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Get it if you must, but...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 9 / 12
Date: February 14, 2007
Author: Amazon User

A short review here, since Amazon solicited one with an email. Although I wasn't excited about the expansion because I'd already read reviews of it, I got it anyway because the rest of my WoW guild did, and I also figured there wasn't another game out yet that I wanted to try, so I figured I'd continue this one for the time being.

As I had already been told in reviews, the expansion was simply more of the same grinding-type quests, set in new zones. After the initial novelty of looking around at the new scenery, the game will soon return to the one you've been playing for whatever length of time you've been playing it. When I entered the first zone in the new area (Hellfire Penninsula), I discovered that 90% of the quests there were of the "kill/gather X number of Y" type. My first thought was that, although I know games must have these types of quests to fill out content, this was a bad first impression to make on players, i.e., putting them all in the very first zone.

Well, after playing much of the game in the other surrounding zones as well (currently I'm lvl 65), I realized that the other zones are all exactly the same -- filled with very little except "kill/gather X number of this." You'll find yourself grabbing quests and going to the area to kill/gather things, then turning in the quest. Virtually all of the non-instanced quests, including the ones where you have to kill a named boss, are soloable (it has gotten to be funny to see people LFG for them), but you'll most likely need a group for the dungeons. Overall they made it very easy to level up (10,000+ XP per quest), to make money (it piles up with loot drops and quest rewards), and to get good gear -- there are many green items that surpass in quality your old epic items from the old zones. I have no idea yet why they basically made the game so easy, and made the old zones and gear completely obsolete. You'll no longer have any reason to go to places like ZG, AQ, or MC.

I'm not very impressed with the expansion, but if you want to continue playing the exact same game, go ahead and buy it. Otherwise there's nothing special about it. I just don't know that the lousy quality of the expansion is the fault of the game, or just the fault of the current state of the MMO genre as a whole. MMOs in general seem to be getting stale, as game developers do nothing more than pump out copies of each other (or in this case, of itself) with the exact same themes and stale content.

It might be time to get back to other types of games and give MMOs a rest.

Horrible community ruins a really fun game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: October 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

After playing WOW for well over a year, I was looking forward to BC breathing new life into the game. The grind to 70 was alot of fun on all my characters. I enjoyed the very distinct (and VERY thrillingly hostile) zones and I found the atmosphere really immersing. Outland itself was quite challenging, got some great gear, and had some fun times, but once I hit 70 on my characters, I simply started losing interest. The thought of waiting an hour to get a raid organized and then trudging through a raid instance no longer held interest.

I thought the graphics in the expansion were excellent. No, not as detailed as some other games out there, but it never crashed, play was fluid, and everything just worked (unlike the endless hours of 'tweaking' in LOTRO, which ultimately caused me to throw that game in the bin.)

Overall, it wasn't the game itself that lost it for me, but the childish and hostile community. I enjoyed the PvP aspect of the game, but the merit-based PvP system really just led to alot of people standing around waiting to get their merits, alot of name-calling, people railing on each other about their equipment...pretty much an elementary school playground. I rarely found the community friendly or helpful and guilds were pretty much the same. If you want to get an idea of the community, take a read on the WoW website forums. THOSE are the people you'll be playing with. Very sad that a really fun game was ruined by such a negative community.

You can solo from levels 1-70 if you'd rather not deal with the community or just prefer to adventure around on your own for a bit, though that does tend to get rather boring. Yes, many argue that you should play an MMORPG to group; well, the choice is yours in this game. If a game this large were available offline, I certainly would enjoy it.

Having taken a 6-month break from the game, I was missing it a bit, so I went back to the forums. Then I remembered why I'd left.

More of the same with a little more polish.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 10 / 15
Date: March 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

When WoW was first released it was fairly decent. I played it off and on for a while until I realized that the high end which was composed of generic multi man raids for "phat lewtz" was pointless and dropped it. The game just wasn't fun anymore and had diluted itself to appeal to a mass audience.

Flash forward to Burning Crusade. Ultimately, more of the same. The intro quests and such for each new race are interesting, and overall they worked some nicer surprises into it now that they have more experience with the game, but between levels 20-60, expect nothing from this expansion. The race islands end at about level 20, and the content doesn't pick up again until you are high enough to go through the gate. I will commend blizzard on cooling down with the outrageous raids by tweaking raid caps down and making more 5man dungeons.

Bottom line, if you love WoW, you'll probably love the expansion. If you're already on the fence with WoW, don't bother, and if you leave, try finding a MMO with a little more depth and you might enjoy it.

Decent for now

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: March 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

In the case that you've never played the vanilla World of Warcraft, why even bother with the expansion now? Just get the original World of Warcraft and see if you like that beforehand. You will not be able to access the new material the expansion has to offer until level 58. If after a few months you get to a high level and decide that you want more, go for it. It should keep you happy.

Graphics: The graphics are decent and look good on older machines. Very detailed environments with weather effect, night/day cycles(24 hour), unique plants, rock piles though they do look "cartoonish". They all add up to a very vivid world that any toon would love to live in and fight monster. The draw distance in the game is quite far but even at max settings, things take a bit to load on to your screen, especially when traveling fast on either a epic mount or a epic flying mount. I don't recommend this game unless you have abundant RAM though, usually 1Gig is a very decent amount.

Controls: Default controls allow you to move your character with the First Person Shooter (think Quake, or Half-Life) friendly WSAD system using the mouse primarily to change your perspective. Skills or attacks are usually performed by clicking the associated button or as you get more experienced, by binding the ability to a key press. Every skill can be bound to any key (ex. F for heal self, Shift-F for heal buddy)

Difficulty: With any solo designed material, this game is cake. When the game requires a few other people to work together for a common goal it can be more difficult. This all depends on how good the people you chose to party with can perform their needed task(s).

The next few paragraphs are only really of use for those who have played the original World of Warcraft and want to know a bit about the expansion at an end game in mind. While it is all my opinion, most people I've talked to would agree with this assessment.

The game presents an almost identical end game experience at level 70 as it presented at 60 before the Burning Crusade expansion. An end-game dungeon still requires an entire nights worth of fun the first few times going through an encounter, but gets old quickly. Key information here is entire night. This only applies to 10+ man raids, not 5-mans.

The Player vs. Player aspect again hasn't changed too much. Granted health did scale (each class having about double hit points at level 70) but it doesn't do anything to add length to any PVP encounter. Warriors still 3 shot cloth wearers, Mages still 2 shot anything, Warlocks still fear/DOT kill etc. Only real difference here is that 90% of the Priests out there are Shadow and 90% of Druids are Feral (this also effects PVE greatly, LF healer anybody?).

I've also noticed there are a lot of really terrible players at higher levels now (usually anything dealing with the new races or the Paladins for Horde and Shaman for Alliance). This is mainly due to these players rushing their unique characters to upper levels and never really learning how to play them properly. As a rule of thumb, any character who's level 65+ and still hasn't gotten their ground epic mount is a one of these people.

Overall, the game has a lot of potential and I feel that once everyone gets back to the epic dungeon raiding, things will become as they were before Burning Crusade. Still fun, but not as fun as it could be.

More grinding with no end in sight...............

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: September 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The Burning Crusade is more of the same old same old - grinding for gear, reputation, and gold. The storyline would be much better if Blizzard actually incorporated it into the game, instead of adding it as an afterthought. The very nature of this game is showing off how fast you can level your toon and whom has the best gear. I prefer to play a game that actually has an end-game I can participate in. I spent 7 months playing WoW and enjoyed it. Now I am moving on though. Wrath of the Lich King? No thanks. What is the difference between level 70 and level 80? Not much, just more expensive gear and another month of my life grinding to 80 so I can get bored with it. Thanks for the memories Blizzard. /cancel

It's never too late to start playing WoW

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: June 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I have to admit, I was very apprehensive starting to play WoW Burning Crusade well after the release date. But, am I ever glad I did. This game is addicting and lots of fun.

I was worried it would be difficult to start playing a game when you are Level-1 and other guys are Level-70. But, that just wasn't the case. The starting quests are such that you remain in a few general areas until you get past about Level-20, after that you venture out into the larger world (but even the starting areas are vast).

The other good thing about starting the game late in the cycle is the noob areas aren't overly crowded. Nobody is stealing your quests, no queues for quests, but there are still enough people around to get a good group going for a good Elite quest.

Until a week ago, I have never played WoW, but I have played Guild Wars and Lord of the Rings Online. While some of the other games have better graphics and worlds you may be familiar with due to movies (such as LOTRO), they have nothing up on WoW. The WoW interface is easy to learn, work with, and customize. The WoW worlds are large and provide enough variety to keep things fun. One week into the game, I have a Level-20 Blood Elf Rogue and have cancelled my LOTRO account.

Another good thing about WoW is that it works well for high-end and low-end systems. I play on my desktop, which is a high-end 8800GTX-based system and it plays great. I also play on my notebook, which is just an ok system with integrated graphics. It works well on my notebook as well.

Bottom line, if you are thinking about starting to play WoW, stop thinking and do it. The Burning Crusade expansion pack is a good way to start. You don't need a Level-60 character to enjoy the expansion pack, you can start one of the new races and still play in the new environment.

It's never too late to start playing WoW

More of the same, for good or bad

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: February 15, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I've held off review of this item until I actually had a chance to really get into the features offered by the expansion beyond just initial impressions. What I came away with is that The Burning Crusade delivers more of what the original World of Warcraft game offered, but that the new offerings are much the same as what was available before. In other words, you can continue to advance now beyond the level cap of 60 (and the skill caps of 300) but that the new advancements don't really offer anything that redefines the game. If the design was to merely open up "more" then Blizzard delivered a well done, if pricey (you are paying the price of a full game here), continuation. If you were looking to be wow'd the way we were when first visited by World of Warcraft, I don't think this expansion delivers that. Continuing a good thing is fine, but paying the price of a full game to just unlock 10 more levels of advancement that is much the same as before isn't a great value. If you were not a big World of Warcraft fan you will likely enjoy putting that money into discovering a new MMO entirely as you won't see anything really new or inventive here.

As stated, The Burning Crusade moves the level cap from 60 to 70, allowing you 10 more talent points to spend on increasing the strengths of your character and investing in talents that were recently made available.

In addition, the game offers two new races (Drenai and Blood Elf) with thier unique starting areas and character models. The models and areas are not exactly new, you've seen them here and there before in one form or another. But still, new-ish models and color schemes and a new layout of the scenery models to explore. Quests remain much the same as they ever were, with nothing about them standing out.

Also introduced was an additional trade skill, Jewelcrafting. I wasn't a big fan of the Trade Skills in the basic game because the items you could make were not of any better quality than what you could loot (oftentimes lesser quality) and required a lot of effort in acquiring mats for when you could just buy the items readily available equivalent. There were a few high-end crafting items that were very nice to have, but very difficult to get to the point of making. Overall, the Trade Skills were a waste of money as you were better off financially to just harvest materials and sell them for immediate cash and then buy the items you want. Jewelcrafting has some early items that are actually useful as low level rings and such are often difficult to find. Hopefully it is a profession that will actually remain useful throughout.

The Burning Crusade features a new world to explore and conquer called Outland. The visuals that comprise the new models and new area look right in place and familiar - because really, you have seen the same models before for most things. Don't get me wrong, the new races and areas look as good as anything you will see in World of Warcraft, but they don't feel entirely different or new.

The new expansion doesn't require computer upgrades as the graphical quality hasn't really changed much and things are rendered much the same as before. By today's standards the graphics of World of Warcraft, while vibrant, are aging, but friendly to a large group of computers so you won't have to worry about performance demands. If you could already play the game well, you will be fine with the expansion.

I still give the game an enjoyment factor of 4 out of 5. It has a lot of things that I don't like but it offers a lot of enjoyment as well and is a great time sink. The Burning Crusade rekindles my interest in the game but I think that interest will sadly be short-lived. Having already grown tired of World of Warcraft's basic gameplay and mechanics, I don't think it will take long to feel like I've experienced all the "new" stuff.

Expansion made me quit what WAS a great game.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 11
Date: March 04, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This expansion should in fact be given less then 1 star, it was not only terrible on it's own right but it also destroyed World Of Warcraft the original release for me. It is a fact that had this expansion not been released I would still be playing WOW today.

Why did it make me quit? The developers completely ignored the itemizaation balance and encounter balance that existed in the entire original release. Level 60 requirement epic (purple) items dropping from dragons that take 40 people to kill were all of the sudden worse then level 55 requirement common (green) items that drop from trash in BC. In one fell swoop the developers destroyed any reason anyone had to play in the old world beyond level 55. There is no more point to fighting in Molten Core, there is no reason to ever work towards BWL access, the gates of AQ might as well stay closed from now on. One can go to the auction house and pay 10 gold for a green item that they can use at level 55 that is better then you can get doing all that work to kill Vael in BWL.

Why did they not keep things consistent? Why did they not make a level 60 requirement item in BC comparable to a level 60 green item in the old world? Why did they not make a level 60 epic item from BWL still worth having at level 60? I have no clue. Maybe they thought that people would avoid BC without the impetus of easy loots that warp anything that drops in the old world, like the insane exp rate that again warped the old world is not enough. Maybe it is as they say to equalize the PVP of the game, but alot of us were not really there primarily for the PVP and furthermore many of us liked the fact that success in PVE made you more of a threat in PVP as well. Some people lived in the PVP grounds and became very skilled in PVP combat while also gaining the valuable loots obtainable with high rank, some people instead focused on PVE spending just as much time getting the skill and keys it required to become comparably equipped. It was fairly well balanced, but Blizzard went and messed with it and screwed it up.

BC might as well have been WOW 2. There is no point of having it as an "expansion". It destroyed the point of the old world and as such people now live solely in BC or they quit playing. An online game like this must release expansions that are in line with the previous content. You must not make the new content on a new higher scale or you destroy the old content and in essence shrink the useable size of the game world. EQ managed vastly better then WOW with it's Kunark and Velious Expansions. Items that were comparable in level requirement and difficulty to obtain were likewise quite balanced. A level 46 named frog in Guk was dropping similar quality loot to a level 46 named dinosaur in Traks Teeth. That is the way it should be. Now 10 expansions later EQ's balance is utterly dstroyed but in the beggining through the 1st 2 expansions they actually got it pretty close to perfect.

Blizzard screwed this up royally, not because the models were bad, not because the new areas were not interesting, not because the quests were not entertaining, but because they could not keep from ratcheting up the loot to an absurd level utterly trivializing the old world.

This expansion made me quit playing WOW. Without an expansion at all I would still be paying $15 a month, that is how bad it really is in my eyes.

Blizzard really screwed up on this one

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 16 / 41
Date: January 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I got the expansion the day after it came out, no problem, I didn't care about playing opening day so that was no big deal. I logged onto my account the next day and upgraded to BC. I then inserted the CD. the License Agreement pops up, I scroll to the bottom to click the "Agree" button and it never grays out so I can click it. I turned off pop up blockers, completely uninstalled my viruscan, uninstalled/reinstalled the original game, no luck.

I go to the support forum and find out a bunch of people are having trouble with the CD's with many kinds of errors. Blizzard claims they will eventually make key files available for download, but several days later, nothing. Also, its been several days and no replies to my emails from tech support either.

What makes matters worse, once you upgrade your account online to BC, you can no longer play World of Warcraft period.

With all the money they have made on this game, the support should be much better.

I'm giving them till the 23rd when my account is due for renewal otherwise I'm cancelling. There are many other games out there or soon to be released I can play.

A beautiful addition to more of the same.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: February 15, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Blizzard has always been a serious and outstanding company. There can be no arguing about it. The products they release are truly well done. WoW is a beautiful game set in a very vast world and this expansion set adds to that vastness and beauty equally.
Nevertheless, in a strange paradox, there is not much more to do after some time.
I'd say that if you understood or empathized with what I just said, then do not purchase this expansion.
Do buy it only if you are, as many millions, unable to break the addiction, or if your game-style and satisfactions are based on leveling, doing the same things over and over, or in your circle of friends (which is one of the truly rewarding experiences of playing MOOs).
Do buy it if you have never played WoW (or any other MMOs) and are getting it along with the core game, since it will awe you for a long while and developing one of the new 2 races will then be very interesting.
Otherwise, do not bother.
The fantastic thing of WoW is that they have managed to send you into the same basic 5 errands thousands of times with different justifications as to why you should go, but anyway, in essence, this errands are exactly the same each and all of those times you have been sent. The Burning Crusade is no different.
Arguments of why this is great or not, or why any change of game dynamics is technically possible or not at the moment, are of no relevance here, the important thing is that you (potential buyer) know it is so. And if, as I said above, you are tired of this, well, then definitely The Burning Crusade will not change it and is, with certainty, not for you.

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