World of Warcraft review by ME!

CrazyMonk · March 2006

Heres a small lecture by me! lol The 95% rating is higher than Half-Life 2, Halo 2, Far Cry, GTA San Andreas and basically every other blockbuster game out this year. It's the highest rating a PC game has received in the last 2 years at Gamespot, and the second highest rating ever given for a PC game at the site. Second only to Blizzard's other game, Diablo. If that isn't enough to convince you that this game is not to be missed, then I don't know what would. I was planning on skipping it myself because of a lack of time to devote to the game, but the Gamespot and other reviews mention over and over that the game is great, no matter how much time you can invest. There is even a system in place so that if you don't play for a few days, you will receive a boost in your experience gains the next time you play. The longer you are "resting", the longer your experience boost will last, which lets you catch up to the players that were playing during the time you were taking a break. Plus the fact that it works on Macs or PCs out of the box, means you have no excuses for not playing this one.

CrazyMonk · March 2006

I have more! 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.

Nihilanth · March 2006

Aye. It is deffinitely a fun game, but it isn't necessarily for everyone. I played it for about 4 months before going back to EQ2. It was a great game, yes, but not really for me in the end.

Savilz · March 2006

Me too... I agree it's a great game ... but oncce you hit lvl 60 ... boy there are sooo much wrong with it :P but i'll let you figure that out

SnaKey · March 2006

You're a horrible critic becuase you obviously have no understanding of anything you're rating.

Graphix 10/10? Right.
Gamepley 10/10? Right. Then EQ, EQII, and ever other fantasy MMO has 10/10 then?

Lowdos · March 2006

Every critic is entitled to his or her own opinion, (well every critic except maybe Robert Ebert ::::39:: )

No need to bash the guy for expressing his own likes.

Yeebo · March 2006

Originally posted by Lowdos
Every critic is entitled to his or her own opinion, (well every critic except maybe Robert Ebert )

Word!

SnaKey · March 2006

Originally posted by Lowdos
Every critic is entitled to his or her own opinion, (well every critic except maybe Robert Ebert )No need to bash the guy for expressing his own likes.

Critics know a little bit about the things the criticize, it's not purely based on opinion. :-P

The guys on G4 are an example.

Yeebo · March 2006

To the OP:

This post might have gone over better in the WoW forum. Ignore the numerous WoW haters that will likley come here and tell you you're insane, and should go in your back yard and shoot yourself in the head for daring to express such a newbtard opinion in a public forum (<--- what they will express, not what I intend to convey). Your review certainly isn't any less reasonable than the guy that gave it a zero out of ten for sound, claiming that there were no ambient sound effects or music in the game (erm, did his PC have a sound card....?). And yet the first replies his review got were "Right on DOoD!"

WoW isn't the best game on the market. But the vitriol directed at it here is a bit ridiculous, imo.

CrazyMonk · March 2006

Hehe thanks for the support.. ::::28::

CrazyMonk · March 2006

Im sick of all these WoW flamers becasue they are jealous of the game :P ::::02::

Kyoruto · March 2006

Wow... I don't even think you can use the word plant you're so far rooted in. I mean even people who ACTUALY play the game knows its not the best and is only for fun a wile.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/01/25

Reign · March 2006

Originally posted by CrazyMonk
Im sick of all these WoW flamers becasue they are jealous of the game :P

Don't you realize you are just being a hypocrite by posting this thread?

I don't flame WoW, but I don't support it either. IMHO it's blizzards worst MMO yet by far.

DuraheLL · March 2006

Ok, my turn:

Graphics: 10/10

You are absolutely right, fabolous graphics by far, most beautiful one out there today!

Sound: 7/10

The sounds are good, but I don't see anything special about it.

Gameplay: 5/10

Way fun untill 60 but there the game takes a nasty turn into something which could have been a "jump-in-n-play" game like Battlefield 2 or CS or something. One thing scared me today when I watched some friend playing WoW and that was the instanced PvP thing where you grind for honor, that could just be Guild Wars (And yet people complain like crazy about GW being instanced?). After the intence and long battle there was a list of "kills" "deaths" and so on ... that just felt so wrong for a MMORPG :S

Also I can not really say there is much to do since people just farm for items ... that is by doing instances and so on ... there is no options, chose a guild, be placed here and there .. hm.. not much room for roleplaying either imo since I've seen far too much flaming against the roleplayers -.-

Community: 3/10

Nasty! I have absolutely no idea what is wrong with the WoW community! But sure it's nasty allright, things like ninja looting (which I find completely redicilous in the first place) makes people go nuts. Also if someone does one mistake the whole community overreacts by far, everyone spamming pleasant stuff like "noob" "learn to play" and so on, even blacklisting people (wth ..)

Performance: 3/10

Wait for ... hours to be able to get into the PvP instances? Whoa ... one thing I find extremely funny, when Blizzard had their event last weekend when the servers like crashed 10 times, everyone pat Blizzards backs, I't was almost illegal to critizise their unstable server handling! And, when Dark And Light Beta: Settlers Of Ganareth experienced unstable servers the community wanted the developers heads on poles, and then, they are a noob company, and not like Blizzard. Funny eh?

Overall: 4/10

Very polished and beautiful on the outside, on the inside... makes me want to cry. Could have been really good, but it's blizzard, doesn't seem they know how to take things peacefully and calm, to make a deep roleplaying game. I can only find one reason why people still play it at endgame, and that is their friends in-game.

I hear so much flaming from WoW players about WoW that my ears could explode from hearing it all, I am sure that any MMORPG is playable with good friends, but to me it feels like that this whole hype will fade away slowly but stable.

dunadurium · March 2006

Originally posted by Reign
IMHO it's blizzards worst MMO yet by far.

Yes, yes, this is true...but it's also their best MMO.......

~Dunadurium

Gameloading · March 2006

Originally posted by SnaKey

You're a horrible critic becuase you obviously have no understanding of anything you're rating.
Graphix 10/10? Right.
Gamepley 10/10? Right. Then EQ, EQII, and ever other fantasy MMO has 10/10 then?

The only diffrence is WoW's graphics are superior to EQ2's. and yes, I mean that. WoW did an INCREDIBLE job on the terrain and world. its the first mmo that makes a world realistic in some way. The terrain actually makes sense and is "right" it feels like your in the world. tough I think WoW's towns/city's could use some work. they are way to small in myy oppinnion. EQ2's Character models are simply horrible, While WoW is doing a pretty good job on them.

Ranma13 · March 2006

See, the thing with reviews and numbers is that, the numbers usually mean something. It's not an arbitrary number that just exists; it's to compare it to something or to some kind of scale. Otherwise, the number doesn't have any meaning at all. To some people, only 2 numbers exist: 1/10 and 10/10. In this case, the numbers don't mean anything at all because nothing in-between exists. To rate something as a 10/10 simply because you like it is being ignorant and totally neglecting any sense of scale. Sure, the graphics/gameplay/whatever it may be is good, but HOW good? How does it compare to everything else? Does it REALLY deserve a 10/10 or should it be more like 8/10 or 9/10? And if it really does deserve a 10/10, why? Not just a "It's the best graphics I've ever seen" but actually go into detail on why it deserves such a coveted place. These are the reasons why most personal reviews are taken with a huge grain of salt.

Rayana · March 2006

Originally posted by CrazyMonk
Im sick of all these WoW flamers becasue they are jealous of the game :P

...says the person who started a thread in the Guild Wars forum with the title 'Any1 who likes WoW Will probably hate this game. As I do'. With a very meaningful post containing the following:

'This game is boring you litterally get bored in 5-10 min of gameplay.'

Seriously...You're a flamer yourself. At least you spent some time to elaborate on what you like about WoW in this thread, so kudos to that.

Wolfjunkie · March 2006

Originally posted by CrazyMonk
Im sick of all these WoW flamers becasue they are jealous of the game :P

Now, CrazyMonk, i have a few questions for you.
Have you ever made it to level 60, and tested endgame? Everything from Strat and BRD to MC, BWL, PvP, and rep. grinding?
And will you honestly still give it 10/10?
I play WoW. But i'm only still playing, because of my guild. Great bunch of people.
But if i ask them: Do you find WoW fun? I'll normaly get a question like: "Well.. There's not much to do ingame for me, except waiting for the BWL day"(Or the AQ day, soon).

Endgame IS lacking. Sure, 1-59 WoW is a great game! Funny quests, lots of new areas to explore etc etc etc.. But that makes a 180 turn at level 60.

Besides, i dont think the graphics are that good. Take a look at the mountains in WoW, and tell me they deserve a 10/10

hercules · March 2006

Originally posted by Gameloading

Originally posted by SnaKey

You're a horrible critic becuase you obviously have no understanding of anything you're rating.
Graphix 10/10? Right.
Gamepley 10/10? Right. Then EQ, EQII, and ever other fantasy MMO has 10/10 then?

The only diffrence is WoW's graphics are superior to EQ2's. and yes, I mean that. WoW did an INCREDIBLE job on the terrain and world. its the first mmo that makes a world realistic in some way. The terrain actually makes sense and is "right" it feels like your in the world. tough I think WoW's towns/city's could use some work. they are way to small in myy oppinnion. EQ2's Character models are simply horrible, While WoW is doing a pretty good job on them.

Well its very subjective i suppose , i think EQ2 has much better graphics(maybe because i have a rig that can run it comfortably at full setting) and has way more to offer at higher levels .

I enjoyed nearly a year of WoW but was shocked to find level 60 =farm a few instances,wait to organise a raid on the other few instances and 15vs15 pvp in a very small area and continue to rinse and repeat.

Game post 60 is very very dead and since its a mmorpg thats where it matters as getting to level cap in most mmorpg is relatively easy but its the "life after the level cap" that makes a mmorpg.

But again its all down to personal opinon.

nomadian · March 2006

If a game was rated 95% I would expect it to be highly fun but it isn't. WoW is a playable game but I honestly don't see it as any better than any other mmorpg in the genre. All it is is a typical mmorpg game with a Blizzard touch to it. Good game but not great game by any means.

moonfog · March 2006

Originally posted by DuraheLL

Graphics: 10/10
You are absolutely right, fabolous graphics by far, most beautiful one out there today!

AAAa hahahahahaahahahahaaa! Ohh man! Ahahaahahahahaha!

Thats all I have to say on that matter.

Oh, and can I have some of what you are smoking?

mcr525 · March 2006

Of course you are entitled to your opinion on the game and I respect that but I also have my opinion and disagree with all your comments.

The best part of WoW is the graphics. Other than that you can keep it. To me its the most overated game ever. Well, id certainly class it as the best single player MMORPG game out there ::::02::

binjuice · March 2006

Originally posted by mcr525
Well, id certainly class it as the best single player MMORPG game out there

Hmm, well thats got to be one of the greatest things I have ever read about WoW! I must say the OP was a bit bias. I knock a game I don't like cause it has something I don't like. Whats the point of knocking a game that I'm jealous of? But WoW has increased overall MMORPG players by a hell of a ot so, kudos to them for that

Azirophos · March 2006

Originally posted by CrazyMonk
Heres a small lecture by me!

Apparantly, because sure it's not a review, less even an objective one.

Originally posted by CrazyMonk
The 95% rating is higher than Half-Life 2, Halo 2, Far Cry, GTA San Andreas and basically every other blockbuster game out this year. It's the highest rating a PC game has received in the last 2 years at Gamespot, and the second highest rating ever given for a PC game at the site. Second only to Blizzard's other game, Diablo. If that isn't enough to convince you that this game is not to be missed, then I don't know what would.

I never cared much for ratings, critics or even amount of sold units. The best games are not necessarily the most successful ones - just like with movies. Two examples: Metropolis nearly drove its publisher into bankrupcy and Blade Runner was a box office failure, yet those two movies belong to the most influentual works of movieart in the 20th century. Titanic is one of the most successful movies of all times, yet it's "worth" in different cinematic areas is substandard. Success and/or good reviews does not equal quality.

With games it's titles like Battlezone, Homeworld, Master of Orion, X-COM (1st part), Perimeter, Conquest: FW and a few others. Those were not among the most successsful or maybe best reviewed games ever, yet they are unmatched in gameplay, innovation and depth, and I'd place those over the games you mentioned, including WOW, anytime.

WOW's biggest problem that I personally have with it, is it's lack of freedom. In the end it is just Diablo with more players, and no real opportunities. The things you do have in the end no real meaning. I don't soley blame this on WOW alone - other MMOs have that problem (at least to me) too. EVE offers that freedom to a certain degree, yet the true fullfilling RP and immersion to me are only offered by P&P RPGs (and a good GM ofc). Nothing better than the original
I want freedom of action and the feeling that my actions are changing the world, even if in only small minimal ways - and that feeling only a very small number of MMOs can provide - and WOW is not among them.

DuraheLL · March 2006

I agree Azirophos, about the numbers of units sold and so on.

I also want to be able to feel that the world changes, thats a large ingredient in roleplaying, on that aspect WoW is a joke. I might even play Dark And Light no matter how awful it becomes just because you can take over the world by steps.

There is also World War II Online where all countries battle for territories in real time, really nice game actually!

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