Pros: Unlimited replay value
Cons: Tuesdays
The bottom line: An experience that every fantasy, RPG fan should experience.
Writing a review that’s over two-years old and has had the exposure of biblical proportion seems quite daft, don’t you think? To add even more drama to the review is actually who is writing it. I haven’t written a game review in about two-years. I’ll let you put these two factors together for you to come up with your conclusion.

Yes. I’m one of those people who was sucked into the World of Azeroth about 1.5 years ago and have yet to leave. To be truly honest with everyone, I stayed away from the game for about six months for this reason alone. I knew that once I played it, I would be hooked for a long time coming. On my birthday early last year, I opened my wife’s gift and bam a fresh copy of WoW. She gave me her blessing with a nod, and the rest is history.

While I won’t bore you with regular review info (go ahead and rate accordingly), but what I will do is try to convince you that World of Warcraft could possibly be the greatest game ever produced.

To begin, WoW initially grabs you with the prospect of personalization. You get to choose your race, sex and class; not to mention personalized features and name. After your character is created, you have the choice of different types of server; normal, rp-pvp (role playing player vs. player) and PvP. I’ve never played on a ‘normal’ server; and those playing on ‘normal’ servers are considered “carebears” in the PvP world. From there, you are thrown into the world with a nice prologue to boot. As with any role playing type game; it consists of questing and leveling. In just about any area you can wander, there will be quest-givers with their quite noticeable yellow exclamation point looking over their head. Completing a quest will usually give you one or more of the following: Experience. Money. An item. Reputation with a faction.

Blizzard has put a lot of time in these quests, and are very level specific. For example: The area you initially spawn at, is good for quests 1-10… around that level you will receive information or quests for the next zone for levels 11-20… This doesn’t mean you are limited to linear play, because you can travel to the other races starting areas that match your level.

Depending on your playing style, the game can evolve accordingly. Not only can you level your character up, you can also increase your PvP rank as well as your reputation with factions. Increasing your PvP rank is done by… killing the enemy and gaining ‘honor’ from killing players in your level range (within five levels). The easiest way to do this is to play in the Battlegrounds. Battlegrounds, simply, is a map-based old-school beat-em-up with strategy involved. This ranges from capturing a flag to controlling bases or nodes. Just recently, Bizzard has introduced a global Battlegrounds queue, that lets you compete with other servers. What this really means, is that you can get a BG game anytime of the day you want without waiting. Prior to the last patch, waiting in a Battleground queue would take anywhere from 15-minutes to two hours (in order to muster up enough players from both sides).

As your rank increases, you will be eligible for bonus gear and items. The ‘good’ stuff really isn’t opened until level 58, but it takes that long to get to that point.

Gaining reputation is very similar. Killing enemies from one faction will allow you to gain reputation… As your reputation grows, you are rewarded with rare items. These items range from: epic (very rare) weapons/gear to rare recipes.

Recipes? Yup. Living in Azeroth isn’t free, and if you want good stuff; yer gonna have to pay. Getting money is done by choosing your professions and selling items. You can sell your items anywhere you want to by sending messages in a ‘trade chat’ or you can put your items up on the Auction House. The AH is linked to all capital cities and is where you can buy and sell just about anything you can think of. As mentioned, these higher recipes allow you to craft very rare and sought after items. Or, the recipe could be for a specific spell, enchantment or item.

Professions play a large role in the game, and while it’s completely possible to trudge through the game without having a profession; it would be unrewarding. You can choose two of the main professions: Alchemy (potions), Enchanting (adding magic and bonuses to gear), Blacksmithing (armor/weapon crafting), Tailoring (making cloth-type items), Engineering (make cool gadgets), Leatherworking (crafting leather goods, gear), Skinning, Mining and Herbalism (gathering herbs). As you can already tell, some of these professions go hand-in-hand; i.e.: Leatherworking and skinning. However, you aren’t limited to these combos. For example: One character I have is skinning and herbalist. I chose this to simply make quick money. After killing most beats, I can skin them and sell their hides on the AH… for the leatherworkers who need leather to do their thing. The same goes for herbalists… I’ll pick herbs and sell them on the AH and Alchemists will buy it for big dollars.

Aside from your main professions, there are a handful of side-professions that you can acquire… Again, you can take one, none or all. I suggest grabbing them all early on for they will help you later in the game. The secondary professions are: fishing, cooking and first aid. You may or may not need this depending on your class. A good example of who would use these secondary professions the most; would be hunters. You can feed your pet fish that you catch. Also, fishing can tie right into cooking; where you can make a wide variety of recipes. Better recipes will give you added bonuses; as well as recover health and/or mana. First aid is quite explanatory.

Material for all of these professions are, for the most part, easy to come by. Cloth drops from humanoids that can be used for first aid and tailoring. Mining will give you material for blacksmithing or engineering, etc.

That’s the general (very, very general) overview of the gameplay within WoW. Sounds great, but why play a game that’s two year old? I give mad props to Blizzard for keeping the game fresh. There are new events happening all of the time. They are consistently updating gameplay, quests, areas and features. The game I played almost two-years ago is much different than the game I play today. Small things, like the addition of weather makes a nice change of pace. You’ll also be treated to seasonal events throughout the year. Heck, I still have snowballs from last Christmas. Nothing is funnier than throwing a snowball at another player in the middle of summer!

As you know, the level cap is at 60. Just because you hit level 60 doesn’t mean the game is over. Upgrading your gear is what most 60’s do when they hit that level. This is usually done through end-game raids. These ‘raids’ are large groups of organized players. The groups range from 10-40 people; depending on the ‘instance’ you choose. These raids are very complex and require the utmost communication, planning and organization. Ventrillo is also a must for any end-gamer. Ventrillo is a free internet chat system that allows you to talk with your teammates. The action gets so intense and the attacks need to be so precise that you would be dead in the water without this application and a microphone.

If end-game isn’t for you, you can continue to up your PvP ranking to get amazing gear as well. If neither excite you, go flex your muscle… Head to an opposing town and lay waste to it… And if you get real bored, start a new character! With so many choices in characters, you should never get bored. In the two-years of playing; I’ve only played about half of the classes. Right now, I only have three active characters that I play regularly… A 60 gnome rogue… a 60 undead priest and a 48 dwarf hunter.

Another great aspect of WoW that no other game will give you, is the sense of comradely. Getting a group together to tackle a quest or an instance is extremely rewarding. Most players also join a ‘guild’ with customized guild tabards that identify you and your affiliations. If you join a good guild, you can easily acquire great friendships. One guild I’m in has their own webpage (that I of course put together) and we chat and post pictures about real-life events. It’s always sad when long-time members leave, because the friendships are quite real.

In conclusion, I hope that I’ve showed you a different side of Warcraft. If you’ve never played it before, I encourage you to do so. The initial wow factor for me, and for any new player, will be the overall bigness of the game. When you look at your map and you see your TOWN is only a tiny blip, and there’s two HUGE continents to explore; you will easily become overwhelmed. After you get over the big-ness of the game, you’ll then realize that every character (aside from NPC’s) is another real, living person like you… it’s almost humbling.

As much as I do love Warcraft, it’s far from perfect; and I think everyone should be aware of the negatives. Every Tuesday the game is completely down. This is for maintenance, patches, etc. Plan your day accordingly. Technical support is horrible. Very poor communication (although it has improved in the last three months) and zero response is really a pain when something is wrong. Luckily, the forums are a wealth of knowledge and you have thousands of other people that are experience the same thing you are. System requirements. Don’t believe the box. Don’t believe other reviews. In order adequately play Warcraft, here are my minimum requirements. You need at least 128-mb video card. I’m usually an NVIDIA guy, but have had numerous problems with NVIDIA and WoW. I suggest an ATI for WoW. I also recommend having at least 512 MB RAM. I have a gig, and it runs fine. CPU? I have a 2.0 GHz and it’s struggling to keep up. Broadband… I haven’t tried dial-up, but can’t imagine what it would be like… Cost. It’s not like old Blizzard games, you have to pay 15 bucks a month. Is it worth it? I totally think so.

Lastly, WoW can be quite time-consuming, so be prepared to get hit by your loved ones a few times. I try to limit myself. Anyway, find someone who plays and get the free 15-day trial… If you love it, pay for it… If not, go play Candy Land.