I am aware that casual gamers and die-hard WoW fans think Shadowlands is the shining beacon of perfection and while technically, this might be true, the mark is so greatly missed on creating something as aesthetic, memorable, pleasing, realistic, atmospheric and inspired as the zones, music, and design choices of old.
Gone are the days of naturalistic zones where one can just take a breath and lose themselves in a second world.
Everything in Shadowlands is so utilitarian, cold, and lacking the soul and charm of old WoW. Mobs everywhere in zones designed full of cramped, tight spaces due to a cliff or castle looming over you, or because youāre right on a precipice that falls into nothingness etc.
All set to mostly short, bland music since they axed their music department.
Possibly itās nostalgia because I started in middle of TBC so WOTLK was my first expansion I played āday of,ā but I think all of the zones there are amazing.
Personally, I donāt feel it. Looking any deeper below the shiny, beautifully-made, modern surface, and thereās no there there.
No sense of life or place since everything is so overtly a snapshot in a specific time. Cataclysm suffered greatly from this. Most WoW zones do, even in Wrath, but in this expansion it is so incredibly pronounced.
Iāve definetely had a decline in my investment in the overall narrative of the zones, but just from a environment perspective I really like the theme of the zone. I get baked and listen to NattvƤsen by Carbon Based Lifeforms while Iām there or listen to Mckenna videos.
I think at this point in time a lot more could be done with creating interactive zones if the teams had the backing and support to do so.
Iāll see the Howling Fjord and raise it with a Grizzly Hills. When the game is making me weary, I will go there, turn the music on and just ride around. Totems of the Grizzlemaw just makes me happy. Been a long time since a zone has had that effect.
So true. I cannot see myself visiting or yearning to return to Shadowlands when the next expansion is here. Iāll go back to Outlandās Nagrand, to Wrathās Grizzly Hills, to MoPās Jade Forest, even to Talador, to Suramar. But I really donāt see the draw that will make me return to SL. Perhaps Bastion.
I hear what youāre saying, and frankly, technically, the zones are stellar so no knock on Blizzard there.
Woltk was beautiful in so many aspects. It truly was the pinnacle. What we have now is not WoW. Itās an highly engineered / tuned platform to drag out very little for too long. Frankly, it strikes me more as a cheap foreign MMO that shouldnāt have the followers it does. This is where we need a new company to come in to push WoW off its pedestal, and bring the quality back to the market. Frankly, Blizzard does not deserve the spotlight anymore because the products theyāre releasing, are not very good compared to their older stuff.
I liked all of the expansions for how I played except BFA. I will admit though that the boat ride to HF with the dragon and the canyon walls was my first time in Northrend and it was the best introduction to a zone ever.
I do enjoy quite a bit of what they have going on, but as you say, itās very watered down. And much of it is way too little.
I love De Other Side music, for instance. Unfortunately, thatās like 5% of the expansion music. The rest of it is pretty bland, and does not lend easily to recall. Maw is egregious.
you know it reminds me of what happened with the sequel star wars music. they didnt use the iconic LSO for the music, and it took a real backseat watered down. no offense to johnny he just wrote it.
The SL zones are I think meant to feel a little dead and utilitarian.
These places are literally little themed warehouses for souls. Itās a fairly nihilistic and depressing take on the afterlife, although not nearly so bad as say the WC2 version.
I wonder if it is in part because Bliz is terrified of anything actually looking like a real religionās idea of the afterlife. Between the extreme hatred of religion espoused by most gamers who bother to comment on it, the large Chinese market, and the past issues of being blamed for cultural appropriation, they backed themselves into a corner.
And then they had to make it work with game rules, which of course make no sense at all.
Along those linesā¦ Several expansions ago I realized I never clicked on vendors unless they could repair. Then I bought a mount with vendors and now I almost never click on the zone vendor NPCs. (Well, I do buy cooking mats, but that is about it. I no longer run any crafting professions at all.)
In the old world it was always worth it to check out vendors, because sometimes they would have recipes, green armor/weapons, or mats. Now, they just have basic trade materials and thatās it. So why bother checking?
Another immersive experience watered down to being meaningless.
I think itās been all over the place from the beginning. Like I always hated silithis and desolace. Love stv and any of the vanilla forest really. I donāt like any of the bc zones I hope to never go there again. I love ardenweald but despise maldraxxus. I think it just all comes down to what vibes with you. Like for me I just wanna be in forest all day. I think we all can agree that the maw is terrible though lol
