Not since before Half-Life 2 entered the market has anyone waited so eagerly for a new game as they have for World of Warcraft. This is not so unexpected because the gameproducer Blizzard is not exactly known for making bad games, and they haven't let us down this time either. It was the 2nd of September 2001 when Blizzard announced that they were making a new game. Surprisingly they were making a MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game) which they have not done before. Whether Blizzard was going to be successful with this product intrigued the whole gamingworld. The game has been very succesful in North America and in the South Korea, but are their ideals the same as ours? Is the game famous for a reason? In this review you will receive all the answers and get a trip in the beautiful World, in Warcraft.
	The plot takes place in the fantastic world in Warcraft, a place that Blizzard created a long time ago in a game called "Warcraft – Orcs and Humans". The game takes place on the planet Azeroth, which is divided into two continents: Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdom. On these two continents lives and flourishes a big number of animals which is a part of the two factions "The Alliance" and "The Horde". The different factions live on two separate islands and have preculiar animals.
The "good" guys, The Alliance, have got the humans, dwarfs, gnomes and elves. The "bad" guys, The Horde, have got the trolls, orcs, taurens and the undead. These two fractions are at constant war with each other and your task is to lead your side to victory, at any cost! How is World of Warcraft played? At first you create a character, which you will control. When you have been placed in the world you must first go out and get some experience. To be able to do that you must go to a villager (computer controlled) who needs help with something and help him with that. The task can be anything from killing some zombies at a cementary to bringing back some lost items. The reward will be some experiencepoints which will help you to advance in the game and become more powerful. If you grow tired of that you can do a lot of other things e.g. bring some friends and fight against the other fraction or just grab a fishingrod and relaxe on a random stone at one of the lakes. Your character may also get a profession e.g. blacksmith or alchemist. This proffession will help you to earn some extra money which is very good if you want to buy some new equipment for your character.

The game design is technically far from perfect, with few polygons (the dots that builds the world) angular trees and the lack of good water- and smokeeffects. But the technical design does not represent the whole game. This game has, believe it or not, something so oldfashion as charm and a consistent style. You notice at once that Blizzard has had a designvision, which they've obviously done all they could to reach. And of course they've been succesful. World of Warcraft has a totally peculiar design that beats all the good watereffects in the world. As in every game Blizzard has made, the music in World of Warcraft is astonishing! The musical composition which is played when you enter the world is one of the most grand and magnificent ever created in the world of pc-games. One thing that Blizzard could have made better is the characters' voices. All the voices in the same race sound exactly alike, and they can not brag about having a huge vocabulary. But the few sentences made are really good and they reflect what race you are in a good manner, which increases the trustworthiness of the game. Blizzard was truly sucsessful with this game which is a very entertaining and addictive one, but it's not perfect. The conclusion will be that World of Warcraft without a doubt is one of the best MMORPG ever made. It could not possibly go wrong with its astonishing trustworthiness and charm.

© 1997-2004 Freeway
Writers: Anders Nordberg (nv06-12@park.se)
HTML by: Richard Norefjord (te05-47@park.se).