I truly like reading how much other folks are enjoying this expansion. I only wish I could be one of them. Overall, I love the artwork and design each zone has. I enjoyed most of the quests from each zone. I’d say there were enough rare spawns in each zone that will allow you to get something interesting.
I like the layout of Oribos and I didn’t mind a couple of the return trips to the maw. It recently dawned on me why I was really called the “Maw Walker” seeing as how your mounts don’t work there…you’re pretty much forced to walk or in most cases, run wherever you need to get to.
On my very first trip into the Maw (intro), I had a bunch of Goblin gliders and kept gliding over to the unexplored parts of the Maw to see how long I could last before some armored Death Angel landed on my head to one shot me back to the beginning so I would get back on the rails. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing how long I could evade those flying fatal feet of forthright ferocity.
However, it’s the parts of Shadowlands I am not particularly fond of that I find myself struggling with on a daily basis. Firstly, it felt as though I was being dragged through each zone on rails. I didn’t feel as if I spent enough time in each of the zones to truly feel immersed. I suppose this was by design as a way to give you a sample of what each covenant had to offer, but for me it had the opposite effect.
I outright didn’t want to help the Kyrians based on principle and what was required to become…“one of us”. Were it not for the NPC couple I met when I first arrived there, I’d have told their Archon to go pound sand. Also, there was one Kyrian who I kept imaging to tell me to talk to the hand. I don’t recall what they said exactly, but they annoyed me mildly each time they said it.
I felt Ardenweald’s Winter Queen was about as stuck up and annoying as the Archon. Were it not for the NPCs I first met there, more sand for the sand pounder.
The only thing I wasn’t too thrilled about with Maldraxxus was being yoinked out of combat against my will a couple of times by Drakka. Once again, being forced back on the rails. Other than that, I had no beef with their Primus for obvious reasons. Even still, the Primus seemed like a pretty cool character.
Revendreth is by far my favorite zone. I was a bit surprised there was no witcher or vampire hunter type faction there. The whole place gives off this Ravenloft vibe to me. Of course, I ended up not liking this demiplane’s leader either, so that’s three out of four Shadowlands Pantheon leaders I don’t particularly care for. Is it too late to side with the Jailer?
Torghast seems like fun in concept, and I had fun the first time. However, I’m not truly interested in repeated visits here because it doesn’t make sense to me in practice. It’s a soul ash hamster wheel and I’d rather scour the underworld completing quests to acquire components for legendary items than I would spamming the same infinite dungeon to achieve the same results. We’ll see though…even if it already bores me, I’ll give it a few more goes to see if it gets better.
Anyway, that’s my take on Shadowlands. To me it’s just ultimately underwhelming and shallow so far. The one thing I am currently dreading the most is the prospect of dragging my alts through this expansion when I’m already not fully vested in it. This is honestly the first expansion I was not excited to play. It’s the first expansion I didn’t take time off work to play, and it’s the first expansion I have no trouble walking away from to do other things.
Will I cancel my account over Shadowlands though? No, absolutely not! Just because I’m not completely enthralled by it doesn’t mean I’m going to stop playing. Cataclysm is still my least favorite expansion, but I rode out that storm, and I can ride this one out too. There is still a chance something could change in an upcoming patch to cause me to enjoy it more…maybe?
