World of Warcraft, a popular massively multiplayer online roll playing game, puts you in the shoes of a hero that lives in Azeroth, a world torn by war. As a hero, it is your duty to aid your people by completing quests, exploring dungeons, and of course, slaying your enemies.
Story: 4/5
In the World of Warcraft, the story is what you make it. The game is incredibly non-linear, allowing you to do practically anything, and go practically any where you want, any time you want. Although there is pretty much no real story to play through in the World of Warcraft, there is a story leading up to it:
In the World of Azeroth, the peaceful populace of the eastern kingdoms was shattered by the invasion of a brutish, war-driven race known as the Orcs. The humans of lorderon fought bravely against these Orcs. Finally, at the end of the second war, the Orcs were defeated and the remaining Orcs were placed in internment camps. During the time, the undead scourge, led by the dreadlord Malganis, started plaguing the northern lands of lorderon, turning the innocent populace into undead warriors. The prince of lorderon, Arthas, led an assualt on Malganis and defeated him, only to be turned undead himself. With the help of the necromancer Kel Thusad, Arthas summoned the true master of the undead, Archimond of the Burning Legion. The mortal races of Azeroth had no choice but to throw there differences away and fight together against the Burning Legion. Archimond was succesfully defeathed, but driven by old hatreds the horde and the alliance soon turned against each out creating a whole new age of war.
For a mor in-dpeth look at the story, visit the official World of Warcraft website.
Gameplay: 5/5
In World of Warcraft your hero can be one of 8 different races, each with there own strengths and weaknesses. In addition you also choose from 9 different classes each with their own set of skills and abilities. Choosing your race is important because it devides how you play the game. In World of Warcraft there are 2 different factions the horde and the alliance. Four of the races are part of the horde and four are part of the alliance. These two factions are constantly at war so essentially the race you pick determines the type of quests you get and the regions you can safely explore.
Azeroth is absolutely massice. When you first start playing, you will be amazed at the pure size of the world. Just traveling from place to place can take hors because of the realistic size of the game.
The combat system in World of Warcraft is very complicated, but made easy through the use of toolbars with ability icons. Simply clicking a button will allow you to perform specific actions in combat. The different tpyes of skills and abilities offer many differnet strategies and way to play the game.
Visuals: 5/5
The graphics in World of Warcraft are very impressive. The game is full of very bright and vibrant colors which effectively create the feelings of a living world. The character models are very well done, and the buildings and landscapes look very realistic. The game is just plain beautiful.
Sound: 3/5
Sound is definitely not where the game shines. There are very few music tracks in the game, and there not even that great. The sound effects are mediocore, with simple hack and slash sounds for combat, and blasting sounds for spells. There is also little to no voice acting in the game. The only voices you hear are quick line from the NPC's when ever you click on them, which is quickly followed by a long line of text.
Overall: 22/25
World of Warcraft is a game that everyone should defiinatly play. The amount of hours you can acutally spend playing this game (and having fun too) is uncountable. This is a definate buy for anyone who can afford it.
Review by: Mike
