World of Warcraft

Editor's note: Blizzard has managed to do a difficult thing, create an MMO game absolutely for everyone. In World of Warcraft can play a player whose experience begins and ends with simple dexterity, but also the majority of hardcore scavengers will find there a field to show off. The game world cannot be overestimated, as it has been built for years with a mound of ten and it appeared in such a full form for the first time. The above does not change the fact that our enthusiastic evaluation of this game is a bit ahead. Into the future, in which Blizzard fulfills its promises from the premiere (especially those regarding PvP) and manages to deal with all the problems that surprised him on the occasion of his first MMO project.

It's been ten years since RTS enthusiasts had the opportunity to enjoy the first part of Warcraft , created by the then-unknown company Blizzard. It is true that today, looking at it, it is difficult to talk about savoring ;-), but its second part is still characterized by unprecedented playability and I know that there are a lot of players who prefer it to three. I remember that I spent many hours on it and often came back to it in my free time. The third part, despite the fact that colorful and highly developed somehow did not appeal to me anymore, maybe because my tastes changed a bit and I began to treat cRPG games with more and more affection? Nevertheless, the sentiment for Warcraft remained and when I read some time ago that Blizzard plans to release a MMORPG game located in this world, I decided to take a closer look as soon as it is released.

As soon as the World of Warcraft beta testing began, I registered, started "testing" and just dropped by. I was sucked in with the strength of a tornado and almost managed to get rid of sleep ;-). I became addicted to the point that as soon as the full version was distributed to stores in the other hemisphere, I moved heaven and earth to put my hands on it as soon as possible. Finally the eagerly awaited moment came and for the past few weeks I have only been playing WoW and it is not expected to stop now.

The world of Warcraft is two powerful continents divided into several dozen lands. West - Kalimdor - is inhabited by Night Elves, Trolls, Orcs and Tauren - the last are creatures with the most impressive stature, reminiscent of minotaurs. The only race representing alliance forces here are the Night Elves, whose capital Darnassus is located on the huge island of Teldrassil. On the second continent are the Eastern Kingdoms divided into two subcontinent: the northern - Northrend, inhabited mostly by the Undead with their largest city Undercity, and the southern - Azeroth, inhabited by People, Gnomes and Dwarves. Each of the breeds has its capital, completely different in architecture and situated in a completely different landscape. The exceptions are: Ironforge common for Dwarves and Gnomes, Orgrimmar Orcs and Trolls.

Landscapes are beautiful. Starting from the colorful forests inhabited by the elves, through the wild backwoods and marshes, dark forests, burned lands, deserts, to the mountains covered with eternal snow, from where gnomes and dwarves originate. Thanks to this, we avoid monotony and enjoy great views, especially during sky travels, when on the back of one of the few flying mounts available in the game we move between previously visited lands.

The transport system in WoW has been refined to perfection. In addition to using our own lower limbs, which I admit is tiring and often very dangerous, and flying, we can have our own mount characteristic for each breed (it is a pity that only from 40 level of experience). In addition, the hunter can mount an animal he has tamed, and the wizard can summon a demonic steed. It must be said that the view of a powerful beast, on which its owner moves with fantasy and at high speed, is impressive. Between continents and islands we can swim by ship, and one of the most interesting means of transport is the underground train running between Ironforge and Stormwind.

At the beginning we have to choose which side we want to take and the race that suits us best. Each of the eight races in the game has a choice of four to six professions. We can also determine the gender of our character (this does not have the slightest impact on our statistics) and, depending on the breed, the characteristics, i.e. hairstyle, skin color, appearance of the face or muzzle or the shape of the antler (in the case of Tauren). In total, we can play one of the nine classes, including two characteristic only for each party to the conflict - a paladin on the covenant side, available to Men and Dwarves, and a shaman who can be played on the side of the horde (any race except the Undead).

Paladin is the only character next to the warrior who can fight all types of weapons and wear the heaviest armor, and use magic in addition. The two non-magical characters are the warrior and the rogue - but in return they have a number of very useful skills, especially in melee combat. On the opposite side, where we find the best-using spells, we have a magician and a sorcerer and a priest. The abilities of the latter are more suited to healing than hurting, which, however, does not mean that the latter also can not do. The magician is a master at using ice and fire spells, and the sorcerer, in addition to casting various spells, can summon a representative of the demon line fighting at his side, just like a hunter who can take control of one of the animals available in the game. Druid, however, depending on the level of experience, can turn into an increasingly stronger beast. The shaman uses powerful totems to support him in battle.

Each class has three main groups of skills or spells, and every two levels gains access to new or higher levels, thanks to which our character can deal with stronger opponents. However, this often forces us to change the tactics we have used so far, because it turns out that the newly learned skill is so powerful that its use can completely change the image of the game. This involves a lot of expenses, because training is here, next to the purchase of new equipment, one of the most expensive things. But unfortunately nothing in life comes easily, especially money and science ;-). However, there is one thing in the promotion system that I personally did not like. I am referring to the points being allocated to the main attributes. Unfortunately, we can't do it ourselves, but we are dependent on a program that separates them according to our own view depending on the character class. Apparently, this happens quite obviously, and for example, characters using magic increases primarily intelligence, which depends on the number of mana and spirituality responsible for the speed of mana regeneration and life, and the warrior increases strength and dexterity, but I would prefer decide how to develop my character.

From level 10 of experience we gain access to special talents (it resembles the skill trees in Diablo 2 , only a little more developed), where for each level we get, we get one point, which we invest in talents, which allows us to strengthen already acquired skills or even get new otherwise unavailable. Unfortunately, the number of points you can get is limited to 51, which is what we can invest to one of the groups. We are facing a serious dilemma here whether we want to have a balanced character, but then we will never be able to gain access to the most powerful talents or become a champion in one field, but the others will be much weaker then. However, all this depends on our preferences and what priorities we have. Thanks to this solution, the game takes on completely new colors, because even if two characters of the same appearance and class face to face each other in a duel, their battle tactics may look quite different and you never know what to expect from our opponent. In the event that we find that the allocation of points we have made is not satisfactory, it is possible to divide them again and again, and again, but each time we will have to pay such pleasure with more and more gold.

Each of the characters we start the game starts in WoW's "kindergarten" :-). It is an autonomous area, usually limited by the terrain, where there are no more serious threats and where thanks to a large number of hints we can get acquainted with the game's mechanics and interface (which, by the way, is, like almost everything in this game, legible and easy to learn). There, by performing a dozen simple tasks and defeating the first weakest opponents, we have the opportunity to prepare for what awaits us when we sail out into the wide waters. And we are facing a difficult path to achieve the highest honors, achieve the coveted level of experience and be able to face the most powerful opponents prepared by Blizzard programmers and face the most difficult, elite tasks that await us.

Since I raised the matter of the tasks we have to perform, at first I was not too delighted with them. Their number is overwhelming, but most of them are of the type: kill 20 wolves, 15 boars, 30 skeletons or take something to someone, bring it, take it away, sweep it. While killing a specific group of opponents does not take too much time, except that sometimes it is not very easy, especially with a greater difference in levels, getting some randomly generated computer loot on them can lead to a shoemaker's passion. Unfortunately, sometimes you have to beat such herds of opponents to finally get what we need to pass the task, that you can get nervous urticaria, especially when someone does not sin too much patience. However, the real challenge and real adventure only begin when we receive the so-called elite quests. They are often available only after completing the entire sequence of missions for various NPCs, and therefore it is important not to give up and give up even the boring ones, because we can lose the opportunity for those really interesting.

The system of acquiring new orders is very simple. Well, above the head of the person who has the task for us appears a golden exclamation mark, which, after accepting the mission, disappears and a silver question mark appears over the head of the character who is supposed to receive the task from us. It stays there until we manage to complete the quest, and the confirmation is a change from silver to gold. In addition, each task is saved in a special book, where we can put a maximum of twenty and the color in which its title is highlighted informs us about its difficulty. At any time, we can also opt out of its performance, or give it to one or several members of our team, which, however, is not always possible.

For completing the task, in addition to experience points, we often receive the always necessary money or, not always the matching character, equipment - sometimes a pearl will fall into our hands. The orders themselves can be divided into four categories: ordinary - generally available, class - only for a given profession, special - we get them by finding scrolls or books - only for the character who found them, and elite. While most of the other tasks can be done by yourself, the latter are basically too difficult for a lonely wanderer and with them the real adventure begins and the superiority of MMORPG games over other genres comes out. Only the cooperation of the whole team (in which there can be a maximum of five people) will lead everyone to mutual success. Elite quests, apart from the fact that we have much stronger enemies to defeat and definitely better items and a larger sum of money to get, provide a truly unforgettable experience. To perform some of them we will have to venture into specially developed and very developed locations.

This first major adventure led our team to a town overrun by bandits, which we have basically forgotten a long time ago. It turned out that here, in a large house standing on its edge, there is a descent to a mine, controlled, among others, by hostile miners with sharp pickaxes. After defeating them and traveling through the maze of dark sidewalks, we arrived at the place where the first elite guards began to appear. At some point, a large mechanical monster with a circular saw and a gripper instead of hands replaced us, in the middle of which sat a goblin operating him :-). Under the blows of the team first fell the steel creature, and then the kurdupel controlling it, and we carefully went on. Later, the passage was blocked by a huge iron gate, but we used a cannon standing nearby and the gate fell to pieces. Slowly wading, we continued to cut stronger and stronger opponents, until we finally reached the great cave. Here, hidden in the underground port, stood a giant orc battle ship (known to all Warcraft lovers), by the gangway a large minotaur was waiting for us. It was not easy with him, oh no, but he does not scare us - strength in the end. On the ship we were attacked by pirates assisted by parrots pecking the whole team :-) and magicians casting spells. Once we climbed onto the navigation deck and the final game came, it was only then that real death looked our team in the eye. But thanks to the courage and sacrifice of all team members, we managed to achieve a well-deserved victory.

However, man does not live by fighting and performing tasks alone. In addition to class skills, each player can learn two main trading skills. They were divided into two subgroups. The first, providing us with materials for further processing, can include: collecting herbs, mining and removing skins from killed animals. In the second purely manufacturing, we have a choice: tailoring - allowing you to sew clothes; furrier - enabling sewing clothes from skins and making special reinforcements that improve the armor class; blacksmithing - forging armor and weapons from increasingly valuable metals; alchemy - her adept produces all kinds of potions; engineering - thanks to it it is possible to make various useful items and equipment, which, unfortunately, can only be used by the owner of this skill and magical reinforcement of items increasing their statistics or adding additional bonuses to them.

In addition to the main ones, there are three additional skills that anyone can do: fishing, cooking and first aid. Thanks to them, we can fish and not only ;-), prepare more and more tasty and, what is important, support our character dishes and create bandages and agents accelerating treatment. We train every skill by using it, but to get to higher levels, we need to find the right teachers to enable us. Achieving mastery is not easy, but once we specialize properly, the profits from the sale of items manufactured by us can significantly improve our finances, the more that expenses increase drastically with the increase of experience.

I have to admit with great respect that this topic has been perfected by Blizzard - the number of items that can be made with a given skill is really impressive and I've found hundreds of ingredients that are needed to make them. In principle, each of the animals, monsters or other opponents encountered in the game can leave a few different things at their corpses, more often or less often available, which can later be used to make items assigned to a given skill. In the case of cooking alone, I have already obtained dozens of different recipes, and I do not have this skill even developed to half. In addition to generally available recipes or instructions for creating items, we can find completely new ones with killed opponents, receive them as rewards for completed tasks, or buy at auction :-).

Auction is something for which I really have to bow with the highest respect. Here is another example of how each topic was treated perfectly in this game. Wandering around the world of Warcraft, we often find items unnecessary for us or we can create something that will be of no use to us, but it can certainly be useful to another person. And what should we do then, fly all over the land and shout like a street vendor from a bazaar? No, well, just go to the auction house and put what we want to sell at the auction. There we will also buy the items we need and thanks to the window in which we can see what is in our inventory at a given moment, we will compare it with what is on the auction without any problems - such a small thing and how happy it is :-). Admittedly, the capacity of the panniers is not very impressive. We have, however, an additional four windows in which you can insert bags of different sizes, increasing our load capacity up to four times. In addition, in larger cities there are banks, where each player has their own inbox, twice as large as a backpack, and where with considerable money we can buy space for the next bags, but it costs a real fortune.

The game is not boring at any time. We are constantly discovering something new and surprising. Moving to the next land, which we have not yet visited, one feels a pleasant thrill and we are anxiously checking what colors the numbers are on the portraits of the creatures living here. Similarly to the available tasks, the color informs us about the difficulty level of enemies in a given area. And when we see that they glow red or, worse, we find that instead of the number that determines their level there are question marks, it is better to immediately take our legs by the belt, because we may not even notice how and when we landed in the cemetery.

Yes, yes, death and it is not of old age that awaits us at every step. Fortunately, even if something unpleasant happens to us, we don't have to worry too much. We have several ways to come back to life. The easiest way is to simply ask the spirit who takes care of each cemetery to resurrect, but this results in a 25% reduction in the endurance of our entire inventory, and at higher levels we will be under the influence of weakness for an extended period and all our statistics will be reduced by 75%, which I have to admit is not pleasant. The second way to be resurrected is simply to go in the form of an immaterial apparition to the place where our corpse is located, near which we can resurrect. We will leave a pretty tasteful skeleton after us, and health and mana points will be revived only in half, but otherwise we are not in danger. However, it can be a bit tiring, because it will take us a long time to walk from the cemetery. The fastest way to come back to life is to use the help of a person with the resurrection spell, but unfortunately, we can't always count on it.

The picture of the game changes as experience increases. At the beginning we are limited to performing simple tasks, but even they can sometimes surprise when it turns out that after doing one we get another, definitely more interesting. It is also worth penetrating all hard to reach nooks and crannies, because there is a good chance to find some rare items there, unique herbs and minerals, or we can finally meet some NPC who has a task for us to do. At higher levels, as I have already written, we gain access to new elite areas and even more interesting tasks, and finally the time will come that we will have a strong enough character to embark on a joint expedition to enemy areas. There is probably no greater pleasure than in the surroundings of even a team of several dozen people to carry out attacks on the opponent's forces and watch them in panic flee from our power (or we give the leg to get the skin out of such an adventure ;-)).

Depending on your preferences, Blizzard has prepared three types of servers. Normal - where everyone will be able to face the monsters and riddles that await him in the world of Warcraft ; RPG - where you can only talk about matters related to the game, and real lovers of role-playing games will be able to best empathize with their roles and PvP - for everyone who wants to check in the fight not only with computer-generated opponents.

The latter servers are divided into three types of territories. Two hordes and alliances under control, where, depending on their affiliation, we can feel safe, because we will not be attacked by the other side, which, unfortunately, you can not count on traveling in the lands under the influence of the enemy faction. However, in "no-man's" anyone can attack anyone and there we should be as vigilant as possible. It is a pity, however, that a large number of players act like individuals dressed in tracksuits and shaved bald. After all, some decency should apply, and what pleasure can you have in killing characters that are a dozen or even dozens of weaker levels? But well, not everyone can afford a gesture of help for an enemy fighting against computer opponents and in trouble, because in this case it is easier to sneak up to him and put a knife in his back. Fortunately, there are a lot of people on both sides of the conflict who know what honor is and that makes this game even more interesting and enjoyable.

For me, World of Warcraft is an excellent game. Yes, I see some shortcomings, but these are basically trifles worthless memories. I also realize that graphics alone may not appeal to everyone, as it is very sugary and sometimes infantile, but you can quickly get used to it and even like it. I have heard opinions that skills are not available enough, that you can't build your home like in Ultim Online - maybe these voices are right, it would be nice to have your own quarters, but on the other hand, if so suddenly a housing estate of several thousand houses was created in Stormwind single-family houses, or in Ironforge there have appeared hundreds of residential tunnels filled with drunken Dwarves, would the amazing atmosphere of these places be maintained? Because really visiting each of the metropolises, whether on the side of the alliance or the hordes we feel like in the real world and it's easy to forget that we are, however, on this side of the monitor.

I still need to bother a little about the small amount of jewelry we can find in the game. The sheer amount of items, weapons, armor and other equipment is overwhelming, but Blizzard has already got used to it, but somehow trinkets were treated with care, which is especially painful for ladies who like such things. Maybe this is where a new skill could be useful - a goldsmith?

A large group of malcontents complain terribly that not all the characters in the game have been well balanced and especially the paladin is simply unbeatable in one-on-one duels - it's too easy to play this class. I don't know, maybe there is some truth in it, but a good paladin in the team is definitely not an obstacle :-). In fact, every fan of cRPG games will find something for themselves. Those who do not like to perform any tasks will be able to cut down on everything that moves and does not run away from the tree and fights with other players thirsty for this type of entertainment, or sneak into enemy areas to deal with the weaker from opponents, because on a few stronger levels, it's not worth trying, unless you feel the support of a strong friend behind you ;-). Others will rush to hundreds of tasks in the game and will develop their skills to perfection. Both loners and lovers of traveling through lands in a larger group will feel at home here. It does not matter whether someone who has not yet dealt with MMOs, or an old stalker who ate his teeth on more than one network game will come here, because this game is simply for EVERYONE.

Adam "Adamus" Bilczewski

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