Upon entering the World of Warcraft, the faded drums of war begin to beat anew. Players will begin their journey into legend via story-driven quests to further the survival and supremacy of their nations. Along the way, they will discover corruption within their own governments and forbidden truths behind forces manipulating from the shadows.

  For the first time in any MMORPG, World of Warcraft (WoW) manages to bring back real storytelling as a major crux of the game. Resembling a single player RPG more than any of its online contemporaries, WoW uses both solo and multiplayer questing as its major hub of gameplay and advancement instead of meager varnish. The plot itself is enormous, spanning several thousand individual quests, both singular and series. Gamers will journey across two continents and encounter over a dozen races, with more being added on a monthly basis. Players will see shades of Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and even Indiana Jones in quests that range from dramatically intense to tongue-in-cheek.

  While the sheer girth and quality of the tale in World of Warcraft is fabulous, the game lacks the astute presentation of pivotal storyline events that gamers enjoyed in Final Fantasy XI. Outside of the opening cinemas for each race, there is a complete lack of storyline cut scenes that FFXI was lauded for. Many of the scripted events in WoW play out in-game, in real-time; and while effective, they lose a significant amount of dramatic punch we抳e seen with more cinematic presentations. Also, the limited voice-over minimizes events that would have otherwise been more memorable.