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World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade - Student Review
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Graphics & Sound:
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade was very likely one of the most anticipated game releases of the decade. This expansion to the multi-million copy selling MMORPG has massive amounts of hype and, with that hype, great expectations. The real question is: Is it really worth the money?
Many gamers would agree that with an expansion comes better graphics and sound. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade delivers this in subtle ways. The character models have had a slight upgrade. The polygons are no longer as jagged as they were before and the textures are more detailed. With the two new races, one would figure that more character customization would be available; this is where Blizzard slips up. Even in the expansion, there is minimal character customization. A few facial expressions that never change, a couple of hair styles, some facial hair, and four to five hair and skin colors is the most you are going to get.
What TBC lacks in character customization, however, it makes up for in the models for the new gear. Some of the new gear reuses and tweaks the models from the original game, making it look new, while the new pieces of armor and weapons are extravagantly designed and highly detailed. Since your armor covers your entire avatar, more or less, you do not see the actual character, making character customization rather useless.
With the addition of the new world, the "Outlands," the terrain has had an amazing revamp in TBC. The textures are much more smooth and detailed, even at far distances. The ground is covered in what seem to be tiny shrubs when looked at up close. Each zone in Outlands has its own theme. "Hellfire Peninsula" is a war-ravaged world and, thusly, has few trees. The ground is red and cracking. Parts of the earth are floating in the air high above due to magical disturbances. Pools of lava bubble up from the ground. Nagrand is a zone less touched by war and destruction. It is very Africanesque. Trees and wildlife are abundant. Small bushes cover the grassy plains. Rivers and streams branch out through the zone, rich with fish. The new zones add a touch of surrealism to the game and attempt to consume the players in the world itself.
The sound in the world has had a revamp too. For those of us graced with some form of sub-woofer, Blizzard, for once, utilizes sound to communicate the size of its creatures. Large animals' steps will send out low, thumping sounds. The massive Fel Reavers, giant robots built by abominations in Hellfire Peninsula, literally shake the player's screen when they walk past. They also will send enough bass through your sub-woofer to shake the Coke can, in my case, off your desk. The music in Blizzard's games has always been a pleasure to listen too, and TBC is no different. Each zone has a few songs that it seamlessly switches between. The songs fit the zones in the sense that if you enter a massive Dwarven city, the music will be epic, while music in a savannah will be more calm and ambient. The music is orchestral, so it does not get in the way of gameplay. Half of the time, I did not even realize it was on. If music is not your thing, however, it can be turned off.
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Gameplay:
The Burning Crusade is much like its predecessor, in the sense that it is a casual MMORPG for those who cannot dedicate hours per day to a videogame. This aspect of the game is good for some, but not for all. Overall, TBC tries to appeal to the casual market, while still trying to maintain the hold WoW had on some of the more hardcore players.
The storyline is still very much present. In TBC, a group calling themselves "The Burning Crusade" has led a campaign to destroy Azeroth and conquer everything. Led by the ancient demon-hunter Illidan, they seek to consume not only the universe, but time itself. Both factions, Horde and Alliance, must work together (not kill each other in certain areas, more or less) to defeat the evil that is The Burning Crusade. Whether facing the foe head-on, or going back in time to stop them from rewriting history, TBC is sure to please its players.
Blizzard has done away with the 40-man dungeons, and geared the new end-game content towards more casual guilds, or groups of players who have created a community within the game, by releasing the 10 and 25-man dungeons. This primarily helps the newer, less-populated servers as well as the guilds that just can't seem to have 40+ people online at a time.
PvP (Player vs. Player) is still very much, if not more, a part of the game. New "World PvP" bases have been set up in many of the zones in Outlands, calling for a sense of heightened awareness while questing. The faction that controls those bases usually gets some kind of bonus to their statistics. All of the old PvP gear is much easier to obtain now, which annoys those, like myself, who played for hour-after-hour, day-after-day, week-after-week to get it. What used to take seven to eight months to get can now be acquired in a few weeks of well-placed play. Two new battlegrounds are available, "The Arena" and "Eye of the Storm." The Arena is just that, a 2v2, 3v3, or 5v5 battle to the death. Eye of the Storm is much like the old Arathi Basin and Warsong Gulch combined. Capture the flags, control the towers, and victory is sure to follow.
The new quests take the game to an entirely new level. The days of "Kill 20 of X creature" are nearly over. Yes, you are still killing the mobs, but now there are other circumstances you may be asked to do which distract the player from the tedious kill quests. For example, you may have to kill 30 Fire Elementals, but only when they are under the effect of a spell cast by a totem, which you must lay at opportune places at opportune times. It makes the player think about the other aspects of the game rather than the repetitive killing and collecting.
If a player looks carefully, they will also find real-world references in the form of NPCs. Some of them are obvious, Floyd Pinkins being a Pink Floyd reference. Others are not so obvious, such as the ogre that speaks like a tiny goblin named "Ear-Biter," a Mike Tyson reference.
Overall, the gameplay is much the same with little tweaks here and there which help to immerse the player in the massive world. The new storyline is sure to please and the funny references to real life are bound to keep players entertained for months to come.
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Difficulty:
The Burning Crusade, all in all, is a very easy game. It is geared towards casual players who do not have every day to spend on a videogame. Following quest lines is very simple; just click the guys with a yellow "!" over their heads, read the quest, accept it, and then do it. Most of the dungeons are simple as well; just have someone to tank (take the damage and keep the bad guys hitting him), a person to heal, and the rest to deal out the damage. The real challenge does not start until you are in a guild running the 10 or 25-man runs in which certain strategies need to be implimented. When that occurs, you have to rely on the other members of your party to keep you alive and make sure that everyone is doing what they are supposed to be. It takes a dedicated leader to run the group and experienced players to keep everyone alive.
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Game Mechanics:
The mechanics for The Burning Crusade are pretty much the same as the original. The only major difference is that the level cap was raised to 70. The majority of the changes have been about making the characters balanced and not allowing one to become over-powered. All of the changes have had their reasons, though every person playing an affected class will argue otherwise, if only for the sake of arguing.
Each class has had four to five skills added for the level 61-70 bracket and had two new tiers of talents to choose from. The skills are all about game balance. Priests, for example, have a new spell called "Mass Dispel," which will remove all magic effects from everyone in the target area. This includes a spell that once made Paladins immune to all spells and damage. This adds a new aspect of deciding when to use what spell to the game. Mages receive a skill called "Spell Steal," which does just that. It will remove one magic effect from a player and give it to the mage. Magic users beware, not even your buffs are safe!
The talent trees are the same; after reaching level 10, you receive one point per level to place in one of three trees that are used to specialize your class. It could be to affect your damage output, your healing or your ability to take hits, depending on your class. The trees have had a few new talents added to compensate for the increased level cap, but other than that, the only changes have been minor balance tweaks.
Professions have had a drastic revamp. Along with the addition of a new profession, Jewelcrafting, other professions such as Blacksmithing have had their items changed up a bit. After reaching 300 in skill, many of the items can only be used by players of that profession. For example, a "Master Axesmith" may be able to create a really good axe, but only other Master Axesmiths would be able to wield it. This creates more incentives for players to be a certain profession, rather than just having someone else make an item for them. Jewelcrafting is the new, and best (in my opinion), profession. Unlike blacksmithing and other professions, you will be creating items that you will use all game. Before Jewelcrafting, you would usually have no rings or necklaces or trinkets until level 30. Those days are in the past. Jewelcrafting adds to the game new, low-level items, making leveling that much easier. With blacksmithing and other professions, items created in the lower skills were either sold to an NPC or destroyed. Once your Jewelcrafting skill is high enough, you will be able to cut gems that can be inserted into socketed gear (usually level 65+) to boost the bonuses you receive from the gear. This adds a new "pick-and-choose" aspect to the game. Do you want spell damage? Healing? Defense? The choice is yours!
Leveling can be tedious, if you do not know where to go, but it is never difficult. On average, it takes a player about one month of played time to get to level 70, while some of the more hardcore players can achieve it in a week or two. As long as you stay in the zones that are right for your level, you will not have trouble leveling, and if you do not know the right zone to be in, just ask another player. The time it takes to reach level 70 depends completely on how efficient you are in completing those quests.
Overall, The Burning Crusade is geared completely for the casual player. While this picks up many non-MMO players, it also makes TBC lose its luster for those who do want to play for countless hours on end. All-in-all, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade is a must-have if you want to jump right into the world of MMOs. |
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-Kyle Adibyazdi |
Minimum System Requirements:
Windows(r) System 2000/XP OS: Intel Pentium(r) III 800 MHz or AMD Athlon 800 MHz, 512 MB or more of RAM, 32 MB 3D graphics card with Hardware Transform and Lighting, such as NVIDIA(r) GeForce(tm) 2 class card or above, DirectX(r) 9.0c (included) and latest video drivers, 6.0 GB available HD space, 4x CD-ROM drive, A 56k or better Internet connection
Mac(r) OS X 10.3.9: 933 MHz or higher G4, or G5, or Intel processor,
512 MB RAM or higher; DDR RAM recommended, ATI or NVIDIA(r) video hardware with 32 MB VRAM or more, 6.0 GB available HD space, 4x CD-Rom drive, 56k or better Internet connection
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Test System:
Windows XP Home Edition, Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz, 768 MB RAM, 512 MB GForce 5500fx Overclocked, 80 GB Hard Drive, Cable Internet Connection
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