One of the best MMORPGs on the market.
World of Wacraft heavily refines the overall aspect of what a MMORPG should and can be. Blizzard managed to get rid of the annoyances that come along with most games in the genre and improve on the already good. Not to mention if you're already familiar with Warcraft and the world of Azeroth then you're in for a real treat.
The game takes place 4 years after the united races of Azeroth defeated the Burning Legion in the Warcraft timeline. Yet, the Horde and the Alliance are still bickering over right and wrong. The player is allowed to choose the Humans, Gnomes, Night Elves, and Dwarves for playable Alliance races. Also you're able to choose between Orcs, Taurens, the Undead(Forsaken), and Trolls for the Horde. Once you're in the game world, you get a quick introduction of your chosen race and a race specific location to start out in. These starting locations are excellent to home your new found skills to get use to the gameplay, which is quite easy to grasp compared to other MMORPGs. Everyone is able to level to 60 at the max as of now.
The action of World of Warcraft is the usual click-turn based type gameplay. Yet it's so fast; much like the speedy gameplay of Bioware's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series. Not to mention, the character animation makes it fun to look at. The enemies you encounter are simple thieves such as the Defias and VanCleef, to the plagued Scourge! There are also epic battles and dungeons to experience. The dungeons use the instance-model where your party enters a exclusive area just for you. This eliminates the strenuous player camping for specific loot.
The death penalty is heavily reduce compared to any other MMORPG. When you die, you spawn at the nearest graveyard. You enter the realm of spirits, and because you're still dead; you can trek back to your corpse without encountering in conflict. When you revive you don't loose any stats, or items! Your other alternative is to be instantly revived at the graveyard but you loose a certain amount of durability to your armor and weapons as well as stats for a certain amount of time.
If you're not playing on a Player vs Player server, you're able to go PvP anytime you want. You can either enter a command which flags you for player killing combat against the opposite factions who are flagged in the world(this can be toggled off with the same command). Or you can enter the Battlegrounds which pit the Alliance and Horde against each other. In the Battlegrounds you have to complete certain objectives to win. Once you successfully complete a Battleground against your opponents(and the combination of your kills) you get Honor Points. Honor Points go to your military rank with your faction. The higher your military rank is you can purchase armor, accessories, items, and weapons that non-PvPers can not. Some of the items are on the same level(if not better) then some of the high level 60 equipment you can gain.
But the world of Azeroth is extremely large and immersive. You have the Eastern Kingdoms to explore and the lands of old Kalimdor; two large continents. For Warcraft fans you'll be quite excited to visit famous locales. When you enter Stormwind City, that alone is something to behold! Or perhaps when you visit the diseased lands of Lordaeron, you'll get a sense of what happened in previous Warcraft titles.
Not to mention the sound and music makes the immersion even more long lasting. The themes that played throughout each area in the World of Warcraft fits the atmosphere. When you enter the Barrens you feel and hear a sense of freedom. But when you enter the forest of Duskwood you can definitely sense danger and darkness just through the music.
The graphics aren't technical, yet the game has a artistic style too it. Everything is done in Blizzard's own unique flare. The colors presented in Azeroth are remarkable! Regardless of the quality compared to games like Everquest II, WoW is still one of the best looking MMORPGs.
There are a few technical issues. Even though it is simple to register and gain access to the game; the population of WoW is extremely large. Depending on your server and the time of the day you might enter a queue to access the realm you play on. Congestion on a server can create lag and a lot of downtime. Also you have certain glitches in the instances that can prevent you from completing your tasks(but this rarely happens). But the system requirements will not cause any strain on your PC which is good to hear.
Overall, World of Warcraft is one of the best MMORPGs on the market next to Everquest II, Final Fantasy XI, and even Guild Wars. Regardless if your interested in MMORPGs or not, this is a game worth playing!