Review: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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Review: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

Rebirth through destruction.

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ironlordthemad

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Sep 25, 2009
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With all the hype thats been building around Cataclysm, its good to see that its standing up rather than being a marketing flop.
I'm not a WoW player because I don't have the time, but man do those cinematics make me want to play the game!
Until I see the engine in game of course...
 

master m99

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Jan 19, 2009
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i need to wait to the end of january or risk failing my a levels dam it!! =S do want so bad *crys*...not a strong monent for me there =P
 

bakonslayer

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Apr 15, 2009
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There is nothing wrong with this review. It superbly encapsulates all parts of the changes and additions (WHICH IS A HUGE AMOUNT OF STUFF!) in the new version within only two pages.

I can only imagine how difficult this article was to write, Funk.

Also, this cannot be emphasized enough. There has never been a better, more fun, and MORE ACCESSIBLE time to join World of Warcraft then now.
 

Slenn

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Nov 19, 2009
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Cataclysm is well worth more than Starcraft 2. Starcraft 2 was almost a near flop of an RTS in terms of its single player campaign. Cataclysm was innovative in almost every way with the addition of archaeology and the new areas while still keeping up the old vanilla WoW interface.
 

Staskala

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Sep 28, 2010
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Why doesn't it suck? Why couldn't Blizzard screw it up?
Not just the "Whoops, guess we totally dumbed down your class ...even more" kind of messing up (got plenty of that) but making the game itself unplayable.
Now I'll start all over again, like I did with BC and WotLk (and inbetween) only to get bored again only to start anew and then get bored again and restart again and again and again...
 

Cmichaels

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Jul 14, 2010
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Watching an add for Cataclysm before a review? Yes please.
Looks nice, but not enough to come back.
 

omicron1

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@ the end music: I knew you were going to pull that one, even before you mentioned "appropriate music."

Also, aaaugh! Earworm!


Anyway. Can anyone tell me if the storyline from the original WoW is still there? Has this Cataclysm completely destroyed the old storyline of WoW? And if so, is it confusing to someone who's never played through the game? (I only ever got as far as the exit to the undead starting region, and now I'm worried about endless in-jokes and story references I just wouldn't get.)
 

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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omicron1 said:
@ the end music: I knew you were going to pull that one, even before you mentioned "appropriate music."

Also, aaaugh! Earworm!


Anyway. Can anyone tell me if the storyline from the original WoW is still there? Has this Cataclysm completely destroyed the old storyline of WoW? And if so, is it confusing to someone who's never played through the game? (I only ever got as far as the exit to the undead starting region, and now I'm worried about endless in-jokes and story references I just wouldn't get.)
Cataclysm completely replaces the old world of Warcraft whether you purchase the expansion or no.
 

Mordwyl

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That's exactly what I thought about that rolling quest. I love you for the song, it's perfect.
 

omicron1

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John Funk said:
omicron1 said:
@ the end music: I knew you were going to pull that one, even before you mentioned "appropriate music."

Also, aaaugh! Earworm!


Anyway. Can anyone tell me if the storyline from the original WoW is still there? Has this Cataclysm completely destroyed the old storyline of WoW? And if so, is it confusing to someone who's never played through the game? (I only ever got as far as the exit to the undead starting region, and now I'm worried about endless in-jokes and story references I just wouldn't get.)
Cataclysm completely replaces the old world of Warcraft whether you purchase the expansion or no.
So.... as someone who never played through the original game, am I just going to be confused if I start in on this one? Will I be lost by references to events in the Burning Crusade or Lich King? Will there be tons of internal references to quests that happened in pre-Cataclysm Azeroth?

In other words, is the game more or less approachable from a story standpoint now that they've gone and redone everything?
 

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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omicron1 said:
John Funk said:
omicron1 said:
@ the end music: I knew you were going to pull that one, even before you mentioned "appropriate music."

Also, aaaugh! Earworm!


Anyway. Can anyone tell me if the storyline from the original WoW is still there? Has this Cataclysm completely destroyed the old storyline of WoW? And if so, is it confusing to someone who's never played through the game? (I only ever got as far as the exit to the undead starting region, and now I'm worried about endless in-jokes and story references I just wouldn't get.)
Cataclysm completely replaces the old world of Warcraft whether you purchase the expansion or no.
So.... as someone who never played through the original game, am I just going to be confused if I start in on this one? Will I be lost by references to events in the Burning Crusade or Lich King? Will there be tons of internal references to quests that happened in pre-Cataclysm Azeroth?

In other words, is the game more or less approachable from a story standpoint now that they've gone and redone everything?
Obviously I can't 100% judge considering I am NOT a newbie, but from what I've played of the various starting zones it's actually pretty accessible. You won't be any more lost than if you just jumped in to the original six years ago.
 

ZiggyE

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Nov 13, 2010
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omicron1 said:
John Funk said:
omicron1 said:
@ the end music: I knew you were going to pull that one, even before you mentioned "appropriate music."

Also, aaaugh! Earworm!


Anyway. Can anyone tell me if the storyline from the original WoW is still there? Has this Cataclysm completely destroyed the old storyline of WoW? And if so, is it confusing to someone who's never played through the game? (I only ever got as far as the exit to the undead starting region, and now I'm worried about endless in-jokes and story references I just wouldn't get.)
Cataclysm completely replaces the old world of Warcraft whether you purchase the expansion or no.
So.... as someone who never played through the original game, am I just going to be confused if I start in on this one? Will I be lost by references to events in the Burning Crusade or Lich King? Will there be tons of internal references to quests that happened in pre-Cataclysm Azeroth?

In other words, is the game more or less approachable from a story standpoint now that they've gone and redone everything?
You can always look up the lore online.
 

DaJoW

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Aug 17, 2010
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omicron1 said:
John Funk said:
omicron1 said:
@ the end music: I knew you were going to pull that one, even before you mentioned "appropriate music."

Also, aaaugh! Earworm!


Anyway. Can anyone tell me if the storyline from the original WoW is still there? Has this Cataclysm completely destroyed the old storyline of WoW? And if so, is it confusing to someone who's never played through the game? (I only ever got as far as the exit to the undead starting region, and now I'm worried about endless in-jokes and story references I just wouldn't get.)
Cataclysm completely replaces the old world of Warcraft whether you purchase the expansion or no.
So.... as someone who never played through the original game, am I just going to be confused if I start in on this one? Will I be lost by references to events in the Burning Crusade or Lich King? Will there be tons of internal references to quests that happened in pre-Cataclysm Azeroth?

In other words, is the game more or less approachable from a story standpoint now that they've gone and redone everything?
From what I've seen all the stuff you "need" to know (not that you actually need to know too much to do the quests and stuff) is told outright, the Forsaken start is especially clear even bringing up stuff from WC3. There are a lot of jokes within the game, but nothing so glaring that it should be a problem. Mostly just references to characters people have run into before which is fun for old players and nothing of interest to new players.
 

The Rogue Wolf

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John Funk said:
omicron1 said:
John Funk said:
omicron1 said:
@ the end music: I knew you were going to pull that one, even before you mentioned "appropriate music."

Also, aaaugh! Earworm!


Anyway. Can anyone tell me if the storyline from the original WoW is still there? Has this Cataclysm completely destroyed the old storyline of WoW? And if so, is it confusing to someone who's never played through the game? (I only ever got as far as the exit to the undead starting region, and now I'm worried about endless in-jokes and story references I just wouldn't get.)
Cataclysm completely replaces the old world of Warcraft whether you purchase the expansion or no.
So.... as someone who never played through the original game, am I just going to be confused if I start in on this one? Will I be lost by references to events in the Burning Crusade or Lich King? Will there be tons of internal references to quests that happened in pre-Cataclysm Azeroth?

In other words, is the game more or less approachable from a story standpoint now that they've gone and redone everything?
Obviously I can't 100% judge considering I am NOT a newbie, but from what I've played of the various starting zones it's actually pretty accessible. You won't be any more lost than if you just jumped in to the original six years ago.
As I've played up a character from each of the new races through their starting zones (as well as a few lower-level ones to see how some of the new lowbie quests look), I can say with a fair amount of sureity that you don't at all have to have any more knowledge of vanilla WoW to enjoy Cataclysm than you had to have had of the previous Warcraft games to have enjoyed WoW at initial release. There's a fair amount of callbacks, sure, but I've found that the quest texts and such do a fair job of explaining how things used to be and what went down.

Personally, my only- and I do mean only- complaint is the phasing techniques. Phasing bugs have prevented me from completing one quest (thankfully, it brought me to an area where new quests were available anyway), almost prevented me from continuing another (the NPC would phase out when you approached her unless you were very careful), and caused a handful of other issues with groups. However, on the whole I've found that it was pulled off exceptionally well, and gave me a sense of impact on the gameworld that only Wrath even began to show me.

Also, gratz on 85!
 

Matt_LRR

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Nov 30, 2009
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Yeesh. when did you hit 85? I'm pretty sure you were 84 when I logged off last night, and that was at like 4AM your time. (and I'm pretty sure you were still online :| ) Go to sleep dude.

-m
 

Sartan0

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Matt_LRR said:
Yeesh. when did you hit 85? I'm pretty sure you were 84 when I logged off last night, and that was at like 4AM your time. (and I'm pretty sure you were still online :| ) Go to sleep dude.

-m
Sleep is for the weak, perhaps? :) I am tempted to return but I am going to wait a bit and see. (That and wait for the low level zones to clear out a bit)
 

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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Matt_LRR said:
Yeesh. when did you hit 85? I'm pretty sure you were 84 when I logged off last night, and that was at like 4AM your time. (and I'm pretty sure you were still online :| ) Go to sleep dude.

-m
Haha, literally about thirty seconds after you logged off.
 

Matt_LRR

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John Funk said:
Matt_LRR said:
Yeesh. when did you hit 85? I'm pretty sure you were 84 when I logged off last night, and that was at like 4AM your time. (and I'm pretty sure you were still online :| ) Go to sleep dude.

-m
Haha, literally about thirty seconds after you logged off.
BAW. I seriously considered staying on longer and making some progress in deepholm.

Oh well - some of us had real jobs they had to get to this morning. :p

-m

Edit: incidentally, disappointed that my name didn't pop up in your chat log during the video review :(