Customer Reviews

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Collector's Edition

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

This review is for the contents of the collectors edition package, not the game itself.

The 175 page art book is fantastic. It's hardback and has a nice protective sleeve covering it. The sleeve depicts Deathwing as seen on the Cataclysm website. The concepts and literature inside are great to read/view and it's really cool to see the artistic visuals of all the new NPCs, clothing items, zones and even stills from the cinematic trailer. Many pieces of art depict several different stages of concept certain characters passed through over the period the expansion was developed. Some pieces give a visual representation of events that have transpired and affected the current storyline (there is a piece showcasing the Garrosh/Cairne duel which ultimately ended in.. well i won't spoil that one for you ;) ) The artwork is just really cool. Blizzard certainly has some very talented artists working for them. Various letters written by characters in game are peppered throughout the pages which give insight to the events which have happened and served to shape the new world since the shattering. While not essential for casual fans, they are still a great read for those who love the lore behind World of Warcraft and the book is a wonderful addition of graphic art to any person's collection.

The soundtrack features 17 absolutely phenomenal orchestral tracks from in game. I'm a huge fan of the music of World of Warcraft and the new tracks are very beautifully done and really invoke a real sense of "epicness". The title track is the best its been since the vanilla days (it even incorporates the original Legends of Azeroth theme), and the addition of revamped tracks from old world zones like Elywnn forest and Durotar are a nice, nostalgic touch. I enjoyed the score from Wrath of the Lich King but i think i enjoy this one much more.

Also included:

- In game Lil' Deathy companion pet. He has a welp model, but looks like a midgit-fied Deathwing. every character you'll ever start again will receive him along with a feat of strength. Standard and digital versions of Cataclysm will not receive this pet.

- Mouse pad depicting Deathwing looking upon the ravaged continents of Azeroth. I use an optical mouse so i really have no use for a mouse pad, but it may very well serve as a nice showpiece for any player looking to add a little flavor to their desktop.

- Wrathgate starter deck with a Landro's Gift loot card. Not really useful to me since i don't play the trading card game, but the loot card can provide a very lucrative reward if you're lucky. For instance, one of the possible obtainable items when you receive your gift box is a swift spectral tiger, which bar none is the rarest mount in game and very expensive if purchased from anywhere else. I wasn't lucky, and only got Papa Hummel's pet biscuits.

- Behind the scenes DVD featuring insight into the development of Cataclysm, which is about an hour long. I haven't watched it yet, but i would say it's a fair guess that the DVD is top notch. No hardcore fan of the game would pass up the chance to see how the creative process at Blizzard works, since we rarely if ever have a chance to outside of blue posts.

** After writing this review i was able to watch the DVD in it's entirety. Let me tell you, i didn't expect much going in but by the end my expectations were well exceeded. There is a lot of information packed into this disc and Blizzard went into great detail about all of the changes that were made and explained a lot of the secrets behind their programming magic. There are thorough explanations behind why old world flying was never included in the last 2 expansions, the reasoning and logic behind many of the zone changes, and the developer's went into great detail on the process of creating new zones for this expansion, the challenges they faced in creating content that would rival or exceed what we saw With wrath and their desires to create an experience that was rewarding not just for new fans but for old veterans of the game as well. Also discussed on the disc was the process behind creating the cinematic movie for the expansion ( a project that proved to be far more challenging than i ever thought it was), Warcraft History and a plethora of interviews by developers and artists associated with the World of Warcraft.

- And the expansion itself, which comes on 1 DVD disc. The beauty of this expansion is that the bulk of the material was already patched in before release, so all players really needed to do was provide their activation codes and wait until the servers went live. since all the content can be digitally downloaded once your account has been upgraded, the DVD is more or less a means to reinstall the game without an internet connection.

The package is very sturdy and well put together. All the items that come with it rest in little cutouts on a tray which are lined with felt to prevent scraping or scuffing of your items, and everything fits in smoothly without sliding/bouncing around inside. the tray slides into the outer sleeve kind of like a really big DVD set. You can stand the box vertically and it will remain still, or you can put it on a shelf like a book. Either way is up to you. I would personally rather display it out in the open since it looks so cool, but that's me.

A worthy purchase at 80 dollars, and a great addition for any fan of the game out there.

I have loved and played Warcraft since vanilla. However, it has gotten to the point where the game has become completely unenjoyable and tedious. In addition to the unbearable, frustrating, and boring grind-fest that max level has become, other players have begun mimicking the blizzard dev posts they see in the forums: sardonic, rude, know-it-all, and generally unhelpful. Let me elaborate.

Class changes- Am I playing my shaman or my resto druid? I don't know, I just spam this one spell now (but its definitely my fault if people die standing in fire). Am I tanking on a Paladin or a Warrior now? Beats me. Am I dpsing on my mage or hunter? I don't know the three abilities I have feel about the same. I think you see my point. Roles have been homogenized to extreme mindlessness. Two button rotations are not fun or enjoyable, not matter what role you are playing.

New profession: Archaeology: Oh what a terrible let down. What was promised as a fun way to learn more lore and upgrade your character to be even more customizable and fun was sacked at the last minute before the release of the expansion, leaving you with BY FAR the most unfun grindy thing ever added to the game. Flying for hours and digging for hours to get the same grey for the 32nd time. Wow, just wow.

New races: the starting zones are actually amazing, but end quickly and abruptly. Adding new races at all (which you must have all four expansions to play) were just another way to cover up how little they actually added this expansion.

1-60 content. This is sort of great for new players, until they get in a party, city, or in some way have a chance to interact with *other* players. Solo questing in the new-old zones is fun and enjoyable, for new players. However, once a completely new player joins a group, he should expect to be ridiculed and harassed because he is not in full heirlooms doing top dps..... in a lvl 20 dungeon. Expect dps meters to be spammed.... In your lvl 20 dungeon.... After every pull. Blizzard further enforces this sort of belittlement as groups have the ability to vote-kick people, even if the reason given is something like "lol u suk".

Low level battlegrounds are similar, thought they did do a lot of work at giving you at least some interesting moves earlier on. Classes are and probably always will remain unbalanced, however.

60-80.... Suddenly every story line you were following ends, you are put 10 years in the past, and most people abandon their alts somewhere along this stretch. Dungeon queue times quickly become insanely long at these levels.

80-85. Questing again, alone, is very good here. Normal dungeons can also be fun maybe the first time around. But theres only 7, so you will probably not want to run them too much now, after all, that's all there is to do once you hit 85.

Level cap: 85

Blizzard said going into this expansion that they felt people wanted to "grind less" I guess meaning that they thought players did not want to spend alot of time and quickly get to max level to enjoy end-game content. Oddly, they made level 85 the most un-enjoyable max level experience thus far in the history of the game. Fewer dungeons, less raid bosses, coupled with few factions mean you really have nothing left to do at 85 in your non-raiding time than pvp and run heroics... which are now pretty un-enjoyable.

Rated battlegrounds were a great idea, but queue times are terribly long.

Battlegrounds are as enjoyable-- or unenjoyable as they always were, depending on your opinion. Little to no work was done to improve these. The two new battlegrounds are 100% recycled from Ab and WSG that are years and years old. Then, there's Tol-barad. This was terrible in beta, and masses of testers saying that this wasn't working out, reality be damned they released it anyways. The first few months were, depending on your server, near impossible to lose control of once your faction captured it. Then their idea was to over reward a team for winning so that everyone in both factions would queue, then afk for 10 minutes, and reap the massive honor reward from doing so. This for me destroyed everything pvp was about. This was blizzards answer to the problem: afk and we will give you free honor, just please stop complaining about our lack of thought and effort.

Heroics. This is what finally caused me personally to call it quits. Even as a tank or healer with quick queue times (I have played all three roles, before someone asks), groups take a longer time to form. Once formed, if using the dungeon finder, you may find you have no CC, and/or as mentioned above, extremely terrible and or rude players in your group. Even in a good group the dungeons just take too long to be enjoyable. In the early days of the expansion, I was in a H DM run that lasted I kid you not, 3 hours (not even mentioning that this is a lazy, re-used attempt at making you think you are getting something new and getting your money's worth, which you are not). The bosses were okay in most heroics, but there is often so much trash and huge pulls and tedious need to CC that by the time you get to a boss, you are probably bored with the place already. Not to say that things have been made ridiculously hard, just well, boring. Maybe hard in the sense that you have to smash your own face with a hammer just to care long enough to get through the bloody dungeon. Blizzard only wants people with one character and 3 hours a night to run heroics anymore I suppose. And god forbid someone in the group makes *one* mistake because the insults will be flying and the group will quickly crumble.

They tried to adjust queue times by giving tanks more money and goodies.... Um, not the people that has to wait an hour just to get in a group, for it to fall apart... then wait another hour... They reward the people that abuse the system, talk trash, and just leave at the first sign of trouble, because after all, they can just get right back in another group.

Raids. Smallest raid content available, and what was looking to be an entertaining story fizzles with re-used encounters. Second tier of raiding was promised already, but still has not been released.

It's all very disappointing because Blizzard used to be a zenith of quality products that you could really enjoy, and the community used to be a fun one to be a part of. Maybe now that activision has their hand in the pot, scheming to add more and more monthly fees, virtual pets and mounts you have to pay even *more* money for, and terrible customer service, I don't know if its really Blizzard, or the players, or Activision that has ruined the experience for me.

So there we have it, an MMO that is only fun (to me) for solo play. But then what's the point? The M in mmo stands for multi-player, and that has been destroyed and broken almost beyond repair. Players concerns about the game are now meet with unprofessional digital middle fingers from the people making the game, and the few that will be able to stay with WoW until its fixed are adopting this behavior. Many of the types who would help other players and guildies with a low level dungeon or group quest, answer a simple question in trade without ridiculing the person who asked, or help someone they meet in the world while questing are leaving the game for other mmos (this is a fact, they are losing many subscribers, and more quickly than ever before). I used to love having many max level characters, but now I can't bear to do anything. I'll log in, check my mail, stand there, and if I'm stupid enough to queue for a heroic I immediately regret it. What was once fun has become work, and painful work at that.

Would cataclysm itself be worth $25-$40? Yes, maybe, if I didn't have to pay a monthly fee. Is cataclysm with the $100 you spend for all 4 expansions, and a monthly subscription to be verbally abused by both the game devs and other players? Nope, sorry, not at all.

If you are not a warcraft player, whatever you do, don't become one now, it's the worst time to play in all my 6 years of playing. Thank goodness there are 4 mmos coming out in the next 2 years that I can give a try. Untill then, if I want to be verbally abused by unemployed fat loners or snotty teenage boys, Ill play something on psn.

As far as the collector's edition box itself, its pretty :P

This game is good. I like the new story line. It seems to be more in depth than the past expansion. Also they have voice overs now and alot of cutscene cintematics. The heroic dungeons are a challenge now and you really cant just walt in and aoe pull like you used to (atm anyways) If your a hardcore and casual fan you will like this. It will keep you occupied for at least a month if you like to play for new content. The reason I gave it 3 stars is because the game itself is getting Old. while there is new content nothing really catches the eye anymore for veterans. Iv'e played WoW since open beta. While this game offers new instances, lore, pvp its not really enough to hold someone in thats played a long time in my honest opinion. Would reccomend buying though just to try out.

Been playing wow on and off since vanilla. I have canceled my account twice, came back for wrath, canceled and came back for this expansion. I have been playing on and off since the expansion came out and overall this is how I rate the game at this time. Note that if you have never played wow - it is a highly evolving game. The game now is much much different in look and feel than it was six years ago.

First impressions:

New zones - including all the new low level zones are a big plus. Leveled up a toon from level 1 (first time in years I have done so) just to see the new content. A big five out of five for the efforts in creating a new environment in the old world. The new 80-85 zones overall are very well done, there is a zone like a giant fish tank where you ride around on a sea horse and quest, there is a zone like ancient Egypt, and there is a zone in the depths of the earth like a monstrous cave. The zones are all well done, the only gripe I have is that of the 80-85 stuff, there really isn't much of it. It seems kind of claustrophobic compared to wrath. (To note I had 5 toons at level 80 when I came back, and have leveled three of them to 85). Overall is a 4.5 out of 5 for this new content.

Quests - the questing mechanics have been refined with this expansion. No more random - go kill 12 of these for loot - and it doesn't link into any type of story. They have gone through great lengths to build stories for zones - including the revamped low level ones. These are done fairly well - there is a new Indiana Jones rip off story in the Egypt zone which is fun to play through, and most of the others are generally entertaining. Overall a 4 out of 5.

Leveling - very, very easy compared to what it used to be. You level up so fast now that you will probably not finish the quest lines in the zone you are in before you can move on to the next one. Not a bad idea - a lot of players that have been playing a long time have many alts, and it sucks when it takes a long time to level them up through the same zones you have quested through before on other characters. Possible downside for new players, but overall I think it is a plus. You also level as a guild now, which I think may be one of the best additions to the leveling, group scheme. As you level, you contribute to your guild level. As your guild levels, you get perks to all of your toons in that guild - faster mount speed, faster cooldowns to hearth stones, less money to pay for repairs, etc. Very good addition. Overall a 4 out of 5.

New racials, talent trees, etc. The worgens (werewolves for alliance) look fairly good, and their new starting zone is really well put together. The goblins are the humorous addition to the hoard, and again their starting area is well done. The talent trees have been revamped for what must be the 10th or more complete overall. This is a really good thing for those of you who may never have played - you get talents for your class (paladin gets talent trees in healing, damage dealing, and tanking) and as you level up you are able to put talent points in these trees and get new abilities. Blizz is very keen on trying for balance - that paladin tank should be about the same in capability as other tanks (warriors, druids and death knights) so you don't get ostracized if everyone thinks your class sucks at something. Blizz constantly tweaks talents and classes to try and keep everyone at a fairly even level. So if your paladin tank can't tank very well, its probably your skills as a tank versus just being a paladin. Not much really fundamentally new here except the trees have been revamped, the skill points come a little slower, and balance has been reworked. Is it perfect? no - probably never will be. But its an improvement and overall a 4 out of 5.

New dungeons - If you played in wrath, you remember the zergfest it became. ZOMG!! spam aoe (area of effect damage spells) over and over and over and kill the boss and get epic loot. Was fun for about a week then became very stale. Healers had infinite mana and it was no challenge. They listened to the player base and made the new 80+ dungeons more difficult. The normal setting really isn't that bad. Its a challenge to a new group of players, perhaps that have never been in the dungeon before. They may actually wipe a few times, and you have to learn a few fights to do them well. On heroic however, the challenge has been ramped up significantly. You really have to know your job (i.e. tanking, healing, or damage dealing) to succeed. You also have to understand the mechanics of the fight - where to stand, where to tank, if there is something you have to do (like interrupt a boss spell, stand in a beam, don't stand on spawning bombs, etc.) then the whole party must do it and do it well or you will fail. There was a random group generator implemented in wrath that has worked reasonably well, however there are several mechanics that blizz has not been able to resolve. They are the following: bad players, bad players, bad players, and que times. First, I will overview the que times since it directly impacts the first three. Of the three jobs (heals, tank, and damage), the jobs that are generally looked at as more difficult are tanking and healing. Tanking you generally have much more to do than damage dealing so its looked at as harder. Plus, if you suck as a tank, the rest of the group cannot carry you like they might be able to do for a bad dps. Secondly, healing is much harder than in wrath. There is no infinite mana pool anymore, so if your party is taking a lot of damage (which happens a lot) you will run out of mana and the party will wipe. The pro of either of these two jobs is your que times in the random generator are very fast, from instant to maybe 5 minutes. DPS on the other hand can wait anywhere from 40 minutes to over an hour just to get one spot to run a dungeon. So, what you end up having are players that are of a class that can either be a tank, heal, or dps. They tire of the dps que so que up as a tank or heals - and suck at it. They don't know the dungeon or they dont know the mechanics of the new job or even how to play their new spec well. The real negative here is that you can run 5 dungeons off the random generator and not finish any of them. To complete with a semi-competent group (one that knows their jobs and knows the dungeon and has decent gear) it can take 2-3 hours to finish. SO you can invest quite a bit of time... for pretty much nothing. Overall rating of this area at this time of gameplay - dungeon running - is 3 out of 5. There is another option - run with guildies only, but if you work and are not one of those people that play 12 hours a day, it may be difficult for everyone to do this.

Progression. Here is my real gripe with the new expansion and why I have quit previously in burning crusade and wrath. There are numerous ways to get loot to increase the power of your character once you reach max level of 85. You can grind faction rep (a faction is a group that generally gives quests in a zone, as you gain reputation with that faction, you can buy increasingly good loot from them as you gain reputation with them) for epic level loot at exalted status. You can run heroic dungeons for very good loot (not epic but just below it) and you can craft it. (you can also raid for the best loot in the game, but at the moment I think most people aren't there yet) Reputation is probably the easiest way to get a few decent epic items, you wear a tabard and as you run dungeons you gain reputation as you kill monsters. You can also quest in the zone that reputation is affiliated with and gain reputation. The second is heroic farming where you get loot from boss kills, justice badges, and valor badges. Valor badges you can only get 70 of per day, regardless of how many heroics you successfully complete. Justice badges you get approximately 200 of for each heroic boss kill or 70 per day for a regular dungeon completion. With the justice badges you can get very good loot (the same level you get from completing a heroic dungeon). With valor badges you can get epic gear, including a few pieces of tier gear. The third way is crafting items. It can take a lot of farming materials to level your blacksmith, alchemist, or tailor all the way up to max level and make the few epic level recipes allocated to each crafting profession. Some people hate it, I liked it. It gives you something to work on - chip at a little each day and a week or two later you have a nice piece of gear. You can also sell many of these items for a lot of gold (prices are way over inflated at the moment in game). The whole downside to this is after you reach a certain point - there is nothing to do. My main toon has exalted rep with every faction, has completed enough heroic dungeons to buy one piece of tier gear, and has very good or epic gear on all slots. My guild I have my toon in is not raiding yet (these are the hardest 10 or 25 man dungeons in the game) and are doing heroics, but I am really not much of a raider. Did that in wrath hardcore for about 2 months and just stopped. It was a job and got to be not very fun.

But this pretty much boils it down for me. I like starting out fresh with the expansions, they are great fun for about 2 months. Then you start to slow down. Your toon is maximum level, you have gotten to the point in wow where the non-grind stuff is over, and it becomes the same thing, day after day, to get any upgrades for your toon. You can make alts, level them up through the same content, but again that gets old after a bit. whether raiding the same bosses over and over or doing (or trying to do) the same heroic dungeons over and over for those 70 valor badges, it becomes a mind numbing grind. For anyone who has played this game for awhile, I would assume you know what I mean here. So, overall a 3 out of 5. Some really good stuff here, but underneath it all, it is still wow and the staleness is lurking there... waiting for you.

This is just another milestone of Blizzard's movement to make this game for children. Being an adult I had to put this toy away. I was in the US #28 guild and the end game content was a joke. Better off watching a movie.

Releasing cataclysm was probably the downfall of WOW. A lot of people quit including myself. Though I did get a big battle bear from the trading cards that were in this collectors edition. Wasn't enough to keep me playing.

They changed the game too much from Wrath of the Lich King. Wrath was the best in my opinion. The lore was great, the super baddie was apparent, as in the lich king was out there at every quest zone rearing his ugly head trying to thwart your actions. And the Lich king fight at the end was so well designed it felt epic. THe fights through firelands didn't feel epic at all they felt like a grind. Hopefully blizzard learns from their mistake and doesn't make anything like cataclysm again. Even that won't get me to come back though.

World of Warcraft seems, sadly, to be gravitating almost entirely towards raiding activity. And membership in a large guild is almost compulsory if you want to do dungeons and raids without colossal wait times and massive amounts of dealing with terrible players with worse attitudes. I find this to be a monstrous disappointment. During BC and Wrath, I leveled 9 different characters to max level, but in Cat, I allowed my subscription to lapse a mere two weeks after reaching max level with my main character. That's about as telling an example as I can provide. The Rise of the Zandalari and Firelands patches were a step back towards the right direction, but the game definitely hit its high point in BC and has continued to decline ever since.

This was purchased as a gift. They loved the collector's edition as it was apparently very sought after. That is all I know about this item.

Length:: 1:31 Mins

This video is just to show you what you actually get inside the Collector's Edition. I figured rather than narrate this, I'd let the video and some captions explain everything. I hope you find it helpful in that respect.

One additional piece of info the video didn't represent well: you get 63 Trading Card Game (TCG) cards in the box -- which includes one each Alliance and Horde hero, I think (I know nothing about the game) -- and a TCG Quick Start Guide (what I'm unfolding in the video). My set included one loot card, it ended up being a Sand Box Tiger.

I have been an avid Wow player since the first game released in the end of 2004, have never bought one of the Collector's Editions before. This would be my first and I would have to say that I am not disappointed. It came with the Wow: Cataclysm Soundtrack as well as a art book, Deathwing mousepad with Cataclysm logo, card deck from the trading card game (TCG)(Also came with a loot card, "Landro's Gift"), and finally the copy of the game with the activation code.

Everything showed up in great condition, especially nice since I am serving overseas in Japan at a FPO address and sometimes packages don't get the care that they should in the mail.

Anyway, I am going to give this a 5-star review.

For all the people commenting on the community, it can be vile at times, but we aren't rating the community on this page, we are rating the product. For anyone concerned about the community, there are parental controls that will help you control what your child is seeing/doing so you wont have to worry.