REVIEW: ‘World Of Warcraft: The War Within’ Humanizes Us (PC)

Very few MMOs have lasted as long as World of Warcraft. Coming up on twenty years, the ability to impress with new and exciting moments seemed tough. But Blizzard did just that with its tenth expansion, The War Within. This expansion not only proved why we needed a breath of fresh air through Dragonflight after the panned expansion Shadowlands. But it shows Azeroth, its residents, and its developers have much more to tell and show their fans.

The War Within, or TWW, kicks off with one of the most high-octane openings to an expansion since Legion. But this one feels much more personal. After all the major heroes of Azeroth heard a voice, we all went to Magni, hoping that this was from Azeroth herself. But with Magni lost after feeling abandoned, he tells us that we should look to a new area, Khaz Algar, for our answers.

And so, with Dalaran, we took all we could to Khaz Algar to see what this voice was and how we could stop the Harbinger from executing her plans. But what if everything we’ve done was precisely what Xalatath wanted, and we walked right into her trap? And that trap cost us greatly. Dalaran was destroyed. Xalatath possibly killed Khadgar. We are trapped on a land full of mysteries, and Nerubians led by Xalatath are ready to kill us all.

To put it bluntly, The War Within’s story may be the best expansion launch story for this almost twenty-year-old game in a thirty-year-old universe. Plus, in a change from recent expansions, the story continues through all four zones. Instead of visiting a new area, learning all about it, and telling a loosely connected overarching story, the overall campaign flows through each section fantastically.

Granted, the story feels like it’s paired into twos: the more Dwarven/Earthen side and then the Human/Arathi side. Yet they all add to the grand narrative, each telling a unique and personal story of characters old and new while continuing to gradually show us just how much of a threat Xal’atath is and just how big of a fool we really are.

Until now, we’ve more or less brute-forced our way through numerous Azeroth-ending threats. We’ve brought everyone together time and again to tackle Fyrakk in Dragonflight, ended Deathwing by using the dragon soul with all the aspects in Cataclysm, and defeated the Lich King through overwhelming might and the use of light in Wrath of the Lich King.

What Xalatath quickly shows is she’s been watching us all these years. Only a small portion of the player base knows this: shadow priests during Legion. It’s a different story if they can manipulate us and convince us every action we’ve taken so far was for the greater good when, in fact, it’s precisely what Xal’atath wanted.

On the other hand, every zone-specific story is beautiful and supported by even better side quests. Some of the most significant side quests ever added will be pointed out here. Even areas I wasn’t looking forward to as much, like The Ringing Deeps, ended up having some of the best campaign moments, leading me to rank that zone in my top two.

In TWW, the Arathis traveled countless miles underground and found a crystal hanging from the ceiling, Beledar. While we haven’t seen much of the Arathis themselves, the story of the Arathis in Hallowfall, starring Faerin, tells a story of perseverance and continuing to have hope. At the same time, the cards become more stacked against you. Faerie, who has lost much during the war against the Nubians, what with her not having an arm and being orphaned, is an excellent pair with Anduin, who has continuously faced hardship and challenges throughout his life so far, which all culminated in being subjugated by the Jailer during Shadowlands.

Using more impactful moments from lesser-liked expansions to build up characters’ motivations or even humanize them has been done quite well so far. But others highlighted previously in the lead-up to The War Within, like Thrall, have taken a major back seat, having almost little to no impact on the story. Hopefully, this will change as we learn what’s in store for us during TWW’s patch content. It’s a shame to see two characters, Thrall and Anduin, who both have intense but different internal struggles, be presented. Only one gets a significant portion of the major expansion campaign devoted to them. At the same time, the other receives the fleet for us.

Regardless of the story, the cinematics have been massively improved and are utilized throughout the campaign to emphasize major story beats. Before, cinematics rarely played through in-game cutscenes, usually only at the end of a zone’s story. Here, they are used at the end of major questlines. P

lus, the tech used to render in-game cinematics makes characters feel more alive and dynamic while still showing that our characters are involved in the story—even if sometimes they seem like they’re just standing there twiddling their thumbs while life-changing events happen. But if this is the level of storytelling that Blizzard has evolved to for The Worldsoul Saga, this may be precisely what WoW needs to feel modern and unique in today’s age of gaming.

For gameplay changes, The War Within has implemented numerous massively beneficial quality-of-life features. First, there are Hero Talents, the new talent system. When introduced, hero talents sounded more like talents that would give each character more unique qualities and looks. For some, like my Evoker, that felt true. Others feel like they add nothing new to their classes.

I can only really speak for my Evoker and Warrior, two classes I’ve played so far in TWW. Particularly, my Devastation Evoker, the damage-focused, damage-dealing specialization of Evoker, and its Wing Commander hero talents add unique cosmetics that make some hits more impactful. Its Disintegrate shoots out multiple beams when used after an empowered ability. Or that same Disintegrate targeting an enemy for other NPC evokers to hit that enemy in bombing runs.

On the healing side, my Preservation Evoker’s Chronowarden hero talents add fun flair and more bronze Dragonflight looks to its abilities. It’s like it’s hovering, teleporting me around instead of my character doing a dash to activate. It’s the same for its healing, focusing more on time reversion for big healing.

These are precisely what I was hoping for with hero talents: big visual updates that give more pizzazz to a character’s kit, maybe changing a rotation while also adding little to no buttons. This is similar to the Warrior’s Mountain Thane Hero Talents, which add more lightning effects and use more thunderclaps in their rotation. But many others don’t get that. They get almost no change while also changing their rotation. Or they get many passive abilities that don’t change the appearance of the skills. For such an exciting idea that doesn’t rely on expansion-specific power growth, I hope all classes get to have that fun and that some of the others enjoy this moment.

Then there are Delves and Warbands. Warbands are a new term for your account. Nearly everything you do now builds up your account rather than your specific character. This is such a much-needed change that massively improves players’ quality of life. Plus, it allows players like myself to grow alt characters much earlier without nearly as much hassle as reputations. Currencies, reputations, and even a significant amount of gear can now be shared account-wide with little effort. The same applies to gathered items and gold, which can be shared much more quickly now. Your account now has a roster full of characters at your disposal whenever you want.

Finally, there are Delves, the new world content that is a new tentpole for players to focus on. Think of Delves as single to small party dungeons that can be beaten in about 15 minutes. Before Season 1 begins, the difficulty is capped out at level 3, suggesting only 545 item level to complete successfully. What’s great about these is just how easy they are to drop in and out of. They’re each fun little challenges that can be done in, say, the time between meetings or are a good little break from work to feel like you were tackling something quickly. For now, they’re a great little addition that changes frequently enough to feel fresh each time.

You may enter one, and it’s full of darkness. You may enter it again, and it’ll have new enemies to beat while underwater. Each one has three to four different stories during the run, and so far, they’ve been mostly enjoyable. Of course, while I’m pushing 590 item level, they’re trivial. But that’s the point. Level 3 is the tip of the iceberg and full of promise at the dawn of Season 1. There is an exclusive mount and a hidden thirteenth delve to challenge players who beat every delve at level 11. There’s also a new row of vault weekly rewards, which are great incentives for players who want something to do in a tiny bit of time and a good break from world quests.

Speaking of world quests, they’ve also seen a great improvement from Dragonflight. Since starting the expansion during pre-release, content in The War Within has been released in waves. We’ve seen the end of the campaign’s initial story leading to the first raid. We’ve gotten a full glimpse of world content and how it’s evolved from previous expansions. And every new iteration is a stellar improvement. Previously, world quests were an end-game incentive for players to log in regularly for reputation boosts, gear upgrade items, and gold. In Dragonflight, they were a 3.5-day reset. So once you’ve completed them all, you were done for a couple of days if you weren’t running other stuff. Now, they’re spaced out enough that you’ll log in every day to find new stuff to do. This is on top of the regular weekly quests and events to complete.

Heck, having one zone be a weekly incentive similar to the Wrathion Sabellion event in Dragonflight substantially changing how you approach Azj Kahet. It takes something newer and makes it feel more purposeful. Focusing on a rank of one of the three mini factions of the zone slowly gives you more abilities that fit that reputation to tackle the zone’s world quests. And then there’s Hallowfall, which plays on the light and dark aspects in its world quest design.

Part of this weekly event has you helping a farmstead and its people north of the central city keep the light on to protect them from the numerous dangers encroaching on them. They give fun little rewards, chances to fight rare monsters, and good loot for your warband. This event can be completed at your pace with a fifteen-minute time limit that requires a soft reset before it can be continued. There’s no longer any blink, and you’ll miss the events. Every one of them, including the Play event in the Isle of Dorn, happens frequently enough that you can always find time to complete them within a week to fit your busy schedule. It all builds on the ever-growing trend of WoW respecting the players’ time more and more.

I generally want to chat about the zones. Isle of Dorn, The Ringing Deeps, Hallowfall, and Azj Kahet may be my favorite starting zones for an expansion since Mists of Pandaria. They’re all so well designed and distinct enough that entering each zone the first time gave me that “wow” factor. Especially entering Hallowfall and seeing the giant crystal in the sky along with Anduin left my mouth agape from the sheer awe and expansiveness of such a beautifully well-designed zone. While, for the most part, many of the zones can feel empty initially, that expansiveness proves its worth, unlike in Dragonflight. Each area has a reason for why there are world quests where they are and why the people are located in their distinct areas. And they flow so well into each other.

A major worry of a mostly underground expansion was how dull it could get. Dragonflight and Cataclysm featured underground zones at different points in their expansions and felt like lows that weren’t used to their full potential. Whereas here, None of the zones feel dull. They’re each fun to fly around in, fly between in slipstreams, and go from zone to zone for different events. This is top-tier world-building that we’ve come to expect from Blizzard, which has felt lacking in recent years. And each zone could go down in my top 10 zones list by the end of The War Within.

Finally, there are dungeons. While we don’t have the new Mythic+ system or raid yet, playing in the new dungeons with friends has been a blast. Each is fun in its own way and introduces unique new mechanics never seen in dungeons before. Like The Dawnbreaker, which uses flying mounts mid-combat to avoid mechanics or chase bosses around. Or Darkflame Cleft, which has Darkness, could be a boss in a dark cave. None are too memorable just yet; usually, the feel of Mythic+ makes one stick out more than others, but for now, none feel like real stinkers, especially with a boss whose minions are different forms of Yes Men.

So much more good could be said about World of Warcraft: The War Within. This is the expansion that fans have wanted for years. It’s, in essence, Blizzard firing on all cylinders. Everything here, from world content to delves, is a great addition that proves its worth so far. Even the story is incredibly executed in ways that we’ve imagined the story being told since The Wrathgate back in Wrath of the Lich King. If this is how The Worldsoul Saga is kicking off, then this new WoW era will be its best yet. And if you’re thinking about returning to Azeroth, there is seriously no better time because the game is just that good again.

World of Warcraft: The War Within is available now on PC and Mac.