My World of Warcraft Review!

CrazyMonk

I've been an avid MMORPG player since EQOA came out on PS2. Since then I have played nearly a dozen MMORPG's ranging from EQ to City of Heroes. I haven't enjoyed any of those games as much as I have been enjoying this one.

Graphics: 10/10
Gorgeous. In a word that is WoW. It may not have the best technical stats of competitors, but it fits the game and the universe of Warcraft perfectly. I look at EQII and tell myself that in a few years it could look really nice. WoW has relatively low system requirements, and yet, I can't imagine how they could improve beyond what it already is. It looks like the World or Warcraft should look. You can't get any better than that.

Sound: 10/10
I have yet to find a song in this game I don't like. All the starting cities, the nature settings, and dungeons sound beautiful. The songs always fit. The music is never obtrusive and never gets annoying. There is no battle music, which is a plus for me. Getting into a battle doesn't pull you out of the environment of whatever setting you are in, because the music doesn't suddenly jerk around and change.

The sound affects and voices are excellent, as well. The /v commands and such are entertaining. Though, these I would think could probably get annoying in the future, they have yet to do so. Every type of mob in the game has a different sound when they attack. You can tell almost exactly what is attacking you before even looking because of the distinct sound.

Gameplay: 10/10
This is where the game shines the most. The gameplay in this game is amazingly fun. Many times do I find myself lost in a newly discovered forest area soloing and taking in the environment. The crafting in this game is a good way to make a fair amount of money and doesn't detract from the gameplay.

The quest system in this game pwns any other I have yet to see. The rewards are almost always worth it and the quests are usually fun. You can solo all the way to 60 in this game, but a lot of quests basically require a group if you want to finish them at the recommended level. There are many different strategies you can use to fit whatever group setup you might have ended up with. You aren't forced into the stereotypical, archetype group. You can share quests w/ group members who don't have it so they don't have to run all the way to whatever city to get it. That saves times and sometimes groups.

As I said above you can solo effectively all the way to 60. Combat in this game never seems slow or tedious and I have fun just running around an area killing whatever I happen to run into. There is no slow grind. Tired of killing mobs? There's ALWAYS quests to do. Tired of questing? Catch up on your crafting. Usually if I get tired of grinding head to town sell loot, and, by then, I'm ready to go out and kill some more. If you just wanna have fun go to a contested area and start some stuff w/ a member or members of an opposing faction. There is always something to do.

Dueling is another fun activity, and a good way to hone PvP skills. There are many strategies you can use for each class depending on which Talent Path you decided to take. Two people can play the same class differently and still succeed.

Overall: 9/10
This game blows me away every time I log on. You can immerse yourself in a world you have been playing for years in WC, WCII and WCIII. The cities, sites, sounds, NPCs, colors, and graphics are all there. This game IS Warcraft. The lore is there, the music is there. It's all there.

The only reason I cannot give this game a 10/10 is because of a few issues that have annoyed me on occasion:

1. Server lag. It is no where near as prevalent as it once was, but the annoyance is still there. Namely, during large PvP battles and when entering new towns. But, if I had to choose between a few seconds of lag as opposed to a minute of loading every time I changed zones, I know which I would choose. There are no zones in WoW, there is no loading.

2. ... Honestly, I can't think of anything else that bothers me. I'm sure that there is something, but obviously it is not that big of a deal or I would remember it. I also know for a fact that there is more pros that I am forgetting than cons. This is my big review.