By now, World of Warcraft needs no introduction. As one of the most popular massive multiplayer online roleplaying games of all time, literally millions of gamers have at one point or another called Azeroth their home. And with WoW's latest expansion pack, Cataclysm, that home is being changed forever.

At first glance, Cataclysm is similar to WoW's other two expansions – it offers players new zones to explore, new quests to be completed, and new gear to be acquired. However, there are a few major differences as well. For starters, the level cap has only been raised by five levels, as opposed to ten. And the new zones in Cataclysm aren't located in some far away land, like Outland in Burning Crusade or Northrend in Wrath of the Lich King. Instead, most of your adventures in Cataclysm take place in Azeroth. Thanks to the emergence of Deathwing, an absolutely enormous dragon, Azeroth has been shattered, meaning that existing areas have been reshaped, and new zones have been uncovered.
The new zones in Cataclysm, for levels 80 to 85, are easily the best zones in WoW to date. They are varied, compelling, and beautiful. From the mystical realm of Deepholm, to the serene, underwater zone of Vashj'ir, each new area has been crafted with the care that has become expectant of Blizzard. Yet, it's still jaw-dropping to see the sheer amount of detail put into each zone. Small things, like cinders floating calmly through the air, or the combination of colors in an underwater reef, really help make these zones stand out from anywhere else in the World of Warcraft.

A new cinematic approach to storytelling really helps give these new zones their own unique identities as well. There are now actual in-game cinematics which involve your very own character. At first, these interludes seem shocking, as you lose full control of the camera, and are left a spectator – something more akin to a single player RPG than an MMO. But they are integrated seamlessly into your adventures, and really give you proper motivation for going out and completing a couple hundred quests. And voice acting is much more prevalent in this expansion – no doubt a preemptive response to Bioware's upcoming MMO, The Old Republic. Nevertheless, it's a welcome addition that is quickly becoming the standard in MMOs.

Each zone has its own separate storyline, which is tied in with the emergence of Deathwing. To help make sure players don't miss any crucial plotlines, questing has been made much more linear in Cataclysm. Instead of arriving at a quest hub, gathering ten or so quests, and going off to complete them, in Cataclysm you are only ever given a couple quests to complete at a time. This makes the game unfold much more like a single-player RPG, which you'll either love or hate. It does take away some of the freedom that is often associated with MMOs, but it also allows for a cohesive narrative to be told. And when combined with the extensive use of phasing that was introduced in Wrath, it really makes your adventures feel impactful on the world.

While questing in the new zones is a blast, there are far too many bugged quests in the new zones. One time, there was an NPC I had to turn a quest into, but they kept disappearing whenever I got close, making the quest impossible to complete. And there were a number of quests that I had to abandon and retake numerous times in order to complete. These issues will definitely be fixed in an upcoming patch, but there are so many of them that they should have been spotted during beta testing.

And it's not just the zones for level 80 to 85 that offer epic storylines and streamlined questing. Thanks to the Shattering, all of Azeroth has been changed, including the old zones used for leveling from 1 to 60. Azshara, for example, was one of the least populated zones pre-cataclysm. It was designed for players around level 50, but hardly anyone ever quested there since it was such a pain to get around, and the quests were part of long chains that started in other zones. Now, Azshara is a low-level questing zone complete with a storyline involving the invading black dragonflight and a brand new Horde city.