This is big news for those of you who have never played World of Warcraft, or need to pick up some new expansions. Before today, I’d only played World of Warcraft for about 5 minutes. In those days I was spoiled by the game play of Final Fantasy XI. So, hotkey based combat, and not being able to program in a controller didn’t really interest me. Today, I decided to give the game another shot, since I have gone cold turkey on Final Fantasy XI. I wanted to take an unbiased look at the game in order to share the news of this sale with people in a fair way. I’ll also share my new thoughts on the game itself, with a fresh perspective.
The News
Until June 24th World of Warcraft Battle Chest, Cataclysm, and Mists of Pandaria are on sale. Both the Battle Chest, and Cataclysm can be purchased digitally for $5 each, with Mists of Pandaria being cut to $20. A word of advice, however; if you do buy the expansion, buy them individually, otherwise you only get 1 free 30 day pass (after which you would need to subscribe to continue playing). Other than that, this is a really good deal. Even I took advantage of the deal, and I’ve given my buddies who play WoW crap for years.
The Game.
Playing through the game a bit, I’ve only been disappointed by one thing up. Death Knight; you can only create a Death Knight if you have a character higher than level 55. Death Knight is the one class I just have to play. So I ended up choosing a Night Elf Rogue, named her KoirSparren (I tend to use the names of characters from my books for my online aliases), with the intention of hitting 55 so I can unlock Death Knight.
First unbiased impression.
The first thing that caught my attention, as old as WoW is, it has voice overs. The graphics may be sub-par to what we’re all used to these days, but I canlive with that. What I was concerned with was the controls. I don’t play using a keyboard/mouse setup primarily because my hands cramp up. My fears about WoW’s mouse and keyboard layout were not unjustified, my hands cramped up running around doing miniscule quests. While this isn’t a game flaw, it does lessen my motivation to play.
My WoW future?
Despite my few complaints, I could see myself playing WoW as a casual game. It’s not the best MMO I’ve ever played, but it’s certainly not a Warhammer Age of Reckoning either. If I had to list a goal for this game though, I’d say it’d be unlocking Death Knight. Death Knight looks pretty cool.
