Hey people. Rulke here and welcome to part 1 of a 2 part review of World of Warcraft. This week I'll attempt to cover most aspects of the gameplay, covering the new and innovative design features that have made Blizzard Entertainment's brave entry into the MMORPG scene a success story.

Before I start on the specifics, let me explain (for the few that are not aware), something quite important - World of Warcraft belongs to a genre that you either hate with a passion and thoroughly enjoy making life miserable for those special types that do, or you secretly wish you could smother yourself with whipped cream and whisper sweet nothings to the game manual.

Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games [MMORPG] have been with us for quite a few years now, with popular titles such as Ultima Online, Everquest and Star Wars Galaxies, to name but a few. It's taken many years, but finally the one title that shattered sales records for a MMORPG, that blended many of the better features from older games in the somewhat stale genre, but still manages to offer such a unique and invigorating spin on the MMORPG scene, has finally arrived.

your typical housewife in Azeroth

Blizzard Entertainment, previously known for their enormously entertaining and memorable series of Warcraft games, have made their first foray into a difficult genre a total success. Upon its release, and even surprising Blizzard's own estimates of initial sales, all available servers were instantly at capacity, and more were required. Those that have managed to play from launch have certainly been through a few trials. Loot issues, endless lag, freezing etc. Because of the seemingly insatiable lust for World of Warcraft, a huge influx of new servers was required. But this massive boost of servers also added quite a few stability problems on the existing servers, therefore causing added havoc and agony for the players. But to their credit, apart from a few annoyingly
un-heralded server shutdowns, and the occasional lag, most issues have been fixed. At last count, there are 88 servers available with no apparent restrictions on how many characters can be played on each server.

words cannot describe...

Gameplay

The one thing that strikes me most about World of Warcraft is how approachable it is. Taking the best features of other titles has certainly paid off. The unencumbered interface, low down time in healing, short loading times through the very few zones that do exist etc. While fresh and innovative in its approach, Blizzard have been sure to keep the fundamentals intact, such as gaining experience levels, solo or group play, searching for that ever elusive powerful item and exploring and quests. It's so darn easy that, apart from optional in-game pop-up tips, there isn't even a tutorial.

Starting World of Warcraft is a painless procedure. With 88 servers (or realms) on offer, you can choose between a role-playing realm for those who prefer to continuously play in character, PVE realms which caters for both player against environment and consensual player versus player, or PVP, which in certain areas is continuous player versus player. Next up is which side to choose. Either fight for the valiant, courageous and dashing races of the Alliance (huzza!!!) which are the Night Elves, Human, Gnomes and smelly Dwarves, or fight for the wretched, foul brutes that belong to the races of the Horde (booooo!!) which are the Orc's, Tauren, Trolls and the Undead.

Upon your choice of side and race, you're faced with nine different classes which consist of Hunter, Paladin, Rogue, Priest, Mage, Warlock, Druid and Shaman. Of course, not all classes are available for every race. Last option is to name your alter-ego. For those fighting to come up with an imaginative name, you have a name generator at your disposal. As far as character creation is concerned, that's it. It's fast, easy and a delight

taxi service Azeroth style

An unfortunate aspect of most MMORPG's is the mundane and repetitive nature of the gameplay. Too often you were forced to grind through objectives of no consequence, sit through hours of unrelenting missions with no variety. But happily, this is where World of Warcraft shines. Each time a new location is entered, you'll find an overwhelming amount of quests helpfully given out by characters with huge yellow exclamation points over their heads. Managing these quests is thankfully made simple by the fact that if haven't sufficiently advanced your character, you wont be offered the quests. The way quests help to 'flesh-out' World of Warcraft, to give meaning and context to the precious hours you spend playing, is very satisfying. The type of quests on offer is staggering. From simple delivery missions that lead you into unexplored lands (and invariably a plethora of new characters with a whole new set of quests you frustratingly must leave behind for fear of being led astray from the task at hand), to multi-part romps that reveal certain story points along the way, the scope and variety of quests on offer is tremendous, which of course adds to the very dangerous addictive nature of this game (mind you, not addictive enough to stop having to change dirty nappys... bugger). I'm grateful that Blizzard, unlike other titles, has imposed a limit of 20 quests you may have active. 20 may sound like a small amount, but as mentioned, many quests are not just single stage affairs, but massive under-takings that may require a large party to complete. A nice touch is the ability to share certain quests with anyone in particular that happens to be in the same area. If the going gets too rough, generally one request for help using the user-friendly chat system will be sufficient.

Travel within the lands of Azeroth takes on many interesting forms. You can cover large distances between continents via ships, travel within the lands on the backs of gryphons and various other forms of winged creatures for a small charge, mounts that are only available once your character has gained a certain level and sufficient funds, which speed you across the land at a brisk pace, as well as certain class-specific forms of travel. Of course, those of us too poor to afford such grand luxuries as mounts can always fall back on the tried and tested method of running. Besides being the easiest way to explore new lands and all manner of dangerous creatures to behold (if you catch a Night Elf running for dear life, say hi - we'll have a coffee and chat), the only way to actually travel in the friendly skies of Azeroth is by first visiting your destination by foot, thereby opening up the route for later travel. Luckily, travelling by foot isn't as tedious as it may sound because of the impressive road system. Most destinations are clearly and easily accessible by roads, slight pathways, or simple dirt tracks leading over that next hill you just know will make you turn around and scream for mamma.

boats are for common people

Of course, all this running around will eventually lead to your merry death by the hands of some rather nasty creatures (sadly, an all too common occurrence for this curious night-elf). Blizzard's player death implementation has got to be the most impressive approach I have seen to date in the genre. No more massive experience penaltys upon death and no more insanely long corpse retrieval runs. Death has turned from a major time wasting pain to a small annoyance. Upon death, you find yourself respawned as a ghost in the nearest graveyard, faced with 2 options. Either you head back to your corpse, which is never far away, or take the easy option and use the healing angel. This character resurrects you at the graveyard, but with a 25% durability loss on your items, and a 75% reduction on your stats. It sounds worse than it is. The durability loss can be easily overcome by paying for repairs, usually at the nearest settlement. The stat reduction is also only temporary. Now if only we had such a painless death system in real life, walking into a war-zone would be considered fun.

friendly native

Another great idea Blizzard have implemented is the fact that not everyone can afford (or in my case, is 'allowed') to spend endless hours playing World of Warcraft. If you like playing with your friends but fear that by going away on that yearly cruise to the Caribbean with the mistress will set you back too far in levels, aside from playing on the ship (I'm sold), this novel approach will help - the time you don't spend playing gives a rested bonus, which temporarily doubles the experience gained. While you won't gain many levels, it certainly attempts to bridge the gap between casual play and those devil spawned power-gamers (wanted to say that for ages).

So ends the first part of the Internode Games Network review of World of Warcraft. I hope you have enjoyed the first small glimpse of what is a unique and incredibly addictive game. Stay tuned next week where I get down and dirty with combat, the graphics, sound and much more.

Cheers,
Rulke