World of Warcraft Review
World of Warcraft is a very good MMORPG, but it’s still a MMORPG. If these games have not held your interest in the past, World of Warcraft might keep you playing for a little bit longer than usual, but in the end you’ll probably feel the same way about it. You still need to invest a considerable amount of time to build a powerful character and must make your way through countless battles in order to try and build up your experience. And as with all open-ended games, many players will eventually tire of continually playing the same game - and one that will never reach a conclusion at that.
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| A party poses for a portrait. |
World of Warcraft is not without a few flaws, the most notable of which at the time of this writing is lag. Blizzard did not anticipate the scale of the interest the game would generate and the infrastructure was not prepared to handle the load. The initial problem of crashing servers is now a lot rarer, but you can still be affected by lag during prime playing times. This can be particularly annoying during battles, as the game may pause briefly and then hit you all at once with several queued up attacks. To their credit Blizzard is working hard to add more servers and improve performance, but as of now some of these problems still persist. Those of you interested in the game’s player versus player support will be disappointed to find that it does not seem to be fully fleshed out in the game. Currently players can choose to duel each other, but battles between the human alliance and the evil horde are not really there yet. If the game ever does provide a way for players to fight the battles of Warcraft III as individual participants, it would take World of Warcraft to a whole new level. Lastly, on a more minor note I wish that there was a greater degree of leeway in creating your character’s look. As it stands now it is possible to run into your twin in the game on occasion.
There is far too much in the game for me to cover everything in a review and reasonably expect anyone to read it through to the end. There’s a well-implemented crafting system, support for parties and groups, elite quests, and on and on. If you’re looking to get into a MMORPG or have grown tired with your current one, then suffice it to say that World of Warcraft is an excellent choice as they don’t come any better than this.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 92%. World of Warcraft sets the standard by which all future MMORPGs will be judged.
System Requirements: Pentium III 800; 256 MB RAM; 32 MB
Video RAM; x CD-ROM; 4.0 GB Hard Drive
Space; Mouse.
