World of Warcraft Mists of Pandaria Review will take you into another world of this expansion.
World of Warcraft Mists of Pandaria expansion is in a effort to keep those that follow the WOW franchise and in hope to gain new ones and those that they have lost. Does Mists of Pandaria have enough to save the WOW franchise from another disappointment or will this be a risky move that will cost them too much in the near future.
World of Warcraft has has met the differing playstyles of any gamers and has provided an fun game to all players. In particular there is the hardcore players, elite endgame raiders with serious guilds, who are always up to the challenge.
World of Warcraft main focus is on the more casual end of the values. While hardcore gamers make up the bigger number. Mists of Pandaria i appeals to the most casual of players. Tonally it’s as far from the high drama of Cataclysm or Lich King as it’s possible to be. This is not a criticism. Variety is a welcome thing, and the change of pace Pandaria provides a nice contrast to previous expansions.
When a new expansion comes out, the first thing to look at is what’s new, what has been added. Mists of Pandaria adds the misty island of – unsurprisingly Pandaria. It’s is the homeland of the Pandaren, a race of anthropomorphic panda bears. These creatures were originally conceived as an April Fools Day joke in the Warcraft III era. It’s somewhat concerning that something can be absurd enough to be an April Fools Day joke, and then become an expansion a few years later.
That mist has now thinned, just a little, allowing the forces of the Horde and theAllianceto land ships and soldiers, continuing their war. But all is not as it seems on Pandaria. The peace and tranquility of the island is due to a deep magic, one that makes the aggression and violence of the newcomers, and manifests itself as dark creatures. The harmony of the peaceful Pandaren may be lost forever.
Pandaria is clearly of Chinese influence, the stereotypicalChinaof misty mountain peaks, paper lanterns and aesthetically shaped trees. The comparison is routinely made to Dreamworks’ Kung-Fu Panda, and this is entirely apt. Whether one drew inspiration from the other is impossible to determine, but the China-Kung-fu-panda connection is hardly so obscure as to be impossible to come upon independently. As well as the new Pandaren race there is a new class that comes with the expansion. This is the Monk class, a collection of martial arts masters, melee-based damage dealers who also bring with them a bevy of buffs.
In the time since the last expansion, much of World of Warcraft’s complexity has been stripped back. In particular, the talent system has been vastly simplified. Instead of deep trees where points are put to form a specialisation, the specialisation is explicitly chosen. Points are then given at rare milestones, only every 15 levels. This means that instead of being complex trees, the levels give tiers of major upgrades. This may be a new talent, or a permanent statistical improvement, but they’re significant improvements, not one or two percent.
Newly added is another feature that screams “casual player”. In fact, it couldn’t be more casual. Players have always been able to have pets of a range of kinds. Some pets are combat pets, such as hunter pets or warlock minions. But a lot are purely vanity pets, cosmetic items that are collected and simply follow the player around achieving little or nothing. This new gameplay mechanic allows the pets to do something – fight. Players can find rare pets in the world, or buy them from various places, which are capable of entering into Pet vs Pet battles. The system is not unlike an in-game Pokemon arena, something that appeals to the younger and more casual players, but seems to be taken as evidence of disenfranchisement by the more hardcore.
Like Cataclysm, there are no new trades to be learned in Mists, but of course, new recipes and materials to be learned for the ones that are already present. Surprisingly, skilling up trade skills is actually remarkably easy now, at least up to a point. Effort has clearly been made to take the grind out of skilling up, a process that was always much more mundane and difficult than actually leveling the character, and one that usually cost a small fortune. Now maxing trade skills is still a challenge, but at least getting some usable patterns or blueprints is viable. Many useful early patterns can be made can be made from the plentiful materials that are lying around, with very few material bottlenecks on production. The items that are hard to make are the ones that will see a player into the early stages of the level 90 dungeons and maybe even early raids.
World of Warcraft has always excelled in one specific area, and that’s its endgame. In fact, it’s been dominated for many years by an addictive and all-consuming level cap experience consisting of extensive raids and endless grinding for reputation with new factions. In an interesting twist, Blizzard has not released all raids upfront. Of the three raids Pandaria launches with, only one is available, having gone online in the last few weeks, nearly a month after launch. The other two are being released towards the end of October. This staggered release probably won’t help the longevity of endgame content, which has in the last few expansions typically been beaten and set on “farm” by top guilds within weeks.
In this way, as in many others, World of Warcraft is a victim of its own impressive success. Its phenomenal revenue generation has kept it alive past where many might have initially expected, perhaps even Blizzard itself. As an eight year old PC game it’s showing its age. Occasional updates to the graphics engine have improved the quality of the models and overall graphics notably, with Cataclysm’s opportunity for a revamp being a particularly good step up. But the game is still, after all, hitting nearly a decade. There are fundamental parts of the engine, particularly in terms of interacting with the environment, that are very dated.
For example, setting a hearthstone to a new inn causes the innkeeper to run an animation, casting a spell on the player. But the animation merely goes forward. If the player is behind or beside the innkeeper, the animation isn’t directed at them. This sort of “polish” issue comes up regularly, and they make the game feel maybe a little old and disjointed.
Eight years is a long time. Most particularly it’s a lot of baggage for a new player. Anyone joining now has to wade through 90 levels, seemingly infinite lore, spread over what is now a vast area, through the original game and then four expansions. They also have to wade through a playerbase that has now had eight full years to hone its elitism. Everyone’s experience will differ, but it seems to me that many players have become more toxic and obnoxious.
Of course, this isn’t the point of World of Warcraft. The point is to play with friends, and that’s something the game has always had. While other MMO contenders have failed to achieve that critical mass of people playing together, World of Warcraft snowballed, with people playing because all of their friends did. Strong guilds at various levels and of various playstyles formed and broke up and reformed again under different names. Guild dramas became real life dramas, and guild mates became best mates. Many of those connections are long dead. A lot of once-hardcore players seem to have lost the faith, and moved on to other MMOs, such as Guild Wars 2, or onto other genres, such as League of Legends.
But certainly not all. With every new expansion, dormant guilds unfurl like flowers in a spring thaw. Guildies greet each other, begin leveling, and work towards the inevitable endgame. These connections, vast networks of players that fire up with each new expansion, are what make World of Warcraft unique, and profitable.
Mists of Pandaria has a lot to offer players. Its tone and style are a drastic departure from the super-serious-business of previous expansions. And that is commendable. Many players will enjoy the questing and the level design, much of which is still genuinely impressive. And yet, for a veteran there is something wrong. There is something about being surrounded by panda bears and poke-battles that makes an old vanilla player think fondly of fire resist gear and forty-player raids.