The Burning Crusade adds a ton of great content all over. But if you never liked the game, this won't change your mind.
Having played in the beta all the way up to level 68 in the beta, and 61 so far in retail, I think I can pretty safely say, that this is the expansion pack of the year, even at this early date of 2007. The game takes nearly every aspect of World of Warcraft's game design, and improves it. It also takes quite a lot of flaws and patch them up.
One of the things you'll notice is the two new races. The Draenei on the Alliance side and the Blood Elves on the Horde side. The two new races are, in fact, very interesting. The Blood Elves may be pretty, but they're just magic-addicted madmen. Meanwhile, the Draenei are terribly ugly (and yet cool in some way), but their goal is noble: They want to rid the world of The Burning Legion.
That's actually what this whole expansion is all about. The Dark Portal opens in The Blasted Lands, and huge armies of demons come through the portal from Outlands, to once again invade the kingdoms of Azeroth. Fortunately, the races of Azeroth were prepared (contrary to Illidan's beliefs) and are now locked in battle on the other side of the portal.
The expansion, like the original game, is very easy to get into. The game sports a simple and slick interface (which has been enhanced over the many months) that is easy to use and manage. At the same time, the game sports so many nooks and crannies of gameplay, and the interface follows suit. THere are tons of things in the interface that you won't need until a certain point. And that's a good thing. It gives a smooth learning curve throughout the levelling progress. This progress is now extended even further as you battle your way through Outlands, and have to face raiding at a later point.
The new areas for the Draenei and the Blood Elves are also very impressive. They both have weather conditions in them, and there are also tons of small objects floating around in the air. It grants itself a level of immersion and awe that not even Oblivion, despite it's technically superior graphics, cannot match. The quests are fun, albeit a bit typical, the items are great, the progression is fun, and the zones are unlike anything we've seen so far. It just doesn't get much better.
Speaking of graphics, The Burning Crusade doesn't do very much in the way of that. The new world of Outlands is as gorgerous and artistic as one can possibly comprehend, and the new skies are just beautiful. But in terms of actual technical presentation, The Burning Crusade hardly adds anything, and looks extremely lackluster in this day and age. But expansions usually don't upgrade graphics anyway, so why should this one? However, this expansion has an artistic value to it its graphics that far surpass the original game. So in that regard, the graphics have been improved.
The sound has been improved as well, clearly. The music is just straight out better, and there's a ton more of it above all else. In the old zones, you just have 3-4 minuttes of music for day, and the same amount for night. However, in The Burning Crusade, most subzones contain unique music of their own, and with the music being as good as it is, the music won't really start to bother you before you're ready to leave the zone. And the new zones has completely diffirent music. The voice-acting is, once again, spot on. And there's a ton more of it. The sound is also completely seamless. When I play, I barely notice it's there, because it just sounds so natural and right.
So how long is this game going to take you? And, well, the answer is: It depends. If you're rolling a new race, expect a good 250 hours all the way up to level 70 if you're new to the game. From level 60 to 70, there's a good 50 hours I think. But on top of that, you can do it 9 diffirent classes spread over 10 diffirent races. So there's plenty of option, variety, and incentive to go through it again. And on top of that, you have the PvP game and the raidgame after you've already maxed out your character on 70. All of this I cannot comment too much on however. But it's there, so there's plenty of value, even though the game is very pricey. (Which is what causes my tilt of 9 - the cost. This game is expensive!)
This game soaks up a ton of your time, as you can see. And alot of people are completely addicted to this World of "Crackcraft". Well, would they be if the game sucked? No. What conclusion can we draw? This game is great; that is our conclusion. This game is a ton of fun, and The Burning Crusade takes it all to whole new levels by providing fixes to the existing flaws in the game.
This game is said to be very casual friendly for an MMO though. But it's also said to be very time-consuming. So yes, it is both, contrary to any other MMORPG out there. This game just strikes a perfect balance on everything in its gameplay. It's not too fast, nor is it too slow. The game isn't too easy, nor too tough. The game doesn't scare all the casuals away, but it still keeps the hardcores occupied. The only balance out of whack is the classes. (Warlocks are completely overpowered, Warriors are severely lackluster to play etc.) This was bad in WoW, and it's still bad in TBC. Let's just hope they can polish that up. (The class balance is why I rate gameplay an 9, not 10.) So was it worth the wait? Yes, it was worth the wait. This expansion delivers on all fronts for existing fans of the game, and adds more of the game that we all know and love. But if you never liked the original World of Warcraft, this won't change your mind - it's just more of the same. (Except it's some better more of the same) And it adds more content. There's alot of people who are complete newbies and haven't even played the original game through that expect this game to deliver to them. Well - it doesn't. You wouldn't expect it to. It makes WoW better, but it also expects you to have played WoW at least a little bit before you jump right into the expansion. That said, the new races are definately also for new players, so anyone can have a spin at those.
So the buttomline is: This expansion makes an already fantastic game even better, by providing new, meaningful content and fixes the most drastic mistakes in WoW's gameplay. And while it creates a few new problems, they are nowhere near as large as the original game's problems. So this game is definately worth getting if you're a fan of WoW, and you should rush to your store to grab a copy while they're still there.
Please note: This is a review of the levelling game up to level 68. I may do a revision of this once I am level 70 and have experienced the endgame content. But for now, this is my review.