A Whole New World (of Warcraft) #14: The Case for Wrath of the Lich King

After shipping players off to a new continent and even an entirely different planet over the last couple of years, Blizzard has gone full steam ahead with the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm expansion, which brings the world's most popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game back to its roots. And then it takes those roots, grinds them up, and serves players an entirely fresh experience in the world of Azeroth. Join GameSpy columnist and WoW-head Leif Johnson as he travels through this whole new world (of Warcraft), exploring new zones, beating new dungeons, and enjoying what may turn out to be the happy medium to unite diehards and casual gamers alike.



More Than Rose-Colored Glasses

Perhaps it had something to do with the heatwave I recently suffered through in the not-so-Windy City. Perhaps it had something to do with my realizing that Deathwing, the arch-villain of the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm expansion, had vanished into dragon rehab or something for the last few months. All I know is that on a recent impulsive trip to Dalaran, the now-deserted capital of the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King expansion, I suddenly found myself longing for the frozen wastes of Northrend. Cataclysm, even with its sweeping changes, all at once seemed insufferably boring by contrast. And I wanted to know why.

Wrath of the Lich King gets something of a bad rap these days. Accused of cramming Azeroth with legions of sloppy players thanks to its comparative accessibility, Wrath spawned slurs like "Wrath baby" that infect the chat channels whenever anyone slams Cataclysm's challenges. Never mind that Ulduar, the sprawling Titan complex at the crown of the world, was one of the most brilliantly designed raid dungeons in World of Warcraft's history. Never mind that the Vrykul, Wrath's towering race of Viking-themed warriors, are arguably one of the most awesome races in the game. Wrath, despite its successes, is remembered as the "noob's expansion."


Mind you, I had my share of problems with Wrath (which I've covered in previous columns), and I largely believe that Cataclysm has gone a long way toward remedying those issues -- particularly with regard to player-versus-environment gameplay. In fact, Gilneas, the new starting zone for the Alliance's Worgen race, is a prime candidate for my favorite zone in the entire game... and I'll always be ready to extend an unkind word for Strand of the Ancients, Wrath's instanced player-versus-player battleground that makes me cringe to this day.

But as I hovered above Dalaran, I couldn't help but feel that Cataclysm lacks both a sustained sense of wonder and a true sense of purpose that the last two expansions delivered in spades. Instead of new continents or even new worlds, we have a nostalgia buff's theme park with recycled instances and, worst of all, recycled bosses. Instead of new, awe-inspiring capitals, we have rehashed versions of cities that we've known since the game's release. Instead of an evil mastermind who plots the world's ruin by using the corpses of the very warriors who fight him, we get a dragon that throws random temper tantrums.

While Cataclysm's return to the old world has arguably made WoW's leveling process smoother and more entertaining than ever, the setting surprisingly has the undesired effect of calling attention to the game's old age. Wrath, by contrast, took place almost entirely on a separate continent with satisfyingly new models, which on its own was enough to give the impression that you were playing an improved sequel instead of a mere expansion. Regardless of how you came to Northrend, you always got the sense that you were hacking your way through a vast and threatening new continent that was ripe for exploration and conquest. And since it was all connected without the convenience of portals to each new zone, you never lost the sense that you'd remain until your dirty task was done.


This wonder, of course, wasn't limited to Wrath. When players first sauntered through the Dark Portal at the start of 2007's World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade expansion, that first sight of the riven world of Draenor stunned even the most jaded players. And, against all odds, Burning Crusade maintained that wonder. Whether you found it in the exotic mushroom forest of Zangarmarsh or in the crazy space-age weapons that littered Tempest Keep, wonder was the foundation of many of that expansion's successes. You catch glimpses of that wonder in the new endgame levels of Cataclysm -- such as the gryphon ride into the swirling Maelstrom or the shipwreck that first brings you to the underground zone of Vashj'ir -- but it never lasts long. On the whole, Cataclysm seems too familiar; its main theme is cleanup, rather than discovery.

Worst of all, WoW's direction seems to have died with the titular Lich King, despite a wealth of other lore to pick from. This is potentially devastating. For many players (myself included) who entered the World of Warcraft largely because of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos' phenomenal success, Wrath was what all of WoW had led up to. And we weren't really wrong. Many of the game's major bosses until that point -- Illidan Stormrage, Kel'Thuzad, and Kael'Thas Sunstrider -- all owed their in-game existence to the Lich King in some form or another, and players had whispered about how difficult the final battle would be since the game's first release. By the end, sadly, the Lich King's penchant for making incompetent lackeys do his dirty work made him seem more like ThunderCats' Mumm-Ra with a badass sword; the buildup to the final battle, while fun at times, somehow lacked the necessary "epicness." But when the Lich King died, the void left by his passing revealed all-too-well how central he had become to the Warcraft universe. Deathwing initially seemed set to fill this vacuum, but his continued absence over the last few months has quickly eroded his already brittle position as a worthy endgame foe.


Let's be clear -- from a mere gameplay perspective, I still believe that Wrath was an inferior expansion. But I increasingly believe that it supplied a persistent sense of awe and adventure that Cataclysm lacks -- a sense that, when combined with other factors, made the overall expansion seem much more fun. Half a year in, Cataclysm's storylines and new zones seem too willy-nilly despite the expansion's myriad improvements, and the updated old-world imagery has already grown tiring. Indeed, in a perfect world, we would have seen Cataclysm's improvements to the player-versus-environment mechanics implemented in Wrath. As it stands, Cataclysm's nostalgic endgame content currently casts a scathing glare on World of Warcraft's age... a glare that could have been at least been softened (or even hidden) with unfamiliar, sweeping territories such as we experienced in Wrath and Burning Crusade. In a seven-year-old game, reusing the old world just doesn't cut it. Thomas Wolfe was right: Even when it comes to virtual worlds, you apparently can't go home again.



Leif Johnson is a former longtime member of the early world-class raiding guild Risen on the Alleria server. He despises the recent changes to crowd control in Cataclysm. Find out what he's doing over at his blog.