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World of Warcraft: Shadowlands review

    • 3250 posts
    August 8, 2021 11:21 PM EDT

    World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is the eighth expansion to the long-running MMORPG, and as such, it carries a lot of weight on its shoulders, especially following the maligned Battle For Azeroth. Much like 2016's Legion, Blizzard Entertainment finds itself needing to rediscover the identity of World of Warcraft in order to maintain dominance on the genre it helped popularize 16 years ago. To get more news about buy wow gold safe, you can visit lootwowgold official website.

    And, as far as the early expansion experience goes, it succeeds. World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, at least at this early stage before the first raid opens up, stands as one of the best expansions the game has ever seen. However, the sheer amount of content you run into once hitting the level cap could be overwhelming, especially if you're approaching it from the same mindset as other expansions. Because of the nature of World of Warcraft, we will be updating this review periodically over the lifespan of the expansion to reflect changes made to the game. So, be sure to check back when new patches launch to see how the new content affects the overall experience.

    In both World of Warcraft: Legion and Battle For Azeroth, the questing experience was totally open-ended. Once you got into the expansion, you could choose any one of multiple zones and play through the stories in any order. Shadowlands, on the other hand, goes back to the same approach that Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria took – guiding you through a specific linear path – and it's all the better for it. Moreso in Battle For Azeroth than Legion, the story was incredibly disconnected, with the different zone stories feeling completely separate from one another, which meant the questing experience was much less memorable.

    Because the main story in Shadowlands is inherently tied into everything you do while leveling up, however, it feels like your actions in the four different zones – Bastion, Maldraxxus, Ardenweald and Revendreth – actually matter to the overall story. The story opens up with you searching for allies in The Maw, an area where only the most irredeemable souls go after death, after they've been kidnapped and taken there. You obviously escape through some very WoW-like means (you're very very special uwu), and then go to Oribos, the main city and hub for the expansion. After that, you need to gather allies and resources in order to go back into the Maw to show the new villain, The Jailer, who's boss. But because the story is so linear, the journey through the zones feels impactful, rather than a collection of fun little detours like in the last expansion. All four zones flow into one another flawlessly, which makes for one of the best questing experiences the game has ever seen.