Story and story mode is cool with even more better story telliing than in previous expansions.
Story “raid” mode need to be implemented with rewards for casual players.
Delves can be improved for be more sandbox and explorative.
Deep story telling and cinematics was big plus.
Some quests and story looks like made in rush but that could be improved in future expansions.
Expansion feels need to be longer than few months.
Warband gearing is best idea wich could happen to wow.
Alts could be used to delves and story mode like followers same as in follower dungeons where they will be able to gear up.
Mining and herabilsm effects was great idea.
Design of maps is faaaaar more better than in previous expansion and it looks it finally make shape to something “complete” even it could be improved.
Story is not frustrating and its fun.
Raids are very hard for pugs…should be much more easy to make 8/8 HC …because there is already higher level mythic.
Mythic+ need moderation trough lfg and not be so punishing to groups who have leavers, afk,dc,griefers…and of course need to have punishment for those who dont play like normal.
Music in expansion is awesome.
Side quests are 9/10.
Whats next?
Thank you.
You liked the story. 
I thought it was terrible!
I wrote a similar early review that’s a bit in contrast to yours…
And I don’t quite get the praise for the story.
For one I don’t see how the actual storytelling is anything noteworthy.
It’s the same quests on a string with text boxes that make out 99% of the experience.
The voice acting that’s there is cool - but it’s still way too sparse for a modern game.
There really aren’t that many cinematics and cutscenes compared to Legion or Battle for Azeroth.
So I struggle to see how the production value of the storytelling is praise-worthy. It’s okay-ish at best, I think.
I also don’t get the praise for the story either.
It’s as if the bar is set so low that if it isn’t terrible like The Jailer, then it’s great! And Blizzard, in their effort not to screw it up again, make it so plain and bland and inoffensive as to be downright boring.
What struck me as particularly problematic about the story, is that there’s a severe lack of Warcraft about it. It’s just a generic fantasy story. Xal’atath could be a villain in any fantasy RPG. The Earthen and the Arathi and even the Nerubians are all very isolated to this ecosystem of an island they live on, completely ignorant of the world beyond.
Without The Horde and The Alliance with their barracks and strongholds and commanders and generals, it really doesn’t feel like Warcraft. It’s just random fantasy at this point where we go on a lonesome adventure with a few buddies and meet up with the unique denizens of the land. We did that in Shadowlands. We did that in Dragonflight. And that’s what we’re doing now in The War Within. More hidden islands! More hidden races! More local problems! More villains that need to be killed in raids! It’s very much the same story told over and over again.
And the last thing I’d say to bash on the story, is that it makes no sense if you’re a Horde player. Like, why are you running around with Moira and Dagran as if you’re their best friend?!
Why don’t we have separate stories for Horde and Alliance like we used to?
And there’s a complete absence of recognition for your character, which is insane given how it’s ultimately an RPG experience. I was certain that when my Void Elf Shadow Priest came to Hallowfall that the folks there would throw a hissy fit. But nope, barely a peep was said about the Void nature of my being. And why not? Death Knights have rotten tomatoes thrown at them when they go to Stormwind the first time…
I don’t see the greatness of the story. Not relative to certain other WoW expansions, and certainly not relative to many other video games in general.
Levelling is fine,
Music and zones are pretty
Delves were fun, but need to be a considerably harder.
Raid is fine
M+ is a mess
Reminds me of WoD where the game was fine until players saw what the end game offered.
I can agree with that but i think you dont allow yourself to think about it more deeply.
Bllizzard already make it to state of game where it looks cool and good and they have open doors after years to came back as you say back to Warcraft with aliance and horde …
With experience from writting of fantasy story, deep story about little things and move it there to normal Azeroth. It seems not connected and it will be very hard to make this mix of different things wich was revealed last few years to something good.
It should be better for Blizzard dont build up only bases of story for each different cultures and races in wow but make them “live” …be actual part of Azeroth not only those “creatures” from green land and blue land and red land…if u know what i mean.
maybe it need more RPG than mmo for some time …
Sure. I’ve also heard Metzen’s speech and Blizzard’s hype about their World Soul Saga and their new Microsoft overlords and re-found autonomy and so forth.
And it’s all fine and dandy, but it’s also not very relevant to the product as it is right now.
I mean, when you arrive in Dornogal, then Thrall and Jaina say goodbye as the very first thing! They’re off to get the Horde and Alliance armies that then arrive once everything has been dealt with. That’s so anti-climatic. All it does is to make Dornogal into a giant townsquare where everyone is hanging out. Pandaren, Worgen, Orcs, Earthen, Vulpera. They’re all there!
There’s no purpose to it except that Blizzard wants to show off the manifold of the many races and then creates an excuse so they can all get to this new island.
“Thrall and Jaina are going to pick you up, but when you arrive the bad guys have already been dealt with, so you get to just hang out and chill!”
Blizzard don’t really seem to tell a broader Warcraft story anymore. I mean, in WotLK we went to Northrend as part of the Horde and Alliance armies. You were there with Saurfang and Garrosh or Bolvar and Tirion and taking orders from generals and warlords to fight the Scourge and put a stop to The Lich King.
That’s not really the vibe anymore. There’s not much For The Horde! or For The Alliance! to the experience in The War Within.
It’s more of a movie story with Alleria as the main character who’s up against her arch-enemy Xal’atath. And alongside her she has her trusted friends, Anduin and the anonymous player character. Can they manage to thwart Xal’atath’s schemes and save the world?
That’s basically the gist of the plotlines these days.
It was better when the story revolved around armies fighting armies, rather than the iconic hero npc saving the world.
I do agree with most of your points, especially the tragic loss of Horde presence and most importantly, relevance.
I’m a Horde player at heart and I absolutely despise Alleria, who I hope will finally succumb to the Void and become a raid boss.
What I do like so far is the dark and gloomy theme of the expansion. I guess this is what most people enjoy, it’s such a relief to have a serious expansion after the whole Dragonflight mess.
Xalatath is a cool antagonist, one of the few villains with personality, at least in my opinion.
I also enjoy not being praised every 5 seconds by some NPC, it feels nice to just be an outlander for a bit. I’m sure that will change at some point, but for now it’s a pleasant change.
For now, WoW feels kind of … right. I can say early in the expansion if the story is going in a satisfactory direction and this time it’s interesting and catchy.
Definitely better than Dragonflight where I simply blacked out sometime during the campaign and quit the game soon after. I still have no idea what happened last expansion except for some bad dragon vs good dragon… or something.
i hope not
Well, she became insufferable, at this point I’m so sour about what they did to the Horde that I want the whole world to burn down. Wait, not the whole world, just the Alliance.
The other option would be to actually give the Horde some cool stuff then maybe I will deal with the blonde people without hating too much, but it doesn’t look like it’s happening anytime soon.
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