Soo...Is Shadowlands any good?

[Rathwell]

I just can't find it in me to be interested in the setting, and the beautiful zones aside, I don't particularly like any of the aesthetic themes for armor either. If I was offered 200,000g to wear one of the Covenant armors for the rest of the expansion I'd decline without hesitation, there's not a single one I think looks good

The Covenant Campaigns are pretty fun but we'll only get to do one chapter per week so other than that, you've only really got Torghast so far -- which I am not personally a fan of. Diablo III wasn't my cup of tea, and Torghast really reminds me of it with its randomly generated levels and the whole grinding your way up a solo dungeon thing.

The story itself feels a bit convoluted and opens up so many more questions, like for instance:

1. Are there only four types of people in the world, each belonging to a realm in Shadowlands? No, Blizzard implied there are many more, we just don't see them in the expansion. But then, why is Oribos ruled by the Arbiter who judges souls, in a city only connected to these four portals? Are there other Oribos-like cities out there with their own Arbiter and their own death realms?

2. Why do dead Tauren end up looking like winged humans if they die and are sent to Bastion? Why does everyone have to conform to being a new species after death

3. Why does a dead deformed Naga like Lady Vashj maintain not just her mortal form, but the mutated Naga one, even though most dead in the Shadowlands assume the form of the realm they're in? Why does she not take a realm-relevant shape, or heck, why wouldn't her soul appear as a Night Elf rather than a Naga?


So many aspects of the story just makes it feel needlessly convoluted and just leads to an endless series of questions. Even if you could answer them all and plug the "plot holes" it still just feels like a mess. Bit like Warlords of Draenor, where we fought Orcs from a different planet. With time travel. But also it's an alternate universe as well. Even once you make sense of it, it's just so needlessly convoluted.


Right now, I am not particularly invested in the story, the realms, Torghast or the aesthetics of the gear. I'm still going to give the expansion a shot and try to get by on liking the visuals of the zones

[Varaben]

I feel like there's already a lot of currencies like Stygia, Anima, and Soul Ash, but I guess maybe that's all? And they are all for very specific purposes, but it just seems like there's a "currency bloat" that happens as the expansion progresses.

[Elkfingers]

Very lame attempt at argument via pedantry.

A matter of hours in is really too early to say how good Shadowlands is. It takes a while for the consequences of all the game design decisions to become clear.

My dude I'm not being pedantic at all. The context that we exit within as I type these very words is one in which Shadowlands hasn't been out for long. It stands to reason that if somebody is asking if it's good they're asking what people's initial impressions are, otherwise they'd ask if it's going to be good down the line. The pedantic take here is acting as though it's somehow dumb for somebody to ask if something is good based on what they've seen so far. I have to assume that unless the OP is a time traveller, they were referring to the bits of the game that are currently available to play.

I'm talking about you wasting your time specifically going to MMO-C to LOOK for comments/threads that confirm your opinion that everyone at MMO-C is just trash.
You're in the same boat, like it or not.

And just because something isn't an issue for you, doesn't mean it isn't a valid critique. Maybe you just have low standards - and ignorance is bliss, we all know that.

I don't think that everyone is trash though. I literally said that some people are well adjusted. That doesn't change the fact that unless we're going to deny reality, there are a lot of dumpster fire tier opinions on these boards.

Also no, something not being an issue for me doesn't mean that somebody can't have a valid critique. The issue tends to be that 'I don't like this, fire Ion, I'm depressed and explicitly look for reasons to hate the game I pretend not to play any more' isn't a quality critique. But yeah sure. If you stop to look at a car crash, apparently that means you're in a car crash when you do that? While we're talking same boats and all...

[Huntermyth]

although nothing will beat drustvar quest line in the foreseeable future ( and it is coming from a horde main, remind you) i really REALLY liked shadowlands ( only saw bastion and maldraxxus tho) so far.

it's called '' money well spent '' in my book.

[Grax]

Leveling is boring. Zones are alright once you get past Bastion but are very sparse compared to previous expansions. Story is as forgettable as its been since WOTLK. Dungeons seem interesting. Player agency is as dead as ever with daily chores, current class design, and the most useless itemization ever in any game. Even with my deep antipathy for the current "press x,y; wait for z to light up" homogenized classes, I do love the raids, so that's what I'm in for.

[neik]

It's a joke so far.

1. Maw is an absolute cancer.
2. Tower makes you puke after couple of runs.
3. Heavily focusing on temporary powers and systems just to be forgotten in a future.
4. World quests sucks.
5. Masochistic grinds incoming.

[Divada]

Way too early to say but so far the questing isn't great. See how it goes, I'm going to give it an honest shot.

[AwkwardSquirtle]

Depends why you quit. It looks and sounds phenomenal, and mostly works. The overarching story is decent, though there's a severe case of name overload as they introduce you to the complex social orders of 5 different societies, then usher you on to the next before you have a chance to get used to any of the names. On at least one occasion I've had a major reveal that someone did something bad and just been like "Who?"
Class design is mostly of the BfA model so far, relatively simple with some complexity to come as max level progression goes on, at least from my perspective as a warlock. Little seems to have changed if you felt classes were too simple.
I certainly think I'll get at least the baseline price's worth out of it, even if the max level stuff ends up not being enjoyable enough to stick around.

[Athredas]

I just can't find it in me to be interested in the setting, and the beautiful zones aside, I don't particularly like any of the aesthetic themes for armor either. If I was offered 200,000g to wear one of the Covenant armors for the rest of the expansion I'd decline without hesitation, there's not a single one I think looks good

The Covenant Campaigns are pretty fun but we'll only get to do one chapter per week so other than that, you've only really got Torghast so far -- which I am not personally a fan of. Diablo III wasn't my cup of tea, and Torghast really reminds me of it with its randomly generated levels and the whole grinding your way up a solo dungeon thing.

The story itself feels a bit convoluted and opens up so many more questions, like for instance:

1. Are there only four types of people in the world, each belonging to a realm in Shadowlands? No, Blizzard implied there are many more, we just don't see them in the expansion. But then, why is Oribos ruled by the Arbiter who judges souls, in a city only connected to these four portals? Are there other Oribos-like cities out there with their own Arbiter and their own death realms?

2. Why do dead Tauren end up looking like winged humans if they die and are sent to Bastion? Why does everyone have to conform to being a new species after death

3. Why does a dead deformed Naga like Lady Vashj maintain not just her mortal form, but the mutated Naga one, even though most dead in the Shadowlands assume the form of the realm they're in? Why does she not take a realm-relevant shape, or heck, why wouldn't her soul appear as a Night Elf rather than a Naga?


So many aspects of the story just makes it feel needlessly convoluted and just leads to an endless series of questions. Even if you could answer them all and plug the "plot holes" it still just feels like a mess. Bit like Warlords of Draenor, where we fought Orcs from a different planet. With time travel. But also it's an alternate universe as well. Even once you make sense of it, it's just so needlessly convoluted.


Right now, I am not particularly invested in the story, the realms, Torghast or the aesthetics of the gear. I'm still going to give the expansion a shot and try to get by on liking the visuals of the zones

Personally. I don't enjoy the setting/story either but two of your points are actually explained in-game. Point 2 is literally what the entire Kyrian story is about, point 3 is explained by Vashj herself, she chose her appearance willingly.

[Dazmalak]

My overall impression is that I am playing WoW in a different setting not associated with Warcraft and it's...meh.

Gameplay: Covenants are neat, not as bad as I thought they'd be given all the whining on forums about them. Questing is standard and repetitive as it has always been, streamlined but a carbon copy of what's been done time and time again. Zones are pretty, I guess. I have enjoyed Maldraxxus the most so far, but have not made it to Revendreth yet. Most classes play the same as in BfA so nothing to add here.

Story/Lore: I dislike just about all of it. The Jailer and his motives are still vague and generic. Team Azeroth has dug its boring claws into the Ebon Blade and Bolvar as well. There are some cool concepts, but it all lacks punch. I haven't felt any emotional attachment or investment to any character so far, unless you count annoyance. I will finish it out and see how things go to give it a fair shot. But so far I am unimpressed.

[phattsao]

Leveling zones seem fine, but they always are. Even WoD had good leveling...and so far Bastion reminds me a lot of WoD.

Seems like way less rares/treasures than usual, and a lot require groups to activate. Interesting.

In general it seems empty, too. I've got war mode on, and I've never seen an alliance player. I've seen maybe 8 horde players at once, max. Which is clearly intentional, these zones don't seem like they could support many people playing at once. Seems easier to get around on foot/mount than some of BFA at least.

Also incredibly linear so far. Reminds me of Cata, where you follow the quests in order with little deviation. Maybe they've already addressed this, but that's going to make leveling alts suck if they all have to follow the exact same path. At least leveling seems to be really fast.

All in all, I'm not really feeling the sense of "oh boy, new content" that I usually do with an xpac. Even BFA at least had an impressive city and music at the start. This one seems very paint-by-numbers so far.

BUT, I'll say one positive thing. I leveled up an got a new ability for the first time in 3+ years. Felt good, even if it was just some lame passive effect.

[darklogrus]

Slow? It's the fastest ever. And you only have to do the campaign one time; with alts you can skip it an do whatever you want.

Gettin, 1-2 quests just to go back in forth for another 1-2 quests is what I consider slow. Every once in a great while you might come across a third quest lying there or a regular one thats in the same area, but its rare.

[valax]

It's goood , the only thing I don't like is lack of quick transportation between zones , flight paths going through oribos every time is a bit annoying

[Kormara]

The emptiness is what made me sad watching it on stream. I don't know if it was layers due to launch, and I doubt it was a lack of people being on since it was launch...But the world looked empty, it looked like my friend was playing mostly a single player experience not an mmo.

[Doffen]

I like it. I will like it more in two weeks with awesome raid.

[Polarthief]

As someone who is not playing it but has been through every expansion launch but this one, it's best to ask this question about a month or two in, not when it's brand new. Peoples' thoughts will definitely change soon enough.

BfA wasn't outright terrible right away, but did become terrible very quickly when we ran out of things to do and realized Azerite was all we were getting.

[Soimu]

as usual most of them will say its awesome and after a few months when they get bored they will say it's shit

[Pratt]

I've spent more time in queue than playing, so debatable.

[kranur]

Not great, not terrible. Has some stupid shit that makes no sense ... lile honor unranked gear being better than mythic dungeons gear and also guaranteed ... like why would I even bother to enter an instance at this point?

[Seuchentiffy]

-Graphical it´s nice well in 2 Zones in my opinion bastion is to "light" in colors and Maldraxxus is missing something to mix it up a bit it´s all to Greenish/Gray

- Storywise 2 Zones good and enjoyable, 2 to totally forget about

- Having to play all Storys before you can choose a Covenant is nice, but can lead to you needing to do a whole Zone Story at max level
After that it´s back to the Legion/BFA recipe, Dailys/Weeklys/World Quest

-Maw is in my opinion one of the Worse zones ,if not the worse, they ever made. having to run around in that is just tilting

-Crafting System (at least for Smithing) is utter Garbage, having to have materials from every Zone just to Craft a Specific Ingot is tilting af

-Gameplay wise i feel alot weaker compared to Legion/Bfa Start when i hit Max Level

-Covenants yeah dunno yet about those, having the Story gated behind renown tho is kinda bullshit

Overall it´s a "Looks nice on the Outside, but is pretty hollow on the Inside" for now for me.