Product Details
 | World of Warcraft Battle Chest |
| List Price: | $39.99 |
| Price: | $38.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details |
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Product Description
Experience the World of Warcraft! World of Warcraft is an online role-playing experience set in the award-winning Warcraft universe. Players assume the roles of Warcraft heroes as they explore, adventure, and quest across a vast world. Being "Massively Multiplayer," World of Warcraft allows thousands of players to interact within the same world. Whether adventuring together or fighting against each other in epic battles, players will form friendships, forge alliances, and compete with enemies for power and glory. And now, World of Warcraft and its Expansion Pack "World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade" are combined in one package with additional items!Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #925 in Video Games
- Brand: Blizzard Entertainment
- Model: 020626726191
- Released on: 2007-10-02
- ESRB Rating: Teen
- Platforms: Windows XP, Mac OS X, Windows
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 2.50 pounds
Features
- Includes both the World of Warcraft base sku and the Burning Crusade expansion pack
- Official Battle Chest strategy guides: one for Burning Crusade and one for World of Warcraft
- Game manuals
- WOW guest pass (14-day trial)
- Blizzard catalog included
Customer Reviews
Excellent game, but use caution, read this post.
This is a very long post, but
well worth it if you're seriously considering this game.
Pros:
First
and foremost this game is a milestone in the both the MMORPG and online
gaming industry. With over 11 million subscribers, it's the largest
online game to date, and for good reason.
The graphics, while
cartoonish, indulge you in a moving work of art with flowing waterfalls,
freezing tundras, and shadow-ridden caves. The world itself is simply
huge (though surprisingly easy to navigate), spanning across four
continents (one in outer space), and leaves the gamer with an
unparalleled sense of citizenship. Once you log into World of Warcraft,
you truly plug into a hidden universe.
The music is truly worthy
of mention. When you first launch the game, you are met with a symphony
of heart-pounding drums, violins, bassoons, or what-have-you. The
music/ambience then changes frequently throughout the game depending
upon your current location and really adds an element of class to the
experiences of stepping into a haunted mine, or riding up to the gates
of a citadel.
The gameplay ranges from simple to slightly
complicated depending upon your class selection, but always maintains
the smooth controls that are oh-so-user-friendly. You can select from 9
different classes at the start (another is available further on in the
game), each of which have their own roles to fulfill by either Healing,
Tanking (taking the hits for other less-hardy classes), or DPSing (DPS:
Damage per second, a term used to explain classes adept at dealing
damage). Also with the introduction of "dual-spec," a character is able
to switch between two customizable talent builds (determines your main
role: healing/tanking/dps, through the selection certain talents) at the
drop of a hat.
The most basic gameplay consists of leveling your
character from 1 to 80 via the completion of quests, invading of
dungeons, and slaying of monsters, all of which grant "experience," and
move you closer to the next level. If you grow wary leveling, it is
possible to "que" into a battleground from anywhere in the world. There
are four different types of battle: capture the flag, protect the
resources, defend/attack the keep, and control the territory. You
compete against real players controlling real characters on different
computers, which is typically referred to as "PVP," or player versus
player.
Once you have reached the maximum level, the fun has just
begun. You will continue advancing your character by upgrading his or
her equipment (or "gear"). Raids, dungeons and "heroics" offer thousands
of powerful monsters that, when killed, give weapons and armor that
strengthen your character. Dungeons and heroics are typically conquered
by five players effectively working together to defeat the obstacles and
creatures within. Raids follow a different suit, requiring 10 to 25
skilled players able to communicate and coordinate themselves in order
to (hopefully) kill the most difficult monsters in the game.
Another
option to the post-leveling stage (or "end game content") is
coordinated PVP. Beside the four available battlegrounds, the game
contains four "arena" maps offering extremely competitive play in the
form of 2v2, 3v3, or 5v5. If you are successful, the rewards are some of
the most powerful upgrades in the game.
Guilds, world events,
seasonal events, mounts, professions, mini-games, parties,
transportation and real-time economies are just a few more of the many
other unnamed aspects to this game. Some things are simply best if
discovered.
Cons:
In recent times, the game has found
difficulties in PVP in terms of equality. Some classes seem to always be
more powerful than others, however, the developers of the game promise
that they're addressing this situation.
It is fairly expensive if
thought of as simply a video game. The game runs at (I believe) $15 a
month, or $12.99 if you pay for 6 months at once. By the time you've
purchased the original game and the two expansion packs, you're out
$100+, which doesn't include subscription fees. The cheapest route to
take is to purchase the Battle-chest (the first two games), the second
expansion pack (soon to be added to the Battle-chest) and a large chunk
of game time.
A key thing to consider in terms of price is that
you're buying much more than a game. You're paying for the new content
which is released almost every two months, the server maintenance, and
in-game customer support. Also, keep in mind, that this game will
(probably) entertain you for much longer than a TV or DVD or Console
game. Sure, an XBox game is only $59.99, very cheap compared to World of
Warcraft, but within a few weeks/months the XBox game will become dull,
whereas this game will have already released new content to be
conquered.
*This is why I only gave it 4 stars*
The game is
addicting. Extremely. Dangerously. No, seriously, if you have any
history of alcohol/drug/gambling abuse, you should reconsider, or at
least be informed prior to purchasing.
I offer to you this
solution: first, download the 10 day free trial. Next, keep a log of the
amount of time you spend on the game during these 10 days. It's
expected that you will 1-3 hours a day initially, but will quickly fall
into the 4+ hours as your trial nears its end. After the 10 day trial,
take a look at how much time you've spent on this game. Some might find
themselves in "good shape," with only a couple hours of play time. Most
will find that they've spent an upwards of 30 hours (or much more) on
the game in only 10 days.
Determine for yourself if you truly
have that much free time to spend on a video game. If you do, wonderful,
then this is the game for you, and I hope you enjoy your experience. If
you believe this is too much time to spend on a game, don't fret!
Within the account creation process, you will be able to set up
"parental controls" for the availability of play. It is in this device
that you can limit your playtime to a healthy and sustainable amount.
I
hope this was helpful.
Useful
especially for adding a new account for a family member.
I bought this for my son,
since I had only bought him WoW without the expansion.
With the
assumption that you've decided you want to play WoW, all the way through
to lvl 70, this is the pack for you. You get WoW and expansion, which
would cost 50 bucks if bought separately. You also get two strategy
guides, but the strategy guide for the expansion (see my review for it
here World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Official Strategy Guide
(World of Warcraft)) is terribly lacking, so we're really looking at one
valuable guide, one crappy guide. What you also get, and not even the
box mentions this, is the game on DVD! Oh, how many times I've installed
and reinstalled the original WoW on multiple computers at home and at
my friends place, swapping disks. Well, no more! Unless you were lucky
and bought the original Collector's edition World of Warcraft
Collector's Edition and World Of Warcraft Burning Crusade Collector's
Edition, you're stuck with 4 CDs each instead of 1 DVD.
Overall, I
would buy (in fact, I did).
Update December 2009:
I've bought
my 4th copy of this battlechest (yeah, I try to enlist friends and
families to play WoW, so call me the Wow drug dealer....), which arrived
the week before Thanksgiving 2009. Instead of 2 DVDs (one for WoW and
one for The Burning Crusade), you now get everything in one DVD, with
the two activation codes both printed on separate labels on the DVD
cardboard sleeve. Not very different, but it's nice that they at least
save a bit of plastic by packing it all in one disc. Still comes with
one month of play included, contrary to what the one comment on my
review claimed.
And until they release a new battlechest that
will include Wrath of the Lich King (which I doubt Blizzard will do
until right after they release their next expansion [to be titled
Cataclysm {which I preordered my max of 3 from Amazon already!}]) this
battle chest is still the deal to buy. Also, in my opinion, including
the Burning crusade makes sense, since it does include 2 new player
races as well as their corresponding zones in Azeroth, which can be
played from the beginning, whereas pretty much all of Wrath of the Lich
King isn't available until you're at least lvl 55, and then Blizzard
sinks in the extra hook. Would have been nice if there was a battlechst
that included all 3, since that would have potentially saved me money,
but oh, well....
Still greatly recommended for the person wanting
to start playing WoW.
Suprisingly
addictive
I got this after doing a free
10 day trial from Blizzard. After about 3-4 days of the trial I was
pretty hooked and decided it was worth the money to get the full version
of the game. (Very limited differences in the trial version so it's
definitely worth testing out before you buy the full version.)
I'm
not usually into long play games like this, but after seeing a bunch of
different things about the game (including a very funny South Park
episode) I decided to check into it a bit further.
I will say the
game is much more fun if you can play with people you know, but you
don't have to. I've found almost every person I've met in the game to be
very helpful and understanding to new players so it makes it easy to
get into the game and get what you want out of it.
I'd encourage
people to definitely do the trial software and see how you like it, but
I'm confident most people that play video games will find some portion
of this entertaining.
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