World of Warcraft has an enduring identity problem. What was once one of the biggest games in the world is now approaching its 20th birthday, and with every year that goes by, developer Blizzard has the unenviable challenge of trying to prove that WoW still has a place in today’s gaming world.
This goes some way to explaining the many times that Blizzard has tried to reinvent WoW. Six years after its initial release, the developer attempted a radical do-over of the game’s world in 2010’s Cataclysm expansion, in which an ancient dragon ravaged and reshaped the realm of Azeroth (an experience you can relive through the recently relaunched Cataclysm Classic). Since then, Blizzard has experimented with numerous gimmicks to try to keep WoW current, including a now much-maligned mechanic that saw players building their power level for two years, only to lose that power at the end of every expansion cycle.
These gimmicks, combined with an antiquated approach to gameplay updates that left players feeling unloved and taken for granted, led to an air of malaise among WoW fans. Two years ago, the Dragonflight expansion felt very much make or break. But what could have been WoW’s swansong turned out to be a much-needed breath of fresh air. Dragonflight cut the chaff and stripped back WoW’s gameplay to something that felt tight, reminiscent of glory days gone by. After all the gimmicky experiments, it was as though Blizzard had decided on that most radical of game design approaches: making a better game.
I will admit that I was sceptical as to whether this latest expansion, The War Within, could retain the momentum. Delving into the dank dark depths in search of adventure, treasure and intrigue is one of fantasy’s enduring tropes, and for good reason. But after soaring through the skies in Dragonflight, ‘WoW … but underground!’ felt like something of a thematic nosedive.
But the War Within does a great job of telling us why we’re exploring the deep confines of the Earth. While historically the quality of WoW’s writing has hardly been its strong point, here a stellar voice cast and surprisingly engaging in-game cinematics tell a more compelling story than ever. The expansion also benefits from a charismatic villain who, while still tropey, contrasts refreshingly with the burly baritone baddies to whom WoW has tended to default.
But while a compelling story is important, MMORPGs live or die on how they feel to play, day in, day out. So far, this is where The War Within shines. Over the course of the last two years, Blizzard has been steadily experimenting with a variety of new features that make players’ lives easier. These include much-needed improvements to WoW’s archaic menus and on-screen info, the ability to run with AI companions when you are learning a new dungeon, and the new “Warbands” feature that allows you to make progress towards every in-game goal on any one of your characters, without having to mindlessly repeat hours of play every time you want to try out being a druid rather than a rogue. All of this is integrated smoothly into the levelling experience, and the result is the most satisfying start to a WoW expansion that I have ever experienced.
Flamboyant new “hero talents” tweak WoW’s complex talent trees by adding in a bit of extra stylistic flair and class fantasy. My duel-giant-sword-toting Fury Warrior, for example, could be turned into a lightning-powered stomp machine under the Mountain Thane hero tree. But sadly, there is a lot of inconsistency in these options, meaning you are often railroaded into choosing whatever hits hardest in combat, rather than the exciting flashy alternative. The choice can end up being one of either intense joy or intense frustration, depending on how well your specific class, spec and hero tree is performing. I ended up regretfully relegating my warrior from Mountain Thane to the much less exciting but higher-damage Slayer tree.
The War Within also introduces “delves”, welcome shorter dungeons dappled across the landscape, that can be tackled either solo or in groups of up to five. The game has been crying out for a flexible alternative to raids, which still require you to give up an evening each week with a coordinated group of 10-25 other players. Delves accommodate players who only have an hour free here or there, but who still want to feel as if they are making headway towards their character and gear goals. If delves are adequately upkept in the months and years to come, I can see myself spending a lot of time with them.
We are admittedly right at the beginning of The War Within’s two-year life cycle, but this is the best that WoW has been performing in years. While Blizzard will surely continue to grapple with Warcraft’s place in the modern gaming landscape, especially ahead of WoW’s 20th anniversary, the game feels more relevant than it has in a long time.
