shopaholic_man's Full Review: Bradygames - World of Warcraft Atlas
Whenever I go somewhere new, I like to have an atlas or a roadmap of some kind to find my way around. I don't like to be lost and as a guy, of course I will never stop to ask for directions.
Azeroth Atlas
The Azeroth Atlas starts with a basic guide on how to use the Atlas and one huge map of all of Azeroth. (excluding Northend, not discovered until after this Atlas was published). The Overview map shows both Kalimodor and the Eastern Kingdoms with the name of all the areas. All the Flight path locations are shown, Alliance in Blue, Horde in Red and Neutral points in Yellow. It is handy to know what towns you can take a flight from! Zeppelin and Boat Routes are also shown. The location of every instance is also shown. The map has symbols and numbers on it, and the names of the cities, towns and instances are on the sides.
Area by Area and City by City
After the main overview, each area is has a two page layout with a map and index printed to the side. Each map is in color with a grid overlaid on it. The names of various areas are labled, as well as roads and the areas to the north, south, east and west. On the side, everything you want to know is listed including where to get supplies, and even where one can mine or harvest other resources. For quick reference, the page number of the neighboring regions are listed. The areas are in alphabetical order from the Alterac Mountains to Winterspring.
The large cities are listed in this section as well in alphabetical order. The Night Elf capital of Darnassus, the Dwarven capital of IronForge, the Orc capital of Orgrimmar, the Human city of Stormwind, the Tauren capital of Thunderbluff and finally the City of the Dead, the Undercity are all in the main section.
All the smaller town and villages are listed on smaller maps after the main areas and largest cities of Azeroth. The smaller maps are actually easier to use because each house and building is shown together with what shops and trainers are located in each. The large city maps just show the general areas that everyone can be located in.
Finally, the end has a detailed index.
Example Area Map - Teldrassil(Home Island of the Night Elves)
Say you started out as a new Night Elf in Aldrassil in the Shadowglen. The area map would give you an overview showing Starbreeze village and Dolanaar to the South and the capital Night Elf city of Darnassus to the West. Caves and lakes are all located as well as the mountain ranges that would prevent travel and the roads you can travel along. To the left of the map of the Island of Teldrassil is a list of the trainers and vendors which are located by a graph system. The only flight trainer for example, a hippogrypth master, is at G9. Unfortunately if you want to fly a hippogrypth, the map doesn't show that you need to teleport to Rut'theran Village via the portal in Darnassus. It's also where you can catch a boat to the mainland.
If you wanted more detail you could turn to page 109 for a detailed map of the town of Dolanaar. The map and guide use half the page with the map on the right and the guide on the left. The map shows the roads and the buildings with numbers indicating where every character is that you would need to see. Since night elves live in a large tree here, the guide even tells you what floor everyone is located on.
My problem with this Atlas is its coverage of major cities. Although the Elven capital of Darnassus has its own two page spread, I preferred the numbered system of the smaller villages with a number showing where a particular vendor or trainer is. Instead, you get an overview map where it is hard to discern between roads, bridges, buildings and terraces. Areas of the town are named, like Cenarion Enclave, Craftsmen's Terrace, Warrior's Terrace, Trademen's Terrace and Temple of of the Moon. I thought these were named self evidently, but it took me a while to buy a new bow. The map guide lets you know that bows are in area H6, but four different buildings are in that area, and many have multiple stories. There is NO indication whatsoever on the map that the PORTAL that leads to Rut'theran village is located on a small island off the Temple Gardens in the middle of Darnassus. That would have been nice to know. The Atlas didn't help me with that at all, and it was only because a nice dwarf wanted to take my Night Elf Hunter Cayleah to see IronForge that I learned about the portal.
City Maps are Lacking
In cities like UnderCity, Stormwind and IronForge similar helpful details are missing. All these cities are HUGE and have multiple stories and levels. This Atlas lacks the details necessary to get around in the big cities. For example, Thunderbluff, the home of the Taurens, consists of three main levels on a bluff in the middle and three rises on separate bluffs. You need to know that the building in the center of the main bluff gives you access to the three main levels. The map doesn't show that the main section of the city is actually three different levels. Each of the three sub levels (rises) must be travelled to on rope bridges from one of the three main levels. Yes, the maps shown in the book are just like the maps shown in the game, but I have the same complaint about the in game city maps too.
The Atlas does provide excellent guides to all the towns and villages and even the camps in both Horde, Alliance and Neutral territories. Instances are located in this Atlas, but you need to buy separate books to get maps of the Instances, they are not included in this Atlas.
Background is Lacking
Although this is strictly speaking, just an Atlas, it would have been nice to have a small background paragraph about each of the areas. You can't really tell who lives there or what type of environment an area is, until you actually visit it. Just a few sentences would have been nice.
What does the Atlas Add to the Guides Included with the Game?
When my son and I got World of Warcraft Battlechests, they came with a disc and codes for loading both games onto our computers (PC and Mac!). They also included decent guide books for World of Warcraft and World of Warcraft the Burning Crusade. Although the maps are smaller and not in a coffee table style book, they provide almost all the same details aas this Atlas, except for the detailed town and village maps.
If you think you'd save money and just purchase the World of Warcraft Burning Crusade or Wrath of the Lich King Atlas, you won't. They only cover the lands added since the last game. You need all three atlases to have a complete set of maps of Azeroth.
Summary
Since these books are large hardcover books, I thought they would have a better presentation than they did. Yes, every section of Azeroth from the original World of Warcraft is mapped out complete with the general locations of all the trainers and vendors, but I just felt that Blizzard Entertainment and Bradygames could have done a better job of it. Not a lot is added to the guide books already included with the game. Hopefully Frommers or Lonely Planet will do a guide of Azeroth one day. I gave the guide three stars. It's good, it does it's job, but it could have been a lot better.
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