| | |  | Computer & Video Games | Home » » World of Warcraft Battle Chest | | | | | | | Description: | | Descend into the World of Warcraft and join thousands of mighty heroes in an online world of myth, magic, and limitless adventure. Your definition of "epic" is about to be shattered with thousands of quests, millions of players, and one epic world. World of Warcraft expansion set to the game of the year The Burning Crusade Expansion Pack, where you have taken Azeroth by storm. Now a dark frontier awaits. From the black horrors of hellfire Citadel to the opening of the Dark Portal itself - an infinity of new experiences await with tow bold new races, new flying mounts, and a chance to battle to level 70. This collection also includes the World of Warcraft and the World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Strategy Guides. | | | Product Details: | | | Product Weight:
| 0.52 pounds | | Package Length:
| 10.5 inches | | Package Width:
| 7.6 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.4 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.36 pounds | | Release Date:
| October 02, 2007 | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 168 reviews |
| | | Game Information: | | | Platform:
| Windows XP / Mac OS X Intel / Windows | | Media:
| DVD-ROM | | Item Quantity:
| 1 |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 168 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
308 of 316 found the following review helpful:
 Excellent game, but use caution, read this post.May 12, 2009
By Kule Noorth
This is a very long post, but well worth it if you're seriously considering this game.
Pros:
First and foremost this game is a milestone in the both the MMORPG and online gaming industry. With over 11 million subscribers, it's the largest online game to date, and for good reason.
The graphics, while cartoonish, indulge you in a moving work of art with flowing waterfalls, freezing tundras, and shadow-ridden caves. The world itself is simply huge (though surprisingly easy to navigate), spanning across four continents (one in outer space), and leaves the gamer with an unparalleled sense of citizenship. Once you log into World of Warcraft, you truly plug into a hidden universe.
The music is truly worthy of mention. When you first launch the game, you are met with a symphony of heart-pounding drums, violins, bassoons, or what-have-you. The music/ambience then changes frequently throughout the game depending upon your current location and really adds an element of class to the experiences of stepping into a haunted mine, or riding up to the gates of a citadel.
The gameplay ranges from simple to slightly complicated depending upon your class selection, but always maintains the smooth controls that are oh-so-user-friendly. You can select from 9 different classes at the start (another is available further on in the game), each of which have their own roles to fulfill by either Healing, Tanking (taking the hits for other less-hardy classes), or DPSing (DPS: Damage per second, a term used to explain classes adept at dealing damage). Also with the introduction of "dual-spec," a character is able to switch between two customizable talent builds (determines your main role: healing/tanking/dps, through the selection certain talents) at the drop of a hat.
The most basic gameplay consists of leveling your character from 1 to 80 via the completion of quests, invading of dungeons, and slaying of monsters, all of which grant "experience," and move you closer to the next level. If you grow wary leveling, it is possible to "que" into a battleground from anywhere in the world. There are four different types of battle: capture the flag, protect the resources, defend/attack the keep, and control the territory. You compete against real players controlling real characters on different computers, which is typically referred to as "PVP," or player versus player.
Once you have reached the maximum level, the fun has just begun. You will continue advancing your character by upgrading his or her equipment (or "gear"). Raids, dungeons and "heroics" offer thousands of powerful monsters that, when killed, give weapons and armor that strengthen your character. Dungeons and heroics are typically conquered by five players effectively working together to defeat the obstacles and creatures within. Raids follow a different suit, requiring 10 to 25 skilled players able to communicate and coordinate themselves in order to (hopefully) kill the most difficult monsters in the game.
Another option to the post-leveling stage (or "end game content") is coordinated PVP. Beside the four available battlegrounds, the game contains four "arena" maps offering extremely competitive play in the form of 2v2, 3v3, or 5v5. If you are successful, the rewards are some of the most powerful upgrades in the game.
Guilds, world events, seasonal events, mounts, professions, mini-games, parties, transportation and real-time economies are just a few more of the many other unnamed aspects to this game. Some things are simply best if discovered.
Cons:
In recent times, the game has found difficulties in PVP in terms of equality. Some classes seem to always be more powerful than others, however, the developers of the game promise that they're addressing this situation.
It is fairly expensive if thought of as simply a video game. The game runs at (I believe) $15 a month, or $12.99 if you pay for 6 months at once. By the time you've purchased the original game and the two expansion packs, you're out $100+, which doesn't include subscription fees. The cheapest route to take is to purchase the Battle-chest (the first two games), the second expansion pack (soon to be added to the Battle-chest) and a large chunk of game time.
A key thing to consider in terms of price is that you're buying much more than a game. You're paying for the new content which is released almost every two months, the server maintenance, and in-game customer support. Also, keep in mind, that this game will (probably) entertain you for much longer than a TV or DVD or Console game. Sure, an XBox game is only $59.99, very cheap compared to World of Warcraft, but within a few weeks/months the XBox game will become dull, whereas this game will have already released new content to be conquered.
*This is why I only gave it 4 stars*
The game is addicting. Extremely. Dangerously. No, seriously, if you have any history of alcohol/drug/gambling abuse, you should reconsider, or at least be informed prior to purchasing.
I offer to you this solution: first, download the 10 day free trial. Next, keep a log of the amount of time you spend on the game during these 10 days. It's expected that you will 1-3 hours a day initially, but will quickly fall into the 4+ hours as your trial nears its end. After the 10 day trial, take a look at how much time you've spent on this game. Some might find themselves in "good shape," with only a couple hours of play time. Most will find that they've spent an upwards of 30 hours (or much more) on the game in only 10 days.
Determine for yourself if you truly have that much free time to spend on a video game. If you do, wonderful, then this is the game for you, and I hope you enjoy your experience. If you believe this is too much time to spend on a game, don't fret! Within the account creation process, you will be able to set up "parental controls" for the availability of play. It is in this device that you can limit your playtime to a healthy and sustainable amount.
I hope this was helpful.
134 of 140 found the following review helpful:
Useful especially for adding a new account for a family member.Dec 04, 2007
By Mitchell M. Tse
"mitchelltse"
I bought this for my son, since I had only bought him WoW without the expansion.
With the assumption that you've decided you want to play WoW, all the way through to lvl 70, this is the pack for you. You get WoW and expansion, which would cost 50 bucks if bought separately. You also get two strategy guides, but the strategy guide for the expansion (see my review for it here World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Official Strategy Guide (World of Warcraft)) is terribly lacking, so we're really looking at one valuable guide, one crappy guide. What you also get, and not even the box mentions this, is the game on DVD! Oh, how many times I've installed and reinstalled the original WoW on multiple computers at home and at my friends place, swapping disks. Well, no more! Unless you were lucky and bought the original Collector's edition World of Warcraft Collector's Edition and World Of Warcraft Burning Crusade Collector's Edition, you're stuck with 4 CDs each instead of 1 DVD.
Overall, I would buy (in fact, I did).
Update December 2009:
I've bought my 4th copy of this battlechest (yeah, I try to enlist friends and families to play WoW, so call me the Wow drug dealer....), which arrived the week before Thanksgiving 2009. Instead of 2 DVDs (one for WoW and one for The Burning Crusade), you now get everything in one DVD, with the two activation codes both printed on separate labels on the DVD cardboard sleeve. Not very different, but it's nice that they at least save a bit of plastic by packing it all in one disc. Still comes with one month of play included, contrary to what the one comment on my review claimed.
And until they release a new battlechest that will include Wrath of the Lich King (which I doubt Blizzard will do until right after they release their next expansion [to be titled Cataclysm {which I preordered my max of 3 from Amazon already!}]) this battle chest is still the deal to buy. Also, in my opinion, including the Burning crusade makes sense, since it does include 2 new player races as well as their corresponding zones in Azeroth, which can be played from the beginning, whereas pretty much all of Wrath of the Lich King isn't available until you're at least lvl 55, and then Blizzard sinks in the extra hook. Would have been nice if there was a battlechst that included all 3, since that would have potentially saved me money, but oh, well....
Still greatly recommended for the person wanting to start playing WoW.
52 of 53 found the following review helpful:
Suprisingly addictiveDec 29, 2007
By K. Smith
I got this after doing a free 10 day trial from Blizzard. After about 3-4 days of the trial I was pretty hooked and decided it was worth the money to get the full version of the game. (Very limited differences in the trial version so it's definitely worth testing out before you buy the full version.)
I'm not usually into long play games like this, but after seeing a bunch of different things about the game (including a very funny South Park episode) I decided to check into it a bit further.
I will say the game is much more fun if you can play with people you know, but you don't have to. I've found almost every person I've met in the game to be very helpful and understanding to new players so it makes it easy to get into the game and get what you want out of it.
I'd encourage people to definitely do the trial software and see how you like it, but I'm confident most people that play video games will find some portion of this entertaining.
43 of 49 found the following review helpful:
 Battlechest is good value for your moneyNov 01, 2007
By Jaldis
If you are thinking about starting World of Warcraft (WoW) then it won't be long before you will want the upgrade burning crusades so I recomend just getting the Battle chest because you will save money and get an additional two books. If you are unsure about playing the game you can always download the 10 day free trial software to see if you like the game but be warned that this is a huge game and will take a long time to download (>4 gig.
14 of 15 found the following review helpful:
Some important things to Know about WOW before you buy...but a MUST HAVE for most gamers!Jul 14, 2009
By Sheri Gill
"Check out the books I've written!"
I will be honest, I have been playing WOW (World Of Warcraft) for a year and a half. Not only that, but we have three paid accounts here.
First, you must know that this box doesn't contain all you need forever, but it's a good start as long as you know this....you can play 'for free' for a trial of ten days (maybe a month in some cases, depending on what free trial you get?) but then..it's FIFTEEN DOLLARS A MONTH TO PLAY.
What do you get for that money?
You get to make I believe it's NINE characters which I will go into later. This means mom can make one, dad can make one, the kids can each make one, then you can even make a few more.
Once you have those characters, you must delete one to be able to make one new one (or switch realms which I wont go into at all)...BUT only ONE PERSON can play at a time. So if Dad is playing his Warrior, mom can't play her mage until dad is done. Thus...you end up with three accounts like me :)
Next, you DO NOT HAVE to buy Wrath of Lich King or Burning Crusade now! Or ever..but those expansions allow what used to be a max level char of 60...to go to 70 and so on. I know you have no idea what that means if you are new to WOW...just know you don't need them yet.
So, you get this, load it, load patches (let me insert something important here. If you do not have a GOOD computer with a GREAT graphics card, dont bother with warcraft. This is a HUGE game with basically streaming video and intense graphics. If you try the free time, it's a good way to know what will slow down your game etc...like the big cities usually will. My brother in law had an e-machine that was 'only two years old' and it slows and stalls all over the game.) and now you are ready to go...
You choose a character (hunters are probably easiest to start off with) and you can change a few things about them like hair and such...but not much. This is no Sim's game.
You start out in an area, let's say, and what happens? There is your hunter..and next to her/him you see a guy with a question mark over his head. Run over to him, click on him. He gives you a QUEST...dah dah dum! Oh the drama...the excitement! He may tell you to go find 7 of some plant. You run around that area and will see something sparkle...it's the plant! You run to them, click on them...them find more. When you are done with the 7, they stop sparkling to tell you that you are done. You run back to that guy and turn them in. WOOHOO! You get a new quest, some money (copper, silver and eventually gold) and some junk items you can sell for money.
All over the game are 'non playing characters' which will buy the junk and give you money.
Now the fun part...all over the game are OTHER REAL PEOPLE! Let's say you log on and find my character running around! We can run over to eachother, say hello, give eachother gold/silver/copper...chat about stuff, go do quests together in the game!
By the way, the game is HUGE. I am not kidding when I say we have all played for a year and a half. You can start out playing in a snowy area with white tigers and funny looking old dwarfy things...then run to another area that is like a lush jungle with crocs and flying dragons...then to another area that is like being on mars...barren and rocky and tilted :)
There is a LOT to do in this game. Questing is the biggest part, you must complete quests like I said to 'level up'. You start as a level one with limited armor and skills. It's easy to learn what you are doing, slowly, as the game progresses. Then you complete quests and hit level two! Now you get a new skill, new armor to use! At the time I wrote this today, the max level is 80. When you are a level one, you hit level two within moments! But it took me about a week and a half to go from 78 to 79!
Then there are 'professions' etc. You can learn to fish..super easy to do, just get a pole and some bait (sold all over) and drop your line in the water. You can do first aid..which means when you loot a bad guy you might get cloth mixed in with that silver/gold and quest items (like the plants we talked about earlier)..which you can click on to make into bandages! It's not tough.
I can't multitask much and I'm not born to win at video games. This game is FUN and you learn as you go.
You can also join a guild, which means there are players that have come together to help other players who join their guild. Fun, super helpful.
Rather than go on and on, let me say this...it's fun. It's addictive (the pattern is, you get wow...you play all night at first, then you call in sick to work, you plan your vacations around the game..) and I mean like ADDICTIVE. But, there are bad things. First, it's usually down ALL DAY LONG on Tuesdays...every Tuesday, for schedulted maintenance. Trust me, if you play, and are off on Tuesdays, you are going to be mad about this.
Also, there are jerks in 'chat'. You can turn the chat off, and if you have kids I suggest you do. There is always someone saying something crude in chat. Blizzard does not care..they offer you to turn off chat or ignore one person at a time.
I have not even covered battle grounds...playing lots of players against lots of players! But suffice it to say, in my opinion, this is the greatest game ever designed. If it was ten a month the whole planet would probably play. If you have a great pc, get it. If you only think you do, learn about what you really need to play.
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