Early review of expansion

[Jito-turalyon (Jito)]

@Urval-nekrosh

Story and story mode is cool with even more better story telliing than in previous expansions.

@Urval-nekrosh

Deep story telling and cinematics was big plus.

@Urval-nekrosh

Some quests and story looks like made in rush but that could be improved in future expansions.

@Urval-nekrosh

Story is not frustrating and its fun.

@Urval-nekrosh

Side quests are 9/10.

You liked the story.

I thought it was terrible!

I wrote a similar early review that’s a bit in contrast to yours…

My Starry Review of The War Within

Introduction I like doing my own little reviews of expansions and have done so for the last few. Mostly just to collect my own thoughts and to reflect on the game experience upon completing it. I thought I’d write this one now, since we’re about a month into the expansion, so this is as much as you’ll get if you bought The War Within with a month’s subscription. Everything written is entirely personal and super subjective, so take it as such. I’ve structured the post so it’s easy…

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.