World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Reviews

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Written by Brother None on December 20th, 2010

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The new zones are, mostly, very good. Uldum, mentioned earlier, is the standout: a comedy interpretation of Egyptian legend that plays out brilliantly. Deepholm is a vast underground cavern that seems to stretch on forever, and despite the claustrophobia, it's remarkably fun. Vash'jir, once you get over the fact you're underwater the entire time, is smart, although it seems to drag on. Being given a seahorse to swim around on helps. Twilight Hylands, the very last zone you enter, is ferociously story focused; it isn't as heavily themed as the other zones, but it does introduce you to a new Orc clan, and provide background to the baddie of the expansion: the dragon Deathwing.

Which leaves Mount Hyjal, which is a disappointment. The idea is that you're defending, and eventually repairing, a giant tree, on the site of the culminating battle of Warcraft III. It doesn't work, partly, I think, it's because you never get a sense of the location you hop between caverns, portals, and points of interest too quickly to really stop and look around. Partly, as well, the zone feels upside-down. The quest flow directs you down the mountain. Ascending for a final battle would make more narrative sense. Finally, the story isn't focused enough: it's got a giant turtle, a passable interpretation of the arcade game Joust, elementals, Twilight Council, this and that. Everything is thrown at you to hold interest, but nothing sticks, nor is there a memorable character. Compare that with the excellent questline in Twilight Highlands, which covers some of the same story beats, but does it with a funky new Orc War Lady-person.

Sure, the quests are the same "Collect 10 Ears", "Kill 20 Shaman", "Interact with that orb over there" but Blizzard has pulled out all the stops with the writing and now you feel like a part of the story. Be it fleeing the volcano at Kezan or fighting the Alliance with the Krom'gar in Stonetalon Mountains.

My one gripe, is that from level 60 to 80 the new quests stop and you're back in the old content from The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King.

Working with other players in a guild has always made getting ahead easier, but Blizzard has decided to start rewarding players for collaborating. New guild achievements (received when a guild quests together or runs dungeons, raids, or arena play) are sold by guild vendors in capital cities. The rewards are exceptional, too, and include pets, mounts, gear, and recipes.

This makes it tougher, though, for folks who prefer to play solo. While guild perks are not crucial for success in the game, they can offer significant advantages, while individual achievements gained in solo play rarely come with such rewards.

Cataclysm is World Of Warcraft's best expansion so far, but not all the new content is created equal. The weakest part of Cataclysm is its new secondary profession, archaeology, which lets players search the world for artifact fragments that can be combined to create items. While it introduces a clever idea of gathering sites keyed to specific characters rather than available to all, pinpointing artifact locations amounts to a tedious game of hotter/colder. The new Alliance race, the werewolf-like worgen, has an angsty and especially brutal starting zone, but it can't stand up to the goblin starting area. Even for those with no intention of playing the new Horde race regularly, it's worth spending a few hours going through the hilarious quest chain that will have you riding around with your posse, robbing a bank, committing insurance fraud, and generally indulging the race's love for explosions.

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