A refreshing world with various things to do for every type of players. End content is disappointing though.
I have been playing World of Warcraft, shortly before the launch of Wrath of the Lich King so I must say I pretty much enjoyed the game for several years but this didn't mean I wasn't sceptical towards the Mist of Pandaria expansion. Surely enough, when Blizzard announced the newest race would be called the Pandaren and showed their artwork – I had a horrified look on my face while literally screaming "Panda's! **** panda's!" But the more I saw their work getting completed, the more I started to think by myself that this was not about Kung Fu Panda at all, this was deeper. And so my quest began to get into the beta. While the first thing I did on the beta was leveling my Human Mage slightly, I began to notice that the world – even if it wasn't finished yet – looked quite the opposite of the scenery World of Warcraft had always shown me. It was calm and soothing.
When the expansion was finally released, I couldn't go on a powerleveling-spree just like the others but I had to wait for a few days. During these waiting periods, I started to play the pet battles and rather enjoyed myself with these. While I have always been a sucker for collecting all kinds of pets I could get my hands on, there was just something else about actually fighting a rare pet and than being able to capture it. Adding it to your collection and showing it off to the rest of the realm, who had obviously not catched it yet. Surely it feels like you are playing Pokémon in a new scenery and you can even get an addon that changes your pet battle experience completely to Pokémon but I'm still found of it.
The next stop was of course getting my real Human Mage up to level 90, which at first was a slight pain in the ass. Several others were questing around me, usually stealing my kills one way or the other but it didn't spoil my fun. The lore behind the Pandaren and the ever-lasting war between the Alliance and the Horde were indeed fun to read or listen to. The change of scenery did wonders and for a while I honestly thought I wasn't playing World of Warcraft anymore – other than the obvious spells my mage could do, but still. While every zone was certainly different in scenery, they were all connected through the quest lines and the NPC's. However the latest zone I stepped into, called the Dread Wastes, was something that disturbed me. Suddenly the scenery changed to a darkness again and the quest lines were not that connected to the Pandaren for me – even though they certainly are. However the quests were still enjoyable.
Throughout leveling, I stopped by a few dungeons to see how they would look like. Rich in details, several new mechanics added to the bosses and I was surely a happy mage recieving all that beautiful loot. When I finally hit level 90, I had to do some more in order to be able to jump into the heroics. While rubbing my hands, hoping I could get to see the old dungeons they blew some new life into, I was sad to see I only got Scarlet Monastary as I was sick of those a long time ago. But surely enough, even Scarlet Monastary was fun and even here the details were rich.
After the end level, usually the content slows down quite a fair amount as you need to start grinding dungeons to get the gear you need to start doing raids. However, in Mist of Pandaria this certainly wasn't the case. Blizzard made sure that they expanded the content for every type of player, wether it were achievement hunters, raiders, pvp'ers and even those RP'ers running around. Even the collectors had their hands full with all the several things to do. However, after playing Mist of Pandaria several months now, with lack of time due to daily life, I must say that raiders have a hard time collecting enough gear if you are not able to do the dailies as much as you would have liked. But then again, gold helps you out a lot!
Quick Review
Pros:
+ Change of scenery
+ Content for several types of players
+ New mechanics added to bosses
Cons:
- Too many dailies
- Monthly contribution
- Routines get old after a while
Conclusion:
While World of Warcraft is a rather old game, they updated the game models rather well and the change of scenery and lore certainly did wonders to the game. Even the various amount of content, available for several different types of players, will keep you busy for quite a while.