Another faraway realm that has no connection to the story, factions, or zones that made people fall in love with this game.
Shadowlands as a whole has simply felt too removed from the rest of WoW to retain my attention. Instead of having an afterlives expansion set in zones we already had a connection to and had anticipated exploring (Emerald Dream, Da Otherside, Helheim, etc.) Blizzard decided to create entirely new zones and factions no one had ever heard of. Instead of having the story driven by reconnecting with characters who had died and we’d never gotten to interact with in WOW’s lifetime (Orgrim, Anduin Lothar, etc), the story has primarily revolved around a cast of all-too familiar characters and new covenant denizens. I’m surprised by how little nostalgia and history the developers decided to pull from when making this expansion.
This could have been one of the coolest expansions yet, but like WOD, it just feels like a self-contained story in its own little corner of the universe with virtually no development for either faction or Azeroth as a whole. The story must build on itself, but this feels like a side show.
4 Likes
To be fair, it looks like the Devs put a lot of effort into the zones in terms of concept and design, and they focused on quite a few fascinating details. This feels like a big step up from Korthia in terms of design and aesthetic, and I like that.
That having been said, yes, I think I would have enjoyed this a great deal more if it were some pocket dimension in a Titan facility back on Azeroth. Shadowlands is just far too disconnected from Azeroth to really feel meaningful. That, and the story passed up numerous opportunities to bring in old characters. We could’ve seen characters like Tiffin, Anasterian, Eimear, Liam Greymane, etc…
The characters we have seen just don’t do all that much or resonate particularly well with who they were when we knew them in life (if we knew them in life). I understand that’s also a product of the Shadowlands, of different versions of characters from different timelines forming a singular whole, but that premise itself may not have been the best to go with if it meant these old favorites like Kael’thas and Uther were almost unrecognizable to us.
2 Likes
It’s a joke how they are giving no resolution at all to Tyrande or the Night Elves apart from “Your souls are obliterated and you have to forgive Sylvanas, the end.”
3 Likes