World of Warcraft: Shadowlands

 PC
User Score
2.6

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 2560 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 561 out of 2560
  2. Mixed: 98 out of 2560
  3. Negative: 1,901 out of 2560

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  1. danszthedude
    Feb 14, 2022
    0
    Massive let down. Endless farming, dumb story, time gated content and extremely long patch cycles.
    Shame on you blizzard
  2. Grommashh
    Feb 8, 2022
    2
    I could list the many flaws of Shadowlands- like borrowed power systems, content drouths, bad story, neglection of npc model updates apart from Sylvanas (seriously, why is she constantly being updated but not the others?), FOMO etc. but I am sure all of that has already been addressed by others.

    So I'm writing this in response to the coming cross faction organised raiding with 9.2.5    I could list the many flaws of Shadowlands- like borrowed power systems, content drouths, bad story, neglection of npc model updates apart from Sylvanas (seriously, why is she constantly being updated but not the others?), FOMO etc. but I am sure all of that has already been addressed by others.

    So I'm writing this in response to the coming cross faction organised raiding with 9.2.5 (would be nice to know when that patch actually comes though, but the communication between devs and players is still very bad...)

    Anyways, I'm happy that they finally... finally! come down from their high horse and start moving in a better direction with this baby step... but it's not enough and I really can't understand, why they are so afraid of letting their players actually play together...

    Blizzard is ignoring the majority of players, namely the casuals.

    Cross faction has to be accessible for lfr, random bgs, world quests (without having to add the battlenet ID!) and of course cross faction guilds need to be a thing or all the stuff above is almost meaningless.

    Furthermore racism needs to be a thing of the past.
    Racial segregation should have no place in a modern game.
    The players deserve to have the freedom to choose a faction based on it's values and not based on the races.
    It's kinda sad that you have to point something that simple out to Blizzard...

    My suggestion would be to free the races in waves. For example:

    - Lightforged Draenei & Mecha Gnomes go Horde in 9.2.5
    - High Mountain Tauren & Nightborne go Alliance in 9.2.5

    = These races make absolutely no sense to be in only one faction. It felt incredibly forced and weird to give these races to only one faction. All start zones/cities can and should be shared. So there would be almost no work for Blizzard anyway.

    - Goblins & Vulpera go Alliance with the PrePatch for 10.0
    - Gnomes & Dark Irons go Horde with the PrePatch for 10.0

    = Goblins have more than enough neutral groups. Vulpera can be taken from Kul Tiras with a sailor like theme. So goblins would get a small area within the dwarf district in Stormwind and Vulpera could get their own ship in the Stormwind harbor.
    There certainly are some gnomes, who would like to work with goblins together, so maybe a small area in Azshara? Well and Dark Irons should have been Horde anyway. They fit perfectly and could get a machine in Orgrimmmar.

    - Draenei & Kul Tirans go Horde with 10.1
    - Blood Elves & Tauren go Alliance with 10.1

    = Draenei are very forgiving, so I'm sure, some of them would like to explore the other faction. Even their starting zone can be shared, similar to the Pandaren starter zone. Kul Tirans would be the counter part to sailor Vulpera with their own ship near Orgrimmar.
    Blood Elves (as high elves) already are in the Alliance. So maybe they get their own district in Stormwind or they simply share the starting zone with the blood elves. Tauren... well, quite honestly, Baine is more Alliance than Horde anyway. So the tauren not being Alliance is weird anyway.

    After that all the rest can and should become neutral (with night elves renamed to highborne, similar to blood elves to high elves).

    Keeping this outdated and quite frankly racist concept for so long in wow... yeah, no. Together with cross faction content Blizzard should definitely start making the races neutral.    … Expand
  3. Rewk
    Feb 1, 2022
    3
    Shadowlands has a lot of things, that need to be changed for the better, lore (same goes for bfa), FOMO needs to go, the world desperately needs modern graphics, more customisation options are needed- especially stuff like sliders, borrowed power systems need to go and there needs to be a consistent content flow.

    However, this critic will mainly focus on the elefant in the room,    Shadowlands has a lot of things, that need to be changed for the better, lore (same goes for bfa), FOMO needs to go, the world desperately needs modern graphics, more customisation options are needed- especially stuff like sliders, borrowed power systems need to go and there needs to be a consistent content flow.

    However, this critic will mainly focus on the elefant in the room, factions with all their issues.

    Recently they annoucend (as I am writing this- literally yesterday), that with 9.2.5. (so sometime in the future), there will be cross faction raids, dungeons and rated PvP.

    While this are good news (even though it should have been implemented several years ago), it is just a small step in the right direction. On it's own this won't help to balance the factions.

    In order to do something against faction imbalance they need to:

    Make cross faction guilds optional, so that GMs can decide, if they want to have members of both factions.

    Make cross faction mailing available, so that players have the ability to send gold and items to their characters on the other faction.

    Make cross faction LFR and random bgs optional.

    And most importantly,

    +++++++All races need to be neutral.+++++++

    Most players will continue choosing a faction based on the races and not because they like the lore, cities and values of said faction more.

    In order to give players the freedom to choose a faction solely because of it's history and because they feel loyal to it, neutral races are an absolutely necessary.
    Otherwise the new sentiment of letting players choose a faction they feel connected to will come across as hypocritical.

    Seriously Blizzard, if you are reading this, give us the freedom to choose a faction without hindering us to play our favorite races or the whole thing will fall apart.

    Racism is not something you would want to hold on to.    … Expand
  4. MarMap
    Jan 30, 2022
    1
    1/10, one for nice graphics in the new zones... and that's pretty much it. Unfortunately this game is in such a bad state, that I can't give it a higher rating.

    bfa was already very slow with content, but shadowlands is even worse. The content is paper thin and through long time gating they try to stretch their content as long as possible and if that wasn't bad enough they still want    1/10, one for nice graphics in the new zones... and that's pretty much it. Unfortunately this game is in such a bad state, that I can't give it a higher rating.

    bfa was already very slow with content, but shadowlands is even worse. The content is paper thin and through long time gating they try to stretch their content as long as possible and if that wasn't bad enough they still want money from you for each and every month and of course for all the microtransactions.

    Now I would be ok with the ingame store, if this game would actually be good... but it's not. It really isn't.

    One of the two playable factions is essentially dead, when it comes to pve and pvp.
    Yes, for solo players it's not a big issue, but this is a mmo and I find it quite toxic of the developers to actively cater to the overpopulated faction and downgrade the dying faction by various acts like racials, playable races, focus of the story, destroyed zones and cities and so on.
    Because seriously, with that kind of behavior there shouldn't be 2 factions in the first place. These devs are certainly not capable of acting neutral.
    And then there are phrases like: "Oh yeah, we're listening." or "We're working on it." and so on... seriously? For almost two decades they are repeating themselves. Who in their right mind would believe them anymore?

    It's long overdue to make all races neutral, so that both factions can play with all racials and of course with their preferred races instead of making compromises to actually do some content and with that they should of course also give players the option to participate in cross faction pve and pvp.
    This way factions can stay, but not racism will matter, your loyalty, regardless of race will matter. This way war mode can also stay. It works for Pandaren and it will certainly work for all races.

    While this is probably the biggest problem this game faces, it also has a lot of others.

    I for one really hate pretty much everything that has happened with the lore since the end of Legion. It feels forced, it feels ridiculous... it's just really, really bad story writing and ruined several zones, cities, characters, the factions and even gods in this universe.
    One can only hope they will retcon this mess... like seriously...

    Another big minus is the way this game looks... because it looks old, very, very old. The graphics in so many zones, even in the capitals are really outdated and it also shows in the very limited amount of customization options.

    I could go on with FOMO like the mage tower or with the ridiculous amount of systems... well, wow is not what I would consider a decent game anymore.    … Expand
  5. MrsMcgillicuddy
    Jan 29, 2022
    2
    I would say tied for Battle for Azeroth as worst expansion of the franchise.

    * Ridiculous amounts of chores to do before you are "allowed" to perform in endgame content. * Horrible gearing systems (especially for PvP). * The far too common borrowed power nonsense. * Painfully bad writing. * High quality art assets for armor and mounts reserved for Blizzard Store purchases while    I would say tied for Battle for Azeroth as worst expansion of the franchise.

    * Ridiculous amounts of chores to do before you are "allowed" to perform in endgame content.
    * Horrible gearing systems (especially for PvP).
    * The far too common borrowed power nonsense.
    * Painfully bad writing.
    * High quality art assets for armor and mounts reserved for Blizzard Store purchases while those earned in game are woefully bland.
    * The development team remaining completely detached from their paying customers.
    * The worst pace for content updates so far in the series. Unforgivable for a pay-to-play title.

    Keep well away until Blizzard clean up their act. Do not settle for such low effort offerings that do not respect your time.    … Expand
  6. Chewbubba
    Jan 29, 2022
    0
    Previous expansions had 2 seperate campaigns for the Horde and Alliance. With that in mind and with arguable double the resources they have quite spectacuarly failed to produce a singular quality campaign.

    Furthermore it's just come to light that Blizzard has been involved with questionable employment law breaches. This fratboy corporate culture is reflected in the low quality of this    Previous expansions had 2 seperate campaigns for the Horde and Alliance. With that in mind and with arguable double the resources they have quite spectacuarly failed to produce a singular quality campaign.

    Furthermore it's just come to light that Blizzard has been involved with questionable employment law breaches. This fratboy corporate culture is reflected in the low quality of this product (supposedly a game)    … Expand
  7. OxolotlX
    Jan 27, 2022
    1
    What can I say?
    This game is has an awful story, that makes every fanfcition written by an edgy teenager look like a masterpiece,
    it has an overwhelmingly toxic game design with: lots of FOMO, racism- yes, you've read that right, because the forced racial segregation in this game for the playable races between factions is just that, time gating, gigantic content droughts and instead    What can I say?
    This game is has an awful story, that makes every fanfcition written by an edgy teenager look like a masterpiece,
    it has an overwhelmingly toxic game design with:
    lots of FOMO,
    racism- yes, you've read that right, because the forced racial segregation in this game for the playable races between factions is just that,
    time gating,
    gigantic content droughts and instead of new content they remind you every few weeks that there are new microtransactions you should buy, because monthly sub costs + expansion costs are seemingly not enough for Blizzard,
    outdated graphics in most of the zones,
    no customisation options like sliders and color palettes... you know, standard things in this day and age...,
    no player housing,
    almost no communication between the devs and players,
    horrible faction imbalance, because the devs seem to have fun trolling and neglecting one faction and openly favoring the other,
    no cross faction pve & pvp, meaning if you want to do anything you are forced to play the bigger faction, which also means you only get to play half of the races, because racism is so important for Activision Blizzard,
    disgusting borrowed power systems.

    Do not play this toxic game. I suppose the only players, who are still giving Blizzard money, despite the terrible state of wow ever since the end of Legion and of course the lawsuit against this company, are the most toxic kind of players you can imagine, whales, addicts full of copium and such.

    Really frustrating to see what a dumpster fire this game has become.    … Expand
  8. Joshras
    Jan 16, 2022
    0
    Shadowlands isn't worth anyone's time. This is yet the second time in a row, where Blizzard messed up with so many things, lore, borrowed power systems, faction imbalance is as bad as ever, class imbalance, FOMO, outdated graphics, very long content droughts and so on. It's a mess.

    Since so many players are talking about the faction imbalance and with that Blizzard's questionable    Shadowlands isn't worth anyone's time. This is yet the second time in a row, where Blizzard messed up with so many things, lore, borrowed power systems, faction imbalance is as bad as ever, class imbalance, FOMO, outdated graphics, very long content droughts and so on. It's a mess.

    Since so many players are talking about the faction imbalance and with that Blizzard's questionable viewpoint on racism with their strict racial segregation between the factions and the races...
    don't expect Blizzard to change it for the better, aka removing it and giving the races an actual free will like Pandaren.
    I bet, if they will ever do something about the faction imbalance, even so they should have done something 10 years ago, they probably will only do something half-as* like allowing cross faction m+ raiding, instead of just straight up removing their racist concept and allowing all races for both factions and cross faction grouping, alt mailing and pvp.

    Why?

    We are talking about a company, that has a giant lawsuit against them for harassing female employees and treating employees of color in general worse. You really expect these guys to remove racial segregation from their game? Dream on. All you will get is meaningless stuff like removed emotes and a "bowl of fruits".

    Yes, I wish this game would finally get better, because it has certainly potential... if you would remove the entire story of bfa and shadowlands that is, but honestly, I don't see wow getting good anytime soon with the mentality of these developers.    … Expand
  9. MacAree
    Jan 14, 2022
    0
    Gameplay is nothing but souless grinds.

    Story is trash and full of woke

    Content is worst than everything.

    No new classes/races.

    New developers are very bad and killed what was once the greatest game ever.
  10. Lorixo
    Jan 10, 2022
    2
    I've read a lot of critics calling Blizzard racist and that Blizzard would cater the game to toxic players with their game design.
    These racist concepts Blizzard forces their players to participate in, namely with racial segregation, which, as stated by quite a few, is the very first thing a wow player has to take part in, was there since Vanilla.
    However I do understand why more and    I've read a lot of critics calling Blizzard racist and that Blizzard would cater the game to toxic players with their game design.
    These racist concepts Blizzard forces their players to participate in, namely with racial segregation, which, as stated by quite a few, is the very first thing a wow player has to take part in, was there since Vanilla.

    However I do understand why more and more players are angry about it, pointing it out and calling Blizzard hypocrites for keeping this archaic concept,
    -splitting factions not based on values etc. but based on races.
    Because that is certainly not how factions should function. Where it is important what race you are and not what you stand for.

    It's hypocritical, because at the same time we now know due to the lawsuit against Blizzard, that the devs are anything but progressive and all the trivial and meaningless changes they've done to the game
    (turning a painting of a woman in a bikini to a bowl of fruit for example)
    comes across as nothing but laughable pr, that no one can take seriously.

    With the removal of racial segregation, letting us play all races in our favorite faction, they would put something innovative in the game, making it a lot more progressive and finally, after almost 20 years, allow us to play the game the way we want to, without forcing us do make compromises, non-stop.

    World Of Warcraft has many, very unhealthy aspects and with that creating an overwhelmingly toxic environment.
    Which is why the wow community is known to be very toxic compared to other mmo communities like that of Final Fantasy 14 for example, a game, that manages 3 factions (without faction imbalance). Blizzard can't even manage two factions and the main reason for that is the racial segregation, along with no cross faction grouping and pvp.

    Imagine having developers, who split their community into two, don't allow them to play together, don't allow them to speak together, forcing them to participate in a racist mindset, don't treat both factions the same way... yeah, that is called toxic and it brings out the worst in (some) players, who adapt to this toxic mindset.

    There are many other big problems this game faces (lore, FOMO etc.), but this review is already very long. Thanks for reading.    … Expand
  11. Cweetu
    Jan 5, 2022
    1
    This game is in a horrendous state.

    The lore: Battle for Azeroth & Shadowlands ruined former established lore completely. Why? Because the devs seemingly have an unhealthy obsession with Sylvanas. Faction Imbalance: Beyond repair. What started with tbc (mainly because of blood elves) was seemingly intentionally made so much worse with the introduction of Vulpera vs. disabled gnomes.    This game is in a horrendous state.

    The lore: Battle for Azeroth & Shadowlands ruined former established lore completely. Why? Because the devs seemingly have an unhealthy obsession with Sylvanas.

    Faction Imbalance: Beyond repair. What started with tbc (mainly because of blood elves) was seemingly intentionally made so much worse with the introduction of Vulpera vs. disabled gnomes. (There are a lot of other factors, too of course, but let's be honest here, most people choose a faction based on the races).
    Since Blizzard actively promotes racism in form of racial segregation there is no free choice in this game. Factions are divided based on the given races.
    Disgusting game design, but it comes to no surprise after seeing how toxic the work environment at Blizzard is. So no wonder, that they keep strict racial segregation and with that a clearly outdated mindset in this game.

    Just like the awful lore, which should be reset to Legion at this point, they should get rid of racism. No more racial segregation. All races for both factions + optional cross faction pve & pvp & alt mailing.

    FOMO... Jeez...
    I was on the brink of resubbing for the mage tower, only to learn, that Blizzard would only bring it back for a short amount of time & without the original rewards. WTF? No thanks...

    Graphic: Wolf npcs still look like in 2004, just like many other elements. How lazy can you get with your game, Blizzard?

    Time gating, borrowed power systems and so much more... not a game I would play anymore.    … Expand
  12. MrFoster
    Dec 28, 2021
    1
    There are so many bad decisions in this expansion that it's hard to believe the developers are playing their own game.
  13. Wikk
    Dec 26, 2021
    1
    I'm just disappointed with Shadowlands, similar to battle for Azeroth.

    My biggest concern however is Blizzard's completely neglection of the dreadful and toxic faction system. They refused to fix this mess for almost two decades now and are still keeping racial segregation instead of neutral races and still no cross faction raids in sight. How can a company be that ignorant and toxic to    I'm just disappointed with Shadowlands, similar to battle for Azeroth.

    My biggest concern however is Blizzard's completely neglection of the dreadful and toxic faction system. They refused to fix this mess for almost two decades now and are still keeping racial segregation instead of neutral races and still no cross faction raids in sight. How can a company be that ignorant and toxic to their player base? Truly baffles me...

    Then again they are also practising FOMO, like with the mage tower for example, where they refuse to give the original rewards and instead players now only get boring and recolored gear sets. Not to mention that the mage tower (again) will only be playable for a short amount of time.

    Speaking of toxic behavior and neglection, they also constantly shove new borrowed power systems down our throats and still haven't updated old models and the world, let alone give all races a solid amount of customisation options. Body height slidesrs? Yeah, you won't even find simple stuff like that in this game.

    The story in this game? ... Just awful. Really, really awful. For years now players have to suffer under the obsession of the devs with their cash cow Sylvanas, which resulted in several horrible retcons, just so they can keep her around.    … Expand
  14. vlecp
    Dec 20, 2021
    2
    Updated review

    Lore: cringe, makes no sense and boring. With genocidal Sylvanas as an "enemy" since 2 expansions. Now she gets redeemed because Danuser has an obsession with her. Retcons on every corner, ruining old stories. New lore does not work with the old lore or straight up makes no sense. Do not waste money on any book. Gameplay to lore (Portals to Draenor despite being closed    Updated review

    Lore: cringe, makes no sense and boring. With genocidal Sylvanas as an "enemy" since 2 expansions. Now she gets redeemed because Danuser has an obsession with her. Retcons on every corner, ruining old stories.
    New lore does not work with the old lore or straight up makes no sense. Do not waste money on any book. Gameplay to lore (Portals to Draenor despite being closed off) make no sense. The jailer is probably the most boring villain in media ever.

    Systems: more and more messy. With each expansion every system from the last expansion are disregarded causing massive issues due to borrowed power to then repeat the same mistake next expansion.

    Class/Faction/Transmog restrictions: make no sense. Race bound to factions is terrible and does not work. Transmog restriction make no sense. Faction imbalance is ignored by the developers.

    Customisations: massive imbalance. Some races have a lot, others have the bare minimum.

    Balance: choose the right class or else you get 1 shot in PvP. Choose the right class for PvE or else you will fall behind, even by making your our groups. This "balance" would make even Riot blush.

    Leveling: 1-50 is great and very fun, the true "WORLD of Warcraft"-experience. Hitting 50 puts you onto rails and you have no choices anymore what so ever where to level. Threads of fate only counts for SL places.

    Developer behavior: law suit and the developers/authors can't take any form of critique, going as far as to tell you to "play another game if you don't like it" (Madeleine Roux) and "You can't critique our work if you haven't published a game/book yourself!" (Christie Golden). Roux then is rewarded with an ingame NPC. PTR feedback is completely ignored. The developers remove content (Sylvanas B word quest) from the game because 1 developer felt like it. Can they also make their main class OP because "they feel like it"?

    Content updates: about 2 in 10 months and the second one brought a re-hatched Mage Tower for 2 weeks that had its scaling messed up completely. The first patch brought us a tiny island. No release date for 9,2 yet.

    Playerbase: elitists run rampant. Developers create content for only 5% of the playerbase. Toxicity happens because toxicity does not get punished.

    Customer Support: ingame report feature is stack based (means an entire guild can ban other people easily). Reports are not reviewed by GMs. Players are abusing the report system and the ticket system is 90% bots. The forum moderators are complete trash.

    The RPG experience: is completely missing. This game has zero right to call itself a RPG. No choices (and if there are any they are meaningless) and talent choices are usually more of a "take X talent the other two are useless".

    Cutscenes and art: the cutscenes are GMOD levels, so not very "good". The art has been fine except in recent times. SL has just a grey and green filter everywhere, once you notice it you can not unsee it. The announced tier sets look awful.

    Player population: has tanked massively. I play on Argent Dawn EU. Roleplay hubs (Redridge, Duskwood, Stranglethorn) that were active before SL are all dead. Orgrimmar is dead. Stormwind has taken a massive hit too.

    Promised content/Fear of missing out: heritage armors and worgen being able to not auto-shift into worgen form are just 2 examples of the past that were said "to be done" and yet never have been. Half the races are still missing their heritage armors. Promised features are not delivered or underdelivered. Blizzard constantly plays on the fear of missing out.

    The community council situation: completely useless. Reddit, Metacritic, a million other review sites, YouTube, the WoW forums and many other social media platforms give you enough insight. Why you need a "community council" is beyond me. Especially since Blizzard ignores PTR feedback.

    Personal opinion: it seems the only thing Blizzard does not half-ass is mistreating their employees. Everything else though is halfly done. The developers have seemingly no clue what the game should be about and mix the Warcraft universe with real life. I give Shadowlands a 2 because the 1-50 leveling is still very much worth it and lovely. Just the newest content is awful and not worth playing.

    If you are a player: 1 to 50 is worth playing. Anything after 50 (Shadowlands) is not.

    If you are a Blizzard developer/writer: please quit your job to make space for new people.    … Expand
  15. Cherryo
    Dec 17, 2021
    1
    More time-gating, faction grinding, weekly disappointment-box opening, faction imbalance, cooler stuff in the cash store not based on ingame merit,
    cringe lore (Sylvanas is still the focus of the story and everything and everyone around her is constantly being retconned, just so she can remain a certain dev's waifu...)
    mind numbing sytems, FOMO, token collecting locked behind more    More time-gating, faction grinding, weekly disappointment-box opening, faction imbalance, cooler stuff in the cash store not based on ingame merit,
    cringe lore (Sylvanas is still the focus of the story and everything and everyone around her is constantly being retconned, just so she can remain a certain dev's waifu...)
    mind numbing sytems, FOMO, token collecting locked behind more time-gating so you can purchase stuff that will be invalid faster than it took to earn it, and of course some new lifeless and homogenous looking set armors made in the most bland and uninspiring colors, outdated graphics and rediculous few customisation options.

    I also don’t understand how a company can keep isolating half their player base, and yes that is what it is. It is clearly shown that one faction is suffering in a downward trend when it comes to players, they are either shifting faction, or quitting and moving to other games. Other games got rid of this unnecessary restriction long ago.

    Blizzard has to stop restricting the ability to play whatever you want, with whomever you want.
    Not only for gameplay reasons, but also because it's a very racist concept. Racial segregation of playable races? Yeah, that is called racism in a virtual form. All races should be neutral and not be treated like hive mind slaves.

    Honestly I just feel like at this point Blizzard is letting their game slowly implode, and will continue to blame the player base for being the problem, and not themselves.    … Expand
  16. Superjkfried
    Dec 16, 2021
    1
    Shadowlands is another release in a long line of expansions that follow the mantra of "One step forwards, two steps back".
    The newly introduced systems are uninteresting and tedious, requiring you to log on everyday to do menial tasks to gain minuscule amounts of power in order to keep up with other players.
    Previous raids and dungeons, as well as old side content and systems are    Shadowlands is another release in a long line of expansions that follow the mantra of "One step forwards, two steps back".
    The newly introduced systems are uninteresting and tedious, requiring you to log on everyday to do menial tasks to gain minuscule amounts of power in order to keep up with other players.

    Previous raids and dungeons, as well as old side content and systems are tossed aside and forgotten, with no way to replay and experience that content as it was; Effectively removing content that the user has already paid for.

    While a revamped levelling system was sorely needed, the current iteration is confusing, throwing players into a selected expansion to level through with no context or explanation of prior events.
    Approximately halfway through the levelling process, you will reach level 50 and will be ejected from your current progression and forced to start the Shadowlands story line.

    It should also be noted that the initial introductory quest line for Shadowlands and it's accompanying cut scenes have been removed from the game, causing further confusion akin to starting several chapters in to a book.

    In short, the "expansion" removes more content than it adds and the narrative is an extremely poor experience with no cohesion and lacking context, making the story very confusing and uninteresting.    … Expand
  17. Savip
    Dec 15, 2021
    0
    Blizzard is incredibly disrespectful to their players.
    Just like in bfa they continue to ignore the gigantic gap between the factions. The imbalance is so big, that it has become nearly impossible to play in the hugely outnumbered faction.
    Now you would think they do something about it. Instead they did the exact opposite. Giving the small faction obese humans, gnomes with amputated    Blizzard is incredibly disrespectful to their players.
    Just like in bfa they continue to ignore the gigantic gap between the factions. The imbalance is so big, that it has become nearly impossible to play in the hugely outnumbered faction.

    Now you would think they do something about it. Instead they did the exact opposite.
    Giving the small faction obese humans, gnomes with amputated arms and legs, a copy & paste race without solid lore, without a hub and as ugly as it can get with tentacle hair, horrible hair styles in general and washed out skin and hair tones... while giving the already overpopulated faction races with rich lore, huge cities and only they got an actually new race, that could be straight out of a Disney movie.
    Yeah, that will make players pick the small faction...not.

    As many others mentioned before me, the whole racial segregation stuff is idiotic anyway. Factions don't work like that. Not the race but the characters and the things they feel connected to should matter. Every race should have the freedom to choose.
    Putting racism in a game is one thing, but forcing players to be an active part of it is another and yes, there are people, who got the mindset that racial segregation would be a positive thing. How toxic can you get?

    And people are wondering, why wow has such a toxic playerbase... The devs are activly catering to them. Not just with racism, but also with stuff like FOMO.

    Also there is still no cross faction play, the story is idiotic, the content droughts get longer and longer, almost no communication with the players, feedback gets ignored or corrupted, no player housing, the customisation options of the races are not only too few, but also extremely unfairly portioned, the classes are unbalanced and the old world looks rediculous outdated.

    Whatever, I'm done with this horrible game and Blizzard in general. There are certainly other mmos, thst respect all their players, not just a few.    … Expand
  18. Doug92
    Dec 13, 2021
    1
    Shadowlands, as well as Battle for Azeroth, the former expansion, is full of nonsensical and contrived storytelling, retconning previous established lore left and right.

    Furthermore Activision has become painfully hypocritical with their recent attempts to appear open minded, tolerant and progressive. Removing some emotes for example is certainly not the way to remove toxic elements    Shadowlands, as well as Battle for Azeroth, the former expansion, is full of nonsensical and contrived storytelling, retconning previous established lore left and right.

    Furthermore Activision has become painfully hypocritical with their recent attempts to appear open minded, tolerant and progressive. Removing some emotes for example is certainly not the way to remove toxic elements from their game. Racism is the most obvious toxic aspect of wow.
    Racial segregation of playable races, instead of free choice for them all... yeah, you probably should remove that and treat all races equally like Pandaren instead of removing some meaningless stuff like emotes Blizzard ;)

    Gameplaywise the game is in a really unhealthy state. Faction imbalance is as present as it was years ago, yet there is still nothing done about it. Still no cross faction raiding, alt mailing and pvp.

    FOMO, borrowed power systems, outdated graphic, content droughts and so much more...

    1 out of 10 expansion.    … Expand
  19. Slyferrain
    Dec 12, 2021
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Shadowlands starts out in a similar format just like Legion & Battle for Azeroth in terms of story and questing. Parts of the story have become quite lackluster or very easily guessed on where it will go next.

    The questing in each of the main four zones, now in a linear format unlike the last 2 expansions, does do a better job of telling a overall larger arch storyline as well as connecting the zones together. You level in zones Bastion, Maldraxxus, Ardenweald, and ending with Revendreth. Each zone has its own unique feel, races/NPCs and color palate: Bastion with sky/light blue, Maldraxxus with green, Ardenweald with dark/navy blue and Revendreth with red. Each zone has its own story arch as well as connecting to the main story arc of the expansion. You also find some names and faces from years past: Uther in Bastion, Draga in Maldraxxus and Ysera in Ardenweald; to name a few. In addition, you are able to test out each Covenant's abilities while leveling in that zone to better make your choice when you hit max level.

    The level cap for this expansion is 60. Resetting it from the level 120 it was in Battle for Azeroth. You do average about 2-3 levels per zone. Blizzard has set a soft requirement on what level you must be before going on to the next zone, so no more just dungeon running to level X then moving on. You are required to complete parts of each zone's story quests before you can move on to the next. It does basically force players to play through the story at least once.

    After hitting max level, you can now move on to the endgame systems.

    First, is the usual Normal and Heroic Dungeons you can queue for. You can also run Mythic difficulty Dungeons in a premade group.

    For PVP, you can still run Arenas and Battlegrounds. No real changes on those systems compared to Battle for Azeroth except that the gear was much better than gear you would get through PVE for the first few months of the expansion. I personally am not a big PVP person so I can not say overall if its better or worse compared to previous expansions.

    Third, is the endgame zone of the Maw. This is a zone that just feels incomplete in ways. It also did not help that it did not get most of the content it launched with until the last several weeks of the beta. The Maw does have its own questline, gated by a reputation you grind via a couple of daily quests. Overall though, the Maw is still disappointing when compared to more superior zones like the Timeless Isle from Mists of Pandaria.

    With this expansion, a few new systems and features were introduced.

    Torghast, content that is comparable to the Greater Rifts from Diablo 3. It can be quite fun when you are just running them but tying it to legendary crafting made it seem like a chore for most players.

    The Covenants, one of which you swear yourself to when you reach level 60, seem to be counter to the story. You pledge yourself to a covenant to get Renown which unlocks transmog, mounts, titles, etc. If you ever wanted to change covenants, there was a heavy restriction at launch where it took you two weeks of doing quests before you could even start working on your new covenant. This seemed counterproductive to the lore where they were coming together to face the threat of the Jailer.

    Now with Patch 9.1.5, released on November 2, 2021 (North America), several long requested changes were implemented. These changes included:
    - Freely swap Covenants
    - Removal of Conduit Energy (Conduits is a whole other bag that I am not touching, was just **** at launch in terms of swapping. Similar to the Essences from BFA)
    - Removal of AoE cap (Was implemented during BFA. Basically limited how many mobs you could damage with AoE abilities)
    - Alts: Instant Renown Catch-up, Level via Torghast, Soulbind skip, Anima transfer, Improvements all around to leveling & renown.
    - Ability to skip the Maw intro questline
    - Legion Timewalking (Mythic+ and Mage Tower returning from Legion)
    A lot of these changes were a long time coming. However, many players felt that this should of been done at the start NOT nearly a year into the expansion.

    In conclusion, Shadowlands is a step above BFA yet a step back from Legion. Blizzard ignored player feedback from the beta and after launch on several systems even rebuffing back on some topics. They repeated the same mistakes from BFA in regards to the Azerite Armor and Heart of Azeroth system. Only time will tell if Blizzard will actually learn from their mistakes. Patch 9.1.5 shows a step in a positive direction but I am doubtful if they will continue this path. The final content patch and next expansion look to be a make it or break it moment for World of Warcraft.    … Expand
  20. Aquki
    Dec 9, 2021
    1
    It really saddens me how toxic the game, along with the playerbase (the few, who are left of them) and the Devs have become.

    I'm sure the most in your face problem, that keeps being ignored and at times is made worse by the Devs is the faction imbalance. Both in retail and in bc classic. Why is it so hard for the Devs to remove racial segregation, so that there wouldn't be the problem    It really saddens me how toxic the game, along with the playerbase (the few, who are left of them) and the Devs have become.

    I'm sure the most in your face problem, that keeps being ignored and at times is made worse by the Devs is the faction imbalance. Both in retail and in bc classic.
    Why is it so hard for the Devs to remove racial segregation, so that there wouldn't be the problem anymore that the mainstream races are only found in one of the 2 factions, making most people obviously choose that faction.
    Also what in the world made the Devs think racism would be a good aspect for the game in the first place? There is not a single good thing in this racist mentality forced upon the players. It only makes them as toxic as this toxic restriction is.
    Along with making all races neutral, just like the Pandaren, they also have to introduce cross faction raiding and alt mailing.
    This game is in desperate need of these changes.

    It also needs new writers or at least the current writers have to rethink the mess they made with battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands. The lore has gotten so bad, that... while at first I was very angry I now lost every connection and interest in the story completely, because it is just too absurd to be taken seriously.    … Expand
  21. Van12345
    Dec 9, 2021
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The mist **** butch expansion made by degenerates and LGBTQ+ Aholes that love to **** their employees and produce **** product with **** B's story that doesn't match the lore.
    **** you blizzard! I hope you choke to death!    … Expand
  22. Vanos
    Mar 6, 2021
    0
    A really bad game! The story is garbage,
    The classes are unbalanced,
    The gameplay are heavily time gated,
    The torgasht is garbage,
    The lore as become garbage as well....
    The Devs responss are bad...
  23. Feelsbad11
    Dec 8, 2021
    1
    The developers and the blizzard company should be ashamed of how far they let this once great franchise fall during the last 7 years (and yes I am including legion which was pretty bad until 7.3 and before that was carried by the content schedule). Please just let wow rest and die with dignity or sell it off to a developer that actually has an idea how to make a game with an interestingThe developers and the blizzard company should be ashamed of how far they let this once great franchise fall during the last 7 years (and yes I am including legion which was pretty bad until 7.3 and before that was carried by the content schedule). Please just let wow rest and die with dignity or sell it off to a developer that actually has an idea how to make a game with an interesting story and gameplayloop.… Expand
  24. Vaestris
    Dec 8, 2021
    1
    In addition, there are no new interesting mechanics. The only thing that might be of interest is the story, but this is not a story, but a mockery on the lore
  25. Verya
    Dec 6, 2021
    0
    If you are considering to come back to this game, don't. Just don't.
    The last time this game was enjoyable was during Legion. Although the last patch had some flaws, it was still ok. Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands are utterly trash and no, that is not an exaggeration.
    And despite of all the feedback and all the criticism the devs of this game are so extremely arrogant, that they    If you are considering to come back to this game, don't. Just don't.
    The last time this game was enjoyable was during Legion. Although the last patch had some flaws, it was still ok. Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands are utterly trash and no, that is not an exaggeration.

    And despite of all the feedback and all the criticism the devs of this game are so extremely arrogant, that they are ignoring almost all of it.

    The gameplay is completly broken, on the one hand of course because of the trashy faction system, that prevents players to... well, to actually play with each other, let alone to choose all races they want to play in the faction they want to play, on the other hand because of the class imbalance, the borrowed power systems... well, in general the flood of systems.

    The story is completly bonkers and on top of all they abuse the player's good will with FOMO, as well as extremly long content droughts. Instead of content they usually put more stuff in the store for the sweet microtransaction money.

    Nowadays you will only find whales and players full of copium in this game, as well as players, who know they are in a toxic "relationship" with this game, but can't bring themselves to quite, because they already wasted so much time with this awful game.    … Expand
  26. Piccolos
    Dec 5, 2021
    1
    Let me start by saying that I am a rather new player to this game and the story is, well, it's a mess. It is all over the place with several different timelines and as for someone, who comes from ff14 (which has an incredibly good story) and wants to understand the story, I had to read several pages on the internet, aswell as watching lore videos from youtubers to understand what the heckLet me start by saying that I am a rather new player to this game and the story is, well, it's a mess. It is all over the place with several different timelines and as for someone, who comes from ff14 (which has an incredibly good story) and wants to understand the story, I had to read several pages on the internet, aswell as watching lore videos from youtubers to understand what the heck is going on in this mmo.
    It's really, really messy.

    Now it has some nice parts here and there but it lost me completly with warlords of draenor, battle for azeroth and shadowlands. The story in these expansions is so bad... oh my... xD
    The only reason I played all the way up to shadowlands is a friend to mine, wo wanted someone to play with because his guild mates all left wow.

    Unfortunately I had to end my sub to wow too, because there are just too many aspects of it, which are fundamentally bad. My friend even admits, that wow is in a really bad state, but he said he doesn't want to stop playing because of all the years he spent on wow.

    Unlike Final Fantasy 14, World Of Warcraft doesn't have a linear story design, it's rather comparable to a patchwork rug, which makes you wonder, if Blizzard even cares for their players to feel involved in the lore.

    Unlike Final Fantasy 14 all dungeons, raids and even the systems will be put in to the trash once a new patch or a new expansions hits. It feels like someone is filling your glass with water and then throws it out right in front of you. Seriously, what a toxic game design.
    In ff14 you can play all raids and dungeons all the time, even if your on a max level character and still get good rewards.

    Racism... yeah, I saw it mentioned by quite a few and it's really true. Wow's very pillar so to say is racism. The very first thing you see, while logging in, is racial segregation.
    So unlike ff14, where you can choose your faction freely, without missing out your favorite races, wow is forcing you to play certain races in a certain faction.... It really baffles me, that this company is still keeping such an unethical aspect after 17 years in their game.
    This is certainly not the way factions should operate, based on the way a person looks... really awful mindset right here.

    Along with the racism in this game comes of course the unhealthy faction imbalance. I could go into detail here on all the things Blizzard is doing wrong, but to keep it short, this too is something they should copy from ff14. Cross faction pve and pvp + of course the end of racial segregation.

    Overall I had a really bad expierence with this game. The music of some zones is nice, yeah, but that's about it, since Blizzard can't make the humanoid races look even slightly good/natural... they all look really weird with ugly propotions and the faces... xD

    Yeah, no, I really don't like this game.    … Expand
  27. jemper32
    Dec 4, 2021
    1
    I deleted once Great game (now just piece of code) after news about gender updates... Better to spend money in FF14.
  28. Traxo
    Dec 4, 2021
    0
    If you're looking for a toxic game, with toxic gameplay, cringe story, a toxic playerbase and toxic devs, World Of Warcraft Shadowlands is waiting for you.
    I find it especially questionable how Blizzard is now trying so desperately trying to make their game look progressive by removing "toxic" emotes almost nobody uses anyway, while at the same time they keep racism, something all    If you're looking for a toxic game, with toxic gameplay, cringe story, a toxic playerbase and toxic devs, World Of Warcraft Shadowlands is waiting for you.
    I find it especially questionable how Blizzard is now trying so desperately trying to make their game look progressive by removing "toxic" emotes almost nobody uses anyway, while at the same time they keep racism, something all players have to participate in because Blizzard is forcing racial segregation on the players.
    You want to play a Draenei, but you're friend wants to play a Tauren? Well, that is your fault! You can't play together and hang out in your favorite city, let alone talk to each other, because RACISM IS THE FOUNDATION OF WOW. -Blizzard
    I can't even... This is such an outdated mindset. Races are literally the only thing that is important to which faction you are supposed to be loyal to.
    Free will, tolerance, diversity and values seem to be a no-go in the mindset of the devs.
    Making a mmo intentionally anti social... just wow.

    Of course there are dozens of other things wrong with wow, but it probably has been mentioned here several times already.    … Expand
  29. Oakwoody
    Dec 3, 2021
    0
    How can a game with so much potential get so bad?
    Battle For Azeroth was garbage.
    Shadowlands... yeah, still garbage. Story, gameplay, systems, graphic... there is really nothing to like about wow anymore. The story is so idotic and it angers me how much they ruined several important lore characters along with the factions in bfa and continued with that in sl. This game is immensely    How can a game with so much potential get so bad?
    Battle For Azeroth was garbage.
    Shadowlands... yeah, still garbage.
    Story, gameplay, systems, graphic... there is really nothing to like about wow anymore.
    The story is so idotic and it angers me how much they ruined several important lore characters along with the factions in bfa and continued with that in sl.
    This game is immensely unbalanced. Let's be clear here, the faction system with all it's idotic restrictions like racism along with no cross faction play was broken from the very beginning. The imbalance is now so bad... Disgusting how the devs still haven't removed racial segregation and still don't allow cross factions stuff.
    So.Many.Repetitive.Borrowed.Power.Systems.
    Fomo, time gating, content droughts.
    You call that customization options Blizzard? You don't even know how to design normal looking propotions on some races, let alone introduce sliders and ever thought of updating those archaic looking graphics of your older zones? No. Ok. Thought so.    … Expand
  30. yon19794
    Dec 2, 2021
    0
    If you want a game that only wastes your time, it's pay to win, it is not balanced (6 months for a patch in a mmorpg, oof). There are many, many more things that I could go over, but simply put, it's not worth my time.

    On the other hand, if you want a game that does EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING right, check FINAL FANTASY XIV Online.
  31. Jakkl
    Dec 1, 2021
    0
    Oh boy, I thought this game couldn't get any worse than bfa. Well... then came sl.
    The story is laughable idiotic and on such a cringe level...
    The devs are hilariously hypocritical, claiming to be progressive, yet keeping racism as the foundation of wow and not letting players choose their favorite faction regardless of the race they want to play. They continue to force a lot of    Oh boy, I thought this game couldn't get any worse than bfa. Well... then came sl.
    The story is laughable idiotic and on such a cringe level...
    The devs are hilariously hypocritical, claiming to be progressive, yet keeping racism as the foundation of wow and not letting players choose their favorite faction regardless of the race they want to play.
    They continue to force a lot of ridiculous borrowed power systems on the players.
    So much time gating and looooooong content droughts, despite the greedy game design.
    So much imbalance, both in factions and in classes...
    FOMO
    No new classes, no new races, no world and npc updates (except for the dev's waifu Sylvanas, who constantly gets model updates), still no player housing, imbalanced and laughable few customization options (still no sliders)

    Do yourself a favor and don't play this clown show.    … Expand
  32. DoppelGang3r
    Nov 30, 2021
    1
    Extremelly uninspired expansion, everything feels like a meta roulette to get trinket/mount/gear. *Everything* is instanced and the illusion of open world is really gone. Everywhere you go is an instance and the train rails are so obvious, it really makes you think why even bother.

    If not for Warcraft lore and nostalgia, this have been the most 60 to zero expansion in the world, losing    Extremelly uninspired expansion, everything feels like a meta roulette to get trinket/mount/gear. *Everything* is instanced and the illusion of open world is really gone. Everywhere you go is an instance and the train rails are so obvious, it really makes you think why even bother.

    If not for Warcraft lore and nostalgia, this have been the most 60 to zero expansion in the world, losing millions of players in first weeks. (It actually almost went that way)

    I play casually and laid back, and the content was very lean compared to Legion 7.0. The new patches had very little to offer, I completed the new patch content in less than a week and it introduced new problems to the game, like annoying lag in open world and world quest glitches which I encountered few times now and could not complete them.

    A real shame, the whole expansion (4 months later!) still feel extremelly rushed and there is no soul in anything. The devs have lost all the passion and the only thing that is making this game float relevant is love for old Warcraft and art/sound team. ( Good job those guys!)    … Expand
  33. Taylor8O
    Nov 30, 2021
    0
    This game has become unbearable. It's a mess and the only ones left playing this "mmo" are the most toxic crowd you can think of, full of copium. No wonder obviously, toxic systems and toxic devs create toxic players.

    There is FOMO, there is faction imbalance (with no cross faction play whatsoever), there is racism (racial segregation of playable races), there are a lot of extremely    This game has become unbearable. It's a mess and the only ones left playing this "mmo" are the most toxic crowd you can think of, full of copium. No wonder obviously, toxic systems and toxic devs create toxic players.

    There is FOMO, there is faction imbalance (with no cross faction play whatsoever), there is racism (racial segregation of playable races), there are a lot of extremely frustrating borrowed power systems, there are content droughts despite the monthly sub costs, the expansion costs AND the microtransactions, there is the ridiculous bad lore, there is time gating, there is the arrogant behavior of the devs, there is the laziness in the old graphics and customization options, there is straight up trolling towards players from the devs, there is in general a lot of hypocrisy when it comes to the behavior of the devs, there is no player housing and in general stuff a modern mmo should have... I could go on.

    Overall it's just a really terrible game, that had some nice aspects during Legion, but lost those completely in bfa and now in shadowlands.    … Expand
  34. Ywwo
    Nov 29, 2021
    0
    Don't waste your money on this game.

    There is of course the lack of freedom of choice. If you are expecting to have the freedom to chooce your favorite faction together with your favorite races, this game is not for you. Wow is heavily using the racial segregation concept. The playable races are portrayed to live in a hivemind society. If one leader goes to a certain side all members    Don't waste your money on this game.

    There is of course the lack of freedom of choice.
    If you are expecting to have the freedom to chooce your favorite faction together with your favorite races, this game is not for you.
    Wow is heavily using the racial segregation concept. The playable races are portrayed to live in a hivemind society. If one leader goes to a certain side all members of that race join that person like sheep.
    Why Blizzard thinks giving the races a racist mindset would be good and should be treated as a foundation of wow is beyond me.
    For the gameplay it is just a huge pain in the a* and led to several serious problems:
    Faction imbalance is probably the biggest of them all. Players will tend to choose the faction with more mainstream races and the better racials

    Faction and Class imbalance.
    The faction system of wow doesn't work. It is as simple as that.
    It never really worked and it certainly doesn't work since Blizzard activly started to neglect the faction with the smaller population.
    The answer why the faction system is extremly toxic, just like the racial segregation is obvious, yet Blizzard is ignoring this problem and is even making it activily worse.

    The solution is so easy... just look at FF14, more factions, yet no faction imbalance.
    Why?
    Simple. No racial segregation + cross faction pve & pvp.

    It's beyond me why Blizzard is so toxic to their players.
    Mmos are supposed to be a social game, yet wow is as anti soical as it can get.

    Grindful systems, lack and imbalanced customisation options and ignored old world graphics.

    Finally the lore... I'm really sorry, but the lore is garbage.
    It was going in a good direction with the first 2 patches of Legion but got worse with the end of Legion and was a complete dumpster fire ever since battle for Azeroth started.

    Players, who are still playing this game... take your blinders off, seriously.
    There are other mmos. Play them, like really playing them, not skipping everything and pretend you tried them. Only if you really played something else you might finally understand how bad wow really is.    … Expand
  35. ZakkirX
    Nov 28, 2021
    0
    What an unbelievable bad story this game has. Like seriously, who came up with that cringe wirting?
    Man, what I would give to return to Legion...
    I agree with most of what others here wrote before me. This game became such a joke.
  36. DerryS
    Nov 28, 2021
    1
    At face value on the surface Shadowlands appears to look amazing -- great cutscenes in the beginning and as always the music is outstanding as are the artwork. However, once engaged I found most gameplay to be boring and a tedious chore. The most fun I continue to have in Warcraft comes from doing legacy content. The story itself seems laughingly unbelievable and character decisions leftAt face value on the surface Shadowlands appears to look amazing -- great cutscenes in the beginning and as always the music is outstanding as are the artwork. However, once engaged I found most gameplay to be boring and a tedious chore. The most fun I continue to have in Warcraft comes from doing legacy content. The story itself seems laughingly unbelievable and character decisions left me wondering if they decided to let A.I. create the story. I don't like to diss other writers but this is bad. However, I did find some characters enjoyable, mostly secondary characters players will pick up a quest from or see while doing grinding dailies. I don't think this terrible expansion is enough to kill the game but Blizzard definitely needs a major win next time.… Expand
  37. Drewfuller
    Nov 24, 2021
    0
    Blizzs super premium content is only super premium cheap. If you are playing this game for story - so sorry... there is nothing like story. Game is restrictive and boring. After last patch are some quest broken and blizz doesnt even care. No in-game support. No integrity. No salvation after BFA. Only big gaps between content, empty words and leaving angry players. Especially Korthia wasBlizzs super premium content is only super premium cheap. If you are playing this game for story - so sorry... there is nothing like story. Game is restrictive and boring. After last patch are some quest broken and blizz doesnt even care. No in-game support. No integrity. No salvation after BFA. Only big gaps between content, empty words and leaving angry players. Especially Korthia was only big disappointment. This patch is only cash laundry because shadowlands are so overpriced for nothing. Big promise was not fullfilled. Shame on you Blizz!… Expand
  38. Grigax
    Nov 23, 2021
    0
    The developers of Blizzard are a bunch of hypocrites.
    Slapping themselves on the shoulder for doing things like replacing an ingame painting of a woman to a bowl of fruits, removing emotes and calling themselves progressive, while at the same time letting racism untouched and treating racial segregation and a hive mind mentality of the playable races as the very foundation of wow.
    /spit    The developers of Blizzard are a bunch of hypocrites.
    Slapping themselves on the shoulder for doing things like replacing an ingame painting of a woman to a bowl of fruits, removing emotes and calling themselves progressive, while at the same time letting racism untouched and treating racial segregation and a hive mind mentality of the playable races as the very foundation of wow.
    /spit on these double standards    … Expand
  39. Tamsom
    Nov 22, 2021
    1
    Shadowlands is a mess... so pretty much the same like bfa.
    The lore is a mess, the systems are a mess, the gameplay is a mess.
    My reason for finally quitting? The faction imbalance. Yes, it has been there for many years and yes, the devs apparently had a lot of fun making the whole situation in bfa so much worse (overweight and rediculous big humans vs Zandalari, gnomes with amputated    Shadowlands is a mess... so pretty much the same like bfa.
    The lore is a mess, the systems are a mess, the gameplay is a mess.
    My reason for finally quitting?
    The faction imbalance. Yes, it has been there for many years and yes, the devs apparently had a lot of fun making the whole situation in bfa so much worse (overweight and rediculous big humans vs Zandalari, gnomes with amputated arms & legs vs cute foxes for example), but some players wake up sooner than others and my time has finally come now too.
    I'm so done with the devs constantly abusing the faction system... no thanks.

    There are other mmos like Final Fantasy 14, that have a healthy faction system, no racial segregation, actual housing and customisation options, good lore and so much more then this pile of garbage called world of warcraft.    … Expand
  40. Dorik
    Nov 20, 2021
    2
    Just reset the game to Legion already. Seriously.
    The story in bfa and shadowlands -> cringe show
    Faction imbalance -> still ignored. Since bfa it's probably beyond repair. No wonder after all the stuff that was done there, yet still no cross faction play Racism -> still here, strict racial segregation between the playable races. Borrowed power systems -> big oof Content droughts ->    Just reset the game to Legion already. Seriously.
    The story in bfa and shadowlands -> cringe show
    Faction imbalance -> still ignored. Since bfa it's probably beyond repair. No wonder after all the stuff that was done there, yet still no cross faction play
    Racism -> still here, strict racial segregation between the playable races.
    Borrowed power systems -> big oof
    Content droughts -> Blizzard: Who cares. Buy our store items!
    Customization options -> Some races got a little bit, others almost nothing. Still no sliders... in 2021.
    Old world -> still being ignored. Blizzard: Who cares that our world looks like something from the early 2000s?

    Just don't waste your time and money! with this game.    … Expand
  41. TEORISTUL
    Nov 20, 2021
    6
    It's just sad to see what this game has become.Shadowlands is an improvement,but not by much.
  42. saize63
    Nov 19, 2021
    0
    BFA was not good but now i can tell it was acceptable. I dont even find words to describe how this game is the biggest deception i had with wow...i guess its worst than cataclysm !
    I hope the next one will be better...but i'm not sure with all the news about Activision.Blizzard. Wait and see !
  43. Enkl1
    Nov 19, 2021
    1
    This game has a lot of problems... so many, many problems...
    But considering recent events, that came out about Activision Blizzard, as well as changes in 9.1.5. like... "fruit bowls" (hrumph)... I truly believe the biggest issue with wow is the fact, that there is still racism in this game. Racism, that is represented as a pillar of wow. Simply disgusting.
    The races are still divided    This game has a lot of problems... so many, many problems...
    But considering recent events, that came out about Activision Blizzard, as well as changes in 9.1.5. like... "fruit bowls" (hrumph)... I truly believe the biggest issue with wow is the fact, that there is still racism in this game. Racism, that is represented as a pillar of wow. Simply disgusting.

    The races are still divided between the (imbalanced) factions.
    You know, just like in rl, where people will always only stick to those, who look like them. Because we all have a hivemind. So of course the races in the game should have a hivemind too.

    It's really, really disgusting, that Blizzard is representing racial segregation as essential to the game.
    And the sad thing is, that some players swallow this toxic mindset.    … Expand
  44. Ossro
    Nov 17, 2021
    0
    0/10
    Why? Because this game is almost at a point, where it is unplayable.
    Faction imbalance: Response of the devs? "Let's make the situation even worse and let's make even more players swap to the overpopulated faction, because of mainstream races we give that faction, more classes, more customization options, more zones, lore and cities, more focus in the story, cinematics revolving    0/10
    Why? Because this game is almost at a point, where it is unplayable.
    Faction imbalance:
    Response of the devs?
    "Let's make the situation even worse and let's make even more players swap to the overpopulated faction, because of mainstream races we give that faction, more classes, more customization options, more zones, lore and cities, more focus in the story, cinematics revolving around the overpopulated faction and so on.
    FOMO
    "Oh, you wasn't playing the game at a certain time? Haha, that's you're problem, if you don't play our game each and every month and give us that sweet sub money. We won't give you the skins, mounts, sets etc.!"
    Borrowed power systems, choregast, class imbalance
    Do I really need to explain this mess?
    Lore
    Probably written by a bunch of drunk guys. What was once halfway decent during the first two patches of Legion became a complete dumbster fire.
    Racism
    Yeah, as if anyone would be so naive to believe your hypocrisy Blizzard. Removing emotes IS NOT the way to handle with all the toxic stuff in your game. Racial segregation of your playable races is the most toxic aspect of your game and there was not a single word, that you would remove racism in your game.

    No thanks. In the current state nobody in their right mind would pay for this game.    … Expand
  45. jarvitom
    Nov 15, 2021
    7
    I returned to Wow for this expansion and it was pretty nice to come back, the new zones are nice, however I only played for like 2-3 months with it.
  46. Henrylo
    Nov 15, 2021
    1
    Oof, I thought it couldn't get worse after bfa... I was wrong. With Shadowlands wow continues to be a painfully bad game.

    The story continues to be so bad... I just don't know what to say about it anymore to be honest. They ruined the factions, Azshara, N'Zoth and the night elves in bfa and now they ruined not only Elune, but also the lore of the titans and in general 17 years old    Oof, I thought it couldn't get worse after bfa... I was wrong. With Shadowlands wow continues to be a painfully bad game.

    The story continues to be so bad... I just don't know what to say about it anymore to be honest. They ruined the factions, Azshara, N'Zoth and the night elves in bfa and now they ruined not only Elune, but also the lore of the titans and in general 17 years old lore... it's just... really really sad.
    I think a big factor for all of this is the writer's never ending focus on Sylvanas. I really wish she would have died back then in wrath, so that all of this idotic writing we have since bfa would have never happened.

    Then there are the usual things like FOMO (mage tower for example... what a slap in the face),
    faction and class imbalance, especially faction imbalance, which the devs continue to make worse and worse with their decisions and still no cross faction play in sight,
    then the hypocrisy as mentioned by others already: They remove emotes, because they claim those would be toxic, yet holding on to racism with the racial segregation of the playable races instead of letting players choose their faction freely and not based on races... jeez,
    the content droughts... oh, the long content droughts,
    laughable customization options, not only too few in general but also extremly unfairly spread among the races.

    There is so much more, but in all honesty, I'm just exhausted by even talking about this game at this point. The devs aren't listening anyway. Instead they want to preach the players what they want, a la:
    "You think you do, but you don't", now shut up, give us your money and enjoy dozens of new repetitive borrowed power systems.    … Expand
  47. Flayton
    Nov 14, 2021
    0
    I never thought I'd say that, but I hope this game will finally die out.
    They are swear three major patches to Shadowands, but after so many months of waiting for patch 9.2, they rolled out some **** And they said that this is the final
    “-Eh, look what a new location. And this is definitely not Cortia 3.0. Yes, there is Zavaal, but there is grass. So this is not Cortia 3.0. And here    I never thought I'd say that, but I hope this game will finally die out.
    They are swear three major patches to Shadowands, but after so many months of waiting for patch 9.2, they rolled out some **** And they said that this is the final

    “-Eh, look what a new location. And this is definitely not Cortia 3.0. Yes, there is Zavaal, but there is grass. So this is not Cortia 3.0. And here brokers are called differently. Well, are you sho? "

    "-We're bringing class armor back to 9.2 here, but they all look the same. But you only care about power right?"

    "-And you know what else? We announced a new raid. And you will not believe, but in the raid against Zavaalaa, you will fight against Zavaal's minions. Great, did we come up with it? Well, that's cool?"

    It's just a ridiculous shame.    … Expand
  48. Evsiukov
    Nov 12, 2021
    3
    Что мы имеем? Опоздание с выходом самого дополнения. Значительные недоделы после запоздавшего выхода. Долгие контентные дополнения. Невнятный сюжет. Враньё разработчиков. Зато старые картинки перерисовывают.
  49. FSDnu
    Nov 11, 2021
    0
    Blizzard doesn't seem to understand how factions work. No, it doesn't matter how you look, what race you are. What matters are the things you stand for, the things you feel connected to, values etc. Those are the things that make you choose a faction.
    Forcing players to pick a faction based on the races they want to play... especially in this day and age... you gotta wonder what's going    Blizzard doesn't seem to understand how factions work. No, it doesn't matter how you look, what race you are. What matters are the things you stand for, the things you feel connected to, values etc. Those are the things that make you choose a faction.
    Forcing players to pick a faction based on the races they want to play... especially in this day and age... you gotta wonder what's going on in the heads of the devs, who believe in this stuff.
    Do they really think by doing stuff like replacing an ingame painting of a woman with a bowl of fruit suddenly will make them look open minded, while at the same time the very first thing you see as a player is racial segregation?

    I'm tired by the double standards this company has. Not "only" in this case, but in many others too.    … Expand
  50. Lokaar
    Nov 10, 2021
    2
    Blizzard: Hey guys, look at us! We are removing emotes, because they are so toxic and not exclusive at all!

    Also Blizzard: Don't you dare question our racial segregation. We have you know that racism is the pillar of wow and playable races will keep their hive mind, instead of free will and free choice to what faction they want to be loyal to! If you look up hypocrisy in a dictionary    Blizzard: Hey guys, look at us! We are removing emotes, because they are so toxic and not exclusive at all!

    Also Blizzard: Don't you dare question our racial segregation. We have you know that racism is the pillar of wow and playable races will keep their hive mind, instead of free will and free choice to what faction they want to be loyal to!

    If you look up hypocrisy in a dictionary you will probably find Blizzard right beside it.

    Racism is just one of many problems wow faces. With Blizzard's changes in 9.1.5. this specific problem just is more apparent.

    Borrowed power systems, lore, still no cross faction raiding, FOMO and a lot of other things in this game need major changes too.

    I can't recommend wow as long as they ignore these obvious problems.    … Expand
  51. Awara
    Nov 9, 2021
    1
    Shadowlands, just like bfa, has bad lore (Sylvanas = yikes!), bad systems, imbalance problems and instead of removing the idiotic division of playable races (which clearly is based on a racist mindset = racial segregation) they rather remove emotes Imao.
    Such a clown party. Don't play wow as long as it continues to be on this terrible path.
  52. Rsllo
    Nov 8, 2021
    1
    Shame on Blizzard and their shady methods to keep players subscribed. Unfortunately there are still many players left, who fall for things like FOMO, probably out of nostalgia of better times.

    For those people, if you are reading this, get out of this toxic relationship. wow isn't the only mmo out there. There is a very prominent mmo, that is in many ways a lot better than wow in it's    Shame on Blizzard and their shady methods to keep players subscribed. Unfortunately there are still many players left, who fall for things like FOMO, probably out of nostalgia of better times.

    For those people, if you are reading this, get out of this toxic relationship. wow isn't the only mmo out there. There is a very prominent mmo, that is in many ways a lot better than wow in it's current state (bfa & sl).

    This comment however is not about other mmos, so here are the worst things about modern wow:
    FOMO (like the mage tower),
    racial segregation of playable races = no free faction choice,
    grindful meaningless systems,
    choregast,
    the lore... can't get any worse than it is now with Sylvanas and her Mary Sue arc,
    content droughts,
    no account wide reputation,
    faction imbalance,
    no cross faction raiding,
    class imbalance,
    extremely outdated world design, npcs, cutomization options and player models in general,
    still no player housing,
    no dyeable gear,
    removal of emotes and several other things nobody asked for but hilariously letting racism with their races stay in the game.    … Expand
  53. ERsae
    Nov 7, 2021
    0
    I enjoyed this game during Legion, even though Legion had it's flaws it was still good enough to keep me entertained. Ever since battle for azeroth however... oh boy... And it continues to be a painfully bad game in Shadowlands with a lot of questionable stuff.
    Some of them are a problem since the very beginning however and not just since bfa, like racism through the racial segregation of    I enjoyed this game during Legion, even though Legion had it's flaws it was still good enough to keep me entertained. Ever since battle for azeroth however... oh boy... And it continues to be a painfully bad game in Shadowlands with a lot of questionable stuff.
    Some of them are a problem since the very beginning however and not just since bfa, like racism through the racial segregation of the playable races, FOMO, no cross faction gameplay, unbalanced factions and classes, limited customization options and the outdated graphics.

    With bfa and now with Shadowlands there is also the absurdly bad lore, very grindful and unfulfilling borrowed power systems and content droughts, which are way too long if you consider that Blizzard is charging their players with monthly sub costs, expansion costs & micro transactions.

    I give Shadowlands a 0 out of 10, because there is nothing left I like about this game.
    It's too unbalanced, it has too many compromises forced on to the players like faction choice based purely on racism yet acting as if ingame emotes would be the problem of their game lol, FOMO, content droughts, all the systems, the arrogant behavior of the devs and of course the bad writing of the story.    … Expand
  54. R0cketfuel
    Nov 4, 2021
    0
    Don't play it:
    - questing is so boring and bad, pick ten this, killl 12 this, over and over again, it is copy and paste,
    - lore of w3 is destroyed and new story it is ridiculous to point that even most hardcore fans don't know what the hell is going on, -class, faction and specs are so imbalanced that it is insane, -you pay for expansion for the sub and there is still microtransactions    Don't play it:
    - questing is so boring and bad, pick ten this, killl 12 this, over and over again, it is copy and paste,
    - lore of w3 is destroyed and new story it is ridiculous to point that even most hardcore fans don't know what the hell is going on,
    -class, faction and specs are so imbalanced that it is insane,
    -you pay for expansion for the sub and there is still microtransactions + wow token,
    -this game is pay to win, you can buy wow token sell it for gold and use that gold to get items from auction house or to buy boosts for any content,
    -pve is good but it is hard to find group if you dont have hardcore guild that stays active even when game is so bad ,
    -pvp is totaly broken by systems and imbalance, and with boosters this is clown fiesta,
    -everything is time gated to extend your sub with no content.    … Expand
  55. Xral
    Nov 3, 2021
    1
    World Of Warcraft is all about restrictions, barriers, time gating, forcing players to make one compromise after the other and FOMO.
    The biggest slap in the face for me personally however is the fact, that after over 17 years, they are still keeping racial segregation and don't allow us to play our favorite races in our favorite faction. It's so hypocritical, all the the changes they    World Of Warcraft is all about restrictions, barriers, time gating, forcing players to make one compromise after the other and FOMO.
    The biggest slap in the face for me personally however is the fact, that after over 17 years, they are still keeping racial segregation and don't allow us to play our favorite races in our favorite faction. It's so hypocritical, all the the changes they recently made to look like they would care for equality and to act like they would be open minded, yet holding on to racism of all things in their game.    … Expand
  56. Gizmo231
    Nov 2, 2021
    0
    I guess only the whales are left playing this game, suffering from a big postion of nostalgia for a time, where this game was still ok and thus ignoring everything that is wrong with wow and Blizzard.

    Because ever since the last patch of Legion this game got worse and worse. FOMO, boost sells everywthere, content droughts despite the monthly subscription and expansion costs,    I guess only the whales are left playing this game, suffering from a big postion of nostalgia for a time, where this game was still ok and thus ignoring everything that is wrong with wow and Blizzard.

    Because ever since the last patch of Legion this game got worse and worse.

    FOMO, boost sells everywthere, content droughts despite the monthly subscription and expansion costs, constantly selling new stuff in the store instead of improving the game, glorified racism with the division of playable races, cringe lore, outdated graphics, trashy borrowed power systems, faction and class imbalance & questionable behavior of the devs.

    It's really not a game anyone should play at the moment, but I guess the whales simply can't stop taking copium.    … Expand
  57. Tesarian
    Nov 2, 2021
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. WoW fell under the onslaught of an army of tolerant schizophrenics ... R.I.P is my favorite game...… Expand
  58. turitz
    Oct 27, 2021
    0
    Stop forcing me to play PvP, It's really frustrating or at least balance the Teams better so it's a little more fun for Low Level Players
  59. Isu
    Oct 27, 2021
    0
    Disgusting game design.

    FOMO, racial segregation of playable races, class imbalance, crappy borrowed power systems, awful story, outdated graphics, extremely limited character customization options, gigantic content droughts, faction imbalance, no player housing, outdated looking gear, no quality of life things like dyeable gear etc.
  60. Tesmes
    Oct 26, 2021
    0
    World Of Warcraft is an incredible toxic game and you gotta wonder what kind of players are still left playing it after everything Blizzard put their players through.
    There is so much FOMO... it isn't even funny anymore. It's a pathetic attempt to keep naive players stuck in a subscription. Newest example would be the original skins for the mage tower they took away, but there is a lot    World Of Warcraft is an incredible toxic game and you gotta wonder what kind of players are still left playing it after everything Blizzard put their players through.
    There is so much FOMO... it isn't even funny anymore. It's a pathetic attempt to keep naive players stuck in a subscription. Newest example would be the original skins for the mage tower they took away, but there is a lot FOMO in general in this game.
    Blizzard also present racism as one of their game's pillar. You seriously can't make this stuff up. Playable races are strictly divided between the two factions, yet Blizzard hypocritically act as if they would be oh so welcoming and tolerant to all by removing emotes and stuff like an ingame painting of a woman.
    They are clearly unable to treat their playable factions even remotly fairly, obviously resulting in a big faction imbalance, yet don't allow their players to play together (cross faction).
    They introduce one borrowed power system after the other in order to make this "game" like a second job, so that players have never ending grinds before them.
    They are incredibly lazy with their world design and character customization options, giving some races some new stuff, if they feel like it and at the same time ignoring other races completely. Meanwhile the world looks like a patchwork rug with lots of outdated zones, that really show their age = ugly af.
    The story... no words. It's so bad... just wow. As if they wrote bfa and shadowlands while they were drunk.    … Expand
  61. Obbus
    Oct 23, 2021
    1
    Shadowlands is as bad as battle for Azeroth and warlords of Draenor. So do yourself a favor and don't waste your time with this game until some major changes will happen.
    And there really need to be major changes.
    Racism need to go. All playable races must finally get free choice to which faction they want to go. There should be no room for racial segregation in wow, especially since    Shadowlands is as bad as battle for Azeroth and warlords of Draenor. So do yourself a favor and don't waste your time with this game until some major changes will happen.
    And there really need to be major changes.

    Racism need to go. All playable races must finally get free choice to which faction they want to go. There should be no room for racial segregation in wow, especially since Blizzard is so desperately trying to cover up all the sh* they did behind the curtain. Removing meaningless emotes will do nothing but anger players, because it is certainly unnecessary.

    They must hire better writers, because the lore is beyond ridiculous and bad.

    They definitely need to make old content like artefact weapons relevant again instead of treating old content like garbage, that won't be important after a year or two. If people like those weapons, then they should get the ability to keep that systen instead of forcing them to use newer borrowed power systems.

    They need to remove FOMO. It's as toxic as the promoted racism in this game and it shows in the mentality of quite a few players. Sadly.

    They finally need to update the world with newer graphics and they need to bring character customization option to a newer standard. It's rather sad to see how limited players are.

    They need to introduce cross faction raiding. They did so much harm to one of their 2 factions over the last couple of years, that I don't see any other way to get this game to a healthy state again.

    They need to make quite some big changes, but until then this game should really be avoided. It is not in good state at all.    … Expand
  62. valprozwan123
    Oct 22, 2021
    0
    Mcree and Afrasiabi spits on you. Idiotic plot and trying to remove good features from this game makes it very bad. Fire feminists, who rule you.
  63. Timui8
    Oct 22, 2021
    0
    In short:
    Bad story.
    Bad faction design - faction imbalance keeps being unchecked, no cross faction pve & pvp. Racism - racial segregation - races are divided in two factions, making it impossible to have all favorite races in the faction a player prefers, resulting in frustrating compromises. FOMO - Mage tower for example. What a joke. Too many meaningless grinds and systems Class    In short:
    Bad story.
    Bad faction design - faction imbalance keeps being unchecked, no cross faction pve & pvp.
    Racism - racial segregation - races are divided in two factions, making it impossible to have all favorite races in the faction a player prefers, resulting in frustrating compromises.
    FOMO - Mage tower for example. What a joke.
    Too many meaningless grinds and systems
    Class imbalance
    Too many bots & boost sells
    Content droughts
    Arrogance of the Devs + hypocrisy
    No fun stuff like player housing
    Lazy and too few character customization options.
    Lazy world design (most of the world looks like it is stuck in the early 2000s.    … Expand
  64. OIHNsnI
    Oct 22, 2021
    0
    I wish it will turn out that battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands turn out to be a fever dream of an old god' vision, because... well... these expansions are so bad, that I don't even know where to start with the criticism.
    Both in lore and in gameplay.
    And they need to do something about faction imbalance. Fast. They're ignoring this game breaking problem for years now, activly making the    I wish it will turn out that battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands turn out to be a fever dream of an old god' vision, because... well... these expansions are so bad, that I don't even know where to start with the criticism.
    Both in lore and in gameplay.
    And they need to do something about faction imbalance. Fast. They're ignoring this game breaking problem for years now, activly making the situation worse with cinematics, allied races (fat humans, diaper gnomes, "void elves" wtf? lol), dungeons attached to them, racials, cinematics (constantly focusing on the overpopulated faction, only destroying zones of the faction in need and making them in never ending warzones, because the devs don't want to show the victor ingame? lol 2.0, only giving the overpopulated faction huge cities like Surarmar for example and extremly main stream new! races like vulpera, through gameplay decisions and so on. It's just sad at this point.

    Regarding playable races however, I'm of the same opinion as many others, racism should not be a part of wow, regardless of the idotic faction war. Racial segregation should be removed as soon as possible- Every race should get to choose instead of promoting a hive mind mentality to the players.

    In general there is just nothing I like about this expansion. So I'm really sorry, but it's 0 out of 10 points from me. I'm still hoping though, that wow can be saved someday.    … Expand
  65. Swirro
    Oct 21, 2021
    0
    Terrible expansion.

    Dreadful lore, just like in bfa: Faction story = completely destroyed. Everything they worked for in Legion is thrown in to the garbage in bfa with a brainless war, then again in Shadowlands suddenly all are friends, but there are no consequences? No reinstatement? Forgive and forget yet again? Legion was the perfect time to destroy the repeat button Blizzard is    Terrible expansion.

    Dreadful lore, just like in bfa: Faction story = completely destroyed. Everything they worked for in Legion is thrown in to the garbage in bfa with a brainless war, then again in Shadowlands suddenly all are friends, but there are no consequences? No reinstatement? Forgive and forget yet again? Legion was the perfect time to destroy the repeat button Blizzard is pressing for over 17 years now and end this nonsense.
    But no, they keep on recyling the same old trash story and on top of that destory important lore characters like Azshara, N'Zoth and Elune on the way. Because apparently everything in wow has to be trash, so that Blizzard's favorite cash cow Sylvanas can shine.

    Not to mention the faction imbalance the devs costs by lots of questionable decisions. A lot of them happened in bfa, making the faction imbalance even worse then it was before. Yet Blizzard let's the underdog faction suffer without doing anything about it, no, instead they make it worse and worse.

    And oh the hypocritical actions they made with 9.1.5. recently. Like removing emotes and turning a painting of a woman to a bowl of fruits. Yes, that surly will make you look better. Oh wait, racism will stay? Races still can't freely decide to which faction they want to belong? Riiiiiight...

    Then there is FOMO (mage tower), way too long content drought for the costs of this game, no player housing, age old graphics in most zones, not enough customization options and some races have almost nothing at all. Some races look straight up weird and ugly with the faces and bodies, like male night elves, male humans and worgen for example.

    Just overall an unbalanced and outdated game, expressing questionable game design with racial segregation, while preaching the company would be inclusive, also wow is using shady methods like FOMO in order to trick players, so they feel the need to keep being subscribed for each and every month despite the fact, that there are gigantic content droughts.    … Expand
  66. msales79
    Oct 20, 2021
    3
    I’ve always enjoyed WoW for the world, exploring the landscape and experiencing the individual stories. This expansion doesn’t feel like WoW or even much like a true MMO. It feels like a bunch of shallow scenarios tagged together rather than an interconnected world. Boring story, boring locations, events I don't care about no longer feels like a medieval fantasy world.
    It makes Warlords    I’ve always enjoyed WoW for the world, exploring the landscape and experiencing the individual stories. This expansion doesn’t feel like WoW or even much like a true MMO. It feels like a bunch of shallow scenarios tagged together rather than an interconnected world. Boring story, boring locations, events I don't care about no longer feels like a medieval fantasy world.
    It makes Warlords of Draenor look good.    … Expand
  67. Tsiikas
    Oct 18, 2021
    1
    The story is so terrible... Jeez... Both bfa and Shadowlands have such a bad story, that I can't take this game serious anymore, let alone play it on a regular basis.
    I know world of warcraft has a lot of problems like so many criticized before me, like the ongoing neglection of one of the 2 playable factions (resulting in big faction imbalance), racism (racial segregation of playable    The story is so terrible... Jeez... Both bfa and Shadowlands have such a bad story, that I can't take this game serious anymore, let alone play it on a regular basis.
    I know world of warcraft has a lot of problems like so many criticized before me, like the ongoing neglection of one of the 2 playable factions (resulting in big faction imbalance), racism (racial segregation of playable races between the factions), FOMO, frustrating systems, content droughts and in general the arrogance and hypocrisy of the devs, but in my personal opinion the worst problem are the writers for battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands.
    The lore is not just bad, it ruins years of build ups for characters, factions and the world in general... if they continue this kind of story telling I don't see me ever coming back to this game.    … Expand
  68. Merenthia
    Oct 16, 2021
    3
    It seems that Blizzard really is dead. Decided I wanted to play some WoW after a few years (legion) and bought this expansion. I Regret it fully. The story is such a waste, does nothing interesting with the underworld theme and instead forces me to endure a seemingly neverending cringe fest on Bastion and that **** of Ardenweald where I gave up on this expansion. The remaining devsIt seems that Blizzard really is dead. Decided I wanted to play some WoW after a few years (legion) and bought this expansion. I Regret it fully. The story is such a waste, does nothing interesting with the underworld theme and instead forces me to endure a seemingly neverending cringe fest on Bastion and that **** of Ardenweald where I gave up on this expansion. The remaining devs overcompensated the rapes with making nearly every position in power and quest giver a female for no clear reason. The story is allright at the Maw but takes a nose dive soon thereafter. The only upside is that the graphics improved and the level 60 allows me to solo the good content ending with Legion. Another victem of wokeness and the inherrent void of humor and soul that used to be in this game. Another -1 for removing ingame jokes as another BS overcompensation to please the insane rabid twitter mob. I wont be back after my month of nostalgic dungeonruns.… Expand
  69. Awwalo
    Oct 15, 2021
    1
    Horrible game design. Frustrating faction imbalance, which the developers of this game made worse and worse over the years (especially during bfa) to a point that you would come to the conclusion the devs are either incapable to treat factions in a fair way or they are intentionally trolling.
    As others already pointed out there is also the issue with the devs praising racism with their    Horrible game design. Frustrating faction imbalance, which the developers of this game made worse and worse over the years (especially during bfa) to a point that you would come to the conclusion the devs are either incapable to treat factions in a fair way or they are intentionally trolling.
    As others already pointed out there is also the issue with the devs praising racism with their game design, through the division of playable races.
    I had to laugh when I heard what changes they are currently making to the game (like removing several emotes, because apparently those are considered as offensive now), things almost no player uses anyway, but racial segregation is here to stay?
    The double standards of this company are really laughable.
    I had a little bit of hope when they announced the return of the mage tower and I thought to myself, well, at least they finally get rid of FOMO. Guess what, they stick to FOMO and don't give you the original rewards. xD
    I mean, it's sad, but also funny at the same time. I'm sitting here, waiting for something to return, but with almost everything I hear about this game and the company they drive me further away.
    Also a big issue is the lore in bfa and now in shadowlands... I think they should really just retcon it, like many players suggested.
    And don't get me started on the outdated graphics in many, many zones and the limited customization options...    … Expand
  70. Arrikonaitty
    Oct 14, 2021
    0
    0/10 ... disappointed and will never return to this dying world ... I thought Battle for **** and Warlords of **** was bad, but then came **** If you are interested in a good story and nice gameplay, then don't play ****
  71. Ploto38
    Oct 13, 2021
    1
    Shadowlands is a garbage expansion. Don't waste your time with it.
    The story continues to be on an incredibly cringe level. Seriously, who there at Blizzard thought this would be a good direction? Same level of cringe writing like in battle for Azeroth.
    Faction imbalance... yeah, Blizzard continues to ignore it completly and to cater to the overpopulated faction. Racism... apparently    Shadowlands is a garbage expansion. Don't waste your time with it.
    The story continues to be on an incredibly cringe level. Seriously, who there at Blizzard thought this would be a good direction? Same level of cringe writing like in battle for Azeroth.
    Faction imbalance... yeah, Blizzard continues to ignore it completly and to cater to the overpopulated faction.
    Racism... apparently Blizzard continues to see it as a the foundation of their game. Racial segregation of the playable races stays and every race has the same mindset like those in the USA, who thought it would be neat to separate black and white people back then.
    FOMO... has been critized enough. Just a terrible thing Blizzard does.
    Lazy and unbalanced character customization options between the races and the ignored old world design... just oof.
    Content droughts, very, very long content droughts and yet they squeeze money out of the players for every single month.    … Expand
  72. Uguay
    Oct 10, 2021
    0
    World of warcraft will constantly remind you that "you gotta stick around for the next patch, don't miss a day you'll fall behind, get these rewards that will be gone in a few months, "and so on, that idea that "nothing you're doing now will matter when the next patch comes out," that deep FOMO (mage tower for example)... and than you see other games like Final Fantasy 14... to go fromWorld of warcraft will constantly remind you that "you gotta stick around for the next patch, don't miss a day you'll fall behind, get these rewards that will be gone in a few months, "and so on, that idea that "nothing you're doing now will matter when the next patch comes out," that deep FOMO (mage tower for example)... and than you see other games like Final Fantasy 14... to go from that to this pure crafting of timeless moments, with no racism in it... it's night and day. It's a worldview changing shift, and it's so refreshing.
    World of warcraft is deeply toxic and I can't give this game a single point, because the very core of wow is rotten as it can get.
    FOMO
    Racism (Division of playable races/racial segregation)
    Grindful systems, that become useless with every new expansion
    Very poorly written lore (since the end of Legion)
    Very questionable behavior of the Devs (favoring one side and ignoring or straight up trolling the other side of players)
    No healthy social aspect = Big faction imbalance (no cross faction play whatsoever)    … Expand
  73. Fliko2321
    Oct 9, 2021
    2
    Bfa was terrible, yet somehow Blizzard managed it to make this game with Shadowlands even worse.

    The biggest problems are: 1. Factions and all the barriers and restrictions for the players. What an archaic system. We can't have every race playable in the faction we want to play. -Racism says hello. We can't play with friends, if they want to be in a different faction. -Ever heard    Bfa was terrible, yet somehow Blizzard managed it to make this game with Shadowlands even worse.

    The biggest problems are:

    1. Factions and all the barriers and restrictions for the players.
    What an archaic system. We can't have every race playable in the faction we want to play.
    -Racism says hello.
    We can't play with friends, if they want to be in a different faction.
    -Ever heard of cross faction play like in ff14?
    We can't mail alts in the other faction items and gold.
    -Bye bye twinks on the other faction.

    2. Extremly bad lore.
    - Ever since they put all their attention on Sylvanas the lore went downhill. Fast. Only solution to this mess is to reset everything to Legion, where we still had a decent enough story.

    3. Endless grinds with all the systems.

    4. Extremly limited and outdated graphics.
    - both for playable races and for mobs & the enviroment.

    5. The game is in general not on a modern standard.
    - no player housing for example.

    6. Biased and arrogant devs.
    - They only care for a small part, while ignoring the rest of feedback.

    7. FOMO
    - newest example the mage tower without it's original rewards.

    8. Hypocrisy
    - turning a painting of a woman into a bowl of fruits, but openly showing, that you support racial segregation with your playable races? Ok, Blizzard. ^^    … Expand
  74. donanja
    Oct 9, 2021
    3
    As someone who has played the game since 2006 and stuck through some very lackluster expansions such as Warlords of Draenor, World of Warcraft: Shadowlands falls somewhere below average for me. The expansion had a strong launch and I enjoyed the first few months, as is the case with any expansion launch, but the many problems with Shadowlands quickly became apparent.

    For me, one of the    As someone who has played the game since 2006 and stuck through some very lackluster expansions such as Warlords of Draenor, World of Warcraft: Shadowlands falls somewhere below average for me. The expansion had a strong launch and I enjoyed the first few months, as is the case with any expansion launch, but the many problems with Shadowlands quickly became apparent.

    For me, one of the biggest issues with Shadowlands is the writing. The quality of Blizzard's lore and story-telling has been on a steady decline ever since the end of Legion, and it would appear that without the looming presence of the Burning Legion and Sargeras, Blizzard is struggling to come up with interesting new villains. The Jailer, or Zovaal, is about as interesting as a character as a cardboard box—and don't even get me started on Sylvanas, because I could not possibly summarize what a fantastic job Blizzard has done butchering her character into such an abysmal state that there is simply no coming back from, no matter how intent Blizzard is on writing a redemption story for her.

    But where the expansion truly falls short is in its systems. Once again, the development team has wiped the slate clean and given us a new set of end-game progression systems to work out and hamster wheels to run on. Except, just like in every expansion prior, they disregarded every bit of player feedback from Shadowland's Alpha and Beta testing and stubbornly released their "ground-breaking" new system of Covenants in a terrible state that, they knew, no one would be happy with.

    It's only now, almost a year after the expansion's release, that they're finally starting to push out some of the quality-of-life changes they've knowingly withheld from us. And even then, it seems like they're more concerned with covering up cleavages, removing tongue-in-cheek innuendos, and replacing women with bowls of fruit.

    This company is a joke.    … Expand
  75. Pavlentuz
    Oct 7, 2021
    0
    Спасибо Blizzard! Игрокам ведь именно этого и не хватало! Проблемы же точно не в том, что в игре нет нового контента, а в том, что где-то персонажа зовут именем разработчика, которые прям во все поля сексуальные хищники. И о боже, эта мыльная, пиксельная каша напоминающая женщину слишком сексуальна. Спасибо что поменяли её на корзинку с фруктами. У игры ведь нет проблем, она идеальна! АСпасибо Blizzard! Игрокам ведь именно этого и не хватало! Проблемы же точно не в том, что в игре нет нового контента, а в том, что где-то персонажа зовут именем разработчика, которые прям во все поля сексуальные хищники. И о боже, эта мыльная, пиксельная каша напоминающая женщину слишком сексуальна. Спасибо что поменяли её на корзинку с фруктами. У игры ведь нет проблем, она идеальна! А раз она идеальна, то можно заниматься всякой хренью.

    Ну а если серьёзно, то нынешние Blizzard - это не Blizzard, а контора дегенератов с радужным флагом в заднице, которая лишь паразитирует на былых заслугах компании и не могут сделать абсолютно ничего нормального, а лишь всё портят.

    И мне от всего этого довольно грустно, так как раньше, я был слишком мелкий и у меня не было денег на подписку, в то время как сейчас я уже взрослый и работаю, благодаря чему они у меня есть, но теперь у меня нет абсолютно никакого желания оплачивать подписку, так как во-первых, зачем платить за игру, на которую забили болт и вместо создания контента, занимаются какой-то хернёй, ну а во-вторых, я не хочу спонсировать текущий состав Blizzard, так как они дегенераты, которые ничего не смыслят в играх и занимаются какой-то ненужной хернёй.
    А всё потому, что в компании не осталось никого из основателей и важных фигур. Теперь у нас там толпа вечно ноющих снежинок, которые только и ищут на что бы обидеться.

    P.S. Дайте Джефф Каплан Шлем Короля Лича за 20 лет работы! Он заслужил!    … Expand
  76. OMso8
    Oct 7, 2021
    0
    Terrible expansion.
    We get it, the devs are obsessed with their edgy banshee queen. So she is the one, who has to be the constant focus of the story, the one, who constantly gets model updates while other npcs keep looking ugly, the one, who gets a free pass for genocide, mind control and dozens of other atrocities, because apparently that was just her "bad side". Both factions along with    Terrible expansion.
    We get it, the devs are obsessed with their edgy banshee queen. So she is the one, who has to be the constant focus of the story, the one, who constantly gets model updates while other npcs keep looking ugly, the one, who gets a free pass for genocide, mind control and dozens of other atrocities, because apparently that was just her "bad side". Both factions along with other major lore characters, even gods, had to be made into complete idiots in order to let her look like a master mind. It can't get any more cringe than hat.
    FOMO, you like it? You get lots of it in world of warcraft. Just recently they were trolling us with the mage tower. You liked the original mage tower skins? Too bad, you won't get them.
    Worst of all their recent duplicitous act to look like they would care for equality by removing emotes. As if that would do anything good.
    How about you do something that is noticble, like, I dunno, removing racism in your game. Racial segregation directly effects every single player. Emotes? Not so much. Every playable race should have free will and free choice of which faction they want to join. Yet you portray it like it's a good thing that they have a hivemind.    … Expand
  77. Cegik
    Oct 6, 2021
    1
    Activision Blizzard is as hypocritically as it gets, if you look at the newest changes of world of warcraft.
    Having a hardly recognisable painting of a woman in underwear in the game? Gotta change that to a painting of fruits! Having emotes like fart and cough? Gotta remove that!
    Having racism through racial segregation of the playable races in the game, that also prevents players to    Activision Blizzard is as hypocritically as it gets, if you look at the newest changes of world of warcraft.
    Having a hardly recognisable painting of a woman in underwear in the game? Gotta change that to a painting of fruits! Having emotes like fart and cough? Gotta remove that!
    Having racism through racial segregation of the playable races in the game, that also prevents players to play their favorite races in their favorite faction? Yeah, well, racism is actually pretty cool and should stay as one of the pillars of world of warcraft! :D
    Yeah... right.

    Also:
    This game has such a huge amount of issues that I really can't recommend it to anyone anymore.
    Racism/racial segregation, no cross faction raiding = faction imbalance, class imbalance, awful and way to many systems, lots of grinds, ideotic story ever since the end of Legion, FOMO (no original mage tower rewards say hello), outdated graphics, laughable, lazy, unbalanced and outdated customization options:
    Ever heard of sliders?
    Oh, you don't want to look like a hairy gorilla as a human? You can also be an overweight human with ogre size, but since overweight humans are no normal humans we make it a new race! I'm not even kidding, for Blizzard overweight humans are apparently their own race.
    I mean, the list goes on. World of warcraft is such a bad game, that I'm honestly surprised that there are still people playing it. Sure, this game has potential and it would be cool, if they actually manage it to save it, but there are so many changes needed at this point... well, we'll see.    … Expand
  78. Xeril73
    Oct 5, 2021
    1
    What a joke. Blizzard is trying to appear political correct by removing emotes and voice lines for example, things almost nobody uses anyway, but leave the most obvious garbage untouched. Racism. Racial segregation is the most toxic aspect of this game, together with the rectriction to not letting gamers raid together, if they choose a different faction.
    Seriously, if you want to make    What a joke. Blizzard is trying to appear political correct by removing emotes and voice lines for example, things almost nobody uses anyway, but leave the most obvious garbage untouched. Racism. Racial segregation is the most toxic aspect of this game, together with the rectriction to not letting gamers raid together, if they choose a different faction.
    Seriously, if you want to make your game actually less toxic, Blizzard, then remove racial segregation asap. Let players choose their faction regardless of the race they want to play. Racism of any kind should not have a place in this game. Free faction choice would also allow us to finally play the game the way we want, to have fun with all races, not just half of them.
    It let's us choose a faction because of it's ideals and so on, not because of certain races. Racism is such an outdated and straight up questionable thing to have in a game. Who cares for some emotes you remove? Did anybody ever complain about the emotes in the first place? It's unnecessary to remove such minor things.
    Removing racial segregation however would be major and show that you care for the health of your game. Oh and by the way, be so kind to retcon bfa and Shadowlands, ok? Because the lore of both expansions is so bad... just wow. Really... probably the worst story I saw in a long time.    … Expand
  79. Zuihh
    Oct 3, 2021
    2
    Shadowlands is a lousy expansion. So similar to battle for Azeroth. gg Blizzard on creating two bad expansions in a row.
    Ever growing faction imbalance with the same outdated restrictions like promoting racism with racial segregation, no cross faction raiding, no cross faction battlegrounds, no cross faction alt mailing, FOMO stuff like recently telling players, they bring back the mage    Shadowlands is a lousy expansion. So similar to battle for Azeroth. gg Blizzard on creating two bad expansions in a row.
    Ever growing faction imbalance with the same outdated restrictions like promoting racism with racial segregation, no cross faction raiding, no cross faction battlegrounds, no cross faction alt mailing, FOMO stuff like recently telling players, they bring back the mage tower but without the mage tower rewards lol, atrocious lore (best thing to do is to pretend everything after Legion never happened), awful throwaway systems, lots of grinds, outdated and too few customization options, outdated graphics in a lot of zones and so on.    … Expand
  80. Ohiooo
    Oct 3, 2021
    3
    We give world of warcraft shadowlands 3/10 and that is very generous.
    My wife and I finally wanted to try out this game. We knew it for quite some time, but it's graphics look very old with a lot of clipping issues, so we never were all to interested. Then the day came and we both had 3 months to play this game.
    The first thing that almost made us quit even before we actually started    We give world of warcraft shadowlands 3/10 and that is very generous.
    My wife and I finally wanted to try out this game. We knew it for quite some time, but it's graphics look very old with a lot of clipping issues, so we never were all to interested. Then the day came and we both had 3 months to play this game.

    The first thing that almost made us quit even before we actually started was the racial segregation. Now we knew, that this is a really old game and comes from a time, where some of the developers might have thought that racism is a neat thing to put in to their game, but it makes you wonder, why they haven't removed this horrible and frustrating restriction after almost 20 years.
    So the game started with my wife wanting to play a race from the opposing faction, while I wanted to play a race from the other faction. Despite this being supposedly a mmo, it doesn't actually let you play together with familiy and friends, if they don't choose a race from a certain side. An awful first impression.
    The factions can be at war all they want, but you can't tell me that there aren't individual groups of each race, who would prefer to join the other faction. This whole system is just in every way possible a dreadful idea the developers force onto the players. The main reason my wife and I kept playing after this first bad impression was, because we bought the three months.

    So after some arguing, who of us would have to bite into the bitter apple, we started playing.
    The second thing that was really awful is the story of this game. For new players it's almost impossible to understand the lore, because everything is messy and all over the place. No linear story whatsoever.

    The third thing was, that the whole world looks like a patchwork rug. We knew the graphics and avatar models are really outdated and odd looking, but what we found out after actually playing the game was, that we seeming saw the "new" graphics in some areas, while other zones look even worse. Those zones look so bad, that you would think that you are still playing in the early 2000s.

    Overall we played maybe for 1 and a half month and let the remaining playtime run out. Just not a game worth our time. There are better alternatives to world of warcraft.    … Expand
  81. BlackTemplarKNB
    Oct 2, 2021
    1
    Nice censorship you got there. Some expansions were not great, but atleast they didn't go out of their way to make OLDER ones worse.
  82. Ezooo
    Oct 2, 2021
    1
    If you like racism in form of racial segregation with a hivemind mentality for the playable races, if you like FOMO (fear of missing out) in order to keep your money for Blizzard flowing, if you like huge faction imbalance, that not only makes the game expierence for one faction awful, but also prevents players to play with eachother, if you like dozens of grindful systems, if you likeIf you like racism in form of racial segregation with a hivemind mentality for the playable races, if you like FOMO (fear of missing out) in order to keep your money for Blizzard flowing, if you like huge faction imbalance, that not only makes the game expierence for one faction awful, but also prevents players to play with eachother, if you like dozens of grindful systems, if you like extremly outdated graphics for most of the world, if you like having almost no customization options (not even different body heights), if you like not having player housing in 2021, if you like an awful cringe story... well, as Ion (more or less) once said, this game is waiting for you.… Expand
  83. pigbenisjkee
    Sep 30, 2021
    1
    Just terrible. It could be just good except lore, but there are a lot of artificially stretched, time draining activities that directly affect on your character's stats and impact. What if I dont want WoW to be my second work, Blizzard? Why that is so hard to understand?
  84. Ayek
    Sep 29, 2021
    1
    It's funny to me that Blizzard, who are now trying to wash their name clean from all the allegations by changing ingame drawings of woman with fruits for example... but keep the most no-no you can think of in the game and call it the pillar of wow. Racism. It's the first thing you see if you logg in that game. Racial segregation is something Blizzard activly support with their game design.It's funny to me that Blizzard, who are now trying to wash their name clean from all the allegations by changing ingame drawings of woman with fruits for example... but keep the most no-no you can think of in the game and call it the pillar of wow. Racism. It's the first thing you see if you logg in that game. Racial segregation is something Blizzard activly support with their game design. Among many other red flags, this is probably the biggest of them all and enough to avoid Blizzard games, especially wow.… Expand
  85. Greggorr
    Sep 29, 2021
    1
    What an awful game. Do yourself a favor and don't waste your time with Shadowlands. It is just as bad as bfa.
    Arrogant devs, large faction and class imbalance, bad storytelling, grindful systems, racial segregation in the game, outdated graphics and on top of that a gigantic lawsuit against the company Blizzard, because of the bad work environment for employees.
  86. Zufis
    Sep 28, 2021
    0
    Unplayable. Due to the faction system wow is unplayable.
    Blizzard: "We're working on the problem." For over a decade and nothing came out of it? Or do you mean the ongoing favoring of the red side? Yeah... that didn't help.
    I can see past the cringe story of this game and even all the grinds, but when 1 out of 2 options becomes unplayable I check out. #CrossFactionRaids    Unplayable. Due to the faction system wow is unplayable.
    Blizzard: "We're working on the problem." For over a decade and nothing came out of it? Or do you mean the ongoing favoring of the red side? Yeah... that didn't help.
    I can see past the cringe story of this game and even all the grinds, but when 1 out of 2 options becomes unplayable I check out.
    #CrossFactionRaids
    #CrossFactionBGs
    #NoMoreRacism
    #AllRacesForBothFactions    … Expand
  87. Twinko
    Sep 25, 2021
    1
    While many here already pointed out the amount of problems this game has, I think the biggest issue of them all is the faction system and the lousy written lore in bfa and Shadowlands.

    The faction system is clearly biased. I too, had to change to the overpopulated faction because the small faction is getting trolled almost always by Blizzard. Wanna play Diaper Gnomes, while we give the    While many here already pointed out the amount of problems this game has, I think the biggest issue of them all is the faction system and the lousy written lore in bfa and Shadowlands.

    The faction system is clearly biased. I too, had to change to the overpopulated faction because the small faction is getting trolled almost always by Blizzard.
    Wanna play Diaper Gnomes, while we give the op faction a new mainstream race?
    Wanna play fat humans, while we give the op faction better looking trolls?
    Wanna have almost no lore and no hubs for your races, while we give the op faction 2 whole patches explaining the lore around their new races and on top of that giving them huge zones with gigantinc cities, while also backstabbing the small faction, who helped them out just as much?
    Wanna get your second most favorite hub completly destroyed and also one of your races wiped out almost completly + 2 of your territories as never ending warzones, while er touch not a single zone of the op faction and make a hardly visited hub of them for a mall amount of time uninhabitable?

    Does that sound like fun? Nope. And that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the unfairly faction system. Blizzard only has 2 factions in this game and can't even handle them, actively creating a miserable expierence for the small faction.

    I didn't want to change factions, but Blizzard more or less is forcing you to play the op faction, if you want a halfway good time in this game.

    Ah well, I'm done now with this game too. There are so many bad things in this game and surrounding the company... I just can't anymore.    … Expand
  88. Kezian
    Sep 24, 2021
    0
    Shadowlands is even worst than BFA ! World of Chores with bots everywhere !
  89. Issso
    Sep 23, 2021
    1
    World of Warcraft has one of the most toxic game designs you can find in a mmo. I would even go so far as to say it's the most toxic game, if you only count mmos with noteworthy publicity, resulting in a toxic and frustrated playerbase, very well known for their bad behavior.

    Now with the gigantic lawsuit against Blizzard more and more players finally wake up and leave this company.    World of Warcraft has one of the most toxic game designs you can find in a mmo. I would even go so far as to say it's the most toxic game, if you only count mmos with noteworthy publicity, resulting in a toxic and frustrated playerbase, very well known for their bad behavior.

    Now with the gigantic lawsuit against Blizzard more and more players finally wake up and leave this company. However it's not just due to the lawsuit.
    This game had big issues since over a decade now, but enough enjoyable things up until Legion, so players stayed.
    Since battle for Azeroth this whole game became absolute garbage in almost every aspect imaginable. So I won't bother writing down every problem in wow, not to mention, that others already did that.

    But I will explain what I mean with toxic game design.

    1. Glorified racism.
    This game, although in a virtual form, glorifies racism and racial segregation since the very beginning.
    The first thing you see as a player is the devision of playable races. Because seemingly there is nothing like free will in that world. Races will only stick to one side, If this reminds you of real world events... well, it's the same in wow. No free will, only a hivemind is ok... I don't actually know what to say to such an outdated mindset...
    Yes, it is a game, but it stills baffles me, how Blizzard thought this would be a good thing to put in the game. Is racism good? No. Is restricting players to certain races good, instead of letting them choose their faction freely? No. So what about racial segregation is good? It adds nothing and takes away so much from the player expierence.

    2. Catering to the the whales and victims of FOMO mentality.
    For whom is this game designed?
    For those, who buy a lot of services, mounts etc. from the store and to those, who are naive enough to think FOMO is good.
    FOMO is a strategy to keep players subscribed, because they have the fear of missing out certain rewards. These people can't be happy, if they can't flex with their virtual stuff. They can't be happy, if all players can get their oh so precious virtual rewards all the time.
    So everything should be restricted to a certain time frame. You can't allow other players to have nice things afterall! Where would we be then?!! Those toxic players are the ones Blizzard is catering to.

    3. Throwaway systems.
    There are a bunch of new systems in every expansion with the only purpose to let the players brainlessly grind in order to take away as much play time as possible. Again, a really cheap method to keep players subscribed all the time. The sad thing about that? Many players fall for it. Then the expansion ends, said systems are thrown in the garbage and new systems are put on the table.

    These are the players this game is designed for:
    Pleople, who enjoy racial segregation/racism and who are against races, who can actually think for themself.
    Whales and FOMO victims.
    People, who are coming from work, just so that they work again with the endless grinding going on in wow.    … Expand
  90. Enorb
    Sep 20, 2021
    1
    Really gotta hate the development of this game.
    Especially from a rp perspective wow has become unbearable.
    There is still no player housing, Blizzard is still holding on to racism and strictly split the playable races instead of making all of them playable on both factions, the lore is so idotic, that it ruins the rp (unless you completly ignore everything that happened after Legion),    Really gotta hate the development of this game.
    Especially from a rp perspective wow has become unbearable.
    There is still no player housing, Blizzard is still holding on to racism and strictly split the playable races instead of making all of them playable on both factions, the lore is so idotic, that it ruins the rp (unless you completly ignore everything that happened after Legion), the world still uses outdated graphic.    … Expand
  91. Wekxyu
    Sep 19, 2021
    2
    2 out of 10 expansion.
    The story is garbage, the imbalance (both faction and class) is incredibly bad, the racial segregation of playable races is still there... in 2021... just wow... and the flood of grindful systems and FOMO mentality is still despicable.
  92. Teyxra
    Sep 16, 2021
    1
    Shadowlands is another awful expansion.
    On top of that Blizzard continues to cater to the worst kind of players.
    Those, who enjoy FOMO (fear of missing out) and who have the need to be special little snowflakes, who can't enjoy skins and races, if all players get access to them all the time and with the chance to get them. So they want time gated stuff to feel special, even though    Shadowlands is another awful expansion.
    On top of that Blizzard continues to cater to the worst kind of players.
    Those, who enjoy FOMO (fear of missing out) and who have the need to be special little snowflakes, who can't enjoy skins and races, if all players get access to them all the time and with the chance to get them.
    So they want time gated stuff to feel special, even though everyone should know that FOMO is one of the cheapest ways to keep players subscribed all the time and with that Blizzard earns more money.
    Well, and racial segregation is bad in general. People, who think racism is a good thing (even if it's in a virtual form)... oof. Instead of just giving both factions all races.
    Well and Blizzard is among those people, who support such toxic systems.    … Expand
  93. Ikkao
    Sep 10, 2021
    2
    This game is almost unplayable because of the faction imbalance.
    I'm sick and tired of waiting for Blizzard to actually care and fix it. It's easy. All races need to be neutral and cross faction raids should be optional. They've done so much wrong in the past, that you could think they are purposely trolling one of their factions. Just yikes. Neutral races & cross faction gameplay is the    This game is almost unplayable because of the faction imbalance.
    I'm sick and tired of waiting for Blizzard to actually care and fix it. It's easy. All races need to be neutral and cross faction raids should be optional. They've done so much wrong in the past, that you could think they are purposely trolling one of their factions. Just yikes. Neutral races & cross faction gameplay is the only way out of this mess at this point. No reason to continue playing this game, if you are looking for balanced gameplay.    … Expand
  94. Zhassu
    Sep 9, 2021
    3
    2 bad expansions in a row. Really doesn't look good for wow. I wish we could go back to Legion, where this game was still good.

    They really need to do something about faction imbalance too, like others already said. Like more neutral races for both factions. There are a lot of races where it's pretty easy to do so. Like Lightforged, Draenei, Mecha Gnomes, Gnomes, Dark Irons, Kul    2 bad expansions in a row. Really doesn't look good for wow. I wish we could go back to Legion, where this game was still good.

    They really need to do something about faction imbalance too, like others already said. Like more neutral races for both factions.
    There are a lot of races where it's pretty easy to do so. Like Lightforged, Draenei, Mecha Gnomes, Gnomes, Dark Irons, Kul Tirans, maybe even normal Dwarves for Horde. While Nightborne, blood elves, renamed as high elves, goblins, Vulpera from Kul tiras, High Mountain Tauren and Tauren for Alliance. Though the best thing that could happen to this game would be that all races get to choose freely.
    Sucks to be judged by the race you want to play. What does the race have to do with loyalty? Can't the individuals of the races think for themselves? The whole system is rather outdated and needs to be fixed, so that we have more freedom in this game and with that more fun too.
    Also cross faction raids need to happen.
    There also needs to be a better writing team. The lore went pretty downhill with bfa and still sucks in Shadowlands.
    Also more focus on class balance and professions is needed.    … Expand
  95. Ollei
    Sep 8, 2021
    2
    Just an overall frustrating and bad player experience.

    After all these years they are STILL ignoring the faction imbalance. What the actually heck? You really think an edgy elf race with ugly customization options like tentacles, that nobody asked for and with a rock in the void, that nobody but them can visit would help, while giving the overpopulated faction a whole zone and a huge    Just an overall frustrating and bad player experience.

    After all these years they are STILL ignoring the faction imbalance. What the actually heck?

    You really think an edgy elf race with ugly customization options like tentacles, that nobody asked for and with a rock in the void, that nobody but them can visit would help, while giving the overpopulated faction a whole zone and a huge city with tones of lore? Or overweight humans and even more gnomes with amputated arms and legs, while giving the other faction an adorable new fox race that could be straight out of a Disney movie?

    How about Blizzard stops trolling one of the two factions and start taking notes from other popular games like ff14, where there is no faction imbalance for obvious reasons, but I write it anyway.
    ff14 has no racism in their game. There is no racial segregation and no matter what faction you are in, you can play all races, so nobody feels miserable, because they have all their favorite stuff in their favorite faction.
    Not to mention that ff14 actually let's you play with players from other factions.
    I will stay in ff14 until Blizzard finally fixes the faction imbalance, ends the racial segregation and allows cross faction stuff.    … Expand
  96. Ekeys
    Sep 6, 2021
    1
    I thought bfa was awful, but then came Shadowlands... If you are interested in a good story and nice gameplay, then don't play Shadowlands. Play other games until Blizzard finally improve this awful game. Last time I had fun was during Legion and that is several years ago.

    -Along with the cringe lore I really hate that there is no change, no development whatsoever in this game. Just the    I thought bfa was awful, but then came Shadowlands... If you are interested in a good story and nice gameplay, then don't play Shadowlands. Play other games until Blizzard finally improve this awful game. Last time I had fun was during Legion and that is several years ago.

    -Along with the cringe lore I really hate that there is no change, no development whatsoever in this game. Just the same stuff recycled in every expansion.
    -We have 2021 and there is still no player housing in this game.
    -There is still racial segregation in this game, meaning the playable races don't have free will, making the whole faction choice stuff extremly stale and based on the given races, resulting in a lot of frustrating compromises and hugely worsen the player experience.
    -There is still no cross faction play- seeing how bad the faction imbalance has become (costed by the Devs for neglecting one faction over several years) that means, that one faction has a much harder way to play this game since so many players left and if you are in one faction you are not allowed to play with your friends in the second faction. So basically you get punished, if you play the small faction. That is not a way to handle a playerbase and wow is the only game that activly supports such a toxic system. It's beyond me why they do that and with that why there is still racism with the division of the races. Players are leaving wow in masses and this is definitely one of the reasons.
    -Most zones have still horrendous outdated graphic and the customization options are... well... far too few. Again... not even close to what you would expect for a game in 2021.
    -Might be just me, but it feels, that even the music got worse with Shadowlands.
    -Along with the faction imbalance the class imbalance makes the pvp scene just awful.    … Expand
  97. Zijs
    Sep 5, 2021
    1
    Really bad expansion.
    With the faction imbalance still being unchecked by Blizzard the game reached a point where it's in a really unhealthy state.
    Really wish they would finally do something about it. Like playable races becoming neutral, so that everyone can have every race and with that all racials would be available on both sides, plus of course optional cross faction raiding.    Really bad expansion.
    With the faction imbalance still being unchecked by Blizzard the game reached a point where it's in a really unhealthy state.
    Really wish they would finally do something about it. Like playable races becoming neutral, so that everyone can have every race and with that all racials would be available on both sides, plus of course optional cross faction raiding. Something that should be standard in this day and age, but for some reason Blizzard doesn't seem to care for the health of the game.    … Expand
  98. Klenoni
    Sep 5, 2021
    2
    Shadowlands is such a disappointment.
    Where are all the promised character customisation options Blizzard promised us at the beginning of this expansion? Your average 10 hair colors & skin tones in wow are a complete joke. It's 2021. There is something called color palettes, that is supposed to be in every modern mmo, that gives you over 50 hair & skin tones. Not to mention height sliders    Shadowlands is such a disappointment.
    Where are all the promised character customisation options Blizzard promised us at the beginning of this expansion? Your average 10 hair colors & skin tones in wow are a complete joke. It's 2021. There is something called color palettes, that is supposed to be in every modern mmo, that gives you over 50 hair & skin tones. Not to mention height sliders and so on. Nothing of that is found in world of warcraft. You would think you are still stuck in 2011 with this game.

    Why do the players and races are still split into two? Is it too much to ask to let your players actually play the faction they prefer with all the races they prefer instead of dividing the races? Is it too much to ask to give us the ability to cross faction raid like in every other mmo, because, you know, mmos are usually games that motivate you to play TOGETHER WITH ALL PLAYERS instead of making everyone frustrated with A TON OF RESTRICTIONS, like racial segregation and the division of players. Just look at the gigantic faction imbalance and Blizzard keeps ignoring it for years now. How Fun! Not.

    And don't even get me started with all the time consuming grindy systems and the crappy lore ever since the end of Legion.    … Expand
  99. KromanoxKhan
    Sep 4, 2021
    0
    SL is fun, Torgast is nice, convenant theme is awesome!

    But time to face the reality: - People, we need item level to get progress in game. After 4x mythics+ i got anything, no drops! No drops in 2 raids in a row (7 hours spended here). Yes, you need to spend several hours in this game and your character dont get a reliable progress - Blizzard/Activion WoW mechanics looks like    SL is fun, Torgast is nice, convenant theme is awesome!

    But time to face the reality:

    - People, we need item level to get progress in game. After 4x mythics+ i got anything, no drops! No drops in 2 raids in a row (7 hours spended here).

    Yes, you need to spend several hours in this game and your character dont get a reliable progress - Blizzard/Activion WoW mechanics looks like mobile crap grind mechanics - this is horrible.

    Spend your precious time to get nothing, this is WoW.

    Dont waste your time here.    … Expand
  100. Srekk32
    Sep 3, 2021
    2
    The lore is still bad, the old world looks still bad, the faction imbalance is still bad, the class imbalance is still bad, the borrowed power system is still bad the racial segregation is still there so it's also still bad, the customization options are still too few and with that bad.
    If they would at least let us play all races in both factions instead of holding on to racism as their    The lore is still bad, the old world looks still bad, the faction imbalance is still bad, the class imbalance is still bad, the borrowed power system is still bad the racial segregation is still there so it's also still bad, the customization options are still too few and with that bad.
    If they would at least let us play all races in both factions instead of holding on to racism as their game's pillar... but nooo, they continue forcing us to make frustrating compromises.

    I'll wait until they make noticeable changes to their game and not just their usual halfbaked stuff. I don't see why I should come back to the same old miserable game, that is stuck in outdated nonsense.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

34
#34 Best PC Game of 2020
8
#8 Most Discussed PC Game of 2020

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
83

Generally favorable reviews - based on 32 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 31 out of 32
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 32
  3. Negative: 0 out of 32
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Apr 12, 2021
    80
    Blizzard finally comes with an alt-friendly expansion that brings back the best features of the previous ones. The patch that WoW desperately needed. [Issue#309]
  2. Shacknews
    Jan 29, 2021
    90
    World of Warcraft: Shadowlands certainly manages to capture the same feelings we’ve had since first started playing the game. The leveling experience overhaul, constant sense of progress with rewards, and new campaign stories make Shadowlands a must-have for any avid player.
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  3. GamingTrend
    Jan 27, 2021
    90
    World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is a return to greatness for the franchise. The content is both accessible and fun for all types of players, and the story actually makes you feel like everything you’re doing is helping to save the Shadowlands. Torghast is one of the best features ever added and makes each experience unique and fun. While there are some issues which can slow down the time it takes to get everything you want, the journey there is still enjoyable.
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