World of Warcraft Review - Is It Worth Playing In 2023?

Updated:

13 Mar 2023

Hello everyone and welcome to the World of Warcraft game review, in which we will be looking at the game in an unbiased manner until we reach a fair and honest conclusion to answer the question: is it worth playing?

About World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft, best known as WoW, is a game that requires no introduction. This absolute juggernaut revolutionized the MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) genre and has remained ahead of its competitors for almost two decades now.

The original release of World of Warcraft was the recipe for success, being part of the beloved Warcraft franchise, giving a direct continuation to the story of Warcraft 3, and keeping the visual art style that we all know and love.

WoW still has a massive player base to this day and provides content for PvE and PvP enthusiasts alike, snappy and responsive combat, a beautiful world to be explored, and a massive story for you to unfold.

Story

One of the most defining aspects of World of Warcraft is the importance of its story. Considering that the story in WoW is a direct continuation to the events of Warcraft 3, most old school players have started playing the game with a huge interest in that story and its future developments.

However, many MMORPG players don’t pay much attention to dialogues and lore, or even skip everything to jump straight into action, and while this is still true for WoW players, the story has a lot of relevance even for those who skip through all of the text.

The story here is presented not only through dialogues and quests but, maybe most importantly, through the beautiful cinematic cutscenes that WoW has become so famous for. Whenever the story of World of Warcraft takes a turn, it is a big event in the gaming community because we have known these characters for so long and the pivotal moments are presented with unparalleled cinematographic quality.

Watch the Cinematic Trailer of World of Warcraft Dragonflight:

Gameplay

When it comes to gameplay, World of Warcraft is the game that set the standard for how theme park MMORPGs should be, generally speaking. Theme park MMORPGs are the games that follow a very linear path of progression, in opposition to sandbox MMORPGs. You will be following a given story and your progression is directly tied to the main story’s progress.

World of Warcraft still follows this design choice in their expansions, however, nowadays there are multiple ways for you to go through Azeroth in your adventure, at least until you reach the level cap for the most recent expansion at least.

For example, you can level up entirely through the Group Finder tool after reaching level 10, getting grouped up with random players in order to tackle a variety of dungeons, which is a great option for casual players who only login for a couple of hours a day.

Furthermore, there is a wide variety of PvE and PvP content for all sorts of players to enjoy, including many professions such as fishing and alchemy, faction PvP battlegrounds, ranked arenas, dungeons, raids, and an endless amount of quests. You can even enjoy past expansions with level scaling through the Chromie Time system.

On top of that, there is always a new gameplay mechanic in every expansion, like Dragon Riding in Dragonflight, Garrisons in Warlords of Draenor, and so on. Honestly, you never run out of things to do in WoW.

Watch a playthrough of World of Warcraft:

Combat

Despite its age, combat in World of Warcraft still remains one of the most enjoyable combat systems in any MMORPG available. WoW has a ‘tab targeting’ style of combat, meaning that you have to target an enemy and then cast a skill, which will go straight to the targeted enemy, with the exception of ground targeted abilities that require you to target a specific spot on the ground (this is very common for big AoE skills).

In terms of tab targeting combat, it is very hard to find a game that even comes close to WoW. Here you will find a variety of classes each with their own unique mechanics and aesthetic, many abilities for you to choose from, cool animations, and, most importantly, a snappy and responsive combat that feels very good and rewards you for playing your class right.

The big highlight when it comes to combat in WoW, in my opinion, are the epic boss fights that require you to perform lots of mechanics in order to succeed. Whether you are in a dungeon or a raid, every boss feels unique and it feels very rewarding when you finally manage to overcome a challenge, requiring attention to your own rotation and class mechanics, coordinating your team, and performing the boss mechanics correctly.

Watch a showcase of the combat in World of Warcraft:

Quest/Mission System

Quests are your bread and butter to progress through World of Warcraft, with each expansion being a direct continuation to the previous, yet also having its own unique and self-contained narrative.

Your best friends while leveling up are definitely the side quests though. Each zone in WoW has many of those, and you will find yourself grabbing a handful of quests, running around the zone to complete all the objectives in one go, and returning to get your rewards, which feels really good.

However, nothing is perfect, and most of the time the quest design in WoW feels a bit dated, with way too many fetch quests being thrown at you. Some players think that makes for a repetitive and boring gameplay loop, so it’s wise to keep that in mind.

Graphics

Graphics are bound to become dated when they aim for realism. Thankfully, World of Warcraft decided to continue with the visual design that was loved by fans back in the days of Warcraft 3, even using some of the same assets from that game.

While you can see the age of the game in some models and textures, the stylized nature of it keeps WoW good-looking to this day, especially since the game received a remaster a few years ago that heavily improved character models and combat animations.

As they say, graphics become old but art direction is forever, and WoW really shines in that aspect, with some of the most iconic and recognizable visual designs in gaming history.

Developer

Blizzard Entertainment is one of the biggest juggernauts in the AAA gaming industry, releasing success after success over the last three decades. You can expect quality and enjoyable gameplay whenever you see the Blizzard logo in a game.

However, there are two elephants in the room when we talk about this developer. The first is the fact that Blizzard was purchased by Activision a few years ago, forming Activision Blizzard, and that has undeniably changed many development and management philosophies in their games, for better or for worse. And the second is the fact that Blizzard was involved recently in a lot of controversy, and that led to many people choosing not to continue supporting the company.

Price

The business model of WoW is the subscription model, costing $14,99 per month in the United States. Prices may vary depending on your country, and discounts can be applied if you choose to make a three-month, six-month or annual subscription. Having an active subscription to World of Warcraft allows you to play on the retail and WoW classic servers with no restriction, and gives you access to every expansion except the most recent one, which right now is Dragonflight, and you can even pay for your subscription with the ingame currency. Buying the Dragonflight expansion right now costs $49,99 for the basic edition in the United States.

World of Warcraft also provides a free-to-play demo that allows you to play the game for an unlimited amount of time up until you reach level 20, locking your character’s progressions at that point. With this demo, there is really no reason why you shouldn’t check out the game and play it for yourself.

On top of all that, there is also an ingame cash shop that allows you to buy exclusive items and other advantages for real money. That is all well and good for cosmetics, but some players feel that there are some pay-to-win aspects in WoW right now, mostly because you can directly convert real money to gold, and then buy gear and other stuff ingame with that gold.

Final Verdict: 8/10

Pros:

Massive player base, making the game feel populated and allowing you to easily play group content and PvP;
Engaging story and lore that has been expanded for over 20 years if you consider the Warcraft franchise as a whole;
One of the most recognizable and iconic visual designs in gaming history, with stylized graphics that still look good today;
The best tab targeting combat system currently in the MMORPG market, snappy and responsive;
Many unique classes to choose from, each with a wide variety of skills and playstyles available;
Character customization is really good, and you are able to freely change your appearance at any time at the barber shop;
The transmog system in WoW is a staple of how cosmetic systems in MMORPGs should be to this day;
Tons of content for you to play through, with the basic subscription giving you access to the base game and 8 expansions.

Cons:

Dated quest design with way too many repetitive fetch quests being thrown at the player;
The combat system, while very good, might not be for everyone, as most people nowadays prefer the more dynamic action combat style;
Accessing older content and previous expansions is unnecessarily difficult and convoluted, making it almost impossible for a player to experience the story of WoW in chronological order;
Some pay-to-win aspects may be involved;
The developer has been involved in a lot of controversy over the last few years.