Mists of Pandaria has been out for a week now, and boy are my arms tired! But seriously folks, I’ve been playing so much, my arms have started to ache.
So what’s the word on the internet about it? What is the general consensus, the reception, towards this newest of WoWs? The answer is: who fucking cares. It’s the internet, home to fanboy and flameboy alike. However, at the risk of contradicting myself, your friendly neighborhood Q is here to give his opinion.
Now I’m still relatively early into this expansion, sitting at level 87 and a half, but have taken measures to ensure that I am getting a rich experience at the same time, trying everything the game has to offer. And let me tell you, it offers a LOT.
The expansion essentially offers two new professions while not actually offering new professions. Pet Battles and Farming are new types of activities that do not actually rely on a skill level, but skill take repeated investment to grow and improve. Believe me when I say the Pet Battles are ridiculously addictive; one of our guild members literally stayed up the entire first night of release, and at the end of the slog, had 5 level 25 pets. For those who haven’t gotten into the pet battles yet, that’s pretty goddamn high level. Farming has a bit of a Farmville feel, but before that turns you off, keep in mind that your reward is cooking ingredients and reputation-based items, rather than just the reward of getting to farm more. With 6 new types of cooking to individually raise from 525 to 600, you’ll need those ingredients.
The new Monk class plays well, and the new starting area for Pandaren has a wonderful story. The new dungeons are well-done and sufficiently challenging (Warning: ranged characters should get closer than full range for boss battles, lest a door be shut in your face, barring you from the fight), and there are a ton of new Reputations for you to fill. But despite all of this, where Mists of Pandaria truly shines is its setting.
Wrath of the Lich King was and is widely considered to be the best WoW expansion to date, but Pandaria threatens to usurp that title. They both have one thing in common: a cohesive, beautiful, rich and engrossing land to explore and journey through. Wrath always gave a sense of progression, of a constant march working its way to the front lines of the battlegrounds, towards the ubervillain Arthas and his armies of doom. Mists provides that same sense of progression, working your way across the land, with the goal being a hidden land, talked about much like Shangri-La or as a Celestial land of some kind. While there is not a threat in need of conquering that drives the player on (which may be the expansion’s one real weak point), the journey itself moves you forward as the land unfolds before you. Mists of Pandaria is truly a game that embodies the spirit of the phrase “It’s not the destination, but the journey that matters.”
To accentuate this point, the visuals and music are nothing short of stunning. Never in an online game have I ever felt the impulse to set my character to walk, but I find myself having that urge from time to time. The vistas are truly gorgeous, and the tranquility of the music combined with the beauty of the land make the player feel peaceful, at ease, as if truly sitting in a Chinese garden, enjoying an herbal tea. I may not have turned walking on yet, but I have, in-game, simply stopped and looked around, breathing in the land and the peace of it all, multiple times.
What’s more, Pandaria is a wholly fun land to explore. Whereas previous expansions have focused on dark, world-ending devastation and nihilism, Pandaria is a whimsical game, with more humor and lighthearted fare than any WoW content to come before it. One can tell that the developers, not feeling the shackles of Warcraft lore around their limbs, truly let go and had fun creating this experience for us to enjoy. I find myself wanting to return not just to the game, but to the land itself which I am experiencing, throughout the day.
Wrath was the high-point for WoW, both in renown and in terms of subscribers, but if the word truly gets out about Mists of Pandaria, the players will come back in droves. It is an unmissable experience for any WoW player, past and present, and in this player’s opinion, the most enjoyable WoW experience to date.
