World of Warcraft

by Blizzard Entertainment

• This game requires a monthly fee, and an internet connection to play
• Create and customize your own hero from the unique races and classes of the Warcraft universe
• Explore an expansive world with miles of forests, deserts, snow-blown mountains, and other exotic lands
• Visit huge cities and delve through dozens of vast dungeons
• Adventure together with thousands of other players in an enormous, persistent game world

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000067FDW
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.5 x 1.5 inches ; 14.1 ounces
• Media: DVD-ROM
• Release Date: November 23, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (881 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,788 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #41 in Video Games > Mac Games > Games
  • #57 in Video Games > PC Games > Games > Role-Playing

Product Description

Edition: Full Standard

Amazon.com

For the first time, players can experience the lands of WarCraft's Azeroth from a new, in-depth perspective. As heroes, they explore familiar battlefields, discover new lands, and take on epic quests and challenges in Blizzard's massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Blizzard has taken care to make the game accessible and fun both for hard-core 60-hour-a-week players and for more casual adventurers.

Product Description

Vivendi (72212) World of Warcraft PC

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

543 of 610 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Game, Even For Older Players September 15, 2004

By Walter Milford

Edition:Full Standard

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

This game is, quite simply, the best Fantasy MMORPG I have ever encountered. Having played during the entire 11 day Stress Test, I can honestly say it will probably be around even longer than EverQuest. This work of art has all the magic of EQ, without the many frustrations that finally caused me to give up on EQ (such as extreme grind, a very punitive death penalty, and being forced to group at high levels).

The graphics in WoW are awesome. Some people complain about the "cartoonish" colors, etc. I find these graphics to be very pleasing to the eye, and extremely well detailed and arranged. Guess this just shows that it isn't possible to please everyone, particularly those who go out of their way to find a flaw in other people's creations. To me, it is just right.

I won't elaborate on the basics of the game, such as the 8 races and 9 classes. Others have already covered them. Rather, I will focus on some other areas that are important to older players (I will soon be 60 years old, and no longer have the lightning-fast hand to eye coordination and sharp vision I once enjoyed).

There appeared to be no need for extremely quick reflexes in this game, but instead a player needs to use strategy and planning to avoid getting in over one's head. The wonderful hotkey bar across the entire bottom of the screen was very helpful and well thought out. Kudos to Blizzard for making such a great interface. The screen is not all cluttered up like it is in most games.

The game runs on a 24-hour clock, so it is dark nearly half the time. Blizzard wisely chose to not make the game black as night in most locations. It is possible to play effectively in caves and other usually extremely dark areas, without benefit of an external light.... I thought this was a very wise decision and really enjoyed playing in those locations for the first time ever in an MMORPG. Some players complain that it is too bright. I would say to them: Turn down your Gamma control in the game if you like. Many of us do not have your young night-vision, and we are paying customers too. I think that Blizzard got this part just right.

The quest system in this game is better than I have ever seen. I actually liked doing quests, something I haven't previously enjoyed. Also, quests give lots of experience, and since they can usually be done on a casual basis, they don't require the same level of one-track focus that they do in other games I have played.

During this "way too short" Stress Test, I decided to try a variety of different characters and locations, so played the following characters: Night Elf Druid, lvl 12; Tauren Hunter, lvl 13; Human Mage, lvl 8; Human Warlock, lvl 6; Gnome Warlock, lvl 6; Troll Shaman, lvl 6. Unfortunately, I have a full-time job and could only devote about 40 hours a week to the game. The initial leveling rate is quite quick, with it slowing down a lot at about level 12. Just about right, IMO.

The game is bug-free, for the most part. It is way more bug-free than SWG is even today. I would be willing to pay a subscription now, if it would "get me my game back!". There are only two problems I see with this game:

1. Even though the Stress Test ended at 6pm Sunday evening, three days later I am still going through withdrawal and still have no desire to play on my two City of Heroes and three SWG accounts.

2. World of Warcraft is still not out, so my pre-ordered copy hasn't arrived, nor do I know when that will happen. The sooner, the better, IMO. There is no doubt in my mind that this game will be way more popular that EQ2, which I also plan to try. Hopefully WoW will arrive first.

I for one really appreciate these Reviews that Amazon has. I find them very helpful. The only problem I see with them is that there are only FIVE stars in the rating system. This is a shame, for World of Warcraft certainly deserves a TEN. Read more ›

632 of 715 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars WoW is more than it's cracked up to be September 14, 2004

By Seth Mclagan

Edition:Full Standard

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

I just spent the last week playing the World of Warcraft Stress Test Beta, and I can tell you that it was better than I expected. Even though the game wasn't finished, it still has many features that make it head and shoulders above every other MMORPG I've played.

Now, I, like many others, have been waiting in ancicipation for this game to come out, and when I had the chance to play the stress test, I was elated. Considering the majority of my MMOG experience is in EverQuest, I will list a few of the improvements (at least what I see as improvements) over the MMORPG "norm."

1) Experience from completing quests is noticable, and the rewards from completing them are worthwhile. I was always frustrated with EverQuest's quest structure, and the only reason to do a quest was for the item quested for, not for the experience gain. In WoW, it is possible to gain more experience from completing a quest than from killing a monster.

2) Experience progress is anything but vague. Every time a character kills a monster or completes a quest, the experience points are clearly given, and a meter with the character's progress within a level is clearly marked with numbers. So it's impossible not to tell how much experience killing a monster was worth. No more questionable meters with random values.

3) The world is easy to get around in. And it doesn't take an hour to get where you need to be, if you know where you're going. This was one of my biggest problems with EverQuest, because, as a semi-casual player, sometimes I don't have the time to run for an hour to complete a quest, or, in some cases, die, then have to make a corpse run and take twice as long as it originally was supposed to take. Which leads me to my next point.

4) Death is reasonable.... If your character dies, its ghost spawns at the NEAREST graveyard, so there is no need to manually bind your character somewhere. Also, there is no XP loss if you choose to run your character over to its corpse. In my opinion, the death system is one of the best, as you can choose to lose XP by ressurecting right at the graveyard, or just run to your character's corpse and revive there with no experience loss. And before you can ressurect your character in a graveyard, it will let you know exactly how much XP will be lost. This replaces the 3 hours of grinding time needed to replace the lost XP.

5) An XP grind is perfectly possible, but not necessary. It is very possible to level up consistently without having to play for 5-7 hours a day. Between XP from killing monsters and the great quest completion XP, I was able to level a character to 17 in 3 days of semi-casual play. Now granted, those were the first 17 and the easiest, but it's also possible to gain a level a day, almost unheard of in EverQuest.

To make a long story short, this will be a great game, but there is still a lot of work needed to make it release-ready. Since there is no official word yet on its release, I wouldn't hold my breath, but it's certainly something to keep an eye on.

-Bullroar Read more ›

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Best MMORPG Ever -- Buy NOW! December 3, 2004

By Dmg

Edition:Full Standard

Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

World of Warcraft is simply put, the best MMORPG ever created. Blizzard spent a good amount of time creating and testing this masterpiece, and it shows off. No matter what type of games you like to play, you'll like playing WoW. Even if your PC isn't blazing fast, you'll get perfect quality out of WoW. Everything in the game just feels right.

Let me split my review into sections;

GRAPHICS
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The graphics in WoW are a splendor to behold. The textures and geometry are excellent and really show how much detail Blizzard put into this game. The visuals aren't DOOM 3 or Half-Life 2 in extreme quality, but this is a MMO with quite a bit of people and low system requirements. The shadows, weather and particle effects, and 'bonus' graphical work (such as footprints in the snow, etc) are above average. With all the visual settings maxed out, along with my graphic card's hardware AA/AF maxed, the game does not stutter, even on my mid-range PC. I'm amazed I can have everything maxed, having my screen look gorgeous, and have perfect v-sync frame rates constantly.

SOUND/MUSIC
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Music in WoW is, of course, spectacular. Blizzard is known for having awesome scores that are dynamic and suiting. There's a ton of different scores that dynamically change depending on where you are and what's going on, and they're all near-godly and memorable. The sound design is also great: each individual sound effect and voice sounds like what it should. No complaints in the sound department.

SERVERS
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Blizzard has a good amount of servers setup. Quite a lot of them, in fact. Not only that, but there's specific servers for PvP, so you can be on one of those if you enjoy dueling.... PvE servers can have PvP game play as well, but both parties need to agree beforehand. The servers are lightning fast and I've yet to have downtime.

COMMUNITY
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So far, I've experienced a nice community in-game. I've played three different races and the communities in each of them (almost each race has its own starting location in the world of the game) have been very nice, considerate, and helpful. Granted, not everyone acts as they should, but I've had an enjoyable time with the community so far.

INTERFACE
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I really can't think up a way Blizzard could improve WoW's interface. It's mildly complex and takes a bit to get used to, but once you get over those first minutes it feels like second nature. Chatting is simple and fun, with numerous functions. Everything about the game is clearly described, explained, labeled, and shown in the manual and in-game. There are also tips that help you with just about everything as you experience it the first time.

GAMEPLAY
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The most important part of a game and WoW does it great. There's so much to do in the GIGANTIC world that you won't want to stop. Just a few of the 'professions' you can do: cooking, fishing, mining, blacksmithing, first aid, and alchemy. Besides all those you can just do the 2000+ quests, level up your character, join groups, create or join a guild, and more. It really is like an online world, and it's addicting. The quests range from extremely simple to very advanced, with plenty to choose from. The races are distinct but balanced, and each one has its own feel and flavor. The classes are well balanced also (except for Warrior, which is pretty underpowered, but Blizzard has said they're already working on it for the next patch). There's enough classes and races to suit anyone's taste, and there's definitely enough so that you can have multiple, different characters without feeling bored. The pace of the game feels just right; not too fast, not too slow. Death isn't a huge hassle, quest rewards are actually rewarding, the races are cool and different, the classes are exciting and aren't disappointments or unbalanced, the game is as simple or nearly-overwhelmingly complex as YOU want it to be, Blizzard's support is fantastic, and there isn't a single feature left out of the game. In a word: perfection.

All in all, WoW is definitely one of the best gaming experiences I've had, and I haven't even come close to experiencing it all. If you like Blizzard's previous games, role-playing games, and/or other MMOs, you'll love WoW for sure. Even if you don't like those, there's still a very high chance of you falling in love with it, since it's just so damn fun to play.

The monthly fee is well worth the countless hours of bliss you'll receive, and they provide discounts when you pay in bulk, like 3-months and 6-months.

I recommend buying the strategy guide (more like strategy tome, it's over 400 pages!) if you're new to MMOs, since there's a lot to learn. The game's manual is thick too, and there's plenty of in-game and online resources available.

If you can find it, purchase the Collector's Edition since for $30 more you get quite a lot (the game on 4 CDs, the game on 1 DVD, the soundtrack, a large making-of book, an exclusive in-game 'pet,' and more).

World of Warcraft is a game I very highly recommend for everyone to buy and experience, even gamers who don't like online play.

GET WORLD OF WARCRAFT NOW! Read more ›