With one of this year’s biggest releases out this week, we’ve taken to the mean streets of Blogtown to see what MMO gamers are saying about World of Warcraft: Shadowlands. What’s the word out there? Read on to find out!
Kamalia thought that the first day seemed rather quiet: “The Maw is, of course, unsettling and creepy. I also found Oribos to be somewhat unsettling and creepy, though part of that came from the nervous attitudes of the Attendants, all upset by the silence of the Arbiter, the sudden appearance of living mortals in their city, and the influx of Brokers (whom I found to be rather creepy all on their own) coming in and setting up shop like they own the place.”
Belghast said it got better the further he went into it: “Bastion is a bit of a slow burn and by the end of that zone the events are starting to click into place setting up for an amazing romp across the true land of the dead. I can’t say before now I have ever really had a ‘page turner’ moment in World of Warcraft, where I just wanted to keep getting to the next main story quest so I could see exactly what was happening.”
The Ancient Gaming Noob deemed it a “smooth slide” into the expansion: “And now you’re farting around with really some of the most annoyingly chirpy mobs in the game who all sound like they’re in a cult if you start paying close attention to what they’re saying. It is like being in the ’70s.”
Gnomecore focused on the introduction the the pack: “I was carefully reading every quest, new to the area and also making pit stops to think about an enormous amount of lore questions and hints! We’ll need to check how it rolls on alts. I liked how it ended, and Jailer seemed to be quite a brutal and convincing villain.”
Tome of the Ancient noted a scarcity of players: “Where was everybody? I expected lag and horrible competition for kills and nope. In fact I see very few people around. That was handled well except the phasing that was used seems to have made forming groups harder.”
Coffee Cakes and Crits finally got in after some hiccups on launch night: “So far, I am 52 and in Bastion. It’s fun! The opening quests and the campaign have been doable and amusing and tell a fine story. One one quest there was a dude that would literally point the way (over there, my friend). It made me laugh because I’m always lost.”
Kaylriene liked the more cinematic approach: “There are a lot of cutscenes that were hidden on beta. So many cutscenes! The game feels very cinematic for the first time ever, in that you rarely go more than a quest or two without some sort of spoken, voice acted dialogue or a brief interlude. While the core beats from beta remain, there is a lot more meat on the bones, and that is good.”
Telwyn thought things began as good as could be expected: “It was a positive start to the new expansion: very smooth from a server/login perspective for those players I know. We’ve encountered one bug so far as a duo.”
Shadowz is happy, overall: “I will be honest, I wasn’t sure how I was going to like this new expansion with all the changes they had implemented, but I am very happy with all the changes they have done. The leveling is so much more fun there, I really enjoyed the story in it.”
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.
