Surprisingly, after 10 years, it still beats everything else

Dec 26, 2014 16:31 GMT  ·  By

Next up in our Softpedia Game of the Year 2014 awards is the winner of the best massively multiplayer online game, World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor, made by Blizzard Entertainment.

While not technically a new game release, as Warlords of Draenor is merely an expansion, bringing something that is still exciting to the aging lord of massively multiplayer online role-playing games is quite a feat.

The expansion adds a ton of new content and makes some pretty important changes, among which the biggest are the introduction of the Garrison and the fact that the game is actually fun to play.

That might seem like something you would expect from a video game, but keep in mind that World of Warcraft has been around for quite a long time.

Frankly, I did not expect to have fun with the game while playing solo, as I was never a fan of leveling and always considered the game's actual content to start once you reached the level cap. But I did, which was great.

You can see how the company tried to please its existing customers and keep them hooked, how it really tried to create something great that would bring people back to Azeroth. Nostalgia adds quite a bit of inertia to MMOs, and Blizzard capitalized on it by having everything take place in a very familiar place, following some pretty high-profile individuals.

Going back in time to where the series all began, Grommash Hellscream and his clan no longer drink the blood of the demon Mannoroth, and instead vow to become conquerors on their own. This of course comes right after the events of The Siege of Orgrimmar, Mists of Pandaria's last raid, following the escape of Hellscream and his mysterious return to the past.

A lot of famous characters take center stage and the quests blend the regular mix of fetching and killing with more exciting parts, also having an overarching narrative and cutscenes, making you genuinely interested in what's going on lore-wise, and not just hurry to hit the level cap and start raiding.

The contenders

World of Warcraft's latest expansion had some pretty stiff competition this year, mainly in the form of Carbine's Wildstar and ZeniMax Online Studios' The Elder Scrolls Online.

The Elder Scrolls Online never managed to capture my attention. Combat felt a little wonky, the skills felt somewhat disappointing, and dungeons seemed to lack focus, like everyone was doing their own thing instead of cooperating for a common goal that cannot be achieved by your lonesome.

It just felt like riding for five minutes in order to reach a battle, die instantly, and have to ride for another five minutes was a tad anticlimactic when comparing it to World of Warcraft's battlegrounds.

Somehow, I felt that I liked Skyrim better than The Elder Scrolls Online, and found that I would rather play that one instead. In any case, Zenimax is still working on it, so perhaps I'll give it another try later on.

Of the two heavy hitters competing for World of Warcraft's crown, I liked Wildstar best, due mainly to the fact that it's a brand new IP that just has so much stuff to do. It's zany and crazy and the telegraphed combat system is great, but starting over fresh is ultimately too big an investment.

If you're looking for a new MMO to call home and have sworn off World of Warcraft for good, Wildstar might just be your best bet. It's both similar enough to World of Warcraft to have a familiar vibe and different enough to feel like something completely new, and there's a bunch of stuff to do that you can't do in WoW.

Unfortunately, it's still grindy and lackluster at times, its storytelling is a little shallow, and if you're not into raiding, there's not that much waiting for you once you reach the level cap.

The instance design follows the old-school WoW paradigm, which means that you can't simply breeze through them if you're a more casual player. If you are part of the hardcore demographic, good for you, you're going to have a blast during scheduled nights. If not, bummer.

The problem with the two new games is that they're nothing special. They're good, but not good enough to beat the king, at least not yet. World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor won mostly because it's a solid expansion and there's still loads to do in the game, whatever kind of player you are, and a lot of things to fall back on, whether you're into hardcore raiding or a cupcake raking in achievements.

If you're interested in finding out more, read our review of World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor.

World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor screenshots (9 Images)

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