World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

Games: World of WarCraft: The Burning Crusade

Release Date: January 16, 2007
Genre: Role-Playing
Style: Persistent World Online RPG
Similar Games: City of Heroes (IBM PC Compatible), City of Villains (IBM PC Compatible), EverQuest II [DVD-ROM] (IBM PC Compatible)

Game Description

The World of WarCraft expands to resist the invasive corruption of the Burning Legion in the game's first retail add-on package. The Dark Portal is reopened, and it is left to the greatest heroes of the Horde and the Alliance to rise up and meet the soulless scourge in its otherworldly garrisons -- lest they face it once again in their troubled homelands of Azeroth.

Two new races arrive with The Burning Crusade expansion. The fair Blood Elves, doomed descendants of the High Elves who fought alongside Humans against Orcs generations earlier, join the Horde. The bulky Draenei, of a refugee people that managed to resist the Legion's demonic corruption, have fled their world and joined the Alliance of Azeroth. Blood Elves may become Paladins, and Draenei may become Shaman, opening these classes to their respective factions for the first time.

Seven surreal Outland regions are added by The Burning Crusade expansion. Only the most veteran heroes of the Horde and the Alliance will be powerful enough to confront the Eredar, Gronn, and other corrupt creatures that rule there. The new "Caverns of Time" battlegrounds allow players to fight in crucial conflicts from WarCraft real-time strategy lore.

The expansion adds dozens of monsters and hundreds of quests, raises the level cap to 70, and brings flying mounts for the mightiest of the mighty. An additional profession, jewelcrafting, is introduced. High-level spells and talents are added, and new equipment becomes available -- including socketed items to be enhanced with jewels.

A full installation of the main World of WarCraft game is required to play the add-on. While some of expansion's new content is available to all existing World of WarCraft players, those who wish to visit the Outland or create characters of the new races must install The Burning Crusade.

~ T.J. Deci, All Game Guide

Review: Overall

After two wildly successful years on the market, World of WarCraft receives its first expansion with The Burning Crusade, which raises the level cap to 70, offers a new continent to explore, and introduces two races: the mystical Draenai and the evil Blood Elves. Of course, there are also hundreds of new quests to undertake, a new profession, flying mounts to acquire, and an assortment of new instanced dungeons, but the true question is whether the extra content is enough to lure back those who have canceled their account out of disappointment, frustration, or boredom. The short answer? Absolutely.

With eight million players (worldwide) at the time of this expansion pack's release, World of WarCraft is certainly not hurting for fans, but the game at level 60 was almost entirely different than it was from 1-59. After the quests were finished, players were left with repetitive instance runs and the monotony of weekly 40-man raids for a slight chance to win a piece of epic gear. Those who weren't interested in joining high-end guilds and signing away four to six hours of their time to Molten Core or Blackwing Lair, the "world" in WarCraft suddenly became much smaller, more catered to "Those Who Hath No Lives" than the casual gamer who wanted to work toward something meaningful in shorter, more manageable doses.

Fortunately, Blizzard recognized this sudden paradigm shift, and Burning Crusade is a return to what made World of WarCraft so alluring to new visitors: the huge number of quests, mysterious lands to explore, humorous characters, fast-paced progression, and the chance to earn powerful loot. It is also clear, from the moment you enter the Dark Portal and into this strange and often surreal continent, that the lands are locked in a fierce struggle for control, to the point where player vs. player battles are now built into quests. The player vs. player honor system, which originally rewarded those who could fight hours and hours each day, finally makes sense: let players accumulate honor points to spend on rewards instead of forcing them to start from scratch each week.

In short, everything has seemingly been tweaked, polished, and hammered out to encourage players to keep having fun instead of forcing them to grind, farm, or run instances if they don't want to. Earning reputation among the many new factions is easier and less tedious, the "green" drops from the new areas are nearly as powerful as some of the Azeroth epics, and gold accumulates more quickly in Outland than it did in Azeroth. Blizzard even borrowed an idea from its Diablo series by giving players the chance to revisit instanced dungeons on a harder difficulty setting, but only after earning the keys to unlock them. If nothing else, The Burning Crusade is a strong affirmation that Blizzard hasn't forgotten about what made World of WarCraft so addictive, so popular in the first place: that to be successful, you have to embrace both hardcore and casual gamers alike.