So this is Blizzard's third expansion for WoW. After having played vanilla WoW and BC I took a little hiatus from playing. I did buy WotLK when it came out but never actually played it....until Cataclysm came around. I liked what I hear of the changes Cata was going to bring, so I fired up my old account, dusted off my 60 and 70's and got down to playing.
So...initial impressions were good. I made a Death Knight, was favourably disposed towards their starting area, then ventured out into the new Eastern Kingdoms! Graphically, the changes are interesting. Some nice new zones, lots of new content etc. The water graphics update looked a bit weird at first, having been used to the old version, but it grew on me, although it now makes the rest of the scenery look sub-standard by comparison.
As my DK went thru 60 and 70 and I played thru BC and WotLK I was reminded of the good old days. Of course, the power jump that was so marked in BC, whereby all your old equipment becomes useless within the first zone, was very evident in WotLK and extremely evident in Cata. It's not just a matter of a little bit better, either. It's vastly more powerful as you go from one to the other.
Likewise there have been a lot of gameplay changes since I last played. Personally, I think the game has never been easier to get into, but that's also (at least for me) a drawback. The questing is so easy now, that it's a waste of time to read the quest text. Just pick up all the quests, open your map and head off to the nearest one. Creatures that need killing are highlighted for you, so you really have to have zero knowledge of what your doing in order to progress. This is a little too easy, to my mind.
Likewise (and I don't know when they brought this in) old class quests, such as the Paladin's mount quest, or master profession quests, have vanished entirely. Now you just buy that Warhorse, or the next level of a profession. There's no real struggle.
Flying is now doable at lvl 60 (It used to be 70). Riding is now 20 (was 40) and learning these skills and buying the mounts is cheaper than ever before. Oddly, though, gaining gold is also easier.
There are new races and classes and even new secondary professions, but essentially, its more of the same, but made even easier.
I suspect that end game raiding is still much the same and I haven't looked into PvP much but it also seems similar.
With each new expansion, Blizzard move the goal posts and up the power level. But what they are really doing is just reissuing the same game with new toys and areas and bolting it on to what is already there. It really is just more of the same.
It would be nice if, rather than doing this, they made the game have more long term appeal. I know there are lots of subscribers, like me, who buy the new expansion, play it and then quit until the next one comes along. Wouldn't it be better to keep those players that quit? Give them something else to do in the meantime? The endless grinding of end-game bosses in order to get a 1% drop chance of some ludicrously over-the-top piece of armour or weapon can't be all there is to this game.
Having said that, WoW does remain the premier mmorpg out there. But in the six years since I wrote my original review of WoW the graphics have barely changed and the gameplay has gotten simpler and easier. It's difficult to think of Blizzard actually bothering to add anything substantially new to the game any time soon.
No doubt, though I have serious reservations and mixed feelings about its worth, I will buy the next expansion. And I'll buy it with the certainty that all I'm getting is more of the same, just with higher power levels and the same awful graphics and simplistic gameplay. But, as before, I expect I will play it thru then unsub again.
And all the while I'll have that feeling that I've wasted money and time I could have better spent elsewhere.
EDIT (To add thoughts on the next expansion): It has Pandas! And Pokemons! And Monks! Oh my! Also, as I suspected, more of the same and even simpler gameplay. Will I get it? I'll wait and see what else they reveal before making a decision. Gut instinct is no, it's not for me. But we'll see.
So...initial impressions were good. I made a Death Knight, was favourably disposed towards their starting area, then ventured out into the new Eastern Kingdoms! Graphically, the changes are interesting. Some nice new zones, lots of new content etc. The water graphics update looked a bit weird at first, having been used to the old version, but it grew on me, although it now makes the rest of the scenery look sub-standard by comparison.
As my DK went thru 60 and 70 and I played thru BC and WotLK I was reminded of the good old days. Of course, the power jump that was so marked in BC, whereby all your old equipment becomes useless within the first zone, was very evident in WotLK and extremely evident in Cata. It's not just a matter of a little bit better, either. It's vastly more powerful as you go from one to the other.
Likewise there have been a lot of gameplay changes since I last played. Personally, I think the game has never been easier to get into, but that's also (at least for me) a drawback. The questing is so easy now, that it's a waste of time to read the quest text. Just pick up all the quests, open your map and head off to the nearest one. Creatures that need killing are highlighted for you, so you really have to have zero knowledge of what your doing in order to progress. This is a little too easy, to my mind.
Likewise (and I don't know when they brought this in) old class quests, such as the Paladin's mount quest, or master profession quests, have vanished entirely. Now you just buy that Warhorse, or the next level of a profession. There's no real struggle.
Flying is now doable at lvl 60 (It used to be 70). Riding is now 20 (was 40) and learning these skills and buying the mounts is cheaper than ever before. Oddly, though, gaining gold is also easier.
There are new races and classes and even new secondary professions, but essentially, its more of the same, but made even easier.
I suspect that end game raiding is still much the same and I haven't looked into PvP much but it also seems similar.
With each new expansion, Blizzard move the goal posts and up the power level. But what they are really doing is just reissuing the same game with new toys and areas and bolting it on to what is already there. It really is just more of the same.
It would be nice if, rather than doing this, they made the game have more long term appeal. I know there are lots of subscribers, like me, who buy the new expansion, play it and then quit until the next one comes along. Wouldn't it be better to keep those players that quit? Give them something else to do in the meantime? The endless grinding of end-game bosses in order to get a 1% drop chance of some ludicrously over-the-top piece of armour or weapon can't be all there is to this game.
Having said that, WoW does remain the premier mmorpg out there. But in the six years since I wrote my original review of WoW the graphics have barely changed and the gameplay has gotten simpler and easier. It's difficult to think of Blizzard actually bothering to add anything substantially new to the game any time soon.
No doubt, though I have serious reservations and mixed feelings about its worth, I will buy the next expansion. And I'll buy it with the certainty that all I'm getting is more of the same, just with higher power levels and the same awful graphics and simplistic gameplay. But, as before, I expect I will play it thru then unsub again.
And all the while I'll have that feeling that I've wasted money and time I could have better spent elsewhere.
EDIT (To add thoughts on the next expansion): It has Pandas! And Pokemons! And Monks! Oh my! Also, as I suspected, more of the same and even simpler gameplay. Will I get it? I'll wait and see what else they reveal before making a decision. Gut instinct is no, it's not for me. But we'll see.