Hillsbrad Foothills got done dirty.
Most Cata zones fall into one of three categories: places there were barely changed or slightly improved, places that give you a totally different experience to classic but aren’t too shabby, and then there are places that were made worse IMO. Zones that lost what made them special. The one that got handled the worst, in my mind, was Hillsbrad Foothills. Hillsbrad was one of my favorite areas in classic, and now as Worgen I frequently end up flying around it when I go back to Gilneas, so I think about it a lot.
Now, the kneejerk reaction for some (mostly just trolls) would be that I’m an “Alliance fanboy” who’s just upset that it became a Horde exclusive zone. But that’s actually fairly low on my list of problems. I’ll address it briefly to get it out of the way, though:
- Zone excluisivity. Yes, making it a Horde exclusive zone when it wasn’t before was a bad decision. Because now, half the playerbase is locked out of an area they once had access to. Less content, and avaliable to less players. Duskwood also lost some Horde content, albiet a very small amount, and I also believe this change was for the worse. More options for more players is always better. The old excuse for this was that Blizzard thought it was awkward to have such a low-level area be contested, citing the massive amount of PVP and griefing in the area, before the release of Battlegrounds. Of course, by the time I started playing, the legendary Southshore vs Terran Mill brawls were already long gone thanks to BGs, and other quality of life improvements like War Mode and Phasing have made this a completely moot point.
But I also have Horde characters I enjoy playing a lot, and when it comes to leveling, I actually usually skip this area. Because of the next problems I’ll list.
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Too many towns! Seriously, such a small area shouldn’t have so many safe havens and flight points. Multiple zones that used to have enemies and big set pieces have been turned into towns and rest stops. It makes the area feel overly controlled, no danger or thrill. Worse yet, it makes the world feel smaller and emptier. That tower that used to be full of cool bad guys? Now just a roadside pub. The one flight point in Strahbard is the most outrageous because it’s supposed to be a den of thieves and cultists and yet there’s just a dude chillin on the side like he’s waiting for the bus. Zones that are small should have only have like two rest spots, and have five or six should be reserved for bigger areas.
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Everything is funneled into the main quest. Sure, Classic tended to have a problem where it sometimes felt disorangized, non-linear and disconnected, with multiple small storylines and no big one. But this is the opposite problem and it’s still bad – almost all the content save one or two side quests is centered around a single storyline that guides the player from one point to another. It makes the world feel smaller and like less is happening in it. Some areas have always been like this and it isn’t a huge deal, but Hillsbrad didn’t feel this way. It felt a little underdeveloped and like it stopped too soon, sure, but it at least felt like a living, breathing world rather than a single linear story.
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Too many unused areas. This is another problem. Alterac in particular always felt really underdeveloped, but when Cata came it hollowed out huge portions of it. That poor troll hermit in Chillwind Point had nothing to do until Legion, and his whole riven is basically just blank space. The Uplands are a wasteland, the Alteac Ruins and their surroundings have a scant few quests, and the Crushridge Ogres have been completely forgotten. Dresden’s Fold used to have a really cool easter egg, but now it’s become a totally empty and baren field that doesn’t even have any enemies in it.
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Syndicate and Ravenholdt wasted. Two of the coolest factions in the game, and dishearteningly the most neglected and forgotten. Ravenholdt always felt like untapped potential, and it wasn’t until Legion that they got a chance to shine. Meanwhile, the Syndicate has been COMPLETELY erased from the area entirely. It’s really disheartening and serves to make the area more linear. Total tunnel vision on the faction war plotline with no room for more worldbuilding. IIRC, We still don’t know exactly Ravenholdt and the Syndicate hate each other so much. I really appreciate they came back for BfA in a really cool way, but I pity any noobs who killed their mobs and was like “Wait, what the heck is Ravenholdt?”
IDK if this will ever get changed or fixed in the modern game, and I know I can always just play Classic if I want old Hillsbrad back, I just wanted to express my opinion and put out there that I think Hillsbrad deserves a new phase just like the Arathi Highlands got. With Midnight taking us back to the Eastern Kingdoms, I hope Blizzard gives Hillsbrad special attention, or at least a little upgrade.
