World of Warcraft is wonderfully deep, visually delightful and a ton of fun to play

Part 2: Preview of WoW in first wave of beta testing

When the developers of Blizzard’s World of Warcraft set out to make a massively multiplayer game, it almost seems as if they looked around, listened to what fans of the genre said they liked about these games, then incorporated as many of the elements as they could into WoW.

While still only in early beta testing, the results have proved spectacular. World of Warcraft is immersive, evolving, involving, visually delightful and a blast to play.

Because of the scope of the game, we decided to break this preview into several parts. In part one we gave an overview and looked at the classes, and the controls and gameplay (http://www.gamezone.com/gzreviews/p19235_02.htm). In this part, we shall look at the crafting, combat, quests, dying and other bonuses the game gives out.

Now, WoW only has the Alliance races available at this juncture. And not all the professions are available. While there is some overlap in professions, the Horde faction does have a unique class in shaman. When druid, hunter and shaman are available, we will add yet another part to this preview of the title.

Combat

Let’s get right to the meat of the topic. The combat model is built so that player’s skills factor in. You can sidestep, but for the most part, the attacks will hit even if you try to evade. Magic missiles went through snow banks and attacks launched found the mark, even when sidestepping before the blow was delivered.

However, you can strafe in the game, it is possible to outrun most mobs (and thus, kiting is a viable option), and certain classes have stun attacks which can immobilize the foe for seconds, allowing the player to set up a more devastating attack. For example, the rogue has a special trained skill that will briefly stun the foe. If you are fast enough, and have a firm enough control of the keyboard, you can launch the attack, then step behind your target and deliver backstab. Backstab does 150 percent damage when it connects.

Skills are ranked and that means they build in power as you advance them. Weapons used factor into the amount of damage you do, and the armor of the opponent also comes into play.

Mobs will aggro, so when solo hunting you may draw more than one.

This system seems very much in line with many of the other games on the market. Perhaps Asheron’s Call 2 had the best combat system, allowing players to evade ranged shots if they had the timing and reflexive ability to do so, but for the majority of games on the market, the combat model in WoW stands up easily with them all, and is in fact well done.

For magic users, your ability to cast depends on the amount of mana in your pool. Each spell costs mana, and should you run dry, you are in trouble. For warriors, the bar that would be for mana is for rage. The warrior’s attacks are based on amount of rage he or she has. The bar is empty and will run down if not in use. As you attack a mob, you build rage, and can launch your special attacks.

Some attacks are merely powerful blows, but there are many DoT (damage over time) attacks to supplement the single power attacks.

Crafting

One of the more intriguing aspects of this game is the crafting system and how abilities interlink. As you level, you will accrue skill points, which can be used to learn some combat-oriented skills (such as two-handed swords, or maces) but which can also be put into learning crafting trades. Each skill has a different cost value. And you will have to work them up to become more proficient and craft better quality items.

Because you will likely end up hunting, acquiring the skinning skill will allow you to harvest leather from the mobs you kill. You can either sell it, or buy the leathercrafting skill. With leathercrafting, at the first level, you can fashion leather scraps into a leather product and also use leather to make boots and a vest. The boots and vest carry a defensive value of 11, which is much better than any new player will likely have or find early on in the adventure. Other skills are interrelated as well: mining is nicely tied to blacksmithing, herbology leads to enchanting and alchemy, and so on. If you take crafting skill such as herbology or mining, by triggering the skill, your radar will show the location of harvestable resources as you near them. Many of the resources are likely in mob-infested areas, so being ready for combat is a must.

Crafting is not, however, a recourse for players who do not wish to hunt. You have to have skill points to invest in the craft and that means leveling. You can do delivery-style missions, but if you truly disdain from hunting, it is possible to fall into a group, acquire group experience points and level without really being actively involved in hunting.

Quests

At present, WoW has 1,600 quests in the game. The quest system is such that some quests will lead to others. For example, you create a dwarf character in the cold north. One of the missions you can get is delivering mail. When you get there, you are told not all the letters are for that individual, so would you please take the others along to their owner. You make that delivery and find out there are some errands that the NPC (non-playing character) would like you to do.

You can decline any quest offer, and you can have numerous quests going on at the same time. It is possible to get a quest to kill a certain type of mob to satisfy it, but that mob also can drop a certain item, which will fulfill another quest.

Finding quests is easy. The NPCs with quests you can do have gold exclamation marks above their head. A silver/white exclamation mark indicates a quest that you can get when you are higher in level.

Many of the quests for the different races are similar, but even in redoing some of them as different professions was not a grind – if anything, it was still entertaining to test different skill rates and find out which combat combinations work better together.

Dying

When you die, you resurrect at the nearest spirit stone as a ghost. You have two choices. You can either run back to your corpse and reclaim in, or you can have the spirit healer restore you. If you take the latter approach, you will incur an experience point penalty. Running back to your corpse and reclaiming it on site can be tricky, especially if the mobs that killed you are still lingering about, but there is no experience loss. You also do not seem to lose items from your inventory. However, when you reclaim, you do not come back with full health or mana, so reclaiming in an infested dungeon may be hazardous.

Bonuses

The player races of Azeroth are full of emotions and the emotes in this title are terrific. Ok, perhaps the dance of the night elf female has origins that are best left undisclosed, but if you ask a question, your character will gesture appropriately. This really brings the game alive. Bowing, laughing and the other little emoticons all imbue the game with delight and immerse the player a little more into the world.

Banks in the game are universal, and you can store all manner of items. However, the banks are not account universal. If you have a warlock and bank herbs, you cannot sign on your priest and collect them. Each character has a different bank.

Summation

The acronym for World of Warcraft is WoW – and that quite accurately describes this game. This is a title that the gaming community has been buzzing about, and now that we are actually getting to see and play it, the expectations have been realized in a game that is awesome.