World of Warcraft (Mac/PC)

If you are anything like me however TAKE CARE. This game is very hard to put down and VERY time consuming. Most of the decent things (dungeon raids etc) take a long time to organise (some needing 40 people to be in the same place at the same time), and a lot more time to do. You CAN log on and play for a bit, but to get most things done will take a solid 2-3 hours playing, and thats at a minimum.

This game is so addictive that I recommended it to an acholoic friend and he has now become totally immersed. It has really helped his drink problem and now he spends most of his time glued to the PC instead of drinking. He used to go straight from work to the pub, now he goes straight home to play. The game really is that addictive. You can't stop, and there is ALWAYS something new to do, or better to get.

I have now managed to stop playing, but only until the expansion comes out, and I still dream of WOW regualarly.

In summary; An excellent game, way ahead of any of it's competition. But if you are into your fansy/MMorph and often find yourself spending more time playing than you should then HANDLE WITH CARE.


oh yes   November 8, 2004
 167 out of 189 found this review helpful

blizzard are in my opinion, one of the best 4 games developers in the world, with the starcraft, diablo and warcraft series, they have proven themselves to know how to make fundamentally excellent and enjoyable games, which is exactly what an MMORPG needs to be

world of warcraft is an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) set in the history-rich world of azeroth, you pick a team - there are two teams at "war" - the horde and the alliance, though that's not to say this is strictly a player vs player game though, there are non-pvp servers where the war atmosphere is maintained through other methods, the horde are comprised of orcs, undead, tuaren and trolls, while the alliance are humans, night elves, dwarves and gnomes.

along with choosing a team & race, you must choose a class, there are a number of classes such as:

Paladin: a holy knight, capable of taking damage well, who can also heal competently and has other support spells
Rogue: a sneaky chap who strikes from the shadows, causing incredible amounts of melee damage
Warrior: the warrior is typically the chap responsible for taking damage in fights, they have the most health and the best armour, along with skills designed around them taking damage and holding "hate" so the enemy sticks on the warrior instead of attacking weaker classes, although, quite uniquely in wow you can design your character around being an offensive warrior, or berserker, who can do melee damage which almost rivals that of a rogue
Hunter: the hunter is a ranged attacker (guns or bows) who commands the respect of animals, he can "charm" an animal to his side and it becomes his permanent pet, he is capable of reasonable damage with many utility spells
Mage: a powerful class designed around doing a lot of damage over a short period of time (direct damage spells)
Warlock: the warlock is a class designed around doing a lot of damage over a long period of time, on long encounters (raid bosses etc) their damage is unsurpassed, they also command demons pets which they may summon to their aid (including a warrior type pet and a rogue type pet, and more), warlocks also have many useful utility spells
Shaman: the shaman is described as a hybrid class, they are competent healers, able to take damage reasonably well when needed, and able to cause damage reasonably well, sort of a combination of a mage, warrior and priest, yet the sum of their parts is no more powerful than any one of their component classes, they also have powerful utility spells and "buffs"
Priest: the priest is the generic healer, he has powerful healing spells, resurrection spells and buffs (statistic improvements), or you can specialise in offensive damage as a priest
Druid: the druid is a difficult class to describe, in their natural state, they command nature magics, able to heal well and cause damage well, they also have what is described as the best buff in the game, yet their strength (and weakness) is their versatility, they are able to shapeshift into various forms, such as a cat (which gives them limited rogue abilities) a bear (which gives them limited warrior abilities) and more, their versatility means they can fill almost any role needed in a group, but since they do not do anything as well as the "parent" class, they are considered to be the "silver medal" of the game at this point

after you have decided on your class, you must venture out into the wide world, filled with hundreds, and probably even thousands of other players (depending on your server), here you adventure, quest, fight, gain experience, level up, and gain new abilities and spells. As you adventure you will learn more about the world, its history, and perhaps make friends along the way

although most MMOs are designed around group play (and wow is not especially different here), all classes are able to "solo" (fight alone) to a reasonable degree, group play is beneficial, but no longer will you have to sit for 40 minutes just to get in a group, like you did in, say, everquest. Also unlike everquest, the game isn't designed around the "grind" (tedious constant killing of enemies to gain experience), the game is more quest-based and the concept of "downtime" (having to rest to regain strength after fights) barely exists. Wow is a game of fun, not a game of work (unlike everquest & probably eq2). Players can also band togther to form guilds, guilds will bring a strong sense of community to the game

at high levels (60, and beyond as expansions are made), the game will cater for "raids", raids are events where guilds fight very powerful AI creatures which may take 40+ people to kill, but the loot (items) they drop will be incredibly powerful, unlike Everquest and other MMOs, wow will mostly have "instanced raids", this is where carbon copies of the zone are "spawned" specifically for your guild or group, meaning there will be no competition for items, quests and zones, meaning also that any guild will be able to get into raiding

the game also has a number of "battlegrounds", where players can fight other players (remember, this is *war*craft), and possibly parttake in sieges on enemy cities and strongholds

along with all this, the game will have a rich tradeskill based economy, where players can gather components then produce items from them, then sell or use them

along with the "player vs environment" servers, there are also full on player vs player servers, where players can enjoy the full atmosphere of the war, with an honour system where people are rewared with honour for killing players near/above their level, and lose honour for killing players who are significantly lower than they are in level (with appropriate rewards/pubishments for having high/low honour) the game will stay fun and hopefully put off the "griefers" who just want to pvp to make other people's lives miserable

the game has so many little touches of brilliance, it's hard to sum them all up.. you can fly around the world by griffin, ride by beast or walk on foot, every class is unique and enjoyable, and develops well over the 60 levels

ultimately, world of warcraft is looking like being as close to perfect as you can get from an MMO, unfortunately the US release has been forced by the publishers so the game is probably going to launch unfinished, but with a february 05-ish release looking likely for UK, the game should be finely polished by then

blizzard are one of the best four games developers in the world in my opinion, and although they've made many mistakes (this is their first mmo afterall, and it's not even finished yet), it is looking like being another wonderful game, and a benchmark in MMO history


Casual gamers can enjoy this too (sort of)   August 16, 2006
 33 out of 37 found this review helpful

OK, you've read how deep this game is, how much there is to do, and how much of your life this will suck up when it arrives on your doormat from the nice people at Amazon... however, if like me you are a casual gamer and don't want to wind up playing until 4am every morning, then maybe what I am about to tell you is of interest...

I consider myself a casual gamer, and frankly after reading some of these reviews, I wasn't going to buy this game! Some of my friends got it though, so I decided to take the plunge.

I found that this game caters for the so-called 'casual gamer' in a specific way. If you only play every couple of days, the rate at which you gain 'points' (from killing things) is faster compared to a player who plays every single day. This effect has a limit however, and only works if you 'sleep' at an inn or something when you log off. What it means however is that you stand a reasonable chance of being able to catch up in terms of points with your friends if you don't play often and they play regularly (unless your friends are complete maniacs that is).

These points ultimately determine how 'powerful' your character is, and what sort of equipment and weapons it can use and what kind of 'quests' you can do.

The learning curve is quite shallow, so you will be on basic 'quests' in no time, and after every session you stand a chance of feeling as if you have achieved something.

In order to do more interesting quests, you need to have a reasonable total of points, and here's the rub.

In my experience, the game definitely rewards immersion. You will get what you put into it. Casual gamers will scratch the surface and enjoy what they experience, but people who have the time and inclination to really explore and get into it will be rewarded exponentially. The first time few times you complete a quest like 'kill 10 boars' or 'pick 20 flowers' you'll feel pretty pleased with yourself, but the game does offer so much more than that, and you will only really experience this if you are willing to invest yourself heavily.

More advanced quests take longer to achieve, so if a gaming 'session' revolves around achieving something in the game, then your sessions will get longer and longer.

Those who are really time constrained will also come across moral dilemmas which will be new if you've never played this kind of game before. For instance, if a stranger has helped you accomplish something in the game, you will feel morally obliged to help them back, so it will be hard to stop playing until you've returned the favour, even though it's getting late and your eyelids are getting heavier...

So the bottom line - casual gamers will still enjoy this game, but (assuming you don't go mad and spend all hours playing this) it will take a longer time to get to the really great bits that get people referring to this game as a masterpiece. This may in fact be a good trade-off to keep your spouse, job, health, sanity, etc.


WOW   March 11, 2005
 30 out of 34 found this review helpful

Never played an online game before but, as I have always enjoyed Warcraft I, II and III, I thought I'd give it a go. Fully expected to cancel my account before the first chargeable month. Now think I may never cancel.

Don't give the monthly charge a second thought, as you will save far more through the fact that you will never have the time go down the pub again. In fact, you will probably never go out at all. There will also be no point in you buying any other games as you will not want to waste any WOW time playing them. What you should worry about is: lack of sleep, and a total inability to think about anything in the real world, leading to loss of: job, wife, kids, health, sanity...................

This is a truly beautiful and totally absorbing game. Buy it and kiss goodbye to everything else in your life.