Genre: MMORPG
Developer: Blizzard
Publisher: Blizzard

Ordinarily, the overhead associated with networking a massively-multiplayer title prohibits the game engine from utilizing cutting edge graphics. While "World of Warcraft" is no Elder Scrolls IV in the visuals department, it is at least on par with other DirectX 9 titles, such as Pacific Fighters. High polygon counts, crisp textures, tons of visually impressive stencil-buffer effects, and colorful, almost comic-book like art work come together to make for a polished, glossy experience that you wouldn't expect from a game in this genre.

Sound effects, voice acting, and music are solidly done all around, and seem pretty typical of what you expect from Blizzard based on their previous games; quality stuff abound! Each town, village, and many dungeons have their own mini-theme songs, and while they're not particularily memorable, they add some character to the game. A good, but not great sounding title.

WoW features the best client, bar none, of any MMORPG to date. The control scheme is intuitive, the complexity of the UI is kept to a bare minimum, and the whole game is exceptionally easy to pick up, play, and be successful at in a matter of minutes. Unfortunately, this inherent simplicity comes at a cost; most of the game is spent in combat, and the combat isn't nearly as deep, and there aren't nearly as many strategies as found in other RPGs. All the same, gameplay-wise, this is the MMORPG you should be playing.

WoW is so polished, so refined, and of such high quality, you will scarcely believe you are playing an MMORPG! It's good, solid fun that takes all of the typical and negative game design choices of most MMORPGs (experience/item loss on death, the need to eat food, cursed items, etc) and either gets rid of them or gives them a total makeover while augmenting the good things about MMORPGs. What didn't I like about WoW? The combat is hardly deep, and is often dull or even boring. But even with the boredom bouts, WoW is the MMORPG to put your money down on if you can stay engaged.