sensation that is World of Warcrarft. If you're worried about the initial expense, there are many places where you can buy a trial version for about £1.50 which gives you ten days to play with. If you then choose to continue playing, all you need to do is upgrade your account to a full membership online. If not, just delete the game, but trust me on this: you will. With the expansion set for a January release (more expenditure, I know, but it'll be worth it!) there's no better time to start exploring the world of Azeroth.
And hey, if South Park can dedicate an entire episode to World of Warcraft it must be pretty special after all...
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Great Review! I take my hat off to you :D. Craig :♥D
cazm17 13.04.2007 16:02
I was a bit confused the first time I wandered into an enemy camp, and likewise into an area where I couldn't even see the levels of the enemies! But an enjoyable game and a good review.
SpikD 11.12.2006 12:40
Great reveiw dude
Love this game!
Orc warriors are not to be messed with xD
Product Description Product Description World of Warcraft is a massive multi-player, ... more
online role-playing game set in the Warcraft universe. In it, thousands of players will be able to adventure together with a new, in-depth perspective on familiar lan...
Postage & Packaging: £1.94 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
World of Warcraft is a massive multi-player, online role-playing game set in the Warcraft ... more
universe. In it, thousands of players will be able to adventure together with a new, in-depth perspective on familiar lands, former battlefields and heroes fro...
Postage & Packaging: £1.99 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
World of Warcraft is a massive multi-player, online role-playing game set in the Warcraft ... more
universe. In it, thousands of players will be able to adventure together with a new, in-depth perspective on familiar lands, former battlefields and heroes fro...
Postage & Packaging: free Super Saver Delivery Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Advantages: Vast world to discover, Meet and interact with thousands of players. Disadvantages: Somewhat outdated graphics, gameplay can be monotonous at times. Requires alot of time and dedication.
cherokeexp 05.06.2007 (05.06.2007)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of World of Warcraft (PC)
Advantages: Beautiful music, stunning graphics and amazing gameplay Disadvantages: Potentially addictive, requires alot of downloading, can only play online
pnbrady 18.04.2007 (18.04.2007)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of World of Warcraft (PC)
Nov 1st, 2006
very helpful by (100%):
