Last week, I resurrected Zarwulf when I
had the chance to play World of Warcraft
Classic at the recent Warcraft Summit.
The first thing I had to do, of course, was
make the pilgrimage to the Crossroads.
The walk from Orgrimmar was uneventful,
aside from a spot of zhevra hunting. I had
a hungry wolf to feed. It was a saunter,
accompanied by Barrens chat refusing to
leave the old days behind. From there I
turned to Ratchet, hung out with pirates,
hopped on a ship, and visited the Eastern
Kingdoms for the first time, again.
World of Warcraft now encompasses
multiple worlds and eras, but Classic
makes Kalimdor and the Eastern
Kingdoms feel huge. There’s a lot more
empty space, long journeys, and the
absence of modern conveniences. If you
want to fly, for instance, you’ll need to take
public transport along predetermined
routes. And where Battle for Azeroth flings
systems and distractions at you with
every step, Classic spreads everything
out, making it less thrilling but also taking
away a lot of pressure.
“It’s more focused on these spaces of
time where you can think about what your
next move is going to be,” says lead
software engineer Brian Birmingham.
“You’re engaging in one-on-one combat,
and it feels different—more of a relaxed
pace. I usually find that as I’m killing one
creature at a time, I’m still thinking about
what I’ll do after this. There’s another
quest coming up over here, and I see
something off in the distance I want to get,
and I see someone patrolling in the
background, so I’m always thinking three
steps ahead and planning my next move.”
I never really noticed how few breaks
the modern game offers—but when you’re
being dragged along or being pulled in 20
different directions, there isn’t much time
to stop and think, or even just take a
pleasant stroll through Stranglethorn Vale
during a rainstorm. In Classic, it’s
comfortingly dull.QUEST KNOWLEDGE
It was during the aforementioned
rainstorm that I got lost meandering
through ancient ruins. I should be able to
draw the world with my eyes closed by
now, but I’ve clearly forgotten a lot about
the vanilla version. And there are no handy
quest markers to do all the heavy lifting.
It’s perhaps for the best that quest text
unfurls so slowly, as it’s the only help you’ll
get, at least from the game.
Even production director Patrick
Dawson, with his vast knowledge of World
of Warcraft, has forgotten a few things.
Classic doesn’t just recreate what you
remember from the ‘good old days’, it
reminds you about all the stuff you’ve
forgotten. “People are going to come for
the nostalgia, but they’re going to stay for
the rediscovery,” says Dawson. “That’s
what’s going to hook them.”
I managed to reorient myself and
picked up a few quests, most of them
tasking me with murdering raptors. It took
all my guile and panicky hotkey smashing
to survive. Taking on two or more mobs is
hard work, so kill quests take a geological
age, and I did start to miss the breezy,
done-in-a-flash modern quests. But that’s
just another reason to find some people
and join forces. Lots of Classic can be
enjoyed solo, but it’s clearly not the
optimal way to experience the game, and
so much of this relaunch is centeredZ
arwulf, an orc hunter, was the first
character I invested any meaningful time
with in World of Warcraft. But then I
moved onto other characters, and when
I eventually returned to my old pal, he was gone, at
least the one I knew. Warlords of Draenor had
arrived, transforming his appearance, while
expansions had overhauled the entire class.
More than just a nostalgia trip
WORLD OF
WARCRAFT
CLASSIC
“I’M ALWAYS THINKING
THREE STEPS AHEAD AND
PLANNING MY NEXT MOVE”RELEASE
August 27, 2019
DEVELOPER
BlizzardPUBLISHER
In-houseLINK
http://www.worldofwarcraft.comNEED TO KNOW
PLAYED
ITWorld of Warc raf t Cla ssic
PREVIEW