On November 23rd, Blizzard launched the eighth expansion to their MMORPG phenomenon that is, World Of Warcraft. Naturally, with the release of Shadowlands came a volley of reviews with players pointing out the best and worst aspects of the game. Shadowlands opens up the world to the realm of the dead tied in with Warcraft lore. It also features the introduction of new gameplay mechanics such as ’level squish’ system as well as Covenants.
The consensus is still out on whether Shadowlands will go on to become one of the better expansions players have seen in the game. However, there are still some apparent strengths and pitfalls that are clear to see presently.
10 Worst: Maldraxxus
Maldraxxus constitutes one of the four main zones in World Of Warcraft: Shadowlands and while it may be visually impressive, there are still some glaring issues. The zone has an extremely mediocre storyline coupled with unbearably long quests. The quests in themselves may be enough to capture the attention of the untrained mind but the time required for hunting the items breaks the flow of the game. The storyline in Maldraxxus is underwhelming when compared to the rest of the expansion.
9 Best: Central Villain
Zovaal or better referred to as The Jailer is one of the best villains WoW has seen in over a decade. The Jailor oozes mystery and has a dark aura about him owing to the fact that he rules the dark domain called The Maw. According to Wowpedia, The Jailor bears an uncanny resemblance to Dante’s Satan. Players can expect a greater challenge than usual when they finally face him on the battlefield. The Jailor uses the souls in The Maw to grow more powerful as he plans to rupture the soul of Azeroth.
8 Worst: Rinse And Repeat
In spite of being visually impressive, Shadowlands follows the same pattern of its predecessors. The story is gripping but using the same old gameplay elements ever since the original WoW in 2004 just doesn’t cut it. The gameplay is repetitive with players having to do mundane tasks in order to progress further and level up. A little more effort into quest design coupled with revamps other systems in the game would have gone a long way to make Shadowlands the best expansion yet.
7 Best: Zone Design
Blizzard’s Art Design team’s capabilities are at their best when it comes to Shadowlands. Each zone in the game albeit a bit too gloomy at times is detailed and immersive with lore scattered around everywhere. From the dark depths of The Maw to the clear blue skies of Bastion, everything looks ethereal with Blizzard leaving no stones unturned when it comes to detail.
The zones complement the theme of Shadowlands really well. Bastion, in particular, serves as a beautiful break from the otherwise gloomy aura of the expansion(which shall be discussed in a later point).
6 Worst: Doom And Gloom
Out of the four zones in the game, Bastion is the only one which gives players a break from the overall somberness of the game. While this may be justified by the fact that the theme centres around the underworld but having only one such zone is a poor excuse. The exceptional art design somewhat mitigates this feeling but nonetheless, no one wants to spend more than half their time surrounded by a blanket of darkness.
5 Best: Covenants
Simply put, Covenants are factions, each of which controls a major chunk of the Afterlife realm. Players will be introduced to these covenants as they progress with a chance to join one of them in the end. Different Covenants have different strengths, weaknesses and abilities but the thing which sticks out the most is the effort put into balancing them. It is not going to be an easy decision to decide on which Covenant to choose and makes for a wonderful break from the overly simplistic quests.
4 Worst: Quest Design
Shadowlands delivers a tightly wound and gripping story aided by excellent cinematics with a side of befitting ambient music. The quest design is altogether another story. The quests all boil down to finding X item or travelling to X place. They seem designed for gamers with no prior gaming experience whatsoever which is certainly not the case when thinking about the loyal WoW community. A little bit of variety with a more concise quest design would have made things a lot better in this department.
3 Best: Immersive Story
Right from the get-go, Shadowlands will have players hooked due to a well-designed intro and awesome cinematics. The latest WoW expansion has a lot going for it with an interesting villain, a world with depth and the introduction of features such as Covenants.
The game has a lot of well-written dialogue and perfect use of music. The replayability is only hindered by the fact that the quest design is a bit stale.
2 Worst: Disconnected Zones
As WoW has evolved over the years, Blizzard seems to have made the map design more claustrophobic. Each individual zone in itself is well-designed but collectively they just don’t pan out. The magnitude of the expansion is taken away by the fact that one zone is not visible from the other in a way that players would expect. The questing makes the zones feel like separate locations with players just funnelling from one place to another without getting a chance to soak all of them in.
1 Best: Dungeons
A very popular part of WoW, dungeons have been improved in Shadowlands. The new expansion has 8 dungeons with 4 of them being available whilst levelling up and 4 being reserved for max level. All of them are extremely well designed and challenging(especially when playing at Myhtic+ difficulty). Playing with friends and completing these dungeons is an absolute treat in Shadowlands.
NEXT: 5 Best Dungeons And Dragons Video Games (& 5 Worst)
