Even from the intro movie for the second expansion of the most popular MMORPG of all times - to date, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, we can see that Blizzard has made close to dramatic changes to the game in a lot of places, and those changes include game mechanics.

In this third great cinematic done in the most pure Blizzard artistic way, we do not see the conflict between different classes and the traditional war between the Alliance and the Horde. But this is not because they have magically resolved their conflicts. But because a greater threat emerges from the frozen north of Azeroth.

Story thus far...

We see the mighty prince Arthas, once a warrior of the light, who's now been perverted into the feared, undead Lich King, raising from his frozen throne in Northrend from where we left him at the end of Warcraft III, and using the powers of his Frostmourne sword on the ground to summon Sindragosa, his trusty frost wyrm. With a powerful roar, Sindragosa lifts off and flies over Arthas' great undead army, agitating and animating their spirits and inciting their will to fight - and destroy the rest of the known world.

On the background, along with the beautiful epic music (and I hope I'm not gonna use epic too many times in this article - that's twice...) we hear the words that were once said to a much younger and promising human prince Arthas by his beloved father, King Terenas Menethil II. His words are quoted at the beginning of my article. Obviously, against his best intentions, things didn't turn out quite as he would have liked...

As you may suspect, Northrend, that little big continent that popped up on the world map after patch 3.0, is the theatre of war for the next stage of Warcraft history. Arthas - the Lich King is back with a vengeance, determined to conquest the world and subdue everyone to his undead controlling power. And since you find the whole mindless undead drone aspect too smelly and boring, you decide you should fight for your freedom - with countless hours of high level instances and more elemental and reputation fun grinding.

{pagebreak}

Fun in Northrend

Level 80 is the norm now, so better start climbing your way to the top of the food chain once more, with all the perils and puzzling quests that the process implies. 10 new big regions are available for exploration at a roughly same size as the previous Outland continent introduced along with The Burning Crusade. Fortunately, I don't have to start this article from scratch and explain every minor detail in the game. Instead, I will merely point you out to my previous WoW reviews and just reveal the important changes that took place in the world of Azeroth in one year.

The overall quality of quests has grown, and more story and more fun is involved in completing many. You'll get the occasional giggle more often, and the depth of the story is enriched with the new vehicle quests that you can now find all over. Yes, Blizzard developed war machines and all sorts of other transports that are under the direct player control. Taking on a tank, a flying machine or a famous shredder will change your primary spell bar with a set of abilities that the vehicle possesses. A quick preliminary read of them will insure a successful quest most of the times, but if in doubt and too lazy to read, you can always press 1 a few times and then 3, that seems to do the trick most of the time. Just imagine you are a combat rogue in a raid. Ooooh, I did NOT just say that!

Level 80 and the zones you quest in

Starting slow and going slower and slower (especially if you don't wait for the rested bar to catch up), you will finally attain level 80 after a couple of weeks of assiduous work. The stress levels for me were quite high at the end, where the last two levels just didn't seem to be attainable in a reasonable amount of time. But hey, at least I can recommend you my favorite regions, so you know and not get bored to death while trying the achievement Nothing boring about Borean Tundra.

First off, don't go to - yes, you've guessed it - Borean Tundra. Howling Fjord is such a cool new zone that does Blizzard proud in all ways, from the design, to the cool colors, to the mythology centered around the area. If you're Alliance, take the Menethil Harbor boat to Howling, and you won't regret one bit. The first thing that will make up your mind to start questing there will be the music you hear even when you still ride the boat towards the harbor.

I found Borean Tundra a really bland and uninspiring starting zone, that I decided I will maybe go back to do some quests there only at level 80 for some money... Another zone that I would advise you to stay off at least until level 77 is Zul'Drak. Although not so big, it has many layers at different heights amongst strangely built ruins, and this will make your life a long living hell unless you've got your flying mount.

The rest of the zones are fairly ok to great, but if I were to choose, my favorite level up path would go through Howling Fjord, Grizzly Hills, Dragonblight, Sholazar Basin, Storm Peaks and Icecrown. There are plenty of quests on each map for level 90 probably, so don't be shy to drop one you don't like or don't know how to do.

{pagebreak}

The new quest system is a lot less demoralizing than in Burning Crusade. After being fond of completing a whole big region, the next small outpost was filled with tens of yellow exclamation marks. In Wrath of the Lich King, quests are progressively revealed to you, and initially you get just one or two in each city. This along with the bigger size that your quest log can handle now - 25 quests and 25 daily quests - can help you decide in which region to quest after you pick a couple of initial tasks from a few different regions.

Lake Wintergrasp is a totally optional open-world PvP zone where you may or may not choose to pass by. And then Crystalsong is mostly there to hold the capital city, the mage town of Dalaran. Hold is not such an appropriate word, because after its destruction by Archimonde in Warcraft III, ruins of Dalaran were contained under a great magic forcefield just under the Alterac Mountains for some time, before it was teleported by united mage forces and started being rebuilt in Northrend. Now it floats above Crystalsong, and access to it is only available by flying mount and portals.

Dalaran and new factions

Although only a small part of the city was rebuilt, Dalaran is once more a proud city, one of the wonders of Warcraft, and a perfect example of good Blizzard design. It's simple enough to have as much utility as possible, yet it looks ancient and magic at the same time.

Because Blizzard (and some of us players) felt a little lonely in Shattrath while everyone was pimped out on their fancy flying mounts and just sitting there in the air, doing nothing all day, a decision was made to have flight forbidden inside the Northrend capital city. You will certainly notice the 15 seconds timer until you will be dismounted if you manage to get on a flying thing inside Dalaran.

A few new creatures and factions are introduced in WotLK, from the cute Tuskarr fisherman that offer you the nicest epic fishing pole in the world to the ruthless Viking giants - the Vrykul, including the return of the Argent Dawn, undead trolls, the strange Frenzyheart and Oracle tribes, more Explorers' League and so on and so forth... Plus a lot of wildlife creatures...

Once at level 80 or close under way, there are 5 factions that you have to pay attention: Argent Crusade, Kirin Tor, Knights of the Ebon Blade, The Wyrmrest Accord and The Sons of Hodir. Depending on your class, you should favor a certain faction first, until you get it to exalted. Once you complete several basic quests with the first four factions, your reputation will increase to friendly, from neutral. You will be able then to check out what goods do they have to offer and make your choice. You will also be given the opportunity to buy a tabard to represent that specific faction in battle. Wearing it will insure a reputation raise with it while fighting in every level 80 instance. So you are basically free to do whatever you want as long as you wear your desired tabard.

{pagebreak}

Sons of Hodir is the exception; in order to get exalted with them you with them you will have to do daily quests. But don't worry, there are plenty to choose from, just hope not too many people are doing them at the moment... Sons of Hodir have the best shoulder enchants in the game.

While I could detail each region and its specifics, it would be kind of pointless and time wasting, for both you and me; not to mention a big spoiler. Plus it's easy to figure out Dragonblight involves... dragons, and that you slowly make your way from the southern parts of the continent to the north where Arthas awaits...

Speaking of details though, Blizzard felt players distanced a bit from the main story and lore, because if you didn't attended high level raids, and even then, if you didn't pay attention much, you could of just missed the whole point of the game. And no one wants a mindless fighting grinder right? So, in order to prevent this from happening, Lich King offers in-game cinematic moments in almost every zone, to remind you of the main story, how Arthas got there in the first place, and what exactly did he do.

Even if you aren't a completitionist, I would strongly recommend you at least finish most quests in Dragonblight, as the after show is worth watching... Oh and the battle for Undercity is epic as well, but everyone gets that in a quest so...

The Death Knight

Each class got a couple of new abilities, but the changes aren't as dramatic as the previous expansion. Some classes like the Paladin have been revamped and it certainly shows, and some have been mostly left alone if Blizzard felt they were ok. So not many drastic changes here, except one notable event: the introduction of the first hero class in WoW - the Death Knight.

While it would be quite unfair to have a class above every other, Blizzard has successfully maintained the power balance with this new added element included. Death Knights feel like a true hero class by the way you play them, and probably are the most to show off the general Blizzard idea of a game: easy to learn, hard to master.

If you have a character of at least level 55, you can go to your create new character screen and choose any race and the new Death Knight class. You won't have to put up with another stage of boring leveling as you start directly from level 55.

{pagebreak}

Death Knights have a few interesting passive abilities such as 100% crit damage all the time (as opposed to 50% for every other class, sure that can be boosted via talents), but the play style is very unique and, at least for me, great fun. They don't rely on mana or a similar type of energy. Instead their abilities cost runic power and runes, and are of course subjected to a global cooldown and individual cooldowns. Confused already?

So, the deal is you have 6 available runes: 2 blood runes, 2 frost and 2 unholy. Plus, runic power that starts from 0 and builds up depending on how much damage you do. Each ability can cost one or a few runes and/or runic power. Let's say an ability costs 1 frost and 1 blood rune. Each rune has an individual 15 seconds cooldown once used. So you can now only use 1 more blood and 1 more frost rune. You see why you must time your attacks properly and in the right order to be able to get in as many attacks as possible in as short time as possible. It's not as hard as it sounds but it's certainly something new and interesting.

Death Knights fill the role of tanks or dps, but you can do that on every talent tree; there isn't a dedicated tanking tree like protection for warriors for example. You just need the right spec.

They also make a very interesting combination with other classes in PvP, especially because of their high magic resistances, plate armor and the ability to bring targets in melee range with them.

Speaking of PvP

Many have complained that Burning Crusade was a healer's game in PvP, because with high resilience came an inability to kill healers with a powerful controlled burst most of the times. Players are now a bit on the other side of the barricade, where they claim some die too fast, and burst is too great. Of course, balance is a delicate thing, and I'm glad I don't have to personally do anything about it.

Strand of the Ancients is the new battleground added to the game, and it involves conquering a fortified position with the aid of the newly introduced combat vehicles, and then in a second round defending it.

Problem with that is there is nothing changed with the old battlegrounds, but still Blizzard compels you to play them in order to have competitive gear. Let's say for example I only like Arathi Basin. I can get as much honor and badges as I want, but in order to get a piece of equipment I have to do every other battleground and get the respective badges, because rewards cost a specific amount of each battleground badge in addition to honor.

So overall, the game has gotten more lightweight and many casual players are able to get PvP and PvE gear a lot faster, everyone walks with fancy epics these days, yet you have less and less freedom in my opinion: you have to do a little bit of everything, Blizzard kind of pushes down your throat everything these days.

Raid wise, instances can be played in 25 and 10 men, but you have to do them to stand a chance; and same goes for PvP, for every battleground and arena.

{pagebreak}

Yes, arena is back, and it still has the best rewards in the game. A couple of new arenas have been added but this still brings a magnifying glass over every class problems in PvP. It can be fun at times, but I still think the new you must do everything in game Blizzard approach sucks. Let me choose what to do, and let me be competitive and good at what I do best...

I don't want to get too personal so I will just add that Wintergrasp outdoor PvP zone is a nice addition, and we'd like to see more and more open world PvP zones in the near future, just like in old times.

More raiding stuff and achievements

Naxxramas, the flying, 4 wings, necropolis is the new high-end instance... until something better comes along you will get your top loot out of it. It's an enjoyable instance although veterans have already played it in the original WoW, as the pinnacle of raiding at that time.

With the introduction of the Death Knight and if successful, probably more new classes to come, buffs and debuffs had to be overhauled. Now no class is indispensable to a raid, and you just need to choose from the basic dps, healer or tank types. Blizzard also worked hard to prevent chaining spells and stacking classes - a sad story that happened at the end of Burning Crusade. Hopefully, no more million Shamans casting chain heroism or healing, or Warlocks just casting shadowbolt.

Some claim that Naxx is too easy for them, but the argument is Naxx is supposed to be easy. It's an entry level instance, with more, harder instances to come. Ulduar in Storm Peaks is the next to come, allegedly harder and of course more rewarding...

And if you feel like you want to do more, there are tons of achievements that can be completed with the new achievement system added by Blizzard. There are so many and include so many aspects of the game that you'll probably get bored of doing them. Some bring minor rewards like mounts or tabards, but are hard to attain. The interesting part is that you'll probably have an achievements page on Blizzard's website and everyone will be able to see how good you were at WoW, and at Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3, because they all support achievements.

{pagebreak}

Conclusion

Changes in many areas make World of Warcraft's second expansion: Wrath of the Lich King one of the best expansion packs ever for a game. Blizzard did an excellent job as we got used to, learned from the past mistakes, and created a polished game once more. However, because of this war of the clones, many of us got to play tons of similar MMORPGs since WoW was first launched, and I fear no matter how many tweaks Blizz comes up with, they won't be able to keep up unless they have a new creation. But this won't happen for some time, so in the near future, Blizzard's epic franchise is safe and sound, with an 11 million subscriber population in their pockets.

Gameplay: 92

Quests are better than ever before, the Death Knight is a superb class to play, vehicles are a welcome addition to the game and Blizzard has found a way for those obsessed enough to collect thousands of gold coins to spend all their money... on useless titles and mounts... All hail mighty 3 person transporter mammoth - it can be yours for just 19999g 99s 98c! Players feel more immersed into the main story, and don't have to complete all the end-game content in order to see Arthas. Let's hope dual spec will be available soon...

Graphics: 86

If many consider Burning Crusade to be Warcraft in space mostly because of its wacky architecture and sunny warm red and purple colors everywhere you look, the Northern part of Azeroth is back to more cool colors and moderate, yet impressive design. Probably Howling Fjord impressed me the most; it's a breath of fresh air and a pleasure to quest in.

Multiplayer: 92

It's still unchanged, many enjoy this game as always, but I can't help myself feeling a bit distant to all of the people. You quest together, you act polite, you do your job in the guild, kay thanks bye... Difficult 40 man raids done for the first time without guides or addons brought a bit more closeness amongst players but it might just be my nostalgic opinion... Also, I don't like the fact Blizzard forces you to be a jack of all traits, master of none, and do a little bit of everything in order to keep up instead of letting you choose.

Sound: 92

Awesome soundtrack as always, but it feels like there are fewer songs and they repeat more. That's my only complaint. EAX hardware sound support is still buggy thanks to a change in the sound system that allowed in-game voice chat. Win some, loose some. Sounds are the same quality Blizzard got us used to, and more voice acting has been added to some quests and most raid bosses.

Hardware: 83

Minimum and recommended requirements have been increased a bit, due to some newly added magic effects and shaders, but not by a significant amount. The most resource you'll need is RAM - you have it, things will go smooth... The game runs very good, and there aren't any major bugs to report. If you have any problems, it could be your addons...