A superb expansion to a flawed and ostentatious game. The expansion is reviewed herein - not the weak game in general.
Innovation that was granted by such games as Ultima Online and Everquest are long gone in lou for the "casual" mmo of questing and grinding and more grinding. It has cursed the market by making it so big that other games tend to copy it to try and match the success it has (with little additions here and there that are different; but having slight differences means nothing if another game that's free offers the same small thing that's different at which point you're just wasting money paying for two monthly games).
But I digress, despite how flawed WoW is in general the expansion is what people are supposed to be rating. It is unfortunate that in most cases I see people put in "10-20" hours along with their reviews which means they installed (if they even bought it) logged on their characters, asked a dozen questions, finally found a way to a ship, went on it, went to Northrend. Bah! I have to do a quest! Same game!
You're still playing the same game, genious people! It's well known; that's what an EXPANSION is. Please do not capitalize on the obvious. What the expansion did bring was a great amount of new quests, most seen towards higher levels, including but not limited to actually jumping off of flying mounts onto another person's flying mount and killing them while watching their lifeless corpse fall to the ground (In addition to their being quests where you meet your future self, air combat, bear riding combat, transforming yourself into a worg/murloc and hunting whales, watching cinematic-like scenes, etc). Though I'll leave that for the quest section of this review.
MUSIC:
I put the music here first and foremost because it is.... Quite well done. They reinstated the old orchestra to give a unique music for each new area in Northrend; it is a relaxing and soothing sound that is quite dominate on the ears as opposed old and forgetable music that just floated around a dreary area in the original WoW.
GRAPHICS: The graphics in Northrend are absolutely brilliant; the colors, the flashing lights, it is true eye candy. The characters still look like they're cartoons but to expect it to be any different is, once again, not paying attention to the "expansion" label. The snow looks crisp, the shadows are now fully interactive, the trees and the wilderness are all great looking. The Northern lights are quite a nice addition to have as well. If they cleaned up some of the trees in the original it would be a nice addition as well.
From what I saw of the new armor there isn't anything new to be seen; it seems to be recolored Tier 3 armor.... Though to be honest so few people actually got that that it still feels relatively new. But in general I'm not impressed at all with what I've seen with regards to the new epic armor thus far; then again I've only seen it from pictures on review sites and the like.
TERRAIN: The new terrain in Northrend is awe-inspiriing.... It's true. The Crystal Forest in particular is quite breath-taking. Though it seems to me that they went a little over the top what with colors and flashy lights in general; but it's still quite funny reading peoples' comments about "looks the same! blah blah blah!". Weeds out the trolls, I say. The amount of land that you're able to see in addition to all ground units no matter how high up you are is quite impressive if you think about it. That is, if you actually got to the point you have your flying mount in Northrend or heck, even looked at the land around you when at a high point of some sort.
DUNGEONS: No comment to date; it's nice that they are comparatively faster now but I'm going to have to see end game raid dungeons before I formulate a review on it.
PvP: No comment to date; not enough people at max level to see if it balances out.
QUESTS: The quests have taken to new heights in the new expansion; there are many that seem the same and many that are quite new.
The Horde side in particular I noticed a lot of the same stuff in the starting Northrend territories VS. my Alliance toon. But in general there is a lot of new additions in terms of quests that people who play for "10-20 hours" as I have been seeing will never see due to ignorance.
I'm sure you've seen videos of flying combat quests, riding the bears in arenas for the mauling quests, riding the dragons and jumping from dragon to dragon to kill their riders and then steal their rides... Etc. But that's just the tip of the iceberg.
I'll first start with the Death Knight; they took a new step what with your actions having an affect on the actual world around you as you progress. If you Set fire to buildings and kill soldiers you'll be transitioned to another part where you see the houses burned to the ground, corpses screwed all about, and the results of your hard work.
You have to steal your horde by literally jumping on it at first then killing someone who is on theirs and then steal theirs as well before you make it an undead steed.
There is also a first instance of you using a fire breathing dragon to kill and eat your enemies.... Though some might misinterpret this as flying combat - it isn't. It's an upgraded version of dropping bombs that was in the Burning Crusade. There is actual flying combat as in air-to-air targeting and firing of missles and such. It's really quite fun in a passing-the-time sort've way.
As a death knight you're led to do horrible things. But some note-worthy things include:
-Hijacking a ship and using it's cannons to bombard legions of elites.
-Plaguing miners and watching them turn into your undead minions to follow you around.
-Watch as terrified villagers cower in fear of you, screaming out for mercy just before you cut them down and hear the whisper of the lich king in your mind.
-Torturing of Villagers with fixed dialog as you are beating them to death to try and get information out of them (quite fun; "I'll rip the secrets from your soul!" Vishas style).
-Ride a dragon that eats mobs and burns things down to ashes.
-Participating in a huge battles where you have 10,000 (100+ on a screen at once) NPC undead allies against the entire Light's Hope military and witnessing the fight of Turion Vs. Arthas and the birth of the Argent Blade.
- Murdering a past friend of yours that tries to get you to fight the Lich King's control.
To be honest I'd be here all night if I were just to review the Death Knights so I'll stop right there.
Some Northrend notable quests:
-Dragon Riding/Hijacking and watching your murdered victims fall to their doom if not fully dead (jumping from dragon to dragon in mid air).
-Bear boxing (fighting while mounted on a bear in a large bear pit and the like).
-Flying Combat
-Transformation in Worgs/Murlocs
-Transformation into a King Behemoth Giant with all his power and HP.
-Encounters with your future self along with whitty remarks.
(Fair well, ! Don't get us killed! ...And get yourself some better gear!).
-Actual cinematic-like scenes for certain quests.
-Beholding a scene where a battles was frozen in time; birds flying about, spears in mid air, dwarves fighting giants. Quite breathe taking.
-Watching scenes unfold as you complete quests; for example on the horde side you see a mini skirmish between Sylvana's forces and the Lich King's forces. Arrows fly and become frozen in mid flight, bodies are torn asunder, and souls are ripped from their chests.
-Viewing the NPCS live their lives in the war; on the alliance side you see lines of recruits being signed in and telling what their profession is. They may be told to go to the front line or might have a spot open for their position. It's just a nice little thing that gives you a sense that there is a foreboding war about to happen; the recruitment sergeant saying that he has a quota to meet with troops and such and has to send people to the front lines.
When on the alliance side you are actually able to see WCIII in works as when you visit a nearby village under attack by the undead you hear the town hall ringing and people yelling "to arms!".... Then you see the peasant workers run to the town hall and then become armed with weapons and armor and then fight off the undead raid.
I'll leave the rest to be discovered to any interested parties as I know most people will be playing and not reading if they have it.
CRAFTING: The crafting process has changed significantly in terms of required reagents to make items and the like; the way to get said reagents remain the same, however. What I mean by this is that there are a lot of epics to be made with each craft now; most of them, in fact, are actually bind on equip. Those who are blacksmiths, for example, are able to make a mace that gives +500 spell damage to give to one of their characters as it isn't bind on pickup that last time I checked.
In addition crafting seems to have passive abilities now as well; mining, for example, now gives +500 HP if at its highest level.
Yet another example is alchemy; if you know how to make a potion it has double the effect when you use it.
The crafting is still flawed compared to the games of yesteryear.... But at least there is some meaning to be maxed out now.
WORLD PvP: They tried to inaugurate a new style of world PvP by adding a sort of faction conquering and owning of an entire area; much like you would see in a RvR game. It seems quite fun to be honest but it isn't required if you don't want to do it. It's a nice change from just trying to take over towns like in the Burning Crusade but requires more cooperation in general.
BATTLEGROUNDS: No comment as of yet.
Truth be told, and I know by the amount of people I see just giving thumbs down out of no reason if they see a high score, I'd feel guilty if I didn't give this game at least a Nine with everything that is contained therein.
It's all about integrity and honesty; I tried to find some bad points but all I could do was bash the ineptitude of the game in general when I'm supposed to review the expansion. In terms of an expansion it's one of the most content packed that I have ever seen on any genre of game. It's addicting and time wasting; but gaming in general is a waste of time unless it is your profession in some way.