Shadowlands doesn't feel like Warcraft

[Relapses]

You're not alone and, as evident by some replies in this thread so far, it's not an isolated minority either.

Yes, because people on WoW forums are known for their uniquely positive takes and none of them ever complain for the sake of complaining. In fact, it's ridiculous to even suggest the possibility!

[Magicon]

I feel the same mate. This isn't warcraft again until next expension. BfA was bad, but atleast it felt like warcraft. Feels like i am playing another game this time.

[bagina]

Yes, because people on WoW forums are known for their uniquely positive takes and none of them ever complain for the sake of complaining. In fact, it's ridiculous to even suggest the possibility!

Wow, stop being so insufferable. MMO forums is not one person. Blindly disagreeing with every negative opinion doesn't make you superior. Their opinion is as just valid as anyone else's. Just because they don't like some aspect of it doesn't mean they hate the game. How weird would that be if people loved every little thing about WoW in its 15 year lifespan? Now that would be unusual. Let people discuss everything

[Relapses]

Wow, stop being so insufferable. MMO forums is not one person. Blindly disagreeing with every negative opinion doesn't make you superior. Their opinion is as just valid as anyone else's. Just because they don't like some aspect of it doesn't mean they hate the game. How weird would that be if people loved every little thing about WoW in its 15 year lifespan? Now that would be unusual. Let people discuss everything

That's cute. I'm insufferable? Can you please tell me where I said anybody's opinion is invalid? Or that they "hate the game"? Right, you can't. Because I didn't. I simply made an observation that a sample size of "this thread" is probably a bad way to support an argument.

[Leiandri]

Yes, because people on WoW forums are known for their uniquely positive takes and none of them ever complain for the sake of complaining. In fact, it's ridiculous to even suggest the possibility!

The OP asked if anyone else felt that way and I was specifically answering that question. I'm sure the vast majority of current players are extremely happy with this expansion but it doesn't make it a good game for me. I am perfectly content playing other games in the meantime waiting until this expansion is over, I just feel sad I can't enjoy my favourite game anymore.

[Ihazpaws]

Honestly they just should leave WoW as it is and make classic servers for different expansions 1 by 1.
And after that all is under work, they should either make new MMO or WoW 2.0 which stays on it's roots and don't evolve into shit show like SL.

I really wanna play retail wow but there is so many stupid gated shit, dailies, world quests and forced annoying content that I simply can't do them anymore. I just wanna world pvp/BGs, run some mythic+ and raid once a while.

Unpopular opinion but give Vanilla wow with gameplay and balance of retail + add content to it... Content that feels like it belongs to the azeroth and does not make any other areas irrelevant. Also wow is really flat, Make zones more interesting by making big caves and tunnels in many zones. And remove that horrible flying... If you want to have flying, then atleast make it realistic and do not allow players just hover in the sky. Make flying hard meaning: Taking off and going down needs room and failing means you take dmg and dismount. When flying, you are moving and falling. Staying in sky has to have either buttons to press or focusing on the flight some other way.

I know I know, some mounts are able to hover or it does not make sense for them to be constantly on move. Easy fix: remove those mounts and give new ground mounts for whiny mount collectors.


Some of you gonna again shitpost random "facts" and their opinions and so on. Not gonna reply to them. I just said my opinion about the game and honestly would play any other MMO if there was something as good as wow is in it's core and pvp wise. Gladly there is Classic which feels nice and is relaxing. Meeting new people and making new friends while leveling instead of forced to do tons of dailies and other annoying things while maybe 1 player says "hey" in a group content that is cleared in mere seconds and then everyone leaves and I will not see them never again because of the shards, combined servers and layering crap.

[Vakna]

Definitely feels like Warcraft to me, no idea what you mean. I have some gripes with the rewards system, but not the setting.

[McNeil]

I too feel the same. Its only the graphics style that feels like Warcraft, but other than that the game feels a lot closer to Diablo and other games. I especially think that the night fae look way out of place and belong in some weeb game like Final Fantasy. The Jailor looks like a Mortal Combat character and came out of nowhere, yet apparently he is responsible for a lot of shit we have faced in the past.

One of the things BFA did right was that it felt very close to what Warcraft was originally about: Alliance vs Horde, exploring the world, fighting known big bads, lots of politics between the factions, meeting characters that we have been looking forward to see for so long. Its just that the expansion had a lot of problems, but the overall theming it had did have a lot of potential.

[iosdeveloper]

im pretty much agree (no "oh wow, alliance build a base here" moments, but you should appreciate unique models more

[Xires]

Previous expansions all added new places and creatures, but they brought existing elements there as well. You would find the classic races of Azeroth building settlements there, you'd see murlocs, goblin towns, human castles and so on.
Shadowlands doesn't have any of that. It's all completely different to the point where it feels like I'm playing some chinese knockoff of wow.
Even the loading screen looks more like something out of Narnia and that movie sucked.
Also, the fact that they added a bunch of existing characters that just sit in a corner in Oribos doesn't help.

This is my main gripe with the expansion and wanted to ask if anyone feels the same way.

I think you are confusing Shadowlands with MoP. The whole theme was blizzard kissing the butt of the Chinese gaming market. That's how a panda joke ended up being an entire expansion.

- - - Updated - - -

I too feel the same. Its only the graphics style that feels like Warcraft, but other than that the game feels a lot closer to Diablo and other games. I especially think that the night fae look way out of place and belong in some weeb game like Final Fantasy. The Jailor looks like a Mortal Combat character and came out of nowhere, yet apparently he is responsible for a lot of shit we have faced in the past.

One of the things BFA did right was that it felt very close to what Warcraft was originally about: Alliance vs Horde, exploring the world, fighting known big bads, lots of politics between the factions, meeting characters that we have been looking forward to see for so long. Its just that the expansion had a lot of problems, but the overall theming it had did have a lot of potential.

Alliance vs Horde in BfA? Nah, never really felt that. Felt more like a handful of story's they pulled out of their butt along the way. BfA was anything but Horde vs Alliance. Very disappointing xpac with ALL of its selling points (islands and warfronts) falling extremely short of fun or anything else.

[un_known]

Previous expansions all added new places and creatures, but they brought existing elements there as well. You would find the classic races of Azeroth building settlements there, you'd see murlocs, goblin towns, human castles and so on.
Shadowlands doesn't have any of that. It's all completely different to the point where it feels like I'm playing some chinese knockoff of wow.
Even the loading screen looks more like something out of Narnia and that movie sucked.
Also, the fact that they added a bunch of existing characters that just sit in a corner in Oribos doesn't help.

This is my main gripe with the expansion and wanted to ask if anyone feels the same way.

In my experience I see that each zone has an aura of places you find outside of shadowlands that gives it the warcraft feeling, maldraxxus is pretty much EPL on crack with so many moment I believed I was back there. Ardenweald reminisce that of the old dark shore/ashenvale before the cataclysm. The maw was pretty much ice crown again with the architectural structures and mobs you find. And even going into torghast I felt like I was sneaking into ICC again.

[Osmeric]

I agree, OP. That compounds with all the other problems I had with the expansion. The disconnected experience made it all seem like I'd miss nothing by not playing.

[Ludvig]

neither did bfa or legion imo, which makes sense considering they forced diablo devs to the dev team for legion development

[Kiwijello]

Sorry dude, I have a hard time believing this many people are legitimately surprised an expansion set in the fictional version of the afterlife... feels like an expansion set in the fictional version of the afterlife. Some real don't dead open inside in this thread.

I'm not sorry. The location of the expansion, the artwork, that all feels like Wow. Sorry you just jump to conclusions to make your point. It's the underlying systems that have shifted causing a forced difference in playstyle and time spent in game.

"Some real don't dead open inside in this thread." WTF does that even mean? I swear, some people just want to argue, so they make things up. SMH...

[Omedon]

The war in Warcraft is evolving. The terrestrial “green man look different” theme isn’t sustainable going forward in the real world climate given the size and visibility of the game and, to be quite frank, it’s high time the dungeon masters of WoW cracked open the Planescape box in respect of how inevitably huge our characters are.

The cosmic war is the future, and man am I ever so happy for it! I’m enjoying Shadowlands largely for reasons related to these!

The race war is ugly and outdated, it’s time for the war in Warcraft to go high concept, interplanar, and stay there for years! I’m fully on board!

[Qnubi]

Nope, he's not alone. Shadowlands isn't Warcraft, it's even more alien to the franchise than the asian Mists of Pandaria setting.

Yup, I feel the same. SL is the weirdest and most non-warcraft Expansion to date.

[belicus]

I too feel the same. Its only the graphics style that feels like Warcraft, but other than that the game feels a lot closer to Diablo and other games. I especially think that the night fae look way out of place and belong in some weeb game like Final Fantasy. The Jailor looks like a Mortal Combat character and came out of nowhere, yet apparently he is responsible for a lot of shit we have faced in the past.

One of the things BFA did right was that it felt very close to what Warcraft was originally about: Alliance vs Horde, exploring the world, fighting known big bads, lots of politics between the factions, meeting characters that we have been looking forward to see for so long. Its just that the expansion had a lot of problems, but the overall theming it had did have a lot of potential.

Yeah, BfA was very good thematically and even took some inspiration from W2. I understand that mechanically it was very disliked, but I wish people could separate those 2 aspects more

[Valandale]

I quit retail because of SL, its design still looks like WoW, just it's the WoW of Legion and BfA, and I don't like the busywork with no real consequence or payoff, grinds that are there simply to make you grind instead of a real reward at the end. My main issue was with the story anyway. Just like WoD all this expac does is fatally wound continuity and the lore built up over the years. Too many poorly or not even thought out plot lines and character motivations tying it to the world and the stupid "rope strands" analogy. Trying to quantify the afterlife is probably worse than timeline shenanigans because all it does is make no one happy. It's the afterlife and it killed the story for me so I suppose it's appropriate.

[belicus]

Wow, stop being so insufferable. MMO forums is not one person. Blindly disagreeing with every negative opinion doesn't make you superior. Their opinion is as just valid as anyone else's. Just because they don't like some aspect of it doesn't mean they hate the game. How weird would that be if people loved every little thing about WoW in its 15 year lifespan? Now that would be unusual. Let people discuss everything

Thanks, I really don't see why some people get so upset at discussing negative aspects. I mean I'm still playing the game and it's encouraging to see other people share the feeling regarding the theme. Maybe the next expansion will be more in line with our expectations, since I'm clearly not alone.

[Relapses]

Well that's kind of the point, it doesn't feel like an afterlife dimension of the Warcraft universe, it feels like a blend of AION, Legacy of Kain, Diablo and Mortal Kombat.

Care to explain to me how you, a random person on a WoW forum, have a better idea of what WoW's afterlife should be then the people who made the video game? I'm curious to learn more.