Favourite Cutscene or Cinematic

Robin Torres asked this question over on WoW Insider yesterday and with the contest launch and putting together a couple of outfits for Mrs. Amateur, I never got the chance to answer.  In the article, Robin points to the Warcraft of old when Arthas kills his father.  In World of Warcraft, she picked the Wrathgate.

I can’t say as I blame her in the slightest.  There are a few parts of the quest chain on the Alliance side that are annoying to have to do, but it’s worth the payoff.  The cutscene is phenomenal and epic.  It really captured the feel of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, something that never really happened in Cataclysm (despite way too many cutscenes).  In fact, I would argue players became sick of having things interrupted over and over.  It wasn’t so bad for the ones you could skip, but not all worked that way (riding to the Sepulcher with Sylvanas comes to mind).

But getting back to the question at hand, I had to give some serious thought to my answer.  I could just as easily have said the Wrathgate.  However, it’s actually not the case for me (though it’s very much right up there).  In thinking about my favourite, it’s actually a tie.  In what is merely coincidence, the two videos cover the period in which I first started the game.

Coming out just as I really started getting into World of Warcraft, aka the era Mrs. Amateur joined Azeroth as well, came the Fury of the Sunwell (Patch 2.4).

This was really my first introduction into the full spectrum of WoW lore as well, and it made me want to find out more.  It gave us an eye grabbing zone in the Isle of Quel’Danas, while both Magister’s Terrace and the Sunwell Plateau are two of the most gorgeous instances in the game.

Just ahead of that however, is the video that still gives me chills.  Even more so than the first time I saw the Cataclysm trailer, and much more lasting.  Arriving in November of 2007, Patch 2.3 must’ve heard ‘ol JD had signed up because it brought us some nasty trolls.

Yeah, Zul’jin has ranks in intimidation that rival any character in the game.  The “trailer” did a great job of showing the history, as well as Zul’jin’s hatred.  The line at the end just caps off the whole feel of the cinematic perfectly.  Kudos to the voice acting in that one for making it the pinnacle that it is.