Welcome to World Zero - Reviews for the hardcore gamer

Massively Multiplayer Role Playing Games are the epitome of immersing a gamer into a fantastical world and another life altogether. Unfortunately, World of Warcraft doesn’t do the best job at drawing the player into its own incredibly thought-out world, especially considering how well Blizzard mastered the act of immersing the player in their past games. Is it possible that the series was just not meant to take the leap to a new genre? I strongly doubt that is the case. No other series is more fitting for such a progression, especially an extension into the realm of role playing; it simply seems like the right direction for Warcraft. The problem with World of Warcraft is it doesn’t really fall in line with Blizzard’s characteristically outstanding track record.

For a game that initially tried to set itself apart from the crowd, World of Warcraft fails to innovate within the MMORPG genre on many levels, and regrettably, combat is one of them. World of Warcraft is your typical click and sit back affair, where you choose to engage in combat and your character continues to fight until you decide to point him away. Skills and spells help alleviate the tedium of the game’s combat engine quite a bit, as there is at least some interaction when in combat. However, using such abilities only consists of clicking a single button on your heads-up-display or clicking said button and then a target. Sound familiar? It should. World of Warcraft’s combat is essentially the same system you saw implemented in its real time strategy installments.

World of Warcraft’s quest system is in stark contrast to its own combat mechanics. While combat in WoW is borderline MMORPG textbook, it should be noted that questing is far and away the best in the genre, both in sheer number as well as originality and variety. Questing is not completely flawless, however. In order to complete a good portion of the game's quests, you have to go through the game’s tedious “hide and seek” aspect, trying to locate that single NPC, hidden somewhere amongst the sprawling cities (or worse yet, wondering around outside of them) that gave you the quest in the first place. In certain areas, the chat log will often be filled with questions on where to find a certain NPC or location, and for good reason. Your quest log generally points you in the right direction to begin your quest, but does little to inform you of where to return for your reward, generally offering only the name of which NPC to revisit, occasionally making the joy that is questing an exercise is frustration.

One major aspect that World of Warcraft absolutely nails, however, is that it’s far less laborious than other MMORPGs. The learning curve is generally nowhere near as steep as in other games of the genre. In addition, the game implements a “resting” system that allows your character to gain experience more rapidly when the game is played less often. Despite this, WoW doesn’t seem to really get set into motion until you hit level ten, when you finally get access to your skill tree (referred to as Talents in WoW). Once you do, the game actually opens up to allow you to become much more creative in terms of character development. This unfortunately has a major negative aspect attached to it; you only have a mere fifty levels to make use of your Talent building, as you only progress to a relatively low level cap of 60.

The biggest problem I have with WoW, overshadowing what could be considered minor complaints in the overall scheme of things, is that the game fails to immerse you at nearly every chance it gets. The environment itself feels utterly empty and lifeless, for the most part consisting of vacant, repetitive locations, void of anything of interest. The joy of adventuring and exploration is almost non-existent in a world in which there is virtually nothing to discover. You can venture to new, diverse areas where a lush forest will suddenly shift to a snow-capped mountainous region, but within said areas, there is very little to distinguish one locale from the next. World of Warcraft seems to mask this by offering the player an experience point bonus whenever they step foot onto a new location. One thing this doesn’t mask is that the game world feels downright comatose and the NPCs do little to convince you otherwise. Few have any dialog whatsoever, while most don’t even possess the ability to move. Off the beaten path between two towns, I found myself adventuring in the middle of a seemingly unoccupied forest. Suddenly, I stumble upon a small cottage. Inside were two women, both of which were job trainers with no dialog. Upstairs, I found a room with five children, none of which you could interact with, let alone speak to, and sadly, all of them were facing the wall with no ability to even walk around the room. Nothing within the house, sans the job trainers, was interactive in the least. This is especially damning in a genre where immersion into a game world is absolutely necessary.

Despite some of my initial complaints, World of Warcraft actually has a lot going for it. The original aesthetic qualities inherent in the Warcraft universe are portrayed just as well here as they have been in the past. The game world is absolutely massive and transitioning from one side to the other results in not a single loading screen. The entire world is virtually seamless, which is incredibly impressive. Impressive, as well, is the elimination of many aspects that generally plague other MMORPGs. Grinding is minimized and there is very little downtime, apart from the intentional death hiatus. The classes, for the most part, come off as very balanced. Soloing or group play is entirely optional for a good portion of the game, and there is an insane amount of content. Negative aspects aside, if you are a Warcraft fanatic, there is still plenty of potential to get excited about here.

In the end, Blizzard seized the opportunity to take the wonderfully creative world of the Warcraft universe and expand upon it in a direction that seemed so fitting for such a long time. My biggest issue with the game is that Blizzard, being the innovator that they are, chose to emulate the established generic formulas of what other MMORPGs had already laid down before them. Had the game world been a more immersive and atmospheric one, the game’s generic approach would have been much easier to accept. Unfortunately, the game does a better job of reminding the player that they are simply playing a game and not experiencing this fantastical world firsthand, and ultimately ends up distancing the player from the entire experience altogether.

That’s not to say the game is a failure, not by any stretch of the imagination; World of Warcraft is actually quite good from an objective standpoint. There’s a great amount of polish and craft executed throughout. That said, because of WoW’s casual-friendly approach, it is the perfect starting point for those new to the MMORPG genre. It’s easy, it’s forgiving, it’s casual. For better or for worse.

Rating	The rating scale in detail
6.9	- The character models are extremely sub-par, considering the very high bar that Lineage 2 set within the genre. - Many of the in-game textures are mediocre at best. + The game's overly-bright light bloom looks good and gives the game a nice ambiance.
8.0	- An extremely modest amount of in-game music and an even smaller quantity of in-game dialog... ++ ...But what little you do hear is very well done.
7.0	-- Simply copies the MMO industry standard. Ironic, coming from a company that has been copied so excessively in the past. ++ The game mechanics are implemented pretty seamlessly, despite their inability to offer the player something new or something interesting.
8.0	+ The expected Warcraft style returns. ++ The presentation is epic. - The series’ traditional humor and nuances are less abundant than in past Warcraft games.
9.0	++ An absolutely massive and time consuming world is here at your fingertips. + A nice amount of character classes and races to chose from. - The game’s inability to captivate the player prevents the game from being as engrossing as it should have been.
7.9	A great starting point for those new to the genre, but seasoned vets might find the game lacking.