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Game Information
- Platform: Windows Vista / 7 / XP, Mac OS X Intel
- BBFC Rating:
Suitable for 12 years and over. Not for sale to persons under age 12. By placing an order for this product, you declare that you are 12 years of age or over. - Media: DVD-ROM
- Item Quantity: 1
Product detailsEdition: Standard Edition
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Product Description
Alliance warships prowl the seas. Horde armies thunder across Kalimdor. Tensions between these factions edge closer to erupting in a savage war that threatens to consume all of Azeroth. Against this backdrop of impending conflict, an uncharted island mysteriously appears.
Shrouded in fog since the world was sundered more than ten thousand years ago, the ancient realm of Pandaria has remained unspoiled by war. Its lush forests and cloud-ringed mountains are home to a complex ecosystem of indigenous races and exotic creatures -- including the enigmatic pandaren.
All but the bravest pandaren explorers have been hidden from the world for thousands of years. Now, in the aftermath of the events of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, Pandaria's heroes are stepping forward to declare their allegiance to either the Alliance or the Horde and share the extraordinary secrets of their ancient martial arts with the world.
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| The pandaren are an enigmatic race native to the long-hidden continent of Pandaria. |
Who are the pandaren?
Honorable and filled with a love of good company, good food -- and every now and then, a good friendly brawl -- the pandaren have been content to live in seclusion, allowing their culture to flourish and thrive away from the influence of the outside world. However, every now and then, a pandaren is born with a thirst for adventure that rivals his or her thirst for a strong drink, and he or she strikes out to explore beyond Pandaria's shores. One of the most famous such wanderers was the brewmaster Chen Stormstout, who set out to look for exotic ingredients for a special ale and wound up assisting the Horde during the events of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.
While the pandaren are predominantly a peace-loving race, their history is marked with turmoil and strife. After years of living under the oppressive rule of the cruel mogu, who banned the use of weapons as a means of control, the pandaren developed the martial arts that would become the hallmark of their monk caste and used their skills to free themselves from the mogu rule. Terrifying natural forces and strange indigenous enemies -- such as the voracious mantid, who emerge every few years to consume everything in their path -- have also had a hand in shaping pandaren culture over the centuries. Now, the pandaren way of life faces its biggest trial yet, as Horde and Alliance forces make landfall on Pandaria’s pristine shores...
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| A smoky porcupine in the Jade Forest of Pandaria. |
Choosing your faction
Pandaren who strike out to explore the world outside their homeland begin their journey on the Wandering Isle (a new starting zone for pandaren characters level 1 to 10), where they face a number of trials -- and meet with a number of characters from both the Alliance and the Horde -- before arriving in Kalimdor or the Eastern Kingdoms.
Pandaren remain neutral through most of their Wandering Isle quests, but before they leave, players will need to make a decision whether to permanently side with the Alliance or the Horde. After that decision is made, the character will be treated just like any other member of their chosen faction in cities, on quests, and in character interactions. Choose wisely, because once your decision is made, it’s irreversible (except through the Faction Change service).
What are the new features of Mists of Pandaria?
- New Playable Race -- Pandaren: Adventure through Azeroth as World of Warcraft's first neutral race and decide whether to side with the Alliance or the Horde.
- New Playable Class -- Monk: Unlock the secrets of pandaren martial arts and do battle as a damage dealer, healer, or tank.
- Level Cap Increased to 90: Learn potent new spells and abilities while exploring uncharted zones and taking on challenging new content.
- Scenarios: Join up with some friends to achieve a common goal, such as mounting a defense against invading monsters, in a flexible new type of PvE challenge.
- Dungeon 'Challenge' Modes: Master the ultimate 5-player time trial and earn prestige rewards in a new dungeon mode that will put your resolve and coordination to the test.
- Pet Battles: Challenge other players' companion pets with your own collection in a new tactical mini-game, and find out who's king or queen of the pint-sized battlefield.
- New Talent System: Customise your character to suit your play style with the newly overhauled and improved talent system.
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
For seasoned Warcraft subscribers, Pandaria opens up a whole new continent, populated by Pandas and stylized in Eastern themes - a mix of Chinese, Japanese and Korean influences. There's an extra 5 levels to gain, lots of new themed areas to explore, new 5-man content, new raids, and a wealth of new daily challenges.
Pandaria is wonderfully pretty and beautifully-designed, although the oriental theming is based on pop-culture rather than the real orient. It's more Chinatown than China, a mishmash fusion of Chinese, Japanese and Korean, and is full of corny borderline-offensive stereotyping of eastern culture - flight masters called "Wing Hya" and the like. It displays little respect or understanding of the Asian cultures it mimics, but sticks to stereotypes out of Kung-fu flicks and pop-culture - a world of "Kung-Fu Panda", mocking rather than marveling at it.
Playwise, it's more of the same. Quests asking you to deliver/collect things, or kill X of Y. Nothing you haven't seen before, although lots of effort has gone in to adding movies and interactive content this time, and some of it is startlingly beautiful. The environment is lush and the new creatures are challenging to beat, but it's not a radical departure. There's a new class, the Monk, that's an intensive and involving all-rounder, although a little overpowered at the moment.
Some of it is a bit strange, though - it felt odd as an epic hero to be struggling to beat bookworms, or moths, turtles, rabbits and birds that would probably duff up Raganaros and give the Lich King a few bad bruises. Adding lots of "filler" creatures and making them frighteningly tough makes you wonder where the old content fits in - it feels like suddenly I'm back to the beginning, struggling to beat Plainstriders at the Crossroads, not a world-rescuing hero who's defeated the leader of the Scourge (but despite godlike armour and weapons can be killed by a small bird). Most odd.
Some of the new daily content is pitched at the real obsessives, those who play the game for hours every day and live more life in Azeroth than the real world - for them, there's lots of ingame time-gobbling activities - farming and achievements, and pet-battling that's reminiscent of Pokemon games. I'm not really that obsessive myself, and I can think of a hell of a lot more productive ways to spend my time so it leaves me rather cold, but some of my guildies are spending many hours a day on it, determined to get every last tick in the box.
On the whole, a beautiful expansion with loads of new content to fill your time, but in a generic pop-culture east, and really very much like what you've seen before. No surprises, and very much more of the same killing, delivering and collecting, but in a new setting that's set new heights in terms of design. Not revolutionary and not too challenging, but more of the same successful formula that's got so many subscribers paying their monthly dues.
My problem with MoP is that, like Cataclysm, it feels like just another "filler" expansion: something to keep people playing the game and to keep the subscription revenue coming in. For me, that is just not enough to justify the extortionate amount of money you have to part with to play this game. On top of having to pay for the time you play the game you also have to shell out for these expansions every time they come along and all you get in return is, in my opinion, half hearted content that is increasingly designed to bring in new, younger players, and not very much at all for the people who enjoyed the very different game that WoW was when it was first released.
I think that instead of releasing this expansion they would have done a lot better to revamp the old zones (especially TBC content), because you still have to play through these to get to the new content and some of them now look really, really, embarrassingly tired. If they had put the effort into doing this then perhaps I would have been tempted to buy another expansion. But, I'm afraid MoP has nothing for me, and has only served to confirm that WoW will never again be the game that it once was. It is a very different (real) world since WoW was first released and there are now better games to play that don't involve paying out out a silly amount of money.
Good for all ages over the minimum recommended age
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