VIDEO GAME REVIEW | ‘WORLD OF WARCRAFT: CATACLYSM’

‘WORLD OF WARCRAFT: CATACLYSM’

Grade: A

Details: Published by Activision Blizzard for PC, Mac; $39.99; rated Teen

“World of Warcraft’s” first two expansions extended the game’s story line and increased the game world’s size, with “The Burning Crusade” adding the extra-dimensional Outland to explore and “Wrath of the Lich King” taking high-level players to frozen Northrend to battle the undead.

These expansions added much, but their requirement that players have powerful characters to explore their new areas meant a lot of content was locked away from those who didn’t have time to create beefed-up warriors capable of exploring that far.

With “World of Warcraft: Cataclysm,” characters now can be stronger than ever — up to level 85 — but much of this expansion’s content is focused on revamping the game’s original continents: the western wilderness of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms.

There also are two new playable races: werewolflike Worgen on the Alliance side and Goblins on the Horde side. Both races have an introductory series of quests — the Goblins escape from their doomed island of Kezan, while the lucid versions of the usually feral Worgen hail from the walled city of Gilneas.

Other major additions and changes include a new profession, archaeology, with which players can piece together artifacts unearthed by Deathwing’s shattering of the world, and a reworked talent-tree system. Previously, players could put points into any of three talent trees for their character’s class. Now, a character must be dedicated to a single tree for many levels before gaining the option to spend points in a second tree, so characters specialize more.

Justin Hoeger, Sacramento Bee