World of Warcraft – PC – Preview 3

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 (https://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.