This post contains spoilers for the intro to Shadowlands.
The introductory sequence to Shadowlands involves you and the Ebon Blade going to the Maw to rescue Thrall, Jaina, Baine and Anduin. It's a pretty good questing sequence, with some nice moments for all the cast members. Especially Thrall's search for a weapon.
The Maw has some very weird bridges too, with rows of pop-up spikes running length-wise along the bridge. That architecture doesn't make a lot of sense, but the AI programmers did a nice job of having the NPCs line up behind you as you run down the channel, and then spreading out again once you're off the bridge.
In any case, you escape the Maw, while the NPCs cover your retreat and are captured again. I guess rescuing them is going to be the main task at max level.
The one concern I have about the Maw is that it isn't very visually appealing. In the intro it was all rocks and grey metal, all browns and grays. If that's the palette, it might grow old fast if we do repeatable content at max level. Argus had a similar problem (though with added green for fel).
> Argus had a similar problem (though with added green for fel).
ReplyDeleteyep, Argus was pretty ugly, especially considering how before that we quested in Broken Shore which had the same broken rocks structure, it got old fast.
Argus would have been better as a separate expansion with a bigger world to explore.
You're right about Broken Shore being much the same as Argus. The two of them back-to-back didn't help in the visuals department.
DeleteYeah it's ugly. At the same time it's supposed to represent Hell, which is not really a holiday resort :)
ReplyDeleteI've some problems with the other zones as well. The central city and the "Heaven" zone (Bastion) look fine, Maldraxxus is as ugly as the Maw, and I'm not sure I'd put Revendreth much higher, even if I find the quests to be better than Maldraxxus. Maybe it's because I'm a druid, but I find Ardenweald to be way better visually and marginally better quest-wise.
That's true, it is a Hell. But still, dreary places don't make an appealing place to spend game time.
DeleteThe spikes on the bridges felt like someone was trying to make sure enemy groups couldn't march across / take control of them. Not that they would likely work, but fantasy is full of these impractical inventions. ^_^
ReplyDeleteI felt like Maldraxxus and Revendreth (aka, Gilneas with vampires) could have easily been combined in the same zone. The Maldraxxus part would be the grunts that fought in the wars, while the Revendreth part could have been the out-of-touch High Society that supposedly ran everything. Basically, the former could be in the barren wastelands outside the latter's castles. Then Blizzard could have done something totally new (for the franchise) for the fourth one. Give us an afterlife for a culture we haven't seen before.
Hmm, I'm not sure about that. Revendreth is basically Victorian Gothic, and I'm not sure it would meld with Maldraxxus' martial monsters.
DeleteSomething completely new would have been interesting, but it's pretty unusual for Blizzard to do something like that, without resonance.