World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

I actually meant to write a review about the original game but I just never got around to it, but anyway I have been playing for almost 2 years now and have 1 level 70 mage, a level 61 warlock and a level 60 paladin. With this new expansion came a new area (The Outlands), two new races, a new profession, new dungeons and hundreds of new quests.

Game Requirements

This is a very graphically intense game as most people know so there are some requirements that you need to check on before installing the game (the original has a few less requirements so you will want to make sure your computer can also handle the expansion which is what I will focus on for the review - might still write one for the game itself also but not sure yet).

Windows System 2000/XP OS:
Intel Pentium III 800 MHz or AMD Athlon 800 MHz
512 MB or more of RAM
32 MB 3D graphics card with Hardware Transform and Lighting, such as NVIDIA 65533; GeForce 153 2 class card or above
DirectX 9.0c (included) and latest video drivers
6.0 GB available HD space
4x CD-ROM drive
A 56k or better Internet connection

Mac OS X 10.3.9:
933 MHz or higher G4, or G5, or Intel processor
512 MB RAM or higher; DDR RAM recommended
ATI or NVIDIA video hardware with 32 MB VRAM or more
6.0 GB available HD space
4x CD-Rom drive
56k or better Internet connection

These are the minimum requirements that Blizzard feels that you should have, seriously think of these as minimum and make sure your computer system has higher than all of these so that you can actually enjoy the game instead of being frustrated that its slow for you.

What's Changed

OK, that's a generic question since there are so many changes in the expansion and new areas so we'll do this in parts so that we can explain a little bit more.

Level 70

Instead of only being able to level to 60 you can now level to 70. The bad part of this is that to go from level 69 - 70 you will be doing about 500,000 experience but it goes pretty fast because the kills give at least 1,000 experience and the quests can give between 10,000 and 15,000. So it sounds a lot harder than it is. A few people were able to level in less than 50 hours of game time but for the average person it will take about 150 hours of game time, which is equal to leveling from 1 - 60.

New Quests

Yes, there tons of new quests throughout the Outlands to help you level. They are all similar to what you know before the expansion and offer some fun challenges. The great thing about quests now is that if you should be in a group they actually show recommendations for a group and how many people they think would work with the quest. Usually these are pretty accurate.

New Races

There are two new races as well, on Alliance you have the Draenei and on Horde you have the Blood Elves. This means some exciting things. You can now have Paladins on the Horde side and Shaman for the Alliance with these new races. A lot of people did create these and some have leveled to 60 and 70 now so they can raid with their guilds or even new guilds.

Jewelcrafting

Yes, this is the new profession. Basically Jewelcrafters are great for creating gems for sockets (these are in higher level items and can add additional stats to armor). You can only learn this in the new Burning Crusade areas though which makes it a little hard to learn while leveling.

I actually am one of the people who created a Shaman and I like to keep my hearthstone (this is an item that allows you to return to your home in - you can change this to wherever you are questing which makes going back to town to sell items, repair, restock and turn in quests easier) to the town I'm questing in so every time I want to learn new recipes I have to take a very long trip to The Exodar - the starting area for the Draenei (I'm guessing that for Horde they would have to go to Silvermoon). So this can be frustrating but I am leveling Jewelcrafting to the max each time and then heading there to train to make it a little easier.

New Areas

There are 3 new areas; the starting areas for the Draenei and Blood Elves but these areas are basically the same as any other starting areas although nice to explore to just see the new graphics.

However, it's the Outlands that is the most exciting. This is where you level from 60 - 70. There are 6 different zones with the Outlands to level in:

Hellfire Peninsula (60-62)
Terokkar Forest (62-64)
Zangamarsh (62-64)
Nagrand (64-66)
Blade's Edge Mountains (66-68)
Shadowmoon Valley (68-70)

Those are all rough estimates but those are about the levels I spent in each of them. Of course you might spend more time in one area than another depending on your class and what appeals to you. I loved Terokkar Forest and did a lot more quests there than I did in Zangamarsh.

So this all deals with preference and there are a lot of guides around that could give you more information about the areas.

Faction

Faction existed before The Burning Crusade came out but now it's more important than ever. To get into the Heroic Dungeons everyone in the party must have the key, which you can only get from being revered with the area that the dungeon is in (for example to do Heroic Hellfire Citadel you have to be revered with Honor Hold and then pay 10 gold for the key). Also to get higher recipes for your profession you will need to be honored, revered and in some cases even exalted.

There is also a twist for faction (ok its not new because you did have to decide between two factions before The Burning Crusade in Desolace however that was not intricate to your game). You know have to decide to team up with the Scryer or the aldor once you get to Shattrath City. You have to be careful which to pick because the rewards are very specific to your class and profession, here is the best source I found on a comparison between the two:

http://www.wowwiki.com/Comparison_of_Aldor_and_Scryer_rewards

Flying Mounts

Yes, now you will have your own flying mount. You can't get one until 70 but don't worry you will need that time to save the gold for them. The normal flying mount is 100 gold and the training is 800 gold, for the epic, you will be paying 5000 for the training and 200 gold for the mount itself.

The regular mount is the same speed as the level 40 riding mounts and the epic-flying mount is the same speed as your epic riding mounts.

Right now there is very little you are required to have an epic mount for (to get to Tempest Keep) and so far I have found no need for an epic mount unless you just want the speed increase.

I have tried and you do need to have all previous training before getting the first flying training because its not listed as a skill so you need to level that like you would a profession.

Instances and Dungeons

There are tons more dungeons for you and your friends to explore now, including Hellfire Citadel, Old Hillsbrad Foothills, Shattered Halls and Karazhan). I have only been to a few of these and although my guild is doing Karazhan I have not been invited since I have not finished my key yet (yes another where you have to do several instances to get your key - probably the most intricate since Onyxia).

The biggest change in Instances is that they are no longer 40 man like Molten Core, Onyxia, Blackwing Lair, Anh’Qiraj (which had a 20 man and a 40 man side) and Naxx were before the Burning Crusade but now are 25 man and 10 man.

The Burning Crusade Instances are:

Karazhan (10 man) - the one everyone seems obsessed with right now
Zul’Aman (25 man) – not open yet
Caverns of Time - the first 2 are 5 man and must be completed and have friendly faction before the 25 man can be done
Hellfire Citadel – 3 can be done 5 man but Magtheridon’s Lair is a 25 man raid
Coilfang Reservoir – contains 3 5 mains and a 25 man raid as well called Serpentshrine Cavern
Auchindoun – contains 4 5 main runs (no 25 man)
Tempest Keep – contains 3 5 mans and a 25 man raid (The Eye) – also you must have an epic mount to get to these instances as the meeting stone in the city below them and you cannot be summoned by a warlock to the entrances.
Gruul’s Lair (25 man)
Black Temple (25 man) – not open yet

Most level 70 dungeons can also be done in heroic mode (all members of the party have to be level 70 and have the heroic key) where the loot is much better. I am still working on getting revered to get my keys but will add more once I have my keys. There are 5 instances that can be done in heroic mode, they are:

Hellfire Citadel – requires revered with Honor Hold (for Alliance) or Thrallmar (for Horde)
Auchindoun – requires revered with the Lower City
Coilfang Reservoir – requires revered with Cenarion Expedition
Tempest Keep – requires revered with The Sha’tar
Caverns of Time – requires revered with The Keepers of Time

Help Needed

Don't worry if you're new to games like this, we all were at one point in time, however sometimes people forget this and can be rude to new people asking questions (ignore them) but don't be afraid to look for help online. Blizzard has an FAQ for Warcraft, which includes a lot about Burning Crusade located at http://www.wowwiki.com/Comparison_of_Aldor_and_Scryer_rewards. You can also always try user forums which are a wonderful place to learn more about the game such as at http://www.wowforums.us/or if don't want a community environment you can also use sites like http://www.wowwiki.com/and http://www.thottbot.com/. There are a lot more that could be added so if you don't like those just check on google or yahoo and you'll find more than you can probably imagine. So never worry about being lost there are plenty of resources out there to help you get started or continue playing no matter what your experience level.

Conclusion

This is a great addition to an already addicting game. There are a lot of new aspects to the game, which add to the gaming experience. I do recommend buying this if you haven't yet.