World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack

A solid improvement over the core game and previous expansion, By C. Wynes (Dyersburg, TN)

This expansion has been out for a week, and there are some who would say you can't really review MMORPG content until it's been out long enough to see how it affects the play environment as a whole. There are hundreds of hours of gameplay in this expansion set, and it will be months before anybody has played through the bulk of it. And of course, the release of an expansion has wide affects on style of play, the in-game economy, and the community. Nonetheless, I've played through the entirety of the first two zones, a couple of the new instances, and visited a few other zones, and I think I can give a fairly good assessment of this content.

I'll assume that if you are a devoted and regular player, you've already purchased this or are planning to do so soon. Reviewing the game for them would be pointless. But what about the casual player, or the lapsed player interested in coming back to WoW? For them, this expansion is really top-notch.

To start with, if you enjoy the questing aspect of the game, you're in for a treat. Each zone now has more flypoints, the quest hubs are easy to identify, and there are more quests at each hub. There's less travel time and less hassle keeping track of your quests, which makes the experience of questing much more enjoyable -- and rewarding. I was able to reach lvl 74 solely by completing the two lower-level areas of the new continent, Northrend. In general, the quests are designed very well. Where to go and what to do are usually quite clear from the quest description. Quests are also designed to lead you to other points of interest, such as another travel or quest hub or isolated quest that you might otherwise have missed. There's no more need to grind out part of a level before heading for another zone, the quest experience is more than sufficient to get you prepared for the subsequent zones. This has come quite a long way since the game was released.

The environments are quite pretty, especially for a game running on a 4-year-old graphics engine. The graphics have reportedly been upgraded a bit, but my NVidia 8800GT is still able to play the game on fully maxed-out settings in the range of 50-80fps in the outside enviroments, and up to 200fps inside. The art design is fantastic, especially on the low level zone Howling Fjord. It's impressive that these designers and programmers can do so much visually with a game that needs to be able to play on alot of computers, including those without high-end graphics cards.

If you are one of those casual or lapsed players who are on the fence about this expansion, consider giving it a try. The revisions to the game over the past couple years have really cut down on the things that often gave MMORPG players the biggest headaches. If you have a character at or near lvl 70 and can hop right into the new zones, all the better, as their design seems to be the best yet.

Features of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack

• World of Warcraft: Wrath of King Lich expansion pack for PC and Mac opens the new continent of Northrend
• Death Knight is Warcraft's first hero class and is available for any player with at least a level-55 character
• Northrend offers new environments, including Dragonblight, Grizzly Hills, Borean Tundra, and Howling Fjord
• New creatures inhabit the icy continent, such as Nerubian Viziniers, Plague Eruptors, Shoveltusks and Flesh Giants
• Transform your Death Knight's look with character customization that even include hairstyles and dances

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