I’m back again! I reviewed BFA at its end and I’m doing it for Shadowlands. Some of what I’m about to type will blow some peoples minds so strap yourselves in! It’s a long thread because it’s a review of the entire expac so if you’re not into that well sorry about this. My BFA review is at the end if you wish to read it. With that out of the way…
Let’s go beyond the veil!
Shadowlands was a good expansion. It tried to do new things just like Legion and BFA and I liked seeing what the dev team could come up with. I find that the creativity of the WoW dev team really came alive in the AP era. Artifact power, Azerite and covenants were really cool and I was always excited what there was to customize my character. I liked my soulbinds, covenant sanctum and the mini-games with it. Also the focus on class again was a good idea to balance the spec heavy focus of Legion. The leveling storyline and covenant storyline was also fun and interesting. Renown was a great idea and I felt like I got something every level I progressed it. Callings were all fun I like how they gave more options like dungeons, exploration or just world quests compared to the 4 world quests you did in Legion/BFA. One point off Shadowlands was Blizz trying to make world quests fewer but longer. I get what they were trying to do but they should of mixed the longer ones with some shorter ones like in BFA/Legion.
Torghast was amazing. I understand people didn’t like the soul ash grind but as an actual feature I loved it. I’m glad they iterated on it and didn’t give up. I got my tower ranger achievement and it was a lot of fun. Combining all the different powers and creating cool builds. It was great solo and group. The box of many things all helped add some permanence between runs. I felt if I didn’t know what to do I could just run some floors of Torghast. The extra modes of adamant vaults, twisting corridors and boss mode was a nice addition. It was also made better with more rewards. At the start it was pretty empty on rewards.
I loved the zones of Shadowlands. They looked amazing and had a great art and story direction. Ardenweald was my favorite! They really drew me in and it was very immersive. They felt so out of this world that I felt I was in a Warcraft afterlife. Another reason why I like devs experimenting. Also I felt the Maw was a good zone. I didn’t find it tedious at all and did as much as I needed. I liked the look and the oppressive atmosphere of it all. The game play was unlike any WoW zone before it which I enjoyed. Doing new things and experimenting is good.
The raids and dungeons were really good. I reckon the quality was very high. I enjoyed all the dungeons. Sanguine depths getting to last boss was a bit annoying though. I liked all the bosses in the raids. Sylvanas is the only boss I feel like going back and forth on. I liked it’s originality but on the other hand the middle section felt a bit disconnected from the other two phases. Otherwise I don’t have anything bad to say about the raids or dungeons. All the raids had really great music. Really caught me off by surprise.
The story is where I have to take a point off. The Jailer was a character and plot line where I was actually behind the idea. I liked that Frostmourne and the Helm of Domination were created in the land of the dead and I loved the idea of Domination Magic! It sounded so powerful and sinister! However some bizarre character decisions like the eternal ones, especially the Primus not telling us why they threw Zovaal into the Maw into the first place even when they know and us only finding out in the last cut-scene left me scratching my head. I also am still on the fence about the first ones. I’m coming over to it but finding out they are the creators or at least ordered reality threw me off. Sylvanas having her souls split and then her have a semi redemption arc robbed her of her agency a bit even though it is something the Jailer would do. It wasn’t a bad story looking back at it just executed poorly that left many confused and unsatisfied even if it kinda made sense in the end. I don’t blame them. I liked they finished the story of Warcraft 3. I was nice they actually closed a chapter of WoW story finally and gave us some closure.
I was a bit disappointed that there was only 2 patches of Shadowlands instead of the 3 of BFA. I reckon if Shadowlands had an extra tier like BFA it would of been better. Korthia was a little small even though it came with the Maw Revamp. The second patches outdoor content could of used a little more even though what was there was enjoyable. I liked Zereth Mortis. It did felt very different. The skys geometry was a nice touch! The art was amazing and Pocopo and his upgrades was a nice outdoor system. Making your mounts and pets while interesting got slightly grindy but a cool unique idea.
The AP Era was good and I think a golden age of WoW where experimentation was at an all time high. A lot of what you see in the game now comes from it. A lot in your class too! I think people will regret it’s passing. I know I will.
A lot of people asked me to rank my expansions last time because they couldn’t believe I liked BFA and now Shadowlands probably so here it is (I don’t count classic because it’s the base game):
Legion
Wrath of the Lich King
Battle for Azeroth
Shadowlands
Burning Crusade
Mists of Pandaria
Warlords of Dreanor
Cataclysm
This was my BFA review:
