I don't find hellfire overall to be more than average. But yeah, like I said earlier.. every single "start" to an xpac is similar, you ride a boat/gryphon/bat...
To me, seeing everyone on my server flock to the portal... faction fights starting.. then going through to see a GIANT PIT LORD and groups of demons charging was crazy... not that others were necessarily bad.
It's a little different. Comparing flying over Hellfire Peninsula's landscape as opposed to sailing through Howling Fjord's entrance isn't exactly a fair comparison. And comparing being attacked by nagas and kraken as opposed to flying peacefully away from strife on a generic gryphon/wyvern, again, is an unfair comparison. Be objective.
Intro to the Jade Forest.
Hellfire Peninsula, Howling Fjord, and Borean Tundra were basically flight paths followed by basic "go kill six of these" quests. I also hated Hellfire as a zone, and still do (as attested by a stable of level 60ish characters). Hellfire literally starts you off killing boars...
Jade Forest opened with cutscenes and a huge battle. It was epic, and the zone had a ton of excellent quests and a huge sense of scope, with a great overall narrative, and avoided feeling linear.
Last edited by Kathranis; 2013-12-28 at 04:32 AM.
Sure. Oh wait, I already was, since I didn't say it was generic landscape, or a generic base, or a generic planet. I simply said a generic gryphon, which it is, since the gryphon which you ride on is generic, as in, it's the exact same gryphon you ride on in every other flightpath in the entire Classic game. The other nonsense you came up with on your own. Any further issues?
My original statement still stands. The person I quoted conveniently skipped out on all the flavor the start of BC gave, they just pretended like you take a gryphon and thats it. I was being just obtuse as the person I quoted. How are the boats you ride any different from other boats? Wait... they aren't.
Howling Fjord is my favorite. Just... the look and feel... the freaking MUSIC. Even the mobs were new and awesome. I love that place even today.
TBC, the Dark Portal was immense to just see, going through it was even better. Going into a broken wasteland populated by huge demons that were fighting, combined with that epic music was insane. Don't think they can top that.
TBC, IMO. Going through the portal was great.
Wrath and Howling Fjord was similar, but the real awe-struck moment of that for me was after completing the first Horde quest hub, going up the elevator and seeing just how much of the zone was left to explore, rather than actually arriving there.
When I arrived in Hellfire Penninsula I thought wow that's what a new addon looks like *_* I remember doing one of the bomb quest the first time and all I could think about was awesome, when I hit 70 I really want to fly. To be honest, a new addon feels more epic for me if I don't rush - I heard rumors about no realm first avs anymore with WoD and somehow I hope they are true (yeah mein own fault, can't resist trieing to reach that av and got it once :x).
They were all amazing and epic, I don't want to compare. After all those years of Vanilla, seeing the Dark Portal accompanying that music was fucking operatic and profound, like discovering you were dead and standing among the infinite void of the multiverse, an alien world you'd only dreamed of seeing your entire in game life.
Then WOTLK had that amazing and beautiful boat ride through the Fjords, perfectly set to the music.
I pity anyone who first entered WOTLK Northrend as Horde, or as Alliance at the opposite starting area.
The Howling Fjord boat ride can still bring moisture to my eyes.
Cataclysm,... I don't remember there being an intro. I hated that. The Cinematic was pretty much the event, but something in game using the engine would have been appreciated and it would have made the world feel more cohesive, the same cohesion spreading all the instanced new endgame zones already harmed, the feeling of a seamless virtual world was shattered in the Shattering. A pity. I like to pretend my Night Elf main was in Auberdine at the moment of it's destruction.
All he and the townspeople saw was the tide go out as if a tsunami was in progress, then a menacing darkness on the horizon, and with the horrifying recognition of what had returned only fleetingly registering on his mind as the dragon flew overhead, he barely had time to utter the Kaldorei name of "Xaxas" before the land erupted around him and the sea filled his lungs in the black depths of the abyss, only through the luck of a hero did he wash ashore to Teldrassil.
I had to role play all of that instead of just magically appearing in Stormwind. The flight to Mount Hyjal was neat, but after 6 years of walking to southern Winterspring and trying to get past that gate into Hyjal, I wanted to feel Hyjal like it was supposed to feel, I spent hours, almost 5 days straight back in 2004, slowly walking around Felwood and Azshara and Ashenvale at level 20 seeking any glimpse of Hyjal I could get, not realizing it was the massive continent I was pretty much standing on.
So I walked from Ashenvale up through Winterspring and down to the gorge, and then I followed the path up and up and up into Hyjal, almost feeling like I was back in 2004 for a few hours, as I climbed slowly to the peak of Nordrassil and saw it for the first time in all it's glory. That was a spiritual moment of RP zen for me. But Blizzard's offering in that area was sparse and felt very prepackaged.
MOP had a totally epic intro, I immediately recognized a significant increase in the quality of the sound FX and music while the sounds of a full scale war erupted all around me, and I loved the way the cinematics team can make the player models look so cool and alive in those intros.
I know WOD is going to rock the fucking Casba, I can feel it in my bones.
Last edited by Yig; 2013-12-28 at 05:54 AM.
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Vanilla's Wetlands Entrance with two big badass dwarfs.
Oh god, emotions when i saw dat 1st time :/
step into everything will gief ya nothing, mon
TBC... stepping through the portal and seeing all those demons attacking xD I panicked a little at first I thought we had to fight them xD
I remember right before stepping into the portal in BC. I took a breath and thought to myself, what is going to await me on the other side? It was pretty amazing to see what was going on once the screen loaded up. A big fight going on etc. Epic.
1. BC : It was epic to see demons swarming in front of the dark portal and blah blah
2. Cata (hyjal) : Kind of same with TBC, I teleport to the place and there is invasion by huge dragon and fire lord and massive fighting in front of the starting base
3. MoP : I liked the gunship stuff. Rather active
4. Wrath : hey get in front of the line, blah blah WTF
1) The alliance side MoP entrance probably takes the cake in my book, it was such an epic entrance compared to the hordes side which was pretty much crash and look for survivors while killing monkeys.
2) Taking the Zeplin to Northrend was incredible, flying over the frozen wastes to one of my favorite places was epic, both sides were cool for the Horde. The alliance side version with the boat into Howling Fjord had an incredible view going through the valley.
3) Vashj'ir's opening, hardly anything can top of a kraken attacking a ship and sinking it along with Bud, Bud made it.
4) Going through the portal to outland's, mainly because of the army of demons presented before me making me actually realize the threat of the demons.
5) Hyjals was meh, it was only a conversation between Deathwing and Rag, could have been better though I feel like the zone was overall better.