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.
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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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