World of Warcraft: Review of an infinite story
World of Warcraft (2004)
After the successful series of successes with the RTS Warcraft trilogy, Blizzard thought it well to give players the opportunity to immerse themselves completely in that world they created by continuing the story from where they left off in Warcraft 3.
“ Four years have passed since the deadly races came together to fight the danger of the Burning Legion. Although Azeroth has been saved, the difficult coalition between the Horde and the Alliance is about to collapse. The war drums echo again. "
These are the words with which, in 2004, the cinematic of the game was opened and also gave the basis of the setting in which the game would have been set from there on.
At this point, the players were asked one of the most important questions after choosing the starter in Pokémon: Alliance or Horde? On the one hand the typical assortment of fantasy breeds with humans, dwarfs, gnomes and elves and on the other those have always been the "monsters" faced by these breeds such as orcs, trolls, undead and tauren (let's say a kind of minotaurs). More than dividing them into good and bad, Warcraft has always aimed to emphasize that in a war there is not really this clear distinction but only different points of view and objectives.
What made it special
How does this translate into gameplay? A huge open world fully explorable and full of missions in which players collaborate for a single goal: reach the maximum level (60) and face raids to defeat dangerous bosses and conquer epic loots. The journey to level 60 was however a real undertaking where every little thing required time and above all grinding. This feature is at the basis of both the success and the bad reputation of the game (if I had a euro for every time someone said "eh but that game is a drug" now I would have no problem paying for my subscription), the influence of other mmo but above all of gdr like Dungeons & Dragons and Warhammer Fantasyallowed Blizzard to create absolute depth and immersion for his missions: Are you a shaman in search of power? Go on a pilgrimage to the elemental land on the mountain top, do you want to face the dragon? Collect your set with fire resistance. Of course, in a game in which two factions waged war, a PvP component that was first "free" in the areas of the world where they met and then on the battlefields included in the following patches could not be missing.
Overall rating
The slow progress of the game, the time required and an internet still not as boundless as we understand it today made the completion of each quest or the level advancement a little epic moment and the journey towards the level cap a titanic feat along the which friendships and loves were born also in the real world, a real media phenomenon destined to become a real piece of nerd culture and not only.
Rating: 9
From here on we will call the base game Vanilla .
The Burning Crusade (2007)
As tensions between the Horde and Alliance continued to grow, the sworn enemy of Azeroth, the Burning Legion, continued to weave their plots beyond the Dark Portal.
After three years of perilous adventures on Azeroth, Blizzard is ready to take his players to the Outland, a puzzle of cosmic lands left over from what was once Draenor, the planet from which the orcs originate, now completely subjected to the fury of the Demons of the Burning Legion.
What made it special
The first expansion of WoW was a real bomb surprising the players with a series of even more epic contents and challenges such as new races, new areas, missions, flying mounts but above all the opportunity to clash against some big names in Warcraft history such as Archimonde, Kil'Jaeden and especially Illidan Stormrage .
The arrival of the new races was an excellent trick to give the respective factions what was missing both in an aesthetic sense and in class balance: For the Horde the Blood Elves, noble and graceful High Elves with the ability to be paladins and for the 'Alliance the Draenei, a mix between the genius of the lamp and the Protoss of Stracraft, perpetually chased by the Legion first on Argus and then on Draenor where the closeness to the orcs taught them the shamanic arts.
In addition to new zones and missions, the level cap brought to 70 allowed players to have access to a new set of talents and abilities to experiment with new and powerful builds. But what most revolutionized the gameplay was the introduction of flying mounts, if previously having an epic terrestrial mount was a feat, being able to fly really meant being heroes because of the high cost in gold that this skill required.
Overall rating
The Burning Crusade was an expansion as literal as possible by expanding the already vast world of gameplay without radically distorting the gameplay previously proposed and going to improve the end game experience with a whole series of new activities and increasing even more success of the Blizzard title.
Rating: 9
Wrath of the Lich King (2008)
It didn't take long before Blizzard dropped another ace on the Warcraft 3 fan table by announcing Wrath of the Lich King.
In this expansion, players were sent north to the icy lands of Northrend, where the Lich King had restarted his undead army with which to subjugate Azeroth.
What made it special
The atmosphere of the second expansion was much darker and heavier than they had ever proposed before, the players embarked on a real crusade against the Scourge while the threat of the Lich King was present around every corner, almost as if Arthas himself was watching our every move. The narrative in this becomes much less dispersed by setting a goal in the minds of the players from the beginning and bringing them patch after patch to a real rise to power to defeat one of the greatest antagonists in the history of Warcraft.
If the hype generated by the return of the Lich King was not enough, what shocked the community at the time was the introduction of the first heroic class: the Death Knight . This class, rebelled against Arthas' yoke, was available for all races, started at level 55 and required at least one character at level 55 (or higher) to be unlocked. The Death Knight presented himself as the exact opposite of the paladin with necromantic magic instead of light and blessings with even the possibility of having a ghoul in tow. Of course, during the first months of its release, this class was disgustingly OP, it was not difficult to find groups of only Death Knights who cleaned the dungeons without the help of healers.
The whole game enjoyed a breathtaking landscape, far from the destroyed lands of Outland but above all a memorable audio sector between music and dialogues capable of making you feel the cold of those lands and characterizing every single boss to the maximum, especially JARAXXUS EREDAR LORD OF THE BURNING LEGION! Another important mention should be made to the use of cinematic with the game graphics engine within the quests themselves, such as that of the Wrathgate which appears during the leveling phase.
Overall rating
Wrath of the Lich King marked the peak of success reaching 12 million players worldwide, in 2008 even the stones had tried at least once the MMO of the Blizzard house. A linear and content-rich storyline, a villain with counter-bows and an unforgettable endgame experience.
Rating: 10
Cataclysm (2010)
"No King reigns forever"
These are the words with which the father of Arthas accompanies the defeat of the Lich King almost as if to presage the progress of the following years.
After the success of WotLK Blizzard was faced with a question: "How do we go to meet the multitude of players who are approaching our title for the first time and at the same time satisfy that slice of playerbase that is clamoring for a return the "difficulty" of Vanilla? " The solution was literally the end of the world.
What made it special and what didn't
To rejuvenate his title and make it more attractive to the ranks of new players, Blizzard decided to anticipate the Mayan prophecy (do you remember that of 2012, right?) And to reinvent Vanilla's world, quests and way of playing forever. awakening Deathwing: a huge dragon, now corrupted by the Ancient Gods, which alters the balance of elemental spirits (and also burning everything in its path) leading to a series of catastrophes. Flooded canyons, burnt forests and old players who in trade chat wrote "here once was all countryside", the world of Warcraft as we knew it was gone.
Despite this post-apocalyptic scenario, however, the whole series of quests from 1 to 60 were completely modernized by applying everything that the developers had learned from Wrath of the Lich King such as the use of vehicles and a greater use of in-game cinematic. The same goes for the new areas of Azeroth accessible from level 80 to 85 passing through the ancient slopes of Mount Hyjal to the deserts of Uldum to the depths of the world inside the Maelstrom. This new way of leveling, the introduction of the Worgen (werewolves) for the Alliance and Goblin for the Horde and new class / race combinations are perhaps the only positive aspects of this expansion.
Let's talk now about the negative aspects: First of all the possibility of flying since the beginning of the expansion, a real double-edged sword that on the one hand favored a faster resolution of the quests in the new areas but on the other hand completely killed the immersion that so much had made the title famous since 2004.
The main objective of this expansion was to make the game as user-friendly as possible at the expense of all those RPG and social components that led players to communicate with each other, with an implementation of the dungeon finder (then also raid finder at the end Cataclysm). Thanks to this system, players were able to queue for the selected instance as was already the case for the battlefields, making the travel component towards the entrance of the instance disappear completely.
The final blow was the endgame which for almost all the expansion presented an excessive level of diffculty accompanied by a bad level design. The most striking example were the Firelands: literally a flaming plain full of monsters and bosses moving on it where every wrong millimeter was equivalent to having everyone against it. If you then add reforging to all this, a system that allowed you (or rather forced) to change the statistics of a piece of armor to optimize its effects, so if you raided, you had to not only hope to take the most suitable piece for you but to also have the money and the currency to reforg the statistics.
Overall rating
Cataclysm tried to satisfy all the choirs but ended up with a weak result that led to the dissolution of many guilds and the abandonment of many veteran players. The renewed quest design is certainly one of the strong points of this expansion but otherwise left a bitter taste in the mouth of many players while the newcomers will certainly have enjoyed the title just started.
Rating: 6.5
Mists of Pandaria
In the general discontent generated by Cataclysm, the trailer for this expansion came like a punch in the stomach for most of the community.
“We were there when we defeated the enemies of Azeroth. We were there when we traveled to an alien world. We defeated the Lich King. Deathwing will soon fall under our giant hands. And then? Panda."
After that announcement I saw people quit the game, cancel their account or curse Dreamworks for creating Kung Fu Panda (obviously not knowing that Po arrived long after the master brewers of Warcraft 3), I myself went away for a a bit from WoW after knowing what awaited me, but for the love of Light how wrong we were.
What made it special
Contrary to what those who superficially thought (including me) Mist of Pandaria turned out to be an excellent expansion, if not one of the best, that the game has ever had. The oriental setting may not appeal to you, but hell if the graphic sector had not made a leap in quality: the attention to detail, design and colors almost seem like those of a Disney film, consecrating the typical cartoon style of this game.
Never as in this case has the storytelling sector made a giant leap forward, taking players by the hand to discover the different areas, focusing on themes such as Eastern philosophy and colonialism to end up then showing the horrors of a totalitarian regime by Garrosh. Among the novelties of this expansion are the introduction of the Pandaren as the first playable race to be neutral and the class of the monk who, unlike the death knight, starts from level 1 like all the classes.
Mists of Pandaria marks another great milestone, the arrival of the Italian localization and the servers dedicated to our country. This addition still animates furious discussions among the local community but it is undoubtedly an important recognition within such a broad and global context as that of WoW.
Overall rating
Pandaria has certainly been one of the most talked about expansions that has been able to kidnap those who have gone beyond appearances not only with a captivating story but also with a fun gameplay and class design. At the content level, we have tried to please anyone by introducing a battle pets system (like Pokémon) for those who have a slightly more casual approach and the new challenge mode for hardcore lovers.
Rating: 8
Warlords of Draenor (2014)
There's nothing to be done, when time travel gets in the way the chances of failing skyrocket (see Kingdom Hearts).
The developers' idea was simple: wanting to show players what the Outlands were like before the Legion arrived and give them the chance to meet old heroes from the past like Grommash Hellscream or Ner'zhul (the first Lich King). And what better way than allowing Garrosh to escape after the Mists of Pandaria finale in an alternate timeline to prevent his father and the other orcs from drinking the blood of the demon Mannoroth? (pivotal moment in Warcraft history)
What made it special and what especially not
This expansion came in time with the achievement of 10 years of the game, a real milestone in game developing and to celebrate an incredible advertising campaign was made with animated shorts dedicated to the protagonists and huge statues at Hellfest but above all the arrival of the new 3D models of the playable races. A real restyling for the characters of the players who now clashed with the surrounding environment so as to uniform the style in the many cutscenes created with the game engine. But Warlords of Draenor is unfortunately a story of broken promises, missed opportunities and cut content, let's go in order:
The garrison
One of the most requested features by the WoW community has always been housing, a feature present in almost all other MMORPGs that gives players the opportunity to have a personal home to decorate with the rewards obtained during their adventures. In WoD the prayers of the fans are heard: being stuck on an alien planet in an alternate timeline puts the players in the position of general of the troops of their faction. With this premise it will therefore be our job to found and manage a garrison from which to plan survival and victory against the Iron Horde of Garrosh. The intentions of this feature were the best but in fact they proved almost harmful to the essence of the game. In a nutshell, instead of favoring the interaction between the players (such as visiting the structures of their guilds) the Garrison had divided them even more, not because the average player has become less social but because the "routine" activities to progress they literally kept nailed to the garrison with a series of NPCs that made the conga. In short, being with your troops all day, the lack of a main hub and seeing the other players only in the instances via dungeon / raid finder had a little killed the sense of the world and MMO as we knew it.
Warlords
For those who started playing WoW with this expansion, certain details will have no weight, but for those who follow the franchise from its dawn, surely seeing the treatment reserved for those characters who have literally started everything was really a disappointment. To give examples, we could mention Ner'zhul downgraded to boss at the end of the dungeon at the beginning of expansion, Orgrim Doomhammer as a simple appearance and above all Grommash Hellscream (who is the frontman on the cover of the game) who literally does nothing but a motivational speech at the beginning and end of expansion.
Cut content
It is quite normal that in the development of a game something is cut, the speech changes when the content is cut to quickly close an expansion and work on something else. This is exactly what happened here, bringing the game to the end of expansion content for a year and a little more.
Overall rating
Warlords of Draenor wasn't exactly a bad expansion in some respects but more than anything else it can be called boring. New players or those who prefer single player activities will certainly have enjoyed the linear storyline and troop management activities while longtime players will have a bad nose on several occasions. Some of the advantages that this expansion has certainly had are certainly the attention to the exploration of the vast play areas full of Easter eggs and hidden treasures and the new approach to the mission system. In short, a large filler that did not shine as hoped.
Rating: 5.5
Legion (2016)
The WoD ending refers directly to the following expansion: Gul'dan is sent by Archimonde to our timeline to once again bring the threat of the Burning Legion to Azeroth. Horde and Alliance will have to make common front against one of their biggest enemies again.
Legion marks the return of another fan favorite, Illidan Stormrage, and the arrival of a new heroic class, the Demon Hunter.
What made it special
Already only for Illidan and that mood a la Burning Crusade Legion suffered a real surge in terms of active players that canceled the discontent caused by WoD and saw returning veterans who had not played since time immemorial.
In Legion we find the idea of the garrison but improved thanks to the class enclaves, real meeting places where the representatives of the different classes gather to plan their counter-offensive to the Legion. So think of slums full of thieves, churches under which paladins or a Valhalla with his warriors gather. Inside these structures you can meet several well-known NPCs that will help us in the search for the different Artifacts, special weapons that accompany us throughout our adventure, if you have always dreamed of holding the Thrall Doomhammer or creating swords from the fragments of the Frostmourne it's your time.
The class identity in this expansion is very strong enough to meet with each specialization with a unique gameplay and background fantasy. Thanks to the campaign of the enclave we will face personalized challenges that better follow our specialization.
The areas we are going to explore not only refer to the old RTS titles but expand the already great lore of the game by introducing new races and key characters.
Now let's move on to the element that is most attracted to this expansion: The Demon Hunter. A class that until recently seemed impossible to achieve presents itself here in great shot. A conglomerate of agility and demonic power, the Demon Hunter is the second heroic class introduced in the game: With only two specializations (tank and DPS) this class presents a unique gameplay based on the double jump and the possibility of equipping the War Blades, new type of weapons in the same style as Illidan.
Overall rating
Legion was certainly a noteworthy expansion full of news and with an epic narrative that led players to explore even Argus, the home planet of the Draenei to face Sargeras, the fallen titan. The only ones in this chapter were a slightly forced redemption story for Illidan and the Artifact Power system that appealed most of the players' activities in trying to upgrade their weapon and that negatively influenced the development of the following expansion.
Rating: 8
Battle for Azeroth (2018)
Final considerations
World of Warcraft is a title that despite having started in alternating phases in recent years, continues to attract many players in search of adventure. There is certainly to recognize that in his 15 years of age WoW has managed to become a real pillar of its kind that continues to dominate in an era in which most MMOs are now a distant memory. The title has been able to adapt to the trend of time (and the market), evolving more and more, introducing news and renewing expansion after expansion.
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