WOW Shadowland review

On the night of April 10, Blizzard opened access to alpha testing of the new add-on for World of Warcraft – Shadowlands. Cybersport.ru spent almost two weeks in the Dark Lands and managed to reach the current maximum level 53, go through the starting storyline, meet with the inhabitants of the underworld and conquer the first dungeon. About how developers have changed the world of Warcraft and what awaits players in Shadowlands – in our material.

Who are you? We did not call you!

There are no connecting elements with the previous storyline in the alpha test yet. We learned from the Shadowlands trailer that Sylvanas broke the Lich King’s helmet and opened the way to the Dark Lands. Once in the game, we immediately found ourselves in the Bastion (one of the four covenants) – in a kind of paradise inhabited by Kyrians, angel-like creatures. In addition to them, here you can meet those who are still striving to ascend – blue-skinned people in white tunics – as well as small intelligent owls and sentry robots filled with anima.

We were met by the manager, who took our character for the recently deceased, and immediately reassured: “Once you deserve wings and become reborn.” The interlocutor nodded sympathetically to all our weak protests that we were actually alive, saying: “Yes, yes, everyone says that, you’re just in shock.” Local managers, apparently, were not aware of the “exploits” of Sylvanas. An error in the system was quickly discovered, and only then did the local managers understand that it was too early for our hero to the other world. However, to complete the quests and help the local angels still had to.

About the afterlife in World of Warcraft almost never mentioned. The theme of death was played out only in the context of the Scourge. Therefore, we were given an escort to help us, who was to bring us up to date. However, it did not work out in detail – in the “paradise” the revolution had begun by that time.

In the course of the storyline, the player will have to help the bright Kyrians in the fight against apostates who succumbed to fears, desires and other worldly weaknesses. Quest mechanics and varieties of errands in the addon remain the same. However, I remembered one task: in it, the workers of the underworld studied my character’s soul and its path, “taking” memories from past additions. During this quest, I had to fight again with all the once defeated rivals: from the Scourge and demons to representatives of the opposing faction. The result was a kind of express tour of the previous add-ons.

Many cut scenes, like videos, are not yet available in the alpha test, so we didn’t succeed in fully immersing ourselves in the plot. In the starting location there are no leaders of our faction and in general any familiar characters, because of which isolation from the familiar world seems even more noticeable. Now it is more like a separate game made with a copy of the mechanics of World of Warcraft. But for the release, everything can change.

Photogenic Bastion

The first location is noticeably different in design from what we used to see in World of Warcraft. It is a kind of symbiosis of the paradise Nagrand and the brighter Zangartopi – with trees and platforms soaring in the sky, as well as small swamps. All this contrasts sharply with Battle for Azeroth, where players fought in familiar forests, deserts, and jungles. Blizzard already did something similar in Mists of Pandaria, where the general design of the locations, made in the oriental style, was knocked out of the prevailing vision of the world of World of Warcraft.

The bastion turned out to be really beautiful and sublime. Blizzard did not just make another location and called it the afterlife – the company managed to breathe some spiritual greatness into it, creating high spiers, tending to the sky, patterned sanctuaries and massive statues of angels looking at the player. The Bastion itself is a piece of land located in the sky, and therefore the players will have a thousand and one opportunities to break, trying to jump back to Azeroth – to the clubs of the clouds.

After we admired the beauties of landscapes, we were sent to a more familiar atmosphere of devastation and rot – a ziggurat hung over the Bastion. And this is a rather interesting contrast. Being in the Abode of Heroes hovering over the rest of the location and listening to the appropriate soundtrack, we can make out a ziggurat in which the abominations we know are already gathered.

The Battle of the Mini Kel’Zuzad

The Necrotic Wake (“Deadly Trizna”) is the first and so far the only available dungeon in Shadowlands, which is located next to the ziggurat. Getting there on the alpha test turned out to be more difficult than passing it: on the first visit I was repeatedly thrown out of it, after which I even had to reinstall the client. Due to the small number of players, it took almost an hour to search for the group. The dungeon itself, even despite a couple of wipes due to ignorance of tactics on the bosses, takes about 20 minutes.

There will be no new rivals inside The Necrotic Wake – these are the usual abominations, however, with modified models, occultists, plague doctors, bone dragons and even a mini copy of Kel’Tuzad. All of these creatures became the advanced invasion squad of the neighboring covenant Muldraxus, which belongs to the necromancers and other dubious personalities. Our task is to help the Cyrians repel the attack on the Bastion.

The number of packs between bosses is minimal, and some of them can be easily circumvented. We will not be allowed to walk around the ziggurat itself: all battles will take place on floating platforms next to it. Bosses have no radically new mechanics. The main thing that gives us a dungeon, in addition to loot, is information about the relationship and the confrontation of the covenants.

However, in addition to the usual dungeon, a new test format has appeared in Shadowlands, which remotely resembles the N’Zoth visions from BfA – Torghast, Tower of the Damned. This is an endless dungeon that can be completed both in a group and independently.

Torghast is the afterlife in which the darkest souls are locked. It will have to deal with hordes of different enemies and collect anime – the main resource in Shadowlands. The more floors and levels a player goes through, the higher his reward will be. The tower itself will be constantly changing. On the alpha test, it is available only for four classes, but access to the release of the add-on will certainly be open to everyone. At the moment, this is the most noticeable innovation in Shadowlands, except for the changed visual design and style of locations.

Back to the roots

Even at BlizzCon 2019, developers talked about a new pumping system: levels were compressed, and now the 60th has become the maximum. Along with this, all the indicators of the characters decreased – no more +1000 to strength or +800 to agility from one item. At the 50th level, heroes have an average of 10 thousand health points.

The required amount of experience for leveling has also decreased – to get the 51st level, 150 thousand units will be required. experience, for quests they give from 6 thousand to 10 thousand, and for the killed NPC – about 250-300 units. experience. Leveling is pretty fast, I managed to get the 53rd level in the evening – and this despite the fact that there are still enough non-plot quests left in the location.

Despite the acceleration of pumping, the battle with the mobs seemed to me more intense. With WoW Classic, of course, can not be compared, but much more complicated than in Battle for Azeroth. To agitate five or six monsters at once and then quickly destroy them with the “Divine Storm” became problematic – it is likely that they will kill you earlier. For the first time in a couple of recent additions, I recalled during the upgrade that the paladin in the Retribution specialization generally has a heal, because it’s quite difficult to survive without him. A snack after a couple of hassles also returned, although before that it was the last time I practiced it except in The Burning Crusade.

Class changes are also like a return to the roots. Specialization now slightly less severely limits the hero’s ability pool. For all classes, some of the spells have now become common to all jumps. Paladins, for example, were completely given back access to switched auras. During pumping, all these changes are not particularly felt, their significance can be understood only later – when mastering high-level raid content.

At the moment, it is difficult to objectively evaluate Shadowlands and to predict what the add-on will be on the release. Visually and aesthetically, the addition looks attractive, but it’s quite unusual. Having chosen the theme of the underworld, which was never described before, the developers received carte blanche for creativity – they are not bound by the restrictions and rules created in Azeroth. We are definitely waiting for a whole new world, however, how it fits into the very structure of World of Warcraft is not yet clear. Here, everything will depend on the scenario decisions that remained hidden on the alpha test.