The Burning Crusade excels in a number of ways compared to the original, providing a ton of new content, new boundaries to surpass and new goals to set. The most noticeable change is the inclusion of several new areas through the Dark Portal, leading to the new continent Outland. Situated in the Blasted Lands, the Dark Portal is the access point into the majority of the game’s new content, such as new areas, races, enemies, dungeons and the ability to take your character to the new level cap of 70. Outland isn’t particularly a safe haven for low-level players though, only being accessible once hitting level 58. In terms of new players and low level content, not much has changed.
Outland consists of seven new zones, all of which that provide their own distinct appearance and quests. Zangarmarsh is a beautiful swamp area with a forest of mushrooms, where most of the background is formulated off poisonous fungi and is in the process of being restored to its former beauty. Meanwhile, the devastation of Shadowmoon Valley is portrayed through the gloomy and dark visuals and the constant war between Illidan’s forces and the resistance forces. What is instantly apparent as soon as you step through the Dark Portal and into the first zone, Hellfire Peninsula, you are quickly aware of the mammoth scale of each of these new areas. For perspectives sake, each of the new zones are of similar size to both Plagueland areas, and then some. There are several small areas embedded into each zone, highlighting the transition portrayed through the game’s more apparent storyline.
Zangarmarsh: Millions of mushrooms, mushrooms for me.
In addition to a much more robust world to discover, each of the new zones include world Player vs. Player (PvP) objectives, some more effective in their execution than others. World PvP isn’t a taboo feature for World of Warcraft; having already been tested in both Silithus and Eastern Plaguelands previously - mind with little success. However, Blizzard has managed to refine the problems found with the aforementioned examples. Most of the world PvP is extremely condensed, meaning that fights against the other faction are going to happen often and on a much larger scale. Equally, these have now been embedded into main questing areas where you’ll be sure to find a lot of players frequently visiting.
The objectives and buffs are generally more appealing than previously. The buffs are much more sought after than previous endeavours, providing extra experience points and damage for long periods of time. World PvP objectives often range from capturing towers and holding onto them for a certain period of time (in the same vein of Eastern Plaguelands) but there are new ideas such as an epic battle where you try to capture an entire town. The world PvP is implemented in a much better manner than previously, not only because of the examples already given, but that each zone has a faction where you’ll generally gain reputation with them by participating in the action. Whether you like your PvP in patches or in bucket loads, the world PvP does a great job of fulfilling your needs – though we wouldn’t mind seeing more unexpected invasions on towns.
If PvP isn’t your thing then there’s still a lot of Player vs. Environment (PvE) content to indulge yourself in. Besides the typical MMORPG quest structure of killing x amount of creatures, fetching this and that and killing this boss, Burning Crusade rejuvenates the old quest formula with a number of new and exciting ideas, which are quickly appreciated by WoW fans and people tired of the typical quest guidelines. For instance, there will be several occasions where you’ll need to ride a flying mount to drop bombs onto enemies below, launch into trees using silly goblin slingshot contraptions, disguising yourself to understand the layout of an Orc hideout and even unleashing a massive mana bomb. Also, new fans aren’t left out with new unique quest ideas either. The Draenei starting area is home to a number of quests where your low-level toon will be able to ride epic mounts to fulfil quests, turn into a prowling panther to avoid detection from enemies and even disguise yourself as a tree to listen on a secret gathering. Probably the only downside to PvE content is that there are no new quests embedded into existing areas, so the grind from level 1 to 60 will be virtually the same as before – unless you play as either of the two new races, for whom there is new content up until level 20.
The Draenei accent is uncanny of the Russian accent.
Regardless though, there has been a lot more care devoted to PvE. With the introduction of new areas comes new enemies, therefore meaning potential for new attacks and fighting patterns. Not only has Blizzard done that, but also done it in such an amazing way that fighting your average mob can often be a tough task. Enemies are generally much more clever than previously, employing new tactics and moves that keep you on your feet. Some enemies will bounce around from target to target to interrupt casting time (which is a pain as a Hunter) and certain enemies will often teleport during battles or go about fighting in a much dirtier way than before.
Most of this is more apparent in the game’s new dungeons, which not only provide great additions in terms of settings, but the overall difficultly and depth of enemy encounters in superb. Most new dungeons in Outland generally rely heavily on all players to understand their class, and fully utilising their abilities during battles. There are no more cases of pulling the weight of one bad player; if one person doesn’t apply him or herself then you won’t succeed. Pick-up groups are often impossible considering the amount of communication and thought needed when tackling some of these dungeons. Boss battles, and sometimes casual mobs, are on par with some of the game’s previous 20-man dungeons such as Zul’Gurub. In fact, there's even bosses structured in a similar manner to some of the previous encounters, like the fight on Zul’Gurub’s Jindo.
To add to this, each dungeon in the new zones now include an intriguing heroic mode, which enables a harder difficulty and higher drop of rare items in each of the dungeons. Besides offering tougher encounters and better loot, you’re going to need to do these dungeons in heroic mode to have access to further content. That’s one positive that The Burning Crusade has over the original - there doesn’t seem to be an absence of things to do after hitting level 70 or even in-between. To acquire heroic dungeon keys you’ll need to hit a certain level of reputation before having access to them. End-game content is no longer required to be explored with a group of 40 other players, but instead reduced to 10-man and 25-man dungeons.
The new races not only offer lovely new locations, but their designs are cool to boot.
Honestly, we haven’t even touched on half of the content that is available in this generous expansion pack, which often feels like its own game rather than just a mere add-on. PvP nutters are going to jump with joy to hear that the honour system has been heavily reworked to eliminate endless hours of PvP grinding and substituted with a much more inviting and flexible method. To add to this, a new battlegrounds area has been included called Eye of the Storm, which is basically a mix between two of the previous battleground areas, where you’ll need to capture flags and hold territory. In addition, Blizzard has implemented a new skills-based battleground instance in team-based PvP arenas. At the stage of writing this review, many of the features such as server wide leader rankings and rewards have yet to be incorporated, but will no doubt be the breathing ground for the most intense PvP players. Unlike before - where the turnaround of dedication put into PvP was hardly worth it because of the rewards weren’t nearly as good as end-game dungeons - the PvP rewards will be on equal scale to even the most powerful PvE rewards.
Another new inclusion that expands the game in a number of great and exciting ways is the new profession of Jewelcrafting and socketed items. Jewelcrafting is a great new profession that allows you to create rings, trinkets, necklaces and special jewels that can be embedded into certain items that allow them. The socketed items generally provide additional statistics vital to your class, such as plus healing, mana or damage, so adding gems to items is similar to enchanting an item. The great aspect is that most socketable items tend to have two or more slots available for gems - so you can often stack your gems up, providing vital stats. If that wasn’t all, if you manage to fill all sockets with gems you’ll usually be provided with added bonuses. Another great (secondary) profession skill is the ability to now ride flying mounts, which not only allows you to avoid objects blocking your path, but you can also access hidden areas only available to those with flying mounts.
If you’re new to the game there’s no need to worry, since Blizzard has added in two new races, one for each faction – the Blood Elves and the Draenei. Each new race has its own starting area, quests and race-specific racial abilities. The Blood Elves are a race comprised of former High Elves and align themselves with the Horde. Their skills in magic are probably their biggest attribute, being the ideal choice for spell users. The Draenei on the other hand are an ancient race of untainted heritage, siding with the Alliance. The ideal class race is naturally a healer such as a Priest or Shaman purely because of the excellent racial ability that acts as a heal over time.
All new great locations await your arrival.
Ultimately, all good things tend to have one or two downsides, and Burning Crusade isn’t without its own. While there are the general issues regarding balancing of new spells and items, most of the problems persist from Burning Crusade virtually killing all previous high-end content in the original. All the 55+ dungeons are now graveyards, with little purpose at all to use them. If Blizzard scaled them to be more appealing to gamers, then it wouldn’t seem as though most players will be spending all of their time in Outland rather than enjoying the benefits of the old content. A revamp of old areas is needed, if only to appeal to new buyers. Additionally, it feels a little cheap that the previous exclusive classes for Alliance (Paladins) and Horde (Shamans) are treated as the only new classes added into the game. Not only does it feel a tad cheap, but also the differences between each faction are now somewhat minimal because of this.
Honestly – though the Burning Crusade has its shortcomings, you’ll never stop enjoying the game to even think of faulting it harshly because of them. It surpasses the original in all aspects, making it a fantastic expansion that's not only recommended to previous World of Warcraft addicts, but to the novices looking for a new game to enjoy.
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Note: The Burning Crusade is an expansion to World of Warcraft, and requires the original game to play. For Mark's review of the original, head right here.
Really, the game is just as much as a stand alone game than what the original was (in terms of content, changes etc.) and, in this case, much better in my opinion.
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