First Glance:
Orcs and humans and gnomes, oh my!
The Short Story:
Blizzard takes a look at the failures and successes of previous MMORPGs and
builds on the good stuff while doing away with a lot of the bad.
The Score:
There’s a lot of “ifs” here that can push the score higher or lower but from the
guidelines we’ve set down here at Busy Gamer, this game scores a 2.
Body of review:
World of Warcraft just happens to be one of my favorite games of all time and with
good reason. Blizzard has built a truly immersive game world within WoW and it’s
the type of place you find yourself exploring and admiring each time you play. The
landscapes are beautiful and
sometimes alien, foregoing realistic landscapes and character models for a more
fantasy feel.
The Busy Gamer will quickly discover that WoW is not the type of game that forgives a
full schedule. Leveling, while not completely painful, is time consuming as is the
gathering of equipment and items. Players who can’t devote 10-15 hours a week will
find themselves quickly
falling behind their friends in terms of levels and power. Those with time to spare
and a decent understanding of the game can become powerhouses in very short
order.
The talent system is robust and allows players to customize their characters in terms
of skills to fit their play style. Unfortunately, once a specific class build is determined
to be tougher than other builds, a “cookie cutter” build often becomes predominant
among the players of
that class. While there’s nothing wrong with that concept, it does tend to mean that
each encounter with a specific class generally plays out the same way with the same
spells and talents being used each time.
There is also a broad choice of non-combat or crafting professions to choose from
as a player levels their character offering the player themeans to generate income or
craft their own equipment. Some of the professions offer the ability to craft new items
while others offer the
ability to enhance existing equipment. The more elaborate the recipe, however, the
more time consuming the gathering of the components becomes, another problem
within WoW for the Busy Gamer.
There are several different types of servers for players to choose from when playing
WoW. There are the PvP (Player Versus Player) servers which offer players the
chance to compete amongst themselves in almost every area within the game.
Some players, however, prefer to play on the
PvE (Player Versus Environment) servers to allow themselves to focus on leveling
their characters. There are Roleplaying (RP) servers, where Roleplaying is not only
encouraged but enforced to a small degree, that offer either the PvP or PvE aspects
of the “regular” servers.
The new player will find that class selection and character creation is easy so long
as one takes the time to read the information provided during the process. Some
classes are more difficult to play than others while still others demand more
attention when playing to fully realize their potential. Class selection should be done
carefully by the Busy Gamer. The wrong starting class can make or break this game
even for those with ample time to invest.
There’s a lot to do and see in WoW. Unfortunately for the Busy Gamer, it might just
be too much.
Orcs and humans and gnomes, oh my!
The Short Story:
Blizzard takes a look at the failures and successes of previous MMORPGs and
builds on the good stuff while doing away with a lot of the bad.
The Score:
There’s a lot of “ifs” here that can push the score higher or lower but from the
guidelines we’ve set down here at Busy Gamer, this game scores a 2.
Body of review:
World of Warcraft just happens to be one of my favorite games of all time and with
good reason. Blizzard has built a truly immersive game world within WoW and it’s
the type of place you find yourself exploring and admiring each time you play. The
landscapes are beautiful and
sometimes alien, foregoing realistic landscapes and character models for a more
fantasy feel.
The Busy Gamer will quickly discover that WoW is not the type of game that forgives a
full schedule. Leveling, while not completely painful, is time consuming as is the
gathering of equipment and items. Players who can’t devote 10-15 hours a week will
find themselves quickly
falling behind their friends in terms of levels and power. Those with time to spare
and a decent understanding of the game can become powerhouses in very short
order.
The talent system is robust and allows players to customize their characters in terms
of skills to fit their play style. Unfortunately, once a specific class build is determined
to be tougher than other builds, a “cookie cutter” build often becomes predominant
among the players of
that class. While there’s nothing wrong with that concept, it does tend to mean that
each encounter with a specific class generally plays out the same way with the same
spells and talents being used each time.
There is also a broad choice of non-combat or crafting professions to choose from
as a player levels their character offering the player themeans to generate income or
craft their own equipment. Some of the professions offer the ability to craft new items
while others offer the
ability to enhance existing equipment. The more elaborate the recipe, however, the
more time consuming the gathering of the components becomes, another problem
within WoW for the Busy Gamer.
There are several different types of servers for players to choose from when playing
WoW. There are the PvP (Player Versus Player) servers which offer players the
chance to compete amongst themselves in almost every area within the game.
Some players, however, prefer to play on the
PvE (Player Versus Environment) servers to allow themselves to focus on leveling
their characters. There are Roleplaying (RP) servers, where Roleplaying is not only
encouraged but enforced to a small degree, that offer either the PvP or PvE aspects
of the “regular” servers.
The new player will find that class selection and character creation is easy so long
as one takes the time to read the information provided during the process. Some
classes are more difficult to play than others while still others demand more
attention when playing to fully realize their potential. Class selection should be done
carefully by the Busy Gamer. The wrong starting class can make or break this game
even for those with ample time to invest.
There’s a lot to do and see in WoW. Unfortunately for the Busy Gamer, it might just
be too much.
BusyGamer Rating
WORLD OF WARCRAFT
PLATFORM : PC
COMPANY: BLIZZARD
REVIEWER: Grits Review Main
