Blizzard’s first expansion to its ridiculously popular MMORPG offers just what you’d expect: more of the same. But, why complain about a good thing? WoW has over 8 million subscribers; clearly they must be doing something right. If you cannot get your head round that figure just contemplate the fact that around USD 100 million enter Blizzard’s bank account on a monthly basis.
Though it’s been a long two years in the making (with many a subscriber flailing around for a purpose in the endgame), WoW fans will find that Burning Crusade is well worth the wait. With a slew of new content, new areas, new races, and overhauls to old game mechanics, the expansion plays like an entirely new game—one that you’re already good at, assuming you’re level 60 when you start off.
Technically speaking, there’s not much new going on with this expansion. Blizzard has stuck to its old graphics engine to pare down loading times and maximize subscribers in areas without high speed internet. Because of the massive subscriber base, there are always going to be server crashes, weekly server maintenance, and queues—so don’t expect a revolution in the MMO experience from Burning Crusade. We all get stuck staring at loading screens sometimes. Supposedly, Burning Crusade will work on a 56k connection, but Blizzard specifically required a broadband connection for the expansion. Technical support will still be offered to dial-up subscribers, but not for issues regarding patches. Standard DirectX sound cards, 32MB 3D graphics processor, and at least 512MB of RAM are also required, though 1GB is preferred.
That said, the appeal of Burning Crusade to hardcore and casual gamer alike is the new design-related content. Blizzard has gone all out on art direction (to make up for the lack of a graphics engine overhaul), and taken extra care to introduce new gameplay features with respect to the balance of the MMO environment. The in-game story—and we’d be remiss to ignore how much effort Blizzard put into coming up with it—goes like this: Seven years after the defeat of the Burning Legion at Mount Hyjal, forces of the Horde and Alliance have stumbled upon the Dark Portal that leads to the Outland. Beyond the terrible gate lies a land of new adventures, new friends and foes, and the remnants of the Burning Legion eager to renew their crusade (Get it? “Burning Crusade”). Meanwhile, the Draenai crash land their spaceship on Azeroth and take up with the Alliance while the Blood Elves got sick of being High Elves, renamed themselves and joined up with the Horde. This may not be the plot twist of the century, but it does lend itself to the task of explaining Burning Crusade’s place in WoW’s mythos.
