Review: World of Warcraft

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I’ve been playing quite a lot of games lately trying to find one that I just enjoy and can play for hours upon hours.

I gave WoW a try, although I had some what played it before this is now an aged MMO with a recent Legion expansion.

There are a ton of options and customisations before you start.  The world is immense in size and there are still plenty of people playing.

Sadly though there is one thing that’s a major let down:

The Story

As a fan of RPGs on their story, a few cut scenes and a pivotal direction to follow while still exploring.  I found myself disappointed on one text quest to another.  One miniscule unimportant quest to guess what another.  Although for a while I was following these quests which helped me explore the world.. I recently finished them all and found myself thinking.. what now.. where do I go?  I’ve just done all the quests in this dark forest area as a bad guy but…  where am I supposed to go.

I had a good look at the map and the areas near me are not slightly higher than me but instead quite a bit high but look there an area just ripe for me.  So I wandered off to that zone to look for a place to level up and perhaps find if there is some story.  I found some quests to complete while I avoided death walking in an area 10-15+ levels above me

recently finished a quest involving killing 4 or was it 5 big beasts in this conquered fortress.  I had to kill one each per quest and also collect some eggs from a poison bear.

Still sadly I’ve had no real story or even a direction to follow once I completed this area.  I wandered some more and found a weak area that offered me pets to fight with? Unfortunately there is more text quests and not actually much help to guide me on what I’m supposed to do.  I even gave the dungeon finder a few tries and luckily enough people were generous enough to help me and tell me what I needed to do.  I assumed as a tank it would be like any tank in a game where I keep hate – they kill – I get healed.  This is probably the only thing I feel I done right.

Graphics

I kept being told that legion provided far better and bigger graphics, either I’m doing something wrong or is this a lie?  Wow doesn’t look any different to me at all so I am guessing this is legion areas only?

I’ve googled and looked on blizzard forums and all I see is spec requirements which I am more than matched for.  So is WoW really still on old graphics?

The other bits

Levelling up in this game doesn’t feel like a chore, I guess when you lived on XI for a decade you kind of feel like a grind will never compete with spending 3-4 hours just to get a single level…. That’s without quests.. that’s just sitting in an area killing the same creatures on and on and guess what on.

Exploring is pretty fun.. you never know what’s around the next corner and it does feel like this land is huge.  Unlike XI you don’t need to be with someone.. you can wander the lands.. kill stuff.. do quests all alone.

Don’t get me wrong if you love RPGs and the classic text quests.. this game is perfect for you.  I shouldn’t complain too much because this is an old style game just like XI but although that game lacked real quests to gain experience it does however beat WoW in regards to story by far.  There is no competition regarding story on WoW/XI.  WoW though dominates the way you level where it doesn’t feel like a grind compared to XI.  XI you would gather together in a party (which at times could take hours) just to find a spot (which again wasn’t always free) just to sit there and kill the same creatures for hours (there was no guarantee a wipe wouldn’t scrap your party wasting more hours).  It feels like SE/Blizzard should have got together to create their games.  If XI didn’t have that grind fest but more of a quest levelling similar to WoW it would have dominated as much as WoW did (perhaps anyway).

A very good game but I don’t think I could go back to it without levelling with someone who knows where to go etc.  I can’t go in to too much detail until I return to this game and really give it more attention.