Fans need not have worried. Taking the rich world of Warcraft and melding some of the learnings and lessons of its equally popular Diablo fantasy role playing series, Blizzard have produced a truly remarkable gaming experience.

Setting up your account and logging onto the game is very straightforward. However, there is an initial hefty patch to download before you can start. Although the game can play with reduced graphics, a DSL connection is recommended to get the best from the game.

The first choice you have to make upon startup is which server you wish to select. You can either play on a purely role playing server, where it's all about the adventure and only the adventure, or on a standard server where as an option you can engage in player versus player combat, or on a Player vs. Player server where this setting is always on. You can only create characters of one faction on a server (although you can have characters on other servers). This prevents being party to the devious plans of both factions on the same server.

The game is divided into two distinct factions, the Horde and the Alliance. The Horde has such charming races as the trolls, undead, orcs and the tauren (cow-like characters), and the Alliance features humans, dwarves, gnomes and elves. Each has various racial traits and the selection of classes for each faction includes magic-users, warriors, hunters, rogues and priests. Each side also has a specialist character choice. For the Horde there is the shaman and for the Alliance it is the paladin.

Creation of a character is very straightforward, with options such as hair colouring and facial features available to make a distinctive character (tusk length for trolls is very important, apparently). The characters themselves are cartoonish and rather than referring to them as characters, players often simply call them 'toons'.

Once you start the game proper, you are taken to one of the many nursery areas where you can quickly come to terms with the game elements and controls. They are very simple to master with the majority being mouse driven. Simple menus and pop-up windows are easy to follow while these can be further enhanced with user-created user interface add-ons.

The adventure takes place over a vast and varied amount of terrain. In fact, you often just stand and marvel at the grandeur of the scenery. There are huge waterfalls, towering trees, forboding ruins, searing deserts, and more. While most of the adventuring takes place on land, your toon also has the ability to swim, and some quests will see you exploring sunken ships and drowned cities. For long distance travel you can hop aboard underground trams (crafty folk, those gnomes), take flights on the backs of various creatures which fly pre-determined routes, or when crossing the seas, sail aboard ships or fly on the Zeppelins.

As you move out of the nursery areas you come up against increasingly difficult monsters and are challenged by more complex quests. It is possible to play right through to 60th level without doing any of the major quests, however to do so would mean missing out on some of the rich story that is interwoven into the world. There, intrigue abounds and strange and dark forces seek to gain power. As you adventure you uncover areas that are called 'instances,' which are special dungeons tied to some of the more elite quests. These are designed for parties of adventurers to complete and are unique to the group that enters into them. Parties are restricted to 5 toons at a time.

As your toon progresses you will also learn new talents which can then be applied in combat. For example, fighters gain effects that are generated by rage and magic users gain different spells. Combat is a simple matter of clicking on your taget to initiate combat and if required, clicking on the effect to which you wish to subject your opponent. This is very much a remnant from the Diablo games but this is not a bad thing. It is easy to use, but the combinations of the different talents/effects to get the best results is a subject of wide discussion in the game.