World of Warcraft Battle for Azeroth [Review]: A badass story with flaws

World of Warcraft (WoW) is the only game that shows I have over a twelvemonth of playtime within its virtual world of Azeroth. The MMO is approaching its fourteenth altogether, and despite its engine creaking at the seams, Blizzard has nurtured and maintained its player base with unprecedented execution.

In betwixt major expansion drops for PC, Blizzard drops in gratis content patches, adding new dungeons, raids, and other gameplay features to keep people engaged. The big fully-priced expansion packs, such equally Battle for Azeroth, which launched in August 2022, bring about new lands, stories, and leveling content for players, as well as other new game systems and mechanics.

Boxing for Azeroth had some of the biggest hype I've seen for a WoW expansion in recent times. On the back of the successful Legion expansion, Blizzard had enough momentum to accept the franchise back into the mainstream consciousness. It did and so with some drastic story events, which saw major beloved in-game cities completely destroyed while releasing not i, simply ii, incredible CGI trailers for the events leading up to the expansion.

Indeed, Battle for Azeroth has some of the most exciting narrative and story possibilities ever, as Blizzard develops new tools and pays closer attention to building up new characters. Still, the end-game mechanics and systems that govern so much of the gameplay meat are, as of this writing, completely broken and will require a significant pivot to fix.

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Battle for Azeroth: What yous'll dearest

Battle for Azeroth has the all-time story pacing and grapheme direction I've seen in a World of Warcraft expansion. Blizzard has developed new tools to put your graphic symbol directly inside cutscenes, adding a much-needed layer of immersion to World of Warcraft's quests, which grade the basis of its leveling gameplay. These are complemented by some stunning, Pixar-like pre-rendered scenes that feature epic voice work and gorgeous character expressions, wrapped in an intriguing plot.

Boxing for Azeroth has the all-time story pacing and character management in a World of Warcraft expansion.

Battle for Azeroth puts the spotlight on the hostilities between the ii player factions, the Horde and Brotherhood, every bit the events of the previous expansion have left the planet of Azeroth scarred and damaged. A new resource called "Azerite" has been bubbles up through wounds in the planet'due south crust and contains violently explosive and also regenerative properties. The emergence of Azerite triggers an escalating conflict between Horde and Alliance, instigated by the Horde's electric current leader and Warcraft staple, Sylvanas Windrunner.

In the run-up to Boxing for Azeroth, Blizzard released an array of high-quality blithe cinematics which adds some broader context to the story moving frontwards. Sylvanas has the Horde destroy the Dark elf'due south homeland, the world tree known as Teldrassil. The events culminate in a massive revenge assail from the Brotherhood on Sylvanas's undead Undercity, which results in a stalemate, not long after the urban center is destroyed.

I spent almost of my time with the Horde storyline and found it to be the well-nigh intriguing and engaging in Warcraft history. Blizzard has stepped upwards its game immeasurably when it comes to story content, which features a total cast of memorable characters with great voice work. For me, the loa of Death Bwonsamdi fully steals the evidence, with some phenomenal vocalism work by Alex Désert. Princess Talanji and Jaina Proudmoore also have moving performances, with scenes that gave me goosebumps.

The new zones where these stories play out are painstakingly detailed, with some truly monumental vistas, dotted with a huge array of engaging and varied quests. Join a core of skeletal cursed pirate trolls on a wildcat against their captain, assist a creepy witch-possessed kid discover her toys for a big tea party with a side order of murder, and ride a gigantic triceratops into boxing with a swarm of claret trolls, spreading their blood and guts with every charge. And those are just the side quests.

Each zone in Boxing for Azeroth, iii for Horde and three for Brotherhood, focuses on defeating a specific threat, which usually culminates in a mini-boss and cinematic sequences. The Horde storyline follows Princess Talanji as she fights to defend her homeland from an upwelling of cannibalistic blood trolls, who worship the expansion's beginning big raid dominate, K'huun. The Alliance story follows Jaina Proudmoore, introduced in Warcraft III, equally she seeks forgiveness from the nation she betrayed.

Both storylines set the scene for future events and patches, full of intrigue and other mysteries. The complexity of Blizzard'southward lore for World of Warcraft has led to plenty of plot holes and unresolved character writing and motivations. But if you lot take it for what it is, you'll discover a world truly worth investing in. Why did Sylvanas burn Teldrassil, really? Who is Bwonsamdi really working for? How will this conflict exist resolved? And will the Horde and Alliance be able to prepare aside their differences before its too late, with the expansion'southward big evil, Queen Azshara, lurking in the depths?

Battle for Azeroth has a big spread of dungeon and raid content to enjoy, with high-quality boss battles with new and returning mechanics. The Underrot, in particular, is truly impressive, taking place in mold-infested caverns below a decrepit Titan facility, overrun with blood-crazed monsters. The pirate urban center of Freehold is as well stunning, with some laugh-out-loud moments. The kickoff raid, Uldir, is besides very impressive with some great encounters, full of failed experiments that have mutated over the millennia, at present released by the deranged blood trolls.

The basic staples of World of Warcraft were nailed quite thoroughly in Battle for Azeroth. It has great zones, an awesome leveling feel, and fun dungeons. However, many of its expansion headline "features" are in an extremely bad state.

Battle for Azeroth: What you'll hate

While I was yet giddy with excitement subsequently hit level 120, the way Blizzard has fix Battle for Azeroth's end-game systems gradually sucked out the joy of playing. The visitor's focus on user-date seems to have led to some puzzling decisions that undermine its mission.

Earlier this week, Blizzard's advertised "Warfronts" feature went alive. These new 20-player raids take place in a revamped version of Arathi Highlands, meant to simulate the experience of a Warcraft III-style RTS battle, with you playing as a unit of measurement. The trouble is, they're utterly dull.

The lack of challenge makes Warfronts feel like a flashy chore.

Warfronts get-go with players parachuting from an airship (hard not to consider PUBG or Fortnite influence there), into a destroyed Horde base of operations. Players must then harvest wood and iron to build upwards the Horde bases' facilities, eventually recruiting soldiers and siege weapons to assail the Alliance proceed of Stromgarde. These battles take around twenty minutes and feature new A.I. swarm mechanics that forcefulness mobs to choose different targets, rather than pile on a single ane in a zerg. The battles expect cool as a result. The problem is the gameplay is devoid of difficulty. By Blizzard's own admission, losing a Warfront is really impossible, which makes me ask: What the Fel is the point?

The lack of challenge makes Warfronts experience similar a flashy chore, which could hands exist rectified past adding either player-vs-player unpredictability or calculation harder difficulty modes. I feel equally if this had been tested more extensively in beta, it wouldn't have arrived in this state. It doesn't aid either that players will but be able to feel the content effectually i week per month since it requires "contributions" from all players to spawn, which takes well-nigh a week, and then is available for a week earlier cycling dorsum to the opposing histrion faction. As such, since this Warfront starts on the Horde side, Alliance players won't be able to experience their version of the scenario for several weeks.

This time-gating is ridiculous if you're a paying Alliance subscriber, and information technology besides puts Brotherhood at a significant disadvantage when it comes to earth-first competitive raiding. Glossing over the lag from day one, the mechanical oversights hither are egregious for a visitor equally large and experienced as Blizzard.

The core aim of Expeditions undermines its feature fix, with some staggeringly bad design.

Another big expansion promise was "Island Expeditions," which characteristic advanced A.I. that mimics player behavior, and, evidently, procedurally-generated encounters that change every time you play. Sounds absurd right? Sadly, the cadre aim of Expeditions undermines its characteristic fix, with some staggeringly bad pattern decisions.

The procedurally-generated nature of the expeditions, you'd think, would lend itself well to the whole Tomb Raider island-explorer fantasy. Even so, Island Expeditions are races to gather resources against an opposing A.I. or player squad, completely offsetting the power to explore and appoint with any of the "procedurally generated" content. Your best bet to actually win an expedition is to simply zerg around, killing random monsters as fast as you can. And what is your reward for this 10-minute busy work? A trickling of Azerite, which feeds into what is probably the worst system of the unabridged expansion (maybe, well, e'er). You can cull to ignore Warfronts and Expeditions, but Azerite is securely interwoven with the core progression experience.

The Azerite system replaces the Legion expansion'south artifact weapons, giving players a necklace they can "level up" throughout the course of the expansion. You proceeds Azerite from doing numerous activities, which raises the necklace'southward level and stats. Problematically, though, the level of the necklace is also tied to new passive abilities on special head, shoulders, and chest gear, which tin can dramatically bear upon your character's power.

More than powerful armor requires higher necklace levels, too, which means that working difficult to get a new piece of gear from difficult Mythic content might result in a downgrade for you, considering you didn't want to do Blizzard's terribly dull Isle Expeditions or grind out globe quests. It doesn't help either that most of the Azerite passive traits are, well, boring. The form-themed artifact weapons from Legion also require some gated grinding, but they weren't tied to gear upgrades, the abilities were far more interesting, and crucially, they really looked cool and enhanced player's class fantasy.

Blizzard has also done away with class-themed raid sets, instead opting for dull raid-themed sets. A raiding unholy Death Knight will look the aforementioned equally a holy Paladin, if those players choose to use these armor visuals. It feels similar such a huge departure from Legion's focus on player's grade fantasy. I'm as well unhappy with how aggressively Blizzard has pruned out players' abilities over the years; my Claret Death Knight hasn't really changed in a meaningful manner in years, because Blizzard is besides nervous about introducing new abilities and skills.

Last thoughts on World of Warcraft Battle for Azeroth

Boxing for Azeroth has one of the nigh astonishing leveling experiences in World of Warcraft'southward history, with rich storytelling, evocative landscapes, and fun characters. Nevertheless, the lack of testing in its beta in the run-up to launch has conspicuously impacted the finish-game experience, which is a mess. Azerite armor contradicts the idea of getting "upgrades," since they're tied to grinding Azerite points for your antiquity necklace. So an upgrade might actually be a downgrade.

At least right now, Battle for Azeroth feels like Legion'due south predecessor, not its successor.

Warfronts are far as well easy to exist engaging, and the randomly-generated landscapes of Island Expeditions are undermined by the fact they're a race, making you ignore the country in favor of killing random monsters as fast as possible.

World of Warcraft is actually starting to testify its age, too. Blizzard clearly spent a lot of fine art resources updating old models to HD quality, which is not bad, but it makes models and spell furnishings that haven't been updated actually stand out. Too, the leveling feel for new players is as messy and chaotic as ever, with storylines overlapping chronologically due to the way expansions have been handled within the main story.

Pros:

• Incredible artwork and music.
• Excellent character acting and writing.
• A fun leveling experience.
• Great dungeons and boss battles.

Cons:

• Class fantasy is weak with few spells or new armor sets.
• Warfronts and Expeditions are tedious.
• Azerite equipment arrangement undermines progression.

World of Warcraft remains one of the greatest MMOs, regardless, and the style Blizzard has been able to maintain the game at this level for all of these years is unprecedented. Boxing for Azeroth is worth your fourth dimension for the leveling experience and core dungeon-crawling gameplay alone, only the headline features that Blizzard advertised with this expansion fall flat.

Blizzard may find time to address them in future patches, but at least correct at present, Battle for Azeroth feels like Legion's predecessor, not its successor.

Updated September 20, 2022: Blizzard has announced some of its future plans for fixing Battle for Azeroth'due south about criticized features.

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