Should I Play World of Warcraft: Shadowlands?

Forewarning: I am not a professional game critic, so this is just my experience and opinion on what I've seen so far. As for some background, I am a PC gaming enthusiast that fell in love with Warcraft III and then began my WoW adventure in Burning Crusade and into WOTLK where I would classify myself as more of a hardcore player. After WOTLK I played on and off throughout the other expansions, but never could really get back into it until Legion. I thought Legion was a great expansion, and I played into BFA but quickly lost interest due to the new systems and storyline.

I'm going to start off the article with the answer to the question you came here for. Is Shadowlands worth it? Yes. Leading up to the release of Shadowlands I was pretty nonchalant about the whole thing. It was just another expansion with some cool cinematic trailers and what looked to be some scrappy lore of an already bland story. But Blizzard offered a free-to-play weekend so I decided to take a look around and play a bit. The pre-expansion changes were a little interesting so I decided I'd put down $40 for the expansion if not just for the nostalgia of the max level rush.

Here's the TL;DR for those of you who would rather not read through my ramblings:

Pros:

• Story/lore - Phenomenal story line that is easy to follow (even for someone who has never read a quest description ever.) Blizzard has done an awesome job tying the new expansion into the existing universe, while also providing new and exciting content. The cinematics are great, the story flows perfectly from one zone to another, and there are even recognizable characters that show back up.
• Zones - The zones themselves are really well designed and have an insane amount of content to uncover. Whether you're into questing, hunting rares, or figuring out how to reach hidden treasure, there are a ton of things to keep you coming back for more.
• Alt-friendly - If you are an altoholic then you will love Shadowlands. Blizzard has made sure that you won't have to do the same main quest line 10 different times for each character. Once you complete the main quest line on your first toon, all other characters can bypass that quest line and get straight into choosing their own covenant.
• Torghast - Imagine Diablo 3 rifts but in World of Warcraft. I would even classify this as its own game mode; Torghast is an everchanging dungeon that can be completed alone or with a party of up to 5. It's a multilevel instance that provides you with random powers and enhancements as you progress, as well as an increasing difficulty factor. It's a lot of fun, and some of the powers you can get are ridiculously overpowered.

Cons:

• The Maw - An extremely unforgiving and harsh zone, The Maw is the centerpiece of the expansion. It's the realm where the main villain of the expansion is currently held captive. The zone is supposed to represent WoW's version of hell, and it does a very good job of that. It's an extremely frustrating zone that is not easy to navigate or understand. You will be spending quite a bit of time in this zone because of the dailies and the significance it has with the main questline.
• Covenants - The covenant system is pretty cool, you choose a faction and you get a few new skills to add to your spell book. However, the covenant skills are not made equal. They range from completely useless to integral to maximizing your class. If you are someone who wants to try and min/max your class, covenants will be a difficult choice. It's easy to swap to a covenant you haven't joined yet, however if you want to switch back it gets considerably harder. My advice is to choose a covenant based on your own preference, rather than what people are telling you is 'the best'.

Well the release date came and I was pumped up. I had loved rushing to max level in previous expansion and pushing the new group content without any guides or strategies. I told my gym partner I had to leave early (Sorry Matt), and rushed home to log in just 2 minutes after the launch time. The NPC role playing was just finishing and the portal opened. Next thing I knew I was in the Shadowlands.

I was max level within 22 hours of the expansion launch. I played for around 8 hours the first night and got to level 56 before going to bed. The following morning I was back at it, and after 8 hours I was max level. Now I don't write this to brag; especially considering that there were already level 60s when I went to bed the very first night. But I believe it gives a good idea of how captivating the entire process was. The game was beautiful and well designed, and the questing process was very fluid and easy to follow. It truly highlighted what I believe to be Shadowlands strong suit: the story.

Storyline

I've always really enjoyed the lore of the Warcraft universe. Coming from Warcraft III, it was pretty amazing to see the continuation of the story into World of Warcraft. I think most Warcraft fans have come to expect a certain level of quality and sensibility to the storyline. And the expansions that deliver that seem to do really well, while the ones who aren't up to par (time travelling orcs, what?) often fall short.

With that being said, I feel that Shadowlands has an exceptional storyline that ties extremely well into the current lore, while also exploring a side of the universe we have never seen before. Then you add in the reappearance of several fan favorite characters and it just makes for an all-around good time. Without dropping too many spoilers, Shadowlands is the 'afterlife' realm which gives us the opportunity to meet up with some pretty significant individuals from Azeroth.

Questing/Playability

I really enjoy the questing and zones in Shadowlands. The quests are well designed to flow with the zone and provide details and lore on what exactly is going on. Cinematics and dialogue do an excellent job of progressing the storyline and explaining things as they come up. The main questline provides you everything that you need to know about the story, as well as taking you zone by zone and explaining the intricacies of Shadowlands.

I'd also like to give Blizzard a shout out for the lack of bad 'grind-like' quests that nobody likes. It seems that Shadowlands is trying to breakaway from the typical 'grindfest' most expansions have turned into. There are dailies and world quests, but they don't take you too far out of the way, and often times the dailies are things you are already doing (running dungeons, world quests, Torghast, etc).

Dungeons and Torghast

My first impression of the new set of dungeons was a little underwhelming. The dungeons themselves were well designed and provided a fresh experience, however I felt they were quite easy and the mechanics could just be worked around or blown through. Once I began running Mythic dungeons things became a little more challenging. They required more coordination and the boss fight mechanics had to be utilized. However this didn't stop the premade group I was a part of from clearing all 8 Mythic dungeons in the first week of the release. While I regard myself as being a competent player, I don't see myself as being in the top percentiles. So clearing Mythics within days of hitting max level, makes it seem like the dungeons might be undertuned.

As for Torghast, I completed all levels currently unlocked. Blizzard is currently gating the content by locking floors above a certain level until the raid is released. I ran it by myself and with a group, and both times were quite a lot of fun. I am currently playing a frost mage this expansion, so while I am a bit squishy, I have a good amount of damage and my kiting ability allowed me to stay alive while playing by myself. I didn't have too much of an issue making it through the unlocked floors, however I did have some difficulty on the final boss. The powers you obtain as you progress through the dungeon have a range of features. On the most basic level they will reduce certain cast times or increase crit chance. On the more advanced level they can change how certain spells interact or give you additional skills to utilize. One of my favorite powers is a change to polymorph where it turns your polymorph target into a bomb once it breaks out of the spell. It's a great way to clear out groups of unsuspecting enemies.

Conclusion

Overall my expectations have been exceeded with this expansion. The storyline is compelling, the skills and variances provide the player with a good range of options, and Torghast looks to bring a new variety of gameplay to spice up the monotony of typical dungeons and raids. I have high hopes that Shadowlands will become an excellent expansion, and continue on the captivating storyline that has enthralled countless players.

What do you think of the new expansion? Let me know by tweeting me @CJ_3FW