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PC | RPG | World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

Boxart for World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade 73 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 4.50
  • SOUND: 5.00
  • CONTROL: 5.00
  • FUN FACTOR 5.00
  • AVG USER SCORE 4.9
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 4.7
Winner of the GamePro Editor's Choice Award

Hands-On: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Visual Tour

Hands-On by Daphinicus | 01/08/2007 | 10:47:03 AM PST

Down the Dawning Lane

Having helped the Magistrix dispatch some surely lynxes, spoken with the Mage trainer in the Sunspire, and assisted an Elf named Lanthan Perilon in getting rid of a tainted conjuror called Felendren the Banished, my time on Sunstrider Isle has come to an end. Perilon directs me to speak with an Outrunner, Alarion, near the southeastern bridge connecting the Isle to the mainland. I know I shall not soon see the place of my early tutelage again.

Falthrien Academy is the home of Felendren the Banished and the sight of a Blood Elf right of passage. Kill Felendren and your time on Sunstrider Isle is at an end.

Falthrien Academy is the home of Felendren the Banished and the sight of a Blood Elf right of passage. Kill Felendren and your time on Sunstrider Isle is at an end.

Upon our meeting, Alarion ushers me even further south, down the Dawning Lane and into the ruins of western Silvermoon. A walk that rides high above the fallen remnants of a once-great center of magical life, Dawning Street serves as the only safe passage between Sunstrider Isle and the rest of the Eversong Woods.

A view of Silvermoon most outsiders can never see, this back entrance leads to the Dawning Lane and the old city ruins.

A view of Silvermoon most outsiders can never see, this back entrance leads to the Dawning Lane and the old city ruins.

Below the Dawning Lane wander the first Wretched you are exposed to in-game. Addicted to magic so much as to be deformed by it, the Wretched represent what Blood Elves can fall to if they abuse their innate thirst for power. They are the primary nemesis to the Blood Elves in the Eversong Woods zone, and appear as half-undead, subtly-deformed versions of their Elvin kin.

Part Blood Elf, part undead, all drug addict, the Wretched live up to their name.

Part Blood Elf, part undead, all drug addict, the Wretched live up to their name.

The Wretched are an excellent example of the lengths Blizzard has gone to set the Blood Elves apart from the Alliance races. They are a constant reminder that the Blood Elves are but a small step away from the threshold of evil. Add to their presence that of Darnassian and Dwarfish spies in one of the early-game quests, and the Blood Elves' rightful place in the Horde is made very clear very quickly.


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