I think Shadowlands does a good job making us feel like we’re in some place alien, some place far from Azeroth. Some would say too good of a job, since many feel it doesn’t feel connected enough to the rest of the game and its characters.
There is one thing that really stands out to me, however, that makes it feel way more normal than it should: That every realm has its own animals and ecosystems.
For the sake of Skinners and Hunters having new pet options, I get it, but Maldraxxus already had a unique solution for the former, at least. Since Ardenweald is the destination of pretty much all nature everywhere, it could have had more variety to solve the latter issue.
It’s not really just the animals though, it’s the ecosystems. It’s that every realm still has the stereotypical cycle of life type quests. You know, the ones that are like “you need to cull this animal because X event is making them breed out of control” and it’s like… what? This is the realm of death. Why is there a normal cycle of life… in death? Death is a part of the cycle of life, it’s a bit of a paradox to have it also contain the entire cycle. I mean, there are a lot of issues if you start trying to figure out how the Shadowlands actually works, but most of them are comfortably in the background.
I just wish this element was a little more alien. It also would have made Ardenweald stand out more if it was the only realm with animals, and maybe allowed it to play up that contrast in a more interesting way. As it is, Ardenweald’s overlap with the Emerald Dream was already confusing enough, and now with every realm of the Shadowlands inexplicably having ecosystems it just seems really muddy.
Now, if some theories about the Shadowlands having a surprising origin turn out to be true, this could be a clue. Until that time, however, it just feels like a missed opportunity to me.
Incidentally, this is the sort of reason I was glad Argus was a three-zone patch and not an expansion. I don’t think they could have resisted filling a continent-sized Argus with friendly wildlife, uncorrupted zones for the sake of variety, and multiple rebellious factions for us to gain reputation with, any of which would have completely undermined the theme of it being the Legion’s base of operations (I mean, technically, even the patch had small versions of each of those).