Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

100 or More Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Immersive"

When WoW first dropped in 2004 it was a truly magical gaming experience. For the first time ever the MMORPG market was shown what it really is capable of. And, also for the first time, an MMO was made accessible to the wider public - you could be hard core, but there were more casual gamers. Although I know many take issue with the latter (even more so six years on), that's really what has made World of Warcraft, well, WoW.

Back then I got a thrill from just exploring places like Duskwood, Tanaris and *noobcough* Teldrassil. I remember when I was level 11 or so with my first character running into a lone Tauren with the Hand of Ragnaros taking out Stormwind guards and other allies like they were vultures from Westfall, and subsequently deciding to jump into the fray…. Yes, for the first time there was a MMORPG that had minimal bugs (and it wasn't nearly as smooth as it is today), was easily understandable, and was just downright addictive, whether you were into PvP (even though Battlegrounds only came a bit later), RP or PvE. But six years and two expansions have now passed, and although it's still a lot of fun to play, it has slowly but surely lost its appeal due to the generic feel of new content being piled up onto a dated system.

Wrath of the Lich King is an awesome game, one that's miles ahead of any other MMO or its expansion out there, yet still, after traversing Northrend and capping three of my characters (and this adds up to a fair few months of playing the game), I quit. I've done so many times before, as many other WoWers have, only to return defeated. But the last time I quit was now almost half a year ago, and I don't think Cataclysm will be enough to drag me back. WoW just doesn't have the "unleavable" quality anymore, at least not for me. Many other games have been flaunted as the "new" WoW - Warhammer, Conan, and, more recently, SWTOR, all come to mind - but it's still the undisputed champion of MMORPGs, and will probably remain that way for the foreseeable future. But it won't last forever, one day an MMO will come around that will be the new king of online gaming. Blizzard knows this best of all, hence its new top-secret project that they have gone on record to say will be a completely new franchise, and MMO.

So, my thoughts on Wrath of the Lich King? A great game well worth playing that kept a large chunk of WoWers coming back for more. But WoW as a series? A dated system that's nearer to the last Azeroth sunset than it knows, even if that still is a few years off.

- YodaOfTheEmpire