Shadowlands’ premise is simple and straightforward. You invade the many realms of the afterlife to foil the plans of a mysterious
arch-enemy called the Jailer. He is exceptionally boring as a villain
right now, and takes a backseat to the true all-stars of the afterlife:
the four distinct factions that the player explores and eventually
aligns with as they reach the level cap. Making the choice to side with
one of the realms comes with a ton of flavor and personality.
I aligned myself with the crushed-velvet, soul-sucking, vampiric aristocracy of Revendreth. Its gothic horror trappings, magic mirrors,
and giant bats gave me a different perspective of the world than players
who sided with other factions. I even got to host VIP parties to try
sucking up to nobles to get big payoffs. However, my nature-loving
friend sided with the gorgeous ethereal forests of Ardenweald, where
they put on plays in the woods and tend gardens. Whatever your decision,
it feels more like you’re becoming part of these soul societies and not
just jumping on an endgame progression treadmill. There’s flavor behind
the functionality, and it counts for a lot, even if you are still
roaming from zone to zone completing world quests. Each dungeon has
elements that can be interacted with from a faction standpoint as well;
discovering I could tame the gargoyles in a Venthyr dungeon to help
defeat enemies was a nice surprise.
Each zone in the afterlife is beautifully constructed and sells the fantasy well. While the sacred fields of Bastion and its angelic
warriors bored me, it’s a necessary realm to serve as a foil to the
darkness of Revendreth. All of the zones are impressive to view from
above, and they look incredible considering how old the core of World of
Warcraft is. Each zone is markedly different from the others in terms
of aesthetics, personality, and feel. Blizzard takes advantage of being
able to tap into heroes and villains of ages past; as this is the
afterlife, it’s a great chance to bring the greatest hits from across
WoW history into the spotlight. Great attention has been paid to bring
forth major characters, obscure single-quest references from a decade
ago, and popular newcomers like Battle for Azeroth’s Bwonsamdi.
Shadowlands serves up many staples of what is now understood to be the norm. While world quests, dungeons, war tables, and other endgame
progression features are all still around with a sparkling coat of
faction flavor, they don’t really alter anything in a fundamental way.
Many of the quests on the way to level cap feel like stale and tired
filler fare, like collecting acorns or killing fifteen cultists, with
some interesting larger scale beats scattered in. However, new systems
within an incredibly dangerous zone the Maw (It’s supposed to be hell)
and a roguelike run experience known as Torghast make Shadowlands stand
out.
The Maw is an incredibly hazardous realm that offers risk-reward balance as you hang out in the Jailer’s backyard, battling lethal
monsters without any real safety net to speak of. You may even have to
run back to where you die to recover some lost resources. The Maw adds
some pressure and challenge to an open-zone environment, which is
absolutely refreshing in a game in which it’s all too easy to end up on
autopilot world quest mode while watching Netflix. Participating in Maw
activities raises the ire of the Jailer, who focuses on you like the Eye
of Sauron in Mordor as you slay his fiends. While it’s functionally
just another way to gate how much you can do in The Maw every day, it’s
again the colorful packaging that makes the difference here.
