Synovia Hits 80 – And Other Related News

Prior to the release of this expansion, I promised myself that I wouldn’t overdo it.  That is, I wasn’t going to rush into the content of the expansion and blaze through the quests like a hobo at a shopping spree much like I had done with Burning Crusade’s arrival.  This time I was going enjoy myself.

And enjoy myself I have!

I’m not entirely confident on a starting point but I suppose there’s no place better than to mention the music of the expansion.  The musical scores of video games, for me, are the singlemost influential piece of the RPG puzzle.  You can take a game of incredible content, surreal environments and breathtaking cinematics but if the music you are presented with makes you want to hear John Tesh scrape his teeth against a chalk board then I’ve not much use for it.  The music of this expansion has been incredible.  From the lush, scottish overtones of the Grizzly Hills to the “Chrono Cross”-esque island sounds of the Sholazar Basin I have been thoroughly engrossed in my environments.  The epic yet simple musical ensemble of Icecrown provides an adequately gloomy atmosphere while the fortress of Zul’drak insists upon a tribal yet dark presentation aside a hint of evil.  It is clear to me, with this expansion, that whomever created the music for The Burning Crusade either was releived of their duties or drastically stepped up their game for this current installment.  For the first time in the history of the Warcraft series of games, I am intent on purchasing a copy of the OST.

With mention of the music for WotLK, it stands to also point out the incredible detail of the environments therein.  The massive fortress that Arthas calls home is rather imposing as it casts a deathly shadow across all of Icecrown.  You can take an epic flying mount from the base of this monstrosity, ascend directly upward and 20 seconds later you still will not have reached the top.  Quite simply, Arthas’s fortress makes The Black Temple look like Verne Troyer standing next to Brock Lesnar (a quick plug for the new UFC Heavyweight champion ;P ).  How about the look and feel of Dragonblight with its isolated Dragon Shrines and mysterious “tundra” environment.  Granted this area was incredible to quest in, I was astounded by the sheer detail of the Wrathgate story with all the events leading up to it.

Anyway, I could go on and on and on about some of cooler elements about the expansion but to do so would be to seemingly reinforce that which most everyone already knows.  As such, I’ll now get to work on my next post which should be a bit more “informative” as opposed to “colorful”.