Summary

I have never actually paid for an MMORPG longer than the two months I tried EverQuest after the first expansion came out. After putting in only 10 hours of gameplay and paying $25 above the cost of the game, I thought it was a waste of time, since I couldn't dedicate the time needed to the game to actually make it fun and worth the money. Since then, I have tried the Lineage II beta, City of Heroes beta, and others, without any desire to move into the pay for play phase of the game. I finally signed up for the Guild Wars beta through a pre-order, since, after all, there was going to be no monthy fee. After a couple of weekends with it, I thought, this is finally the MMORPG for me. Then I heard a guy at work talk about the stress test beta of World of Warcraft. For $8, I could get a monthly subscription to FilePlanet and join in on the fun. Hey, for eight bucks, why not? That was the end of my search. After two days with the beta, I was nearing level 12 with my Night elf rogue and having a hard time going to bed, stopping to eat, going to the bathroom. Ever heard of a catheter? I immediately got my brother-in-law to pony up the $8 as well, and soon we were zipping around the world of Azeroth together having a blast. Never have I played an MMORPG with as much drive or addiction. If you only have 5-10 minutes to play, why not log on and go kill the 10 furbolgs for the latest quest, or just level up your leatherworking a couple of points, or visit the Auction House and browse for equipment upgrades? There is a plethora of things to do in a matter of minutes. In fact, Blizzard has made it so easy to play, that even non-MMO and non-computer gamers in general are hooked. I know husbands and wives that play together on the game, where the wife had never touched a computer game before. The learning curve is so gentle, that you soon find ways to squeeze in another 30 minutes just to reach that next level where you might learn the next uber spell or skill. Trust me, if you like computer games, and have hesitated on an MMO, your chance is now. The $14.95 per month? I don't even think about it, I'm too busy playing to worry. Too bad I have to work to earn money to play, or might just be on all day long.

Sound

The ambiance added to each area by the music and effects of wildlife have a greater effect than you realize, until you try and play without the sound. The battle sounds are excellent, and you find yourself relying on it to determine if someone has hit you or if another monster has just joined the fight from behind. Some of the sounds get repetitive, but that is just in the nature of the frequent combat. Although, I can't tell you how frustrating it is to hear "not enough energy" or "not enough rage" or "not enought mana" when you click a special ability. The voice acting of your characters is good, but you don't hear them too often. I think it would have been nice to have a little more voice recording for the NPC quest givers. As it is, you must read every quest, nothing is ever told to you. I don't mind the reading, but it sure is wierd to come from a sound rich environment in battle to a quiet one while you watch the quest text scroll by. As for the soundtrack, I am glad I bought the Collector's edition, as I have the whole thing on CD. The music is good enough to sit with my best soundtracks or classical music. I love it.

Gameplay

After choosing one of eight races from two differently aligned sides (horde - undead, orc, troll, tauren and alliance - human, night elf, gnome, dwarf) and one of 8 classes (mage, priest, shaman, paladin, warrior, rogue, hunter, warlock), you start your journey in a "Newbie" zone, where the monsters don't attack you unless you attack first, and the quests give you a good taste for what to expect in the future. Go here and collect 10 items dropped from these kind of creatures, or find so-and-so, he went missing earlier today, or kill 8 of these, because their population is threatening the city. This is the driving force behind the game. Your quest log can hold 20 quests at a time (believe me, sometimes you wish it could hold more), and you end up running from one to the next, just to get that next bit of XP or the next equipment reward. Incredibly, with the amount of quests available, very rarely do you get lost not knowing how to complete one. If you think you don't know, reread the quest, and you'll likely find the answer in it. The controls and interface are user friendly and lend themselves well to the combat system and information tracking. Combat works on a timed attack basis, so if you have a slow weapon, you will attack at longer intervals. Spells have a ready period or cooldown that prevents the diablo button mash, but still makes you pay attention to comat. Once you are engaged in combat, your spells on your hotbar light up when ready and you simply click with your mouse or hotkey it. My complaint is that there aren't enough buttons! Luckily Blizzard left the UI interface open to modifications, and already mods like CTmod and Cosmos have added buttons, clocks, configs, and more to make the experience that much better. One of my biggest gripes with previous MMORPG's is what people call the grind, killing thousands of helpless rats before you have enough xp to hit level 2 and enough copper to buy a weapon that upgrades your damage by 1 point. Not so here. After completing the first quest, I was already level 3, and had replaced my dagger, my chest armor, my boots and gloves with new upgrades from drops and quest items. It is a compelling system that keeps you coming back for more. Another part of that grind is the travel. To get from one area to the other, you usually get lost, end up walking for 40 minutes and then not having a way to get back. Blizzard has given a lot of helps for the players in this area, and it rarely takes more than 10 minutes to get anywhere in the world (which is absolutely huge). The only problem with this lesser grind is I find myself leveling up too fast. Once you reach beyond a certain level, old areas with lower level creatures go "gray" or basically don't provide any more XP for killing or questing. It keeps you moving to the higher level areas, and as a result, I have a level 57 character(60 is the max) that has only seen 40% of the world. This does lend to replayability thought, as I have a new lvl 26 character that started in a different part of the world and has seen a lot of cool new areas I never saw with my other character. I know I have gone on already, but I haven't even touched on Player versus Player, or PVP. On PVP servers, alliance and horde are always at odds, meaning if you see one, you can attack. On non-PVP servers, you can still fight, but it is voluntary, meaning, if you attack a Horde city guard, your PVP flag gets set for 5 minutes. During that time, you are free game to get hit by other horde characters that want PVP. It is a simple system, and not rewarding in any xp or items, but it is a heapload of fun and a great diversion from the monster killing quests once in a while. There is so much to say about this game that I haven't touched on, like the skill system, where you choose two professions and level them up as you go (blacksmithing and mining, or skinning and leatherworking make good pairings for example), or the simple daily tasks you can learn, like first aid, cooking and fishing. The game is so much fun that I find myself logging on just to chat with guild members or go fish for 5 minutes. Because of this game, I haven't finished Half-life 2, haven't started Pirates! or Battle for Middle-earth that I got for Christmas, in fact, I haven't bought another game since starting it, so basically, I am saving money each month. I've gushed enough, so I should mention the few problems. Server crowding is a bad thing, and lag in the busy cities is almost intolerable. Some realms are so overpopulated that they have major instability options. Blizzard has brought up a whole lot of new servers, so if you are getting into it, you shouldn't have a problem signing on to a new one. I have never had a crash, unless it was server related, the client is extremely stable, but once in a while, that network is extremely picky and can put a crimp in your available 30 minutes of gameplay time.

Summary

An enjoyable game plagued by frequent server outage and lag. If you pick a server that becomes over burdened you are stuck with it unless you want to start your character over. Fear Tuesdays. This is the day they release patches. Several patches have lead to major outages and crashes.

Sound

Full environmental sounds, very good for emersion into the game world.

Gameplay

Very well planned quests lead you through each stage of the game as your character develops.

Summary

I'll be the first to admit that I always shunned MMORPG as an oasis of the most geeky, life-deprived gamers around; I also will be the first to admit that I absolutely love World of Warcraft. So somewhere my perception of the players for these types of games was faulty, or else I am all those stereotypical things...Hmmm…Wonder which it is… Blizzard has always been a company to strive for greatness in their games, boasting so many incredible series (Diablo, Starcraft and Warcraft) in their repertoire that one cannot help but be impressed. World of Warcraft takes place after the events in Warcraft III and the Frozen Throne expansion. The tenuous alliance between the "Alliance" and the "Horde" is all but dissolved and each faction strives now for domination over the two continents of Azeroth. So your first choice is choosing a side in the struggle...

Sound

In one word, quiet. I realize that this problem is most likely hardware related as I do not have a dedicated soundcard, and using integrated sound from the mobo is always iffy. However, even with updated codecs and BIOS, World of Warcraft is painfully quiet. The only solution...turn up the speaker volume. Problem: after an immersive experience such as World of Warcraft, one inevitably forgets how much they turned the speakers up the next day...so suddenly when I turn on Winamp and sit down in the morning for a quiet speculation with a nice hot cup of coffee, I'm hit by blasting waves of abusive lyrics from Korn and Tool. Not exactly what you need early in the morn! Besides this small problem, the sound effects do not stand out in any real way, but it in no way detracts from the greatness of the gameplay experience. Monster sounds are simple and are recycled from area to area, but that is to be expected in a game of this size. Ambient sounds are nicely done, as they change as you travel to different locales, however this change can be sudden and unexpected at time. The style of sound is very well differentiated for the races, and in typical Blizzard fashion, many of the voice emotes from characters are quite humorous, and any fan of the series will notice some phrases of the past games, a tip of their hat to the history and successes of old. The music, as in all of Blizzard's masterpieces is wonderfully choreographed and very subtle changes occur from area to area. Seamless harmony in my opinion!

Gameplay

You start with your character. Alliance or Horde is a large decision of the people you will be interacting with later on. If you have a friend playing a Horde character, you will want to choose the same faction as you cannot chat with or interact with characters of the opposite faction (except to kill them!). Each race starts off with certain racial abilities which give them certain advantages (nothing too major to affect balance). Also each race is relegated to certain classes, for instance only Humans and Dwarves can become Paladins, and while the obviously huge Tauren race cannot choose to become Rogues, they make great Warriors. Upon starting the game you are greeted by a simple and yet powerful interface which is easy to understand and easier to modify to your preference. Your character begins in a small village designated for your race, with a few fairly simple quests appointed to you. This quest system is the basis for progression in the game. Following a series of quests will usually take you on a journey to new and different lands, which in turn will lead you to new cities with new quests. Following the quests is also a fair guide as to which areas your character will be able battle monsters successfully and progress at a steady rate. Characters are free to explore areas and fight the monsters they run into, but the rewards that quests offer to characters include large amounts of experience and upgrades for equipment. Each class will also have unique skills to use against monsters, or to help members of your faction. While some classes will use the familiar Mana for these skills, Rogues and Warriors use unique catalysts for their skills. Rogues use an Energy bar which quickly refills, while Warriors must build up Rage through combat before using most of their skills. Skill progression is also fairly straight forward, with each class gaining new skills every even numbered level (2, 4, 6, etc). Also upon reaching level 10, a new option is opened called talents. These talents allow for a character to specialize in certain aspects of their character's prowess. For Hunters it may be their ability to buff up their pet's combat abilities or to grant them new skills for using bows or guns. This really gives characters an opportunity to become very unique so that even characters of the same class will be hugely different in the skills and abilities they possess. Party mechanics is easily accessible even to someone new to the genre (i.e. Myself!). Looting options can be set by the party leader, and everyone will have a chance at getting the random uncommon and rare items that drop from monsters. Also nothing is more rewarding than grabbing a party of your friends and going into an “instance” dungeon to fight massive amounts of super-tough “elite” monsters, or going on a raid to attack the opposing faction’s cities. Ah, killing bliss! But no game is without its faults. World of Warcraft has experienced its share of bugs, downtime and server problems. However, their manner of dealing with these problems is stellar and laudable. They have an in-game tool to contact GM’s to share bugs and crash problems, making the process of fixing them quicker and easier for Blizzard. Also, during the first chaotic month that the game released, there were significant spouts of downtime on several servers, but Blizzard was quick to credit extra time to those people’s accounts for the inconvenience. All games of this sort have their problems, but it is the way in which they are handled that distinguishes great companies. And while some people complain of character balancing issues, there is no possible way to completely balance every class in the game. Different classes have vastly different play styles. Example: The Mage class is a class that relies on its spells to do as much damage as possible in a short time to ensure survival, while say a Warlock uses Damage Over Time spells and summoned demons as added destraction. While the Warlock may not be able to kill a monster as fast as a Mage, it is the difference in play style and preference of the person playing. Paladins are consistently considered overpowered while warriors are considered underpowered...however, that said, I have seen a Warrior defeat an equivalent high level Paladin in a fair fight. What can I say...people will complain, but I believe the classes in World of Warcraft are as balanced as they possibly can be without making every class and race cookie cut-outs of each other. All I can say to Blizzard is bravo.

Summary

At first glance the game is excellent. The graphics have a "cartoon" feel that makes think you're part of a Heavy Metal comic adventure. The interface is simple and intuitive and gameplay is fast paced. The quests are varied and challenging and the game is well suited for the casual gamer as well as the hardcore mmorpg fan. The problem lies in the balance and attitude (unfortunately) of the players. The game has been slanted to HEAVILY favor players on the Alliance. There are 3 main cities for each of the factions (Horde and Alliance) but the NPC's guarding the cities are terribly unbalanced. It would be almost impossible for a small group of Horde members, even at the highest level, to enter any of the Alliance cities and disrupt gameplay of new players. The Horde guards, on the other hand are so weak that tonight, I witnessed 5 Alliance members invade Undercity and kill the NPC's responsible for transacting storage and quest completions for Horde players. The new players to the game became frustrated because they could no longer complete their quests or obtain equipment from their storage vaults. The alliance players have been doing this nightly, simply because they wish to ruin the game for those who choose to play the Horde. They also realize that for the Horde players to seek revenge would be impossible. Because of the way the PVP is setup in game, there is no consiquence to the Alliance for this behavior. In addition, the GM's do not seem to be concerned although "physical harassment" by killing quest NPC's is a violation of the rules. I had enjoyed the game greatly when I first began to play, but this action has made it more and more difficult to enjoy World of Warcraft. I fear that if this pattern is allowed to continue, many players will leave the game. And to all new players considering this game, be aware. The forums are also filled with posts of higher level players calling people who complain about this behavior as "crybabies" and the moderators of the forums don't seem to care.

Summary

I am majorly, majorly, majorly, bummed. I was lucky enough to be one of the 100,000 people who were able to play the WoW beta for 9 days. 9 days that made me realize this is going to be a great game. It is, quite simply, immersive. If you have played an MMORPG or if you have played Warcraft, this game is something you should experience. It is just so fantastic. I basically gave up sleep for one week. I played three characters. Started as a Night Elf, then went to the Undead, then to the Tauren. My favorite would be the Undead, but the Tauren are very cool looking and have a very interesting personality. I will review this game again after it comes out. Right now I am on auto-buy, and cannot seem to get into any other game. I wanted to keep playing! I stayed on the server until the beta stopped, and it was the saddest thing in the world to have to leave.

Sound

The sound was a mixed bag. Since you spend a lot of time chatting with the other players, you don't get a lot of voices. The monsters were just OK. Nothing great, nothing bad, just average. The musical score was unreal.

Gameplay

You start off as one of 8 races. Undead, Human, Night Elf, Tauren, Orc, Troll, Gnome or Dwarf. When you start a new character, you enter a land where only your character's people reside. Then you start with quests, and build up your character. It is in essence Diablo for that although the interface more resembles Neverwinter Nights. You accept quests, chat with people, and start to build your character. You enter a world that is the Warcraft land. There are a lot of things to do. Quests are number one, slaying creatures number two, chatting number 3. You can also develop skills for fighting. But there are some new twists. You can have skills like making weapons, potions, clothes. You gather raw resources and gain points by using your skills, which leads to getting more skills. It has a very wide range, and takes a while to move up. This is definitely not a "quick" game. If Blizzard keeps things the same, what will stand out is that if you play on your own, you will progress slowly (but it is still fun to do), but some quests simply demand you go in as a team. Too many deadly enemies to do otherwise. You can also travel to other lands once you get a high enough level to make it. (It is hard to wander around. The game is very level centric. If you wander, eventually you will get to an area where the creatures outmatch your character, and then you cannot proceed). You can take a Goblin Zeppelin from place to place, or fly on a bat, ride a tiger, ride a horse (you can own a horse actually, they have stables). And so forth. Another concept is the capital city. This is a huge sprawling complex that has shops, a bank, a post office and the governing council for each race. I only saw two of these and they were fantastic. You can also set a town as your home base. They have inns where you can rest your character, and you get a hearthstone from the innkeeper which you can use once an hour to return to the inn. I am leaving out a ton of stuff but I could go on and on about this game. Trust me, it rocks. As I said, I feel empty inside, like I lost something by not being able to play it anymore. I will buy it immediately after it comes out and sign up right away.