Wrath of the Lich King review
Its never fair to make a review on an MMO until one has reached the peak of end game content. But for once I want to make a quick acception.
I'm going to make this brief, also.
WotLK is a stunning return to Northrend from Warcraft III, and a stunning return to what made the game great in the first place. Superb story telling, exciting dungeons, great, beautiful, and new landscape, world pvp, and new game mechanics make you wonder how the game was alive before all this.
The soundtrack is BURSTING with great new songs from Blizzard, all of which captivate the area you're in and set the mood intensely well. Also to note, the songs are a very far jump from what you may be used to from Burning Crusade. BC's soundtrack had some nice parts but over all was lack luster for the general "epic" content that was delivered. The soundtrack for WotLK leaves no ear unturned where is comes in as one of the best soundtracks I've ever owned. Oh did I mention? The re-did the tavern music. Its great!
The new vechical mechanic is a fresh new idea for the game in which it also changes the default UI to something more than replacing your icons with new skills. Other than that, anything I saw would spoil it for you.
While I've only done a handfull of the instances WotLK has to offer they're not so much innovative as immersive. More so, as a tank I've never needed more than 1cc, ontop of that, I've never actually NEEDED cc, it was just there and I said "Sure why not?" . Bosses also take a turn for the better as each seems to have its own special trick, while not difficult to master or learn, its always interesting to deal with. Specially since some also have more than one available strat to line yourself up with. Its a nice change of pace.
The world is FANTASTIC and while I've only seen Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, and Sholazar Basin ( I was more chased in there by a paladin than anything) Every place has alot going on, alot to do as well. With the new graphics update spells, buildings and animations just look so much better. Its like re-entering the world you've known and loved (or hated). While most classes won't see 4 or 6 new skills to their spell books the new talents and animation update from 3.0 sure take their toll here in Northrend. Looks fantastic.
I have not been to Wintergrasp (The new world pvp location) but my three friends who have run a muck in there tell me it'll blow you away. Wish I could say more on it.
Most of us saw Northrend as "How many Kill x and loot y quests are there going to be THIS TIME!?" I'll let you know there are quite a handful, but they really don't seem NEARLY as mundane anymore. Yes if you're questing out you can stumble across one or two very blatant "Hey, kill it and come back" without any real premise as per WHY, or they don't attempt to make you care. I've personally only encountered 3 times where this was the case, and I've done every quest in the Borean Tundra and only have 20 or so left in Dragonblight. The small areas that used to be boring quest hubs now seem much more interesting. Almost every quest has something to do with a "Greater cause" and personally I'm still awestruck from the last chain I did at the Forgotten Shore. (Small spoiler!) A dwarf from the Argent of Dawn wants you to go to the Forgotten Shore and find out why there are lost souls there and what they're doing. It turns out that these are the men that served under Arthas before turned into.. you know. You talk to several of the ghosts and its seriously almost heart breaking to hear them talk about their homes and how much they just want to be with their families, AND THEY DONT EVEN KNOW THEY'RE DEAD! The end of the chain involves you going to the shore and revealing to them that Arthas ordered their ships burned and had them killed.
I dont remember a whole lot of quests like that in BC, do you?
I think thats about enough. WotLK has more than my endorsement, if you're an avid WoW fan and "miss the old days" this'll have you back in a matter of minutes. You only need to be 68 to come to Northrend, there is virtually no gear gap, and you'll pick up shit that'll make your jaw drop right away (Unless you're strapped with T5/6, BECAUSE QUEST ITEMS ARE FOR SCRUBS). They've also lowered the xp from 60~70. I was a DK yesterday (whos story thing was just.. FUCK YEAH) and I went from 58 to 62 in one night of mindlessly playing and watching tv.
If you need a reason to come back, now you have one.
-Kikwer, 73 Prot warrior.
I'm going to make this brief, also.
WotLK is a stunning return to Northrend from Warcraft III, and a stunning return to what made the game great in the first place. Superb story telling, exciting dungeons, great, beautiful, and new landscape, world pvp, and new game mechanics make you wonder how the game was alive before all this.
The soundtrack is BURSTING with great new songs from Blizzard, all of which captivate the area you're in and set the mood intensely well. Also to note, the songs are a very far jump from what you may be used to from Burning Crusade. BC's soundtrack had some nice parts but over all was lack luster for the general "epic" content that was delivered. The soundtrack for WotLK leaves no ear unturned where is comes in as one of the best soundtracks I've ever owned. Oh did I mention? The re-did the tavern music. Its great!
The new vechical mechanic is a fresh new idea for the game in which it also changes the default UI to something more than replacing your icons with new skills. Other than that, anything I saw would spoil it for you.
While I've only done a handfull of the instances WotLK has to offer they're not so much innovative as immersive. More so, as a tank I've never needed more than 1cc, ontop of that, I've never actually NEEDED cc, it was just there and I said "Sure why not?" . Bosses also take a turn for the better as each seems to have its own special trick, while not difficult to master or learn, its always interesting to deal with. Specially since some also have more than one available strat to line yourself up with. Its a nice change of pace.
The world is FANTASTIC and while I've only seen Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, and Sholazar Basin ( I was more chased in there by a paladin than anything) Every place has alot going on, alot to do as well. With the new graphics update spells, buildings and animations just look so much better. Its like re-entering the world you've known and loved (or hated). While most classes won't see 4 or 6 new skills to their spell books the new talents and animation update from 3.0 sure take their toll here in Northrend. Looks fantastic.
I have not been to Wintergrasp (The new world pvp location) but my three friends who have run a muck in there tell me it'll blow you away. Wish I could say more on it.
Most of us saw Northrend as "How many Kill x and loot y quests are there going to be THIS TIME!?" I'll let you know there are quite a handful, but they really don't seem NEARLY as mundane anymore. Yes if you're questing out you can stumble across one or two very blatant "Hey, kill it and come back" without any real premise as per WHY, or they don't attempt to make you care. I've personally only encountered 3 times where this was the case, and I've done every quest in the Borean Tundra and only have 20 or so left in Dragonblight. The small areas that used to be boring quest hubs now seem much more interesting. Almost every quest has something to do with a "Greater cause" and personally I'm still awestruck from the last chain I did at the Forgotten Shore. (Small spoiler!) A dwarf from the Argent of Dawn wants you to go to the Forgotten Shore and find out why there are lost souls there and what they're doing. It turns out that these are the men that served under Arthas before turned into.. you know. You talk to several of the ghosts and its seriously almost heart breaking to hear them talk about their homes and how much they just want to be with their families, AND THEY DONT EVEN KNOW THEY'RE DEAD! The end of the chain involves you going to the shore and revealing to them that Arthas ordered their ships burned and had them killed.
I dont remember a whole lot of quests like that in BC, do you?
I think thats about enough. WotLK has more than my endorsement, if you're an avid WoW fan and "miss the old days" this'll have you back in a matter of minutes. You only need to be 68 to come to Northrend, there is virtually no gear gap, and you'll pick up shit that'll make your jaw drop right away (Unless you're strapped with T5/6, BECAUSE QUEST ITEMS ARE FOR SCRUBS). They've also lowered the xp from 60~70. I was a DK yesterday (whos story thing was just.. FUCK YEAH) and I went from 58 to 62 in one night of mindlessly playing and watching tv.
If you need a reason to come back, now you have one.
-Kikwer, 73 Prot warrior.