World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Classic Review

Imagine yourself back in 2008, it’s November, and you have just spent hours in line waiting for your local video game store to give you that fresh crisp box of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King that you pre-ordered months ago. You race home, install the DVD (Yes, it was the first in the series to use DVD format install discs over CD-based discs) onto your computer, download the update, and you make your journey into Northrend with your friends and guild-mates… After spending hours in login queues and suffering through many server “emergency resets” and maintenance.

This was the experience that I, and many others, had with the launch of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King back in the day. But today, all you do is download the game through the Blizzard Client and off you go. Does World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Classic hold up the same experience and thrill it had back in the day or has Blizzard changed too much with its #SomeChanges philosophy that you could compare World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Classic to Warcraft 3: Reforged? (For the rest of the review, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Classic will be referred to as Wrath Classic for the sake of your eyeballs)

Name: Wrath of the Lich King Classic
Platform(s): PC
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Game Type: MMORPG
Mode(s): Multiplayer
Release Date: September 27, 2022

The Lich King’s Challenge (Story)

To Blizzard’s credit, the story in Wrath Classic is largely unchanged, all 4 parts of the content are there (or will be there) as it was back in 2008 with no narrative changes. Wrath Classic has one of the best stories of all time, following on from Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne and the story of Arthas, also known as The Lich King, as he returns to Azaroth to try and ruin everything about the world… And turn it into a frozen wasteland. Through your time in Wrath Classic you will learn more about Northrend, Arthas, his sword Frostmourne, and so much more. The depth of lore that is shown in Wrath Classic is something that grows into how Blizzard tells their stories from this point forward, with backstory as well as the progression of the story told through player interaction with the world itself, something that is both pleasing and great about Wrath Classic. For those of you who want to know the story in advance, you can read it all below.

1. The March on Northrend
   In the wake of the Sunwell’s purification, a period of suspicious silence swept over the world. As if on cue, the undead Scourge launched a massive assault against the cities and towns of Azeroth, this time extending its reach far beyond the Eastern Kingdoms. Under pressure to respond with a full army, Warchief Thrall deployed an expedition force to Northrend led by Overlord Garrosh Hellscream. Meanwhile, the missing human king Varian Wrynn, at last, returned to Stormwind City and reclaimed his crown. He sent an equally powerful Alliance army, commanded by Bolvar Fordragon, to defeat the Lich King—and any Horde forces who would stand in their way.The Alliance and Horde (led by Dranosh Saurfang) eventually led a combined offensive on the Wrathgate, the entrance to the Lich King’s fortress of Icecrown Citadel. Before they could succeed, however, Grand Apothecary Putress and his Royal Apothecary Society followers (renegade Forsaken) unleashed a new plague that killed friend and foe alike, while his traitorous counterpart, the dread lord Varimathras, seized the Undercity in a coup that nearly killed Sylvanas. The usurpers were slain for their vile deeds by armies of the Alliance and Horde and the Forsaken capital was restored. The debacle, however, created suspicion among the Horde regarding Sylvanas’s loyalties. At the Wrathgate, many brave Alliance soldiers died at the hands of the Forsaken’s Royal Apothecary Society; including King Varian’s dear friend Bolvar Fordragon. Varian, who had always been wary of the orcs, discovered that the Royal Apothecary Society had been developing the new plague for years. The events that transpired during the battle for the Undercity convinced the human king that the Horde had been left unchecked for too long and he becomes hostile to the Horde for the rest of the campaign in Northrend.
2. Secrets of Ulduar
   The march of Horde and Alliance armies through Northrend led to a number of victories, but these successes paled before a discovery made by the explorer Brann Bronzebeard within the ancient titan complex of Ulduar. This mysterious fortress had long served as the prison of the Old God Yogg-Saron, a being of unfathomable evil whose influence had spread into the continent of Northrend itself. However, the safeguards keeping Yogg-Saron imprisoned began to fail, and the Old God’s influence corrupted Ulduar’s guardians. With Brann’s assistance, small bands of Alliance and Horde champions infiltrated Ulduar to confront Yogg-Saron, who blasted the invaders with cryptic visions: the millennia-old creation of an artifact known as the Dragon Soul, the assassination of Stormwind’s King Llane, and a glimpse of the Lich King’s future. However, the heroes manage to prevail and destroy Yogg-Saron.
3. Call of the Crusade
   In preparation for the final offensive against the Lich King, the Argent Crusade (a union of holy warriors from the Order of the Silver Hand and the Argent Dawn) assembled a base near Icecrown Citadel to gather resources and identify the champions who would serve at the vanguard of their army. Highlord Tirion Fordring organized a tournament to test potential heroes of the Horde and the Alliance, but agents of the Scourge quickly emerged to sabotage the event. The undead attack culminated with the appearance of the monstrous crypt lord Anub’arak, who attempted to exterminate Tirion’s elite force before it could be assembled. Fortunately, the gathered heroes prove to be too much for Anub’arak to handle and he is defeated.
4. Fall of the Lich King
   As the final battle against the Lich King approached, the human sorceress Jaina Proudmoore and the Banshee Queen Sylvanas Windrunner journeyed to the icy heart of Northrend. Both had come for different reasons: Jaina hoped to discover whether a part of her former friend and lover, Arthas Menethil, still lived; Sylvanas longed to take revenge on her old enemy. With the aid of these two heroes, Azeroth’s champions stormed Icecrown Citadel and vanquished the Lich King’s minions. Their confrontation with the Lich King involved thousands of souls consumed by Arthas’s blade, Frostmourne. Ultimately, Arthas was slain with the aid of Tirion Fordring, and the heroes who triumphed over him learned a chilling truth about the existence of the undead Scourge. Without a Lich King, the leaderless undead would go on an unstoppable rampage across Azeroth. Bolvar (revealed to have been altered by the red dragons’ flame), steps forward and voluntarily becomes the new Lich King, promising to keep the Scourge contained in Northrend as its eternal jailer.

It looks cold outside… (Graphics)

While Wrath Classic takes a fair bit of time in the northern continent of Northrend, a cold and bitter climate filled with snow and ice, the overall experience with Wrath Classic progresses along with the story. Starting out in Borean Tundra or The Howling Forge, you go from lush green landscapes to cold snow-covered areas such as Dragonblight and Icecrown, as the story is told. Each area has a lot of theming behind it, with the starting areas full of wildlife and many races from Azaroth, with others having things like the Undead and Dragons all over the place. Wrath Classic is one of those games that gives you a little bit of everything but packages it into something that changes and evolves in such a way that you see how The Lich King has been slowly making his way through the area, claiming it as a slow snowstorm makes its way through the world.

For the purists, Wrath Classic keeps the system requirements and graphics in the same era as it was back in 2008, without all the updated player and enemy models that came with future expansions. So if you like your low-polygon count 3D models, then Wrath Classic is going to be perfect for you. Wrath Classic will run at a crisp 1080p/60fps minimum since technology is way better now than it was in 2008, so some people (like me) will get a chance to see Wrath Classic in its full graphical glory, as it was originally intended. Even the soundtrack remains the same, which is great because the soundtrack for Wrath Classic is one of the most ambient soundtracks ever made for a video game.

It’s just like you remember… With some changes. (Gameplay)

To say that Wrath Classic is a 100% authentic recreation of the original experience is like saying Jurassic World is the same as Jurassic Park or Star Wars Episodes 7 through 9 are the same as Star Wars Episodes 4 through 6. Sure, both versions have the same name, but they two are different versions of the same experience. Wrath Classic has the base structure of Wrath of the Lich King, but where the two divisions are that Wrath Classic has the 3.3.5 patch changes available from the beginning, whereas Wrath of the Lich King was a learning experience for both player and developer.

Patch changes aside, Wrath Classic does more than a few things to differentiate itself from Wrath Classic, such as the removal of Random Dungeon Finder, a much-requested feature for people who have a life and can’t dedicate every waking moment to Wrath Classic or isn’t a streamer like Asmongold or Belluar who can get carried to success in the game. This one change, done for the sake of “the community” has removed a crucial tool for a majority of players, many of whom are back strictly for this expansion, to get the full experience of the game in a timely manner. It also places the progression of players to be gatekept by the toxic majority who are determined to create a “us vs them” mentality and force people into “mega servers”, creating more problems that could have been easily avoided.

Other changes include the addition of the “Heroic+” mode to Wrath Classic, a mode where challenges are added to the Heroic dungeons and reward players with raid-level gear for their characters. While this begins with “phase 2” (when the game moves into Secrets of Ulduar: See storyline above), giving players an “easier” way to get raid gear and “catch up” to the content, it is just another piece of gatekeeper content based around the much hated Mythic/Mythic+ system that has become such a problem in the main game: World of Warcraft: Shadowlands.

Return to 2008 with 2022 problems (Replayability)

Wrath Classic, on the surface, looks like the same game we got back in 2008, and is undoubtedly one of the best expansions that the World of Warcraft franchise ever had. But coming back to Wrath Classic in its current state really feels uninviting, and like the game has lost its soul to the horrible business practices that Blizzard seems intent on doing over and over again. Instead of listening to the players and seeing the old problems as what they were, problems, instead they have embraced those problems and found a way to make them worse.

As someone who plays Wrath Classic as a more casual player, taking my time playing the game between other reviews and life events, Wrath Classic is not the game that it once was. I have the same character, same knowledge, and same skills as I did back then, tuned perfectly to the game that it once was. But when I’ve logged into the game, I get constant reminders that this is not the game I once knew. I’m in a good guild with friendly people, and we do have a good time. However, outside of that, Wrath Classic is awash with people spamming “LFG Dungeon” all day between hate speech, bad jokes, and insulting other players.

Wrath Classic is a slog of a game, with levels coming at a snail’s pace, as it was originally. But it’s not the game that makes you want to play it more once you are done. When I get to the end of Wrath Classic, which is raiding, Heroic dungeons, PvP, etc, I know I won’t feel like I want to be there, nor will I want to experience the game all over again on one of my other characters. In the original Wrath of the Lich King, I raided, ran Heroics, and leveled other characters so much that I had almost one of every class in the game. This time I feel like not only do I not want to do that, but the game will push me not to do that.

It’s not Classic, it’s Reforged (Closing)

Those of you who paid for Warcraft 3: Reforged will know the sting that you’ll get when you play Wrath Classic. It’s the game you remember, but with so many changes made for the worst, you feel like you wasted your time and money when you played it, and once you were done, you felt like you didn’t want to play it again. This is Wrath Classic in a nutshell. Blizzard embraced the toxic community and has allowed them to thrive, punishing casual players who are currently shelling out money in subscriptions to play a game that is not made for them.

It’s the community that hurt Wrath Classic, turning it into the “classic version of retail”, where the problems of the main game have been added to something that was meant to be available as the game it originally was. Wrath Classic could have been the big return of World of Warcraft to its top spot on the MMO and gaming worlds, but instead just repeats the mistakes of the past and amplifies them to the point where they will shoot themselves in the foot, then wonder why players aren’t sticking around in the months to come. A sad state for one of the best expansions in World of Warcraft.

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