WORLD OF WARCRAFT SHADOWLANDS
Death is not the end, as we delve into the next expansion for Blizzard’s flagship MMO
Few places in Azeroth aren’t covered in the boot prints of World of Warcraft players. We’ve been to every major continent, alternate magical dimensions and through dark portals to sundered worlds. Hell, we’ve even been to space. But this summer, Blizzard is taking us to a realm no living soul has been before: the afterlife.
Called the Shadowlands, these kingdoms of death are a typically well-oiled machine where dead souls are sorted and sent to different realms based upon their deeds in life – or it would be if some nefarious villain hadn’t broken the cycle, forcing every new soul to be dumped straight into a hellish abyss. “The Shadowlands pose a threat to our existence, to life, and what life means,” game director Ion Hazzikostas tells me. “That will lead us to have to venture across this barrier into the Shadowlands, but this is not the familiar Warcraft ecology of orcs and trolls and humans and dwarves. This is a fantastical journey into a side of Azeroth we’ve never seen before.”
When Shadowlands releases later this summer, however, it won’t just be another expansion full of monsters to kill and gear to grind. It also brings some exciting new innovations to the 15-year-old MMO, like a roguelike dungeon that changes each time you enter, an enormous amount of customisation and player choice, and a reduced level cap that will make starting a new character a lot less daunting.
DEATH BECOMES US
You’re right to be more than a little skeptical about Shadowlands if you spent a significant amount of time playing World of Warcraft’s current expansion, Battle for Azeroth. It’s no secret that Blizzard missed the mark on many of its core features, making for one of the most contentious two years of World of Warcraft’s entire life. But in talking with Hazzikostas, it’s clear that the release of Shadowlands isn’t Blizzard sweeping Battle for Azeroth under a dirty rug. Many of the expansion’s ideas feel like a direct response to player feedback and Blizzard’s own internal learning.
For example, both Legion and Battle for Azeroth let players choose which zones they wanted to level through. It was great that players had a choice and could take alternate routes when levelling other characters, but it also made telling a coherent overarching story a real challenge. Shadowlands is the best of both worlds: players’ first time through will lead them from zone to zone in a set path, but once they’ve beaten the main story they’re free to tackle zones in any order on their other characters. “We can tell a more structured story like we did back in Warlords of Draenor, where you are meeting new allies, experiencing betrayals along the way, and uncovering plots in a way that we simply weren’t able to do in Legion or Battle for Azeroth when we didn’t know what zone you’re going to start in,” Hazzikostas says. “If you start in the zone that has the big betrayal in it, then it’s not much of a betrayal.”
As players explore the Shadowlands, uncovering its mysteries and helping its denizens, it should feel a lot more like the Warcraft of old. Dangerous, highlevel monsters will prowl just off the beaten path, forcing players to again be cautious of where they’re exploring. “We’ve heard a lot of feedback and we
agree that there’s a risk of the journey through a new world feeling a bit flat when everything scales around with you as it must if we’re going to let you pick any zone,” Hazzikostas explains. “We are excited to get back to a place where when you first arrive in Bastion, the outer reaches of the zone have some high-level enemies that are pretty tough for you.”
That’s not the only way feedback from Battle for Azeroth and Legion have shaped Shadowlands, though. Throughout the expansion, players will gather Anima to buff up their character in the same way that players hoarded Artifact Power in both Legion and Battle for Azeroth. But unlike Artifact Power, Anima isn’t infinitely grindable, and players won’t have to worry about feeling pressured to spend hours of each week maxing it out just to stay competitive with others. “That just leads to burnout,” Hazzikostas says. “In order to get your core power progression, really we’re probably asking like an hour a week – something like that. Obviously it depends on your activity level, but we really want to create a baseline low level of activity.”
But if players aren’t spending all their free time grinding for marginal increases in power, what will they be doing instead? Turns out, Shadowlands has some bold ideas for reshaping Warcraft’s endgame.
INTO THE ABYSS
In addition to the usual raids, dungeons, and daily world quests that players are used to by now, Shadowlands is packing a big onetwo punch between a new roguelike dungeon called Torghast, Tower of the Damned and a harrowing outdoor zone for max-level players, The Maw. Each iterate on experimental ideas from Battle for Azeroth, Hazzikostas tells me.
The halls of Torghast are what
I’m most excited for. Once players reach max level, they’ll explore this new type of dungeon looking for relics that can then be used to craft new Legendary items with powerful and unique abilities. Getting out alive will be challenging, though, because Torghast changes each time you enter it. Hazzikostas says that, like any good roguelike, each floor will algorithmically spawn different monsters and traps, and powers to help you survive them. During a run you’ll gradually choose various temporary upgrades that’ll augment your abilities, often triggering weird and unforeseen synergies.
“It gives us a chance to have a lot of fun doubling down on just, frankly, broken powers,” Hazzikostas laughs. “Things that are transformative that we can’t necessarily do in the existing, established spaces like dungeons and raids. But if you can feel like you’re breaking the game in the confines of a run in Torghast, that’s a whole entire new type of gameplay that we’ve never really been able to explore.”
Compared to the confines of Torghast, The Maw might seem like a breath of fresh air if it weren’t swimming with the Shadowlands’ scariest monsters. Previous expansions have included a zone exclusive to max-level players, but Hazzikostas says The Maw will feel significantly different. “This is the heart of the Shadowlands that none but you have ever been able to escape from,” he warns. “This is not a place where you’re going to go chill out for a while, pick some herbs and go do some quests. But we still want this to be a place for all players.”
Hazzikostas compares The Maw to how zones were designed in World of Warcraft Classic, where players weren’t the super-powered gods they are now and had to exercise caution while fighting and exploring. If Blizzard pulls it off, it should add some much-needed tension to Warcraft’s open-world questing.
WELCOME TO HELL
Torghast and The Maw are just a few of Shadowlands’ promising new features, though. Each new zone has its own Covenant that players can choose to join, unlocking unique abilities and armour sets. And even though players will spend most of their time exploring this new spirit realm, those not currently at max level will see some radical new changes to Azeroth.
For the first time ever, World of Warcraft’s level cap is being reduced back to its original limit of 60. Instead of new abilities being slowly drip-fed over 120 levels, the level squish will ensure each new level is satisfying and exciting. It will also make it easier to experience old expansions in their entirety. Once a character reaches level 10, players will choose which expansion they’ll want to experience, taking them all the way to level 50 where Shadowlands begins. It sounds like an exciting new way to experience parts of Azeroth that often go neglected these days, but at a pace Hazzikostas estimates is 60 per cent faster than the current levelling process.
And while Battle for Azeroth’s unique ideas didn’t always stick, Shadowlands is improving many of them in ways that make me excited about spending the next two years in Warcraft’s version of hell.
STEVEN MESSNER