Has anyone played Cataclysm?

[00slash00]

I haven't played world of warcraft in like 3 years. i was never addicted, i just stopped because the game had started to feel stale and boring to me. however, i have been hearing really really good things about cataclysm. has anyone played it? as someone who became bored with wow during the days of burning crusade, does cataclysm make it worth returning to?

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

The game is generally improved but I do not think the changes are sufficient to warrant returning if you got burned out on the game.

 

[viranimus]

Yes.. 3 guys out in Iowa.. but thats it, no one else bothered.

 

[oplinger]

This is by far the silliest question I've seen on this board >.>

I've played it, it's vastly improved, but not enough change to want to say it's different.

It's just polished, and the mechanics are different. Once you figure out the mechanics, you won't feel any different about it.

 

[kampori]

Similarly, I went off WoW as soon as The Lich King expansion came out, just as I did as soon as The Burning Crusade came out. Somehow, Blizzard just managed to -TOTALLY- fuck-up almost everything good they did in vanilla WoW.

LUCKILY, I gave Cataclysm a chance- thank god I did. I love it, and I rarely loved WoW even in the beginning. They have COMPLETELY redone everything.. gutted it like a fish. They got rid of almost all the crap, (of which was a legendary amount) left all the good, and added a lot of great things.
It's like Vanilla, but a lot better.

Everything- from 1-85 quests (which all feel awesome, epic, great storylines and all), cutscenes all the way through, the sundered world looks stunning, I haven't tried Worgen (I am Horde), but the Goblins have taken my heart- love them to death. Races have new classes attached, new talent trees. The dungeons/heroics (I haven't hit the raids yet)- are absolutely immense. They are MUCH harder, require a lot of patience and tactics, but are really fun.

So all in all, Cataclysm is the 1 thing that WoW needed to survive, and did it spectacularly. It's finally got me interested.

EDIT- as per the poster above me; I agree. WoW really is almost all about the community. No matter how good the actual game is, being an MMO- a lot of it revolves around other players. If you have a bad server, full of a-holes, no good guilds, it can be really dull & depressing. You have to find somewhere to -fit in-, I guess you could say.

 

[Mr.Pandah]

If you enjoyed it, and would like another run at the World that is Warcraft, then this is the expansion pack to get back in on. However, I do recommend simply resubscribing and leveling a new character (since you'll have access to the new Azeroth, just not the Cataclysm material) and judge it after another month back.

Its what I did and I'm glad I did. I hit 74 on my rogue (I had a few 80s but played with friends on a new server) and I had a blast while playing, but I couldn't level anymore since I just hit a "wall" of sorts and got bored with it again. Then again, I've played far more then I'd like to admit.

 

[00slash00]

Similarly, I went off WoW as soon as The Lich King expansion came out, just as I did as soon as The Burning Crusade came out. Somehow, Blizzard just managed to -TOTALLY- fuck-up almost everything good they did in vanilla WoW.

LUCKILY, I gave Cataclysm a chance- thank god I did. I love it, and I rarely loved WoW even in the beginning. They have COMPLETELY redone everything.. gutted it like a fish. They got rid of almost all the crap, (of which was a legendary amount) left all the good, and added a lot of great things.
It's like Vanilla, but a lot better.

Everything- from 1-85 quests (which all feel awesome, epic, great storylines and all), cutscenes all the way through, the sundered world looks stunning, I haven't tried Worgen (I am Horde), but the Goblins have taken my heart- love them to death. Races have new classes attached, new talent trees. The dungeons/heroics (I haven't hit the raids yet)- are absolutely immense. They are MUCH harder, require a lot of patience and tactics, but are really fun.

So all in all, Cataclysm is the 1 thing that WoW needed to survive, and did it spectacularly. It's finally got me interested.

EDIT- as per the poster above me; I agree. WoW really is almost all about the community. No matter how good the actual game is, being an MMO- a lot of it revolves around other players. If you have a bad server, full of a-holes, no good guilds, it can be really dull & depressing. You have to find somewhere to -fit in-, I guess you could say.

one thing i hadnt thought about when i made the original post, was that, since i dont have lich king, i would have to buy that and cataclysm. that would come out to almost $100. your feelings of the game seemed to be the same as mine but considering how expensive it would be for me to play cataclysm, would you still say its worth it?

 

[kampori]

S

one thing i hadnt thought about when i made the original post, was that, since i dont have lich king, i would have to buy that and cataclysm. that would come out to almost $100. your feelings of the game seemed to be the same as mine but considering how expensive it would be for me to play cataclysm, would you still say its worth it?

Hmmm, that is a tough call. I mean, personally I'm loving it. Of course you'll hit that same 'dry spell' of boredom now and then, but there's always something new you can be trying out- the new PvP areas, daily quests, Archaeology if you're really bored.

But that is indeed quite a bit of money for a hunch.
Do you have a friend that has it? If so, ask him, or play on it for a while. Or even if you're desperate go YouTube videos of some new Cata features; as I said like the new PvP area (Tol'Barad), or some instances etc.

It depends as well on how much free time you have? A game like this does require time and patience.

Sorry- not the most helpful of answers.

 

[iLikeHippos]

I haven't played world of warcraft in like 3 years. i was never addicted, i just stopped because the game had started to feel stale and boring to me. however, i have been hearing really really good things about cataclysm. has anyone played it? as someone who became bored with wow during the days of burning crusade, does cataclysm make it worth returning to?

Like you, I had left around BC since I hit a raiding stalemate with myself and could not progress any further.

However, now that I came back, It have gotten me some good 3 1/2 months of gameplay before growing bored once more. Probably because all my cool guildmates decided to stop log on.
T'was menacing.

But, you want some insider facts; here's some insider facts:

Leveling from 80 to 85 in these new quest zones (Vashj'Ir, Mount Hyjal are TRAPS!) have been an utter bore, imo. You will mighty want to avoid them, since it's VERY linear and you get like 1 quest at a time as opposed to 5 different choices or relations to the other quests.

Also, everything today in WoW is so simplified, putting some real work into doing things will just make you feel like you're trying too hard.
For example; Remember getting a dungeon together by spamming "LFM DM 2 DPS"? Well, now there's an autosearch.

Though, leveling a guy from 1 - 55 is a blast. So much fun can be had with questing and dungeons...
Just remember to level on a PvE server. I am constantly ganked (and if lucky, camped) in the PvP realms if I ever trespass onto PvP marked lands, which is 80% of the entire fuckin' map.

Also, make sure you pick the right race to roll. Some have far better introductions and tutorials than others.
(I,E Trolls have it far better than Orcs now, and Gnomes have it better than Dwarfs...)

Whether or not it's worth it, is up to you. I am just throwing out some helpful information.

 

[Sejs Cube]

If the game felt boring and stale for you before, chances are good that it'll feel that way for you now.

Not everyone is jazzed over the general structure of MMOs. And while sure with Cataclysm there are more things to do and the numbers are bigger, it's still the same MMO at its heart that you got bored with 3 years ago. Sorry, man.

 

[WelshDanny]

I haven't played it, and to be honest, haven't played any WoW game due to a combination of being to skint to pay a monthly charge and knowing that I'd get horribly addicted.

Still, almost 5 million people have played it. http://bit.ly/egJ0AF

They wouldn't have if it was rubbish, right? Well, probably...

 

[Zannah]

It's an improvement form frozen crusade, imho, just don't expect to find the challenges and hardships everyone keeps complaining about.

 

[tharglet]

one thing i hadnt thought about when i made the original post, was that, since i dont have lich king, i would have to buy that and cataclysm. that would come out to almost $100. your feelings of the game seemed to be the same as mine but considering how expensive it would be for me to play cataclysm, would you still say its worth it?

You don't have to buy them both as soon as you go back. 1-55 will give you the direction the Cata zones will take, in terms of questing structure. TBC will be pretty much as you remember it, Wrath is... wrath.
Also $100USD sounds like starting a new account and buying all the expansions (I see Amazon is doing all the discs for $96USD)... chances are your account will still be about, if you can retrieve your old account, you can save yourself some money that way.

 

[Octorok]

one thing i hadnt thought about when i made the original post, was that, since i dont have lich king, i would have to buy that and cataclysm. that would come out to almost $100. your feelings of the game seemed to be the same as mine but considering how expensive it would be for me to play cataclysm, would you still say its worth it?

A hundred?! That sounds in far excess of what I paid for the whole 4 games and 60 days of game time. Amazon has them very cheap.

However, I heartily recommend Cataclysm. Sure, it's still WoW. Mankrik's hangin' about and it's packed to the gunwales with pop culture references. However, I played pre-Cataclysm and observed one thing. Playing a Tauren, Orc, Human or whatever I tried I failed to enjoy. It was arduous and painstaking. Then I tried some BC content, and I realised that Blizzard were procedurally getting better and better at running a smooth, more enjoyable game. I held off until Cataclysm, and it was worth the wait.

Redone content is a joy to play, if you ever enjoyed WoW at all, and the game's much friendlier to the player now. Even the environment's still pretty.

New starting experiences, Goblins are awesome, and the 1-60 is a blast.

One note - you don't need Cataclysm to play the new Azeroth. Cataclysm adds two races, a profession, dungeons and its new areas, but the revamped 1-60 is available to all players. You could just roll up a vanilla race and hold off Cataclysm until you think you're ready to get it.

 

[The Madman]

You don't need to buy Cataclysm in order to experience the revamped zones, so rather than buying everything right now, why don't you just get a trial account or even just pay for a month and see what's up? I highly suggest making a new character, doesn't matter which anymore they're all pretty awesome. Regardless, if you're unsure there's no need to spend any money at all.

Personally I've really been enjoying WOW since Cata came out. I'd pretty much burned out early in Wrath, never even saw most of the content. But Cataclysm has just been a joy to play. I've especially been enjoying leveling up new characters and seeing all the revamped zones.

One quest, one glorious quest had me driving a tank with a blood-crazed pseudo-Rambo up top manning a massive turret while screaming 'THERE ARE NO FRIENDLY CIVILIANS' as literally hundreds of Orcs were being blown to pieces, again literally, no exaggeration. Not exactly the sort of experience you typically expect from a fantasy MMO, which is why it was do damned awesome!

And that's only one.