CalledtheShadowlands,thesekingdoms
of death are a typically well-oiled machine
where dead souls are sorted and sent to
different realms based upon their deeds in
life – or it would be if some nefarious villain
hadn’t broken the cycle, forcing every new
soul to be dumped straight into a hellish
abyss. “The Shadowlands pose a threat to
our existence, to life, and what life means,”
game director Ion Hazzikostas tells me.
“That will lead us to have to venture across
this barrier into the Shadowlands, but this
is not the familiar Warcraft ecology of orcs
and trolls and humans and dwarves. This
is a fantastical journey into a side of
Azeroth we’ve never seen before.”
When Shadowlands releases later this
summer, however, it won’t just be another
expansion full of monsters to kill and gear
to grind. It also brings some exciting new
innovations to the 15-year-old MMO, like a
roguelike dungeon that changes each time
you enter, an enormous amount of
customisation and player choice, and a
reduced level cap that will make starting a
new character a lot less daunting.
DEATH BECOMES US
You’re right to be more than a little
skeptical about Shadowlands if you spent
a significant amount of time playing World
of Warcraft’s current expansion, Battle for
Azeroth. It’s no secret that Blizzard
missed the mark on many of its core
features, making for one of the most
contentious two years of World of
Warcraft’s entire life. But in talking with
Hazzikostas, it’s clear that the release of
Shadowlands isn’t Blizzard sweeping
Battle for Azeroth under a dirty rug. Many
of the expansion’s ideas feel like a direct
response to player feedback and
Blizzard’s own internal learning.
For example, both Legion and Battle
for Azeroth let players choose which
zones they wanted to level through. It was
great that players had a choice and could
take alternate routes when levelling other
characters, but it also made telling a
coherent overarching story a real
challenge. Shadowlands is the best of
both worlds: players’ first time through will
lead them from zone to zone in a set path,
but once they’ve beaten the main story
they’re free to tackle zones in any order on
their other characters. “We can tell a more
structured story like we did back in
Warlords of Draenor, where you are
meeting new allies, experiencing betrayals
along the way, and uncovering plots in a
way that we simply weren’t able to do in
Legion or Battle for Azeroth when we
didn’t know what zone you’re going to
start in,” Hazzikostas says. “If you start in
the zone that has the big betrayal in it,
then it’s not much of a betrayal.”
As players explore the Shadowlands,
uncovering its mysteries and helping its
denizens, it should feel a lot more like the
Warcraft of old. Dangerous, high-level
monsters will prowl just off the beaten
path, forcing players to again be cautious
of where they’re exploring. “We’ve heard a
lot of feedback and we agree that there’s a
risk of the journey through a new world
feeling a bit flat when everything scales
around with you as it must if we’re going to
let you pick any zone,” Hazzikostas
explains. “We are excited to get back to a
place where when you first arrive in
Bastion, the outer reaches of the zone
have some high-level enemies that are
pretty tough for you.”F
ew places in Azeroth aren’t covered in
the boot prints of World of Warcraft
players. We’ve been to every major
continent, alternate magical dimensions
and through dark portals to sundered worlds. Hell,
we’ve even been to space. But this summer,
Blizzard is taking us to a realm no living soul has
been before: the afterlife.
WoW ’s game director reveals
what awaits us in the afterlife
WORLD OF
WARCRAFT:
SHADOWLANDS
DANGEROUS, HIGH-LEVEL
MONSTERS WILL PROWL JUST
OFF THE BEATEN PATHRELEASE
2020
DEVELOPER
Blizzard EntertainmentPUBLISHER
In-houseLINK
worldofwarcraft.comNEED TO KNOW
NEW
INFOPREVIEW
Woorld of Warcraft: Shadowlands