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World of Warcraft Review
I
have played quite a few MMORPG's before trying World of Warcraft. I have played
Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot, Ragnarok Online, and even a bit of Lineage 2.
While each of those games had their fun points, I eventually lost interest in
all of them. So far World of Warcraft has been the only game to grab my interest
and keep it.
World of Warcraft (WoW) is for the most part your standard
MMORPG. From the get go, it has a heads up on all other MMORPG's by having an
already present storyline, with a rich history that many Warcraft fans will remember
and appreciate. Fans of the old strategy games will be thrilled when they meet
familiar faces such as Thrall and Sylvanas, and journey across familiar places
such as the forrests of Ashenvale and the ruined city of Andorhol. The sights,
sounds, and overall emersive environment make for a very pleasant experience.
The WoW gameplay system has taken many good ideas from other MMORPG's
and improved on them, also adding a few new things of their own. The game keeps
you busy, and doesn't just feel like you are repetitively killing over and over.
It does so by giving you quests. The game is very quest driven, and even after
you reach the maximum level (60) you will still want to do a few quests, and there
will still be some for you to do! Quests are given by NPCs (Non Player Characters,
or computer controlled characters). They are easily recognized by a bright big
yellow ! above the quest givers head. They are then stored in your quest log,
so you will have a record of what requirements still must be met. The quest giver
will have a grey ? untill U meet all the quest requirements, when U meet all the
requirements a yellow ? can be seen.
Another gripe that has been taken
care of is the need for groups. Any class can solo its way to the highest of levels,
so it is not necessary to always have a group. Although certain dungeons are better
done with a group of players.
A nice thing about WoW is the balance of
class/race combinations. In other games, being a Gnome Warrior would be considered
a good joke at best. But in WoW, a Gnome Warrior is just as good as a mighty Tauren
warrior. This allows for much more flexibility when choosing character/race combinations.
The races all have special racial abilities though that will sometimes lead players
to pick them for a certain class. Like for instance, the Tauren have an innate
passive ability that gives them 5% more life, making them a prime choice as a
warrior. While Orcs have a passive ability that make their pets deal more damage,
so they are often a good choice for Hunters or Warlocks.
Following the
storyline, the game is divided into 2 factions: The Alliance and The Horde. The
Alliance consists of: Humans, Gnomes, Dwarves, and Night Elves. The Horde is:
Orcs, Undead, Tauren, Trolls. The Horde and Alliance are at war, so don't expect
a warm welcome if you should walk into a town of the opposite faction. Blizzard
could have easily just made the game like Lineage 2 and made it all PvP, but they
were careful to meet everyone's needs in a game. They did so by creating 3 server
types. There is the PvP server, for those who wish. That means, anytime you see
a member of the opposing faction, no matter where they are, you can attack them.
This is for PvP fanatics. Then they have RP servers. I have never played on one,
but from what I understand, this is where people who get into the fantasy world
and wish to act out the part of their character play. Then they have the normal
realms. In normal realms, you must be "flagged" for PvP for the opposing faction
members to attack you. You can flag yourself in several different ways, namely
by entering a capital city of the opposing faction, attacking an NPC of the opposing
faction, attacking an already flagged memeber of the opposing faction, or healing/buffing
a flagged member of your faction. This allows PvP when you want it, so it won't
become an unnecessary grievance.
Out of all that though, one of the biggest
leaps in MMORPG's is the way they do Dungeons. Blizzard's solution to camping
dungeons is Instances. Instance Dungeons give parties of players their own copy
of the dungeon, that way there isn't an over crowding of the dungeon. It was a
very smart move on Blizzards part.
I could go on for hours about WoW and
its innovative gameplay. But the only real way to know what I am talking about
is to try it out. Give it a try. You won't be dissapointed.
Buy
World of Warcraft Gold
I believe that World of Warcraft deserves
9.5
out of 10 stars.
Buy World of Warcraft
