World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade - Student Review
Score: 90% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment Developer: Blizzard Entertainment Media: CD/4 Players: 1 - Many Genre: MMORPG/ Online
Graphics & Sound: Finally hitting the shelves on January 16, 2007, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade has caused a major uproar in the Massive Multiplayer Online Community since the release of the first World of Warcraft in 2004. With virtually the same graphics, The Burning Crusade keeps the same detail as it did in 2004. Major design and art style changes have inspired the new cities and a whole new continent in this addition to WoW. Even with the introduction of two new races increasing the customization of characters a bit, the system still remains limited to the preset models. The Design in the new cities has improved and leaves you with your jaw dropped when you set your eyes upon the amazing architecture Blizzard has composed. All new enemies have helped rescue your eyes from the "clone and tweak" enemies. The new continent, The Outlands, has fewer enemies that look the same but are just a different color; the first WoW was extremely bad about that. The sound has been upgraded as well. The difference isn't very noticeable, but new soundtracks have been added to add to the excitement of battle and adventure. The entrance feature is still the same, meaning when you enter a new zone or city, a new soundtrack plays. New battle noises have been added as well, but they are more for the enemies and not the actual players. New voices have also been added to fit the new races. All-in-all, the same great sound has been kept in the all-new expansion.
Gameplay: The gameplay in WoW: The Burning Crusade has brought in an interesting new storyline. Mixing in a bit from Warcraft 3 and their own originality, Blizzard Entertainment has brought the bad guy himself into the World of Warcraft, Illidan. So far, the storyline revolves around him and his kingdom, The Outlands. Blizzard also introduces two new races for each faction. For the Alliance, they get the Draenei, and the Horde receives the Blood Elves. The Draenei are introduced as an alien race that seem to have crash-landed on their ship called The Exodar. Fleeing The Outlands, they seek aide by enlisting in the Alliances' ranks to help defeat The Burning Legion. They hope the Alliance will help them retake their homelands in The Outlands. The Blood Elves, formerly known as the High Elves, were once allied with the Alliance. Being mistreated by the humans, they decided to break away and join the Horde and take revenge against the humans and all of the Alliance. After losing their power source, they team up with Illidan who, in return for their loyalty, shows them new methods of capturing their sacred Arcane Magic. The introduction of the two new races opens up two new major cities, one for each faction, new zones to start from, new racial abilities, and tons of all new and original quests. The extent of role-playing has also been extended thanks to the new history that has been added. Aside from all of that, an all-new profession has been added, Jewelcrafting. Professions are a unique addition that Blizzard incorporated to extend the amount of play in the game. Jewelcrafting has now opened up the ability to craft rings, amulets, and trinkets to use throughout the game. Jewelcrafting has a complimentary profession, Mining. Players use the ore and gems they find to craft such items. The Outlands is an all-new continent that players can explore. Bringing in seven new zones, the player completes new quests, aligns with new factions, and acquires new items. Dungeons, which are quests requiring 5 players, have been added throughout The Outlands. This is a way for players to come together and overcome obstacles as one force. Raids, which are for 6+ level groups, have been bumped down from 40 man to 25 man in size. This means raids will require more teamwork to complete them.
Difficulty: The Burning Crusade hasn't changed the difficulty of WoW very much, although, for those who do play, enemies tend to enrage a lot more than before. For those who don't know, enrage is when the enemy attacks a lot faster and does a lot more damage. Other than that, the player basically runs up, attacks, kills, and then loots, as in the original World of Warcraft. The new 5-man dungeons are a lot harder than in the original, because they require a lot more teamwork. The slightest error can kill everyone in the group. I have yet to run a dungeon and succeed with a bad group. Most 5-man groups come equipped with a tank (which is basically the meat shield), a healer (which is the life blood of the group), and three other members who are there for DPS (damage per second). When a group meets these requirements, there is no dungeon too hard. I have not done any of the raids yet because you have to be near level 70, but I hear they have increased in difficulty exponentially. Teamwork is a MUST when doing a raid. Raids are usually 10, 15, or 25 man in The Burning Crusade. Bringing it to 25 from 40 was a great idea because this allows players to get their gear a lot faster.
Game Mechanics: As on all the other sections above, the game mechanics remain virtually the same, but with a few upgrades. The Experience System, Quest-Based Progression, and easy-to-use interface and mechanics have remained untouched. You start off by making a character, just like in the original. Each race inspired by Warcraft 3 has subclasses that make each character unique, such as a Human Warrior or a Blood Elf Mage. To increase the uniqueness of each character, Blizzard lets the players add to their "Talent Tree" which corresponds to the player's three spell types. At level ten, these talents can be accessed and that is when the game is said to start getting fun. Factions used to have their own unique class. Horde used to only have access to Shamans, and Alliance used to have Paladins. Well due to consistent whining and crying from players to Blizzard themselves, they have given each side the other's unique class, along with the new races they added. Mounts were a big mode of transportation on the original World of Warcraft. They allowed you to travel 60% or 100% faster, depending on your level and amount of cash flow. Now, in The Burning Crusade, they have added flying mounts, which allow you to fly wherever you want as long as you stay in the Outlands. The max level has been extended from level 60 to 70 to allow characters to extend their characters limits farther than they have gone before. Leveling from 60-70 is said to take as much time as it took to go from 1-60. This, I find, isn't quite true, but it does take much longer to level up once you hit The Outlands. With higher levels comes better gear. In the original World of Warcraft, once you hit 60, you had sets of armor for each specific class. Players in the game have given them numbers to show which is harder to get. Before The Burning Crusade, Tier 3 was the highest you could get, but thanks to the brilliant minds at Blizzard, Tier 4-6 has been introduced. Having these sets shows how much time and effort a player has put into his character. All-in-all, I think Blizzard did an excellent job of extending the World of Warcraft the way they did. It adds hours and hours of more playing for the hardcore MMORPGer. People who were hooked on WoW before should just go to rehab now, because there is no stopping the surge of excitement this game creates as you continue to explore the vast and seemingly endless World of Warcraft.
-Jeff Firmin
Minimum System Requirements: NOT GIVEN   Test System: NOT GIVEN
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