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- Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
- Release Date: Dec 7, 2010
User Score
Mixed or average reviews- based on 814 Ratings
User score distribution:
Positive: 375 out of 814
Mixed: 137 out of 814
Negative: 302 out of 814
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Jan 2, 2011This expansion does so much to bring life into this game, it's incredible they only charge you $40 for it. There's is a lot of content here for everyone. The casuals, the alt-maniacs, the hardcore and the not so hardcore. As far as end game goes, I feel Blizzard hit a nice balance with dungeon difficulty, not being as easy as Wotlk but not as punishing as the harder TBC heroics. Good too see so much work is and quality is still coming out of Blizzard.… Expand
Feb 11, 2012I'll start saying that I've played Wow since the original (although I played more The burning crusade, because it was months away), so I witnessed the decay and the various kind of downgrades/upgrades of the series. With that settled, I honestly like this expansion, more than the wrath of the lich king: the dungeons are fun to do, it actually requests some tactics in order to proceed, and the raids as well are fun to do with proper and better tactics than the previous expansion (I don't mean to offend: it's just what I think). Honestly, I don't get it why it's so hated: it's not a perfect expansion yes, but it IS better than wrath of the lich king; I know the previous expansion had a fantastic lore, but the game was too boring and too easy in comparison. And now, we have to be more carefull on various things: gear is slightly more important to check and a small improvement is actually necessary; dungeons require tactics to comprehend, but that''s logical, but at least they're not just spanking (...for the most part). In general, I wasn't disappointed by this expansion, except for maybe one biggest flaw ever: there is SO few content! The raids are very few (5 to this day, excluding the Tol Barad one), the new zones are big but they aren't that many to explore, and the dungeons are still very few (at least that's my general idea). On top of that, the game is always getting easier and easier, although fans beg for more difficulty: we got heroic raids yes, but blizzard should stop always following the casual gamers: I'm a casual gamer now, but I demand more challenge!. Bottom line, I think this expansion was more of a transition than a real proper expansion, a way to remake the main lands better, and really I can't complain because it was a real desert after the burning crusade. But I still wish for more content...… Expand
Dec 11, 2010huge amount of content added, significantly improved graphics plus questing is now more fun, quests are more imaginative. Worgens are the epitome of cool. Blizz have some exceeded my expectations again. For the Alliance!
Dec 10, 2012The turning point in WoW as Blizzard start to run out of ideas ? Much of the old content is now gone and changed to suit the casual player and leveling and dungeons have been made very easy. Still a great story being told and the base game play is still fun.
Oct 8, 2011Despite it being a decent expansion, Cataclysm ultimately caused me to cancel my account by revealing the man behind the curtain. The remake of the old world was pretty cool, but zones have now become incredibly linear, like one big quest chain, and you tend to outlevel them before you complete them. Then you power through Outland and Northrend, which are both in a sort of lore limbo. Afterward you enter the new zones, which again are pretty cool, but it quickly becomes a treadmill where you endlessly grind rep/points/dungeons. There was and still is, not much new content.… Expand
Aug 31, 2012This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Cataclysm was the third expansion for World of Warcraft and my least favourite. The first two weeks of play were fun while I was leveling. Blizzard had really polished its phasing, vehicle fights and the way quests are presented in this expansion. Two of the new zones went in a different direction than your typical WoW zone and I liked those zones best. One was an under water zone. Many people don't like it, but personally I like it because it is different from all the other WoW zones. The other was was a cut-scene full zone that was mostly a parody of the Indiana Jones movies, I also enjoyed that zone a lot too, although some others did not. The questing in the new zones in this expansion were more linear and really told a story which I liked. Some players did not like this. One problem I encountered with this setup early on was that the phasing for one of the water zone quests was bugged which prevented you from being able to progress in the zone for about a week, so I had to leave the zone and do another one in the meantime.
The first end game instances in this expansion was kind of disappointing. For me I found that the graphics of the place just looked too old and boring, they looked like the old 5 man instances inside the mountain that were created back in 2004, they really could have done a better job on the looks of these places. The bosses weren't really that memorable. Maybe it was because we had all been playing for years and just weren't that blown away by raids anymore. Maybe the bosses weren't really that special. Right now the only one I really remember is the blind dragon, so I guess the rest in that place were not memorable lol. I do remember seeing Onyxia during the end boss fight and thinking to myself "Didn't we already kill her in a previous expansion?" Well, really we killed her already two expansions because they remade her original instance at one point too.
They really nerfed healers mana at the start of this expansion, they wanted it to be more challenging to heal but they went overboard. I had played as mainly a healer for 6 years before this point and this was the first expansion that I did not enjoy healing in. I could do it, but it just was no fun watching your team mates die because you were severey mana-challenged, especially when you were running the normal 5 mans or heroics and didn't have much end-game gear. Tol Barad was also horribly designed at the start of this expansion so that 99% of the time the opposite faction than I was had control of it. And since the loot pinata boss inside of it was only accessible to who controled it that meant no easy raid gear for our guild and that really sucked. They eventually fixed it but it was months later so by that time it was too late to get the bad taste of the design of that place out of my mouth.
When Firelands came out I was logging on each day to max out my gear tokens by running the Firelands dailies and heroic dailies. It started to feel like a chore. I would log on, do my daily quests then do my daily heroics and then log out on non-raid days. Not because I wanted to, but because it was necessary to do to max out the number of gear tokens I could get to get myself new gear as fast as possible. The Firelands dailies took a long time to complete. Blizzard has even come out and admitted that they were tuned to take too long. Then I realized that the rewards for completing all the dailies enough times rewarded gear that was slightly worse than what I was already wearing in most cases. This was the point where I got burned out on the game and I quit for 6 months. Blizzard bribed me back with their overpowered Scroll of Ressurrection where they allowed you to insta-level any one of your toons to level 80 (close to the level 85 cap). Other than the new transmog feature which finally lets me use the look of my favourite gear while wearing something else there was not enough to really keep me hooked on the game. I used the new LFR to join zerg fests to get the lower versions of the tier set, but it just feels so cheap and meaningless since no skill was involved to get them. I hung out with my guild for a couple of months to get the normal Dragon Soul tier set and that was fun, but not as fun as the old days. I barely play these days,. I am uncertain if I will purchase the next expansion.
I am giving this expansion a 6/10 because, I don't think it was a terrible expansion so I think it deserves at least average, but there is "je ne sais quoi" that was missing from this expansion that I can't give it a better rating than that.… Expand
Jul 29, 2013This expansion definitely made the game worse than it was before. The transition from the old world to the new one, although it looked fun as an idea, turned out to be pretty bad. I suddenly felt myself alienated from the game, there was no world as I knew it anymore, and instead just super-simplified zones where you just moved from one griffon master to another and doing all those small quests.
Yet I must say in retrospect, that compared to what they did in Mysts of Pandaria, this expansion was still pretty much on Blizzard's level.… Expand
Jan 13, 2011I would call the GOAL of this expansion more of a fix-it-up rather than adding new content (although it DOES add quite a few areas), but regardless, it will only appeal to those who enjoy World of Warcraft, or are on the fence. If you do not fit into these categories, then save your money and don't bother. You know, why even bother reviewing, its just going to be a tug of war between haters and fanboys anyways.… Expand
Nov 3, 2011Half-assed and overhyped expansion. Many of the features got scrapped, most of the content is just repainted old one, and it has worst end-game out of all of the expansions. WoW needs something new, not more of the same old crap we all saw hundreds of times already.
May 20, 2011I played Cataclysm until recently. It's pretty fun at first, but the magic is gone. The storyline at this point makes absolutely no sense and has come down in 4.1 to "for some random reason former good guy Trolls are now evil, so go kill them in these recycled dungeons." Content is pathetically slow in coming since release, and weak when it finally did arrive. There's a great sense of "who cares?" in most of what's going on. To top it off, Blizzard is now largely focused on tacking on extra charges more then they are improving the game. It's been a good run, but this is a game that's lost its way.… Expand
Mar 28, 2011I have played world of warcraft on and off since vanilla, I stopped playing the first time about 5 months before wrath of the litch king came out, I have noticed a very disturbing pattern with blizzard lately which kills the game completely for any gamer that knows that there must be a challenge to make a game decent.
These Two statements sum up the game completely:
1. "Vanilla and Burning Crusade had lore that was quite good, Wrath of the Litch King took this lore and smashed it with a hammer into 4 pieces, cataclysm takes the 4 pieces and throws them into a blender with other ingredients not food related, this is a smoothie you don't want to drink. 2. World of Warcraft is mmorpg for newbies to the gaming industry. Here are the issues the game has. They removed all of the elements that actually made the game challenging, if you look at vanilla vs cataclysm vanilla always wins the challenge debate. Cataclysm rebuilt wow from the ground up, its not a good thing. Some games are better if you do not make massive changes which turns a game into a kid friendly environment. There is another common issue with blizzard, they say they will find a way to prevent twinks or make it so they cant do much but they turn right around and give players more options to do so, I am always getting one shotted unless I'm 60+ so doing any type of pvp before 60 is out of the question. Only chance I have at those levels is to go get my weapons enchanted and of course get a ton of Bind to Account (BoA) gear, no reason the game should have BoA gear anyway. Their attempts to balance the game have outright made me laugh beyond anything I have ever seen, the big issue is that they listen to all of the kids who have barely started gaming and not the ones who have been gaming since the 70s or 80s. On top of this they almost directly ripped off League of Legends abilities for abilities so there is little to no ingenuity anymore from blizzard. Vanilla WoW was incredible, challenging in every aspect and every casual player could play it and get ahead. Burning crusade comes and a good 20% of the pvp appeal was lost in the patch about a week before it was released (e.g. the beginning rank system which I know they are going to add back but wont be similar or challenging to get ranks.) Wrath of the litch king comes out, makes everything extremely simplified and adds in new stats to gear which means that pvp gear is no longer useful for pve and vice versa meaning its an attempt to get players to spend a lot more time in a game that should only have half the longevity. Now cataclysm comes out, everything is so simplified even an 8 year old can play it and learn quickly, the learning curve went from average to well below average in terms of how hard it is to learn. Real gamers know that we need a challenge to be content with a game, we know that games are worthless if we are not being pushed to get ahead in the game. Cataclysm removes all of these aspects from the game meaning there are more challenging games on the market with better PvP and PvE most of which are free to play. There have been studies that showed that the average amount of subscribing world of warcraft accounts that had characters over 10 was roughly 70%. This means that 30% played the game for a few hours and quit because it was just too boring. Here are a few examples of games that have better pvp... Perfect World International (free to play better pvp at higher levels) Global Agenda (Buy once no monthly charge - even though the game is just as bad as wow) Dungeon Fighter online (free to play) Air Rivals (free to play space craft game) Zero online (diablo 2 but in mecha style form) Games that have better PvE: Lunia Online (free to play) Global Agenda (see above) Battle of Immortals Perfect World International Dungeon Fighter online Zero Online Air Rivals Everquest Classic (thats right, old game but still better) Many others I cant actually list here due to character's remaining issues. Games worse than or equal to WoW in all ways: Vanguard - Saga of Heros Everquest II Hellgate London Guild wars (about the same in many ways in terms of longevity) Point being go play something worth 55 dollars if you are going to spend 55 dollars, not something that is worth 5 dollars to buy (e.g. cataclysm) and worth no monthly fees since blizzard does a terrible job at maintaining and managing the content for the game. My advise, wait for Diablo III, Dungeon Siege III, and Rift.… Expand
Dec 31, 2011Cataclysm finally made me stop playing WoW for good.
As a player that experienced Wow from its release ive noticed that the game got more accessible, easy, casual and generally dumbed down with pretty much every content patch and addon. This already got critical at wrath of the lich king. While in classic or burning crusade a good 50% of content could be considered as in some way fun or "challenging" it is down to like 5% now.
Back then there was an actual chance of not completely finishing an instance, even completely failing, or of only killing a certain boss and leaving the rest of the instance untouched because it was too difficult etc. Actually completely cleaning an instance like Stratholme or TDM was pretty satisfying.
There is nothing left like that anymore.
Even daily heroic instance quests are more like a time consuming annoyance than a challenge now, the only challenge left the game manages to deliver are a few hardcore achievements like for heroic raid instances. Again even these ones can at some point just get picked up by everyone after blizzard once again nerfed the raid instances or released new content with better items allowing anyone to easily raid past instances without any difficulty left in them. Pointless.… Expand
Jun 10, 2012The weakest expansion so far. The new content seemed mostly cosmetic to me and it was not even on the disc. It was patched. Also, the Worgen were awesome but the Goblins sucked. I couldnt stand them. I thought that the destruction aspect was kinda cool but overall it was a waste of money.
Apr 11, 2012Outdated graphics? Check. Re-reusing old content? Check. Boring grinding? Check. Screwing over everyone that played and spent a lot of time on the previous expansion? Check. One of the most redundantly stupid and offensive community in the world? Check. Not listening to that community for better or worse? Check. Still shaking the class balance around like its a pot of scrambled eggs? Check. Slapping on 80000 extra health for all classes? Check. You still want more? Okay then.
Giving away level 80's including gear, mounts, gold and flight-paths, completely screwing anyone that earned level 80+ over? Check. Unbalanced arena matchup? Check. Crossclassing? Check. Rapidly losing a huge amount of subscribers? Check A decrease of user ratings by 40% over a year? Check. Money-grubbing overzealous company that has most of its staff leaving? Check.
I will laugh HARD once they release MoP which will have roughly 20% approval by the end of next year.… Expand
Nov 9, 2011I'm writing this review late after this games release. But, since I played it it deserves an opinion. First off the Original WoW was amazing, truly a work of art game. Burning Crusade was even better and another great success, but then comes Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm... With the games increasing popularity lead to a decline in the player community being filled with Trolls, greifers and elitist jerks. Also Wrath and Cata are poor in comparison to the previous versions. What makes Cata worst of all is Blizzard tried to squeeze more juice out of old lemons. By that I mean they took the old version and recolored it, including OLD dungeons forcing you to replay what you already had before for loot. Plus, doing Heroics where the wait time is 30minutes+ is unbelievable.... what am I suppose to do for 30 minutes? pick my toes and if I afk while i wait it drops you from the Que! This is ridiculous and is a LAZY excuse on Blizzards part. Further more Blizzard haste to be the most money hungry developer out there currently pioneering the way for $60 games with Star Craft II. I will never buy anything from Blizzard again. I also will add I cancelled my account 8 months ago after years of playing.… Expand
Feb 14, 2011World of Warcraft is more than just a game, it is a malicious waste of time, where one has to work so much to keep up with the rest of the players that it becomes something like a virtual job, frustrating and tedious, it is more repetitive than the spinning of a wheel, and has no substance whatsoever. If only players realised how much time they spend waiting to fly from one spot to another, waiting for a boat or a zeppelin, riding for miles to get to the desired spot, waiting for the raid to build up, do long, plenty and very tedious dailies to earn virtual money they would see that most of the game time is spent doing effectively NOTHING.
And then there's the anger, stress, disappointment which are all inevitable in both raids and arena, and so little satisfaction to gain which is not in the game-play itself but in the number of emblems or badges one strives to collect, or the loot, the arena points and team rating respectively.
Cataclysm is yet another useless add-on, which urges players to level up some more, get in new boring instances and basically just start the whole repetitive labour all over again, all to one end only - to obtain better gear as quickly as possible, before other players do, and be among the first in their guild to be congratulated with "GZ" when earning a worthless achievement.
World of Warcraft appears under "similar games" regardless of one looking into an RPG game, action, strategy, or any other. It's advertised EVERYWHERE and in a most annoying manner. But what can we do against the almighty power of money - the sum Gamespot collects from Blizzard.… Expand
Sep 29, 2012Bad product. blizzard has not been able to address the expansion,wanting to please everyone. Unbalanced classes for the entire exp and lack of interest in repairing bad moves made at the start,
while customers continued to pay every month with the hope of a quality product
Sep 27, 2012As far as MMO's go, I have played better. Unfortunately in WoW you will frequently find yourself standing 40 yrds, from an enemy and casting spells or attacks at him over and over. IMO the cap should have been 75 at most, beyond that just feels like grinding.
Dec 26, 2010For what it adds to the game, this should probably be rated a 10. Getting to max level is easier than ever too, so that's a huge plus. However, seeing as Blizzard made no indication on the difficulty increase to the average user thus nothing can be done without a guild or a decent group on your server, I'm left wondering why they made random heroics in the first place. As always with these kind of games, while the gameplay can be fine, the community ruins any enjoyment I could get from it.
PS - They said they wouldn't nerf heroics, but they're going to have to before everyone quits from not being able to get any done with random bad players.… Expand
Mar 16, 2011This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Dear Blizzard, Thank you for revamping old Azeroth into a world of heavenly (and Horde-favored, LOKTAR OGAR!) experience for the playerbase. Thank you for making some nice new zones and two competent (I hated the BS races) new races. Thank you for adding even more BRILLIANT music to the game and, perhaps MOST importantly, thank you for both making the Forsaken as a playable race make any sense and giving the trolls a new starting zone. Also thank you for making your end game content fun and challeng- WHAT? 19 direct nerfs to heroics? 15% luck of the draw buff? Oh, dear God, Blizzard, DON'T GO BACK TO THE HELL OF WOTLK. Also to everyone who "hates" this expansion and is "done" I have 3 things to say: 1: If you are calling leveling too easy, yes I can agree with that, WTF Blizz? 2: If you are quitting, you'll be back, you've probably "quit: every damn patch, and 3: If you ARE quitting, NOBODY CARES! you are a worthless internet troll and Blizzard wouldn't care if you DIED, get over yourself. This is, however, only MY opinion, and I recommend you try it out, seeing as how the revamp of old Azeroth was done via a patch, so you don't need to buy the expansion to experience this updated content.… Expand
Nov 22, 2014High on my list of reasons why I quit WoW, this expansion just took the cake as far as nerfing things to placate incompetents and dullards. Absolutely nothing was a challenge, or if something was it lasted for about a week until Blizzard got round to nerfing it. Anyone who suffered through the indignities of Wrath and Cataclysm and is still playing the game either has incredible staying power with lost causes (Perhaps they`re all from Scotland) or at least one serious mental problem.
The only positive innovation I could find was the inclusion of rated battlegrounds, which were great fun while my ill-considered final WoW subscription ran its course. But who subs to an MMORPG to play RBGs? I know I don`t, and everything else was total trash.… Expand
Jan 7, 2011......FIRST OFF: Metacritic - Please allow paragraphs, Walls of Text is no fun :D ..............................The last time I tried to get back into World of Warcraft was in 2007 when WotLK expansion was released. I had played the game from inception up to The Burning Crusade, and that was where my love for the game died. TBC was just plain boring, and I didn't see much new imagination being used in how the new regions were created. The reduction to 25 man was also a hard hitter having been an officer in a very successful guild (all server 1sts from MC up to half of Serpentshrine). Suddenly having to pick out people to dump who didn't make the grade was not a task we enjoyed. Tied in with various patches that made all the boss encounters really easy after we had spent many MANY hours wiping, working out new tactics and getting dungeons on farm, I got really peeved at Blizzard for devaluing the efforts of those who wanted hardcore PvE.......................................... I then rejoied the game (and my old guild - as a member) and despite making it to level 78, I just really didn't like what I was seeing. My guildies levelled far quicker than I did as I vowed (to my wife) that this game would no longer take up too much of my life..................................... The guild had been raiding for a couple of weeks and had the first to major instances almost on farm, which to me just seemed too fast. Reports were telling me way too many encounters were just "tank 'n' Spank" and really didn't require much thought to beat. This is when I gave up............................................
So, on to Cataclysm. This time around I am on a PvP server in a new guild which a friend of mine helps to run. They were fairly established with another guild but some squabbles seemed to have seen him and a few others splinter off to reform a new guild. The guild has about 15 players who are very regular, and I thought what the heck, I'll give WoW another try.................................. So, I rolled a fresh character, a Goblin mage, which is a class I have never played as before. I really don't want to go into extreme detail, but the efforts Blizzard have made in the revamped level 1-60 zones are something majestical. They have really put a lot of thought into a lot of quests that have been reworked, and quests now have a much better flow as now, many quest lines don't require you to keep running back and forth to the quest giver, and will give you a "clicky" to complete and move onto the next part of the quests.......................................Experience gain is now very fast, and it does somewhat derail a little as you start going way ahead of quest levels, to the point that I managed to reach level 60 (as horde) by just doing half a dozen zones in Kalimdor, and just Stranglethorn Vale in the Eastern kingdoms. Whilst this is ok for those looking to rush everything, for me, a player who likes to take a bit more time, levelling up all my primary and secondary professions at the same time, became a bit annoying................................
The biggest stumbling block as regards to the flow of the game, is that levelling 1-60 was at a good pace, but then you enter Hellfire Penninsula (I was at level 62) and it suddenly feels like hitting a brick wall. Everything slows down to a snails pace. The continuous quest utility used in Azeroth hasn't been brought forward to TBC or WotLK, so running back and forth is required. Luckily, the guild had hit the level required to give us a 5% bonus to experience, so it speeded it up a little. This buffed up to 10% bonus by the time I finished TBC and hit level 70. I only did Hellfire, Zangarmarsh, and Nagrand to reach level 70, so at least I didn't have to suffer too much in what for me was a nightmare expansion. I managed to get to level 80 by only doing a few zones in WotLK which is fine......................................
At the time of writing this, I have reached level 81, and I am only in the first zone. Things appear to be a lot better so far, and it is a pleasure to see that old grounds will be revisited, and old bosses make an appearance here and there. I have watched some video reviews of the new expansion, and some of the new implementations and mechanics really look like I am going to have a good time. But the most important thing for me, is that Blizzard have re-introduced a level of difficulty to boss fights, and from what I've watched and read, means that not that much "tank 'n' spank" has made it into the expansion..............................
Whilst I haven't witnessed a whole lot so far, I still feel I can give a review so far, and I score Cataclysm (so far) as follows......................Graphics: 6/10, Audio: 8/10, Presentation: 10/10, Gameplay: 8/10, OVERALL: 8.......
If you are a lapsed player like me, it is definately worth at least giving it a go.… Expand
Jan 5, 2011no... no... no... no... and... surprisingly... NO! This is desperate, so this is just utter tripe.. itn is dismal, bad, no story -line and to many problems to list!
Aug 7, 2011Unfortunately this really feels like the beginning of the end for WoW. I liked the new content a lot at first, until a week passed and I was already 85. Then I decided to go back and start a couple new characters to see the new 1-60 content. A couple weeks later, I was reentering untouched old content for levels 60-80 that I didn't have any interest in replaying. The transition between Cata content and previous expansions is just awkward without any consideration or adjustment by Blizzard. There just wasn't enough content and fine-tuning with this expansion for veteran players, especially when the 1-60 game is now so ridiculously easy that it's just as easy and boring as watching someone else play it on youtube. Blizzard still manages to make some quest lines entertaining and funny, but these came few and far between this time around. The highlights were the new graphic effects, more challenging endgame instances, and the reorganization of the entire old world to make it flow better (technically this wasn't expansion content - vanilla players have access to all 1-60 content). The more prevalent cons of this expansion include the terrible transition now present for new players after level 60, everything outside of endgame dungeons/raids being pathetically easy, more graphical glitches then ever before, poorly made cutscenes, a very boring new profession (archaeology), and very little else to keep any veteran players interested beyond another month or two. I'm not sure if Blizzard is just losing their touch, or if the game is just reaching the age where no amount of quality content could help retain it's playerbase. Either way, this expansion came off as very mediocre at best.… Expand
Mar 24, 2011This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. And then there is Cataclysm. It's THE borderline of WoW. Your experience with this game will really depend on whatever you played from Vanilla or you jumped on the train not long ago. I wasn't as excited as I was at previous Expansion Packs because I knew what summarily they bring. The new areas are really good and the stories are good, I'll sing that. I played Western/Eastern Plaguelands and Westfall which were pretty good and of course the 5 new Cataclysm zone (Yes, only 5 since the maximum level was pushed up with only 5!). I hoped they have made it harder since 3.2.0 but I soon realized how foolish I was to think this. It became so easy that you barely need to think anymore. The abilities became extremely overpowered (for Warriors at least). And Questing/Leveling was like surfing on small tides, It didn't have difficulty at all! I thought at level 85 I might find some challange but no. The heroics were again using the same system but with Points (why Points now?) and Battlegrounds used the same system with points too (at least this mostly remained like it did). So what did I do? Try out the new species (Goblin and Worgen). Wait. What are these classes? Tauren Paladin? MAGE DWARF? Orc Mage? I understand now. They killed half of WoW with the Badge system in 3.2.0 and now they killed the other half with messing the whole plot up, but this half was the one that was with Warcraft at its RTS roots too. Why would suddenly Taurens turn to the light? Dwarves are immune to magic in this way (they couldn't become mages). Even Dragon Age 2 could keep this rule. And Orc Mage.. Who thought that picking random class combinations out of the blue was a good idea? Why did they even do these combinations that completely DENIES THE LORE!? And there are the "merely a setback" characters. In Burning Crusade this was a great idea and it might made you smile in WOTLK, but It's extremely overused here. Hogger, Ragnaros, Nefarian, Onyxia, Cenarius (Yep, It makes the orcs' victory at Ashenvale completely meaningless). Oh, and Cairne is dead who was the leader of the Tauren since Warcraft 3 and got killed in some quest. Ultra Great,really... And what's with the constant instance repeating? I mean, Naxxramas was a great idea. But now they use Zul'Gurub, Zul'Aman and old bosses up again? I hope you were happy with your Amani War Bear because soon everyone will be running with that one all around. At least there are some more positives, It makes puts some character into the story which haven't done anything before : Matthias Shaw of the SI:7, Prince Anduin and It welcomes some new ones. I don't know what this expansion will bring up later but I'm not sure I'll resume playing it during the summer because It's so nerfed (they made it so easy) that I might play a week if I resumed It and then I would be jumping and talking in a Capital City. So to sum this one up: If you are new on the train, you might like it but if you are a veteran, you'll want to deny this as being part of Warcraft. For the later one I can only say what i said before, go to Vanilla or any private server that is before the 3.2.0 patch. And if the previous got bored of It or doesn't like it too, They might wanna check the previous games too.… Expand
Apr 26, 2011People have been speculating what it would take to bring the behemoth that is WoW down for years. Turns out, it's not the competition. Blizzard has done everything they could in the latest expansion, Cataclysm, to kill WoW slowly, painfully, without remorse.
Cataclysm has a new quest design that is linear. You pick up a quest, it sends you to the next and so on until a zone is complete. New quests don't show up until previous quests are complete, so there is only one way to do things. In order, every time, on every toon. Thankfully there are only 5 new zones of quests and the level cap has only been raised 5 levels so after you've seen the new quests, doing them again on you alt won't take long.
That brings up another point, Cataclysm is short. Blizzard redid the entire 1-60 leveling process and tries to tack that onto Cataclysm. The fact is the 1-60 experience was NOT a part of Cataclysm, is not included with the new content and costs nothing extra to see. So, if you want a new toon no need to upgrade. Unfortunately the new questing is done in the same theme as the expansion, so you only need to see it once and after it's done there is never any reason to return to that area.
In fact, once you finish any quests in an area, there is never any reason to leave a city. Thanks to linear questing and automatic queues the WORLD of WoW might as well not exist anymore. It's just a hassle to run through on your way to a raid. Not that raiding is worth doing. There are two difficulties hard and professional raider. The average PUG (Pick Up Group) can't clear more than a couple bosses. People don't form pugs even on the busiest servers anymore. Guilds that play together all the time even have trouble clearing the raid content now due to the difficulty with the number of guilds clearing heroic mode nearing 6 months after release in the tens nationwide. Yes, coming up on 6 months of working on the same raid and only a handful of groups have cleared it in the entire country. Let that sink in. Would you like to try a game for 6 months straight and still not beat it?
The loot tables are pitifully small, the game play for all classes was redone completely and in many cases (I personally play 4 toons at max level) made worse or completely broken. New content has been very slow to arrive. The first content patch, 5 months after release, is simply a second presentation of two old raids converted to 5 man instances, one of which (Zul'Aman) wasn't even changed according to the interview with Scott Mercer. So, it's not new mechanics like they promised, it's in fact just rehashed old content just like Onyxia was. Populations on servers are in decline, the new patch 4.1 won't change that. If you haven't already bought Cataclysm save your money. It would be more aptly name Catastrophe, though I suppose the damage was cataclysmic. In the end Cataclysm is a boring, repetitive grind of daily quests and endless waits in queue's (there is a bug for battlegrounds where the queue won't work that had been in the game since Cataclysm's release), with nothing really new or fun to do. New content is slow to come and is being sold as much more than it truly is. WoW is dieing, sad but true.… Expand
Jan 6, 2012Another garbage xpac for a garbage game. They could have improved the game, instead they put a glossy finish over broken content that's been there for seven years and say, 'oh look, those enemies that were once bears are now scorpids, brand new game!'.
You're fighting black dragons, again, Ragnaros, again- it's the same old grind with better looking fire graphics. Only real new thing is the underwater zone- which is a sliver of the 'new' content anyway.
Best of all, they made pvp even worse, I don't know how but they did it- healers are even more ridiculously OP, crowd control has been buffed through the roof- they essentially took every bit of feedback on what makes pvp bad and doubled it.
The best part about Cataclysm is the goblin starting area- that is just fun. Sadly, once you're done that, the game is a steaming pile of dung.… Expand
Jun 13, 2011Opinion of this game (and particularly about this expansion) will greatly depend on the type of player one is. Cataclysm (and WoW in general) is a perfect MMORPG for those new players that have limited and scattered free time (aka Casuals). For them it offers well polished, rich and fairly entertaining content that lasts for quite a while, the graphics engine is fairly outdated, but still the game looks positively alive, much more so than ANY mmorpg out there. The only problem is a complete lack of higher difficulty option, the classes have many skills but very straightforward, the quests and even dungeons are easy, not challenging even for completely new rpg players. Some will like it that way, many wonâ… Expand
Dec 11, 2010The developers have gone to great lengths to address the fundamental flaws present throughout the entirety of the genre. Many small cinematic flairs have been added to the game play and the experience as a whole has been greatly streamlined to result in a much more user-friendly experience. That being said, the hallmarks of World of Warcraft are here and present as strongly as ever. The art direction, music, and strategic depth of Cataclysm evidences the developer's continued success in design philosophy. The result is a fascinating social arena that is at once physically beautiful, engrossing from a game play standpoint, and remains accessible to new players while still challenging those who wish to involve themselves more thoroughly.… Expand
For a bit of background about me, I played WoW extensively when it first came out (cleared Naxx) then played a bit when TBC came out (mostly arena) and quit at level 78 with WotLK.
I came back to Cataclysm after seeing beta footage on Youtube and having it pique my interest. I had lost my account at that point, so I needed to start from scratch.
The game blew me away almost from the get-go. I was absolutely stunned with how much I enjoyed it, especially remembering the agony of leveling before. Almost every zone has a story, some small tale that you affect, brilliantly using the phasing mechanic to make you feel like your actions impact the zone.
The entire game felt fresh and new, many small things were added to make learning things easier. No more training defense and weapon skills, notifications when you can learn new moves from the trainer, improved interfaces, spell alerts etc. etc.
I had a perpetual blast from 1-60, but alas that's when the magic abruptly ends. Being a casual gamer, I played maybe a 2-3 hours a week, and levels 50-60 (which pre-cataclysm used to take ages to complete) now take about 1/2 hour per level un-rested.
At level 60 this joyride comes to a screeching halt, and outlands and beyond. All of a sudden after having fun, rewarding, half hour level ups it takes about 2-3 hours PER LEVEL. The quests in the outlands starting zones give LESS exp than old world level 55 quests. The quests are also much further spaced out (meaning more travel time) and overall not as fun (kill 10 of x and 20 of y). I am currently level 69, and went to Northrend. That place hasn't changed much either, and I will not be continuing my "adventures" much longer.
If I was to give out a recommendation for this game, I'd say that you should just buy the original WoW and play through leveling to 60. The expansion content is only necessary if you want to play goblins/worgen/blood elves/draenei or want to continue beyond level 60.… Collapse
May 17, 2011I dont get it. IMO Wotlk was a biggest success in wow history. I mean during this expansion wow had more then ever subscriptions and people online. And what they did, instead of listening majority of gamers that actually played the game they listened to few whiners in forums. Cataclism expansion was exactly what it mean to world of warcraft. They killed everything that was fun. Few fast heroics after work? I dont think so.. with 40mins queue time and dungeons themself taking forever. Pugging raids? not anymore. Diversity of what you can do in game? not really... btw how can you call it expansion when there's less things to do in game then before. Add to this unbalanced pvp, dead world outside major cities, less people online, forcing people to create alts, removing 10/25 as different lockouts, no fredom whatsoever in new lvling zones. Grats to blizzard for destroying game that was close to perfect. I canceled my sub month after release of this $%%^$. One point because archeology, since it was quite cool and something new. Anyway cata is dead for me.… Expand
Sep 26, 2011WoW: Cataclysm is hard to rate, and really it should be divided into two separate games. One is the new 1-60 content, and the other is the end-game. I would give 1-60 an 8 and the endgame a 4 so they average to 6. Now obviously, if we make comparisons, since all reviews are a form of comparison, the closest thing we can compare Cataclysm to is Wrath of the Lich King, which I thought was a tremendous expansion and I gave an 8. I know WotLK's content endgame was pretty easy (well, very easy), but that wasn't why I like it. WotLK's endgame dungeons had some very interesting environments, dungeons and lore. Lore. That is what is really missing with Cataclysm. You feel with endgame that you are simply going through the motions. There's nothing really unique or significant with design, architecture, or anything else. The gameplay is almost exactly the same as the previous expansion, with the exception that they put crowd control back in, and has been essentially the same throughout the series, so how do I rate the game on that aspect? It really is the world-building, the quests, and what you're hero accomplishes in his adventures against the Lich King, the Old Gods, and the Burning Legion that makes WoW entertaining, and I feel that Cataclysm ultimately failed to deliver the sense that you're character's actions have any sort of impact with endgame so far. There's just no depth to it. That said, I would spend all my time with Cata leveling from 1 to 60, because the new quest areas for new characters *were* developed with a sense of impact and interest, and some of the quests you just cannot miss (Badlands). So there's my summation. I don't know how helpful it will be if at all.… Expand
Sep 17, 2011I love world of warcraft. Butt iam not die hard gaming freak i got a live to. So let me say this is the expand good or not well the f*ck up some good **** in this game but the graphics story and the fun in it don`t forget the leveling up system make this game OK not good but OK.
Feb 23, 2011+You does'nt have to be 10+ people to have a good time anymore.
-Close to Nothing is New
-No graphic improvement.
-Story is none existent
-More of the Same
-No new classes, thus no freshness. -For an Experienced Gamer, this is still too Easy.
Feb 25, 2011This may be the hardest ame to review. Cataclysm's gem comes for free. Get Vanilla, get to level 60 a few times, find another game. You will love every minute of it. 60-70 was like getting teeth pulled, and 70-80 dragged on towards the end. Cataclysm (strictly speaking) 80-85 content was wonderful. Wonderful, but disgustingly short. It can be done in just a few hours. Imagine a roller coaster where you get to the bottom of the first hill and- woop, ride's over. Not horrible, but not exactly what you were expecting after waiting out that long line. It's not worth the torture of 60-80 to play 80-85 content, but 1-60 was great, first second and third time.… Expand
Sep 29, 2012I'm not sure why I didn't end up enjoying Cataclysm - it was based upon a lot of revolutionary ideas. Up until that point, I hadn't been that excited about a new expansion since Burning Crusade. The events leading up to Cataclysm were well done and exciting. The new races were additions to the game that I felt were long overdue. Archaeology was a new secondary profession I looked forward to, as well as the concept of guild leveling. The breaking of the world and overhaul/redesign of classic zones was an innovative, ballsy and refreshing move by Blizzard, and I felt it would breathe new life into the game. I was giddy with anticipation at the inclusion of new zones that were an integral part of Warcraft lore such as Hyjal and Vashj'ir. However, Cataclysm is a hard lesson for everyone that shows how an outstanding idea can be implemented in the wrong way. First, the good: The new zones were beautiful and fun to play in, though like in WOTLK, Blizzard decided to force the player to choose between two fantastic zones that robbed the player of the full leveling experience of Cataclysm by making Vashj'ir and Hyjal the same zone level. Having to choose between these zones was a horrible decision to make, because I was keenly interested in both. The quests in these new zones were, at times, broken and lackluster. In addition, the new zones were spread WAY too far apart and didn't seem to fit together. Next, let's look at the new races. I hate what they did with the starting areas - why they made these areas "instanced" is beyond me. One can argue that the Cataclysm that drove these races to their respective factions is why you can never return to these zones, but it was exceedingly annoying that your new characters had no access to mailboxes after you left the initial starting zone, and if you got sick of the starting zone, you HAD to finish it before joining the rest of Azeroth. They wrote themselves into a corner and had to do it this way, but surely they could have written the lore differently so that, like other races, they could easily port to a new zone in Azeroth if they grew tired of being forced to go through the same story over and over. I was particularly disappointed with the Worgen, because the fall of Gilneas is STILL broken, and one wrong move during this final battle and you're ported back to the beginning of the instance and have to start over. Quests in the starting areas had a few fun experiences, but many were tedious. I felt the new quests in the retailored classic zones were redundant, because it was more efficient for players to grind through levels by running dungeons and battlegrounds, while questing in the refurbished zones wasn't nearly as fast. All of the work done by writers and developers to overhaul the classic zones was wasted, since running dungeons would get a player leveled more quickly. The ethos of WoW seemed to change with Cata, where leveling was no longer a journey to be enjoyed but a grind to be overcome. Perhaps it's because max level is ridiculously high while Blizzard hasn't adequately increased experience gained by questing to make players want to bother. In addition, the game has become far too easy. Cata kind of went from one extreme to another - they broke the healing class and made it exceedingly difficult to make it through a dungeon alive, and then they went the other way and made it far too easy. Guild leveling, intended to bring members of a guild closer together, acted instead to make guilds more cliquey - and now, almost 2 years post-Cata, people are only joining level 25 guilds for the benefits and ignoring the lower level guilds, making it almost impossible for new guilds to level, as there's no incentive to join. I'm not sure why I left two months after Cata's release - I became aware of Cata's faults later on, but at the time I couldn't put my finger on what I didn't like about it. I just found myself in Stormwind one day with some friends repeatedly jumping off our flying mounts into the water, and realized, "I'm bored and unmotivated...what's the point of playing this game anymore?" I returned briefly 9 months later, only to have my lowbie slaughtered repeatedly with players decked out in BoA gear in battlegrounds and then slapped in the face with MoP, a further degradation into mediocrity. Cataclysm is when WoW lost its magic for me, and MoP ended up being the nail in the coffin of a once fantastic game. If Blizzard created separate servers for Vanilla WoW or BC (with achievements) or even WOTLK (still good, but not my favourite), I'd pay a monthly fee and play again in a heartbeat, but the direction developers have taken and the decisions they have made with this game since Cata has rendered this game unplayable.… Expand
Jun 5, 2014A lot of people didn't/ don't like this expansion but I really enjoyed it. It was difficult and made the bad players who thought they were good (who also happen to always have the biggest mouths) leave out of frustration. The community continues to get more and more toxic and it continues to effect the game itself.
Some of the best 5man content comes from this expansion as well as some of the best raid boss fights. BWD (and the final boss) could be argued as reused content like NAXX as well as reusing a certain famous boss from the original game. At this point all my friends have stopped playing which lowered my enjoyment by half. I also enjoyed the remake of the original game, it needed the upgrade bad.… Expand
Sep 12, 2014Pros: N/A
Cons: The game lore was destroyed after Deathwing came back to life for the "Cataclysm expansion; highly inflationary economy; terrible leveling and gear systems where for example a level one character cannot even harm a level 80; each new expansion effectively resets the game, making your previous achievements through time invested worthless; game is deliberately designed like a giant money-generating hamster wheel for the players to run on, that is it rewards time invested very much and actual skill very little; once a new expansion is out, you can really no longer play the older versions of the game you had paid for.
Score Breakdown: Sound Effects and Music 9/10, Game Stability 8/10, Graphics 8/10, Loading Screens and Frame Rate 5/10, Voice Acting 5/10, Background Story 2/10, Plot Development 0/10, Realism 0/10, Gameplay 0/10, Replay Value 0/10, Game Publisher's Ethics -100/10, Total Score 0/10
Conclusion: Ignore this game instead of playing or buying it.… Expand
Jun 13, 2012This game is not the World of Warcraft. That game was epic,skill-based(mostly :D),had a great universe which vacuumes players. I was one player caught in the wave,i loved it. Meeting characters from the World of Azeroth was awesome,u know them,u love them. Then came the Cataclysm,which was made for 5-15 year old players,from 12+,removing the hybrid talents,making the game chum on your food and spit in your mouth,it was transformed to some moneymaker,so kis kill their parents to buy it.
The story is meh,deathwing wow so epic!!!! 2bad that the bossfight is a piece of **** know nothing of the bosses except Deathwing,and that boss was awful too.
Not the best recommendation here,but if u wanna play World of Warcraft then go play vanilla/BC/LK on cracked servers.
And if u need only the universe there are plenty of books around you can choose from.
I hoped Blizzard realized their fail,but no they make MoP,without talents!!! YAY!!!!… Expand
Apr 10, 2011Revamped areas, two new races, new instances/battlegrounds and a general streamlining of the levelling process make Cataclysm a fairly decent expansion to the series. However, as much as Blizzard sugarcoat it, it still results in a lack of end-game content if you're not in a huge raiding guild. This alienation of the player base that prefers playing in small groups or solo is unforgivable in a game that promises so much. The new heroic mode provides a few hours of challenge which sadly doesn't last once you've seen them all at least once. Battlegrounds are, as ever, down mainly to pot luck (being in a decent server group) or the gear you have on. Level to 85, check out the areas, talents and instances, but don't expect anything much different from previous offerings or even anything particularly challenging. What was once an endless grind to the next piece of gear has stayed relatively unchanged.… Expand
Aug 30, 2013Why "modern" WoW is bad:
First of all there isn't a world anymore. In a normal world you get to know people, know their strengths, their weaknesses. It used to be that way in WoW too, back when each player didn't own 30 alts on his account, 30 on a friends account and 30 more on his grandma's. Instant lvl 80, RaF and all this crap. Also, in a normal world there aren't 50 different versions of Elwynn Forest like there are in WoW (*cough *cough server hopping). Not to mention the good old summoning stones that actually required 2 people to fly to instance for a summon (at least they still exist in raid dungeons).. If you think about it they have cut down the time required on a lot of things (from looting to getting on your mount)
Dailies. Did I say dailies? Are those quests? Those little dots that appear on the minimap? Those little dots that you just follow and just start clicking buttons mindlessly? You don't even have to do any research about the legendary quest... It just pops up in the middle of your god damn screen. DAMN, that's some hardcore gaming right there. Thank you Wowhead we won't need you again, back to farming dots for our alts.
Of course since everyone is busy playing on all of their 8 alts each day, nobody can play ANY class well. And of course nobody has the proper gear for the raid dungeon he is about to attempt.. So we make raid dungeons have no requirements. You can basically enter with uncommon gear and clear it in no time. Hooray, that was fun.
I understand that there weren't that many """"""""""gamers""""""""""" using the internet back in 2004, but ruining a good game for those casual players who think that they are paying for an enhanced version of plant vs zombies is simply unacceptable.… Expand
Feb 21, 2014Cataclysm was a positive expansion for WoW.... but not as much as TBC or WotLK. Cata brought about come game updates that really needed to happen for the future of the game... but didn't provide as much content for end-game as the previous expansions.
Dec 22, 2010Ill split this up into 2 parts. I want to first discuss how the good the game is if you just continue on your level 80 and get to 85. I would say its a pretty good experience. Hell, i think its the best they ever did in an expansion! However, even though making a new character and leveling it up in the new redone area's of the world is fun... it's the same thing through 60-85. So you're really only getting the oldest zones redone. No Northrend, no outland. If you're a WoW fan like me, i would defiantly pick this game up, even though 60-85 is the same process.… Expand
Mar 7, 2011I've played WoW since the BC days and seen the changes. The old classic world is revamped forever and quests have become linear. The storyline for this expansion is not the best compared to previous expansions. Compared to WoTLK the dungeons and raids have been made a bit harder. Probably for the outrageous numbers of players in forums complaining how easy Wraith was. Graphics are never high end because Blizzard tries to get as many people as they can get. Be it that people have a crap computer to high end users. This game is a bit shorter than usually for the start of a expansion but more content will come in the months ahead.… Expand
Mar 13, 2011The World of Warcraft has changed for the better it is more streamlined and far more easy to to follow, the game now explicitly tells you the best spots to be at your level. many see this as hand holding and an absolutely massive blow the the game's quality i find that rather absurd making a game less confusing is not making it worse and in some ways not even making it less difficult but rather simply less tedious. Another aspect of the game that i find highly improved is they way gilds have been reworked. Lets face it this is an MMO you are supposed to play it with others complaining that you can not solo parts is like complain about the lack of race race cars in a fighting game. This gives a guild actual benefits and rewards you for advancing your guild making the for a more cohesive game.
My only complaint is that Outlands and Notherrend are absolutely untouched even a slight touch up to the 2 would have been a nice change of pace.… Expand
Jul 29, 2011I ended up quitting in April, but came back to do a review because i read that WoW lost 600k subscribers. (derp) Anyways, i WAS an extreme WoW fanboy for like 6 years. I played the email beta in early 2003. I've seen every game diminish in potential. Cataclysm did it for me. No ACTUAL new content. Get to 85 asap, grind dungeons and pvp. Once you're all geared up... well that's it.. time to re-roll. I actually found myself sitting in Orgrimmar alt tabbed out doing other things, that's how bored i was. That's another thing, you get so bored because you just sit in main cities waiting for queues. Not like there's any world pvp anymore.â… Expand
Mar 26, 2012the game is getting old and you can see it in front of your eyes, it does not have the fresh feel when you play t, last 3 years were a disappointment. Blizzard is rapidly loosing money and getting overwhelmed by other MMO's like Guild Wars 2 in the future. Not worth the time playing it
Dec 9, 2010You've gotta love the morons giving it a low mark because "all they did was reskin Azeroth", acting as though that's a trivial matter and unimportant. World of Warcraft Cataclysm revolutionizes the way we think about expansion packs, and manages bring something any fan of the MMO can enjoy.
World of Warcraft is starting to age. Or, at least it was. The graphics are still beautiful, but the model-count is noticeably low compared to any modern game. The previous expansion managed to upgrade the game, creating new zones, new content, new features, and featuring better gameplay. Burning Crusade introduced the flying mount and improved PvP, whereas Wrath of the Lich King spiced of questing with linear interactive storylines and added the oh so appreciated Looking-For-Dungeon tool. Nevertheless, the core of the game, the 1-60 experience, was left in the dust. The vistas in that region were uninspiring, the quest chains lackluster. Dungeons were long and tedious, and it all felt so, out-dated. People have long been bringing up the subject of a World of Warcraft 2. Obviously, nothing lasts forever, and eventually Blizzard would have to create a sequel. Blizzard managed to solve nearly all of its problems with their most recent release: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.
Unlike the previous expansions, which were additions and upgrades, Cataclysm is the first real update. It really is WoW 2, but without the problem of a split-player base. Before I go in depth, it's important to define what Cataclysm is. Technically, the $40 you pay only gets you the Goblin/Worgen, 80-85 content and the ability to fly in the Old World. That's only because the majority of work the developers put in is already there for everyone. Adding the Shattering of Azeroth makes this the most hefty expansion in WoW's history, arguably one of the greatest undertaking of any expansion in gaming history. Nearly every single World of Warcraft zone from 1-60 has been completely rehauled. Cutscenes and recurring characters make quest chains enjoyable. Vehicle segments and creative mechanics are mixed in to prevent tedious questing. Graphics have been upgraded, especially view distance and water effects, making for breathtaking vistas. This is the first time since 2004 that I've really felt excited to level. Blizzard took everything they learned from BC/WotLK and used it to optimize the Old World. This content alone deserves great recognition.
The Goblin/Worgen are two extremely different and extremely interesting races, much more so than the Blood Elves, and especially more so than the Draenei. Goblin as wacky and funny, whereas Worgen present a completely serious storyline. Playing both offers great unique experiences.
The 80-85 zones may not contain as much content as the previous xpacs, but each one can completely hold its own. Hyjal is a lore-lover's paradise, and Vashj'ir is absolutely incredible. Deepholm is a true warzone, and Uldum, my personal favorite, contains everything that is awesome about Ancient Egypt. I have yet to reach the Twilight Highlands, but I have a hard time seeing them being a disappointment. The quests are not all perfect, and there are quite a few generic ones, but ultimately these are some of the most entertaining zones in the game. While WotLK was undoubtedly a financial success, ultimately many "hardcore" players felt disappointed. Far too much of its content was either too easy or too simple. Vanilla raiding wasn't perfect, but doing a dungeon in Wrath was just boring. The tank would run through one group at a time, AoE-tank them, and move up. In that regard Cataclysm really is seeking out those older players. The dungeons have just as much flair if not more so than the other xpacs, but they possess the feel of a Vanilla/BC dungeon. Pulling different groups of adds requires thinking beforehand, and the group must watch out for patrols. Once again crowd control becomes a near necessity, something I almost forgot about in WotLK. Best of all, I have yet to encounter a tank 'n' spank boss. Each boss has its own unique abilities, many of them being very intuitive. If this is how the 5-mans shape up, I simply cannot wait to start raiding content.
Other features in Cataclysm are the guild progression system, which I could go into much detail about, and the new professions. I'm running out of room, but both add new layers of complexity to the game and are very welcome.
Overall, Cataclysm is a huge thing. It is easily the biggest expansion considering the Shattering, and manages to take what was learned from the previous xpacs and add some of the old lost flair from vanilla. There is literally something for everyone. Blizzard clearly shows that they know their market, and the Cataclysm is easily a solid A+, 10/10. Your $40 may only get you the last bit of the Cataclysm, but you can hardly complain about getting so much for free.… Expand
Dec 17, 2010One thing I have learned about 50% of WoW gamers is they are never happy. I look back and see The Burning Crusade reviews and alot of the reviews are negative, so when Blizzard changes their approach to the next expansion you're still not happy. So what do you all tell Blizzard: "The Burning Crusade was way better go back to that", and so they did and you still f****** complain. All I can say to you is, if you hate it so much why are you still playing!!!? World of Warcraft is a great game, so either stop complaining or f*** off and play something else.… Expand
Sep 18, 2011World of Warcraft is still and probably always be one of the most beautiful online "worlds" in terms of MMORPGs. It's massive and pretty, although somewhat repetitive. At first it is easy to disregard it as a complete repacking of Vanilla, with a few extra areas thrown in for good measure. (Nothing was really changed in regards to BC or WotLK, at least not too much) The gameplay is much the same as it ever was, except now traveling does not take as long, leveling progresses much faster (sometimes this is good and bad) and the story does take an interesting twist. That being said the biggest issue is the story. Although it makes perfect sense what has happened in Azeroth, the missing elements are disappointing. What happened to the Emerald Dream? I'm still waiting for that. I want to face off with the Titans and Old Gods, I want the end to draw near in an epic battle, that I can play again, with better or more challenging mechanics, something. In essence you will be doing more of the same and there are some challenging instances, beautiful areas and awesome bind on account equipment BUT, we really need a change or I feel this game is going to die soon. Great if you love the Warcraft series but awful if you don't. Probably also not the best change for the most hardcore WoW players, since the challenge level slightly dropped. Save for some of the places in Deepholm, Hyjal and Uldum. Also what's the deal with only adding 5 levels? I know there is always epic loot but Blizzard, if we assume has at least 9 million people left, or at least did at once time, they were pulling in about 135,000,000 (135 million) per month, not including the cost of the game and expansions. Where is all the money going? That is my real problem with this expansion.… Expand
Nov 20, 2011World Of Warcraft what an awesome game. Then cata came along and slightly ruined it with its health and damage system. In wrath at lvl 80 I saw a druid tank with 55k health and I thought wow he has alot of health. In cata you get lvl 80 with your 30-40k health you lvl up to 81 and you have 50k and it keeps going up till you 85 and you have about 90- 105k health and then you get fully geared and think to yourself WTF????? I have 200k health and a feral druid just crit 100k on me? hmmm I think ill go play runescape, at least that isnt messed up this badly. WoW is good overall, But cata just came along and ruined everything. Im not going to say dont buy this as its not worth it because you kind off need it to progress in the game.… Expand
Jun 1, 2012The World of Warcraft has changed for the better it is more streamlined and far more easy to to follow, the game now explicitly tells you the best spots to be at your level. many see this as hand holding and an absolutely massive blow the the game's quality i find that rather absurd making a game less confusing is not making it worse and in some ways not even making it less difficult but rather simply less tedious. Another aspect of the game that i find highly improved is they way gilds have been reworked. Lets face it this is an MMO you are supposed to play it with others complaining that you can not solo parts is like complain about the lack of race race cars in a fighting game. This gives a guild actual benefits and rewards you for advancing your guild making the for a more cohesive game. My only complaint is that Outlands and Notherrend are absolutely untouched even a slight touch up to the 2 would have been a nice change of pace.… Expand
May 25, 2012There's the development team and the artists to be commended. They have truly put in a lot of their time into constructing this. However, there are weak points that truly disappointed me, which many people here have stated. I will be awaiting the next expansion, and truly hope, Blizzard have heard our pleas and improve the game.
Apr 19, 2011Blizz did some wonderful work redoing the 'old world' and the game is far more enjoyable to level up a new toon now than it has ever been before. For this, it get's a perfect 10. Personally an overly tough first tier of raiding has tarnished it somewhat in the sense that it's not pug friendly on normal mode. The new lockout system is not something I like either. I think patch 4.1 will improve things here massively though.
For the new races and reworked old content alone though, it's a fantastic expansion.… Expand
Dec 17, 2010Waste of money, and even worse, a waste of valuable time of my life.
Jan 14, 2011Care Bear-clysm.. I thought that this expansion was going to be Blizz finally waking up and realizing that- A : Their game is too easy and- B: PVP and PVE need to be balanced seperately. --- I leveled up to 85 in 4-5 days, (what the hell) I mean I was just doing basic quests. Sure the end-game content is supposed to be where the "true game" starts. Well, the end-game content so far isn't anything to right home about unless you like farming plain looking dungeons with super-sized, color swapped, bosses with inflated hit points/damage to give the illusion of difficulty. --- Oh and speaking of color swap, they really phoned in the armor sets this time. Not only do most classes look horrid, when you finally get to upgrade out of that ugly set "gratz color swap" same ugly set. ----- Class balance issues have seemingly always plagued this game, alright any MMO to be fair, but WoW's balancing seems to defy common sense. You get to look forward to that in this expansion too, it just gets worse because they added Mastery rating so now they have another stat to screw up. ---- Sad fact is I'm still playing WoW and probably still will be when the next expansion hits because despite what I think I'm basically just another WoW drone.… Expand
May 8, 2011I guess it's just the game showing its age but wow is far past its best. The game world is now looking increasingly redundant and the only active areas of the game are now instanced. The end game content is reasonable but nothing special and the huge revamp of the low level world seems to have taken away from interesting and exciting developments in the end game play. I would likely still give wow the thumbs up for new players, there is very little reason for long time players to like this.… Expand
Dec 22, 2011Worst expansion in wow history, Broke off my addiction and I must thank for that.
Mar 7, 2012Alright, sure it is not Vanilla anymore. There was more time spent for me on Vanilla as for gear hunting and raiding, than there is in CATACLYSM. But, i want to add, it beats every MMO i tried. And i am not necessarily a fan boy. I played Aion, Rift, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, Lineage II, Guild Wars,, I've been liking Guild Wars alot, but not for the challenge. As for Cataclysm, it is still a fun game. Sure they tend to listen to the people who does not want to work to get their gear... But whatever.. Since Vanilla i am Healing on a Holy Paladin. When they nerf us or buff us, or even change us, whatever? A real gamer is a gamer who can stand the changes... I know the Raids are easy, look i started playing again after 3 months of non play, and i still already bet Dragon's Soul on Normal and Heroic in only 2 Weeks.. I still like the game... I have my pals i am raiding with, and i am happy with the game. I would never say no to get back to Vanilla Raid difficulty, i hope Blizzard will do it one day. But it's a long game, atleast. Perfect for a Casual Gamer, which is playing Hardcore (by the fact that i do not play all day, but i raid two times a week). PVP is still good, but it always remain on which class is OP and which is not. Skill is the other half of the victories. In my opinion, this game is still good, but got a BIT downhill, not by much, but it got downhill. Fights in Raids gets repetitive since Burning Crusade. Whatever... I love playing the game still. Definately gonna keep playing, though i hope they add more stuff even, in the future. Thanks Blizzard for the efforts, i think they are not trickering us and stealing us, like companies such as Infinity Ward, trickering their COD fans. Thanks for staying True.… Expand
Jun 4, 2012This expansion is very well done in some areas, and in others kind of lacking. The major updates to the world and the addition of the Worgen and Goblins is a huge plus, but the end game and leveling content was way to small. The content was epic but so spread apart with a confusing story that I feel as if it is probably my least favorite expansion. Overall great content from Blizzard just not enough of it.… Expand
Jan 20, 2011I probably put in 3 to 5 hours of gameplay a day, and I find this to be an excellent expansion. Some folks are saying to just enjoy the changes to vanilla WoW without buying Cata. Well, that's fine if you want to miss out on all of the great endgame content. Some are saying that it's too easy, because a bunch of people hit 85 within the first 24 hours of the release of the game. Those would be the power levelers; it took me about two weeks to get my first character from 80 to 85, because the enjoyment of the game is about more than leveling. Those who said it was too easy -- they obviously hadn't played heroic dungeons or done Cata raiding when they said that. Heroic bosses now play like actual raid bosses; you've got to know the fight tactics, you can't just run and gun them like you could with WotLK heroic bosses. There's been a lot of whining in the WoW forums about how tough the new Heroics are! Gear strategy is well thought out; it's important to get exalted with all of the Cata factions in order to get your first few pieces of Epic gear, so there's a lot more incentive to do all of the expansion quests than there was in WotLK. Plus, we already know that Bliz is going to continue to add content to this expansion, as the final boss battle isn't even active yet. It's easy to give this expansion a 10 out of 10.… Expand
Mar 3, 2011Ok cool. Its another wow expansion that adds a fairly good amount of content for your money but overall it grows old very quickly. Its the same old wow. GO here, quest, get max level, enjoy the endless gear grind until next expansion. Rinse-Repeat. Save yourself the trouble.. Play wow for a few months maybe like 2-4 then once uve played through a few raids etc quit. Cus its the same concept over and over...… Expand
Sep 1, 2011A horrible expansion to a game that was already in a very bad state. Nothing positive can be really said here, its buggy, half asses, counter-creative, grindy, boring, ugly and clearly rushed expansion, with half the conent the previous expansions had. The fact it was generating hype for over an year, doesn't help at all, it makes it an even greater disapointment.
Aug 9, 2011After playing for 4 years at a cost of 675$ in total subscription costs and a couple hundred in discs and another hundred worth of pets and mounts it has been the most immersive MMORPG I have ever installed. The cataclysm expansion was long awaited by myself and millions of other players and it delivered about 25% of the satisfaction we expected in the game. Farming nodes are as if someone just decided to put a few lines of nodes in each new area and call it a day, versus pre-cata where nodes could be anywhere. Each week is met with at least 8-10 hours of complete downtime and neverending restarts as if they don't quite know exactly what they are doing. They recently also shut down all forums during these downtimes to ensure they need not read about unhappy players who spend real money for downtime. Quests which used to take time to figure out to complete are overly too simple as if the new target player base is 8 to 12 year old kids. Rest assured that once you have learned your class and become good at it, blizzard will rewrite your skills and abilities to ensure you are half as strong as you once were and after overcoming that hurdle, they weaken you even more. End content in the game requires you to somehow become affluent in raid tactics and gear to even be eligible to play the end content, typically reserved for the top 10% of the realm. Goldsellers, (hackers), frequent the servers to steal passwords and accounts then bilk these accounts clean to sell your stolen items on the auction house with no retaliation as blizzard can roll-back your account to replace stolen items. One would surmise that these hackers would be banned, yet they are not and instill the idea that they are beneficial to Blizzard akin to the term, "you scratch our back and we'll scratch yours", the idea that if a player buys gold from a goldseller, that player will be banned but will be able to buy a new cd set to continue playing with a new slate. Tactical title sales? Be warned, it's no longer as safe as it once was, just ask any player who purchased an authenticator.… Expand
Jul 8, 2012they did it again,delivered a masterpiece of **** is it possible? what kind of people buy this? by now it must be only the chinese goldsellers that play this
Jan 8, 2013This is where things started to get really bad. The inherent problem lies in the fact that this is the turning point of WoW where it became all about grinding, and less about the story or having fun.In classic wow and the expansions leading up to this abomination it was about exploring the new content, roleplaying, watching the storyline unfold, and having fun with your friends, but with THIS expansion, it was about hitting the level cap and grinding for gear. Part of the problem is that the community was starting to take a nosedive in wotlk, but atleast in wotlk the community was still atleast half decent, but in cataclysm the community hit rock bottom, and the game isn't to blame for this, just bad customer service and other people not keeping the community in line, And while there are those rare servers that kept their communities in line, such as Cenarion Circle, those were RARE, and even if you were on one of those servers, those servers felt pretty empty and were not nearly as lively as they used to be. Even with a good community though, the game still sucked, mainly because the content felt shallow and it was all about grinding, which, by the way, may be necessary to an extent, they took it TOO FAR in this expansion. WoW would never get it's groove back after this expansion was released, going on to make a **** storyline about the events leading up to killing deathwing, and another **** expansion, Mists of pandaria.… Expand
Jan 5, 2011The best expansion for what can only honestly be described as the best MMO game of the last 10 years, huge player base for all the family, worth a try and retry if you've played before, i'm off to play again now.
Mar 4, 2011Not the best of expansions. The game is focusing more on the hardcore players, and making less content for the players that dont have 20 hours+ a week. Disappointing if you ask me. The world remake was good no doubt, and the quests are funny, but end game content is too time demanding.
Mar 22, 2011This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Game is just boring they failed both new race starting zones. Game has been made for new new players leveling specially. High end game is just about being in large active guild and grinding and dailies. Utter waste of time if you're example casual player leveling 80-85. Deepholm and Vash'jir boring as hell zones Uldum is just one big cinematic. If you enjoy achi, totally unbalanced classes, item level, dailies and so called weekly caps game fits for you. Do not bother buying if you're looking for content or good time. Just same crap in different package.… Expand
Dec 2, 2012Worst expansion to date (didn't try MOP yet) but it wasn't that bad. Biggest plus for reworking 1-60 zones, 80-85 was OK and end game was just more of the same. It was just missing the feeling that TBC and WOTLK had.
Apr 17, 2013Blizzard made a huge mistake in this particular expansion. The game has been dumbed down, to the point where hardcore gamers are just a bunch of tryhard dicks. This game takes minimal effort for the original gamers, and they will find themselves done with the game completely if they are in a competent guild in no time. It also reduced the amount of individuality that the game had by decreasing the amount a person can use their talent tree, or at least the freedom to do so.
Now if you are new to WOW this expansion is quite awesome. The way a person is able to rise to the top with the best gear around by putting minimal effort and being that idiot that sits in a corner due to lag or lack of any idea as to what they are doing. Old WOW is dead, and so is the reward.… Expand
Dec 10, 2010The reviewers that write that this is just the old Azeroth re-skinned. Think again. People should actually play the game instead of hating on something. What Blizzard has done is simply amazing. They have reworked almost every zone, including the quests. In every zone there is something amusing, fantastic, or funny to experience, and this is just the stuff they have offered for free. The new dungeons are amazing to look at and offer exciting encounters that go above and beyond the normal expectations. The level experience is finally in line with the community expectations of the game. The game has always been about the end-game content (supported by the firm foundation of lore) There will always be people who irrationally complain about this game. It just means more room for the rest of us to enjoy a fantastic and wonderful experience.… Expand
Mar 10, 2011World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
Average User Score: 5.6
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Image
Even before this expansion WoW started to feel as if you were being funneled into where they wanted. With all the options of characters and things you can do I cant help but feel I'm being forced to do what Blizzard wants you to do. The free world experience is lost. Everything is too structured now, dumbed down. The rebuilding of Azeroth seemed completely pointless, new content very insignificant. To me it feels like a money grab, an opportunity to bring in more players and increase the player base but at the same time alienating smart people who know better. I was a DAOC veteran, thus have a high expectation in terms of a MMORPG. I like complex items, complex skill system, and true character customization. I feel as if Blizzard is limiting many options and streamlining everything in order to make WoW more mainstream. I enjoy things like Open world PvP. I like the ability to become a lone wolf and scour the land for an opponent like the old days of DAOC, but in wow it is very structured. It feels like the "facebook game" of MMO's now. I am severely disappointed in the direction they have taken WoW because they have in my experience worsened the experience for smart players not enhanced. WoW is now a game for kids, as an adult I feel it is embarrassing to be associated with it, and more of a liability. Plus the Wow world is getting very old very outdated, there is a reason their making a new MMO....aka "Titan"… Expand
Mar 17, 2011Putting the GRIND back in Warcraft =)
Having won over a big bunch of new players (a new market) with the success and ease of access in Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard has done a classic bait and switch. Get ready to grind your ass off if you want anything.
Please be very aware that Blizzard employees have been caught spamming Metacritic with positive reviews in order to bump up the score (which has worked nicely)
This expansion has less in it than any other expansion so far. this expansion has more "lolwut" moments in it than any other (Sphynx-Men, racist Arab midgets, a death-star pyramid, dragon rape) and its clear that blizzards primary development team are off doing something else, leaving us with the work experience guys and some retards who came in for a day trip to Blizz HQ. This game gets a score of 1 because it finally cured my World of Warcraft addiction, its just a pity that I replaced it with crystal meth =(… Expand
Apr 15, 2011This expansion drove me away from the game for good. I had all but given up playing prior to this because of the player base in WoW, but, the game was fun, and that's what kept me in it. The great thing about WoW was the sheer amount of things to do within the game. With Cataclysm, my hopes were up with all the pre-release patches and quests and I tirelessly did them. Then release.
I dug in pretty fast, but, something wasn't right. The essence and soul of the game was gone. New abilities were not so much new abilities, but revamped old abilities, and new tradeskills were abhorrently tedious. Leveling wasn't that difficult, and the underwater zone, though intriguing at first, became a task to deal with. And there in lies the whole truth of the expansion: It's just not fun! It's task upon task upon task, everything is phased, so if you were logged on 30 minutes before a friend, odds are, you're not in the same phase and can't group together.
I gave up fast, merely 3 weeks into the expansion, World Of Warcraft finally up and died in my mind. There's no need to go back, it's a cumbersome, loathsome beast of a game now, and with every expansion, prior advancement means nothing. I replaced all my epic end game gear with greens IMMEDIATELY. No doubt about it, random world drops were far better than anything I had from downing the Lich King. Just sad.
This expansion was so bad, and the playerbase is so immature, it's actually turned me off to all MMO's, not just WoW. It takes something special to accomplish this.… Expand
Apr 25, 2011Excellent rebalance and new content aren't enough to kill the ennui growing in this WoWer's heart. Perhaps someday something will rekindle the lost feeling WoW once inspired but this, today, is not it. Better luck nest time Blizz.
Nov 14, 2011Oh i remember playing this game for hours. I sat through the Ball crushingly difficult game that was Vanilla WoW and made Grand Marshal. I sat through burning crusade arena, where those who did BT were on Top and did ok. I even stomached wrath's failure. But this. This was the end all. They took everything out of the game that gave it what little challenge was left, and flushed it. Instead of people having to play for awhile to actually learn whats right and wrong, blizzard sits down and holds your hand through it. This has taken the community from the small amount of elitist douchebags, to everyone being a douchebag. Every Tom, Dick and Mary from the internet comes on here to spew fourth their trash and say that the game is still hard. Even though guilds cleared "Heroic" versions of the raids in the first week and i even made 2500 in arena in the first week of a season. I thought I could stomach it. Oh yeah. The revamped quests and zones really caught my attention at first. I was liking what I saw. Then after the first week or two, you realize its just the same zone, it truly changed little. And even though they changed the zones, they still refuse to do a graphics update for anything. It's still on the same engine from years back. But the age is starting to show. Drastically. The only thing that would keep you playing, is if you have any friends who still do. If not, you have to suffer the peanut gallery. Its truly astonishing that people can still be bad at this game at how easy Blizzard as made it.… Expand
Dec 29, 2011This game **** the franchise up... **** everything up. WoW Classis, WoW Burningcrusade and Lich King was 10 worth! But then they released this one and they changed everything from start to scratch! The game has gone simply too easy. You never hang around the mountains and look at the moon and trees anymore because they made a new TBC system, so you don't have to search for group members anymore. Any child can get to the highest level and the best gears... any person can find a group in no time and do dungeons and that stuf... but the harder the game was, the better and addicting it was! That's why WoW is **** in my meaning these days.. These 3 things **** it up: New Fast TBC system High drop/loot rate on mobs Fast leveling People don't hang around anymore and discover the parts of WoW anymore(because they find group members very fast with TBC) they don't look for people to cooperate with...… Expand
Sep 4, 2012The good old days, when WoW was a revolution are over. To be honest: Cataclysm just deserves the 3 Points, because of changing the world map - an idea that came a few years too late. And the rest of the game? Well, it's pretty unfair. The way, Mounts and stuff are patched out of the game or being reduced to a minimum, so everyone playing 10h can get something, you've been working weeks for, is just unfair. Also the balance: while some classes get nerved all the time, pretty Paladin gets more and more op stuff. The times, feeling like a hero, having some things nearly alone, are gone. It became more and more a game for 6 year old children. I won't even describe the horrible quest system or even the achievements.… Expand
Sep 28, 2012WoW was a fantastic game in the past. It was filled with adventure, discovery, and most importantly, teamwork. However, the game has been going downhill recently with the release of the new expansion, the Mists of Pandaria. It has become too simplistic, and plays like a console game. There is no sense of accomplishment and adventure anymore. Clearly, Blizzard is now targeting a different demographic - the game is now for kids. If you enjoy paying a monthly fee AND playing with (other) children, this game might be for you.… Expand
Mar 17, 2011Boring, another rehash, let's get something NEW going on...the changes were minimal and not impressive. The only thing Cataclysm brought was a click on the cancellation of my account button. I think I am done with Blizzard, though maybe I will check out Diablo 3...we'll see!
May 18, 2011I enjoyed Cataclysm significantly more than I did the previous two expansions. I feel most of the reworking was rather well-done overall.
For those that plan on playing a single MMO long-term, feel free to ignore this, as that's not how I play MMOs. For me, if I get a few good, *fun* months out of an MMO, it's a blazing success for me.
Now, Cataclysm certainly had flaws, but I'd argue most of them stem from the core gameplay that WoW offers in the first place, which while decent has become stale in a way that no amount of reworking is going to change.… Expand
Dec 22, 2010As usual, a lot of outrageous scores of 1 drag down the overall score. Somehow, the simple concept that a review should not only be a reflection of your personal preferences eludes these simple folks. But I digress.
So far, Cata has exceeded my (low) expectations by a large margin. Questing is much more focussed, mostly due to breadcrumb quests laying out a clear path on. Normal 5-man instances have been quite challenging, partially due to the overhaul of class mechanics, and partially because of mob and boss abilities. They've also been great fun, epic fail PUGs notwithstanding.
The goblin starting quests are a blast, and offer an experience way beyond any older low level content.
The new zones wring out every last drop of graphical delight offered by the ageing engine. After stepping back into WoW from other (non-MMO) games, it struck me as incredible simple looking. However, after only a couple of days play, I've come to appreciate the immense amounts of work which has evidently gone into the new content: textures, layout, general feel, etc. Just look at Deepholm, then tell me how bad this game looks. Technically, other MMO's are ahead in the engine department, but none of them offers the quality of artwork available here.
As or claims of the games being too easy: I'll put that down to kids sticking to faceroll DPS classes/builds. Try tanking/healing, then come back and tell us how easy it has become.
Furthermore: the balance of green vs. blue vs. purple gear seems a lot better, more like vanilla WoW - when epic actually meant epic.
I can't speak for endgame content yet, but from what I've seen and read so far I'm not worried as to the quality. Same goes for PvP. So my score is based on leveling and normal 5-man instances, and should be read accordingly.… Expand
Mar 29, 2011This game is the same as WotLK besides they reworked 1-60, added 81-85, added two races, and reworked talent trees. Once at 85 all you can do is raid / arena same as it has been since TBC only the raids are boring after the first 2-3 full clears. Granted I am a player that doesn't like to redo content that is boring the first time around let alone do boring heroic modes. Arenas is the thing I love to do in WoW and I play a Warrior got rank 1 S7 in 5s on shadowburn. I guess I burnt myself out back then or it is the fact that Blizzard / Activison killed small servers with rated BGs. I would have to transfer off server to find any sort of good team now a days. Too much time to invest in something I am wanting to play casual now. Overall it is the same grind as it was in WotLK with new fancy titles. If you didn't like it back then then you wont like it in the future months to come.… Expand
Apr 9, 2011I will try to keep this review strictly about the game and not about the people in it or the length of time I personally have been playing as I find that to be nothing more then a epeen issue.
Cataclysm is a effort from blizzard to breath a bit of life into a game slowly crushing from its own weight. Since the beggining of world of warcraft the game has taken blizzard by surprise and in my opinion made them greedy as seeing big dollar signs can do to many developers. A lot of mechanics have been simplified such as talent trees and the inner workings of character progression. The added mastery in many character builds is very stale but in others is very useful. You can reforge your gear which is taking half of your secondary stas and changing that to another secondary stat which isnt on the gear. Reforging is incredibly more useful then mastery however. Since Blizzard didnt know how to deal with people who had 45% or more crit chance they nerfed it by a drastic amount. They could of made it that the bosses had extra health to compensate which would in effect give players the exact same effect but they also wouldnt feel like they have been universally nerfed. The phasing system is very cool but it is also very aggravating to go to a ore to mine it and have it disappear bewcause its in a different phase. I believe they should make all resource nodes either show up on every phase or make only obtainable nodes show up for seperate phases. The new zones are a nice change of pace but all in all I feel the time it takes to get from 80-85 is very disappointing in how short it is to get to max level. Heroic dungeons feel heroic again but from what I have experienced raids seem rather easy comparitively to burning crusade or vanilla. I feel that having the end cataclysm boss being just a rehash of a boss already defeated is a huge slight to the playerbase. The precense of a blizzard store that sells non combat pets is okay except thats not all they sell. You can purchase a mount which is essentially just a reskin of a mount you most likely already have it even uses the same skeleton. The amount of daily quests is mind boggling considering blizzard has expressed numerous concerns about there being to much gold in game. All in all I would say it probably is worth it for old veteran players to come back to try it out at least. While there is faults it still is a enjoyabble experience and at the very least will save you money from buying numerous games that may only last a few hours.… Expand
Dec 23, 2011For all you Lego fans out there you can sort of get this I hope. Its like Blizzard had worked for years on building the best castle ever, making every piece perfect, and constantly adding things to make it more outstanding. Then one day they decide Legos are childish and knock the whole thing down and start from scratch without the creativity they had before. As a player since vanilla, the difficulty is non existent, the quest chains are done in 30 mins, epics are practically free. I would have rated this game higher, but they took away old content forever, preventing nostalgia from taking place in game. I understand times change, but Blizz could have pulled this off if they hadn't removed so much from the otherwise perfect masterpiece that was the World Of Warcraft. I look forward to Blizzards future games such as Diablo 3 and the others in the Starcraft series. But ill always feel bad when it comes to WoW. Mourning what could have been. Heres to a great game that was finally destroyed by over ambition and greed. I will truly miss this game more than i've missed some deceased family members. Goodbye WoW… Expand
Dec 25, 2011I have been playing this game for nearly 6 years now and still am not bored with it. There seems to be an infinite amount of gameplay including raiding (PvE), arenas(PvP), battlegrounds(PvP), professions, holiday events, achievements, guild leveling, and even mount and pet collecting. No other MMORPG, including SWTOR comes anywhere close to WoW. If you want fun, challenging, or endless gameplay, this is the game for you!… Expand
Feb 17, 2012Classic: 9 TBC: 8 Wotlk: 7 Cata: 5. I enjoyed this game in the past it was an innovative change to the gameworld. Maybe im just getting tired from this game but let me explain why it becomes less fun from a pve perspective. Right now in cata for example the dps difference is mixed as usual each patch but between top spec and lowest spec is 30% while they pulled the synergy together. In my logic if synergy is pulled together the difference in dps should be very tiny. It seems the big numbers are making their system flawed, if some class is slightly scaling different the result in the end is huge because the numbers has grown big in this game(doesn't count only for dps). You can say you raid not to gain gear but for fun, i kind of agree with that. But nevertheless gear is a part of raiding. Raiding itself is fun for a while but not for a very long while and the system of raiding hasn't changed much. I don't like how much effort you must do for your gear. Since wotlk but more strongly in cata the fun value of gear has dropped dramatically. Now you must theory craft longer (mainly for reforging) to search out which stat setup is best for you which is a lot to work on besides the enchanting, and gemming where a large amount of time (and occasionally gold) is needed each time you get a new gear piece. Its feels like a tough job to do. And gear totally lost its value, in classic epics were really epic but its going slowly to the exact opposite of that epic feeling. Example you did Blackwing Decent or Bastion of Twilight Heroic mode and you had gear from those raids, and then as a reward they give you Firelands NORMAL with better gear?!. Its like your doing heroic raids for nothing. Besides raids heroic dungeons are fun but you get a bit bored of them before the 1st patch in the expansion appears and you got to do with them the entire expansion besides only a few new ones that come out. And the mechanics in the whole game are to repetitive.… Expand
Sep 19, 2012This was the expasnion where WoW's slow decline began. Technically you coudl argue the last 'wasted' year of Wrath of the Lich King (no patches, no new content barring the abysmal Ruby Sanctum) was the beginnign of the decline, but Cataclysm cemented the decline.
Missed commitments: No path of the titans;. less dungeons than promised; the dual raid structure dropped after the first release. Revamped zones lacked flavour and were streamlined to ridiculous extremes. The expansion ends with the following behaviour: players login and never leave the capital cities; they queue to run serial dungeons (or battlegrounds) until they meet their weekly cap of valour points. There's no discussion or interaction in dungeon runs, and Blizzard has roled the latin americas into the queue so language is now an issue anyways. 20 man raiding died this expansion. With homogenized gear, guilds focus on 10 man progression. LFR kills off any casual raiding or server pugs, further destroying any social interaction. Mid point of the expansion, Blizzard started to bribe players to maintain their subscriptions by giving away free copies of Diablo 3 via their annual pass. A very poorly executed expansion -- poor lore, bad design decisions, and increasing desperation to maintain their subscription base. Peak WoW is over, a slow inevitable decline has started. WoWs market position is now the result mainly of nostalgia and player inertia versus quality of product.… Expand
Jun 12, 2012I could write 100.000 words, how Lich King, and Cata has ruined WoW. WoW is now the most easiest game, with no original, or RPG feeling. It's now a HACK AND SLASH, DO THIS QUEST with no really feeling. Everyone has epic gear, and everyone can succeed in the world. It's just too **** changed from the original. And Blizzard doesn't even support vanilla servers, which is so wrong. Well, you ruined it Blizz. You ruined Diablo III too, now you just need to ruin Starcraft II with the new exspansion coming out huh? can't wait! -.- GG… Expand
Aug 16, 2012I cannot believe how sad this game was. Every expansion it seems like they are trying to dumb it down even more so than the vanilla game was. The only things nice were the water, new graphics and new race/class options. The quests and environment changes were fun for twenty minutes then it got bland and only seemed like rehashed quests and Wrath of the Lich King buildings.
Sep 27, 2012I am officially late in writing this review, but I finally finished playing the game. I thoroughly enjoyed this expansion and the progression of the WoW story. The game is aging, though perhaps aging well. High-points were the Firelands raid, and the heroics and raids present at launch. Vashir was beautifully done, and has the least annoying underwater combat in any game I've ever played (though the gated nature of the zone almost forbade exploration and there was no reason to go back to it afterwards). Transmog (item appearance customization) arrived (at last... better 7 years late than never), but is still too restrictive... this made old content fresh again... brilliant! Low points were the dismally small amount of raid bosses released with Firelands and Dragon Soul. The progression reset with a new expansion's increased level cap is unavoidable, but the structure of valor/justice/heroics made for a mini-progression reset with every sub-patch, and really forced many people to see the gear treadmill through the curtain. Quests were also painfully linear. Talent trees were simplified with the aim of reducing options while increasing choice... unfortunately, the opposite happened, taking 10 or so "truly-optional" talent assignments down to ~3. Mists has reduced this further. Goblin and worgen starting quests were well done. The community has been becoming increasingly toxic, but cross-server raiding has the chance to make this less of an issue, as it has opened the door for sites like openraid.us where there are consequences once again for being a d-bag.
Overall, I had some of my happiest moments in videogames with this expansion. I mostly blame my guild for that, but this game let that happen, so I'm deeply appreciative.… Expand
Jan 31, 2012Join free trial for 7 days! Yay and download a game within these 7 days (tried to change firewall, tcpip options etc.)
No money or anything for you Blizzard.
And yes. This. Is. A bash review.
Dec 16, 2010The game gets a 6 for some lovely new zones, a fun reworking of Azeroth, but essentially a failure to move forward in terms of gameplay or design. In other words, it is more of the same old endless grind. If you enjoyed it before, you will enjoy it again. It's worth a trip to fly round Azeroth, enjoy a couple of the new zones; but it is not fresh and not innovative.
The new high level world content is fun while it lasts, but quickly finished. After that it's the same old sit in a city and wait for dungeons to pop, pray your gizmo drops so you can do a more difficult version of the same dungeon; grind reputation, grind honour, grind justice points by endless repetition.
I can't wait till we see a new breed of MMOs which emphasize dynamic change, and interaction in a living breathing world, rather than a treadmill of instances and limited battleground. A game which focuses upon random surprise, rather than perfecting scripted predictability. A game which finally shatters the - go to quest hub, kill 10 of these, 10 of those, 10 of the other.
Cataclysm makes strides here - some of the new quests are fun. But too many repeat the same old formula. Basically, get it, play for your month, and then delete.… Expand
Jan 7, 2011Many areas, not all, have been completely redone to get updated to stay true to Wrath's technology. Blizzard are also able to tell a story through most of the areas so it's not like: "just finish this quest so I can move on" and more like "I want to finish this quest so I can find out what's going to happen next". It's a HUGE step forward for the World of Warcraft!
Mar 20, 2011I've played WoW since vanilla, and my favourite 'era' is tBC, now I expected Cata would make a big difference, but now I feel like I'm being served the same meal over and over again; And although I love the game I must say that I have become quite bored, especially with the quests. Someone would think that at lvl 80-85 we wouldn't be supposed to gather silly things for a quest, or grind for stuff. I did like though the guilds ranks and achievs system and the fact they added qs on entrances of dungeons. After leveling my druid to 85 I felt I was bored to lvl the rest 7 lvl 80ies. I started doing some qs on my priest then gave up and started using only the dungeons system to gain xp. My overall feeling is that the game has made it's circle, graphics and gameplay need more than just a make-over for this 6-7 year old game. Really, one thing I hate most is eating the same dinner for a third night!… Expand
Aug 7, 2011A late review since i also think Cataclysm is a terrible expansion. I hope blizzard put their A team back on wow for the next xpac. Think its pretty obvious that they were working on some other game instead of Cata. The issues i have are: The graphics are terrible. Fly around Northrend or Outlands for good graphics. 80-85 content looks very primitive and bland. The soundtrack has been destroyed. Went from equal best in a video game to stupid hollywood crap. Worst of all, say you did like the story, the model has changed to tens of little of quest hubs in a zone. Over everything else, this has made questing meaningless. If you only know an npc and their story for 20 mins max, you'll forget the npc just as easily. Oh yeah, the endgame is identical to previous expansions.… Expand
Nov 10, 2011I played this from the beginning. It was amazing when it was released but cataclysm required little effort to play. Everything in the game that made it fun for me was dumbed down beyond belief and it took little effort to gear for everything so I found myself sat in SW just waiting on queues to actually do something. PvP just seems to be overlooked constantly and well has been a joke for ages now. Un-subscribed which is a shame cause I used to love this game and with their new expansion on the horizon its not getting any better.… Expand
Nov 10, 2011Game is incredibly boring, there is nothing, absolutely nothing to do! And it so easy, catered to dumb people so every mouthbreather can kill boss on heroic. That leaves you with cleared raid in 2 hours and you dont have play this game again for next 7 days. Seriously MMO game that u only need to play 2 hours to do full end game content, what is that? Ofcourse there is no doubt to blame Activision for it who destroyed Blizzard with they greed for money. R.I.P. WoW 2004-2009… Expand
Dec 11, 2011Warcraft Cataclysm is an ok game that will provide players with hours of goal-oriented entertainment. Upon starting the game, the first goal for most players will be to get to the maximum level. This is done though an array of quest that are varied from mindlessly boring to extremely exciting. The problem is that many quest themselves are repetitive and like I said, boring. The fun isn't completing the quest, but getting that much closer to the maximum level. Upon reaching that maximum level, the next logical step is clearing the highest level dungeons. Unfortunately, just how fun this is depends widely on who is clearing the dungeon with you, and what class you are playing. But clearing each dungeon has a certain level of satisfaction, being able to say you accomplished it. The next goal is to clear the same dungeons again on heroic difficulty. Yet again, the level of enjoyment depends widely on who is clearing the dungeons with you. Upon clearing heroic dungeons, raiding is next. Here is where things branch off. If you are able to dedicate the time and energy, raiding in a guild with several other players regularly can be a blast. But for most people, dedicating x amount of hours on y days can't be done. I will relate it to my playing. I spent approximately one and a half months raiding about two days a week. It was fun, but stressful. At the end of these one and a half months, we were able to beat one of the end bosses we had been working on for quite sometime. I had not been that emotionally excited over a video game in ages. But to have beaten the next end boss would have taken even more effort, and I already felt that this was the end for me. Eventually everything becomes repetitive and dull, but this was after many hours of entertaining gameplay. It took about 3 months to become bored of warcraft cataclysm. With monthly subscription cost and buying the game with its expansions cost around $120 total. I easily got over 120 hours of entertainment, way more in fact. If you have a few months where you can dedicate 1 or 2 hours a day to warcraft and you can see yourself raiding, then I would buy this game. Otherwise I wouldn't bother. You will eventually get bored of Warcraft, but it will take sometime for that to happen.… Expand
For a bit of background about me, I played WoW extensively when it first came out (cleared Naxx) then played a bit when TBC came out (mostly arena) and quit at level 78 with WotLK.
I came back to Cataclysm after seeing beta footage on Youtube and having it pique my interest. I had lost my account at that point, so I needed to start from scratch.
The game blew me away almost from the get-go. I was absolutely stunned with how much I enjoyed it, especially remembering the agony of leveling before. Almost every zone has a story, some small tale that you affect, brilliantly using the phasing mechanic to make you feel like your actions impact the zone.
The entire game felt fresh and new, many small things were added to make learning things easier. No more training defense and weapon skills, notifications when you can learn new moves from the trainer, improved interfaces, spell alerts etc. etc.
I had a perpetual blast from 1-60, but alas that's when the magic abruptly ends. Being a casual gamer, I played maybe a 2-3 hours a week, and levels 50-60 (which pre-cataclysm used to take ages to complete) now take about 1/2 hour per level un-rested.
At level 60 this joyride comes to a screeching halt, and outlands and beyond. All of a sudden after having fun, rewarding, half hour level ups it takes about 2-3 hours PER LEVEL. The quests in the outlands starting zones give LESS exp than old world level 55 quests. The quests are also much further spaced out (meaning more travel time) and overall not as fun (kill 10 of x and 20 of y). I am currently level 69, and went to Northrend. That place hasn't changed much either, and I will not be continuing my "adventures" much longer.
If I was to give out a recommendation for this game, I'd say that you should just buy the original WoW and play through leveling to 60. The expansion content is only necessary if you want to play goblins/worgen/blood elves/draenei or want to continue beyond level 60.… Collapse
Apr 24, 2011World of Warcraft: Cataclysm brings the excitement of a new expansion to much of the game and provides some exciting and engaging high-level content. If your account has lapsed, Cataclysm makes it worth the renewal cost. The expansion content raises the bar and re-establishes Blizzard as the reigning king of traditional MMORPGs.
Mar 21, 2011More of an evolution in terms of gaming experience, but it's the best World of Warcraft expansion so far. If you have never tried WoW or are thinking about returning in Azeroth – now is the time. [Feb 2011, p.66]
Mar 4, 2011Blizzard has undergone an extremely ambitious effort with the Cataclysm expansion, razing the familiar to the ground and building something that proves both new and inviting. And while certain balance issues are being fixed via patches, there's something good here for new players, veterans, hardcore and casual gamers alike.