World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Hands-on

We hack our way through Forsaken sailors and bomb throwing monkeys.

by Jeff Haynes

August 22, 2009 - The latest expansion to the popular World of Warcraft was announced at BlizzCon 09, and for many fans of the MMORPG, players were eager to find out additional details about the Worgen and the Goblins, two new playable races that will be added. While some details were revealed over the course of the weekend, the largest plus of the show was getting hands on time with the game to see what the experience would be like. I managed to snag a little time with both of the new races to see what players can expect when the title is eventually released.

The first character that I played as was a Worgen Hunter, who was starting in the kingdom of Gilneas. Gilneas wasn't particularly safe or well off as I started, as it was being attacked by hordes of Forsaken soldiers and sailors, who were trying to destroy the kingdom. As a result, the land was sunk into open warfare, with town watchmen constantly loading rifles and firing at enemies or engaging in hand to hand combat. Thanks to the continual combat going on between NPCs and Forsaken, it was possible to take a few seconds to check out the character's stats and abilities. Worgen have the Two Forms ability that lets them change between their human and werewolf forms instantly. They also have the Dark Flight ability which allows them to improve their forward speed by seventy percent for ten seconds; the ability has a cooldown of three minutes once triggered. Apart from these, Worgen have a racial trait known as Aberration, which reduces the duration of curses and diseases by fifteen percent, as well as the Viciousness trait that increases their damage regardless of class by one percent. The race also innately has the Flayer talent, which increases their skinning ability up fifteen percent and allows them to skin a creature faster than other races. There weren't many other advantages to being a Worgen, but that could change by the launch of Cataclysm.

Back within the game, I was tasked with trying to find a way to repel the Forsaken, which sent me towards a cluster of farms that were being bombarded by Forsaken ships. Before I attempted to solve this problem, a farmer cried out for help because her children had been separated from her during the attack. It was up to me to track down the kids, who were scattered around the fields and the nearby farmhouse and reunite them with their mother before something bad happened to them. With the warm and fuzzy moments ended, it was up to me to unleash my Worgen wrath on the invaders. Of course, this was a multiple step process, as I cut my way through a group of Forsaken sailors before gaining a new quest to take on the captains of the ships moored outside of the farms.

Both ships had their gangplanks up, so it was up to me to find a new way to get aboard the vessels. Fortunately, I was able to eliminate the drivers of Forsaken Catapults that were nearby with some well aimed arrows, giving me the opportunity to drive the catapult over towards the ship before launching myself on the deck of the ship. A few quick slashes later, and the captains of both vessels were dead. Returning to the farm, I discovered a new threat: Sylvanas Windrunner, the leader of the Forsaken, sent one of her Dark Rangers to lead a new attack against the village. Fortunately, a lord provided me with a magical whistle, which would allow me to summon a pack of feral dogs to help me kill her. But shortly after I destroyed this threat, the ground shook forcefully. What I discovered was that much of the territory surrounding the farms that I'd been fighting over had suddenly disappeared thanks to the earthquake, with many of the town guards now drowning within the newly submerged farmland. This was obviously an example of the phased terrain that was mentioned during the show, although whether that would occur for each player during different instances wasn't obvious. Before I could attempt to save them, I had to relinquish the terminal to another player.

I also managed to get a little hands-on time with the Goblin, which definitely seems to be a rather comical character. You start out unconscious on the wreckage of a ship, and seem to have been the savior of many of the goblins around you. One of the nearby goblins shocks you awake with a crude defibrillator, and you're on your way. I took that opportunity to check out the abilities and traits of the Goblins, which are rather significant. For one thing, every goblin, regardless of class, have access to a rocket belt that allow them to propel themselves in a jump forward; this ability has a two minute cooldown once triggered. This same rocket belt can also be used to fire a rocket at an enemy, causing forty-four points of damage with the same cooldown duration as the rocket jump. The race also has a number of traits, like the Best Deals Anywhere trait, which gives them a gold discount in any stores, an automatic +15 to their alchemy skill, and something called Time is Money, allowing for a one percent increase to your attack or casting speed. Arguably the most useful trait is the Pack Hobgoblin ability, which instantly summons a personal servant to your side to take your items to the bank or deliver items to you from the bank anywhere you happen to be. This ability has a thirty minute cooldown, but will definitely be useful during raids.

Anyway, I set upon trying to save the other goblins that were scattered around the island, many of whom were initially tossed into the water in escape pods. However, I seemed as though goblins were also able to swim faster underwater than other races; whether this was because of the rocket belt or not wasn't immediately obvious. After saving the characters in the water, I was able to head ashore and run into a character who was subtitled as my former assistant. She was relieved to see me, but even more relieved that I was around to help the rest of the goblins because many of the tools that the group needed to rebuild their items and equipment had been stolen by bomb throwing monkeys. That's right – bomb throwing monkeys roamed the dunes of the island. These weren't the only dangers around the world either; there were plenty of dinosaur like creatures like teraptors (dinosaur-like creatures) as well as pterodaxes (variations of the pterodactyl). What's more, swimming through the water was dangerous as large shark-like beasts were waiting to chew on any goblins around.

To collect the crates, I had to run around, avoiding incoming attacks and picking up the few crates that were scattered around the bases of trees, which was sometimes tricky when being surrounded by large groups of teraptors. Once that was completed, I found a completely new task provided to me: eliminating the hordes of monkeys by tossing nitroglycerin enhanced bananas to monkeys, thereby blowing up the monkeys and clearing the monsters . However, before I had a chance to explore further, I had to give up the terminal once again. While I only had a little time with the game, it was fun to check out the differences between the two races, and I'm looking forward to checking out more of the expansion soon.