World of WarCraft Review

Every great once in a while, there's a game that doesn't do anything new or incredibly

inventive but manages to do everything right. World of Warcraft is this game. Thanks to the

fine people at Blizzard and my friend/editor Jakub, I haven't lost this much sleep in quite

some time.
Blizzard has pulled off a rather perfect coup by taking the formula that has made games like

EverQuest and Anarchy Online so popular and refining it down to it's most simple form. The down

time is minimal and the action is often quite furious. What it all comes down to is that this

game is, for lack of a better word, fun. Yes, fun is a dubious word to use in the magical,

make-believe art of game reviewing, but there it is. I dropped the fun bomb. It's very blatant

and I make no apologies. This game is crazy fun. And there are several justifications for this

statement.

Blizzard owns several very successful game franchises. Anyone that plays games has more than

likely heard of Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo. The communities around these games are

unbelievably large and for a very good reason: Blizzard releases high quality work. Along with

the basic quality of their games, the WarCraft series also has a deep back story with plenty of

possible cool locations to explore. Playing through any of the WarCrafts, you'l come upon

plenty of places that stand out and would make good landmarks in an RPG. There's something to

be said for seeing many of the locations in a 3D world. One of the real joys of playing a MMO

is the exploration and discovery, which World of Warcraft offers in spades.

The clincher, though, is the fact that Blizzard puts a ton of work and quality control into all

of their games. While the constant delays may drive fans nuts, there's no denying that a first

impression lasts a lifetime, especially with a pay-to-play MMO. Blizzard's recent server

capacity problems only highlight this fact.
So, let's get down to it. World of Warcraft is a MMO. If you didn't know that already, maybe

you shouldn't be reading this. Just in case some of you have been out of the loop, a MMO is a

Massively Multiplayer Online Game that is often fitted with a role playing theme. World of

Warcraft is just that. It's a RPG based in the WarCraft universe that allows you the option of

playing either the Horde or the Alliance.


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