World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Review

[EDITOR'S NOTE] When we decided that we wanted to cover Wrath of the Lich King, we determined that an expansion review like this one would only really be useful to people who are still playing World of Warcraft--or people who played a lot of it and stopped, but might be interested in coming back. Since the four of us haven't played World of Warcraft in ages, we decided to enlist the assistance of the upstairs technical crew. Andy McCurdy has been playing World of Warcraft since the beginning with no serious breaks, so we figured he'd be the best guy to figure out if the new stuff Blizzard added is worth your time.

Give or take, Wrath of the Lich King marks World of Warcraft's fourth birthday. Think back to what you were doing in 2004. You were probably into the Xbox or PlayStation 2, and perhaps you were really excited about that Halo sequel that all the kids were playing. Maybe you were a little ahead of the curve and were waiting patiently for God of War, which would ship the following Spring. Point being, it's been a long time since World of Warcraft's initial release. But over those four years, Warcraft has changed. It's almost turned into a platform unto itself, with the kind of monthly improvements that other MMO developers have often talked about but never get around to implementing. But Blizzard's good ideas have a way of actually making it into their game, a trend that continues with this latest expansion. Wrath of the Lich King implements a mess of cool improvements, pushing the game forward and further cementing World of Warcraft's place at the very top of the genre.

While there are plenty of meaty gameplay changes to consider, the most major improvement that Wrath brings to the world is in its story. This expansion elevates the delivery of lore in World of Warcraft via a new set of real-time cinematics, player-perspective landscapes that change as a result of your actions, and inventive new quest designs. A large number of the newly available quests surround the story of Arthas, the fallen knight who originally appeared in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, and the land of Northrend. The game doesn't expect you to remember the events of Warcraft III, though; a suitable amount of backstory on these events is also included.

One of the most exciting elements of Lich King's quests is that some them give you the feeling that you're actually changing pieces of the landscape. One quest produces an in-game cinematic of an epic fight with the Scourge, the fall of an Alliance hero, and the devastation of a town. From then on, players who have completed this quest see the area as completely devastated from the battle, while others continue to see the land whole, as it was previous to the encounter. This epic feeling of taking part in larger world events continues as you fight alongside notable computer-controlled faction leaders, rampaging and invading a player-controlled town. This is a key point--Lich King actually makes you care about the fates of the world's NPCs by having you fight alongside them against other human players. These NPCs are further fleshed out and made meaningful via some terrific voice acting from key characters in the more-meaningful quests. These elements add a lot of character to the experience.

Wrath of the Lich King also adds World of Warcraft's first new class, the Death Knight. Denoted as a "hero class," you can only create a Death Knight if you have a character that is already level 55. Death Knights start at level 55 and come equipped with a full set of rare gear. While forcing players to have a level 55 character establishes a decent barrier to entry, it hasn't completely stopped the "new-class-itis" that typically infects an MMO when a new character class is added to the game. Expect to see a lot of DKs running around until the newness factor wears off.

Death Knights are in the service of the Lich King himself, and start in the floating city of Ebon Hold. A rather entertaining series of beginning quests will quickly elevate you from the starting level of 55 up to around 58 or so, providing a steady stream of talent points that will expose you to the class' new abilities faster than a traditional new character would. Still, the additional abilities come at a gradual and manageable pace. The final quest in this starting line contains a satisfying in-game cinematic that also serves as the severance of the bond between the Lich King Arthas and your Death Knight. At this point, you're free to travel to other areas in the world.

As far as abilities are concerned, Death Knights focus their power through runes which are embedded onto their weapons. There are three types of runes: Blood, Frost and Unholy. Each of these match up to a corresponding talent tree. Death Knights have two of each rune type, which are consumed by their special abilities. For example, the Death Strike ability costs one Unholy rune and one Frost rune. Runes restore their power 10 seconds after being used, so playing a Death Knight requires some micromanagement of which abilities you want to use in which order. Given that only seasoned players can even create a Death Knight, this setup is a skill-based way to make the class fun and unique.

Inscription is the new profession featured in Wrath of the Lich King. Inscribers can create glyphs that enhance the skills and spells of other players. Each player can have three major and three minor glyphs. Major glyphs enhance a skill or spell by increasing its potency, such as increasing the damage it causes, the healing it does, or the duration of the effect. Minor glyphs add smaller gains to less-used spells, or provide novelty effects to existing abilities. Mages with the minor glyph of polymorph, for example, will now transform their target into a penguin instead of a sheep.

Blizzard has overhauled the other professions quite a bit, providing a direct benefit to the players who've leveled up their professions. For example, enchanters receive item enhancements that can be used only on their items, and blacksmiths receive the ability to add sockets to their existing armor. Even gathering professions have benefited from these changes. Miners receive a buff to hit points for all the sweat they've put in, herbalists receive an area-of-effect healing wave where flowers grow from the ground, and experienced skinners receive an added chance to critically strike opponents in combat.

Wrath also expands on the scripted quests previously introduced in the last expansion. This gives the new quests a lot of great, unique moments. Want to control a flying dragon and dogfight with other dragons? Want to assault a lumber mill and take it away from an opposing faction? Want to drive a steam tank, launching ice bolts at zombies while you attempt to deploy gnome saboteurs to destroy enemy plague wagons? Wrath offers all of this with the usual goofy, over-the-top style that has become the series' trademark. These unique, scripted quests provide a pleasant variety for players who are tired of the all-too-typical kill-and-gather quests. That's not to say that the game still doesn't make you grind, but getting one or two of these more-interesting quests each night feels like a nice reward after killing those 15 plagued spiders that took you 30 minutes to find.