I now have a few play sessions in the Wrath beta under my belt, so I thought I’d give some impressions. Keep in mind these are very early impressions, and I’ve only seen the two starting areas in Northrend.  I should also note that I am about as biased as you can be.  I love World of Warcraft, and my guess is that if you’re reading this you do as well.  I’ve played it for four years now, and I see no end in sight.

Wrath, as I’ve seen it, looks like it will keep me playing.

The very first thing I noticed upon logging in was the changes in the graphics.  No, there isn’t any big graphics overhaul, but it does look like they did some tweaking and optimization to the graphics engine.  Everything looks a little crisper, a little cleaner, and the contrasts are better.  It looks to me like WoW is getting a fresh coat of pain in Wrath.

The graphics in WoW have never been about pushing a billion polygons, but they have always focused on one thing:  art direction.  Blizzard is not letting me down in regards to the art direction based on what I’ve seen so far.  In my opinion, though the graphics are cartoony, WoW has always been one of the most immersive games of its type.  The reason for that is rock solid art direction, and a certain cohesiveness to the game world that other titles have lacked.  WoW always felt like a world  to me, and not just a game. 

As far as the starting zones in Northrend, I was a bit underwhelmed with the Borean Tundra when I first landed.  I suppose that part of the issue is that it is the Borean Tundra which doesn’t exactly make for a dynamic, beautiful zone.  Much like the Barrens, there is only so much you can do to make a Tundra interesting. 

The Howling Fjord, on the other hand, is absolutely beautiful.  Right from the boat ride in and the first reveal of the zone, I was blown away.  Here is a pic of the Fjord as it opens up before you.

Awesome, huh?  I love the waterfalls, and in the background you can see Utgarde Keep, the big stone structure with the skulls.  Very, very nice.  I was excited immediately.  There is also a very cool suspended burning ship that you float under before getting to the above shot.  I didn’t get a good shot of it on the boat, but I did manage to get a good view later.  Here it is, from a flying machine taxi I was on.

Just great stuff from Blizzard, though I can’t say I’m surprised.  Here are a couple more scenic pics for your enjoyment.  The first is a closer view of Utgarde, and the second is an excavation site you get to a bit later.

So, everything looks good, how about the actual content?  Well, I’m fairly happy on that account as well.  I’ve only done a whole bunch of the starter quests in the Fjord so far, but I have a pretty fair idea of the direction.  In honesty, it’s mostly more of the same.  Kill X of these guys, collect X of this.  There are some definite improvements, however. 

For one, I seemed to run into extra quest givers all over the place.  I’d be off finishing up one quest to find another nearby that was related.  I will say there have also been a few quests that are trying to shake up the formula at least a little.  One quest has you fighting one big guy after another in a gladiator-like setting.  Another quest had me saving prisoners, but the minor twist here was the prisoners actually stuck around to fight a little.  Not in an escort quest way, but just because they felt like turning on their former captors a bit for some payback.

Another nifty little quest had me retrieving an artifact from within a crypt teeming with undead.  We’re talking a LOT of undead.

If you notice in that shot I have a gold colored shield around me.  That was a buff put on me by the NPC that gave the quest, and it literally roasted any undead I came in contact with.  I was like a pinball of death, it was fun. 

The last thing I’ll touch on right now is the Achievement system.  I love this system.  Really.  This thing is right up my alley.  I played Lord of the Rings for all of the first free month, and the one thing that I REALLY liked about that game was their achievement system.  Sure, they are ultimately kind of pointless, but it gives me another little thing to do in my short play stints.  I started out with a handful completed dealing with Classic WoW and BC stuff.  I also quickly picked up a couple for training GrandMaster in a few tradeskills. 

Then I saw the "Friend or Fowl" achievement, and I had to have it.

At that point, a turkey killing rampage ensued. The funny thing is I spec’d Moonkin since it worked well with my resto gear. (I think I’m going to like the stat consolidation they are doing, by the way. Bye bye "healing" gear.) Turkey on Turkey violence, when will it end?

The above shot is me shortly after successfully killing 15 turkeys in 3 minutes.  Once you do that, you get a turkey hit called on you, and turkeys materialize from everywhere to take you down.  It’s a lot like the little Easter Egg in The Legend of Zelda:  A Link to the Past.  They didn’t post a real threat, as my Starfall spell made quick work of them.

So that should get us up and running on beta info.  There are about 2.5 trillion things I could talk about right now, but I’ll try to pace myself.  I’m presently collecting shots of the early quest rewards, and I’ll try to do a post real soon on them.  The devs have said that it isn’t a huge "gear reset" like in BC, and that does indeed look true.  Still, there are some interesting things about the rewards we’ll get to later. 

Be sure to let me know if there’s anything else in particular you’d like me to cover about the beta.

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