In this hands-on look at Wrath of the Lich King, we explore the Borean Tundra, one of the two starting zones in the new continent of Northrend.
Completing the circle back toward Warsong Hold you pass through one of the richest areas of wildlife--a lush, dark-green zone filled with elephants, caribou, and yet another little group called DEHTA--Druids for the Ethical and Humane Treatment of Animals. These druids are an offshoot of the Cenarion Expedition and are in Northrend with the specific aim of protecting the wildlife there. This means that if you have recently killed a beast in the zone, you'd better stay away, because the mark of blood remains on you for a few minutes after killing a creature--even if you're provoked or attacked--and DEHTA doesn't take kindly to that. If you go near these druids without washing that blood off your hands first, you're in for a shock. They are, as you might guess, completely opposed to every World of Warcraft player's favorite dwarf, hunter Hemet Nesingwary and his hunting cronies, who have moved on from their big-game hunting expedition in Nagrand to go for the really, really big game Northrend has to offer. While we have yet to encounter the little man himself, attacking and thwarting his minions is an important part of the DEHTA quests, which also include such tasks as sabotaging traps, freeing trapped baby elephants, and other such acts of kindness. We're not yet sure if doing quests for Hemet Nesingwary later on will decrease your standing with these more ethical folks, but we'll let you know as soon as we find out.
If you want to conquer the realm of the lich king, you may need a new suit of armor and some other fancy gear.
While on the topic of ethical questing, some of the quests in the Borean Tundra do raise a number of interesting ethical points that seem like a departure for the game. One in particular involves beating up a guard who is a member of a certain faction until he is nearly dead, dragging him back to the faction (the mages of Dalaran, in this case) by a chain, and then proceeding to torture him for them--using a charmingly named item called a neural needler--to extract useful intelligence on the whereabouts of a recently kidnapped colleague of the mages who sent you out in the first place. We did the quest--we needed the experience points, and it offered a useful reward--but it did leave something of an odd taste in the mouth.
To give you an idea of the size of the zone and the number of quests contained within it, questing only in this zone has got us from level 70 to halfway through level 71, with several of the above hubs still having a significant number of useful quests to do. This means that not only do you have a wide range of useful quests to choose from, but everyone else does too--and remember that there are two entire zones to start from as you embark on your quest to level 80. While these areas will always be fairly crowded when the expansion is released, it is good to see such a significant amount of choice being offered to try to spread the questing hordes out a bit.
While so far we have seen only a few truly new mechanics in Lich King, a few changes did jump out at us. First up is the emphasis on quests that do not require a group. These were not prevalent in the Burning Crusade's starting areas, but they appear to be even less so now. There are a significant number of quests that are faster if you're hunting in a party, but the vast majority can be completed solo without problems. Secondly, there is a new questing mechanic that has already been alluded to: the chained escort. In one case this involves hunting a baby dragon, harpooning it, and dragging it back for experimentation--another quest with a moral question mark over it, some may say. Another example is the aforementioned guard-snatching quest. One other nifty little change is obvious almost the moment you step into the quarry outside Warsong Hold. The Nerubians have grabbed soldiers from the hold and have spun webs around them. If you free the soldiers, you'll have an ally of roughly equivalent power to yourself to fight alongside you. These are primarily shamans, mages, and warriors, and while their assistance is short-lived--once they repay their debt to you they return to the hold--their sheer numbers mean it is possible for a single player to be supported by four or five computer-controlled equivalents as they exterminate the Scourge infestation.
Last one to level 80 is a rotten, frozen, haunted egg. Wrath of the Lich King will launch later this year.
Overall, we are very taken in by the new content we've seen in Wrath of the Lich King. It is varied and engaging, and while none of it is revolutionary, the signs are good at this relatively early stage.
We will report back soon with more on the Death Knight class, the other zones throughout Northrend, and anything and everything else you can expect from World of Warcraft's second expansion pack between now and its release--which is currently scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year.
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