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World of Warcraft Review: Cataclysm Review - Edit
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| Pros |
 Easier for new players & alts to get to end game Great value Races Revamped some tired zones Speccing made easier Underwater areas |
| Cons |
 Archaeology not as good as it could be Easier to get to end game (pro for some) No new classes |
Destroying Azeroth
At Blizzcon 2009, fans were treated to a sneak peak at the next expansion for World of Warcraft. Cataclysm would change the game forever, taking the old world that players had gotten used to and after six years of Warcraft, the world was destroyed. The cinematic was all over the place even making it into a commercial during an NFL broadcast. With all the hype, let's start the review of Cataclysm by looking at what Blizzard has done to the world of Azeroth.
Old zones and areas on both of the continents of Kalimdor and the East Kingdoms were changed. The WoW team changed how quests and leveling worked and made it much easier for players to find their way around the zones. Players who now wanted to level up new characters could do so much more quickly than the old days of 2004 and 2005. Of all the zones that changed, the most extreme was a place called Thousand Needles. Thousand Needles is a rocky desert zone which offers some questing and leveling opportunities in the thirties level range. Now the zone has been completely flooded and redone. This is the best example of the extremes that Cataclysm has bought to the old World of Warcraft. The re-imagining of zones is a plus and gives the old environments a new twist. Also the quest hubs and work the team has done in making the areas much easier to level through has helped a lot with the pacing of the game. Overall Blizzard has done an excellent job in this aspect of the game, new players or veterans leveling up new characters will be happy.
Goblin & Worgen
The two new classes added to the game are always a plus. The Goblins joining the Horde has given us the equivalent of the Gnomes which taunted us from the other side for years. Players can now create an equally small and annoying character to harass the other side.
In playing a Goblin, there was much more than an annoying small green guy created to taunt the enemy. The design is strong for what the race is and the options give the player some fun with character creation. The class options are many and the template is there to build a full character with a lot of depth. The Goblin starting zone is also great fun with a steampunk car and lots of mini games to keep you occupied. Despite some serious doubts when the Goblins were announced, they have proven to be fun and a welcome addition to the Horde.
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The Worgen give the Alliance something they have needed for a long time, a more sinister race. As Warcraft continued to blur the lines between good and evil races, the additions they have made give the player an appealing race no matter which faction they play. Years ago there was talk that the female races for the Horde were all ugly. Thus the Blood Elves were born. The Alliance did not have a monstrous race and they were given the Draeni. Now two other roles have been filled by the Goblins and Worgen. The Worgen however have a dark past and give the player a rich story line for their character. They also look fantastic and provide a great, meaner looking, race option for someone on the Alliance side.
The one thing missing from the addition of the new races is a new class. The Death Knight from Lich King gave players a great change to the class system and after a while they have woven in nicely to the fold of original Warcraft classes. It is too bad that we did not get a new class with Cataclysm. Instead, Blizzard gave us a lot of class changes and streamlined the talent system so each class can essentially become three. They also broadened the race and class combinations for players. While these additions are helpful, a new class would have been a great addition to the expansion.
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New Zones
Levels 80 to 85 have not changed much in terms of overall Warcraft game play. Pick up quests, go through the zones and level up in the process. The additional zones such as Mt. Hyjal offer some great lore in terms of the Druids regrowth in Azeroth, but there is not a sense of a huge change being added to the game.
The Maelstrom being added offers players the chance to quest underwater and discover lots of new areas to swim through. These zones almost directly mirror something that was done years ago in the game Dark Age of Camelot with their Trials of Atlantis expansion. Characters are now swimming from quest to quest and facing down all types of oceanic foes. The Maelstrom does offer some nice touches with a seahorse mount and all sorts of pirate themed fun. Still, any veteran MMO player cannot help but make the comparison to Trials of Atlantis and the underwater zones that were added to the Dark Age of Camelot. Overall, Blizzard has done a great job of creating the environments and giving players very solid quest chains to explore the new areas.
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Another addition to the new areas is the mini games that Blizzard has added to the zones. Throughout some of the new quest chains there are nice breaks in the grinds of killing endless monsters or picking up under water loot. Two that stand out are the Joust mini game in the fire of Mt. Hyjal. Joust was a popular arcade game in the 1980s and Blizzard has recaptured the fun. The other mini game which made me laugh was the very short but funny Gnaws quest line. Gnaws is a giant shark, you do the math. These types of additions which were tested in Lich King have now become a staple in Cataclysm. Warcraft keeps the game moving well and the mini games are great fun to break the grind of leveling.
Leveling and Guild Leveling
Adding levels 80 to 85 may seem short for players, and honestly it is. The addition of the five new levels plays very quickly and many players are already 85 after only a few weeks from launch. Having levels move faster for the player works very well for Warcraft as the end game has always been popular. Keeping the level curve fast also allows players to level up multiple characters without feeling like they have been left behind from their guild's progression. It is almost as if WoW has hit the reset button on the game.
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Guilds that work together have the benefit of gaining some extra bonuses for all their cooperation. Gone are the days of forty man raids and fights over Ventrilo. Now a team of ten can manage to explore all of the content in the game, something that had been lacking from the original design. Guild leveling has become a staple in MMOs and it was no surprise when Blizzard added the system into Warcraft.
Archaeology and Talents
Archaelogy is an added profession which allows the player to explore the world for artifacts and bones that will eventually lead to making some items, etc. It seems like this was one area that Blizzard fell short in the expansion. Archaeology does have some fun elements to it but overall is not as dynamic as the other content in the expansion. Many of the existing professions are not really dynamic, yet crafting is a staple of any MMO. While Archaeology may unlock some fun options for players it seems to be an afterthought of the expansion, still the skeletal raptor mount you can get looks amazing.
The streamlined talent and ability systems in Cataclysm are probably some of the largest changes to the game for veteran players. While some were upset about hearing the changes when they were announced, it seems like the system has worked in Blizzard's favor. Speccing a character has become much easier and players no longer have to go through guides and gather specific items to reach the ideal set up for their class. With talents easier to spec the game has taken on a more casual feel. Something more and more MMOs have been doing. Warcraft has done this but maintains the hard core feeling for guilds and players that like to go to the extremes. Even though talents are much easier to manage, they still give you plenty of choices to make your character work in any of the choices.
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Overall
Cataclysm has moved Warcraft into the next decade. The game's graphics remain the same, the designs are all still there from the early days, but the new changes give a welcome feeling for players. New players will really enjoy Warcraft if they enter into an MMO for the first time, mostly because the veterans have gone through all the hard knocks to really discover what works and what does not with MMOs. Again, Blizzard has adapted systems and designs that are new necessarily new to the genre, but they have made them better and players will be thankful for it. The changes to the world and new zones add a breath of fresh air to a game that is older than people think. The lack of a new class is still frustrating, but the game continues to remain on top and the changes will only add to its success.
Nice score but i would rate it as an easy 9/10 just for the sheer amount of fun this expansion brings. I am glad i started playing WOW during Cataclysm.
No new classes should actually be a "Pro" and non a "Con"
were you there for the death knight launch? ya know, people still have no respect for this class.
at any rate, I think it deserves a higher rating than an 8. No other MMO or video game for that matter has evolved in the positive direction like WoW has in its 6 years. Im not saying give it a 10, but really just compare this expansion to any other MMO currently and you'll know it deserves a bit more than an 8.
I'm no WOW apologist, and I wasn't even going to play this expansion having burned out on the game long ago. But, Blizzard deserves props for taking their 'phasing' and quest development to a whole new level. The quest strings are now much more story driven and integrated with WOW lore. You can actually see yourself changing the world, so to speak. I can't imagine SW:TOR doing a better job...and, frankly, if they don't do at least as well as Cata has done they will have whiffed at their chance to rock the MMO world.
There is no "World" of Warcraft anymore, just an amusement park with a couple of rides and chat lobby. Phasing is everywhere and chunks of land area are pretty well devoid of anything. Every player is in their own "reality" of the world depending on the quest chains they've done. Other players, mobs, and resources flicker in and out of sight. Imagine a multiverse where the only thing reasonably stable are the NPCs.
Classes, if not broken, are bent to hell and back in the developers' attempts to remake the game into something they can manage more easily. Sounds are missing or incorrectly assigned. Look closely and you can see traces of the other, less successful, games Blizzard used to glean their inspiration from.
From what I've seen, the main group of people who are enthusiastic about this expansion are the ones who have become bored with the old content. Check back in a couple of months and they'll be bored with this too.
I'm having lots of fun running some of my alts through the new old-world content. The new zone, Deepholm is really nice looking as well. I agree with a lot of the negative things that posters have said in this thread, but it's actually nice to be playing an MMORPG again after a long hiatus. I've been watching some of the current and soon to be released games, but I've not been very impressed except maybe for GW2. It's a nice expansion if you've been away for a long time, but it hasn't really fixed any of the glaring issues I have had with the game in the past, such as imbalanced PvP and a transparent community. I'll play it for what it is until I get burned out again.
Well, I'm sort of an old WoW player. I started playing WoW at it's release...back some years ago. I wound up leaving EQ2 to play WoW. I really enjoyied the game at it's birth, it was a lot of fun. The BC expansion, was okay, and the WoTLK well, I disliked it so much that I did not even play it. I stopped at level 70, and quit the game for good.
But I recently started back playing with the release of Cataclysm. I first I was not fond of the total re-vamping of the talents and skills. But, after sort of gritting my teeth and baring it a little bit, it really is not all that bad. In fact, it's probably really good for the game overall. It provides a lot of change the game really needed to make it something new and exciting. Cause quite frankly I was completely burned out with the old WoW.
The new questing and story telling of blizzard putting the lore into the quest lines, and having players actually play through it...is absoultly stunning!
I honestly did not think Blizzard knew how to do story line and questing together...I am indeed impressed. I never thought I'd say that about World of Warcraft again...but I am...I am Impressed. Blizzard has proven themself again. They have earned their right to be at the top of the MMO Food Chain with this expansion. Good Job Blizz!
"The games graphics remain the same"---this is not true at all. Most of the graphics have been noticably improved. There's much higher level resolution available now and (for the most part) the game seems to handle it better than it did when the entire population of a server was in Dalaran. Of course, some of that could be the intentional losing of portals to spread the population out a bit.
Also, the singing sunflower is the freakiest pet I've gotten yet (and the plants vs zombies mini-game is awesome).
Quoted for Truth.
I think you took the extent of what he said a little far. Moves WoW into the next decade and "sets the standard for everything to come in the next 10 years" are two completely different concepts. In other words, lighten up Francis.
I still find it funny all the anti WoW fanboys out there. All them have their panties all up in a bunch because WoW stole the fanbase from their first loved MMO and made it a ghost town.
WoW might not have brought anything new in this expansion to some of you haters... For those of us who has seen every up and down lived every nerf and buff this is a huge step. There will never be any perfect MMO out there to any of your standards but whatever crappy one you played 10 years ago that WoW crushed...
If you play an MMO and want a ever changing sandbox go play Mortal Online. Oh wait it failed.. Aion? Fail.. WAR (the WoW killer) Fail... AoC (Slowly bleeding out).. There is no game out there worth a damn with a player base like WoW and one that has a Dev team working their butts off trying to keep it updated and up to everyones standards.
Pwned!!! Rofl!There is a bit of misinformation in the review, or rather information left out. It really is disapointing how biased this site's reviews have become in the past few months.
Other than that, the main point I was disapointed with Cataclysm is that the Worgen don't have any ability to run on all fours as was suggested would/was to be in beta. It seems really pointless to have the Worgen character models have anthropomorphic legs if they don't use them how they are designed. Basically more cartoonish unrealism for the gamer who likes to feel their brain turn to mush I suppose with the lack of intelligent gaming.
Play the game, then speak. You get four-footed running ability (as fast as a basic mount) at 20th.
Ummmmm...yeah. That's what WOW is - it's an 'amusement park' style MMORPG. Always has been. And now it has taken this style of game and pushed the envelope further than any game using phasing and story-driven quest strings.
There are two types of MMORPG's: amusement park style and sandbox style. You cannot have both in the same game (at least no one has proven you can yet). If you don't like amusement park style MMORPG's, that's fine. Don't play WOW and don't comment on WOW. Saying WOW sucks because it is an amusement park style game taken to the extreme is inconsistent. You don't compare WOW to a sandbox game. I wouldn't go on a Darkfall forum and say Darkfall is the crappiest amusement park style game I've ever played.
(1) The maelstrom is NOT the underwater zone, the underwater zone is Vashj'Ir.
(2) Actually the graphics got a very nice overhaul and it looks alot better than it did before.
(3) Some classes got their talents and abilities changed so drastically that they have an entirely new playstyle, you mentioned they changed, but still try to knock blizzard on it?
You also completely neglected to mention the addition of MULTIPLE in-game cut-scenes and cinematics that pull you in to the story, as well as quests that are completely different from "Go here, kill x, collect y".
Just thought you'd like your mistakes pointed out, cheers.
played Cata on main from 7th, almost all done by now, looks like I'll not waste my time on raids and go play something better & more fun thne sorta reanimated game =D
This... play the game before you make assumptions. Or type a simple phrase into Google, ya know, before you come on here and make yourself look silly. Worgen DO run on all fours. Talk about intelligent gaming?
As far as the review, I would've given it probably an 8.5. No new classes as a con? Really? Look at the class balance issues Death Knights put into the game. The game does offer new graphics, not sure where you got that from. Also, leveling from 80-85 I died quite a few times. I don't think I ever died 70-80. I haven't died very much since leveling in classic, but it was considerably harder since monsters hit you for 7k-8k. While 80-85 isn't that much harder, the end game heroics are.
I'd like to spotlight this post. Really, I can't believe the review on the expansion is THIS factually wrong.
From the review it appears as if this is more of a large patch than an expansion.. Though one must respect Blizzard to be able to sell it way overpriced to millions :)
Exactly from as it appears... Now instead of reading it try it out...
Thanks for the review, and for some of the comments. I've been in two minds about whether to return to WoW after my latest long break and what I've read here is adding to the side of me that wants to give it a go again.
Despite getting burnt out on WoW a few times (hence the long breaks), this game still has things about it which draw me back like the choices of areas for levelling, the smooth gameplay and character animation, and the fact that there always seems plenty to do, no matter how much or little time I have to spare. Although the style of graphics are not my preference (and I particularly hate anthropomorphised animals in any game), WoW has drawn me back more times and held my attention overall for longer than any other mmo to date.
I'm beginning to feel curious enough to experience the changes that I just might re-sub ^^
This is the only MMO I've stuck with for more than a month so I'm genuinely curious--do other MMO's give away thier expansions or something? Or sell them for less than $40?
As many have noted however, the review isn't entirely accurate. I think only counting the new areas there are more than 1000 new quests (not to mention factions, items, pets, mounts, etc). The overhaul of the old areas and new quests there probably means there are more than a couple thousand new quests. I guess I need to switch to whatever game you play if the "large patch"es they apparently give away have more content than this.
I get that not everybody likes this game (and I even understand most of the reasons why) but let's at least be accurate in the criticism if we can.
I usually read reviews by knowledgable others before checking things out. This one didn't exactly make me want to...
When the allegorical H-bomb of the MMO world, the life blood of any gaming site, isn't causing completely scale breaking frenzy over an expansion, I fear the reality is actually far worse than the review.
Sorry I bought it now. Cata is just more of the same. After 6 years I'm totally jaded by the experience. Level, grind regualr instances get some blue gear, enchant it, now do it heroics, now start raiding again. Do that times how many alts you can be arsed to level.
Bought cata, got my warrior to 85 and tanked some heroics - boredoom :(
Blizzard fully ignores the RP community and that is just sad. Tbh, I think it's the community that ruins WoW for me, not the game itself...
Well Cata has its good and has its bad....my main complaint is the zones, are even more linear then before, you get 1-3 quests most of the time, have to do those, to get the next 1-3 quests, so you get there, theres 10 mobs to kill with 20 ppl there killin them and you have really nowhere else to go till next level.
As far as intances go, glad to see they added a little more challenge to them
New classes sound good on paper, but really what could you add to WOW that would be different from existing classes? There are already 10 classes with 3 unique talent trees each, essentially 30 classes compared to most other MMO's. I personally would like to see a Warden class added, but again... how would they make it cool and different?
Real review:
It's 2010, here is more of the same grinding crap you have been doing for 6 years, with a bit of new stuff stolen from other games.
Waits for the usual Two Minute Hate for anything WoW related to fade
Now that thats out of the way... Cat as you mention has its pros and cons. Having two 85's (and three 80's) I've seen quite a bit of the new expansion. On the plus side, some of the new areas(underwater especially) have much better flow than many of the old ones. Even though its the same types of quests, they are presented in a more effective fashion. Sea horse mounts was also a cute touch. Also the use of a portal hub in SW was well thought out. The egyptian theme zone was also a blast, as was the daily with the pigmies and the ancient hammer. ^^
I'm of two minds when it comes to the talent system make over. On the one side I can see that the old system had its flaws, but the current one is even more prone to cookie cutter builds than the last one was. Many of the class talents and trees, that defined a given class role have been changed. In that its a mixed bag. But once more it speaks about Blizzards obsession with spread sheets, rather than the fun factor. I suspect they spend much more time data mining, than they do in actual play.
Now the con side. First and foremost to my mind is the crippling of the Dungeon Finder. In Wrath, it was the main thing that brought me back to the game after burning out. Its one of the most effective anti churn devices I've seen in quite awhile. I simply do not have the time and patience to spend 45 minutes to an hour (or more) in the LFG channel, in the hope I might get a dungeon run.
The Dungeon Finder made it so that anyone(even dps) could find a dungeon party in no more than 15 to 20 minutes(even in off peak hours). Sure tanks and healers have almost insta pop even these days, but the poor bloody dps have to wait, and wait and wait. Then they added the cute little addition that one has to "discover" the dungeon entries before being able to queue for them. Yes, yes, I know all about the rationalizations involved, but that wasn't in place in Wrath, and it remains just that, a rationalization.
Unless one is a tank or healer, the typical wait is in the 35-45 minute to an hour plus range(and doesn't seem to change that much no matter the hour). It seriously limits the number of runs that many people can have, and thus we are almost back to the amount of time one had to spend spamming the LFG channel.
The fact remains that by limiting access to one of the games best selling points, they have crippled their own anti churn device. Not to mention the petty aspect of making the main dungeon point gear blue, rather than purple(as it was in Wrath). Its that type of pettiness that comes to define many of Blizzards Dev's attitudes towards their player base. No doubt it was a bone thrown to the raider types who QQ'ed over "welfare epics".
As for adding a new class...(cue bitter laughter) They are still working on ruining the last one!(Death Knight). 
The endless nerfs and "balances" the DK class has been subjected to are so extensive, that it literally went on for most of the first year. Even to this day, it is still one of the Dev's favorite targets for their nerf bats. So, lets not even speak of adding another new class, shall we?.
Over all, I agree with your score of 8. Its a fun expansion, but it has some rather poor design decisions.
You certainly used the word 'easier' alot of times in this review. Hard to imagine WOW getting even easier.
ugh you haven't played cata then, you thought it was easy and on rails before its worse now(mostly lower areas). some mobs that use to be red before are now yellow, some quests that was a bit rough (by wow standards) now have NPC escorts so its basicly impossible to die and you can't refuse them. you finish an area and there is no question ALOT of the times as to where you need to go next because there is NPC coaches to shuttle you to the next area. like even just the run from the dwarf starter area to Kaz, you no longer have to run through that tunnel. you take a helicoptor to kaz, completely by passing that little skit they had their with the dwarves and the "THIS IS MY BOOMSTICK!" and actually they removed the skit completely. the npcs are still there, i was wondering about it so i back tracked and watched for a good while and they all just stand there now like lumps.
that said tho i am really enjoying the expansion, i like all the revamped areas and how they even redid the crap gear quests use to give. you do all the quests in a hub you'll no longer look like a hobo your gear all matches and actually looks good. favorite quest zone so far was Redridge, had a pretty long quest chain there that i enjoyed alot. i believe it was an "Expendibles" spoof (not sure never seen it) quest rewards at the end was a Rambo headband,survival knife,bow or a ring i think you always got the headband tho.
Vash'jr (sp?) is alot of fun as well, wich i was honestly blown away by the fact they GIVE you a mount for there thats 450% speed and was a simple quest, and fairly early like within an hour i had the mount. usually stuff like that blizz likes to make a major chore of rep grind and insane price.
there is a really funny quests with a drunk dwarf,gnome and orc in... i forget the zone... talking about how they kicked deathwings ass. had me actually laughing out loud, you got to control each of them as they told thier story. dwarf was running around punching elementals in the face (yelling "face punch") till you got to deathwing who he also punched in teh face sending him flying to kalimdor.. all 3 was really funny tho but the but the orc was the best one. talking about how he was on his hog checkin out hot chicks and there was like 4 there but the one was a BE male all 1/2 naked and they're all doing the /flirt emote at the male orc lol
tho i was never a gear whore, and i could honestly careless about gear. once i see an instance and do it a couple times and get bored i won't do it anymore, unless for a friend. i'm an alt-aholic tho, wich this expansion seems to be 99% for. i plan on rolling an alt of the other races to see whats changed and what the quests are like.
How about a ranged class that isn't pet based and has stealth? Gun based option? Dual pistols, bigger guns, bow or crossbow? Ranger or Gunslinger?
How about a melee based healing class that works similar to the bear shaman in AOC? Or the Justicar in the upcoming Rift? Or like one of the dark elf classes in War? (forget what they are called)
A monk class? fist weapon or staff specialist, with elemental melee attacks and side healing? basically a rogue/healer?
A melee based magic class in weak armor? Like the one that can turn into a demon on AoC
Something using throwing weapons? they do seem a bit useless other than for pulling at the moment...
A Runemaster? It's already in the lore.. http://www.wowwiki.com/Runemaster
Something like Vampire? Melee based health leeching class?
A full engineer class? Steampunk pets, gadgets and stationary turrets?
The Dungeon Finder itself has not been changed. It works exactly as it did in Wrath.
What has changed is this:
i can tell by reading this review the author didn't actualy play the expansion at all, and just read about it from people on the forums here.
And it's people like you that have given your "beloved" game it's bad name. Good job!
I more so just made that post to point out the obvious. People are drawn to anything that has WoW in it. Most the people that come are there more to slander then have a decent opinion.
WoW doesn't need my help to get a good or bad name.
I agree the game has been dumbed down so many times its got to the point that the only kind of challange is Raids and only then if your raiding with idiots, its a good expansion but really just another way to distract from a game that has little depth and no real challange left in it.
no I'm not a hater, I still play and will till ToR or something with some teeth comes out but wow is now 100% fisher price.
I did not like the water zones although they were very pretty. The one major problem I have with the expansion, the quest lines are all linked, you just can't skip one if you don't want to do it as it prevents you from doing the others in the line.
I got to a point in the water zone with a boss fight you have to do with a 110k hp elite against a boss with 1.1 million hp and it is strictly a timing fight, you have to time your spells to interrupt the bosses big spells. Needless to say I am horrilbe in timing scenarios. Since I did not complete this quest I could not finish the rest of the quests in the area. I will eventually go back and do it, just that I play a game to have fun, not be frustrated.
The seahorse mount was nice, but there were a lot of issues with it, many places where it was not usable when it should have been. Note to developers, when you restrict a mount to a certain area, you are going to create more problems than if you had just made the mount available in water anywhere. Bad decision leads to many bugs.
I will say I really like the redesign of the 1-60 areas including the new races areas. That was very well done.
"wow is now 100% fisher price"
Best quote in the thread, bar none.
In general, I like cataclysm. However, it bugs me a bit that the resources found within dungeons ain't fitting anymore to the level of the dungeon.
Example: with lvl 40 or 41 on my tauren paladin, I was in Diremaul, which was pre-cata a lvl 55-60 dungeon. There are still rich thorium veines in Diremaul, which is kinda silly, since it's unlikely that you have a mining of... what is it... 250 or 275 or higher on lvl 40. Same with Maraudon. Earlier it was a lvl 45-50 dungeon, now it's a lvl 38 dungeon (or something like that).
As a result, you will quite often find resource nodes which you can't harvest. I mean, you have to grind for some resources now anyway, to keep your gathering skills fitting to your level, because you level too quickly to find enough resource nodes in that time. Pre-Cata, you could at least harvest all the nodes you found in dungeons, which helped you keeping your gathering skills up to date. Now that you encounter rich thorium mines or ghost mushrooms between lvl 30 and 40, for both of which you need a gathering skill of over 200, you basically can't harvest resources anymore in many dungeons. And since you can't harvest them, you have to grind them even more outside the normal levelling/questing/dungeons.
It's not such a big problem. With my goblin priest, who is into alchemy and herbalism, I went several times some zones up and down, and the gathering skill is now way higher than it normally would be. Basically, her herbalism and alchemy skills are always near the maximum that the level permits. Still... it's simply a design flaw. Until level 60, your gathering skill was, before cata, fine if it was 5 times your level. So at level 10 you had profession skills at 50. On level 20, they were at 100, on lvl 40, they were at 200, and on lvl 60, they were at 300. That worked. Now, it doesn't anymore. According to this old balancing, with lvl 40 I should have a skill of roughly 200, while I no encounter at that level resources requiring a far higher skill to be gathered.
So... it's not gamebreaking or anything, but it's an annoying design flaw. They should have replaced the nodes found in dungeons with those fitting to the level. For example: put mithril into Diremaul, instead of rich thorium. Or put iron and gold into Maraudon, instead of mithril.
i got to say !cataclysm does suprise me !in fact it bring back lot the fun factor in wow a thing that surprisingly we havent have had since vanilla wow.ho you ll still get the video review on how to do this and do that ,but ask any that met shogall or other raid and people see that these raid were made so that even if you know the fight it wont help you a lot if you re not paying attention to the fight!before lol surprisingly they might have been harder fight when lunched but less brainiac.this here lol ,dont cc in any shape and form ,outch outch outch.people are so used to just put the hammer down and go to town that i bet a lot of player feel frustrated at time .that what vanilla was everybody had to do stuff im very glad blizzard finally brough back the soul of what wow was.and now is!and its not just raid everything is challenging .yes pvp have cheating issue!(patched temporarelly this week .till the final solution on the 25 on january but aside from that ,i got to say the only negative i could find was faction imbalance on server,like on illidan 1000 horde vs 200 .on other server its 1000 ally vs 200 horde !this got to change but aside from this issue
i love cataclysm!enjoy the game guys!
I know everyone here loves to hate WoW because the game they play is a ghost town, but Cataclysm is in my personal opinion the best MMORPG expansion I have ever played and that's since playing MMORPGs since EQ in 2000.
Do we really need new classes when every class was revamped with 4.0.1?
Oh, another thing that bugs me about Cata:
Didn't people say it's supposed to get more difficult? So, I played now mostly goblin and worgen on low levels, and just leveled up my warlock to 81. With said warlock, I had been twice in that vashjir dungeon and the blackrock one, the dungeons for lvl 80/81. In those three groups, most often only one or two people had been in that dungeon before, the other 3 or 4 haven't. We wiped a total of... once or twice. And that is supposed to be difficult? You get in there with random people, crappy equipment, people who don't know what to do, and you still can kill everything easily?
Huh? Didn't people shout "You need now crow control!" and so on? I can still with my warlock pop metamorphosis, the flame aura, hellfire, the fellguards whirlwind, and with that triple aoe run into the mob groups, mostly unarmed, burning and killing them all down at once.
Difficult my ass.
I have played the game thanks, and the lack of mentioning a player doesnt get the ability until L 20 only proves my point. Anthropomorphic legs dont learn to walk as a biped before moving as a quadriped, lol, its the opposite. I guess it just goes to show how clueless Blizzard devs really are.
I couldnt agree more. I tried the new races, the starting areas feel rushed and incomplete, not to mention all the horrible voice-acting... Then I logged in my old character and I really had to look to find anything different about the game other than a few terraign changes. The skill and class changes arent worth mentioning. Cata is definitely not worth 40 USD.
I have only been playing WOW for three years...which puts me at the BC XPAC right before WOTLK. However, I have only really played Horde toons.
I have also played each of the Warcraft games, and I am versed (but not an expert) in WOW lore.
I have enjoyed the game thus far. However, I am currently playing EVE Online. Taking a little break from WOW.
Once WOTLK started up, I traveled to Howling Fjord and was amazed. I got into WOTLK, and I enjoyed the game. Cata looks very nice and I have enjoyed playing. Two weeks before the CATA release I leveled a Undead Hunter, and a Troll Druid to level 25. I enjoyed the new content and new starting areas. At CAta release I played a Goblin and a Worgen and leveled each to level 10 or so.
I give much props to WOW, and all that they have done. But, I remember that this is JUST a game and nothing more.
What I have enjoyed thus far,
I have enjoyed the reworking of the old world. It looks great. The new quests are updated and more fun in general. I actually enjoyed questing in the Barrens. The new marshland south of ORG is awesome. I loved prowling through the marsh with my troll druid.
The Forsaken starting area looks great also, plus Tarren Mill quests are awesome, and Brill got a much needed update. The quests were engaging pretty novel.
I have leveled quite a few toons in my three years of playing and I really enjoyed the updates.
The Goblin and Worgen starting areas and questing was also pretty fun. The Worgen area was well thought out, and I could see that they really worked hard. However, for my play style it felt restrictive, however, WOW was trying to tell a singular story. The Goblin story-line was enjoyable, but I wished that WOW had introduced a Tinker Class or some steam punk class. I think that WOW has laid the groundwork for that class in the lore. The Goblin/Gnome screams for it.
The new Cata content looks really nice also, and I have enjoyed the look and questing so far.
8/10 and main comments all seem fair.
Most people seem to focus on one or two aspects of the game when knocking on it. For instance, one person talks about difficulty yet isn't even 85 yet. Another person speaks of how they don't ike the Vash'jir quest chain, but neglects to mention if you so choose, you can SKIP one or two of the new zones and still get to 85 easily.
WoW is and always has been attracting different sorts of people. People into lore, end-game raiding, etc. come to have fun. For those upset leveling their 1 or 2 characters from 80 to 85 and not being fulfilled, I'd say re-visit the world. People say questing is "easy", but some fail to mention how fun some quests are. All the achievements you can work towards. All the shear options that are available. Want to have a lot of fun achievement point-ing and doing cool things? Want to be challenged with end-game raiding? Want to go on with a bunch of close friends and just have fun?
I honestly point and laugh at people who say they don't like WoW or ANY MMO and are doing it alone. You truly miss out on the purpose of an MMO. You talk about instancing and phasing and how it's a single player game...yet have you ever leveled every step of the way with a friend to just goof off and have fun with? Maybe some of you should re-evaluate what you want out of a game. If you're looking for a 1-85 grind with no friends and turn to WoW, you might be inclined to not like it. It's not that I don't agree that some aspects of WoW are easy or dumbed down, but when those things occur, other things are brought to the table that can hep you overlook those things. If you're solely focused on graphics or being tired of "collect this" quest, you'll hate every MMO because you'll always find something to hate on.
In all honesty I'm not even playing Cataclysm currently and just go on some friends' accounts and have fun for awhile because I can't afford it (yeah, I'm poor, oh well). And I'm not a huge "omg you hate WoW you're an idiot I'll defend WoW until I die" person, but I don't understand how some people continuously bash a game when they could be elsewhere praising one they enjoy. To every person hating on people who love WoW or who think it's a bad game: It seems like a jealousy issue that you haven't found a game you truly enjoy. And if you HAVE found that game, I implore you to go do your "defending" of that game and leave all those who enjoy something at peace. We appreciate peace (yet play WARcraft ^_^).
Happy Holidays!
Simply Put WoW looks like a cartoon and lacks Many things many MMO gamers crave.
This is one of the most laughable comments i have read to date, how can a game designer promote or improve roleplay? Roleplay is reliant on the playerbase embracing the concept. The simple TRUTH is Blizzard do everything possible to promote roleplay all the tools are there already, have been for years now, you just need to find like-minded individuals to use them.
On topic, Cata is probably the single best expansion i have ever played in any mmgo, and i have played many of them over the years. It's a massive content boost and the revampin of the old zones makes for some interresting exploration. The increased diffisulty of the higher end heroics is also a welcome addition, no more farming instances with the sole requirement to succeed being your gear. Now players at least have to learn to think a little to succeed, at the moment at any rate.
I am disappointed... I think I`m done with WoW. The only thing I really enjoyed was pvp and they kind of ruined some of the classes.
I do like the revamped zones (well most of them anyway). The quest flow is pretty nice even if everything is on rails now. The new areas are great (especially Uldum). However, that all crashes once you have gotten through all of the new content. Then you are back to the dungeon/raid/reputation/gear grind that has been there for the past 5 years.
From the 4th post : "From what I've seen, the main group of people who are enthusiastic about this expansion are the ones who have become bored with the old content. Check back in a couple of months and they'll be bored with this too."
I'm playing since beta ......meh i was bored after 3 weeks :p
WOW articles always bring such intelligent human beings forward for mature and deep discussions. And sad part is most of you are in your 30's or above and first to point fingers at WOW players and label them as kids and immature.
1. Correction - Vash is the underwater zone
2. Reviewer keeps talking about making the 1-60 zones éasier´ when they really are more difficult now. What changed the most is the number of quests you pick up at one time and the integration of all those quests into a single story per zone. In the past, you would walk into a quest hub like Crossroads and have 20 different questgivers all having quests available, mostly unrelated. Now when you walk into a quest hub, there are 1 to 3 questgivers that start the story for that hub. In the past, it was not uncommon to have 20 active quests at a time, now you rarely have above 5. This allows the ´story´of the zone to progress, rather than just going NE killing 10 vultures, going SE and picking up 3 bones etc. With this change to quest hubs, Blizzard also removed the long travel times between quest giver and destination. The quests flow through the geography of the zone rather than just having a big central quest hub that sends you randomly to all 4 corners of the map.
3. No new class - Gives us an example? It is hard to come up with a class that fits into the model WOW has going (there are NO strictly buff classes and all DPS, Tank and Healing classes must be equally effective) While WOW only technically has 10 classes, in most games, those 10 classes would end up being about 22-25 classes because of how drastically different some specs are ( druids would be 3 classes in most games for example, warriors would be armsmen, barbarians and tanks). The other aspect (which you can debate) is gear distribution. Blizzard wanted to get away from a class or spec that had unique gear stats because it makes the drop tables suck. I personally thought a cloth wearing monk tank would be fun, but then you would probably end up needing cloth gear with Str or Agi on it. I think there may be room for a life-draining healer class simialr to how the emerald dragons play in Occulus. But really, in the end, with basically free dual-specs (down to 10g now) and the enormous difference between specs ( my main is a balance druid, tank druid) along with 10 character slots per server and 50 overall, it´´s just not necessary to add another class.
4. Also fairly certain the reviewer doesn´t actually play the game because they completely missed the facts about the guild leveling system. Guild leveling has nothing to do with 10 man vs 25 man.. it has to do with gaining guild repuation and experience and opening up perks and completing accomplishments as a guild (achievements) that also open up more rewards.
But I also would give the expansion a score of about 8. As noted, Archeology is slightly more interesting than the other profession, but it isn´t anything crazy fun. It is something to do when you are waiting for a dungeon or raid to start. The other crafting skills were just ´reset´ with new names and higher stats for the items. I´m most disappointed with Tol Borad. Wintergrasp was amazing in my opinion. TB is terrible to play (even though we always win).
I love WoW, but I haven't played it for a year and a half and probably never will again.
Why? I am burned out of it's formula and won't pick it up until I see some huge changes. I understand that WoW isn't going to change just for me, so like I said.... probably never again. I would love to see less emphasis on the gear grind but that is part of WoW's staying power. I would love to see more forms of PvP and a couple sandbox elements make their way in to the game, but I probably never will.
Like I said though, I love the game and if you don't mind a grindy, inhospitible, and assuming you want to complete all hard mode content - borderline hardcore environment... pick it up, this expansion is nothing but good.
Also, to the people that say "WoW is mainstream, and it sucks". You realize the only reason you hate WoW is because it is trendy to hate WoW, right? I am actually kind of embarassed to be in the "never again" crowd as after I see WoW players compared to a rapper and a broken MMORPG, I come to realize exactly how low we as people have become.
Hating WoW because it is of the popular opinion? Give me a break.
Simply by the score, the new wow expansion isn't as good as Aion.
It is also equaly as good as Vindictus, a games who's innovation was using a 10 year old game engine and a Diablo 1 era control scheme to allow you to play up to 3 character classes that all felt the same.
So, that's kind of funny.
When you say popular opinion, do you mean the 100 people who post on these boards?
Nothing new ,if this expansion would belong to another game it would be 6/10
+ Hard heroics dungeons ( even though you can still aoe your way through most of the enemy trash mobs)
+ Healer classes is turned to normal.
+ Back to the old world with a couple of new good looking zones.
-Epic gear is once more slightly epic ;p
- I did 400 quests in two and a half day. A few weeks later it is not many of them I remember though there are quest I did 4-5 years ago I still do remember because of their epicness =)
-The gave is abit shallow and have lost its magic even more.
- The classes is sill played the same way as you played them 5 years ago even though you have one or two new spells.
- Atleast the class I played (warrior), you charge, you slow, you do your 3 dmg attacks, wait for the coolddown, you get slowed, you charge, you do you 3 dmg attacks and repeat.
- Characters in the game is still looking horrible.
= Noob or hardcore If you have more than 70 IQ you will think the game is to easy.
The hard heroics and the hard raiding is still not enough to give you a challenge and if you played wow before you have already played this expansion.
Absolutely, thats why more people play Aion than play WOW.. ... ..
Fast lvling = idiots who are high lvl and DO NOT know how to play. A hunter in a lvl 70 instance should not be asking what trap to use, or even worse being told that they have traps (yeah, I lived that - that was an idiot).
Fast lving = boredom. When you get to end game, then all you can do is grind until the next raid etc. If I just bought the game and lvled to 80+ in 6-8 weeks, then I'd feel cheated. I bought the game and 3 exp for about two months of play. WTF.
Fast lvling = no challenge. You kill so fast and lvl out of an are so fast, then why play.
Fast lvling = gold issue. You lvl faster than the gold keeps up. I didn't experience this. I was told this. I knew how to make gold faster than eating a gallon of beans and shitting.
Another thing I would like to add is the insane amount of area of effect crowd control in pvp.
Every single class in the game have insane amount of cc and most of them are area of effect.
So basicly when you do pvp you are cc'd = crowd controled most of the time.
Mages can cc entire raids and sometimes when you fight group v group you end up cc'd contanlty.
This was a problem back in the days and has become even worse.
If u ask me crowd controll like stun/sleep/blind/slowed/fear/disarmed is fun and is a great way to get some tactic involved in the fights but it certanly have gotten over the edge in wow.
If your pvp trinket is on cooldown and u face a rogue:
8 seconds stunned.
5 seconds disarmed.
8 seconds blind.
5 seconds stunned.
and then you are dead.
Anyone else think this is over the top ?
I do have to wonder why everyone seems to fixate on 'NO NEW CLASS AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA' as a negative. Why? Each class currently is fairly well tuned (though ret paladins and enh shamans could be buffed a bit; and frost mages are ridiculous in pvp, but that's really not my 'arena' so don't quote me on that), each spec is diverse and plays differently, and every archtype is covered in full.
So, there's really no need for an 11th class, is there? Especially when, with talent trees, each class is really 3; so we have... 30 classes. I'd say that's enough.
cant stand DKs
Rise of the Godslayer actually got a better review then cataclysm on this website.
War was a fail i really cannot debate that
Aion is doing pretty well, not any wow numbers in the states. But is doing extremely well in Korea.
MO, yeh that is fail
No there is no game with a player base like WoW. Just like there is no restaraunt out there that is Mcdonalds. But that does not mean that mcdonalds has the best food does it.
WoW is the mcdonalds of MMOs.
And this is.... your opinion? Congratulations?
Went from a "modern" grindy MMO to WoW with Cata.. loving it and no turning back here :)
Sometimes life is too short to grind!
So WoW doesn't have end game grind? hmmm <confused>
tried Cata from 7th, nothing new for me to add, as I'm not planning to redo all nob quests on my main.
by now all high lvl quests are done, zones explored, 1 main prof & 2nd maxed (nothing much just no pleasure to do fast & easy skilling), superior & some epic gear restored, missing only 1 HC, hope will be done by tomorrow, got new mini pet from winter event, won in 2 new BG.
tell you what: never waited for all stuff that much as now in WoW: including travels, HC groups set up and/or use of DF, BG, to kill mob for quest etc etc.
no way to try raids with undergerated folks (all who think gear is nothing, skill is all, can go ahead).
waiting for end of my subscription & looking for amusing game to play.
There are a lot of posts for and against Cataclysm and WoW in general, but I just have to give Blizz props where it is deserved. This expansion is incredibly fun and changed so many things about the game that it just has to be said that they did a fantastic job. A lot of the people bashing the game have clearly either never played it and are hating or just are whiners in general. Yes you will eventually get bored of this game. Nothing is exciting and new forever. Between now and then there are TONS of things to do and ways to find enjoyment that are difficult to find as well done or as highly polished in other MMOs.
Blizzard remains at the top of the pack in providing a quality MMO.
If you just started playing during the expansion you dont know how the game was before it. If a game is great than an expansion just adds to the greatness it doesnt deserve a perfect score. If you were a vet I could understand your argument, but as a new player you dont really have one since people gave WoW 9/10 and 10/10s before it.
So, basically all your ideas for new classes are having existing classes use different weapons/armor or combining mechanics from existing classes.
Guns? Hunters can already use guns. How would the Gunslinger be different?
Monk? You already said its just a Rogue that can heal.
Throwing weapons? Rogues already use throwing weapons.
Melee magic class? Death Knights?
Besides stupid resource systems would set these "new" classes apart from the existing classes in a meaningful way?
End game is all about grind.
Grind normal dungeons to get gear to run heroics, grind reputation to gear to run heroics, grind heroics to get currency to get gear to run raids. Grind raids to get gear so you can...grind the next tier of raids. Hell, they have even made PvP more of a gear grind than it was before this expansion.
Seems to me some people are confused about what is included in cata, and what is included FREE with patch 4.0
Just 8 for the best and most ambitious expansion in MMORPG history? MMORPG.com writers never fail to disappoint
I'm actually surprised that Archaeology was listed as a con. It's really the only profession that isn't about pure grinding, and requires you to be active. You don't sit in a single spot and click a bobber, or hop from node to node, or even endlessly watch a scroll bar tick away as you mass produce whatever is the most efficient recipe to level with.
No new classes is a positive as well. Blizzard has a hard enough time trying to balance the classe and talent specs they have, and to toss in another class with 3 more specs would have been folly. Especially considering the amount of time it took them just to rebuild Azeroth for flight, how much further would a new class have pushed them back?
Personally, I feel the rating should be a 9/10. Blizzard did a tremendous job with the new 1-60 content and 80-85 content. Vashj'ir is especially interesting since it's a zone that's completely submerged. Blizzard did a great job with this expansion.
alot of people don't realize World of Warcraft is following an actual storyline.....there is only 1 more xpac they can come out with based on the story then it's over......and judging by how they are letting stats and modifiers on equipment run completely wild they are gearing people up for the return of the titans.....cata is a solid xpac....and i'm betting the next and final one will be the mother of all expansions!
Amen brotha!
it's hard to compare WoW to other games and part of wow's broad appeal is it's low system requirements, a game like mortal online or AoC could never garner the membership of wow for the sole reason you need a decent computer to run them.....though most of the statement is true i think it's a bit overboard wow is the facebook of mmo's and as far as the dedicated dev team......how much dedication does it take to come up with scams to push a login authenticator most mmo's come for free with?
After playing Cata for a few weeks I found I'd leveled up both my main characters. It was fun but too easy again . Now looking at the endgame content and thinks theres maybe enough to interest me for a month maybe . So after that I will continue to level up through the the revamped content which wont take every long and todays leveling speeds . For me Cata proberbly gives me about 3 months interesting gameplay in WoW then I'll quit till the next Xpac . Azeroths a nice place to visit but I would'nt want to settle down there again . Still kudos to Blizzard they can make a game I've played on and off for 6 years now still interesting albiet for short periods . In no way though would I say the game in its current form matches the game I first played in terms of quality ,difficulty or sheer fun . I miss the world pvp that is virtually non existant now .
McDonalds food may be shit, but Blizzard games are superb. Maybe WoW isn't your cup of tea, but you can never ever say it's a shitty game because it isn't at all.
Wow...you missed a lot of stuff, the new dungeons are like mini-raids. There is no more face rolling your way through them. Each is unique and some are down right hard to do on heroic mode(almost impossible unless every does what they are suppose to do). Rated BG's? Tol Barad? Uldum is a cool new zone that has some very funny quest lines players follow that deal with Harrison Jones(knock off of Indiana Jones movies). So much oportunity to shine light into all the new stuff missed.
You should have included all the bad as well...like broken quest, broken skills, broken classes. Messed up lore. Stupid new quest that take grinding to a whole new level. Vashj'ir is cool...but I hate it. The quest are tiring and borish to the x-degree. How many go fetch and deliver, kill-x-# quest can they put in a zone? 150! That is how many! OMG I hated that zone so much l only did it because a guildy wanted to experince it. I will agree that archeology is a huge let down and a missed oportunity for Blizzard to add a new unique game play aspect...boy did they frak that up. It is mind-numbingly boring and the travel times to go from one dig site to another can be a huge pain. It is not fun.
Cataclysm is a fitting name for the expansion. Thankfully the parts that are good make up for all the stuff that is bad(which is alot!)
I'd have given the expansion a 6.5 out of 10.
"The Maelstrom being added offers players the chance to quest underwater and discover lots of new areas to swim through."
Uhm.. we don't swim in the maelstrom, that would be vashjir.
Yea. Swimming in the Maelstrom would be one of the worst ideas anyone could ever have.
Is making WoW easier necessarily a good thing?
That said, all Blizzard did was a little class balancing, oversimplification of talents leading to even more cookiecutter builds, and the addition of more, but limited content.
They fixed nothing and played their fanboys like well-tuned violins. WoW is still the same old thing.
I'm also going to toss this out there. Healing no long is mindless spams of your biggest spell, it is all about knowing when to heal and how to conserve mana.
WoW got easier in some aspects but in others it is a lot harder.. this will define the good guild from the bad ones.
Quest design is absolutely horrible! Everything is chained together and heaven help you if you miss one in the chain, you are doomed to either find the one you missed or forget the rest of the quests in the area. For example I got half of the Uldum quests done(it is the best new area imo) and somehow missed a quest, hence the rest of the entire area is dead to me.
After spending two hours searching for a quest indicator I just gave up and opened a ticket. No wonder the support people are over worked.
This is exactly how NOT to design a quest system!
BTW Teala, I am with you, I disliked the sea area (Vashjir), the quest design is not up to the other areas.
Heh, I actually liked Vashj'ir. But I've always liked the Naga related stuff. But yeah, I've found the new quest system a bit bothersome, especially if one of them bugs (which happend to me several times). On top of that there were still way too many grind quests (kill 10 rats variety). However, there were some very cool quest chains so it wasn't all tiresome.
My biggest issue is the end game.
Well i am enjoying the expansion so far, and i'm glad Blizzard took this big step destroying their "baby" but it was for the better. It deserves more then what the critics are giving it, and for everyone crying about how Blizzard broke your class two things. 1: Every think you never knew how to play the class properly in the first place. 2:If its broken it will be fixed so grow up and have some patience. And i really am enjoying the new dungeons because they actually give you a challenge and its no longer a 20min burn thorugh,. No PVP yet but im sure its reallly good too. Also loving the Worgen race really cool. And to all you trolls keep on trolling it up because you only make yourself look bad not the game. Anyways hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and/or a Happy Holiday. -Rass
@Teala so you basically said at the beginning you want an easy game to play. I hear Lego Universe is good. Btw lore is up to par the quests are great and the kill x amount of rats then come back has been in MMO's forever so its actually an expected thing.
Anti fanbois due to their old mmos? I played WoW for a little over 4 years, from beta, up until WOTLK. I'm an anti-fanboi for other reasons. Blizzard is laughing their asses off, all the way to the bank, with this expansion.
Well there is a way to walk on all fours.... Once you get the riding skill you will walk on all fours instead of on a mount
Yes... Clueless.
Exactly the word I would use for people who have successfully developed, launched and maintained a wildly successful MMORPG for years, keeping people coming back - no matter how much they say they "hate it". Exactly how I would describe devs who have managed to improve the look, technology and overall performance of their game engine continuously throughout its lifespan while still keeping it playable on lower end machines.
Exactly the word I would use to describe devs who, in a fantasy game where most of it's not "real" to begin with, opt to make players wait a "whole 20 levels" before they get a run buff that allows them to run at normal mount speed... without needing a mount. That whole irksome "realism versus gameplay" balancing act...
'cause, you know... In a world with dragons, murlocs, Night Elves, flight travel available via mythical creatures (gryphons), the walking undead, possessed swords, Blood Elves, Orcs, Trolls, Magic casters hurling fireballs, and humans turning into werewolves in the first place... It's critical to make sure they stick strictly to reality regarding the use of said werewolves' legs.
Right.
... I really hope the sarcasm was noted, 'cause I made it a point to lay it on thick.
Only other MMO dev I'm aware of that offers a security token is SE for FFXI and XIV.
What are these "most MMOs" you're referring to that offer them for free?
I enjoyed the new content. Played a level 23 up to 85 and was done. The OP/article mentioned people being 85 after a few weeks. I saw 85s after a few days (like 40 hours or less) after release. I enjoyed all the new areas but if you couple them with running dungeons for rep and drops + BGs, you quickly out-level each area. I hit 85 after doing less than 10 quests in the Twilight Highlands.
Difficult? Not at all. Very simple. At least the quest descriptions/reads made complete sense. A couple of times I was saying 'WTH is with this quest' and then after reading it I kind of /facepalmed myself for being stupid.
All in all I enjoyed the new areas but the end game still lacks. I don't have it in me to run dungeons constantly just to get that perfect set and Heroic Dungeons are dull. (One of my guild mates mentioned running a dungeon last week that took them 10+ hours.....no thank you!)
I think a lot of folks will have fun with the lower levels up to 85 and then hit the proverbial wall and just fade out. Fun but not enough to maintain a sub. I put in my notice this morning.
Well... of course not everyone need to like it, but imo, if there is single game that deserves pure 10, for sure this is Wow. Nearly pefect, fun, original (or with tenfold upgrade from some other original idea), only game where professions are separate world of fun (but, to be honest, have been excpecting more in Cata), only game where you must jump on airplane and shut donw ememies, jump on tree and save bears, ... etc etc. Impressive quests and quest lines. Actually .. leveled my 10 alts to 80 without single step in any dung or raid. Later discovered this world. With very few exceptions (and yes, Pacman once rocked, but this times are long gone) others are just point and click. Only game where I have 10 lv. 81 to 85 alliances and bunch of up to 75 hordes. No other game were able to suck me in su much and for so long (ok, I really loved AOC and still plan to return once). And at 50 I'm not spoiled child. I want full game. I admit cartoony graphics prevented me to play from start for first 2 years. Now I literaly love graphics style of Wow.
Lol saw the first bit of cata with the ship leaving from stormwind and then the bit with the sea monster and then immediately :: Go get three seastars and a conch and blow bubbles. LOL
Really i was expecting more. Blizzard Fail. Was really expecting sum Epic Battle or sumthing, Guess im just more used to proper mass Epic PVP. Youre not going to find hardcore pvp in wow anyway. And the game looks so Cartoony. The battle systems are very old and you end up with so few active abilities at level 80-ish that its almost laughable. Furthermore the chars look redicilously old with the blocky armors and even with cata graphics and a million wow fanboys wow's graphics are still way behind. If you want to play a real PVP MMO that hasnt been dumbed down so that a retarded monkey gets bored with it, try AION. Give all the wo fanboys a few weeks and they will be bored again.
And yes i played wow for a very long time and Aion is a million times better. I hate PVE anyway, and wow is a good-ish pve game, but not for pvp. Lol at asking ppl to flag themselves so that u can fight them. (know about pvp servers)
Oh yes and did i mention the the aion : assault on balauria expansion was free. So while you had to fork out cash we got an expansion for $ 0.
The Wow battle system : in wow to get better attack speed you need super rare items and even then you can only get it up to about 7% or so. In Aion: my AP gloves alone give me 7% attack speed. (a dagger gives me 19% more and a buff another 20%, a scroll another 9%). (You can boost your attack speed up +70% ). My shield alone gives me 45% damage reduction. My boots give me a 18% movement speed and oh yes i can fly everywhere in the pvp zone. saw a wow lvl 80 running around like a snail when he wanted to fight anything. (cannot fight mounted) , we can buff your movement speeds up to 90% while in combat. (using buffs and running scrolls )
In Aion your armor actually looks like armor and not like sum weird football game. In fact Aion char cretion and general graphics are lightyears ahead of WOW even with cata.
Aion's general character customisation options also run miles deeper than wow at level cap. ( Not talking about char creation here ) It is simply possible in Aion to create absolute monster characters ( super twinks ) to an extent that makes wow feel shallow. In aion a lvl 30 with ap gear (elite PVP gear) can easliy kill a relatively well speccd lvl 45.
Every night in Aion there are sieges that almost 50% of the higher level char participate in.Epic Mass PVP. Aion has a real war ongoing all the time while in wow it feels more like an occasional playgroup brawl.(If you are lucky enough to find anyone brave enough to flag themselves).
Where did I say Iwant "easy"? Please enlighten me. As for Cataclsym...I am putting together my thoughts and experiences and will be writing about them soon. Unlike some...I just tell it like it is. I have nothing to lose and I am not a payed shill. I am beholding to nobody - so I have no reason to lie or mislead. I just call it as I see it. If I think something sucks...I'm going to let you know. If I think something is good...I'll tell you I think it is good. Really...that is all I do.
Eurogamer: 10/10: "if we approach this as a re-review of the whole game – which we should, because it's exactly what Blizzard did – then the only sane response is one of awe. "
Average score on the web thus far: 91%
http://www.gamerankings.com/pc/971498-world-of-warcraft-cataclysm/index.html
Typical that mmorpg.com can't rate it according to what the official web comments say.
You are the underground movement.
Keep it up, but it is hardly anything significant when gameplay value and fun is concerned.
"We stand in awe", nice Eurogamer, at least you gave some trash found on the gaming list here a 2/10 in the past.
8/10 is fair to me, as a WoW vet since the first days of Beta.
No new classes was a con for me. I don't care what jaded gamers think... I love options. This isn't Sunwell Raiding.
Making Heroics more difficult on a massive scale (instead of inching players back into them) was a con for me as well. It's Blizzards fault this happened by making WoTLK too easy. And in the few PUGs I'm forced into... Blizzard isn't paying my repair bill everytime I wipe because some dps'er keeps trying to play off tank or the threat pulling game. They're the reason its happening, but I'm still the competent one paying for it. If I wasn't part of a great guild, I would be screwed. I'm sure many people are right now.
And those are my only reasons for not giving Cataclysm a 9/10. Nothing gets a 10/10 from me unless it truly innovates a genre.
I think people will get used to harder content in time. If you are used to not paying 100% attention to what you're doing you need to change the way you are gaming and that just take some time.
But 8/10 sounds rather fair to me. Last game I considered 10/10 was Neverwinter nights and before that the first Diablo. You shouldn't give away scores like that easy... Hmmm, Natural Selection was 9,5/10.
Still amazes me when fanboys will complain when a game scores an 8. A score of eight is a good rating. Not everything has to be rated a 10 just because you like it.
This brings back the question from many years before, the hope we all had for every expansion... when will we be playing the lore of Emerald Dream? All the dragonelites, the portals to emerald dream and so on... when will they open up?
Sry, couldn't help myself.
I have been playing Wow since 2 months before BC was released. I loved Wow for many years. In a sense I still love it, however, it has gotten boring to me.
When I first started playing the game was challenging. You couldnt just run up on a mob and wtfpawn it. You actually had to think and calculate your chances of survival. This is not the case anymore.
I was so syked up about cata. I just knew it was going to bring back that challenge to the game that over the years has slowly faded away. After getting my druid to 85 and running some heroics, I am done for good. The game has been watered down to the point that the only real challenge in the game is end game raid content, which I think is a shame. I understand some people focus on that, but with a MMO, (imho) it should be just as challenging getting to end game than it is at endgame itself. if endgame is the focus, you may as well be able to make a level capped player from the start with a basic set of armor suitable to run heroics. Some people will say that you can not learn the class that way, but I disagree. Given a little time, anyone can learn the somewhat simple mechanics of Wow combat, even if given all of the abilities up front.
I have many more complaints about Wow, but I will just leave it at that. Wow was a great game for me for many years, but it has lost its appeal to me. When I can get into a game and level a character up to cap in under a week, it is time to move on.
I have been a tester in all 3 betas and a long time raide leader. Carrot on a stick is not a nifty speed boost trinket anymore. it is the norm of warcraft design teams. No innovation just renovation of other games mechanics and features. even after all these years they still wont let us communicate with the opposite faction. We never had a chance to voice an opinion in beta because every wow xpac that is in beta is nothing more then a finished product with bugs they want weeded out.
Wow is popular due to the fact, tons of people play it and will always play it. it user friendly to people just stating with an mmo, and it's somewhat of a challenge to people whom are willing to wait 18 months after an xpax release to finally face the last boss of sed xpac. it keeps you by grinding alts over and over again. it is designed for those of us afflicted with terrets and obsessive compulsive disorders. it caters to the person that likes instant gratification and e-peening a newb. all in all it's something to pass the time with until you think a better more emmersive MMO is coming. in the end you go back to wow because of imaginary friends you have made, That if you died tommrow they would not know who the hell bubbaxxx really was in RL, nor would they care.
some of the newer content is great and some of it is just the same as it always was with a different paragraph of text for you to read to make it feel new
I still play regardless and like I said I do like some of the newer things about the game
I say it's time for Wow 2 and a new story
I've played Wow in Vanilla and in all expansions since.
Cons:
The game has become a social hell, with spammers bullies racists etc running wild, and increasing pressure from the game designers to play in large guilds. Large guilds are heavily rewarded, with increased experience (and faster leveling, unique loots such as mounts and special spells. But many of these guilds have people no sane person seeking relaxation would want to be with - people for whom the guild and raids are what they spend 40+ hours/week at, which includes plenty of time to ridicule in game those who may only want to spend, say, 15 hours a week or less. THIS is the trend which Cata seems to be promoting, and unless you are that sort of gamer - just not fun anymore.
I also agree with those who have said Cata world changes were frankly diappointing, the new races beginning areas and quests seem very hastily created and so creating multiple alts for differing classes of those new races would be VERY boring.
Most servers seem to be heavily skewed to one player faction, and balancing this is apparently not at all on the agenda for Blizzard. (Not unusual for a server to have a heavily overloaded capitol on one side and and a near empty one on the other, as what matters are active players, not the percentages of all characters ever rolled on a server. This makes PvP so bad they are going to introduce intra-faction PvP into BGs (such did exist before in Arenas), to "find the best of the best".
I should add a pro, shouldn't I? Ok
Pro: you (and any children in the game) can learn new obscene vocabulary and... scenarios ... in world wide on-by-default chat channels.
Judging by the spam, it is still easy and tolerated to buy accounts, gold, equipment etc., no matter what the TOS and EULA say. So for that sort of gamer, ...
Credit where credit's due. Cataclysm is engaging and welcoming to the new player base. The undead starter zone is a perfect example of the 'wow' factor. The world and storylines are immersive, and the graphics are still stylish (especially for those who refuse to upgrade their hardware with every new xpac). Anyone who played vanilla Wow will recall the tortured and slow levelling, often needing a levelling guide for some relief. That's all gone now.
I quit Wow because like all MMO's, unless you have ample time to do the raid dance, or an obsessive PVP competitve streak, the end game leaves you flat. But for me it will always be the BIG one. There's nothing like it.
I find 8.0 a bit too generous and somehow I have the feeling the author must be a WoW noob. Sure the game has a lot of great new visuals but it has become just too dam easy to enjoy as far as questing is concerned and Azeroth is over run with lvl 85's. Charactor development is poor, gear is lame looking, and PVP play is a joke. BG's are nothing more than events to "carry" noobs to the next lvl. There is a reason that Cata cost WoW 600,000 accounts and my guess is that number will be a lot bigger by years end.
Which begs the question "Which is the bigger fai? WoW or this review?"
8.0 is extremely generous if rating this expansion only. It fell short in so many areas and brought nothing new to the table. Only 2 cities have anybody in them. Quest zones are dead. A good community is non-existent. Sorry, but $40 is not a "great value".
Good marketing review though. It did make me reactivate the 7 free days thing to see what this guy was talking about. It was enough to make me see that it is simply that: a marketing review.