It's difficult to introduce Wrath of the Lich King when so many World of Warcraft players will already be familiar with its content. The excessive amount of information that has poured out of the Beta has allowed websites to extensively cover most of what the new expansion has to offer, and yet for someone who hasn't played the Beta, Blizzard's introduction into this second expansion is nothing short of cinematic excellence. The movie quality FMV introduction sets the scene for what is to come, presented as a prologue story rather than the mishmash of random characters dashing about mindlessly, as was the case with WoW and The Burning Crusade. This time around, Blizzard want to present you with a story, a reason for exploring the vast, new, icy continent of Northrend, and nowhere is that story so magnificently paced as with the starting area for the new Death Knight Heroic class.

This, the first new class in WoW since its release, is the most significant event to occur in the game for a long time. While there has never been a side to the two playable factions that anyone could claim to be truly evil (the Horde don't count because they are no more morally corrupt than the Alliance), the Death Knight begins his journey as an instrument of the Lich King, WoW's brand new bad guy and leader of the undead armies that are at the centre of this new expansion.

You create a Death Knight much as you would a new character, assuming that you already have a character at level 55 or higher, which is the level at which the new DK is created. This far on, the game rightly assumes that you'll have picked up enough to know how things work, so there's no hand holding through the first few levels and the quests are generally tough from the outset. They also tend to be heavily story driven; putting you under the command of the Lich King doesn't just put you face to face with a future enemy that you can take on much later in the game - it also gives you some insight into what's going on in this progressing world.

Mostly though, it's a rare chance to get to be really evil. Some of the quest lines in the DK starting area are some of the most brutal and bloodthirsty ever encountered in the game - and they're also some of the most enjoyable quests you'll ever have the privilege of taking part in. The senseless and merciless slaughter of fleeing civilians as you encroach upon their village, boarding an anchored ship and turning its guns upon the soldiers lined up on the beach, taking to the air upon the back of an undead dragon and destroying the defences of a town; these are quests that still abide by the same principles of what's come before - namely killing lots of things - only the method in you which accomplish this goal has been made more fun.

This is a taste of things to come; questing in this expansion is one of those things that has undergone some serious improvements and key to what makes certain quests so memorable is the introduction of phasing. This little feature might have been downplayed amongst all of Wrath of the Lich King's other improvements but it is no less worthy of praise. It works seamlessly with the progression of quests; once one certain quest line has been completed, the entire environment changes, allowing the story to flow, and as this is a feature that loads for each individual player, everyone gets the sense that their actions in the game actually accomplish things and really matter.

This is a feature you'll get the most out of with the DK's starting area, although it does make some occasional appearances later in the game. More importantly though, when factoring in a new class it's crucial to determine just where it fit in with the other already well-established classes. The Death Knights are a mixture of Paladin, Mage and Warrior archetypes - skilled combatants with an affinity for runic powers and necromantic magic. The Runes are the cornerstone of the DK's abilities and he can only use certain attacks when certain runes are available, leading to a combo-centred playing style, although his spells to utilise his undead ways offer good support, not least because he can turn fallen humanoids into unwilling undead minions. With the right spending of points in the talent trees, your skills can even turn you into one of the undead, summoning a separate weapon to fight alongside you or rather gruesomely explode corpses and damage anyone in the immediate vicinity. This early on though, it's difficult to accurately predict just in what area the Death Knights will become skilled, especially as not enough of them have caught up to the other high level players already working their way to the new level 80 cap.

It's odd to find that for such a huge and important event such as the unveiling of a brand new heroic class, it's the new continent of Northrend that the vast majority of players have latched onto. Well, odd in the sense that although packed with content, not all of the features of this expansion are new. In fact, a cynical few might point out that there's little here that The Burning Crusade hasn't already provided; a new level cap, a brand new profession, heroic dungeons, flying mounts (you are unable to use them here until you reach level 77 and buy the ability to fly in wintry weather) - as far as new gameplay elements go, there's very little here that hasn't been experienced before. Yet, throughout your journey across the snow covered Northrend, Wrath of the Lich King can't help but feel like a fresh experience.

The game starts brilliantly; landing on the shores of the Borean Tundra, you immediately pick up on the quality of the quests. Continuing on from the Death Knight starting area, they're some of the most fun quests yet seen in the game and they vary from place to place; one minute you're rescuing baby murlocs from their adult captors before raiding a cave disguised in a murloc costume, then the next you're diving into a battle-ravaged town on the back of a gryphons, plucking survivors from the clutches of an undead army before going toe to toe with the invaders in a steam tank. There are so many memorable moments throughout the game that you'll likely be keen to get another character levelled up just to repeat your favourite quests or attempt those that you missed the first time around.

Lich King isn't without the usual pitfalls of grinding or unimaginative objectives though; you still have to slaughter the local population, collecting body parts for the lazy locals, but it seems considerably reduced this time around, as though Blizzard have finally wised up to the fact that collecting decapitated heads all the time gets a little tedious. They've also taken efforts to sort out faction point grinding; previously, factions only allowed you to buy from their quartermasters after you gained enough reputation with them and this often required hours of incessant grinding in order to achieve it. This time around, a series of daily quests allows the collection of reputation through an easy series of objectives that at most will take ten to fifteen minutes to accomplish. It's still a grind but it's a grind that doesn't feel intrusive upon your playing time and with these quests also rewarding you with gold and experience points, the incentives are clearly worth the extra time and effort needed to put into them.

The dungeons have also undergone something of a change; there are fewer of them this time around but they have benefited from a streamlined design, allowing for quicker run through. The boss battles also tend to require more tactical approaches than the constant button mashing often favoured in the older dungeons; these guys don't go down easily and with many throwing up unexpected tricks and surprises, their defeat only comes once the entire group has worked together to figure out the best way to take them down.

With better designed dungeons and a revamp in the way that heroic dungeons become available to the level 80s (you no longer have to gain reputation in order to unlock them as you did in The Burning Crusade), not to mention the added inclusion of raids open to groups of ten, twenty-five and forty players, the content this time around feels as though it caters for the broadest spectrum of players, even though there are still some aspects of the game that only the most dedicated and addicted players will experience. Still, for the most part, solo players do get a better deal than they did in The Burning Crusade. Group quests against Elite NPCs are easily solvable most of the time and it feels like there's less of a push to force you into situations where you require the assistance of other players.

It's not just with quests that Blizzard has impressed with Northrend though, as the continent itself is a glorious testament to the artists who work on the game; their efforts to pump in as much imagination into this new land as possible has led to one of the most impressive pieces of work they've accomplished thus far. It's a far cry from the alien landscape of the Outlands, which might have benefited from over exuberance of style but did feel slightly disjointed from the rest of the world. Northrend at least feels grounded and connected to the rest of Azeroth and there are few developers around who can mix Dragon Lore, Norse Mythology and Steampunk together and somehow prevent it from feeling like a complete mess of styles.

The journey through Northrend is one of continuous wonder, where every zone has something new to show and exploration of every detail is something that you feel compelled to partake in. The zones themselves number roughly about the same amount as the Outlands but they are bigger - so huge, in fact, that getting through the Borean Tundra alone should take you a fair few days before you've levelled up and completed enough quests to move on. In fact, most of the zones appear built specifically for PvE exploration; the PvP battlefield objectives used throughout The Burning Crusade have all but gone and in their place has come an entire zone designed specifically for Player versus Player combat.

The zone of Wintergrasp is built around the huge keep that remains the prize that both factions fight over. Once one faction gains control of the keep, the other has to capture the surrounding towers and machine shops in order to route the defending side and reclaim the keep as their own. More ambitious in its approach to anything PvP related that has come before, Wintergrasp represents what seems like Blizzard's efforts to reintegrate PvP as a vital element of the open world gameplay - and it certainly provides some new, never before experienced thrills, such as the use of destructible terrain and vehicular combat.

Against the likes of Warhammer Online, Wintergrasp can feel a little sedate, particularly due to being confined to one zone, and it also requires a certain amount of players for it to really work as an outdoor battleground; with many casual players still levelling up or tackling the dungeons, how successful Blizzard will be with Wintergrasp is something that won't become apparent until a few months have passed. It's not a bad thing that most people's attention is held elsewhere though, as Blizzard might have done a good job with their inclusion of this little nugget of PvP carnage but it's with the rest of the game that they've really excelled themselves - and not just in the implementation of new continent, either. The recent inclusion of achievements has given added incentives to revisit the parts of Azeroth that you explored many months previously, awarding titles and occasionally special items. It's nothing new - other MMOs have done it before and often with more beneficial rewards - but there is something of an addictive quality to completing achievements, which make use of every aspect of the game whether it be simply exploring zones you've missed the first time around or taking part in the special holiday events.

From a technical standpoint, World of Warcraft has always looked a little outdated and Wrath of the Lich King certainly doesn't remedy that situation in any significantly massive way, yet there are some noticeable changes in the graphics. The last pre-launch patch brought with it some much-needed graphical enhancements, and while real-time shadows and reflective surfaces don't sound like much, they make a surprising difference to how World of Warcraft looks. The game has also benefited from an increased viewing distance; the zones now seem to stretch out for miles in all directions, allowing the world to feel much larger and increasing your immersion that much more. This gradual graphical update is designed to allow people to adapt to the changing graphics at a steady pace rather than being forced into an expensive upgrade outright. If you were never fond of how WoW looked before then these improvements certainly aren't going to do much to alter your opinion but they do make the aged look of the game more bearable. It's also nice to see the sound quality improving as well; the soundtrack that accompanies Wrath of the Lich King lacks the dramatic effect of The Burning Crusade but does a good job of giving each zone its own unique soundscape, adding to individuality of the environments.

If there's anything wrong with this latest expansion it's that it doesn't really cater well to lower level players. If you've yet to reach level 55 then it's perhaps wise to hold off buying this expansion until you do - and even then it won't be until at least level 68 that you can tackle the majority of the content awaiting you within the new continent. Most of the other major changes - the new inscribing profession, the enhancements to the presentation, achievements and so forth - were included in the last patch for free.

There's already been some criticism over Blizzard's inability to provide anything truly new within this latest expansion, as much of what's in here has been seen before. However, Wrath of the Lich King is an expansion and its main aim is to pad out the content and increase the longevity of the game; in this regard it is a huge success and you really have to give Blizzard the credit they deserve, because they haven't just stuck bells and whistles on the features that have come before; they've taken them out, tinkered with them and covered them in so much polish that it almost blinds you. And this is what Blizzard has always excelled at: their ability to pump out a continuous stream of impressive new content. There is so much about Wrath of the Lich King that deserves to get mentioned and as much as I'd like to elaborate even further, in the end it's something that you really need to experience for yourself without troublesome spoilers ruining every last surprise for you. Either way, whether you're an old hand or someone who's intrigued to see what all the fuss is about, there's never been a better time to venture into the realm of Azeroth

Reviewed by Kieron Giacopazzi for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).