World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Review

By Ned Jordan

There have been two other expansions for World of Warcraft before Cataclysm, but neither of those previous releases have been as game-changing as this one. There have been new zones, new professions, level cap increases, and even new races added before, but never all at once, and never with extensive changes to the existing world. The “cataclysm” in Cataclysm is the arrival of the dragon Deathwing from Deepholm, the domain of earth in the Elemental Plane. His appearance in Azeroth has torn the world asunder, reshaping the lands long familiar to World of Warcraft players. Many of the zones have been deeply scarred, burned, or flooded, some familiar sites are now destroyed and nearly unrecognizable, and elemental creatures have spilled forth from the planes everywhere. If you have a high-level character and it’s been ages since you’ve been back to some of the lower level zones they’re worth revisiting just to see how much things have changed since you’ve last visited them. Besides, it will also give you an excuse to try out your new flying mount, which as of this expansion are now available across Azeroth. And if you can’t afford one of those yet, there are a number of new flight paths to take advantage of on your world tour.

While the lands now look both familiar and alien, the remaking of the landscape is in many ways a godsend to anyone itching to start a new character with one of the expansion’s new races: the Worgen (Alliance) and Goblins (Horde). The reason goes beyond just a bit of a change of scenery – there are plenty of new quests and quest lines tied to the aftermath of Deathwing’s arrival at all levels. Starting a new character doesn’t mean replaying the same quest lines all over again on what for many players will be their third, fourth, or higher character. Those with their sites firmly set on taking their new toon all the way to the new level cap of 85 will be pleased to find that level progression has been significantly sped up with the launch of Cataclysm. Anyone who’s taken a character to the level cap before will be surprised at how quickly they can now churn through character levels, especially if they leveled a character to the cap in the game’s early days. On the downside, you’ll level out of zones long before you complete all of their quests so if you’re not willing to grind out extra quests for minimal reward you’re going to miss out on some of the game’s story. Also, getting the zone achievements for completing the requisite number of quests in each zone becomes more of a grind than something you just knock off along the way, and it can be hard to track down that last quest or two you need when they are too low level to show up on the mini map anymore.

To help support faster leveling, especially with the influx of new characters that inevitably accompany the introduction of new races, spawn rates have been increased for a lot of the chokepoint quests. While this certainly helps prevent issues with mobs of players standing around waiting to pounce on each newly spawned enemy, when you’re on your own it can make things tricky for you once you’ve culled your requisite number of enemies. This is especially an issue when you have multiple quests in the same area, but can’t concentrate on the other quests because you’re stuck in one battle after another as enemies constantly spawn around you.

Even if you don’t intend to take a new character all of the way through to 85, it’s worth it to start a character in each of the new races and play them through the starting zones. The heavily-scripted starting areas are a lot of fun to make your way through, and the story-telling along the way is vintage Blizzard at the top of its game. The Worgen are humans living with the curse of lycanthropy (i.e. they’re werewolves) and their clothing, accents, and architecture all evoke thoughts of Victorian England. The Goblins and their mad tinkerer, explosives-obsessed society will already be at least familiar to World of Warcraft veterans. Neither of the new races really bring anything new to the table in terms of gameplay, although their contribution to the diversity of races in the game is welcome.

You don’t need to start a new character to take advantage of the game’s new profession, archaeology. Archaeology is a secondary profession like fishing and cooking, and any character can pick it up at any time by visiting an archaeology trainer. Being an archaeologist in Azeroth is a pretty time-consuming endeavor. You begin by looking for designated areas in zones that are marked as dig sites – and if you have a high level character taking on this profession, that means you’ll have to spend a considerable amount of time in low-level zones trying to build-up your skill in the profession. Once you’re within a designated dig area, you begin looking for artifacts by dropping down an artifact detector. The detector will point in the direction of the nearest artifact and a light will indicate the distance to the artifact – red means it’s far away, yellow indicates that you’re getting closer, and green means that you’re on top of or very near to the artifact’s location. Once you have the location pegged, you can begin digging and with any luck you’ll collect an artifact. Artifacts in their just-dug-up form aren’t really much use – you’ll need to return to a city to find an archaeology trainer to craft your collected pieces into something that you can use. For all of your efforts you’ll end up with something like a pet, mount, or other item, which are all kind of cool but will make you wonder if it was worth all the effort in the end.

Another new addition to the game certainly makes it worth the effort to find a good and active guild if you’re not in one already. Guilds now accumulate experience as their members do so, and each new level a guild reaches earns it a reward in the form of a bonus shared by all members. Since these rewards include things like experience bonuses and travel speed boosts, they make guild membership valuable even if you’re not interested in raids.

Those with characters already at 80 and no interest in starting a new character will not get as much out of the overall experience of this expansion as those making their way up from the bottom. The new high-level zones are impressive, but there are only five new levels to gain and players can go from 80 to 85 in relatively short order. Three new raids add additional variety to the endgame, but then again, there are only three new raids to experience. It’s not that high-level players have been left out in the cold by this expansion, but by far most of the effort that has gone into it will be experience by those starting new characters.

Overall, Cataclysm is like a fresh breeze blowing across Azerotth. It’s packed with new content that allows players, primarily those starting new characters, to experience the game again in a new light that is at once familiar and something new to discover.

Final Rating: 92%. Just when you think you’re out, they bring you back in.