Sylvanas Windrunner ripped open the helmet of the Lich King, thus opening a portal to the Shadowlands and thanks to the help of the wicked jailers it even succeeded in kidnapping the major representatives of the Horde and Alliance. It will be up to us to save King Anduin, Jayna and company, by launching ourselves into the afterlife and making pacts with the covenants of the afterlife. Head to Shadowlands!
Blizzard Entertainment has finally launched the new expansion of World of Warcraft, which after 16 long years of life is ready to return in a renewed guise to the market. Shadowlands, thanks to a decidedly full-bodied pre-patch, has been heavily installed on our PCs for a week, and it's time to dissect the contents proposed at launch. Will Blizzard's senior MMO be able to have another say?
In the past few days we have talked in a dedicated in-depth analysis of how Blizzard has revolutionized leveling and rendered access to end-game content for new players is much more attractive, even reducing the level cap.
In the Shadowlands, we will have the opportunity and therefore the obligation to advance from level 50 to 60, during a tutorial-campaign which will take us to visit the four maps of the different covenants. During this trial period we will be able to fully test the powers deriving from the factions, until we can choose, at the end of the campaign, the one that's right for us. In the Bastion, we will go to test the incipit of a plot that sees an angelic revolt as the protagonist, closely linked to the paladin Uther, killed by his pupil: the famous Arthas Menethil. In Maldraxxus, realm of war, we will fight side by side with Draka: the parent of the heroic Thrall.
In Selvarden, kingdom of nature, we will meet the fairy Sylphs of the night and protectors of the eternal forest, while in the diabolical and gothic Redendreth we will see all sorts of betrayals and subterfuges, standing up against the insatiable appetite of some essence eaters.
There is even a fifth kingdom, the Fauce, the abode of eternal damnation without any possibility of redemption, and this is where the legendary protagonists of World of Warcraft. This infernal theater will be home to the most complex challenges and will strongly punctuate the first bars of the campaign of this expansion. What is most striking is certainly the aesthetics of the new areas proposed by this expansion, which, completely renewed compared to the older scenarios that we were used to limestone, will be a real pleasure for the eyes. On the other hand, the graphic gap between the Terretetre and the faction capitals is remarkable and with each return to Stormwind or Orgrimmar, the visual discontinuity will be evident.
The progress of our characters will not enrich them almost entirely with new skills, simply going to enhance some of the existing ones, making the classes almost completely unchanged in the transition from Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands. What will impact our character is almost exclusively related to the choice of the coven, which will provide two unique abilities depending on our preference.
However, the choice of the coven is less free than one might think, forcing the player to choose the most suitable for the chosen class and role, completely sacrificing preferences of lore or aesthetics. Nothing prevents the player from choosing their favorite factionwhile sacrificing some of the potential optimization of our virtual alter ego. Once you've finished the introductory campaign and joined a coven, we will be in the actual content of the expansion. Although the proposed contents are many and varied, the game system binds us to a progression exquisitely linked to the complete daily and weekly: daily and weekly missions to be completed almost mandatory to enjoy the right pace in the progress of the adventure.
For example, it was impossible to complete at least two of the main missions during the first week due to the insurmountable ceiling of available resources, for which it was necessary to wait for the stroke of the second week of Shadowlands. These limits constantly apply to all game content, strongly characterizing Blizzard's proposal.
The main contents proposed by Shadowlands are however many and certainly interesting. For progress players in search of challenging content, dungeons are back in great shape, which, divided into normal, heroic and mythic modes, represent the beating heart of the character's evolution. Each boss killed within an expedition will provide pieces of equipment depending on the level of completion. The mythical ones are for now depleted by the content of difficulty to climb seen in Battle for Azeroth, the previous expansion, but this particular mechanic will see the light again as the expansion progresses. Each expedition can only be successfully completed once a week at the mythic level, otherwise the bosses will not drop in subsequent completions. Considering the drop rate of the pieces that will dress our character, we found this limitation annoying but preparatory to a healthy and global rhythm of the gaming experience.
Climbing the tower of Torgast represents a real novelty at Blizzard: it is a procedural dungeon divided into various wings and floors, which offers challenges of increasing difficulty, which we will be able to overcome thanks to random upgrades to be collected in the largest possible quantity.
As for the mythical instances, the various wings of Torgast will expand from week to week, pacing the exploration and progression of the story connected to it. After various runs within its plans, we can assert with certainty that what has been made available so far is very interesting, able to propose a real challenge to groups of players who dare to venture there. Although the difficulty increases exponentially depending on the size of the party, tackling it alone is much more accessible and navigable. As for the PvP sector, we see the formula for random battlefields and arenas unchanged, which for years has seen the PvP gear as a great absent, continuing to wink towards a unified set with PvE. By competing in fierce battles against other players, it will be possible in the coming weeks to obtain useful pieces of equipment as in the previous expansions, providing the player with a remarkable option of game variety.
The audio sector can boast first-rate dubbing and the amount of text that is given voice is not related exclusively to the main quest, but spread over multiple game contents. The soundtrack instead performs the simple task of a musical carpet, without ever the protagonist. We are light years away from the roaring music and atmosphere seen for example in Final Fantasy XIV.
Mouse and keyboard in hand, the first few bars of World of Warcraft: Shadowlands proved exciting and rich in content, although the limited progression from week to week represents a significant barrier for those most eager to test the development of events. The large amount of dungeons and the first raid coming next week are only part of the many high-level content offered, representing the spearhead of this part of the expansion. Now it's up to Blizzard to show us that it can keep up with new content that can keep players' interest high and not fall into stalemate, as often happens in the MMORPG genre.
