Review for World of Warcraft. Game for Mac and PC, the video game was released on 23/11/2004 The version for PC came out on 11/02/2005
Andy Williams' famous Christmas hit goes like this: "It's that great time of year again!" but in this case that period coincides with the release of the expansion of one of the most played MMORPGs ever: World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth. Also this time Blizzard proposes as the main theme the head-on clash between the two great factions that live on Azeroth, the Alliance and the Horde, trying to resume the cardinal themes that have made the series famous and loved by millions of players from all over. the world.
Let's find out what's new in this new expansion: it's time to go back to the future, Marty! and beware of spoilers.
During the previous expansion (Legion, ed), we learned that Azeroth is actually not just a planet, but the most powerful sleeping titan in the universe. This power has certainly not gone unnoticed in the eyes of the good Sargeras, who in his controversial crusade against evil, decided to destroy it, so that it does not succumb to the influence of the evil gods of the Void. The Horde and the Alliance have therefore decided to forge a pact of non-belligerence to face the difficulties and together recover all the legendary artifacts, their only chance of victory.
In a final battle worthy of the last episode of Sailor Moon, our heroes have crossed their weapons to face Sargeras, finally managing to defeat him, even if at a high price: the much pampered artifacts have now become walking sticks. And with his last forces Sargeras managed to stab the planet, creating what is now called The Rift, a wound in the titan from which a substance as mysterious as it is powerful comes out, Azerite, which gives those who collect it incredible strength.
Without a common enemy and with the impending war for control over the Azerite fields, the old hostilities between the Horde and the Alliance are rekindled, and it is precisely from this incipit that the new expansion begins, World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth. A nice way to take revenge for past wrongs.
It's your Boi Zappy!
A few months before the actual launch of the expansion, adventures were released to introduce players to the new lore, featuring the three main characters: Surfang, current leader of the orcs; Jaina, renegade archmage from his homeland; and Lady Sylvanas, the new leader of the Horde. The latter, fearing that the Alliance would use Darnassus (the capital of the night elves) to launch an assault against Lorderon, decides to make the first move and start a bloody campaign against the alliance that will end with the destruction of the Teldrassil tree , the symbol of the elven city.
These latest events have not only shaken the lands of Azeroth, but there have also been repercussions in real life: the World of Warcraft community has been split in two. The players stripped off their armor to demonstrate their disagreement with Sylvanas' actions, much like Surfang in the “Old soldier” scene, agreeing not to hire horde members who weren't wearing armor.
All of this greatly surprised us, because it showed how much the World of Warcraft community is still active. And not just in game.
Divide and Conquer
The main novelties of this expansion are well highlighted by the journey that will take us from level 110 to 120. The two factions, this time, will have completely different advancement experiences: a member of the horde, for example, will follow the adventures that they will lead to the discovery of the lost island of Zandalar; while a member of the Alliance will follow Jaina Proudmour's storyline in the islands of Kul Tiras. A much appreciated change, especially because it will entice the player to follow both events, perfecting a replay value that is in itself medium advanced.
Of course, even if the areas are new, the way they are explored will not be very different from the past. The objective in itself of the missions could therefore still be trivial, but their diversification will certainly guarantee several hours of fun. These are not filler quests, but whimsical, full of funny or cruel dialogue and cutscenes, just so you don't miss the magic touch of a WoW.
On the other hand, however, experience aside, there is no real reward for reaching the maximum level. Skill management is quite unsatisfactory compared to other expansions, as you won't be getting new skills or talents. The true progression system is instead linked to an amulet, capable of gathering and channeling the power of azerite, or the Heart of Azeroth. With the accumulation of the right energies, the latent powers of the necklace will be unlocked and the different traits that improve the skills of our choice will be unlocked.
With artifact weapons now useless (it is only possible to recreate their appearance and use characteristics of other weapons) the azerite amulet cannot solidly fill this system, since the traits - apart from the rarest ones coming from raids and dungeons - they do not particularly modify the way of playing, nor do they manage to improve the final result. In addition, the average WoW player has a not a little latent masochistic streak, and certainly does not feel like big simplifications, or further and boring farming. While some players are hoping that a future patch will make their demon hunters or other artifact-enhanced classes playable, that unfortunately no amount of azerite will be able to bring the other classes up to par.
I am the King of the Mountain, baby!
The real reason for reaching the maximum level is hidden behind all those contents that become accessible only once reached. In Battle for Azeroth there are two new activities: the Warfronts and the Island Expeditions, that is the expeditions on the lost islands.
In World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth you will have to beat the AI and conquer its fortress and to do so you will have to build a base, move between the outposts, farm as many resources as possible, in order to increase the chances of defeating the enemies. A nice way of wanting to recreate the mechanics of the classic Warcraft, who however on a large scale becomes clumsy, failing to capture the emphasis of the battles. In fact, there is no real strategy behind the very low level of difficulty, above all because there is no possibility to play with small groups of people. It is only accessible from the automatic party search: the resulting team of twenty / thirty people will be difficult to co-operate, and the chaos could soon become frustrating.
The second activity introduced are the Island Expeditions. Unlike the Warfronts, this mode can be done in both PvE and PvP mode with the sole aim of getting your hands on a certain amount of Azerite before the opposing team. The precious mineral can be obtained in three different ways: by collecting it from Azerite deposits found on the ground; killing monsters and bosses; completing events.
This three-player mode will take two teams to one of the seven islands, which will be randomly populated by monsters and events of various kinds. Here the AI is handled truly masterfully and at higher difficulties you almost forget that you are not dealing with real players. A highly replayable mode, which is unlikely to be the same as the previous ones, being created almost in a procedural way for the occasion.
If all this is not enough, reaching level 120 will have access to the areas of the opposing faction, going to double the effective playing area. You will be able to move to this new area not only to fight in PvP, but also just to explore it and to complete the countless new missions available. And this is where War Mode finds its great use, which can be activated from the character menu, which will allow you to engage your opponents in combat or not (as long as it also has the mode activated). A necessary feature introduced to allow players to move freely between the activities of the enemy territory, without being overwhelmed by their numerical superiority, while trying to participate in activities such as raids and dungeons. If a certain number of kills are earned in activated mode, your name will be highlighted on the map, both as a reference point for allies and for opponents, who will want at all costs to earn some extra rewards from the highlighted scalp.
The World Quest already present in Legion, che adds to the daily roster of timed missions scattered in one of the six zones, offering large rewards and a lot of reputation for the belonging faction.
Bring me MOAR!
Directly selectable when creating a new character, we will also have six new races (three per faction) as long as the account meets some conditions: currently to use one of the new races you must have the "Exalted" type reputation with the corresponding faction (eg if you want to play the role of a Tauren, you will have to be "Exalted" in Horde) and complete a short quest which will introduce their story. In addition to having new skills and racial traits, reaching the maximum level with one of the six new races will earn you a mount and a full set of racial armor.
The new races include: for the Horde the Mag'har Orcs, the Highmountain Tauren and the Nightborne; while for the Alliance the Void Elf, the Lightforged Draenei and the Darkiron Dwarwes. In addition to these six races, two more will be added later in the expansion, namely the Zandalari Trolls (already famous in the Horde) and the humans of Kul Tiras (protagonists of the Alliance campaign).
World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth is certainly a fairly compact expansion, but it will have some difficulty in unseating Legion from the pedestal. Not because Blizzard has decided to lower the bar too much, nor does it mean that it is a bad product. The look of the new zones, the new lore, the new modes and the ten new dungeons present are all fun elements, but Blizzard still fails to deviate and ultimately monetizes all the good work created by Legion and guides it towards small improvements, which they are difficult to observe in the short term. This time it does not seem to have dared as in the past, but for sure there will be a way to prove it wrong in the future.
► World of Warcraft is an Adventure-RPG type game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment for Mac and PC, the video game was released on 23/11/2004 The version for PC came out on 11/02/2005
