The first thing I did in the World of Warcraft: Forever beta was roll a Troll. It was an instinctive response; my original WoW character, all the way back in 2005, was a Troll, and the sun-baked plains and dustbowls of Durotar and The Barrens will always be my Azerothian homeland. Naturally, the first thing I wanted to see in WoW: Forever's reimagining of classic WoW was how these environs look in the game's gorgeous new rendering.
I only took the character to level 6, however. I realized that this was the character I'd want to play and the path I'd want to follow in the live game when it launches this week, on Nov. 4, and I didn't want to spoil that experience. At the same time, I felt a professional obligation to check out Forever's brand-new race, the Skyborne elves, and their flying-island starting zone, Zephras Isle.
So I started again, with a Skyborne Druid. I experimented with the official gamepad support and found it very useful, if not a natural fit for every facet of WoW's complex interface. I marveled at the developers' ability to write quests and build landscapes in the classic WoW style, effectively unlearning two decades' worth of evolving game design.
Here is an MMO that is simultaneously tougher and more relaxing than the modern game. It's less directed and has a much slower pace. It's dangerous to battle more than two everyday monsters at a time, and you will sometimes dip below 80% health while questing (unthinkable in modern WoW).
This is a game that forces you to take your time, sweat the details, cover ground slowly, and live in the moment. But still, something felt off. I didn't quite buy the Skyborne, and their free-floating home felt like a cop-out to me.
It's an illustration of the difficulty Blizzard will have finding ways to expand this old world without stepping on its iconic status, or on the 20 years of accumulated lore that follows it. (WoW: Forever does not exist in a parallel universe; it's set in the main WoW timeline during the same period as original WoW, and therefore can't contradict anything that happened later.) Also, while I was enjoying the game, I found it easy to set aside; I wasn't as gripped by it as I was in 2005, or during the Wrath of the Lich King or Legion expansions. Then I departed Zephras Isle and sailed down to Azeroth proper, and everything clicked into place. I was, suddenly, as enveloped as I had ever been by WoW, which is as enveloped as I have ever been by any game ever made.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
