World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

 PC
User Score
5.8

Mixed or average reviews- based on 1290 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 477 out of 1290
  2. Mixed: 426 out of 1290
  3. Negative: 387 out of 1290
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  1. Bolter
    Nov 10, 2011
    1
    I played this from the beginning. It was amazing when it was released but cataclysm required little effort to play. Everything in the game that made it fun for me was dumbed down beyond belief and it took little effort to gear for everything so I found myself sat in SW just waiting on queues to actually do something. PvP just seems to be overlooked constantly and well has been a joke forI played this from the beginning. It was amazing when it was released but cataclysm required little effort to play. Everything in the game that made it fun for me was dumbed down beyond belief and it took little effort to gear for everything so I found myself sat in SW just waiting on queues to actually do something. PvP just seems to be overlooked constantly and well has been a joke for ages now. Un-subscribed which is a shame cause I used to love this game and with their new expansion on the horizon its not getting any better.… Expand
  2. Mongoose1987
    Nov 10, 2011
    0
    Game is incredibly boring, there is nothing, absolutely nothing to do! And it so easy, catered to dumb people so every mouthbreather can kill boss on heroic. That leaves you with cleared raid in 2 hours and you dont have play this game again for next 7 days. Seriously MMO game that u only need to play 2 hours to do full end game content, what is that? Ofcourse there is no doubt to blameGame is incredibly boring, there is nothing, absolutely nothing to do! And it so easy, catered to dumb people so every mouthbreather can kill boss on heroic. That leaves you with cleared raid in 2 hours and you dont have play this game again for next 7 days. Seriously MMO game that u only need to play 2 hours to do full end game content, what is that? Ofcourse there is no doubt to blame Activision for it who destroyed Blizzard with they greed for money. R.I.P. WoW 2004-2009… Expand
  3. Flash_Over
    Nov 9, 2011
    2
    I'm writing this review late after this games release. But, since I played it it deserves an opinion. First off the Original WoW was amazing, truly a work of art game. Burning Crusade was even better and another great success, but then comes Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm... With the games increasing popularity lead to a decline in the player community being filled with Trolls,I'm writing this review late after this games release. But, since I played it it deserves an opinion. First off the Original WoW was amazing, truly a work of art game. Burning Crusade was even better and another great success, but then comes Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm... With the games increasing popularity lead to a decline in the player community being filled with Trolls, greifers and elitist jerks. Also Wrath and Cata are poor in comparison to the previous versions. What makes Cata worst of all is Blizzard tried to squeeze more juice out of old lemons. By that I mean they took the old version and recolored it, including OLD dungeons forcing you to replay what you already had before for loot. Plus, doing Heroics where the wait time is 30minutes+ is unbelievable.... what am I suppose to do for 30 minutes? pick my toes and if I afk while i wait it drops you from the Que! This is ridiculous and is a LAZY excuse on Blizzards part. Further more Blizzard haste to be the most money hungry developer out there currently pioneering the way for $60 games with Star Craft II. I will never buy anything from Blizzard again. I also will add I cancelled my account 8 months ago after years of playing.… Expand
  4. Pomornik
    Nov 3, 2011
    6
    Half-assed and overhyped expansion. Many of the features got scrapped, most of the content is just repainted old one, and it has worst end-game out of all of the expansions. WoW needs something new, not more of the same old crap we all saw hundreds of times already.
  5. Necrotaur
    Oct 8, 2011
    7
    Despite it being a decent expansion, Cataclysm ultimately caused me to cancel my account by revealing the man behind the curtain. The remake of the old world was pretty cool, but zones have now become incredibly linear, like one big quest chain, and you tend to outlevel them before you complete them. Then you power through Outland and Northrend, which are both in a sort of lore limbo.Despite it being a decent expansion, Cataclysm ultimately caused me to cancel my account by revealing the man behind the curtain. The remake of the old world was pretty cool, but zones have now become incredibly linear, like one big quest chain, and you tend to outlevel them before you complete them. Then you power through Outland and Northrend, which are both in a sort of lore limbo. Afterward you enter the new zones, which again are pretty cool, but it quickly becomes a treadmill where you endlessly grind rep/points/dungeons. There was and still is, not much new content.… Expand
  6. Duderoth
    Sep 26, 2011
    6
    WoW: Cataclysm is hard to rate, and really it should be divided into two separate games. One is the new 1-60 content, and the other is the end-game. I would give 1-60 an 8 and the endgame a 4 so they average to 6. Now obviously, if we make comparisons, since all reviews are a form of comparison, the closest thing we can compare Cataclysm to is Wrath of the Lich King, which I thought wasWoW: Cataclysm is hard to rate, and really it should be divided into two separate games. One is the new 1-60 content, and the other is the end-game. I would give 1-60 an 8 and the endgame a 4 so they average to 6. Now obviously, if we make comparisons, since all reviews are a form of comparison, the closest thing we can compare Cataclysm to is Wrath of the Lich King, which I thought was a tremendous expansion and I gave an 8. I know WotLK's content endgame was pretty easy (well, very easy), but that wasn't why I like it. WotLK's endgame dungeons had some very interesting environments, dungeons and lore. Lore. That is what is really missing with Cataclysm. You feel with endgame that you are simply going through the motions. There's nothing really unique or significant with design, architecture, or anything else. The gameplay is almost exactly the same as the previous expansion, with the exception that they put crowd control back in, and has been essentially the same throughout the series, so how do I rate the game on that aspect? It really is the world-building, the quests, and what you're hero accomplishes in his adventures against the Lich King, the Old Gods, and the Burning Legion that makes WoW entertaining, and I feel that Cataclysm ultimately failed to deliver the sense that you're character's actions have any sort of impact with endgame so far. There's just no depth to it. That said, I would spend all my time with Cata leveling from 1 to 60, because the new quest areas for new characters *were* developed with a sense of impact and interest, and some of the quests you just cannot miss (Badlands). So there's my summation. I don't know how helpful it will be if at all.… Expand
  7. JettoGaming
    Sep 18, 2011
    6
    World of Warcraft is still and probably always be one of the most beautiful online "worlds" in terms of MMORPGs. It's massive and pretty, although somewhat repetitive. At first it is easy to disregard it as a complete repacking of Vanilla, with a few extra areas thrown in for good measure. (Nothing was really changed in regards to BC or WotLK, at least not too much) The gameplay is muchWorld of Warcraft is still and probably always be one of the most beautiful online "worlds" in terms of MMORPGs. It's massive and pretty, although somewhat repetitive. At first it is easy to disregard it as a complete repacking of Vanilla, with a few extra areas thrown in for good measure. (Nothing was really changed in regards to BC or WotLK, at least not too much) The gameplay is much the same as it ever was, except now traveling does not take as long, leveling progresses much faster (sometimes this is good and bad) and the story does take an interesting twist. That being said the biggest issue is the story. Although it makes perfect sense what has happened in Azeroth, the missing elements are disappointing. What happened to the Emerald Dream? I'm still waiting for that. I want to face off with the Titans and Old Gods, I want the end to draw near in an epic battle, that I can play again, with better or more challenging mechanics, something. In essence you will be doing more of the same and there are some challenging instances, beautiful areas and awesome bind on account equipment BUT, we really need a change or I feel this game is going to die soon. Great if you love the Warcraft series but awful if you don't. Probably also not the best change for the most hardcore WoW players, since the challenge level slightly dropped. Save for some of the places in Deepholm, Hyjal and Uldum. Also what's the deal with only adding 5 levels? I know there is always epic loot but Blizzard, if we assume has at least 9 million people left, or at least did at once time, they were pulling in about 135,000,000 (135 million) per month, not including the cost of the game and expansions. Where is all the money going? That is my real problem with this expansion.… Expand
  8. Xextreem
    Sep 17, 2011
    6
    I love world of warcraft. Butt iam not die hard gaming freak i got a live to. So let me say this is the expand good or not well the f*ck up some good **** in this game but the graphics story and the fun in it don`t forget the leveling up system make this game OK not good but OK.
  9. nikkoleth
    Aug 25, 2011
    0
    This is the worst expansion to date. Plain and simple. Why do we even level anymore? What is the point. There is no challenge, it is just something you have to waste your time on before you get to the actual gameplay. You are learning nothing during the leveling stage, except how to kill 10 of this, and bring an npc 12 of that.
  10. hornm67
    Aug 24, 2011
    4
    World of warcraft was untill the release of patch 4.2 an awesome game to play, blizzard is at the moment actively RUINING the gameplay wich did already scared away 1 milion subscribers, if they want to recover this they should listen more to their players and less to their developpers.
  11. somedude
    Aug 14, 2011
    0
    I recently made a new character on a new server starting from scratch to see what it would be like and for something different. WoW is brutal to new players. It's a very long 85 levels during which PvP is absolutely broken, dungeons are boring and dumbed down, people will harass you for not having Bind on Account gear (which levels with you and is more powerful as a result) and it's aI recently made a new character on a new server starting from scratch to see what it would be like and for something different. WoW is brutal to new players. It's a very long 85 levels during which PvP is absolutely broken, dungeons are boring and dumbed down, people will harass you for not having Bind on Account gear (which levels with you and is more powerful as a result) and it's a repetitious sequence of hit this button followed by this one about a million times. There is no variety, though the places look different the sequence is the same, every time. Once you get to 85 you find yourself underpowered and so far behind it's an even longer grind just to catch up with gear to play where everyone else is. This part is much more difficult because people won't take you with them where the good gear is and won't PvP with you because you didn't start the new season on day one (so, you can never catch up in rating). The system is designed so that first come, first server and all else just miss out. The other major problem I had with this game is the support. The staff is not knowledgeable about what current issues are or how to fix them. Blizzard also openly supports racism, despite their claim to the contrary, by allowing people to name their characters with racial slurs. Their policy clearly states that they do not allow this and to report names if seen, but nothing is ever done about it and the offensive names remain. A simple search of their website reveals literally hundreds of characters named after racial slurs, either directly or thru letter substitution, IE. q for a g (also against their policy, supposedly masking words by altering spelling isn't allowed).… Expand
  12. 4lch3m1st
    Aug 9, 2011
    7
    After playing for 4 years at a cost of 675$ in total subscription costs and a couple hundred in discs and another hundred worth of pets and mounts it has been the most immersive MMORPG I have ever installed. The cataclysm expansion was long awaited by myself and millions of other players and it delivered about 25% of the satisfaction we expected in the game. Farming nodes are as if someoneAfter playing for 4 years at a cost of 675$ in total subscription costs and a couple hundred in discs and another hundred worth of pets and mounts it has been the most immersive MMORPG I have ever installed. The cataclysm expansion was long awaited by myself and millions of other players and it delivered about 25% of the satisfaction we expected in the game. Farming nodes are as if someone just decided to put a few lines of nodes in each new area and call it a day, versus pre-cata where nodes could be anywhere. Each week is met with at least 8-10 hours of complete downtime and neverending restarts as if they don't quite know exactly what they are doing. They recently also shut down all forums during these downtimes to ensure they need not read about unhappy players who spend real money for downtime. Quests which used to take time to figure out to complete are overly too simple as if the new target player base is 8 to 12 year old kids. Rest assured that once you have learned your class and become good at it, blizzard will rewrite your skills and abilities to ensure you are half as strong as you once were and after overcoming that hurdle, they weaken you even more. End content in the game requires you to somehow become affluent in raid tactics and gear to even be eligible to play the end content, typically reserved for the top 10% of the realm. Goldsellers, (hackers), frequent the servers to steal passwords and accounts then bilk these accounts clean to sell your stolen items on the auction house with no retaliation as blizzard can roll-back your account to replace stolen items. One would surmise that these hackers would be banned, yet they are not and instill the idea that they are beneficial to Blizzard akin to the term, "you scratch our back and we'll scratch yours", the idea that if a player buys gold from a goldseller, that player will be banned but will be able to buy a new cd set to continue playing with a new slate. Tactical title sales? Be warned, it's no longer as safe as it once was, just ask any player who purchased an authenticator.… Expand
  13. mas223
    Aug 7, 2011
    6
    A late review since i also think Cataclysm is a terrible expansion. I hope blizzard put their A team back on wow for the next xpac. Think its pretty obvious that they were working on some other game instead of Cata. The issues i have are: The graphics are terrible. Fly around Northrend or Outlands for good graphics. 80-85 content looks very primitive and bland. The soundtrack has beenA late review since i also think Cataclysm is a terrible expansion. I hope blizzard put their A team back on wow for the next xpac. Think its pretty obvious that they were working on some other game instead of Cata. The issues i have are: The graphics are terrible. Fly around Northrend or Outlands for good graphics. 80-85 content looks very primitive and bland. The soundtrack has been destroyed. Went from equal best in a video game to stupid hollywood crap. Worst of all, say you did like the story, the model has changed to tens of little of quest hubs in a zone. Over everything else, this has made questing meaningless. If you only know an npc and their story for 20 mins max, you'll forget the npc just as easily. Oh yeah, the endgame is identical to previous expansions.… Expand
  14. IrishChai
    Aug 7, 2011
    5
    Unfortunately this really feels like the beginning of the end for WoW. I liked the new content a lot at first, until a week passed and I was already 85. Then I decided to go back and start a couple new characters to see the new 1-60 content. A couple weeks later, I was reentering untouched old content for levels 60-80 that I didn't have any interest in replaying. The transition betweenUnfortunately this really feels like the beginning of the end for WoW. I liked the new content a lot at first, until a week passed and I was already 85. Then I decided to go back and start a couple new characters to see the new 1-60 content. A couple weeks later, I was reentering untouched old content for levels 60-80 that I didn't have any interest in replaying. The transition between Cata content and previous expansions is just awkward without any consideration or adjustment by Blizzard. There just wasn't enough content and fine-tuning with this expansion for veteran players, especially when the 1-60 game is now so ridiculously easy that it's just as easy and boring as watching someone else play it on youtube. Blizzard still manages to make some quest lines entertaining and funny, but these came few and far between this time around. The highlights were the new graphic effects, more challenging endgame instances, and the reorganization of the entire old world to make it flow better (technically this wasn't expansion content - vanilla players have access to all 1-60 content). The more prevalent cons of this expansion include the terrible transition now present for new players after level 60, everything outside of endgame dungeons/raids being pathetically easy, more graphical glitches then ever before, poorly made cutscenes, a very boring new profession (archaeology), and very little else to keep any veteran players interested beyond another month or two. I'm not sure if Blizzard is just losing their touch, or if the game is just reaching the age where no amount of quality content could help retain it's playerbase. Either way, this expansion came off as very mediocre at best.… Expand
  15. Azill
    Jul 29, 2011
    0
    I ended up quitting in April, but came back to do a review because i read that WoW lost 600k subscribers. (derp) Anyways, i WAS an extreme WoW fanboy for like 6 years. I played the email beta in early 2003. I've seen every game diminish in potential. Cataclysm did it for me. No ACTUAL new content. Get to 85 asap, grind dungeons and pvp. Once you're all geared up... well that's it.. time toI ended up quitting in April, but came back to do a review because i read that WoW lost 600k subscribers. (derp) Anyways, i WAS an extreme WoW fanboy for like 6 years. I played the email beta in early 2003. I've seen every game diminish in potential. Cataclysm did it for me. No ACTUAL new content. Get to 85 asap, grind dungeons and pvp. Once you're all geared up... well that's it.. time to re-roll. I actually found myself sitting in Orgrimmar alt tabbed out doing other things, that's how bored i was. That's another thing, you get so bored because you just sit in main cities waiting for queues. Not like there's any world pvp anymore.â… Expand
  16. Fredelas
    Jul 18, 2011
    6
    It was interesting to see how this expansion reworked the original regions of Azeroth. However, the new max level content was a bit of a let down, in terms of quantity. I expected more to do, and there just didn't feel like more.
  17. CHINESE_TIGER
    Jul 17, 2011
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I'm just gonna be straight up here. I've only played the game for 2 years, yet I'm already kinda burnt out of it. However, it emits an attractive vibe that just keeps me coming back. It's addiction, my friends. I can't even find any WoW clones attractive. It's addictive and it's even fun most of the time. Whenever I get bored on WoW, I find a way to cure my boredom, maybe even have a few laughs. That's what I loved about WoW; its semi non-linearity. Now, however, that non-linearity kinda disappeared with Cataclysm. It's quest, gold, raid, gloat. It's always been like this but I just feel like Cataclysm is where it's been most pronounced. Even in Wrath it wasn't like this. I've raided this expansion. I find it challenging and fun. However, I've been burnt out. Hell, on my 85s I haven't even done a dungeon for months because I just don't enjoy the queues, then having the group fall apart because the tank doesn't know what a taunt is. I just prefer the leveling. I've done all the old zones plenty of times before Cataclysm and the reworking of the zones was very refreshing. However, it's just starting to get old now, and I cry in pain whenever I get to Outland because it's the same thing it was for years, now. Now, I wait it out. I level to 60, do some stuff there, then level to 60 again. I actually find it quite entertaining, even though I've done it plenty of times already. I'm a slow leveler, so I guess that inadvertently prolongs the enjoyment. I really hope Blizzard doesn't disappoint next expansion. BlizzCon is getting me excited. However, in interim, I find that my playtime is slowly eroding and having its place taken by other games like Team Fortress 2. It's burning out, but there still are glimmers of hope left.… Expand
  18. HypeUsNotThem
    Jun 30, 2011
    1
    WoW is so boring this days. PvP is always unbalanced forcing players to endless cycles of grind. You must grind your level, grind your gear... Its a big waste of time and money. End game players are some kind of cheap labor to Clan Leaders now. I would not waste my money and free time with this game.
  19. Tkwz
    Jun 13, 2011
    5
    Opinion of this game (and particularly about this expansion) will greatly depend on the type of player one is. Cataclysm (and WoW in general) is a perfect MMORPG for those new players that have limited and scattered free time (aka Casuals). For them it offers well polished, rich and fairly entertaining content that lasts for quite a while, the graphics engine is fairly outdated, but stillOpinion of this game (and particularly about this expansion) will greatly depend on the type of player one is. Cataclysm (and WoW in general) is a perfect MMORPG for those new players that have limited and scattered free time (aka Casuals). For them it offers well polished, rich and fairly entertaining content that lasts for quite a while, the graphics engine is fairly outdated, but still the game looks positively alive, much more so than ANY mmorpg out there. The only problem is a complete lack of higher difficulty option, the classes have many skills but very straightforward, the quests and even dungeons are easy, not challenging even for completely new rpg players. Some will like it that way, many wonâ… Expand
  20. Brianz87
    Jun 1, 2011
    6
    Cataclysm is a very hard expansion to review. On one hand, the leveling content (Both from 1-60 and 80-85) is much more streamlined than it was before, though it is also much easier which may take down the enjoyment for more hardcore players. Casual players will likely be turned off though by the increase in time commitment required for endgame raiding from Wrath, along with much longerCataclysm is a very hard expansion to review. On one hand, the leveling content (Both from 1-60 and 80-85) is much more streamlined than it was before, though it is also much easier which may take down the enjoyment for more hardcore players. Casual players will likely be turned off though by the increase in time commitment required for endgame raiding from Wrath, along with much longer heroic dungeons. My recommendation is to look for another mmo, such as Guild Wars or Rift, or waiting for the old Republic… Expand
  21. willmaster123
    May 22, 2011
    10
    The game has been redecorated and redesigned to change the much needed to be changed old world areas. I will include the patch contents within the expansion because this is about the change in WoW, not necessarily the value of the product. The old world zones used to be difficult, not the fun type which requires simple skill, but they were difficult to get through because they were tediousThe game has been redecorated and redesigned to change the much needed to be changed old world areas. I will include the patch contents within the expansion because this is about the change in WoW, not necessarily the value of the product. The old world zones used to be difficult, not the fun type which requires simple skill, but they were difficult to get through because they were tedious and frankly boring. However with cataclysm these things change, and mostly for the better. Old zones are redesigned so the effects of the catacylsm (mainly lava zones) are shown throughout, however the biggest addition are the quests. There are cinematics, phasing, and most important simply more quests. The 1-60 content is often better than any outlands or northrend content, making it seem much more feasible to start the new character you always wanted. However, during the leveling process, they have made it so quickly that its very possible to skip through things way to fast, for instance, i finished Stonetalon mountains within perhaps 1-2 hours, and i had gone up a whole 5 levels. Its like this of course until the early 50s, where blizzard tends to slow things heavily, but it is still a welcome addition. Now for the 80-85 content, which is actually some of the best blizzard has ever produced. The quests are epic in scale and involving many important lore characters, and even though their mostly against the odd Twilight Hammer. This also brings up another issue, the lore is quite unfitting besides the story of Deathwing (who is a fantastic villain) and the twilight hammer. The twilight hammer simply dont fit because they were always a very small part of the previous versions of the game, and only now do they go onto par with the demons and undead. It also marks the departure from the warcraft 3 lore, meaning blizzard will have to crank the creativity wheel soon enough to add to the lore anymore. The two new races Goblin and Worgen, are also a slight disappointment, but not because its blizzards fault. There simply werent enough players wanting new classes, and it resulted in very little amount of the new races. However their starting zones (especially the worgen) are great, and show the races homeland get destroyed as they take sides with their new factions. Now for the last part, and arguably the most important part, the endgame. The endgame is much better than Wotlk's easiness. The heroics, especially at the beginning of the release, were extremely hard and required teamwork and crowd control not seen since the BC days. It marked a return to the old days of classical wow, and was a huge welcome addition to many hardcore players. The design of the dungeons are great as well, with bosses being very flashy and numerous, and the diversity being good between them. Not much can be say about the raids however, mainly because they simply are not very good. There are three raids in total, and they are all much harder than WotLK beginning raids, however they are not memorable much at all. Over all i rate the game an 8, because the redesign of the old world is ultimately amazing, but with not much different to bring to the picture, wow's age marks are beginning to show.… Expand
  22. Tridus
    May 20, 2011
    6
    I played Cataclysm until recently. It's pretty fun at first, but the magic is gone. The storyline at this point makes absolutely no sense and has come down in 4.1 to "for some random reason former good guy Trolls are now evil, so go kill them in these recycled dungeons." Content is pathetically slow in coming since release, and weak when it finally did arrive. There's a great sense of "whoI played Cataclysm until recently. It's pretty fun at first, but the magic is gone. The storyline at this point makes absolutely no sense and has come down in 4.1 to "for some random reason former good guy Trolls are now evil, so go kill them in these recycled dungeons." Content is pathetically slow in coming since release, and weak when it finally did arrive. There's a great sense of "who cares?" in most of what's going on. To top it off, Blizzard is now largely focused on tacking on extra charges more then they are improving the game. It's been a good run, but this is a game that's lost its way.… Expand
  23. kalisnik
    May 20, 2011
    9
    After two trash expansions here comes finaly something what brings me back to trully World of Warcraft feeling. I was playing World of Warcraft from the begining, but as I said first and second expansion was crap with noob gamplay and EPIX for everyone, now comes something what brings to World of Warcraft something from good old wow, what we knew...
  24. Stormblazer
    May 18, 2011
    8
    I enjoyed Cataclysm significantly more than I did the previous two expansions. I feel most of the reworking was rather well-done overall.
    For those that plan on playing a single MMO long-term, feel free to ignore this, as that's not how I play MMOs. For me, if I get a few good, *fun* months out of an MMO, it's a blazing success for me.
    Now, Cataclysm certainly had flaws, but I'd argue most    I enjoyed Cataclysm significantly more than I did the previous two expansions. I feel most of the reworking was rather well-done overall.
    For those that plan on playing a single MMO long-term, feel free to ignore this, as that's not how I play MMOs. For me, if I get a few good, *fun* months out of an MMO, it's a blazing success for me.
    Now, Cataclysm certainly had flaws, but I'd argue most of them stem from the core gameplay that WoW offers in the first place, which while decent has become stale in a way that no amount of reworking is going to change.    … Expand
  25. buzer
    May 17, 2011
    1
    I dont get it. IMO Wotlk was a biggest success in wow history. I mean during this expansion wow had more then ever subscriptions and people online. And what they did, instead of listening majority of gamers that actually played the game they listened to few whiners in forums. Cataclism expansion was exactly what it mean to world of warcraft. They killed everything that was fun. Few fastI dont get it. IMO Wotlk was a biggest success in wow history. I mean during this expansion wow had more then ever subscriptions and people online. And what they did, instead of listening majority of gamers that actually played the game they listened to few whiners in forums. Cataclism expansion was exactly what it mean to world of warcraft. They killed everything that was fun. Few fast heroics after work? I dont think so.. with 40mins queue time and dungeons themself taking forever. Pugging raids? not anymore. Diversity of what you can do in game? not really... btw how can you call it expansion when there's less things to do in game then before. Add to this unbalanced pvp, dead world outside major cities, less people online, forcing people to create alts, removing 10/25 as different lockouts, no fredom whatsoever in new lvling zones. Grats to blizzard for destroying game that was close to perfect. I canceled my sub month after release of this $%%^$. One point because archeology, since it was quite cool and something new. Anyway cata is dead for me.… Expand
  26. noobr
    May 8, 2011
    4
    I guess it's just the game showing its age but wow is far past its best. The game world is now looking increasingly redundant and the only active areas of the game are now instanced. The end game content is reasonable but nothing special and the huge revamp of the low level world seems to have taken away from interesting and exciting developments in the end game play. I would likelyI guess it's just the game showing its age but wow is far past its best. The game world is now looking increasingly redundant and the only active areas of the game are now instanced. The end game content is reasonable but nothing special and the huge revamp of the low level world seems to have taken away from interesting and exciting developments in the end game play. I would likely still give wow the thumbs up for new players, there is very little reason for long time players to like this.… Expand
  27. Pelara
    Apr 30, 2011
    2
    I *may* still be a WoW addict, but it seems less likely by the day. I haven't even downloaded the 4.1 patch. Why? I'm bored. Cataclysm revamped all the old world zones, redoing most of the quests! Cool, but they also made it absurdly easy to fly through them in a bare minimum of time. Why spend so much effort on giving the leveling process a facelift, only to be done with it so quickly?I *may* still be a WoW addict, but it seems less likely by the day. I haven't even downloaded the 4.1 patch. Why? I'm bored. Cataclysm revamped all the old world zones, redoing most of the quests! Cool, but they also made it absurdly easy to fly through them in a bare minimum of time. Why spend so much effort on giving the leveling process a facelift, only to be done with it so quickly? There is this persistent rush to end-game, and when you get there... there's very little left to do. Particularly if it's with the same character you've reached end-game on in previous expansions. There are achievements! Got 'em on my main, minus a fair bit of the ones requiring a raid. I really have no desire to get them again on another character, just for the sake of having them. Dungeons! Heroics! Have all the gear I can possibly use for an upgrade from them... on 6 or so toons, and their offspecs. PvP! Okay, really. I *know* Blizzard is in a constant struggle to balance PvP, but I just don't see it ever actually happening. Ever. Happens I have few-month-long moods where I really want to PvP, so I do it anyway, balanced or not. Well, since the massive battlegroup merger, and the faction changing for a fee thing, my beloved Horde *massively* outnumbers the Alliance. This leads to absurdly long queue-times for battlegrounds, and the inevitable sitting in Orgrimmar, waiting, that goes with it. Gets a bit old. Raids! Yes, I enjoy raiding, but you can only raid so many times per week. What's left? Professions? I have all of the professions maxed on various characters, except for archaeology. Which, as another reviewer quoted, involves staring at a stick with a blinking light, and *massive* amounts of travel time. /Yawn. So, we're left with leveling another character... again. Well, I've definitely got that covered--I have two accounts with max character limits on one server alone. Leaving me with absurd things like 3 priests, and 2 lvl 85 prot paladins, etc. Why? Well, not counting the fact that it's about the only thing left to do, I actually *like* leveling. Well, yay, there's new content for leveling up to 60. I've done all the new quests, on Horde and Alliance toons. It goes by too quickly, and I just end up with yet another 85 that I can't bare to delete, but probably won't play very often. As for the whole concept of "cata dungeons are hard!", they were moderately difficult initially, especially in comparison to the ones in Wrath, but, last I was playing they were easy mode again. Really, the dungeon-finder hp/healing/damage bonus is nice, but with 208k hp (with that bonus) and good avoidance and mitigation, I really didn't need CC any more. Yes, you still have to do appropriate things to compensate for various boss mechanics, for the most part, but it really had gone right back to "tank grabs a group, we all kill it, next!" from Wrath. For a little while, there was a hint of challenge. Now I don't care if you're hitting my target or not, I'm not gonna lose threat to you. That's just the tanking standpoint. With two accounts full of toons on one server, I *do* do other things, and I'm still bored. The new zones are interesting the first time through. Vashj'ir added in the element of needing to look above and below you, instead of just around you on a plain, but it loses its shiny luster of newness rather quickly. Most people find the zone pretty, but annoying. I only know of two people who don't hate it. The constant chain of cinematics in Uldum is an interesting twist the first time through, but after that, it's incredibly annoying to try to skip the cutscene, and find out you don't get the quest update, and have to go back and actually sit through the whole thing again. Also, an annoying facet of questing in the lvl 80-05 zones is that, with the ability to fly in the old world, the new zones were designed for you to fly in them. That doesn't sound problematic at first, but it massively affects mob spacing. You kill one mob, and then run just a bit too long to get to the next one, or you have to mount up, hop a short distance in the air on your flying mount, and then kill the next mob. Over all, the content is visually appealing, in the same WoW style, but the "new" parts get old pretty quickly. That's a gripe I have about the game as a whole, actually. Content gets outdated *fast*. Sure, you can do a Vanilla raid at lvl 60, because you can actually zone into the raid zone, but good luck finding other level appropriate people to do it with. Everyone wants to zoom through them on 85s. For luls, I soloed most of Kara shortly after Cata came out... on a holy priest. Sure, it's got the amusing "look what I can do" factor, but like everything else, it loses its appeal rapidly. If you don't mind using WoW as a giant chat room for weeks on end while waiting for major content patches, then you won't have a problem with Cata. It's pretty, but it's nothing truly new.… Expand
  28. syrik
    Apr 26, 2011
    0
    People have been speculating what it would take to bring the behemoth that is WoW down for years. Turns out, it's not the competition. Blizzard has done everything they could in the latest expansion, Cataclysm, to kill WoW slowly, painfully, without remorse.

    Cataclysm has a new quest design that is linear. You pick up a quest, it sends you to the next and so on until a zone is    People have been speculating what it would take to bring the behemoth that is WoW down for years. Turns out, it's not the competition. Blizzard has done everything they could in the latest expansion, Cataclysm, to kill WoW slowly, painfully, without remorse.

    Cataclysm has a new quest design that is linear. You pick up a quest, it sends you to the next and so on until a zone is complete. New quests don't show up until previous quests are complete, so there is only one way to do things. In order, every time, on every toon. Thankfully there are only 5 new zones of quests and the level cap has only been raised 5 levels so after you've seen the new quests, doing them again on you alt won't take long.

    That brings up another point, Cataclysm is short. Blizzard redid the entire 1-60 leveling process and tries to tack that onto Cataclysm. The fact is the 1-60 experience was NOT a part of Cataclysm, is not included with the new content and costs nothing extra to see. So, if you want a new toon no need to upgrade. Unfortunately the new questing is done in the same theme as the expansion, so you only need to see it once and after it's done there is never any reason to return to that area.

    In fact, once you finish any quests in an area, there is never any reason to leave a city. Thanks to linear questing and automatic queues the WORLD of WoW might as well not exist anymore. It's just a hassle to run through on your way to a raid. Not that raiding is worth doing. There are two difficulties hard and professional raider. The average PUG (Pick Up Group) can't clear more than a couple bosses. People don't form pugs even on the busiest servers anymore. Guilds that play together all the time even have trouble clearing the raid content now due to the difficulty with the number of guilds clearing heroic mode nearing 6 months after release in the tens nationwide. Yes, coming up on 6 months of working on the same raid and only a handful of groups have cleared it in the entire country. Let that sink in. Would you like to try a game for 6 months straight and still not beat it?

    The loot tables are pitifully small, the game play for all classes was redone completely and in many cases (I personally play 4 toons at max level) made worse or completely broken. New content has been very slow to arrive. The first content patch, 5 months after release, is simply a second presentation of two old raids converted to 5 man instances, one of which (Zul'Aman) wasn't even changed according to the interview with Scott Mercer. So, it's not new mechanics like they promised, it's in fact just rehashed old content just like Onyxia was. Populations on servers are in decline, the new patch 4.1 won't change that. If you haven't already bought Cataclysm save your money. It would be more aptly name Catastrophe, though I suppose the damage was cataclysmic. In the end Cataclysm is a boring, repetitive grind of daily quests and endless waits in queue's (there is a bug for battlegrounds where the queue won't work that had been in the game since Cataclysm's release), with nothing really new or fun to do. New content is slow to come and is being sold as much more than it truly is. WoW is dieing, sad but true.    … Expand
  29. TheJoxter
    Apr 25, 2011
    5
    Excellent rebalance and new content aren't enough to kill the ennui growing in this WoWer's heart. Perhaps someday something will rekindle the lost feeling WoW once inspired but this, today, is not it. Better luck nest time Blizz.
  30. Athaniel
    Apr 25, 2011
    4
    I have been a WoW player for over 5 years, and i pretty much liked every expansion they tooked out, until Cataclysm, ok great theme revamping old azeroth and all but really i mean i would love to have 24 hours a day to play this game but the truth is i really dont, and seems to be that for blizzard that is not enought they force you to play like crazy so you can be "Decently" geared iI have been a WoW player for over 5 years, and i pretty much liked every expansion they tooked out, until Cataclysm, ok great theme revamping old azeroth and all but really i mean i would love to have 24 hours a day to play this game but the truth is i really dont, and seems to be that for blizzard that is not enought they force you to play like crazy so you can be "Decently" geared i mean, i have no problems with them using the whole story of deathwing, recycling old quest dungeons and whatsoever that´s cool for me, but honestly i feel like i dont have time to be "good" on game and that frustrates the hell out of me… Expand
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Awards & Rankings

3
#3 Best PC Game of 2010
16
#16 Most Discussed PC Game of 2010
47
#47 Most Shared PC Game of 2010

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
90

Universal acclaim - based on 53 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 53 out of 53
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 53
  3. Negative: 0 out of 53
  1. Worth Playing
    Apr 24, 2011
    95
    World of Warcraft: Cataclysm brings the excitement of a new expansion to much of the game and provides some exciting and engaging high-level content. If your account has lapsed, Cataclysm makes it worth the renewal cost. The expansion content raises the bar and re-establishes Blizzard as the reigning king of traditional MMORPGs.
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  2. PC Games (Russia)
    Mar 21, 2011
    90
    More of an evolution in terms of gaming experience, but it's the best World of Warcraft expansion so far. If you have never tried WoW or are thinking about returning in Azeroth – now is the time. [Feb 2011, p.66]
  3. GameOver.gr
    Mar 4, 2011
    90
    Blizzard has undergone an extremely ambitious effort with the Cataclysm expansion, razing the familiar to the ground and building something that proves both new and inviting. And while certain balance issues are being fixed via patches, thereʼs something good here for new players, veterans, hardcore and casual gamers alike.
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