Metascore
82 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 42 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 38 out of 42
  2. Negative: 0 out of 42
  1. Nov 12, 2012
    90
    World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria is a huge expansion to an already huge game. With more and increasingly diverse content, Blizzard shows that the venerable game can still amaze and capture players, both hardcore and casual. While the engine is showing its age, this is a fresh new World of Warcraft, inviting us to yet again fight for what is ours.
  2. 90
    The amount of content present in Mists of Pandaria is itself a completely new game.
  3. Oct 31, 2012
    90
    There are still a few little quirks, and likely still some balancing and other changes required, but it's clear that this is a great World of Warcraft expansion, and that the team behind the game are still focused on giving WoW players what they want. Recommended.
  4. Oct 29, 2012
    91
    Mists of Pandaria is the best WoW expansion to date. Filled with content, quests, optional activities, items to find and reputations to grind for, this expansion will keep fans hooked for a long time. If you don't like WoW, though, there's no way you will be interested in Mists of Pandaria.
  5. Oct 24, 2012
    90
    I must admit that Blizzard learns from its mistakes – Mists of Pandaria is much better than Cataclysm. For the first time in ages I'm having fun playing WoW. [12/2012, p.70]
  6. Oct 18, 2012
    90
    Blizzard returns to glory by re-balancing the whole game, introducing some great new areas for gamers to explore and adding some quite interesting classes.
  7. Oct 17, 2012
    90
    Mists of Pandaria is a really good expansion for World of Warcraft that offers plenty to all players, regardless of the play style they prefer. Let's hope that the promise of frequent updates will be kept and no one will get bored with existing content. Everyone should be able to answer this question: What is Mists of Pandaria? For me it's a WoW adventure I have been waiting for since 2010. Remember though, that grading Mists of Pandaria right now is simply an attempt to foresee where Blizzard's game is headed.
  8. Oct 10, 2012
    88
    You won't regret your excursion to these ursine lands if you've still got the spirit of exploration, the scars, and the fond feelings of battle etched into your heart. Those less into the prospect of jumping into WoW yet again may just as well stay in hibernation.
  9. Oct 10, 2012
    100
    Mists of Pandaria looks and sounds simply beautiful. And it knows it, providing ample opportunity to ride massive kites or giant jade dragons and ogle sculpted monuments and tiered pagodas all while listening to an epic orchestral soundtrack or a nearly flawless monologue delivered by talented voice actors.
  10. Oct 10, 2012
    89
    World of Warcraft stages a great comeback. Beautiful settings and an atmospheric story arc generate a well done Mists of Pandaria, while casuals celebrate the new and core gamers mourn the past.
  11. Oct 4, 2012
    87
    The best questing in World of Warcraft, with strong emphasis on storytelling, resulting in an entertaining run from 85 to 90 that seldom tumbles into tedium.
  12. Oct 3, 2012
    90
    The expansion adds more wonderful charm to the game while not exactly taking the huge risks that we've seen in past expansions, and that's okay. As a returning player, there's plenty to do to keep me busy thanks to all of the end game content, and there will be more to come when Blizzard implements the game's upcoming 10 and 25 man raid encounters.
  13. Sep 25, 2012
    90
    Despite it's lack of epic scope in comparison with the previous expansions, Mists of Pandaria proves to be one of the most complete add-ons to date for World of Warcraft. The amount of innovation and level of optimization is remarkable, and if you are a WoW fan, Mists of Pandaria is something you don't want to miss.
User Score

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 860 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Can't believe I bought this game. The whole idea of it should have turned me off from the get go, but loyalty to the series made me want to try it. The game has become a simplistic MMO that requires very little time and effort to play, which is not what I'm looking for. A dumbing down of a genre is what were seeing here. Full Review »
  2. edit In the end I tried mop. We start from the new zones, they are just a mixture of old areas like Nagrand plus Arathi Basin for example; every new discovery you feel that you have already seen. Then we move to the first new mission that seems to play battlefield instead of wow, to realize that your character moves by itself, because it is too difficult to understand "thrown from the ship." Several quests, for some strange reason, ask to recover the missing son of these new panda, even blizzard to a point jokes about it and the other has not changed, collect and kill; the spirit of adventure is non-existent since all of them are completed near the quest-giver, using only the mount to move from one village to another. The graphics engine begins to feel the weight of years, so to make it look "new" brightness was raised to maximum levels and your eyes, beg mercy after a few hours of play. There are a couple of good things like the loot-area, but the game remains the same so do not expect the new messiah. Pvp is a big unbalanced mess; druid with blink-vanish, hunter Bm with op pet,monk got a spammable blink that can double the distance of the mage,unkillable healer like cata (last BG was full of them) some class get nerfed each patch while warlock can tank 3 dps without die. Worst pvp in the history of WoW. Full Review »
  3. Poor design, poorly planned out, causal-ized skills, bad launch. This xpac will be the downfall of WoW. Crossrealm is interesting, however it's lead to camp-the-spawn world PVP. Piles of bones at spawn and portal points. The expansion quests - mobbed with players trying to do "spawns once every 10 minutes" destroyable objects. Severe bottleneck quests that have long cinematic scenes, and require certain objects to be destroyed. Seriously, you'd think blizzard - with hundreds of millions in revenue, near a decade of running an MMO ... would they know how to design and run one? It's falling apart, it's like they want to destroy it. I didn't think there could be a step down from Cata, but there IS. And Mists of Pandaria - is it. Don't buy it if you haven't bought it. It's bad. Full Review »