World of Warcraft Horde Preview

GameSpot has put together a preview of the Horde races recently made available in the World of Warcraft beta. Check it out:

Blizzard is further differentiating the groups in World of Warcraft by the inclusion of unique languages for several of the races. You’ll begin the game with a proficiency in one or two languages. So, for instance, undead characters can currently speak common and orcish. Presumably, you’ll be able to learn other tongues as you progress in skill. When we ran into our first group of humans after invading Westfall, we tried to engage in conversation without any apparent understanding on the part of our living counterparts. We had no problem comprehending what they were saying, though, and after much shouting and waving of hands, we determined that–at least for now–undead characters actually start off speaking orcish. We then switched our active language to “common” and were able to strike up a real conversation, even politely offering to eat the brains of our human counterparts. As with all things in the beta, the language rules are still being finalized. So far, it looks like this system will create just one more interesting layer of complexity for those times when players pit characters of varying factions and regions against one another.