Playing World of Warcraft: Legion takes me back to some of my favorite WoW moments. About 11 years ago, in the time of Vanilla WoW, I fell into a hole. I'd been questing in the Badlands region and searching for herbs when suddenly I found myself in a hidden tomb where an old, rotted warrior sat in a throne with a sword by his side. No one else I knew knew of it at the time; for a while it was my private surprise. And as a longtime Conan fan, I admired the way I'd come across it by chance much like Arnie running from the wolves onscreen in 1982.
Last night in Legion I had a similar moment. It wasn't garnished by any pop-culture reference (that I know of), but while slaughtering dogs for fur in the new Viking-themed Stormheim zone I came across a cave filled with Titan statues holding up the roof in a manner reminiscent of Atlas. Lasers sliced across the cave, presenting a small challenge for anyone going for the treasure chest at the end. I just sat there looking at it for a while, admiring the ways that World of Warcraft’s world design can still surprise me all these years later.
Perhaps the biggest surprise is that Legion's already hugely popular. Even weeks before the expansion proper went live last night, players returned in droves to partake in the "invasions" that dumped XP and loot by the truckload, and hardly a gripe changed the chat channels This, after over a year without a content patch. This, after news of plummeting subscription numbers and ire over Warlords of Draenor's single-player-focused garrisons that churned out gold, gear, and crafting materials with almost zero need to join the world outside. Even after all that, people still come back. That's the kind of love and devotion that other game developers must envy.
We've entered about as pure of a Warcraft storyline as we can get.
From what I've seen, both after months in beta and overnight in what must surely count as World of Warcraft's smoothest launch ever, there's plenty of reason to. Never before has the questing story been so engaging. With the return of the threat of the Burning Legion, the central antagonist of the Warcraft universe, we've entered about as pure of a Warcraft storyline as we can get. Demons pour into the world through portals, and relations between the Alliance and the Horde deteriorate after a botched joint initiative, restoring the inter-faction tension that's always instilled such devotion for players on either side.
Almost every class has been overhauled with updated playstyles and (occasionally) combat animations, resulting in some novel choices like melee Hunters or pirate-themed Rogues. Most of the changes are fantastic, especially with new artifact skills from Legion worked in. Some, though, are questionable. Hunters, for instance, don't feel quite as fun to play as they did in years past.
The music, which has always been masterful, reaches new heights of artistry here.
As an experience, it succeeds primarily because of how the story’s told. Quality voice acting and mini-cutscenes pepper the road from levels 100 to 110, greatly minimizing the need to read reams of quest text to understand what's going on. The music, which has always been masterful in World of Warcraft, reaches new heights of artistry here. The dogged focus on killing and fetching remains, but there's a much greater emphasis on interacting with the world, such as by hunting down treasures scattered on the peaks of Stormheim with a grappling hook. Quests flow organically from one to another, and sometimes Blizzard even manages to sprinkle in a few rewarding side quests that break from the rails of the main tale.
Much of this was true of Warlords of Draenor at launch, but Legion improves the experience even further. Among the greatest and most welcome shifts is the ability to level through four of the five big zones in any order you wish, which breaks some of the monotony of leveling alternate characters and injects a degree of choice. The "theme park" feel is strong and a little too grab-baggy, as each zone draws heavily from beloved elements of Warcraft lore in a seeming scattershot bit to appeal to everyone. Stormheim, as I said, is all about the Viking-like Vrykul. Val'sharah makes a total tonal shift and focuses on Night Elf forests and druids, Highmountain's about Tauren with moose antlers, and Azsuna showcases the ruined elven civilization of millennia past. But Blizzard uses each zone to great effect, crafting all of them with memorable storylines.
There's an incredibly satisfying shift toward faction-tagging for most quest enemies.
At ground level, there's also an incredibly satisfying shift toward faction-tagging for most quest enemies. In other words, if you're Horde and an ungrouped Horde member starts attacking something for a quest and you help out, you'll get credit. Whereas if you’re Alliance in the same scenario, unless it's a named quest boss, you won't get credit for it. This approach doesn't come close to forging real friendships like WoW's heavy focus on grouping in its early years did, but it does bring in a healthy dose of faction cooperation and community that was always lost in "kill-stealing" design of years past. Kill-stealing remains between factions, but now the anger it sometimes caused enjoys some basis in the lore.
I'm more conflicted about the new "artifact" weapons that players of every spec get within an hour of booting up the expansion. The idea is appealing enough, as most of them feature such iconic weapons from Warcraft lore as the famed Ashbringer sword for Retribution Paladins or Thrall's (former) Doomhammer for Enhancement Shamans. Each comes with a devastating ability—my Monk often one-shots groups of enemies with a single punch—and you level each with drops from treasure chests and rare enemies. As you level it grows in power, and an associated talent tree for the weapon augments your abilities. Sometimes they even add new animations, such as the staff for the Brewmaster Monk that's carried slung over the shoulder rather than hanging limply at the side.
In practice, this means everyone of your spec is running around with the same weapon. You can easily change their appearance with WoW's transmog ability if you wish, but in the case of the fist weapon artifact for my Windwalker Monk (my main), that means I can only change it into other first weapons. Since fist weapons remain invisible out of combat, I can no longer display my fancy swords and staves like I used to. There's an element of choice and personalization that's been removed. Filling out the "talent trees" also feels a bit like work, but that's not entirely a problem as it's the only real new form of character progression in the expansion. Reach the outer ends of the trees, for instance, and you'll unlock impressive passive skills. I'll have to play more before deciding how I really feel about this.
Continues
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