Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

100 or More Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Masterpiece"

Note: This review is strictly opinion based.

I've been a WoW player since Vanilla and since then this game has brought me hours upon hours of enjoyment and some pretty good laughs too. It is by no means a perfect MMORPG, but this game has kept me coming back for so long I think is quite incredible and for that will always have a place in my heart. Now we've all heard about how WoW's "dangerously addictive" and "a waste of life" which it might be for an underachieving student with no self-control maybe...but lets talk about the game itself.

Levelling: Not the most fun experiences within the game. The vast majority of players simply level as quick as possible to get to level 85 without actually caring for the procedure itself, mainly because it gets incredibly repetitive very quickly. You get quests like kill X number of mobs or collect X number of items or talk to NPC X...etc. Though, to be fair you can tell Blizzard tried to make somewhat of an effort to liven things up a bit with quests like bombing runs, turret sections and quests with cut-scenes; but overall it still doesn't feel like enough to make a levelling player want to stop and smell the roses as opposed to simply getting on with it and hitting max level as fast as possible.

PvP: PvP within WoW is a bit of a delicate issue to discuss. Some say they love it while others complain endlessly about class imbalances and lack of content. On a personal note, I like it. Fine, it may not be perfect but when you're dealing with a massive 10 classes (soon to be 11) each having a relatively large number of spells and abilities it becomes next to impossible to strike an absolutely perfect balance, and as a result, people are going to moan and **** about it. It's pretty much going to come down to player skill most of the time anyway. Either way I think WoW does it good enough, enough for me to find enjoyment in PvP.

Raiding: Raiding in WoW has probably given me the best memories of any other aspect of the game. The thing that made it most special was the people I was playing with. WoW is most fun when played with friends, it's a simple as that. Working together as a team to down a boss and, in so doing, gearing yourselves up is one of the most rewarding feelings in any game I've ever played. Professions and Trade: Having professions and using them to your benefit is a key element in adding that extra substance into MMOs, and I think WoW executes this feature quite well. There are 11 or so unique primary professions in the game, as well as 4 secondary ones. Gathering professions require you to travel the world and collect materials for Crafting professions, which can be used to make items that can be sold for gold or used to benefit your character. It may not be so much fun to spend countless hours patrolling the world for herbs or ore so I'd recommend you pick up your professions as quickly as possible after creating your character so as to level your professions in harmony with your character.

The Graphics: I like them, simple as that. If it takes the most ultra photo-realistic flashy graphics for someone to appreciate a game, that someone should play something else. WoW's "cartoonish" style is nothing short of iconic in my eyes for the simple fact that it's instantly recognisable and fits the game perfectly. Cons: The only real complaints I have with WoW are as follows:

-> Services which should be free cost money: One of WoW's most prominent selling points is boasted to be the ability enjoy the game with friends, so why must we pay real cash to have our characters transferred so we can actually do that?
-> Patches are sometimes unsatisfactory: Rise of the Zandalari for instance... players waited for months and got 2 rehashed dungeons. Certainly not acceptable for a game with a monthly fee.
-> The Community: This is by no means Blizzard's fault, but if you plan on playing WoW you might need to deal with the fact that a number of players are either of 13 years of age or younger, non-English speaking and in most cases, simply stupid.