Finally playing Retail “World of Warcraft” up to level 60 has been a lot of fun. I’ve been a fan of this universe since “Warcraft III” and even if I haven’t agreed with all the story choices in “World of Warcraft” roleplaying as my Goblin Fire Mage has been great and I am planning to get the expansions so I can start doing raids and finish the stories in this expansion and play the full story in others as being stuck at level 60 kind of limits that, and that is as high as you can level in the Retail version of “World of Warcraft.” Suffice to say, if you are a fan of the “Warcraft” I do recommend this expansion as it largely works and is good even with some big story problems I’ll go into. The story played that I’ll be reviewing here is from the Horde perspective as I’m a huge Horde fan and that was the one where I completed the quests until that unlocked the Raids for final story content in the expansion.
You are a Horde recruit pulled into the Alliance-Horde Fourth War and the rise of N’Zoth and Old God forces around Azeroth.
SPOILERS ahead
The Pros:
Your Character / The Champion – My character’s story began with being recruited by the Horde and saving other Horde warriors on Exile’s Reach before being recruited to rescue Princess Talanji and the Prophet Zul from the Alliance. After that he helped Talanji fight back the Old God forces on Zandalar but was unable to stop the Alliance from killing her father King Rastakhan or the Old God G’huun from being released by Zul’s allied forces he defeated Old God forces in dungeons around Azeroth in Zandalar and Kul Tiras. His fighting the Old Gods and later Azshara and her Naga forces in Nazjatar and caught the notice of Magni who recruited him to heal Azeroth and empower the Heart of Azeroth to fight N’Zoth while bringing the larger fight to N’Zoth the Old God controlling events as he got the blessing from the Dragon Aspects on the Heart of Azeroth and rallied Azeroth’s forces against N’Zoth while continuing to fight back his advance in Uldum and Pandaria. After seeing the horrific visions of N’Zoth’s future though he realized how under-prepared he was and went to Dalaran to train to be an Archmage and that is where his story is currently. He also recruited allied races to the Horde to strengthen the fight against the Old Gods and the Alliance.
Mounts / Flying Mounts – Mounts in Azeroth are a lot of fun. I love flying in this game. It isn’t as fun in “Skyrim” and I wish more fantasy games had flying so easily accessible. My favorite mounts are my wolf mount, Mag’har Dire Wolf mount and the Scarlet Pterrordax which is the mount I use the most often. Earning new mounts has definitely become one of the things I love about this game as you can usually purchase them or earn them when you are exalted with a faction.
Gameplay – The gameplay is a lot of fun as there are tons of different classes you can choose and within that class 3 types of ways to play the class. For mages it is fire, ice and arcane. I chose to become a Fire Mage and it has been amazingly fun with how quickly I can kill enemies. This mage is all about damage but even than it also has a few ways to distract enemies and heal like “ice block” and “shimmer” which adds nice variety to combat situations when there are a lot of enemies.
Warfronts and Battlegrounds – Warfronts and Battlegrounds are the way the faction war is experienced. You can recruit NPCs and send them on missions with recruited troops which helps you earn favor from different factions and Battlegrounds where you gather resources while dealing with enemy NPCs with the final goal being the defeat of their leader with Turalyon at Stromgarde and Maiev at Darkshore and winning the area. They are fun fights and I like how Battlegrounds recreate the feel of being in “Warcraft III” and facing the heroes from “Warcraft” lore. They make the Alliance-Horde War feel present and real beyond the battlefields of PvP. PvP is fun but Battlegrounds are great.
The World – The world is rich with so many different factions and lore. You have the Horde and Alliance who recruit allied races during this expansion who also have rich histories. You have the variety of Old God forces from the Old Gods themselves, the Azshara and her Naga is Nazjatar, the Blood Trolls, the Faithless Sethrak, the Drust the Mechagnomes and others. I’m a huge fan of this universe and it is because of the rich lore of all the different factions and their histories.
Dungeons of the Expansion – Dungeons are so much fun and I love the fact that the game creates 5 player teams to do specific or random dungeons in “Battle for Azeroth” depending on what you are looking for. Most of the Horde dungeons are lore focused while the Alliance dungeons in Kul Tiras are more self-contained in their lore. Running them with my main has been so much fun though with my favorite dungeons being The Temple of Atal’Dazar where you defeat Yazma, the Prophet Zul’s second-in-command, the haunted Waycrest Manor where you deal with a Drust incursion and the spirits of Lady and Lord Waycrest and the Drust leader Goruk Tol and the lovecraftian themed Shrine of the Storm where you face minions of N’Zoth and Queen Azshara. They all made the world of “Battle for Azeroth” that much richer.
Timewalking Dungeons – I wish all dungeons were Timewalked as doing Timewalking Dungeons leveled up is so much fun. “Burning Crusade” is the current expansion with Timewalking Dungeons and it was so much fun defeating Warchief Kargath Bladefist and Kael’thas. I love the lore of “Warcraft” so fighting these famous characters from “Warcraft II” and “Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne” was so much fun. From Kael I earned a Phoenix hatchling and it has become the pet I bring with me everywhere. I can’t wait for other past expansions to get Timewalked.
The Characters – The characters are one of my favorite parts of “World of Warcraft” and for “Battle for Azeroth” specifically I love Talanji and her rise to power and I liked her father Rastakhan too. Bwonsamdi is a lot of fun as the Loa of the Dead and dealmaker, I like the Horde Leaders of Lor’themar and Thalyssra and their war against Queen Azshara in Nazjatar, the Gob Squad is always great and it was fun working with Gazlowe and the other Goblin leaders against Gallywix’s corruption in Crapopolis in the quest where I earned the Goblin Heritage armor. I also like Magni and working with the the dragons against N’Zoth. This universe is a huge and there are so many great characters but these are the ones that I really liked in “Battle for Azeroth.” Gazlowe is one of my favorite characters and I’m glad I got to help him in the Mechagon campaign and that he eventually becomes leader of the Goblins which he should have been from the beginning.
Allied Races – One of my favorite parts of the game was recruiting the allied races to the Horde. As a Horde recruit and doing the missions helping the Zandalari it was fun doing this again and helping others enter the Horde from the resourceful Vulpera, to Talanji facing instability in her kingdom and earning the respect of the Loa to become Queen to helping the Mag’har escape Draenor and the Lightforged and witnessing the friendship between the Nightborne and Blood Elves as well as the past of the Highmountain Tauren. This became a defining part of who Drazt is and what motivates him on his adventures around Azeroth.
The Zandalari Campaign – I really enjoyed the Zandalari campaign, as I helped Talanji fight off the Blood Troll threat, the Sethrak Faithless from rising and allying with the Old Gods and dealing with Zul loyalists and helping to unite the Zandalari against the Old Gods. It was a great campaign and I appreciate how well the story was told as we as the Horde Champion earn Talanji’s respect and help her and her father the King defeat the threats until her father’s death to the Alliance leading to her becoming Queen.
The Heart of Azeroth Campaign – The Heart of Azeroth campaign is tied to the Black Empire campaign but I’ll focus mostly on what happens with the Heart. In it you work on repairing Titan facilities like those in Uldum to keep N’Zoth from breaking from his prison and empowering the Heart of Azeroth by Titan Keepers including Ra-den and MOTHER as well as the leaders of the Dragonflights. I prefer this to Thrall becoming the ultimate hero as even though the weapon you have is empowered N’Zoth still gets wins such as nearly destroying the Heart and capturing Ra-den and eventually Wrathion. The final part of the campaign is leading the fight into his realm to end him and his Black Empire. I’m looking forward to that raid as N’Zoth has been a constant threat through the story and it will be great to finally defeat him.
The Nazjatar Campaign – The Nazjatar campaign finds you trapped and your fleet wrecked as you work to fight against Azshara. You work with the Unshacked, freedom fighters against the Naga with Gilgoblins, Makura, Sea Giants and Murlocs among their ranks. You level up 3 followers on daily quests with one being a rogue type, a mage type and a fighter type. The quests were fun and Nazjatar is a beautiful zone. The one thing I’ll say against it is Azshara should be causing damage in the outside world with the Tidestone. She destroys Kul Tiras’s fleet but doesn’t do anything beyond that even after you open a portal out of her realm and open the way to her Palace. Still was fun though and I can’t wait to do the raid of her Palace.
The Black Empire Campaign – The Black Empire campaign has you entering horrific visions and fighting off Black Empire Assaults in Uldum and Pandaria. In both you are gathering information on N’Zoth and his plans and killing his generals and ability to call in troops. It makes you feel the threat of the Old God consantly, which adds urgency to learning his plans to stop him. In the Horrific Vision you see what happens if he wins and what happens to Stormwind or Ogrimmar with Ogrimmar ruled by a corrupted Thrall and Stormwind ruled by a corrupted Alleria. The lovecraftian feel and theme of it all is great too and the gear you earn compliments that.
Okay:
The Horde-Alliance War – The Alliance-Horde War, in this case The Fourth War starts with Sylvanas committing a war crime and destroying Teldrassil. If she had been doing a war for resources after “Legion” had hurt the land and economies of the Alliance and Horde would make more sense but she just senselessly starts the war in one of the worst ways possible. When the war is over resources between Horde and Alliance it makes sense and that is what you see in the Warfronts and Battlegrounds but Sylvanas’s stupid motivation and how she starts the war this time around keep it from being a pro. I don’t mind the war for storytelling but it could have been done so much better than how it was written. Teldrassil did not need to be destroyed to start another Alliance-Horde War.
The Cons:
The Destruction of Teldrassil – The Horde war against the Night Elves has always been over land for farming and lumber, so doing a war crime on their home makes no sense. It literally creates a forever war and makes the Horde the villain. There is no shade of grey in what kicks of “Battle for Azeroth” and is a major con of the story, leading into the biggest problem of the narrative.
Sylvanas’s Betrayal and Loss of Horde Identity – So Sylvanas’s motivation is apparently to kill as many people as possible for the horribly written villain of the Jailer, a character it makes no sense for Sylvanas to work with given her enslavement by Arthas and the Lich King. All the story problems with Sylvanas are tied to her short story Edge of Night where she kills herself and sees the Forsaken as arrows to keep her alive…so she sees the Horde this way now. Blizzard told us all of this in the short story and rather than have her grow and care about the Forsaken and the Horde she becomes a worse leader than Garrosh. She even says she cares nothing about the Horde before leaving the Horde to kick-off “Shadowlands” and the whole Horde being lead by a Warchief ends with that and they become Council lead like the Alliance. Her being made Warchief hurts Horde identity and the outcome of her having been Warchief cemented that. Her being made Warchief struck me as just being done to create drama (like Garrosh becoming Warchief but worse) and her story is the worst part of the expansion. The Horde should have been written as smarter and learned from the experience of having Garrosh as Warchief to make sure another leader isn’t appointed like him and in the end they lose part of what made them a unique faction. The Horde theme of redemption is also hurt too as Sylvanas could have been written to have been changed becoming leader of the Horde and having to care for multiple peoples…there was so much potential even in this story choice that I wasn’t a fan of, it still could have worked.
Even with my problems with how Sylvanas’s story has been handled I still found the overall story to be good because of the fight against the Old Gods and getting to know the different peoples like the Zandalari, Vulpera, Unshackled and more. The different groups that make up Azeroth as well as the unique threats like the Old Gods are what make the game great for me. It also helps that the gameplay is funner than other mmorpgs like “Guild Wars 2” and there are a lot more mounts to earn and flying is a lot of fun. I can’t wait to play the story further and eventually do the raids as well as the future Timewalking Dungeons and Raids from the expansions of the past.
Final Score: 8.6 / 10
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