The ethereal, nocturnal forest of Ardenweald, where creatures of nature are watched over by the dutiful Night Fae until they can be reincarnated into new mortal forms, is downright captivating in its starry luminance.Īrdenweald also gives us one of the best zone stories WoW has ever put together. Revendreth, where the wicked dead go to repent of their sins at the hands of the vampiric Venthyr, is a delightfully gothic sprawl of creepy castles and tangled woods.

Shadowlands does that first part very well, as expected: it plays to WoW's strengths with a plot that kept me hooked for about 20 hours and new zones that are bizarre, distinct, and just wonderful. World of Warcraft has long felt like two different games to me, especially in more recent expansions: There's the usually exciting, fast-paced, story-dense levelling experience and then the repetitive and ultimately tiresome endgame. At the same time, Shadowlands tries to turn the page on what max-level activities look like, and it has some success in reinvigorating WoW for yet another year. As the first main bad guy in WoW’s history who didn’t originate in the RTS games in some way, his arrival seems like the start of a whole new chapter of the story. While it bombards us with familiar characters like Thrall, Jaina Proudmoore, and a few surprise returns in its opening fanfare, it also proceeds to gleefully kick open the doors to new corners of the Warcraft universe and introduce the intimidating Jailer. World of Warcraft: Shadowlands doesn’t only straddle the line between life and death – it straddles the line between what was and what could be for Blizzard’s 16-year-old MMO.

Wow health bar under character