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World of plenty

Ben Oliver | 5th Dec 2006 | 10:00

I’m glad to say I’m no longer a World of Warcraft virgin. I was two years late jumping on the bandwagon but I’ve found it well worth the wait. To give an objective review I created a character for both the Alliance and Horde factions. For the former I chose to play as a human mage, who bore a startling resemblance to the missus. After confirming the idiot in myself by failing to see the game registration number under one of the disc holders, I finally got going.

Everything started very straight forward; my avatar had brown, hair and a supermodel body. As should every self respecting mage. Next thing you know I’m in an Abbey which could have been anywhere in England but was actually in Elywen Forrest. After some brief exploration I got my first few quests, simple stuff, like taking out the local wildlife. How P.E.T.A feels about this aspect of WoW I’m not sure. I was then blessed with the sound every RPG gamer longs to hear, the level up noise. This continued for the next few hours, travelling to quaint towns, exploring monster filled mines and even having a couple pints of virtual ale.

It's all gone Disney...

This was all fun but I never got completely enthralled by it. The landscape, although beautiful was a bit too Disney Land for me. Everywhere, giant spiders were roaming next to pixel versions of Bambi. It all seemed to clean. So after about level 10 (there are 60 levels in the game) I got a bit bored of helping farmer Billy win over the love of his life or killing x number of wildlife for a potion.

It was time for a change of scenery. I went to the opposite end of the scale and chose to play as an undead warrior in the drastically different Trisifal Glades. The land reflects the dark character this race posses. Without going too deep into the story, the land was hit by a plague that turned everyone into the undead. Except now they’re free willed. This aspect was appealing, sure they’re decomposing but they’re still people. Unsurprisingly, you start off in a graveyard and after speaking with the main contact the process began again. This time I enjoyed it a lot more. Unlike the mage who has to wait for a spell to be cast and is then left almost defenceless when they’re mana (power) runs out, the warrior can steam in and cleave anything that moves.


Moving on up

Finishing all the quests in the starting area, I moved to the more advanced areas that offer longer quests involving other players for the first time. I’d played multiplayer games before but this was brilliant. Banding together with a bunch of complete strangers for mutual gain was a great aspect of the game experience. There’s a huge sense of satisfaction trying to go into a crypt by yourself and being annihilated only to come back later with a posse and destroy anything and everything.

A few hours later and I was at level 12 with a fair bit of the world explored and some cool gear. After running out of quests in the near vicinity and not wanting to travel to areas where I’d be killed on site I began a process that WoW players call ‘grinding.’

This involved finding an area with monsters on the same level and fighting one after another until you reach the next level. Although this was the least enjoyable aspect it is something you come to expect in RPGs. The way to look at it: a small amount of pain for an otherwise flawless experience.

My time in WoW has been brief but already I’m hooked. With the promise of entire new lands to explore, new treasures to find and a never ending supply of people to meet I can see why WoW has become such a massive success. Let’s hope I can get uber enough for the expansion pack out next January.


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