World of Warcraft: Shadowlands - Review
World Of Warcraft still remains one of the most popular MMORPGs in the world. Few people have managed to repeat such a success, and to stay afloat is even harder than to climb. The addition of Battle for Azeroth proved to be unsuccessful both in terms of plot and content. But does Blizzard have an opportunity to rehabilitate itself in the eyes of players with the help of the fresh Shadowlands extension? In this review we will try to find an answer and at the same time share our opinion about the novelty.
Battle of Silvana and Bolvar
I would like to start with the plot, because in my opinion this is one of the main problems of the previous add-on, because of which its maximum score on Metacritic was only 3 points. Shadowlands suffers from fewer problems in this respect. The lack of logic here is observed only in a couple of moments and they are quickly forgotten.
All because of the fact that after hitting the afterlife, the Darklands, when passing the storyline, there are always nostalgia notes. It is possible to see familiar, once favorite characters, to fight again with symbolic enemies and reveal the details of their appearance in the Darklands.
Heroes are quite well spelled out and gradually we learn the true causes of the disaster that occurred on Azeroth. Quests are interesting to read and skip them immediately starting to execute, as in BfA, do not want to. In this respect, the addition was on top of the previous one.
Warden- chief antagonist of the Supplement
Such a sharp change of scenery doesn't allow getting bored, and passing the campaign helps you decide on your favorite covenant and area for further pumping of twinks. By the way, the covenants are new fractions. For Muldraxus - Necrolors, Revendret - Ventira, Bastion - Kiriya and Ardenveld - Night People.
Everyone offers a separate campaign, exclusive mountaineering, equipment, unique skills suitable for the current specialization and activities, such as collecting anime for further improvement of the stronghold of the pact. At first, it is quite interesting to do everything, but there is no need to hurry, because in the end, even the promotion of the plot is reduced to the banal pharmacy of new types of currencies and local quests. This is apparently done to "delay" players before the next content update.
Attachment to the covenants is performed after the main job chain on the 60th level. The picture shows fractional armor
Compared to BfA, the complexity has slightly increased not only with local tasks, but also with normal pumping, instantiations, raids. Before going to the dungeon or to a mighty enemy, sometimes you have to think over tactics and even periodically change your talents. Reckless use of skills continues to slowly return to the past, which can not but please.
Separately, I would like to highlight a completely new activity for the 60th level - Torgast Tower. It is a dungeon belonging to the main antagonist of expansion, the Prisoner. After entering it, it is possible to choose two instances with different complexity (up to 8), several stages with bosses (about 7) and harmful modifiers. The latter, for example, may include intermittent damage as a percentage of maximum health, slowing down movement speed, attacks and so on.
The Tower of Torgasta is the highest point of the Womb, which can be seen even from Azerot through the fault.
Location of corridors in the instances, in the Tower, at a new passage changes randomly. Thus, it is impossible to remember the levels. Sometimes they get short missions to release the prisoners and search for their memorabilia, and as a reward you can choose to strengthen your character.
Reinforcements are valid only in Torgast and differ when passing alone, or in a group. For example, playing for the robber often gets a talent of +50% to the maximum health, but in the group round you will not see him. All such talents are summed up and before the fight with the final monster you can create a really strong assembly. After the instance, the gain is zeroed.
As a reward for passing the levels of the Tower, a special currency is issued, for which later the endgame items are improved, which serves as an excellent motivation to visit the activity. The Tower itself at first looks interesting and fascinating. I want to experiment with assemblages, try to pass the dungeons solo and with a group, help the prisoners, but soon gets bored.
Developers have so far implemented only a small variety of reinforcement talents, additional missions and enemies. Besides, the design looks very monotonous and even changing the types of instances once a week does not save the situation. It is clear that the authors are still just filling a hand, but we hope that this situation will be corrected as soon as possible.
Uniform rooms - Torgasta's main scourge As for other dungeons and raids of Castle Nafrica, they look interesting, have new mobiles and debuffs, but a fan of World of Warcraft will immediately notice in them an abundance of old mechanics from the previous additions. But what they have does not look like a hack. There are individual timings, secrets, and in many dungeons even unique opportunities for covenants. For example, in the Fogs, Tirna Skitta sworn in to the Night People can open an additional road, access to mushrooms that give buffas and set secondary points at which the resurrection in the case of Vip. Beginners and even experienced players can still die as a whole group: without calculating the time of the enemy's ability to trigger, gathering an extra moba or debuff.
An additional point, which I liked, was the research. To get the majority of treasures or to call rare mobs, sometimes you have to think a lot. Here the authors showed a flight of fancy and introduced a lot of interesting mechanics: the collection of fruits and their offerings, mushrooms for jumping, feeding monsters, reading the signs and the subsequent solving of riddles, and much more. In search of some solutions, you even unwittingly open Google.
PvP has also undergone major changes. We can finally buy the right products, not random ones, for honor. So it's possible to quickly assemble the first set for subsequent dungeon tours with friends or the guild. However, the balance on the battlefield or the arena is still limping, all because of the covenants available for use.
Even in the game, the number of newcomers has noticeably increased. Blizzard was helped by a new training system, thanks to which only the players who have created an account get to the special Island of Exiles, perform missions and learn the skills of classes. Such users are advised not to develop further alone, but to join the guilds immediately, which will help with the in-depth study of mechanics. Otherwise, they cannot avoid "toxicity" when passing dungeons or quests in the group. Newcomers can also use a fresh mentoring system and find a teacher.
After Battle for Azeroth, the developers seem to have realized that the hen will only lay golden eggs after a tasty feeding and the Shadowlands supplement can definitely be called "tasty". Traveling through the Shadowlands for a week left me with a lot of positive impressions. Blizzard managed to combine the most interesting of the previous extensions in one and bring in new activities.
Interesting plot and locations, covenants and their development, Torgasta Tower, treasure chests search, PvP award reduction - all this attracts and makes you stay in the game longer. Also pleasing is the abundance of "fresh blood" in the form of newcomers who decided to get acquainted with the world of World of Warcraft for the first time. It remains to hope that the developers will not step on the rake BfA and continue to move in a new direction.
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