World of Warcraft: Shadowlands review

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World of Warcraft: Shadowlands review




In 2008, World of Warcraft was at its peak. Over 11 million people were ready to take on the returning threat of the Lich King — the corrupt paladin Arthas Menethil, who became the standout character of the franchise’s RTS (real-time strategy) days. But once the dust had settled, subscriber numbers plummeted to a point where Blizzard wouldn’t say how many were left. After the boom of Classic and record pre-order numbers of an expansion promising to explore the story of the Lich King further, nostalgia clearly has dominion over Blizzard’s biggest title. Now that we’re able to explore the veil between life and death in Shadowlands, just how long will we stick around?To get more news about Buy WoW Gold, you can visit lootwow.com official website.

For many, World of Warcraft: Shadowlands actually kicked off a month before its release, when the long-standing level grind was reworked into a far less demanding sprint. The changes offered a refreshingly fast way for returning veterans to get caught up in time for the expansion, with the 6- to 10-hour Shadowlands leveling experience ultimately highlighting a key change in direction that Blizzard may have just taken a little too far. It’s not that there’s too much or too little to get caught up in — it’s just difficult to find a reason to do anything at all.

For years now, players have tackled World of Warcraft in a number of ways. PvE, PvP, Pokemon-esque mount and creature collecting, achievement hunting, and grinding faction reputation for cosmetic rewards have all been par for the course. Virtually none of that has changed in Shadowlands. Not that it really needed to. But aside from the introduction of Torghast, a rougelite dungeon experience introduced after the initial level grind, there’s surprisingly little else to separate the last week of World of Warcraft and the last eight or so years.

At the forefront of any new MMO expansion is a plethora of new zones to level up in. After playing the protagonist card to break out of Warcraft’s version of eternal damnation, the main city of Oribos becomes a glorified level select hub straight out of a PS1-era platformer, opening up story lines of the Covenants across Bastion, Maldraxxus, Ardenweald, and Revendreth in sequence. The style and tone of each zone differ drastically to fit the tastes of just about anyone, but stray too far from the confines of one zone’s questline, and it’s easy to lose the motivation to see the actually mandatory story line through to its current conclusion.

The existence of sidequests in the first playthrough suggests an element of freedom is baked into the leveling experience, just as it is on the road to Level 50; it’s like it’s designed to allow for players to focus on a zone they enjoy. But the truth of the matter is, it’s as linear as can be. The Shadowlands campaign shuts any meaningful end-game content behind the intertwined lore of its zones. Despite how it first looks, there’s no fluidity to the leveling experience here, which is odd given just how much blind freedom is dumped on the player once they hit the cap.

The true lack of direction kicks off toward the tail end of the Campaign questline. Once players have seen each zone’s story through, they’re made to choose which of the Covenants they want to stick with. Aside from the unique new skill or two each tosses onto the hotbar, there’s virtually no vital context outlining why players have to choose just one, or what real difference it’ll make to day-to-day life for the next year or two that Shadowlands is around for.

After making an uninformed choice, players follow their chosen Covenant’s story until they’re introduced to a litany of new content. There’s the roguelite tower of Torhgast, World Quests, various currencies, the returning (but mechanically tweaked) idle missions of the Command Table, and about five different reputation shops. It’s a bit much to take in all at once.

Each feature is tossed at players at a rapid pace. It’s not that there’s a shortage of content, but why you’d want to indulge in any is never really made clear. Without the rewards being clearly laid out on the table, it’s difficult to get the motivation to run one piece of content over another — or any at all, for that matter. Rather than sift through menus and vendors looking for motivation, I was often more compelled to shut the game off altogether and fire up one that makes its rewards plain to see.