World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

Game Info

Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment

Developer: Blizzard Entertainment

Genre(s): Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game

Players: Thousands

ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

Release Date: November 13, 2008

Summary

Players last visited Northrend in "Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne," when Arthas Menethil fused with the spirit of Ner’zhul to become the Lich King, one of the most powerful beings in the Warcraft universe. He now broods atop the Frozen Throne deep in Icecrown Citadel, clutching the rune blade Frostmourne and marshaling the undead armies of the Scourge. In Wrath of the Lich King, the forces of the Alliance and the Horde venture into battle against the Scourge amid Northrend’s howling winds and fields of jagged ice. Wrath of the Lich King adds a rich variety of content to an already massive game. New features in the game’s second expansion include: Death Knight Hero Class: Create a high-level Death Knight character -- the game’s first hero class -- once certain challenges have been met. Increased Level Cap: Advance to level 80 and gain potent new talents and abilities along the way. Northrend: Explore the harsh new continent of Northrend, packed with new zones, quests, dungeons, monsters, and items -- and do battle with the undead armies of the Lich King. "Inscription" Profession: Learn this exciting new profession and gain unique ways to permanently enhance spells and abilities in the game. Siege Weapons and Destructible Buildings: Take the battle to another level with new player-vs.-player game mechanics and new battlefields to wage war on. New Character Customization: Change how characters look and express themselves, with different hairstyles and dance animations. [Blizzard Entertainment]

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GAMES: World of Warcraft World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

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What The Critics Said

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What Our Users Said

Vote Now! The average user rating for this game is 6.5 (out of 10) based on 210 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

David O. gave it a4:
WoW is a decent game. However it becomes monotonous after awhile. I jumped on about two months after BC came out. I found the lore of WoW on the whole to be amazing. I love the backstory, and some of of the arcs in game as well. It took me about two months to level my toon to 70, which was fine with me because I had fun doing it, and felt a sense of accomplishment when I reached that level. I found a marginally decent guild to raid with, and got some decent gear and was pretty strong I thought. I DID have fun for awhile. But you will soon realize that the fun disappears with the high end content (which is really what the game is all about). It starts to feel like more like a job than a game. Endless hours spent collecting items to level up one of your professions. And if you don't gather things yourself (because you want to spend more time on the "fun" stuff, the items are ridiculously priced on the auction house because it took that person hours of their own time to collect, which is why they want the exorbant fees they charge). If you don't have gold in the game you can go absolutely nowhere. You have to pay for repairs, and "battle buffs" aka flasks, elixirs etc., and if you're really lucky the occasional epic piece of gear that can actually be sold on the AH. So you're stuck with the montony of gathering, crafting to make money whether you like it or not. The game is also way too dependant on you finding a group of people (Guild) who's schedules and personalities seemingly align perfectly with your own. Good luck on that one. Because if you don't find a great guild, you're screwed. Completely. All the high end content is more or less raiding. And if you don't have a guild, you're not raiding. Pick up groups are a joke. Not to mention they don't have rules on who is next in line to finally recieve that awesome piece of gear you've been waiting weeks, or even months to acquire. It's just random with them. So I say again, if you don't find that perfect guild you're screwed. You won't get to experience the raids like they should be done. Not too mention, even if you do get a great guild, you can only do each seperate raid only ONCE a week. So even then you still have to sink a very huge chunk of time being a part of the guild to earn respect and senority. So you're able to get ahold of the gear that drops from raids before the newer, or "less able members" (read: people who can't devote their life to the game) of the guild. You have to consider that the raids need 10 people for the normal ones, and 25 for the heroic modes. 25 ! Twenty-five people to take on the hardest mode, and thus get the strongest gear. Assume that there are only three members who are the same class and spec as you're own. You then have to compete against them for the gear you want (assuming it even drops !). You could potentially lose out to getting new gear 2 weeks in a row ! Nothing, notta, zilch, to show for those 2 weeks of your time in the game. And of course I'm being modest with the 2 or 3 people with your same spec. It's usually 4-5. Unless you're lucky enough to stumble into a guild who doesen't have any of your chosen class (which is HIGHLY unlikely because Blizzard makes it almost essential to have at least 1 of every class to go on raids). Wrath of the Lich King is just more of the same that BC offered. Of course it made all the months I spent acquiring gear moot. And they also added a "fun" new twist that they were careful to leave out in Classic and BC; powerleveling. This just makes it ridiculously easy for people to level up new toons. You can literally do it in a few days if you wanted to. Just have a high level buddy run you through some dungeons 10-20 times. That made my sense of pride at reaching the top level disappear in an instant, because now any jackass can do it in a weekend. More raids were added, but they're still the same as before, just with a different skin on it. You'll spend MONTHS to get a full set of tiered gear. And by the time you finally do get that set, you think "Hey, finally, I'm powerful and have achieved something"; you are painfully smacked off you're pedestal by the mighty hand of Blizzard with newer raids that make you're gear obsolete. It's just too much of a time sink to actually achieve things in the game. And when you finally do, all of your time spent is made moot by the newest content. It's done over and over. I had fun for awhile, I did. But I'm done this time. I've quit and come back before, but this time I really am done. I will no longer sink months, or years of my life into a game that does nothing but rehash the same formula. So in conclusion, go ahead and pick up the game if you don't have alot of other things going on in your life. Because that's the only way you will really get anywhere. You can have fun for awhile, moreso if you're new to the game, but you WILL become tired of the constant screwovers by Blizzard. If I were you though, I'd heed my advice and just skip the game and try one of the newer MMOs out there (as I'm about to do), and hope they don't copy the same messed up formula that is WoW.

Stephen D gave it a0:
Really a hard game to get into with the current community it is dieding fast and it has the ability to ruin a good LAN i got together with my mates at a PC gaming place to have a lan and half of them buggered of to play wow for the night and even then when i investigated i found out that they weren't even on the same servers .... (IT RUINED MY NIGHT).

Tyler W. gave it a1:
Wrath of the Lich King destroyed World of Warcraft. I played the game since launch, got caught up in the end game at 60. After Burning Crusade I was in a top 20 US raiding guild and devoting time every season to get duelist or gladiator on multiple characters. That being said, Wrath of the Lich King turned raiding into a joke, and made PvP balance laughable. In retrospect, it's probably the best thing that ever happened to me since I quit because of it, and my life has been better since, but from a "reminiscing" point of view, it's not the same game to which I once gladly devoted my time. I'll give it a one, because it kept me entertained for a month before I gave up the addiction.

F F gave it a3:
I really liked the Classic WoW ( Pre-TBC ) , i had raid geared 60 lvl warrior, then the TBC came out and it took ages again to get good gear at 70's , then when u have geared up at 70's there comes WotLK , All work which took months must do again ??? Soon there will come more and more expansions and everybody must work again and again to get max lvl and good gear. Game has gone very very bad after the expansions , i hope the expansions haven't come and there would be the Classic WoW.... It was the best , the expansions ruined the game.

T R gave it a10:
Graphics: 8.5 There are some really incredible locations and general details around Northrend. People say they don't like the graphics because "they're too cartoony". In my own personal opinion, I'm pretty sure that gritty realism is NOT the way to handle the looks of a fantasy mmorpg. Sound: 9 The music is great and fits the mood near perfectly. Dont like it? Turn it off and put on some music of your own. Gameplay: 9 PVE: 9.5 - If there's anything funner than playing a DK or questing in Northrend in any given MMO, I'd like to hear it. The Northrend quests are fun, and contrary to popular beliefs (read: idiotic reviews) WoW is not, will not be, and never has been all about grinding. Yes, there are kill/collect x of y for ***hole z quests, but those are outweiged by quests themed around things such as large scale battles, aerial combat, bombing the **** out of various locations, and decimating armies of elite troops while riding an enourmous fire/ice breathing dragon. BLOWING. ****. TO. HELL. WITH. A. DRAGON. IS. NOT. THE. SAME. AS. GRINDING. Good, I'm glad that that's settled. PVP: 7- Gyawd I hate Death Knights. Being a caster, there is nothing that I hate more than going into a battleground only to find that 80% of everyone there is a Dk. Blizzard screwed us over that way. Death Knights: Fun to play, not fun when they start to take over servers. Next subject! Also, stop comparing this to Warhammer online etc. This is not warhammer online. Warhammer is a PVP based game, and WoW is a PVE based game with PVP elements. So please, don't b**** about the pvp and give it a 0. World of Warcraft has 12 MILLION players for a reason. *Note: my actual rating for this game is a 9, as no game is perfect, but I'm scoring it to make up for one of the many idiots who wrote "Werld uv Worecraft is dum" "The grafiks are stoopid" etc. - 0

Jared H gave it a5:
A Let down for me. I been playing the game for about 3 years and i have to say the expansion is a let down. Mainly raiding content, for example Naxx was just a tuned 80 instance already used in Classic. I was really excited about Ulduar coming out, unfortunately that instance is pretty long and dull, Just another long raiding instance that can take hours to complete, and the only good fight in there is Mimiron. Also the game is tarnished by a bad online community. Some people think there a big deal but to be honest they just need a kick in the head, just another Blizzard Customer.

Sebastian J gave it an8:
Compared to the previous expansion (TBC), this has not met my expectations completely - however, with the recent patches, it has certainly improved, and checking developers notes on their forums, it does not seem that they are going to stop any time soon. The only thing I'm missing with WotLK is the difficulty of the game - it is much easier than the few last months of TBC was, but I am not in doubt that Blizzard is going to do something alike with WotLK. The graphics has improved over the last couple of patches, but I usually consider graphics a bonus and not a requirement to play a game. My recommendation: Buy it.

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