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World Of Warcraft: The War Within – It’s Great To Be A WoW Weirdo Again

Twenty years later, World of Warcraft matches my freak once more

Twenty years is a long time for a game to exist. It’s an even longer time to keep telling a story.

Christ, I was there at the start – a blissful idiot unaware of what an MMO was supposed to be. World of Warcraft was just an opportunity for more Warcraft content after I had wrung out every drop of considerable fun from Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. It was a unique opportunity to play alongside my then-girlfriend as allies, exploring the world I had only ever seen from the isometric perspective. Even as that relationship ended, my own with World of Warcraft continued to grow and evolve. Eventually, my jovial approach to the experience gave way to a more serious expectation, as the company I kept took me under wing and ‘corrected’ my viewpoint. I hardened myself to the wonder of the game, instead striving for a position of power amongst my peers.

And then I stopped. Real life challenges and shifts in the landscape of the game saw me alienated from what I could achieve. I still kept myself involved, but in a far more casual sense – investing in short-term spurts of commitment with similar minded folk. Where once I would take time off work to hit a new expansion hard, I instead opted to let the initial ‘teething period’ pass. It was equal parts scope and systems, like I was growing apart from World of Warcraft in much the same way I had with my girlfriend in the past. I just sort of accepted that the game had changed, and that I was no longer a key demographic for what World of Warcraft represented.

After all, twenty years is a long time for a game to exist.

Two decades later, the peaks and troughs of the experience are well documented – and I have been patiently observant. The “Worldsoul Saga” reveal was a huge turning point for how Warcraft storytelling was to be approached, and World of Warcraft: Dragonflight was a colossal shift in how the game would deliver its content. These signposts pointed to a path that seemed far more familiar to me – an unshakable feeling that the game was maturing again, moving in yet another direction. One that actually spoke to weirdos like me. And for the first time in ages, it feels great to be a WoW Weirdo.

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…But why is all the Mead gone?

The War Within takes all of the awesome story delivery methods of Dragonflight, and dials them up another notch. Questing content is now far more dynamic, with objectives and characters properly populating the world and feeling engaging to leap into. A big part of this, I feel, can be attributed to how the game communicates critical story items from optional ones, allowing you to better understand when you are jumping into a sidestory away from the main campaign. Even as I started meeting and delving (heh) into the politics of the Earthen, I could still take a breather and investigate smaller stories in their areas. In fact, one of the very first stops I made was to deal with a missing person who was last seen in a mine – where I soon discovered their untimely demise. Nothing new to World of Warcraft, sure – but what was different this time is that the quest didn’t end with the predictable “Oh. Thanks for telling me. Seeya.” ➡ +2000 EXP GAINED ending. Instead, I witnessed the NPCs have a small talk about the tragedy, and I was then invited to help one of them with some pottery craft to serve as closure. The potter explained that she is no fighter, she can’t avenge her lost colleague, but she can honour her with her craft using material from the mine she was lost in. As I completed each intimate step in making my pot, it felt so very different from the usual WoW faire. I wasn’t sprinting ahead for the next epic moment – I was taking a moment to breathe, inhaling this world. It almost didn’t matter that my pot looked like utter trash.

I felt myself shift gears immediately. I was properly invested in this world, and suddenly wanted to savour it. 

This fleshing out of the world and its inhabitants helps create proper stakes for what is happening around the core cast – it isn’t simply a case of chasing down another moustache twirling dork out to ruin everyone’s day. Instead, the story beats you uncover give depth to the world and explain why we find ourselves contending with Xal’atath from zone to zone. Her manipulations are all the more tragic as you endlessly feel one step behind her dark aspirations – almost like your softhearted sightseeing is compromising your heroic edge. It helps that your more familiar companions are always busy filling in the blanks or working to get ahead, because if this was a solo act I’d find myself concerned that I was dooming Khaz Algar (and Azeroth eventually) to be lost.

Dealing with loss by making a spectacularly average pot

The fact that Khaz Algar is so meticulously put together does a lot to help elevate your fantastical tourism and people meeting, taking all the wondrous technology of Dragonflight and tightening the screws further. My time discovering the Isle of Dorn and the Earthen city of Dornogal felt familiar and fun, but descending into the Ringing Deeps was something else entirely. I think I saw it quoted that these were the most expansive underground areas ever put into World of Warcraft – and it’s quite believable. Entering these colossal spaces on the back of a flying mount, soaring with the Skyriding mechanic, felt exhilarating.

Of these areas, Hallowfall is in a league of its own. It is hauntingly well-lit by the mysterious crystal jutting out of the ceiling serving as a makeshift sun. Only this sun takes time off and will shift to an ominous purple – suddenly robbing you of your illuminated comfort. During this thriller hour, the baddies that were sheepish in the light become a great deal more invigorated by the voidborne darkness – transforming the zone into a whole other challenge. It is a level of art direction unheard of in expansions past, a dynamic gimmick to a zone that can’t be summed up in a screenshot. It is far more than vibe – it is iconic and unforgettable.

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You can also dig deeper into your exploration by way of experiencing one of the flagship features of the expansion, Delves. I was never overtly sceptical of delves – just far more likely to call a spade a spade, recognising delves for what they truly are: updated Scenarios. The idea of a curated solo experience taking place in a unique area has been done before, but never with this much focus and scale. Delves feel like a mainstay addition to the game – offering a repeatable micro-dungeon experience that can be solo’d or enjoyed with friends. AND they offer rewards for doing so? They are a tick in every box.

If you showed this to a WoW player even 10 years ago, you’d blow their mind

The fact that Khaz Algar is so meticulously put together does a lot to help elevate your fantastical tourism and people meeting, taking all the wondrous technology of Dragonflight and tightening the screws further. My time discovering the Isle of Dorn and the Earthen city of Dornogal felt familiar and fun, but descending into the Ringing Deeps was something else entirely. I think I saw it quoted that these were the most expansive underground areas ever put into World of Warcraft – and it’s quite believable. Entering these colossal spaces on the back of a flying mount, soaring with the Skyriding mechanic, felt exhilarating.

Of these areas, Hallowfall is in a league of its own. It is hauntingly well-lit by the mysterious crystal jutting out of the ceiling serving as a makeshift sun. Only this sun takes time off and will shift to an ominous purple – suddenly robbing you of your illuminated comfort. During this thriller hour, the baddies that were sheepish in the light become a great deal more invigorated by the voidborne darkness – transforming the zone into a whole other challenge. It is a level of art direction unheard of in expansions past, a dynamic gimmick to a zone that can’t be summed up in a screenshot. It is far more than vibe – it is iconic and unforgettable.

You can also dig deeper into your exploration by way of experiencing one of the flagship features of the expansion, Delves. I was never overtly sceptical of delves – just far more likely to call a spade a spade, recognising delves for what they truly are: updated Scenarios. The idea of a curated solo experience taking place in a unique area has been done before, but never with this much focus and scale. Delves feel like a mainstay addition to the game – offering a repeatable micro-dungeon experience that can be solo’d or enjoyed with friends. AND they offer rewards for doing so? They are a tick in every box.

Roleplaying as your favourite Warcraft III hero is the ducks guts

Beyond the dripping aesthetics and impeccable world, The War Within offers players a supercharged play experience – helped in no small part to the inclusion of Hero Talents. Building on the Talent Trees that returned due to popular demand in Dragonflight, the Hero Talents serve as a more granular approach to your character fantasy – drilling down into a more defined identity beyond simply “I am the heal-y one” or “I swing the big hammer”. Overwhelmingly, the talents actually draw from earlier Warcraft lore to establish these identities – going so far as to mine out the amazing hero units that were found in Warcraft III and bring them solidly to World of Warcraft. Now your Druid isn’t just a Balance Druid – You are a Keeper of the Grove.

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You can then take your Keeper of the Grove into one of the many dungeons on offer, and brilliantly you can opt to do so with a motley crew of NPC’s to save you the hassle of other humans. While I love a good dungeon bash with mates, experiencing the story of each dungeon requires a certain level of patience that is wholly absent within regular human beings. The War Within is actually the first expansion in which Follower Dungeons are available right from the start – so the curated storyline asking you to dive into the odd instance is very accessible when you can skip queuing up for a tank. Of these dungeons, I kept finding myself wanting to replay the Cinderbrew Meadery – if only for the boozy puns and girlboss BEE. E. O.

The new focus on character care and investment ties in beautifully to the Warband system, which essentially feels like Blizzard accepting that people actually love their alts. Starting with a reworked character screen actually showing your top four dudes hanging out like a Diablo II character creation screen is a great start – but when you drill down to what warbands are really about, it’s mindblowingly exciting. Things like bank slots, gear transmogs, currency, achievements, quest progression, and faction reputation – suddenly shared across your characters. Tedious grinds get eliminated, but more excitingly you can now engage with the content you like on the character you like, and share the benefits with no penalty. From past expansions offering features that were likely to never persist beyond that expansion, this change is one made to enhance the core of WoW and improve it forevermore.

Spiders, ICK

It’s incredible that I find myself coming full circle with what World of Warcraft is. A beautiful dance of changing expectations and needs across two very different entities – one being a flagship gaming product, the other an unfit dad of two with a mercurial sense of spare time. But somehow, things have aligned again and the joy that I felt near two decades ago somehow has manifested again in this workhorse of an MMO. Characters, fantasy, world – I am right back where I started in Teldrassil in 2004, caring and curious about what awaits around each corner. It’s bloody marvellous to see, and if this is a promise to what World of Warcraft has become and will be for the foreseeable future, I am very much on board for the Worldsoul Saga’s tale. 

After all, twenty years is a long time to tell a story. Might as well see where it goes.

Written By Ash Wayling

Known throughout the interwebs simply as M0D3Rn, Ash is bad at video games. An old guard gamer who suffers from being generally opinionated, it comes as no surprise that he is both brutally loyal and yet, fiercely whimsical about all things electronic. On occasion will make a youtube video that actually gets views. Follow him on YouTube @Bad at Video Games

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