Reviews

    World of Warcraft is an incredibly detailed MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game).  There is never a shortage of fun and interesting things to do in the game.  You can play as one of six different races, and eight different classes, each with their individual strengths and weaknesses.  For example a Warrior can take large amounts of damage without dying since they can wear the best armor in the game, they can also equip just about any weapon in the game, giving them the greatest selection so they can be tailored to the player's specific play style.  The disadvantage to the Warrior is since they do not use magic, they lack healing spells, buffs, and despite being able to use almost any weapon in the game, they do less damage than Mages or other characters that have powerful spells.  A Mage, for example, has very powerful spells that do a lot of damage, but they lack healing spells as well, and they can only wear cloth armor so they can get killed relatively easily.  At higher levels Mages have an easier time keeping enemies away from them and also slowing enemies down so the Mage can run from the enemy can cast spells from a distance. 

Getting excellent equipment like this flaming skull shield is a fun part of World of Warcraft.

    What is the point of this game?  Well, in World of Warcraft there is no one set objective, it's not the typical linear game with a beginning and end with a nice cutscene at the end to celebrate the accomplishment.  There are so many different things you can do in the game it's difficult to list just one objective.  For example, you could spend your time trying to get to as high a level as possible in as short a time as possible.  For that, the best thing to do is quests, when you see a big yellow ! over a character's head that means you can get a quest from them.  When you complete that quest's objectives that ! turns into a big yellow ? over their head, and you get an experience bonus which helps you level faster, and most of the time you also get either money, equipment, or both, which helps your character get more powerful faster.  Currently the maximum level you can reach in the game is 60, but getting there will take a considerable amount of time.  If leveling up isn't your thing, you can just go around killing monsters for fun, and eventually you will level up as well, it will just be slower than you would level up if you did quests, and you'll have a harder time finding good equipment, although enemies do occasionally drop something worth using.  You might also go for a money approach, where you want to make as much money as possible, either to buy better equipment, or just to have it.  For this it helps to take up professions.  Each character can have two main professions, in addition to secondary professions of cooking, fishing, and first aid.  Cooking allows you to take meat you gather from wolves and other various beasts you encounter and make it into food.  At first the food only heals your character, but after you get better with your cooking abilities, you can make food that gives your character buffs, which usually increase your maximum health for a certain amount of time, along with how fast you restore your health.  Fishing allows you to catch fish, which also work as food, healing your character, but you will sometimes find items you can use as well.  First aid is a very useful profession.  With first aid you can turn cloths you find into bandages, allowing you to heal yourself and others in battle, which is very useful if your character is not a class that can normally heal.  In addition to these secondary professions, each character is allowed two main professions.  There are a variety of choices, and each has it's advantages, but some are more tailored to specific classes.  For example, a Warrior or Paladin may want to choose Mining and Blacksmithing.  Using their mining skills, they can gather metal ores and gems that can be used to make their own weapons and armor, saving money in the long run.  They can also make equipment to sell to other players, giving them more money to buy additional equipment that they may not be able to make just yet. 

    World of Warcraft is a social game, but players can choose whether to play with other people, or go solo.  Certain classes are better for each.  For example, a Warrior or Paladin is good for soloing (although they are also great for groups as well) because they can take more damage without dying than other classes.  A class such as a Mage or Priest is better for groups.  Neither can take a lot of damage before they die, but they provide valuable things that people in groups like.  Mages can dish out a lot of damage, so if a Warrior in the group lures the enemies to him, he can take the brunt of the damage, while a mage does damage from a distance, and a healer such as a Priest or Paladin can then heal the Warrior if his health gets low.  Priests can't take much damage, and they don't dish out a lot of damage, but they are outstanding healers, and they provide excellent buffs that make the players around them a lot more powerful, so they are great to have in a group.  Even if you choose to play solo, there will be times when it's better to play in a group.  In World of Warcraft there are elite quests, in which you face enemies that have around 3 times the health of a normal enemy of that level, and they may have additional powers, making them difficult to beat without help, unless you are several levels higher than that specific enemy.  In addition to elite quests, there are dungeon quests, which are impossible to solo unless you are a much higher level than the recommended level for that particular dungeon.  Most dungeons contain a lot of elite enemies grouped closely together, making it difficult to fight them one at a time.  With a group of characters that are the appropriate level for the dungeon who know what they are doing, dungeons can be completed without a lot of trouble, but they are more difficult than other areas in the game, and most bosses are found in dungeons also.  In addition, some of the best items in the game can be found in dungeons, the enemies there have higher drop rates for good items, and just about every boss drops something useful.

    World of Warcraft is designed to be played over a long period of time.  It took me 17 days of play time to get my Paladin to level 60, but it was well worth it.  After level 8 or so, you get new powers with every even numbered level, and every 10 levels you usually get a lot of powers, especially after you hit level 30.  At level 40 you can buy a mount that makes travel faster, depending on your race it can be a Horse, Tiger, or one of several other mounts available in the game.  At level 60 you can get an Epic Mount, which increases your travel speed even more, so even when you get to level 60 there is still something to work towards.  Aside from the epic mount, at level 60 you can run higher level dungeons for even better equipment that will give you an advantage in PvP (Player vs Player) combat.  Having good equipment makes a big difference in this game, so it is worth the trouble to run through dungeons and get as much as you can.  Even if you find equipment you can't use, you can sell it at the auction house for a lot of money, which you can use to buy equipment that you do find useful.  Once you're satisfied with your equipment, it might be a good time to try out PvP combat.  You can only fight members of the opposite faction (Alliance vs Horde), although you can duel players in your same faction with no reward.  Every time you get a certain number of PvP kills, you will go up in rank, and there are rewards for doing so, which range from trinkets that give you a slight amount of power, to ultra rare Epic armor sets that make your character extremely powerful.  In addition to the armor rewards, PvP combat is just plain fun!  To keep it fair, however, you only get credit for a kill if you are within a certain number of levels of the character you fight, otherwise it would be unfair, as high levels characters could reach a high PvP rank by killing low level characters.  If you don't like the idea of other players being able to kill you at any moment, don't worry.  The game was designed with this in mind, and there are servers where PvP combat is only enabled if you turn it on yourself, meaning other players can't attack you unless you enable PvP combat.  There are also PvP servers in which you can be attacked by anybody in the opposing faction in just about any area in the game.  This style of play is probably best suited for players who want an additional challenge and who like the thrill of having to be on their toes all the time because they don't know if they will be attacked by another player hiding behind a tree or rock or some other object. 

There are lots of other characters in the game, in Ironforge, you will encounter a lot of players, and you can buy and sell equipment.

    The graphics in World of Warcraft are decent, but by no means the latest and greatest thing ever in a PC game.  The game is more designed for functionality, something that will run on most computers at a decent framerate, even if a lot of players are logged in at the same time, with minimal load times.  The graphics still look good, but they definitely do not compare to games such as Doom 3 or Half Life 2, but that's alright since World of Warcraft is based on a strong gameplay system, and that's where it really shines.  There are still good effects, such as shade on your characters face when the sun is shining from a certain direction, they sky changes color depending on the time of day, and the reflections of the sun on water in the evening look great.  On my computer, at 1280x1024 resolution with all the graphical effects turned all the way up, the game runs at a pretty solid 50-55 frames per second on average, and if it gets a little choppy on your computer, you can either lower the resolution or disable certain effects to improve performance.

    The sound in World of Warcraft is great as well.  There is some music, which stops fairly quickly unless you enable an option to let it loop, but the sound effects are where this game really shines.  In each area you will here effects that make it seem like a real world, from realistic bird chirping, to the splash sounds made when your character steps in some water, to the sound of a sword deflecting off another sword, or even a grunt when your character makes a critical strike on another player. 

    The world is absolutely massive, there are two huge continents, each with unique zones that in and of themselves are large.  The transition from zone to zone is done very well also, you can tell you're going into another zone, but it seems like a real world, not just 'fire level', 'ice level', etc.  There are a large variety of zones in the game as well, from Duskwood, which is a forest haunted by undead, spiders, and the like, which is always under nightfall, to the Tanaris desert, which is inhabited by scorpions and other beasts, to Winterspring, which is covered in snow and inhabited by Yeti-like creatures.  Each zone has it's unique features and there are usually many quests that you can do as well.  Not all zones will be accessable right away though, since enemies in certain zones will be too powerful for you, but as you level up your character will get more powerful and able to handle the challenges presented in more zones.  In addition, new content is constantly being developed, which is released through patches to the game.  Every now and then a new dungeon will be released, which give players more areas to explore, and usually with those patches, new items are added, and sometimes even more abilities.

    World of Warcraft is one of the most fun games I've played in a long time.  I've reached level 60 with my character, and still want to continue playing, both to make that character even more powerful, and also to get other characters to level 60 and experience the game from another perspective.  If you're a fan of the Warcraft series, or just RPG's in general, this is definitely a game worth looking into buying.