WoW: Cataclysm

_World of Warcraft_ has been out, in various forms, for six years, smashing bestseller lists with every expansion pack and earning more loyal fans than any other MMO franchise. In reviewing Cataclysm, it should be safe to assume the reader has at least heard of the game,
and if you are an existing player now is a good time to skip to the next paragraph. For those who have been locked in a fallout shelter since 2004, _WoW_ is a Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game set in the fantasy world of Azeroth, taking its inspiration from many different mythical canons. The game consists in a persistent digital world populated by players and computer-controlled characters, with industry standard RPG levelling up on completion of quests. At maximum level, gameplay switches focus to group endeavours (raids) whose object is to defeat powerful enemies through co-ordination and tactics. Players can also pit themselves against other humans in the open world or in instanced (zoned off) battlegrounds and gladiatorial arenas.

The latest expansion sees players waging war on Deathwing and the Elemental Lords, who have sundered the land. This has caused such calamities as the destruction of Auberdine, the shattering of the World Pillar and Gamon’s upgrade to an elite mob. The low level zones from 1-60 have been entirely redesigned and are now a pleasure to use. Where before there we some utter mares of zones to negotiate (I’m looking at you, Plaguelands) the levelling experience is now painless with lots of high quest density zones and few quests that send you running in opposite directions to one another.

Although strictly a feature of _Wrath of the Lich King’s_ dying patch, every player now has an inbuilt sat-nav showing the nearest item to harvest, mob to kill, or local to talk to. Ironically, Mankrik’s wife disappeared at much the same time as its introduction. 80 – 85 levelling is short but sweet, with hardcore players reaching the cap one or two calendar days after release. Most people can expect to see that final burst of golden sparks inside a fortnight, and on the way there’s plenty of scenery.

One of the possible 80 zones, Vash’jir is a delight, being completely underwater and with some beautiful set pieces such as the inside of an immense conch and a deep-sea bioluminescent valley. Deepholm, the elemental plane of Earth, is next on most levellers’ checklists and somewhat more lacklustre; but it gives way to Uldum, an ancient Egyptian themed zone of breathtaking beauty and with a very fun Indiana Jones pastiche. Whilst pleasant enough, the other zones are just bumps on the road, if much more enjoyable than Dragonblight or Borean Tundra ever were.

Although subject to imminent nerfs, the max level dungeons are very well designed and can be demanding on the party, requiring judicious use of immobilising effects on harder enemies and a good bit of triage on the part of the healer; in the opening days of the expansion full 25-man Kingslayer and better groups were wiping on normal dungeons. Vortex Pinnacle is a personal favourite, looking every bit as shiny as Uldum does stretched out below it. In theory, the game can match you to other players who want to run a dungeon so that you need not have your friends online to play; in practice certain dungeons remain no-go zones with strangers, notably Grim Batol and The Stonecore.

If you must ‘Pickup Group’, then the new profession of Archaeology is the best way to pass the queue times. Conservative estimates claim that it takes 24 hours to level to full, given that the archaeologist must travel the length of the game world (admittedly now by air) to find digsites. Digging itself is a game of “am I getting warm?” which gives pieces of an artefact when won. Eventually the player can recombine the pieces into lore-rich vendor trash or, at the cost of their good karma for the immediate decade, usable arms and armour.

In terms of player-versus-player combat, this expansion sees a completely level playing field for the acquisition of specialised gear, requiring nothing but time and patience to build up a set of respectable armour. Skill, as measured by arena or rated battleground rating, will make the process faster, but (almost) everything is open to all. The shift in Arena is away from the burst damage of _WotLK_ to a more tactical style of play – this reviewer is rated around 1800 in the 2v2 and 3v3 brackets and is thoroughly enjoying the season. Class balance is being taken seriously, with priests and hunters the only really adversely-affected classes, and very positive changes slated. However, all is not well with PvP; Tol Barad, the world battlefeld of _Cataclysm_, is impossibly hard to win as an attacker, and the much trumpeted Rated Battlegrounds are something of a disappointment. In practice, organising 10 to 15 people from different guilds to play together is appallingly impractical; on my home server, trade chat regularly searches for team mates, making the average team less a cohesive military unit and more like a crèche.

To sum up, those players who were disappointed with _WotLK_ will be pleasantly surprised by _Cataclysm_. Current endgame content is pleasingly difficult (for now) and the levelling really is spectacular, with voice chat servers across Europe falling silent in those first few days of exploration. The zones are more inspiring and PvP is more open than it has ever been whilst still demanding a fair amount of skill to hit the higher echelons. Grading the expansion, and not _WoW_ as a whole, I give it 4/5. It’s not quite _Burning Crusade_, but it knocks _Wrath_ out of the water.