World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

WOW has never had the same stature as a player-versus-player game, but its wild popularity requires it to take PVP seriously. So Cataclysm offers some new Battlegrounds on old models – did we really need, in Twin Peaks, another Warsong Gulch? – and Tol Barad, a better attempt at an open-world war-zone than Lich King's Wintergrasp.

The big news, though, is rated Battlegrounds. This system brings the ranked competition and desirable rewards of the deathmatch Arenas to WOW's best PVP content, the Battleground maps, for the first time. Although these have only just been implemented, being able to participate in cutting-edge PVP without subscribing to the acquired twitch-gaming taste of Arenas can only be a good thing for WOW's PVP endgame.

Finally, Cataclysm offers two of the most-requested features for the game – the ability to use flying mounts in the old world, and a guild levelling system – and one no-one would ever have thought to ask for: the Archaeology profession.

They're somewhat mixed blessings. It's both thrilling and useful to be able to see old Azeroth from the air for the first time, but I'd question the decision to allow it at level 80 rather than 85; the exploration of Northrend was so much more challenging and exciting for being required to do most of it on foot.

The new guild system comes with a supremely useful interface, and progression is fun (if rather strictly controlled) with perks for all and tasty rewards for building reputation with your own guild. The extra incentive for social play is very welcome in what – thanks to Dungeon Finder, improved solo content and general ease of use – risked becoming a rather lonely MMO. Some will balk at the whole new world of grind opened up by the guild achievement list, however.

Finally, and least excitingly, Archaeology is a bizarre time-sink that encourages you to survey locations around the world to unearth fragments and combine them into artefacts. You can find a few useful and rare items this way, and uncover some interesting snippets of lore, but the process itself is devoid of interest while also being much more long-winded and fiddly than fishing, say.

But millions will grind away at it quite happily regardless, because MMO audiences only really crave one thing: endless and varied opportunities for progress. That means time-wasting fluff like Archaeology is, in its way, just as important as the endgame number-crunching or the narrative sweep of 85 levels of adventure. Blizzard is the only mainstream MMO developer to fully understand this and commit to it, and it has never demonstrated that so forcefully.

It's difficult to score Cataclysm, because, as Rob pointed out, there has simply never been a gaming product like this before. Judged purely as an expansion pack and leaving the free patch content to one side, it's excellent but ever so slightly underwhelming; as enjoyable and unbelievably polished as Cataclysm is, I suspect that Wrath of the Lich King will, in future, be looked back on as the game's creative pinnacle.

However, if we approach this as a re-review of the whole game – which we should, because it's exactly what Blizzard did – then the only sane response is one of awe. World of Warcraft was already one of the best, and by far one of the most successful, games ever made. To turn such a harsh gaze on it and commit to improving its quality on (literally) every level, pleasing every kind of of player in the process, shows vision, immense guts, and a total lack of complacency. I doubt any other developer, finding itself in Blizzard's position, would do the same.