World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Reviews
A far-out new expansion and major levelling revamp see Blizzard's veteran online world riding a new wave of popularity.
Shadowlands offers some great new characters and stories, alongside the most compelling max level experience WoW has had in many years.
Ambitious but uneven, Shadowlands is an exciting evolution of World of Warcraft.
So far Shadowlands does not disappoint, with the question of which of the four covenants to soul-bind to being a particularly tricky one, as you get to grips with the endgame content of world quests and dailies. Shadowlands is reminiscent of aspects from earlier expansions, such as Wrath Of The Lich King (even including the grind), but it has a style all of its own and a good sense of momentum that, so far at least, makes it great fun to play.
Shadowlands adds some daring elements into the mix while also retaining many of the same hooks that have kept the MMO going over the years
Shadowlands doesn’t do everything perfectly. The questing experience doesn’t feel as fluid in as previous expansions, and the quests aren’t as diverse. And it’s still too early to see how good the endgame content and updates will be. But even with the limited time I’m willing to put into Shadowlands, I’ll actually be able to play that endgame content as it comes out. And as my real life just gets more complicated the older I get, I couldn’t ask for a better shift in philosophy from my favorite MMO.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands hasn't quite wowed me in the way that Legion did, but it's an improvement upon many concepts from Battle for Azeroth. There's a clearer story that seems to have more embedded bones, with a more pronounced set of zones that stand on their own. As always long-term support remains to be seen, but for now, WoW is still one of the best MMOs out there.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands certainly manages to capture the same feelings we’ve had since first started playing the game. The leveling experience overhaul, constant sense of progress with rewards, and new campaign stories make Shadowlands a must-have for any avid player.
In World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, the eighth expansion to Blizzard Entertainment's world-acclaimed massively multiplayer online role-playing game, players will venture into the unknown horizon of the Shadowlands, an infinite plane to which the souls of mortals flock to be reborn, serve, fight, or suffer eternal torment. The heroes of Azeroth must forge alliances with the powerful curias that dominate these lands and claim the ultra-earthly powers necessary to unveil sylvanas' purposes.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Shadowlands is an appropriate expansion in many ways, but between merits and novelties stand out a masterful audio-visual system and a fun worthy of the golden days. It doesn't revolutionize anything, but it reshapes the progression system with intelligence to rejuvenate an evergreen like World of Warcraft.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Post-launch support will ultimately determine Shadowlands' fate, but as it currently stands World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is a fantastic expansion that once again proves why Blizzard's 16 year old juggernaut remains the king of the MMORPG genre. While we may be touring Azeroth's afterlife ourselves, it's clear World of Warcraft won't be sauntered off into the great beyond any time soon.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is a return to greatness for the franchise. The content is both accessible and fun for all types of players, and the story actually makes you feel like everything you're doing is helping to save the Shadowlands. Torghast is one of the best features ever added and makes each experience unique and fun. While there are some issues which can slow down the time it takes to get everything you want, the journey there is still enjoyable.
Blizzard clearly learned from the mistakes from Battle for Azeroth's endgame launch state, injecting piles of content that actually contribute to player power in meaningful ways. On the one hand, the time gating on the story elements is irritating, but it's not like most players will find themselves short of things to do. Shadowlands has some of the most stunning art in the game's lengthy history, and the cinematic treatment represents a step up for the studio. Despite balance issues, Shadowlands may end up among the likes of Legion and The Burning Crusade as one of the game's best expansions to date.
With plenty of quality content, a revamped progression system and many intriguing features like Torgast and Covenants, Shadowlands is an artistic triumph and one of the best expansions ever. It doesn't revolutionize World of Warcraft and the leveling phase doesn't really develop the character that much, but who cares? The Afterlife is fun.
Review in Italian | Read full review
WoW's latest chapter offers a gorgeous leveling experience, interesting endgame systems, and a pile of well-designed dungeons. Though some rough edges remain, ongoing hotfixes are chipping away at them.
As it stands, Shadowlands feels a little lost in translation. Blizzard spent the better part of the last year saying how it wanted its juggernaut MMO to feel more like an RPG again — where choices matter and rewards and plentiful. Yet, oddly enough, Shadowlands feels more bereft of that than ever before, becoming something of a jumbled experience that sits awkwardly between being an open-world “sandbox” MMO and a more linear “theme park” one.
Shadowlands impresses in every way.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands shows that the whole World of Warcraft game is really showing it's age, not to mention that since losing a lot of their key development people from the Blizzard side like Chris Kaleiki and many others, leading to this being a more "by the metrics" Activision based game experience than what Blizzard is renowned for. For a lot of people, the heart and soul of World of Warcraft is dead at this stage, but since it is still early days, future patches and content additions can revive the game into a playable state for those who are still addicted to the game after over 16 years… But only time will tell at this stage.
The first hour or so of the expansion provides a great introduction to the setting and story. The quests involve pushing through The Maw with the help of storied heroes from WoW's lore, with frequent cut-scenes and events which make for a surprisingly cinematic experience. WoW's expansions have been a little inconsistent in the strength of their stories, but I found this narrative and its characters to be compelling. Although The Maw is not the most aesthetically pleasing zone, perhaps by design, the overall introduction seemed like a very polished experience and demonstrates quite how far WoW has come in 16 years.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands breathes new life into an aging MMORPG with some fun new features and an excellent story.