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Review

World of Warcraft

9.5

Format PC

Developer Blizzard Entertainment

Publisher Vivendi

Genre Role Playing

24-Feb-2005

There's nothing more dangerous than peaceful woodlands. They lull you into a false sense of security. It can be so easy to just wander along without a care in the world. Then, just when you're stopping to admire the sunset, a giant Taurean warrior rises up behind you, steam billowing off its shaggy hide and nostrils flaring like the gates of hell itself.

You could try and make a break for it. You could run, maybe try to get to Alliance territory and seek help. But by the looks of that wickedly sharp axe he's toting, you wouldn't get far. Especially without a head. Besides, the weapon is already arcing its way down, preparing to cleave through muscle and sinew as if they were water. You don't stand a chance really, and before long you're looking at the sky wondering why you never saw it coming.

When you enter the spirit-world of lights and shadows, you immediately head for the site of your recent demise, your ghostly form gliding across the ethereal landscape. When you reach your prone, lifeless body, you see that the Taurean is still standing nearby. Waiting, just waiting: waiting for you to resurrect
so he can begin again. Dirty... Rotten... Camper!

But he's made one error in judgement. His back is to you and you never, ever, turn your back on a rogue, even if it's dead. You resurrect close by to some bushes and immediately stealth yourself, sinking back into the foliage to gain your strength and chuck a few potions down your throat. And then you wait.

With your daggers at the ready - twin harbingers of sharp and pointy death - you sneak up behind the warrior and execute a lethal ambush manoeuvre, driving your daggers through his skin and deep, deep into the flesh beneath.

You're visible to the Taurean now, but that won't do him much good. You dance around him, daggers flashing, repeatedly hitting him with your sinister strike and gouging the bovine meat from his bones. You barely notice his axe blows as you hit him with your last and final move, Eviscerate; the roguish kiss of death. He slumps to the ground, and his nostrils flare for the last time. Cow pie all round! You stand over his corpse, gloating over your sweet victory. Perhaps you might just stick around.

All Aboard
And it happened just like that. Honest. Along with thousands of other battles aboard the good ship World Of Warcraft as it makes the franchise transition from the relatively calm waters of strategy gaming into the big bad seas of MMORPGs.

It's certainly been a long voyage. Warcraft itself is ten years old. Can you really believe it's been ten years since we first heard "Ooohhkay Den" from the mouths of pixellated orcish peons? But make no mistake - Blizzard is not taking any chances with its great white hope that's sprung forth from the bastard love child of Dune 2 addicts and overactive GMers.

As a result, what Blizzard's done with World Of Warcraft is incredibly slick, with high production values and more importantly, it's tremendously good fun. Visually it might not be quite up there with EQII, but it has a style all of its own that just screams 'Warcraft!' at every turn.

All Aboard
If you're reading this, chances are you have a fair idea of the origins of Warcraft and the ancient battle between the Alliance and the Horde. If not, then stop right now and go and get yourself the last three games. You won't regret it. In essence, World Of Warcraft represents the very literal translation of this world into
a 3D environment. Only this time, you're the peon and you won't be saying "Ooohhkay Den" to anybody.

Although I've played on both the Player vs Player and Player vs Environment servers, I'll be referencing the former a lot more than the latter. This is because for one, the Horde vs Alliance battle is something intrinsic to the Warcraft universe - and also because it's a feature that EverQuest II doesn't offer.

So on that note, perhaps the first minor disappointment you're going to find with WOW is you can't play both sides of the fence. You're limited to one character per server, meaning it's Alliance or Horde, but not both. Daddy or chips.

What more than makes up for this though, is that Blizzard has made sure that the eight races in the game (Human, Night Elf, Gnome, Dwarf, Undead, Taurean, Troll and Orc) and their available classes do play noticeably differently. Using
the brute strength of an orc warrior and playing a rogue night elf that fights by harnessing a series of combo moves are worlds apart. Likewise, learning to play with a pet by your side as a hunter or warlock is an art in itself.

Each race also comes with its own innate traits. Gnomes have an intellect bonus, while night elves turn into wisps when they die, allowing them to move 50 per cent faster. So even if you're going to have to make that 'daddy or chips' decision, there's definitely a lot to love whichever side you opt for.

Easy Life
So your first experiences of WOW are about firm choices. But once you've selected your race and profession, Blizzard has limited the number of times you have to make decisions that you can't go back on. Yes, there is a certain amount of choice when it comes to the skills you can buy from the relevant class trainers, but given enough coin you can buy everything if you want to. Even your talents, the skill-tree-based class abilities, can be rearranged if you're not happy with them.

There's no statistic-juggling in WOW either, so when you level up, all those annoying 'now do I put two in strength and one in agility or...' thoughts are taken care of for you. And you know what? You really don't miss it.

For this reason, WOW is likely to attract a large number of new MMORPG players, something Blizzard has always been keen to do. Consequently, there's much less time spent worrying about doing things right and more time spent enjoying yourself. This is aided further with an easy-to-use interface and fight system. And because the game is so accessible, it can really make hardcorers out of anyone. Then, before you know it you're sporting a guild tabard and making jokes about the sex lives of gnomes.

Sliding neatly in beside your main class abilities are hands-on professions, including things like blacksmithing, mining, enchanting and leatherwork. You can only adopt two at a time, but like many things in WOW, it's possible to change them.

These work brilliantly on a number of levels. First, because the majority of professions are useful straight away, they can greatly aid the development of your character. They're also important in creating strong guilds or aiding your party. Lastly, they're essential for bringing in the money, and believe me that's something you need a lot of. So suddenly, your character is more than the sum of their hit-points and the game isn't just about the relentless pursuit of the kill. It's not what you've got it's what you do with it that counts.

War Is Glorious
Personally, I feel that Blizzard's use of PvP is going to be the defining factor if you're making a choice between WOW and EQII. It's so cleverly designed that the Horde vs Alliance war isn't all-consuming or detrimental to the gameplay if you're after an easy life. In fact, there are even some towns in WOW where Horde
and Alliance co-exist in an uneasy peace. Still, there's really no feeling like gathering up a posse to raid an enemy territory, then legging it back to town because you've got to defend your homelands, or even a one-to-one face-off.

PvP also makes for an interesting microcosm of human behaviour, a window on your virtual soul. You get to see what you're really like. Will you, as a member of the Alliance, kill a Horde as soon as look at them? Or will you pass on by or help them out? Are you going to walk round the corner and be faced by an enemy who'll stab you in the back while you're fighting, or one who'll attempt an emoticon flirtation session boarding on Victorian levels of coquettishness? You never know just quite what to expect.

Blizzard has done what every MMORPG should be trying to do - it's ticked all the right boxes and really tried to forge the link between the heart and the head in a hugely immersive virtual space. This is what creates the stories in your imagination. These aren't just battles, they're adventures. Now that's what role-playing should be all about. The battle lines are firmly drawn with EverQuest II - now it's up to you to fight the war.

PC Zone staff

Overview

Verdict

This is the future

Uppers

Wonderful design throughout

Great sense of atmosphere

Easily accessible by all

Tremendous fun

Downers

Can't play as both Horde and Alliance on PvP severs

Bye bye life

Screenshots

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Death Becomes Her

WOW certainly has one of the most lenient death penalty systems. Rather than losing experience points, you get the option of ghosting it to your corpse and losing nothing or resurrecting at a nearby graveyard. The second option comes with an item deterioration penalty and resurrection sickness which severely knocks down your stats for anything up to and over
ten minutes, depending on your level. Since it's pretty easy to die, especially during low-to-middle levels, a gentler system seems appropriate. Besides, being effectively consigned to the sidelines for ten minutes is annoying enough, without knowing you're going to have to kill a small army of monsters just to get your XP back.

This fine lady will resurrect you.

Missed Opportunity

OK so it's a very small thing, but one of the things I loved about Shadowbane was the fact that some characters had the ability to fly and attack while in flight. You can fly through the air in WOW
on gryphons and the like, but you can't actually take to the skies yourself, which seems like an obvious thing to do when you've specifically designed your game to be seen from above as well as on the ground. However, the developer has got so much right that I'm fully prepared to wait a little while longer for my first take-off.

One way to beat traffic jams.

Wowbay

One of the most innovative features of WOW, and one which works so well you wonder why it hasn't become a MMORPG standard long ago, is the in-game postal and auction systems. Not only can you post money and items to other characters, but when you buy and sell items through the game's auction houses, the transactions are automatically done through the postal service. If you're outbid you get your money back, if you win then the item is sent to you and the same goes for any profit you make. Plus, you also get in-game alerts about the progress of your auctions. Simple, but it works like a dream.