It’s been a particularly busy shipping week at work, and a very bad one for game-playing. Especially bad, then, that the WoW expansion Wrath of the Lich King shipped this week. We got two copies through friends at work (I’m on surprisingly few product mailing lists) the day before it came out, but didn’t get a chance to really do anything with it until this weekend. The big perks are a new continent, taking characters to level 80, and a new class, the Death Knight. He’s badass. See below.
He’s a melee warrior with his own magic rules, sorta. He’s also a bad guy — you are in the service of the Lich King, who wants to take over Azeroth, and therefore your missions involve stealing horses, turning people into ghouls, and brutally slaying local peasants, who scream and run when you approach. Best part: A town siege on the back of a flying mount, commanding your creature to spit death down below and, when mana is needed, swoop down and eat villagers. It was fucking awesome.
I say “was fucking awesome” because it does not last. After two or three levels (and you start at level 55, which gives you a chance to skip to the good stuff), you swap sides in a cheesy cutscene and go back to fighting evil again. You keep the class and your abilities, but you quickly fall into the old missions.
I didn’t expect the Death Knight’s path would be so short. I mean, we split it into two days to make it last, but you could do all his missions in an afternoon, easily, probably about two or three hours tops. The new abilities and skill tree will be great to play going forward, and I already see that I’m more powerful than my other characters were at level 58. It’s satisfying to go back and mop up foes who used to piss me off last time I came around. But being bad felt really good, and I wish there were more to it than just that opening arc.
Other than that, I spent my weekend building a new hutch for my desk, organizing my stuff, and recording some bits for the next Palette-Swap Ninja song, which will be done in the next two weeks.
And sleeping. I finally got some sleep.