Title World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Date 02.19.2006 Genre MMORPG Platform PC Developer Blizzard Entertainment Publisher Blizzard Entertainment

Here we are, 2007, and the first expansion to the multi-million MMORPG World of Warcraft. Now most likely the most popular, well known and most played MMORPG on the planet, it has received an upgrade so massive and well done that you cannot do anything else but to applaud Blizzard for once again scoring. Yet another streak in a perfect row.

Gameplay
There are alot of new content in The Burning Crusade(TBC). The first and most important change, is that the character levels has been increased to 70, and that a new continent has become available, Outland. Then comes the two new races, the Draenei and the Blood Elves, followed by a new wonderful profession called Jewelcrafting. To sum it up, there's the main points of the expansion. Lets look a little bit deeper at what these new additions bring to the game.

Character levels now go up to level 70, and these levels fly by. They were predicted to be just as long as the journey from level 1 to 60, but it doesn't take that long. When leveling up, the player notice a bigger stat increase than before which boosts both Health and Mana to new heights. A talent point is also rewarded for each level from 61 to 70, allowing for very powerful builds as people combine previously impossible builds.

Leveling is done primarily in Outland, the origin of the Orcs. The Dark Portal which you enter to get to Outland, is the very same that the Orcs used the first war when they entered the Blasted Lands, then called the Black Morass. An instance later on deals with this very event. And once you enter the brand new world, nothing's ever gonna be the same. It's massive. When you exit the portal into Outland, see the big barren, warscarred fields with demons prowling around and the forces of the Alliance and the Horde valiantly defending themselves against the huge pit lords, it's hard to not drop the jaw. Impressive sight for sure, but what's even more impressive, is the amount of content crammed into each zone.

Outland is split in seven zones, divided into level ranges to ensure a smooth and content rich progression from 60 to 70. This can honestly be said to be true. There are more quests than you can possibly hope to complete within those levels, and if you plan to do instances, the xp will fly by there as well. One needn't to be worried about running out of quests right away, as both sides have their own camps and bases in each zone which leads to an impressive amount of content. There's also a ton of new factions with their own reputations and quests, and alot more focus on outdoor based pvp action which is fun, fast and rewarding.

Back to the zones, the players start off in the warscarred Hellfire Peninsula, but can go into the mystic swamps of Zangarmarsh straight away if they feel like it since the zone contains monsters and quests doable for a level 60 character. After that, it's recommended to visit Terokkar forest, a misty but dark forest with alot of dark history, which also contains a new neutral capital, Shattrath, which is likely to be the home to about almost everyone in Outland since it's centrally located in Outland, with convenient portals to all the other capitals on Azeroth. The wild and exceptionally beautiful lands of Nagrand await after that, and is one of the most beautiful zones the game has seen. Then things become nastier, and the players will have to travel to the Blade's Edge Mountains, a spiky, rocky mountain area with a sky on fire, before they travel deep into the chaotic Netherstorm which is torn apart in the void, and finally to the burning, black lands of Shadowmoon Valley.

All the zones are richly filled with mobs, quests, outposts, towns and instances, often split up into several level ranges as well, meaning that there's plenty of incentive to go back to the old zones and finish up new available quests and take a shot at that new instance within your level range, which brings us to the next point...

Instances. There's an instance in every zone ecept for Nagrand, and almost all those instances are divided up into several level based wings, complete with different theme, mobs, bosses, quests and so on. Just the first instance alone, Hellfire Citadel, is split up in four different parts, ranging all the way from 60 to 70+. Each wing can take you a good hour and two to clear depending on the team, and then there's the heroic mode to do as well which is like setting the game to "Very hard". These new instances are very well designed, they have the right amount of trash, great bosses which requires tactics to kill and some very good loot.

Other instances includes the now functional Caverns of Time which allows the players to go back in time and revisit old events in the history of Warcraft, such as the opening of the Dark Portal and the battle on Mount Hyjal. Then there's also the massive Karazhan located in Deadwind Pass on Azeroth, which was also called the Tower of Medivh. A Magnificent and mystical place, it houses some extremely fun and different encounters, among them an Opera House with battles based on well known works such as Romeo and Juliet and the Wizard of Oz.

What is very notable right away, is the improved gear from both quests, drops and instances in Outland. Unless you have been raiding Blackwing Lair or higher, you'll quickly find that your gear is replaced by even greens from Outland. As weird and sad as it feels to see your mighty looking gear go, you just have to admit that the quests are alot more rewarding and tempting when you can obtain great gear from it.

The two new races are the Draenei and the Blood Elves. The Draenei has alligned themselves to the Alliance, and they have a brutal history with the orcs and the Burning Legion. They are located on the mysterious north western isles of Kalimdor, and has naturally allied themselves with the Alliance because of their devotion to the light. The Draenei are the least human of the races the Alliance have, looking more like a combination between a troll and a tauren. They look etheral, theys look majestic, proud and strong and speak with a fun eastern accent. Think bad american movie russian and you'll have it. They are also the only Alliance race who can become Shamans, which causes the majority of those who roll the class to become one. They have their own capital which is built up around the..spaceship they used to travel in. It sounds a bit strange in World of Warcraft and the lore had to be rewritten, but in the end it's credible enough to work.

The Blood Elves however, have alligned themselves to the Horde, finding no sympathy from the Alliance. Many thousand years ago, after the event called The Great Sundering(a result of their magic obsession) they moved from Kalimdor and settled on the Eastern Continent. After the terrible events in Warcraft 3 where Arthas almost obliterated them, they renamed themselves Blood Elves and swore to avenge their kin. Looking for help, they joined up with the Horde, in search of their great Leader now gone mad in Outland. There's alot of history and lore behind it, and it's too much to accurately write in a review, but that's the gist of it. The Blood Elves look like thinner, smaller Night Elves, with some of their characteristics, the typical long ears and brows. They have a more feministic look, but they are graceful and dangerously beautiful. Their capital is Silvermoon, located north of the Eastern Plaguelands. Despite being so close to danger, they are currently relatively safe, and their starting zone is bathed in eternal dawn, dusk and autumn, with a golden sky. The Blood Elves can become Paladins, a very controversial choice by Blizzard. In advance it was said by many outspoken hordes that they would never roll a Blood Elf Paladin, yet the starting area is almost only filled with them.

Both new races have two new start zones, and their own racials which are very good. The Draenei has both a HoT and a increased hit percentage aura, while the Blood Elves has a powerful two-phased ability which allows them to steal mana from the opponent, recharge themselves with it and silence the enemy as an effect of it, making them effective casters against other casters, which is natural because of their knowledge of magic.

The new profession is called Jewelcrafting, and is based around making small jewels and gems that can be used to socket items. Many new items in Outlands comes with a set of sockets, usually two or three. By Shift Right clicking on the item, you can open a small interface where you can put in gems into your item, which will then give you bonuses based on the game. Some gems come with +4 stamina for example, others with +8 Hit rating, or +5 Spell damage, and so on. There are both green, blue and even epic gems, becoming more and more power. Gems can be replaced any time so you're not stuck forever with the gems you have placed, but you will loose the previous gem. Jewelcrafting can be done to make other things as well, including rings, trinkets and neck items.

Graphics
The engine is the same old, and the game starts to show some age, which is natural for an MMORPG. But in Outland, it doesn't matter. The design and art is so fantastic that you just have to be blown away. From the starry, planetary sky of Hellfire, to the cloudy blue peaceful atmosphere in Nagrand, Outland has an intense feeling and scenery that is hard to ignore. Whereas the old Azeroth sky were mostly passive with some gray clouds, the new skies are a marvel to look at. And it's not only the skies, but the lands, the geography, the usage of new textures and objects that makes Outland look twice as good as Azeroth. The new start zones look good as well, especially the Blood Elves zone which lays bathed in golden atmosphere. It's fantastic. The new races look great as well, but perhaps a little bit un detailed as they look almost too clean and neat compared to the old models. But it's only a minor complaint.

Oh, as usual, the intro video is fantastic, but you probably guessed that already.

Sound
Fantastic music, fantastic sound. The new zones have great background music, you'll find traces of the Ahn'Qiraj music as you traverse the lands of Zangarmarsh, and the impressive tune as you enter the portal the first time just builds on the experience. The voice acting, whereever it is present, is top notch, both in bosses and on the new races. Usually the sound category in a review is the least documented part, and unfortunately it's that way now as well, but there's not much else to say. They did a great job.

Conclusion
It's not a question if you're going to buy Burning Crusade or not if you're playing World of Warcraft, it's a question of how soon. A little over a week after release, the servers are becoming very stable, the population is spreading out alot more and the players can finally start to enjoy the content to the fullest. With ten new levels with lots of great content, instances, tradeskills, gear, new pvp objectives and the amazing flying mount to look forward to, players got enough to chew on until next year when Blizzard has boldy stated they aim for next expansion. And actually by the look of it, they can soon start working on it, as you'll hardly find a better tuned and polished expansion pack for any MMORPG.

Long live World of Warcraft.

Game Score

A-

Reviewed By: Contributed