Back in Cata, when questing was actually challenging and there was zone progression so you had to be fully engaged to stay alive for at least the first two thirds of the zone, I found a lot of the World scary and creepy.
And Duskwood, with its combination of threat, environment, atmosphere, stories, NPCs and mobs, created the scariest and creepiest experience I have ever had engaging in any type of horror medium.
Now, with easy questing, not so much.
Good luck with that.
Op is talking about things like drustvar
Unpopular opinion perhaps, but WoW has really tried and failed to put a creepy aspect into the game. At best, some things are ‘fun creepy,’ which is a long way from being actually creepy.
They could make quest chains and general content that have the right vibe to be legit creepy, but it would take a more focused effort. Some occasional ambiance heavy screen effects and cutscenes would be needed to do it right, and someone would have to write it who understands the difference between ‘fun’ creepy and ‘actual’ creepy.
Make it happen.
The lack of this in an undead themed expansion is a huge swing and a miss by Blizzard. I’d even say there was some creepiness in Legion’s Maw of Souls and Emerald Nightmare. The best we got was the constipation cries from Hellscream.
Naxxramas was the last great horror story in WoW imo…
Especially the boss Thaddius.
“Pieced together from the flesh of innocent women and children…”
“It is said that the souls contained in Thaddius are fused together - eternally bound within that foul prison of flesh.”
And the screams as you move around the raid still creep me out.
Great stuff.
I just want to say that I was sorely disappointed in the lack of creepiness we saw in what is WoW’s version of Hell.
What might help is if nights were darker, and if there where things that came out only at night.
Why was this flagged? It’s an opinion?
the f-word filter dodging is questionable but aside from that you right.
surprised it got flagged lol
I am all for dark, gruesome, and disturbing… but WoW is the last place to look for it. Especially modern WoW with its new gentle, kinder, softer mandate… The last thing I remember seeing and going… “Huh, that’s kinda dark for WoW” Was the little Alliance kid crying in front of their parent speared to a wall by the Horde… I think that was in… Stormsong?
I think the maw was more edge then horror. Also terrible because it was an obnoxious end game zone.
A leveling quest hub like old duskwood could be fun.
They didn’t hate it because of the creepiness’ tho. If anything that was one of the few positive vibes about it.
I was trying to pick one to reply to, and I suppose this will be it, since I’ve gotten this comment a lot on this post. I have very little experience with that zone, as I mostly stayed on Horde side due to finding BfA leveling to be absolutely mind-numbing.
From what I remember, it definitely was fairly creepy, but not in the same respect as the things I mentioned in this list. A whole zone designed to be creepy hits very differently from little creepy details that catch you off guard.
The first time going into Ahn’Qiraj, you’re caught off guard by the random emotionless whispers of C’Thun. Naxxramas itself was somewhat disturbing, but Thaddius’ cries throughout it was a detail that added so much to it.
Little world things like the gnoll tents, the hanging bodies in certain areas, or the Elwynn children, all very small details that add a level of grit, and a disturbing nature to the overall old world.
Naturally the Plaguelands (especially the old plaguelands), Tirisfal, and zones such as this are somewhat unsettling as it is, but they have little details like the bodies outside of the Monastery, the throne room whispers, the Lost of Lordaeron, or the Scourge experiments that add a little level to it.
Then certain things can come out of nowhere. Deadwind Pass is barren, a little creepy, then there’s the removed area of the Karazhan crypts, which I seriously wish was actually in the game, because it’s easily the darkest creepiest area in all of WoW.
I know I already made a bunch of these points in my post, but I hope this helped elaborate a bit.
TLDR: Subtle things/details, and out of nowhere dark and creepy themes in my opinion hits harder than an entire zone being made to be creepy, or scary.
Now we just fight robots and space thingies…
The thing is, creepy being a main focus only works when they go all in with it. Look at the Karazhan Crypt. There was a room filled with water, with corpses hanging upside down, and it’s name was “The Upside Down Sinners”. The Pit of Criminals is where Medivh would force criminals to walk down a pit where they would fall to immediate death. Thaddius had an entire focus on being just overall disturbing, because he was literally made from exclusively women and children, and his body imprisoned each of them.
I personally think subtle creepy things works the most in WoW’s favor. I mentioned the gnoll tents, the hanging bodies, and things like that, because it works best for an open world to have these subtle disturbing things, especially in zones as unassuming as Elwynn, but it also adds so much more to zones like Tirisfal.
And somehow Ardenweald ended up being the most disturbing… at least if you go Night Fae and have access to the entire zone.
Drustvar is definitely one of their best made zones for that creepy vibe. Right out of a scary fairy tail. The music, the Drust, witches, creepy ManBearPigs.
Imagine if they made an expansion that mixed Drustvar with parts of Revendreth (just a single castle with the mobs), and Duskwood. Oh man … Zombies, Giant Spidies, Werewolves, Vampires, Witches and ManBearPigs!
I wish they’d do more of that!
IDK man, Nazmir and Drustvar were two of the darkest, nastiest, and creepiest zones added to the game so far. That hollowed-out turtle loa in Nazmir full of blood trolls mining it’s flesh and guts still makes me want to throw up.
