World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Review

Ok so you’re the 800 pound MMOG Gorilla on the block and you have nearly 9 million subscribers. With that kind of success, is it even possible to make your MMO game better?

Yup. Welcome to World of Warcraft The Burning Crusade

How does an MMOG like WoW Get Better?

WoW has improved itself on quite a few fronts and all of them for the benefit of you the player. First off, for all of you players who felt like you’ve been stuck at level 60 forever and are dead tired of farming reputation, the wait is over. TBC brings the level cap up to 70 and just so that you don’t have to go over the same playing ground again, a whole new world is available to earn those levels in. The shattered remnants of the orc’s home world of Draenor await players as a new realm called Outland. Here, the war against the Burning Legion continues with a new enemy to contend with; the forces of the demonic night elf Illidan Stormrage. Told in typical Blizzard fashion, the tragic and grim tales are balanced by the in game humor that WoW is famous for. Players will get a good look at Azeroth’s past, the new forces entering the war, and a taste of what’s coming.

The new expansion features little in the way graphical enhancements and effects but they are just enough to give the right effect to the new lands without taxing your video card. Outland is a patchwork of unique landscapes and all of them are nice to goggle at. Some are blasted landscapes scarred from the explosion that shattered the world or have been destroyed through the acts of war. Others are lush forests and rolling plains with waterfalls that run from jagged islands floating in the sky. Some are outright bizarre and menacing featuring huge jagged spines of rock or a splinter of tiny islands floating precariously in a dimensional nether. Players level 60 and above have all of this new land to explore with new content, dungeons and raids to explore on their way to 70. In case that’s not enough, some areas on Azeroth have opened up for players to explore, such as Medivh’s tower and the Caves of Time which opens up a new avenue for WoW players to explore; Azeroth’s past.

In addition to the new lands and level cap increase, there are increases in class talents, abilities, earnable reputations, spells and crafting recipes. Veteran players will have their hands full with things to do with TBC, including earning enough gold to purchase the new flying mounts available to players in Outland. You will need a LOT of gold so start saving veterans!

For those of you new to WoW or existing players looking to try something new, two new player races are available. The first is the dimensional traveling Draeni who now join the Alliance in their fight against the Burning Legion. The other is a race that turned from the Alliance to join the Horde; the magic addicted Blood Elves. Each of the new races has their own special abilities, starting areas, and introductory content to give players the back story of the races. Along with these new races comes a new profession called Jewelcrafting that allows players to imbed gems on special items via sockets to add special bonuses.

Just to mix things up a bit, TBC has now made two classes, once exclusive to a particular side, available to either. The new blood elves can be Paladins and the Dranei can be Shamans. No longer are Shamans Horde only nor Paladins just Alliance, so on your next battlefield romp or PvP battle, adjust your strategies accordingly. Did I mention that TBC sports a new Battleground and an Arena to get your bloodletting on?

Players coming to TBC will not be disappointed. The depth of the expansion pack is amazing, guaranteed to please both casual and hardcore players. While it’s not as big at the original, the scope is large enough to keep players just as busy with the fun waiting for them.

It Can’t Be All That Great

I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of you at this point are thinking this review is nothing more than a fanboy glorification. In case you’re one of those few, fear not. I do have some negative comments on TBC.

First off, I find TBC to be unbalanced when compared to the original content of WoW. The experience gains in TBC are twice, if not three times the amount when compared to the quest lines in WoW. While its nice to see decent rewards for even Fed Ex quests, you can’t help but wonder just how skewed the curve is. I remember clearly the devs at Blizzard saying that in order to level to 70 it would take players the amount of time it took them to get to level 60. I didn’t know a player could level their character to 60 in three days because within three days of release there were level 70’s walking around(So I guess I could get from 0 to 70 in six days then?). Granted this feat was probably pulled off by people playing non stop with massive help along the way. Still should it even be possible in that time frame?

It doesn’t stop there however. The gear one can get in TBC is an order of magnitude higher than anything you can get in the original WoW. Remember those epic gears drops back in Azeroth you managed to get after going through Scholomance or Black Rock Spire for the umpteenth time? Well they’re pretty much useless since a standard gear drop from level a 60 or 61 mob is better than that outfit you spent weeks farming for. Not only is the gear powerful, but it’s also limited in the scope of the benefits. Either it’s oriented towards magic types by increasing healing/spell damage with magic related stat bonuses or it’s slanted toward fighter types by increasing attack power/critical chance with melee oriented buffs.

Sure you can make the argument that it should be that way since that’s how the classes in WoW are. What I’m harping about is that the gear is limited in its benefit variety. I get the impression that the developers were trying to save on time and just cloned gear benefits for the drops and such. For the most part it’s either ‘This’ or ‘That’ with variety being in the scope of power for the items. I haven’t seen one TBC item yet as a drop or a quest reward that can trigger a spell effect of some sort. I find that it takes away that special something, or ‘magic’ that a magic item offers. After picking up your tenth ‘increases spell damage and healing by X’ item you’ll understand where I’m coming from.

The Bottom Line

Bottom line is , TBC is an excellent expansion and keeps the game play going that made WoW the success it is. If you play WoW, you need to get this expansion. Not getting it is like the old adage ‘Don’t cut your nose off to spite your face’; you’ll just lose and miss out. The Burning Crusade is not to be missed.

Score: 4/5

 

 

Darke