You’d better believe that MMO bloggers are out in full force this week to check out World of Warcraft: Legion. For some, it’s the culmination of years of nonstop playing in and writing about the game, while for others, it’s a siren’s call luring them back for this momentous event.
So now that you’ve read Massively Overpowered’s Eliot’s impressions, why not a few more? Here’s a quick roundup of the first impressions of Legion from around the MMO blogosphere. Is everyone high on the new expansion smell or are there concerns emerging from jaded gamers? You’re going to have to read on to find out (and naturally, you’re going to have to assume that some spoilers lurk among these articles)!
The Hybrid Journal: To the Broken Isles
“Anyhow, it’s beautiful, it’s new, it’s somewhat fun, albeit a bit confusing for someone returning after a long absence, and I’m not only talking about the story. It’s nice being able to do current content with all the others, it’s a feeling I didn’t have in ages.”
“I’ve seen only scattered complaints about being stuck in places, or NPCs not functioning that was then subsequently fixed by dropping and restarting a quest. What there’s been far more of is pure, unbridled joy at what Legion brings for players, however they decide to play their game.”
“From the little that I’ve seen already I feel my excitement for the expansion is justified. The story-telling is immersive. I particularly liked how the class hall and artifact weapon intro quests took my character to points in old zones of Azeroth before leading me on to the Broken Isles. The design for the new zones is beautiful from what little I’ve seen as well.”
Treymane’s Law: Blizzard defies Illidan, actually is prepared for once
“I do think that (apart from breaking the tradition of release-day downtime) Blizzard have very much been Blizzard again: They’ve taken features from their competitors, polished them and made them a part of their own game.”
“It was probably one of the smoothest launches I’ve seen. Servers didn’t crash or even buckle under the weight. I didn’t have any issues with lag, and my quests all worked.”
SparkoMarcoGaming: Legion is live
“I spent about three hours playing on launch night to 2:00 p.m. focusing on leveling my Paladin. Surprisingly there was no problems. The launch is the best I’ve experienced of any game or expansion. No disconnects and no bugs makes me a happy gamer. I could have played for longer but I had to be up for work four hours later.”
Gnomecore: My first impressions
“There’s one certainly big drawback. Yes, I understand the artifacts are all the same in Legion, and they are the only weapon. But there’s no variety in questing gear looks among the zones. Through leveling you get only one look –- recolored from zone to zone, and that’s discouraging.”
WoW Misadventures: So it begins…
“I still cringe every time I go in there are see all the enemies I’ve killed over the years chilling out in my class hall. Yes, I know there are lore reasons, but my first instinct is to kill them.”
Ald Shot First: Apocalypse now
“I love the smell of expansions in the morning. The smell, you know that fresh start smell, the whole thing. Smells like excitement. With Legion finally here, bringing the new artifact weapon system with it, I can only be excited.”
Greedy Goblin: The silence of the Legion
“The silence we saw yesterday was the best evidence that Blizzard does something very wrong. An MMO lives and dies by its community, and that chat was silent even by my standards.”
Tales of the Aggronaut: Expansion retail forgot
“As far as the expansion itself, so far I am enjoying myself. It is a much slower paced expansion, but that is precisely what I had wanted […] So far I am enjoying the hell out of myself, but I don’t feel like I have spent enough time in game yet to give it much more than a thumbs up.”
Reputation Grind: Ashbringer and Titanstrike
“So I finally got to log on after work last night, by which time two of my friends were already 110. Crazy people! But they raid so they have other priorities. My main goal at the moment is to get everyone their weapon and class hall. Or at the very least to get their Dalaran hearthstone.”
Moonshine Mansion: Legion launch love
“I can’t tell you how happy I am to not be in a hurry this expansion. Questing has been fun and pretty relaxed, and I don’t have to get enraged when normal launch day issues happen. I’m really looking forward to finishing Azsuna and seeing what the rest of the zone has to offer before I move on!”
The Ancient Gaming Noob: On the edge of the Broken Isles
“However, this wasn’t like some cheap hotel high school reunion where you pick the airline quality chicken entree and then they just bring it to you.  You have to go get it!  So a mild adventure ensued, at the end of which I possessed Ashbringer.”
“You know what’s great about Stormheim? Not a single Orc. Screw those guys.”
Endgame Viable: Early Legion impressions
“Unfortunately it was a huge disappointment when I got my artifact and came back to my class hall to find a whole bunch of other players were trespassing all over the space that I thought I would have all to myself. Let’s hope I don’t have to spend a lot of time there watching people run in circles and jump up and down.”
Ravven’s Glass: Pretty damn fine
“I have to say that all is forgiven. This was a really well-done expansion, and I’m having a lot of fun. The zones are gorgeous, the class halls are helpful without being the overdone timesink that garrisons were. Professions are back (having been basically killed off in the last expac) and have their own quests which you do as you level — wonderful.”
I Has PC: Hook, Line, and Legion
“Legion has sucked me back in. I am loving it. For all my past and present complaints about WoW it does one thing great — provides entertainment. Sure, it’s not really a world, and yes, it’s so dumb that every single person you see is the savior of the planet, and yeah, of course they could do things to try and fix that but they won’t. They don’t need to. It’s still fun.”
Every day there are tons of terrific, insightful, and unusual articles posted across the MMO gaming blogosphere — and every day, Justin reads as many as he can. Global Chat is a sampling of noteworthy essays, rants, and guides from the past few weeks of MMO discourse.
