Simply put, World of Warcraft is the best game I have ever played.
World of Warcraft centers on the struggle for power between the horde and the alliance. The player can choose from 8 different races in the original game and can choose from a variety of classes including warlock, warrior, hunter, mage, priest, paladin, shaman, druid, and rogue. Once the player customizes their character, they are thrust into a unique beginning portion of the game which is only available to the race they select. Each race has their own home city and area with the exception of Dwarves and Gnomes, and the Orcs and Trolls who share a beginning area and home city. Each race also has unique characteristics which make them specialize in a certain play style and class. This helps bring incentive for players to make alternative characters.
On a technical level World of Warcraft is pretty amazing. The fact that a world the size of Australia can be loaded within a few seconds is a great feat in itself. The bigger feat is the game is absolutely gorgeous. Four years down the road and the game is still a pleasure to look at. The world is beautifully rendered and even though it doesn't have the highest-res textures or the best character models the world is still gorgeous, colorful and memorable. Each region in the world is completely different from the rest and they all have something awesome in them. It's often fun to just explore regions and search out the amazing scenery. The player models aren't amazing looking and could look better but I won't hold that against the game. Most of the time your player is covered head to toe in armor so that's a non issue. The armor looks great for the most part, especially the flashy epics and legendary weapons you can get later down the road.
World of Warcraft offers a lot of things in term of gameplay. In fact the game is almost endless due to the constant updates Blizzard gives for the game. Be it new raids or updates to the PvP in the game, World of Warcraft has something to satisfy hardcore fans of Player versus Environment or Player versus Player.
The PvP in World of Warcraft is secondary to the PvE but it's still great. There are three battlegrounds in the base game, there are Alterac Valley, Warsong Gulch, and Arathi Basin. Eye of the Storm and Arena was added later on the in the expansion pack, Burning Crusade as well as a variety of world PvP but that's for the review of Burning Crusade. Warsong Gulch is your basic capture the flag mode, Arathi Basin is your basic capture the point mode and Alterac Valley is something else all together. The objective is to bring down the other teams recruits either by killing the other sides players, killing the other sides captains, capturing the other sides points or eventually killing the other sides general which is an instant win. All of these games are very fun and each one is well played and well made. A lot of strategy is required and failing to work as a team will equate to a loss. The game rewards players for PvP by giving them tokens to buy gears and weapons with. It's a system that works well and I have no complaint with it. I just wish there was more world PvP implemented. There are also some problems with classes being overpowered but Blizzard fixes these issues often due to the constant patching the game gets.
The PvE is the strong part of World of Warcraft. The quests are all interesting and though they can be repetitive it's difficult to really make varied quest structure in an MMORPG. They tried their best for the most part and it's nothing to complain about. There are also quests requiring you to do a dungeon or raid which often leads to you gaining some great weapons, armor, and other items. A great feature implemented into World of Warcraft is the ability to share quests with your friends easily so if you find a friend and want to pair up it's easy to do so. World of Warcraft has a lot of features like this and they put a lot of care into these little details. PvE is a blast with a friend and it's very easy to get together and quest.
Dungeons and raids are also well implemented into the game and provide satisfying and challenging gameplay. There is no feeling more satisfying then completing a dungeon and getting the gear you wanted. Completing raids is also amazing as they often require intense team work and great strategy. The game is quite challenging at these moments and they are the bread and butter of the game for many users. The game offers many dungeons for almost every level above level 10 so there is no moment in the game where you can't do an instance. There is also a handy feature where you can look for a group to do a dungeon with and it works well and is the easiest way to find a group. There is also a teleportating device at every dungeon to summon other players which makes it easy to get together.
Raids are not easy to get a group together for. To raid you'll have to join a guild but this is no bad thing. Guild are well implemented into World of Warcraft and they are great as many are strong and active communities. I've met countless great people in guilds. Most of them are very similar to clans as they have forums, websites, and teamspeaks. Starting a guild is easy but guiding it to greatness will take a lot of time and many great friends. Guilds are easy to find though and it's easy to get into raids for the most part once in a guild. If you don't want to socialize though in World of Warcraft don't bother beause you'll need to if you plan to raid or do any end-game.
I could talk about everything in World of Warcraft but it would take far too long. All I can say is that now is as good a time as ever to buy the game, the game is constantly updated and endless. There is a great community and the game is an awesome experience for any fan of PC gaming. With some friends World of Warcraft is well worth experiencing and the 14.99 monthly fee is very reasonable for what you get. This game has my seal for being one of my favorite games of all time.
Good: Endless content, amazing artistic graphics, challenging, strong PvP element, great community, guilds are great, raiding and dungeons are some of the the most satisfying moments in gaming history.
Bad: You'll be hooked, 14.99 is a bit much for some people, world PvP could use an overhaul
Overall: The perfect game, endless value and a lot to do World of Warcraft will have you hooked for a long time.