‘World Of Warcraft’ Goes Kung Fu Fighting: ‘Mists Of Pandaria’ Launches To Packed Servers

Tonight’s launch of the World Of Warcraft Mists Of Pandaria expansion was certainly thrilling. The servers were packed to the limit with enthusiastic players and when the clock struck midnight, the launch announcement flashed across our screens. Our excitement built to a fever pitch, we all started mouse clicking like crazy….. and then, my game froze.

Perhaps Blizzard underestimated the amount of people that would turn out for the launch, but the first hours were exactly what most experienced observers expected; a little chaos, a few frayed nerves and millions of gamers hoping the situation would improve. Fortunately, the people at Blizzard are world class troubleshooters, and within an hour or two, the Mists Of Pandaria expansion was working like a dream.

The new continent looks wonderful. Pandaria is a lush green paradise that simply vibrates with life. There are pandas everywhere you look; lots of cute pandas of all shapes and sizes. Monks and Brewmasters ready to share a drink or teach you the secrets of their Kung Fu.

My first impressions are quite positive. The expansion is a solid, well designed effort. Mists Of Pandaria feels more like Vanilla WOW than Lich King or Cataclysm and that is just fine with me. The overwhelming opinion of the WOW community is that the game should return to the basics and that is what Pandaria is all about.

Blizzard realized the game needed a big shot of excitement and they really put their heart and soul into the new continent. Mike Morhaime, the president and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment summed up the company’s goals for Mists of Pandaria:

“We’ve been working on this expansion for a couple of years now. It represents some of the best and most diverse content we’ve created for “WoW.” I think “WoW” players are really eager for the new continent to explore, the new Pandaren race, new monk class, the ability to level their previous characters up to level 90. It’s got a lot of great content so we’re really excited about it. I think it’s time also. I think people are ready for new content in “WoW.”There are loads of new quests, a glorious looking new continent to explore, new 5 man dungeons and new raids. The player skill sets have been given a much needed overhaul and the new Panda race is a real winner.”

It is simply too early to tell if Mists Of Pandaria is just good or truly great. The servers are so crowded that it is going to take a day or two of steady effort to explore enough of the new continent to give The Inquisitr’s readers a fully informed opinion.

To find out all I can about the expansion, I plan to level my 85 hunter to 90 and explore the end game content. I will also be trying out one of those Drunken Boxing trained Pandarian Monks, since I am sure you are all curious to know what it is like to play WOW as a Panda.

I am going to give Blizzard a bit of grief over one issue with game mechanics that really needs to be fixed. There are quite a few quests that require players to kill one or several named enemies. Unfortunately, the mobs for these quests all have extremely low hit points. They die so fast it it almost impossible to tag the mob to get credit for the quest, especially on a crowded server during launch. It took me almost two hours to complete two quests that should have taken me 5 minutes at most.

Well, that wraps up my first in-game review of World Of Warcraft Mists Of Pandaria. I will return soon with another review after I explore more of Pandaria and add a couple of levels. I have a good feeling about the expansion and I am really looking forward to facing a few Bosses and grabbing my first new purple level 90 weapon or armor. Now comes the best part of my day. Its time to go play some more World Of Warcraft.