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World of Warcraft: Dragonflight

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight

The latest expansion spreads it's wings and takes flight toward a brighter future for World of Warcraft.

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It's no secret that after 18 years, World of Warcraft is in need of some renewal. While the game engine, graphics and mechanics have received continuous updates, the story itself is getting harder and harder to follow, and for this reason many regarded the latest expansion, Shadowlands, as somewhat of a failure.

Fortunately, with Dragonflight Blizzard returns to what they do best: world building and grounded narratives that makes the game feel approachable and exciting.

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight

Where Shadowlands focused on death, destruction and the afterlife with all the grandiose philosophical themes this entails, Dragonflight is the polar opposite. Here focus is on life, the pure joy of existence, optimism, and the willingness to create a better world for our...eh... the dragons' children. Of course there is still room for complexity, sorrow and reminiscence. The quest "Stay for a While" was especially thought-provoking in how it dealt with so-called 'absolute evil.'

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But let's rewind and start from the beginning. If you haven't seen the launch trailer, it's right here:

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In Dragonflight we are travelling to the birthplace of Azeroth's dragons, those that guard time and life itself. After several expansions set in other parts of the universe, it's actually quite comforting to return home - and hopefully for good this time.

I will recommend that you start your playthrough as the new Drachtyr race, and their Evoker class. It only takes a couple of hours to play through their starting area, and it provides a much better set up for the story, compared to what you get with the other races. It's a so-called class/race combo, so you can't play the class with other races, and the Drachtyr can only play as Evokers. It's also a classical hero class, which means you start at level 58, and, just like every other race that starts neutral, you'll then later on get the chance to join either the Horde or the Alliance. That being said, many other previously impossible race and class combinations have been unlocked for other races. It makes sense in terms of fun, but perhaps not in terms of world building, as a four metre tall bull weighing 800 kilos probably isn't the most nimble Rogue.

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The Drachtyr are located in one of the five zones you'll find in the Dragon Isles - but right now it doesn't look like it can be accessed in any other way. As we are used to from other expansions, there is a central town that acts as a neutral hub which all players can access. Initially it seems like quite a massive area, but you quickly unlock dragons, and these beasts can easily cover huge distances in no time as they are much faster than your usual flying mounts. On the flipside they require timing and fast reactions if you spot something valuable in the distance. If you spend a lot of time collecting plants or iron ore, it's not the easiest means of navigation. There are rumours though, that more conventional flying mounts will be unlocked "later."

It's perhaps not the expansion itself, but more the various updates and changes that follow along with it, that will leave the biggest mark on the game. One of the features is a now 100% customizable UI, in the vein of what Star Wars: The Old Republic introduced ten years ago. Another is a much more specialised crafting system with the same complexity and options we are used to from modern MMO's. In other words, the internal structure of the main game itself has received a significant update. The changes... requires some getting used to. I'm torn about it - three horizontal action bars feels a bit cluttered, but on the other hand it makes it easier to use functions not mapped to a specific hotkey. It's hard to fault the graphical polish though, and a simple thing such as higher resolution icons makes the game feel much more contemporary.

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight

The skill tree has undergone a major overhaul too, and it's more manageable now. There are many interesting skills to choose from, but as skill points now have to be spent on different branches, each one belonging to a separate specialisation, it sometimes feels like I have less options than before. It's probably for balancing's sake, but still.

On the other hand, the quest remains mostly the same. Some are good, some are decent, and some are downright boring. But it provides motivation, even for the most mindless fetch quests, that the game introduces the expansion's villain early on and generally builds the story in an exciting, if rather predictable way.

Dungeons, while well made, are also pretty similar to those you found in Shadowlands. They provide many interesting variations of well known mechanics and each one has a solid theme and design. I just wish that they somehow had forgotten to add AOE spawns in boss fights, which still proves quite a nuisance when playing melee DPS.

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight

I was one of those who found both Outland and Pandaria to be pretty exciting and entertaining, and I feel the same way about Dragonflight. The way the story is delivered, often through side characters, makes the game world feel much more grounded and believable - An actual place you want to explore and inhabit instead of a random collection of quests and activities. It's a major step in the right direction, and while I still have to get used to many of the changes, I already feel right at home in the world of Dragonflight.

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08 Gamereactor UK
8 / 10
+
Great world building and story. An exciting new race. Many improvements and changes to the UI.
-
Quests varies in quality. Not all changes are for the better.
overall score
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