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World of Warcraft

Score: 88%
ESRB: Teen
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Media: CD/4
Players: MMO
Genre: MMORPG/ Online

Graphics & Sound:

It would be an understatement to say that World of Warcraft was anticipated. Even adding “highly” couldn’t begin to describe the fervor the game has induced in both MMO and newcomers alike. Now that it’s finally here, does it meet expectations? Or is it yet another high-profile flop? Read on.

World of Warcraft may not push as many polys or be as detailed as recent MMOs, but what it lacks in technology it makes up for in pure style. WoW is a chance to get up close and personal with the structures and enemies that until now, we’ve only seen from an overhead view. Many of the elements found in Warcraft 3 make their way into the game. Admittedly, the texture work is a bit blurry and there is some blockyness in certain areas, but it works for the game. Sure, Blizzard could have gone in and made the game more realistic, but then it wouldn’t fit with games set in the same world, nor would it stand out as much.

Each of the locales you’ll visit over the course of your many adventures throughout the realm has a distinct look to them. Each area is a self-contained entity, although it connects to surrounding areas. Transitions between areas are natural and flow rather realistically. You never find yourself walking through a lush forest only to suddenly find yourself in a desert. Instead, there’s a transition that slowly gives way to the new area. In the few parts where there is an abrupt change, background is given to explain the event that caused the transition. Like structures and characters, environments fit the world already established in previous Warcraft games.

One of the few disappointments in WoW comes in the character creation department. While not as limiting as the system found in Final Fantasy XI, which limited you to a few pre-done models and maybe a hair-color change, there are still limits. The primary selections shared by all races include the option to change skin and hair colors, as well as whether your character is a male or female. Some races, like trolls, have the option to edit features like tusks. There are no options to edit attributes like body styles or even height. This may not disappoint too many fans, but coming off of the system used in Galaxies, which is -- in my opinion -- one of the deepest character creation systems available, I felt underwhelmed. There are still opportunities to set your character apart from others on the server, but get ready to see lots of clones.

WoW is one of the first MMOs I’ve played that I was happy with the sound direction. Past games have either overdone things or not done enough. Blizzard has nailed this aspect. Most of the soundtrack is comprised of ambient sounds that fit the area you’re exploring. At times, usually when you discover a new area, a fantastic soundtrack will kick in. The system finds that happy medium for the varying tastes of players by giving those who want lots of music enough while not overdoing it for those who would rather little (or no) music.


Gameplay:

World of Warcraft offers a unique spin on the typical MMO. Many of the mainstays found in other games are still here, but lend themselves more towards a casual playing experience rather than the time-consuming nature of other games.

Storylines or stories in general, are things that are foreign to most MMOs. Some have tried to fuse stories into games, but it is rarely a very successful endeavor. World of Warcraft draws off the rich universe set up in the Warcraft RTS titles. The main focus is the struggle for land between the Alliance and Horde. Before starting, you are given a narrated story giving a background for your particular race. From here, the story plays out through quests. Early quests aren’t really related to the overall struggle, but as you grow in experience, you’ll see more and more of it. There’s no narrative structure, but there’s definitely content. Each race has its own part of the overall story, showing how the war has affected each group. Most of the story is intended to be played out through player interaction -- namely PvP. The system isn’t fully up and running yet (though there is some), but the Battlegrounds upgrades currently in the works at Blizzard look promising.

Part of what makes WoW successful is its pacing. MMOs are notorious time-sinks which don’t really lend themselves to players who can only spend an hour or two gaming a day. Every time you enter WoW, there’s always something you can do -- be it a quest in your current area, discovering a new location, or going on a raid to a nearby enemy town. Quests can be obtained by visiting certain NPCs in the world (usually denoted by a big exclamation point floating over their heads) or even through certain loot drops. Completing quests will net you experience points, which, of course, help your character to grow. Quests also come with a reward, lending a sense of reward that players can see. The objects aren’t always useful, but at least you can sell them at local shops, getting you some money. Experience can also be gained through simple exploration. While not as rewarding as slaying monsters or completing quests, every little bit helps. The end result is that you never leave a game session feeling unfulfilled.

Casual play is also rewarded through experience bonuses granted through downtime. After logging off for extended periods of time (and in certain areas), your character will gain slightly more experience for a limited time.

As rewarding as the quest system is, it does come with some problems. The number of quests available in the game is staggering; making sure you’ll always have at least five quests in your journal at a time. There is, however, a stark lack of variety between quests. Most quests involve hunting down X number of a certain enemy. Sometimes you’ll have to find certain types, while at other times anything will do. Other quests involve the same action, but add the twist that you must loot X of a certain number of an item. This all boils down to one well-disguised experience grind. You get a reward that is more tangible than a simple “level up,” but that doesn’t make it any less boring when you have to do it. When you’re not mindlessly thinning the populations of certain enemies, you’ll often find yourself performing “fetch quests” for characters around the world. These quests usually involve performing deliveries for someone who is too weak, busy, or lazy to do it themselves. After the same four slaughter-quests, these FedEx missions feel like a nice change of pace. But even these get boring when you have to search for one character in a big world.

Before you send me volumes of hate mail calling for my head (if you haven’t already based on the score), hear me out. Don’t get me wrong, the systems are a nice step forward in the way MMOs do things, but it’s not the revolution people were hoping for. For the first few levels, the system is great. But eventually you get to a point where the quests feel played out and dull.


Difficulty:

World of Warcraft is more of a casual MMO than other offerings, which has an effect on its difficulty level. The game’s pacing really helps to set the learning curve as well as giving a general direction. Rarely are you given a quest that is too above your head, nor are you ever given quests that are way below your level (unless you had overlooked it during your first trip to the area). Quests are doled out at level-specific times. A man in town may have nothing to tell you on your first visit, but after gaining a level or two, he might have a vital task.

As with any MMO, you shouldn’t have too many problems if you stick to areas that are more in-line with your level of power. Trying to take a low-level character into areas inhabited by enemies that could kill you in a hit isn’t smart. As a general rule, stick to the area where your quests are given and you should be fine. Once you’ve unlocked a quest, it goes in your journal, which keeps track of the important details. When in your journal, quests are color-coded to designate difficulty. Green- and gray-colored quests usually designate those that you could do with little problems. On the other side of the coin, orange and red quests are harder and may require you to either level up some more or get a group together. The system generally works, but I did find that sometimes I’d have a mission that showed up orange in my journal, but was a cake-walk, whereas I had a hard time with a yellow quest, which was supposed to be appropriate for my level.

High-level grouping quests, or Elite quests, are also available. These are meant for large groups and tend to be some of the more entertaining aspects of the game. These missions can be very rewarding if you’re with a group of people who know what they’re doing, or they can be a headache if you’re with the Three Stooges.


Game Mechanics:

World of Warcraft is a unique MMO offering. Through the use of a generous (yet not too generous) experience system, quest-based progression system, easy to understand mechanics, and interface options, WoW is able to reach players who may not have had interest in other MMOs on the market like EverQuest or Galaxies.

Like every other MMORPG on the market, you begin your adventure by creating a character. The variety of classes and races available in WoW is big enough and fits within the set Warcraft universe. Classes fall into the standard archetypes of magic users (Mage, Priest), Fighters (Warriors, Rogues), and combination classes (Warlocks, Paladins). Each class comes with different play options and styles, greatly altering the experience between classes.

All of the major races from the RTS are playable. These include Humans, Dwarves, Night Elves, Orcs, and the Undead. Like classes, each race also has its own set of drawbacks/benefits. Every race comes with some sort of class restrictions, meaning they can’t be certain classes (i.e. Night Elves can’t be Paladins). At the same time, some races, like the Orcs and Night Elves, have access to unique classes. Overall, the system is easy to use -- keeping the game in tune with its ability to reach a wider audience.

With new levels come new abilities which are learned from trainers. Abilities go into what will eventually become your combat repertoire. Combat follows a hybrid of action concepts and the standard click-once to attack concept. The system is fun and a little more involved than other games.

How much you get out of system will depend on your class. Combat-focused classes will rely on doling out as much damage as possible while magic-users will want to deal as much damage from a distance as possible. After initiating combat (by right clicking on an enemy), your character will continue to swing at the target. During combat, you can use special abilities which can be mapped to the quick-task bar. Special abilities can be used at anytime as long as you have the mana or, in the case of combat classes, combo points.

Each ability comes with a “cooldown” time, or the time it takes between uses. The timer is what keeps the whole combat system up to speed and helps to make the game as fast-paced as it is. Cooldown times vary between abilities, with some taking a few minutes between uses. This adds strategy to the system since you have to decide whether the situation calls for using these more-powerful abilities.

Abilities are standard for each class throughout their life span. After level 10, players are granted a little more flexibility in how their character grows through talent points. These points can be placed in a Diablo-style skill tree, allowing players to improve certain aspects of their character’s abilities to fit their playing-style better.

Beyond classes, which define your abilities in combat, you can learn professions. Professions are meant to compliment deficiencies in your class, as well as augmenting them. For example, rogues are limited to only being able to use leather armor, making the leatherworking and skinning professions nice additions since you can skin animals in the wild and then fashion armor out of them. Similar to classes, professions can be leveled, making the profession even more useful.

As far as technical issues, WoW is solid. The game isn’t too much of a system hog and doesn’t suffer from as much slowdown as other MMOs. There are still lag spikes, but never as crippling as seen in other games. One problem I ran into on more than one occasion had to do with the login server going down, blocking me from the game. The issues were resolved quickly.

In some respects, the game is still the same thing we’ve seen in other games, but with a spin that makes it a little different. The focus is clearly on playability and always accomplishing something. For now, this works. But it should be interesting to see how well the game can sustain itself. The focus on more casual gameplay might turn off some of the more hardcore MMO fans. For these people, there’s Everquest II or Galaxies. For gamers who want to try an MMO, World of Warcraft is worth a shot.


-Starscream, GameVortex Communications
AKA Ricky Tucker

Minimum System Requirements:



PC: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, Pentium III 800 MHz, 256 MB RAM, 32 MB Graphics Card, Direct X 9.0c, 4 GB HDD Space

Mac: OS X 10.3.5 or newer, 933 Ghz G4/G5 processor, 512 MB RAM, 32 MB VRAM, 4.0 GB HDD space

 

Test System:



Windows XP, Pentium 4 1.7 GHz, Radeon 9100 128 MB, 40 Gig HD, 640 MB RAM, DirectX 9.0c

Sony PlayStation 2 Capcom Fighting Evolution Windows Pacific Fighters

 
Game Vortex :: PSIllustrated