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. Calcify
    Nov 29, 2020
    2
    Once the allure of the covenant and TG tower fade, there is not much luster for this xpac.. Don't understand the 9/10s.
  2. dnlstn
    Nov 29, 2020
    9
    Can't understand the many 0-scores witout any reviews.
    This expansion does many things right that expansions before did wrong.
    The bread and butter of the game works just fine and is fun (again). Dungeons are fun, character leveling is fun, the game looks gorgeous. Pvp is fine, the features are rewarding. Thorgast and the Maw are fresh, new concepts. Yes, there are some things that need    Can't understand the many 0-scores witout any reviews.
    This expansion does many things right that expansions before did wrong.
    The bread and butter of the game works just fine and is fun (again). Dungeons are fun, character leveling is fun, the game looks gorgeous. Pvp is fine, the features are rewarding. Thorgast and the Maw are fresh, new concepts.
    Yes, there are some things that need to be improved on. But this expansion is one of the best I could experience so far in WOW.    … Expand
  3. Neardark
    Nov 29, 2020
    0
    Same old engine. Boring, server disconection. Greedy Company that Lost their passion for games. They only want our money for the most poor experience
  4. Kath90
    Nov 29, 2020
    7
    With all the 0/10 and 10/10 I felt this review section could use some nuance.

    Zones are beautifully made and I am a big fan of the travel between zones without a load screen. Apart from Ardenweald I found the storyline engaging and enjoyable and I like how the convenant system means you have a slightly different gaming experience from leven 60 onwards. Curious to see how it continues,    With all the 0/10 and 10/10 I felt this review section could use some nuance.

    Zones are beautifully made and I am a big fan of the travel between zones without a load screen. Apart from Ardenweald I found the storyline engaging and enjoyable and I like how the convenant system means you have a slightly different gaming experience from leven 60 onwards. Curious to see how it continues, definitely enjoyed myself the last few days.

    Disclaimer i play on a relatively low populated server and hhave had zero issues logging in etc surrounding the launch.    … Expand
  5. Outlock
    Nov 29, 2020
    10
    I saw many 0 , from haters, if dont like wow, plz leave, To me is the best expansion since BC and WOTLK, the Art and gameplay on all zones are priceless, I am playing Blizzard games since Starcraft launch, and Hope Blizz stay with us for a long time.
  6. JackKnowles
    Nov 29, 2020
    0
    Yet more vapid, cookie cutter garbage from Actiblizz. if you thought BFA was bad, this is even worse. Save your money for something else, the people giving this 9's and 10's are obsessed fanboys that would even eat **** with a smile if their favorite company asked them to.
  7. Firetodusk
    Nov 29, 2020
    10
    Just got to 60 and done a lot of verry fun Quests with a good Story behind all. Cant wait to see whats at Content Coming more now. It all looks better than i can read at much Reviews here so i think a lot here wrote Bad before even reach the end content? How can you after playing a few Hours give those Critics=? Maybe you should forst give it a real try. For me its a verry good StartJust got to 60 and done a lot of verry fun Quests with a good Story behind all. Cant wait to see whats at Content Coming more now. It all looks better than i can read at much Reviews here so i think a lot here wrote Bad before even reach the end content? How can you after playing a few Hours give those Critics=? Maybe you should forst give it a real try. For me its a verry good Start with Great Grafics and cool Cut Scenes. Much new Things at Job System and lots other new things i full enjoy :)… Expand
  8. Kuraiko
    Nov 29, 2020
    10
    Beautiful storytelling, awesome new zones, perfect sound and music! Best expension after wotlk ❤️
  9. Memeator
    Nov 29, 2020
    0
    Not many features in this expansion unfortunately. A rating of 10 is clearly inflated. Should be a 3-5.

    DO NOT LISTEN TO SCORES DOWN THERE! THEY GIVE IT 10 CUZ THEY R FANBOIS. True rate is 3-5!
  10. Frightfactory
    Nov 29, 2020
    8
    Shadowlands offers players nothing completely new or totally unique other than it's keystone feature Torghast, but the fresh take and perfecting on numerous game systems is great. It seems after the giant miss that was Battle for Azeroth where they tried to do a number of different new forms of content that didn't work out, they decided the better strategy was to double down and perfectShadowlands offers players nothing completely new or totally unique other than it's keystone feature Torghast, but the fresh take and perfecting on numerous game systems is great. It seems after the giant miss that was Battle for Azeroth where they tried to do a number of different new forms of content that didn't work out, they decided the better strategy was to double down and perfect what worked well. For that I think Blizzard should be commended.

    At the end of the day, World of Warcraft is the only super successful MMORPG. Other games have had moderate success, flashes of brilliance, most of them have faded into subtle irrelevance where WOW continues to offer players the best day to day gameplay experience in the genre. They get rewarded with monthly subscriptions for this, so one would expect that they have to substantially add to what's already there to justify the sticker price of the paid expansion content. With that said, they tried that multiple times now with Battle for Azeroth and Warlords of Draenor having multiple new features those expansions we're built around that we're mostly not fun grinds that people resented doing. This I think lays out the needle Blizzard needed to thread this time around, and I think they have in fact threaded it quite masterfully with Shadowlands.

    We will get to the one new feature Torghast in a minute, but let's talk about what's substantially new in terms of building what already worked well. Blizzard has updated the interface with some quality of life changes, better directed gameplay for story elements (done through a special notation of campaign quests), improved the "order hall" system to be more dynamic and interesting (now called covenant sanctums), and designed some fresh and fun dungeons and raids that look like they will present every level of player with new and interesting challenges. Additionally they have stripped out many of the the player power grinds that felt like "must do" content in Battle for Azeroth. Most of this stuff is kind of a "choose your adventure" book, where most of it rewards players with cosmetics, currency for upgrading systems in your sanctum, or in some cases the reward is just for the fun of it. This has left some endgame minded players in my inner circle bored with the content because there isn't anything to "push" to get more player power, but I think for the majority of players they will feel refreshed by not always having the feeling that they have to grind something.

    If that would have been the only thing they did, this would have been a 5/10 and not worth the price of admission, but we have one giant Tower to deal with first. Torghast is a rouge-lite dungeon generator nested within an endgame zone called the Maw. The maw is cold, dark, and brutal, and borrows a concept from the 5 star wanted system of GTA games to make galivanting about the place a bit thrilling and scary. The systems of Torghast, the Tower of the Damned are tied into activities in the maw in a way that's not opressive and leaves you with the option of only doing one or the other. When you enter the tower, you get a series of choices that feel fun and interesting each time you walk through the portal: which power to take? explore or take the faster route? Fight the big bad elite on this floor or find a way around? All of these things make the tower interesting enough to work through. Along the way you will also get a shop that gives you more interesting choices, and can be upgraded through activities in the maw. If anything is lackluster so far, it's the bosses but in the live game we haven't seen very much of the tower yet, and I expect these will become more interesting the more we climb.

    Torghast is also the driving force behind crafting your own legendary equipment which can be customized with the stats you want, on a slot of a choice, with a fun selection of unique powers some old some new. Shadowlands weaves all of these elements together and takes you into the endgame with options, choice, and the freedom to actually play more than one character. While torghast is the only thing that is new, it's a big hit, and combined with the other elements that we're improved creates fun gameplay that so far looks like it will continue to deliver long term as more is unlocked. Shadowlands is a solid 8/10 and is only held back not having very much brand new game elements for the price tag. They took a game that already had great things, built on them and removed the things that made just playing the game more cumbersome and prevented you from playing multiple characters for fun, and for that I think it's worth the price tag.    … Expand
  11. ScallSnow
    Nov 29, 2020
    8
    Много неоднозначный моментов, которые, я надеюсь, не будут мешать игровому процессу. Пока что, начальная прокачка, атмосфера и комфортность игры - радует.
    Что будет дальше, ну поглядим.
  12. LukeSR
    Nov 29, 2020
    3
    Disappointing, buggy.

    First you have to complete the linear questline/campaign to get level 60 and to unlock the covenants. The questline contains many cinematics and a lot of talking and following NPCs. When you hit level 60 and you like to level up a twink you can choose to do the same again or skip it (Threads of fate), the campaign will be marked as completed and you can already    Disappointing, buggy.

    First you have to complete the linear questline/campaign to get level 60 and to unlock the covenants. The questline contains many cinematics and a lot of talking and following NPCs.
    When you hit level 60 and you like to level up a twink you can choose to do the same again or skip it (Threads of fate), the campaign will be marked as completed and you can already choose your covenant at the start.
    Well now you can choose your first destiny for yourself. They are some Quests in every area, you can already do world quests by leveling and few bonus objectives.

    I like the idea, but not the implementation. The bonus objectives are very boring, you have to kill mobs and click on items, you will get 1-3 % for each on your progress bar, it can take up to 20 minutes to complete one and you will get ~18k EXP, thats ~5% on you progress bar.
    I tried to combine it with normal Quests, but only in a few cases the area of the bonus objectives and normal quests matches,

    The other problem that disturbs me is, that all areas in Shadowlands are full of enemys. If you want to go from A to B, there is almost no safe way, you nearly find a horde of enemys on every place and you can't avoid them. They unmount you, you kill them, you mount and after few meters you possibly get unmounted again.

    There are not many normal quests, you can see the start point of every possible questline on the map. Some of the quests are very bad designed, for example. I saw a quest on a hill, I tried to get there and had to run through a place full of enemys.
    I was unmounted few times and always had to fight against 4-8 enemys (not super easy for a non healing class) and as I get there I get a quest and had to kill 12 more of them and use a spell on the dead bodies that could go wrong and you had to kill them again. Of course you had to kill other enemys by doing this quest that were not relevant for this quest, as I finally completed the quest, I got 8k EXP (~2,5% for level progress bar) and no other quest...

    And sorry for my bad english, I had to deal with some buggy quests and decided to write the review to
    free from my anger.    … Expand
  13. Rburkotjr
    Nov 29, 2020
    8
    Cenários muito bem elaborados, o sistema de pactos permite uma boa variação de jogabilidade. Reencontrar velhos amigos no caminho é muito gratificante.
  14. gt_destroyer
    Nov 29, 2020
    10
    Ставлю 10 не потому что аддон божественный ( он хорош) , а потому что есть много неадекватов, который ставят незаслуженную 0.
  15. Seksi
    Nov 29, 2020
    10
    The leveling was smooth, with a ton of story and dialogue to take in. Queues were problematic but it shows the popularity of the game right now and I could log in early so they did not affect me too much. Once in the end game, alts can level through an alternate experience which instantly unlocks end-game abilities and skips the main storyline, avoiding forced repetition.

    The end-game    The leveling was smooth, with a ton of story and dialogue to take in. Queues were problematic but it shows the popularity of the game right now and I could log in early so they did not affect me too much. Once in the end game, alts can level through an alternate experience which instantly unlocks end-game abilities and skips the main storyline, avoiding forced repetition.

    The end-game is still mostly locked (raids, m+, rated PvP, most of Torghast including Legendaries) but what I've seen so far feels good, the early levels of Torghast were fun to go through, the Maw end-game zone feels dangerous, especially when solo, dungeons had lots of interesting mechanics and PvP vendors are back, and actually sell the best PvP gear due to the new PvP trinket set bonus. Professions are very simple and take little time to set up and start crafting good items, although there is a lot of investment in order to be able to craft the best Legendaries, as it should be.

    Not to speak of all the treasure / secret / rare / sidequest hunting. World quests are cool to do the first time but quickly get boring, but luckily like the rest of the expansion so far, BARELY ANYTHING FEELS MANDATORY and RNG is at the lowest level in years. There is no war/titan forging anymore, PvP vendors returned and epic BoEs / top-end crafted gear is plentiful and tradeable.

    Hopefully the next weeks are even more fun than the first one, with all the extra content that is incoming, looking forward to it!    … Expand
  16. rohand0r
    Nov 29, 2020
    9
    Хорошее начало. Посмотрим что будет дальше.
  17. Rizaun
    Nov 29, 2020
    4
    Another big disappointment.

    One of the worst parts of this expansion is that Blizzard intentionally made players weaker with the pre-patch, making old content more difficult to complete or downright impossible, expecting players to clear the new raids so that they could finally do the content that they were doing at Lv120. The leveling is pointless since you get nothing out of it, no    Another big disappointment.

    One of the worst parts of this expansion is that Blizzard intentionally made players weaker with the pre-patch, making old content more difficult to complete or downright impossible, expecting players to clear the new raids so that they could finally do the content that they were doing at Lv120. The leveling is pointless since you get nothing out of it, no new abilities or talents, it exists only to take your time and when you hit Lv60, you will be just as weak as you were at Lv50, it's the illusion of progression.

    No new class and no new race, instead they focused on improving the character creation feature and yet the new additions are barebones. Races that had a lot of options got a few more and the ones that had a few got almost nothing new that they didn't copy and paste from another race and all the new changes only bring WoW's character creation to the standards of the year 2010.

    Mediocre story but that is nothing new, Blizzard hasn't written anything good after Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne. All male characters are stupid and incompetent, all women are queens and Mary Sues and Sylvanas is probably playing 10-D Chess and will be the true hero and save everyone... just like Kerrigan did in Starcraft. Blizzard's writers should take a look at how FFXIV writers create their world and characters and learn from them, they are actually good.

    World Quests take longer for no other reason than to take more of your time, just like everything else now, with the Maw not allowing you to use mounts for reasons so you have to walk everywhere, no Flight Whistle for Shadowlands areas, can't ride in many parts of Oribos, flying from one SL area into another always has to go through Oribos, etc. Everything about this expansion is designed to take as much time as possible.

    The new number of transmog appearances is laughable, there's about 8 new transmog appearances per armor type (Recolors don't count, they don't take any effort to make), with a few pieces here and there that don't belong to a particular set, but you have to choose 1 of the 4 covenant sets, leaving you with 5 choices. It's no wonder people get mad when Blizzard adds paid transmog to their store.

    Thank god we can buy the expansion, pay a sub and everything else in the Blizzard store with gold, Call of Duty operator bundles have more worth than this trash expansion. I'm only giving it a 4 because the Art and Sound teams did a good job, it's always everyone else who fails, specially the director.    … Expand
  18. elstupido69
    Nov 29, 2020
    10
    Shadowlands is showing some of the best work Blizzard has put out in years and the raid and season content hasn't even begun yet. Aside from balancing(as per usual), this expansion is absolutely unbelievable. The storyline is interesting and adds a whole new array of characters and possibilities for future patches. For the first time in years, it seems like Blizzard actually cares aboutShadowlands is showing some of the best work Blizzard has put out in years and the raid and season content hasn't even begun yet. Aside from balancing(as per usual), this expansion is absolutely unbelievable. The storyline is interesting and adds a whole new array of characters and possibilities for future patches. For the first time in years, it seems like Blizzard actually cares about the community's feedback and it shows. All of the people giving negative reviews are most likely Classic Andies raging behind their boomer devices or people who are too dumb to learn about the systems. I have completely neglected everything in my life these past few days playing Shadowlands and it was definitely worth it as I had some of the most fun with my friends on WoW in years.… Expand
  19. Sylvesterooo
    Nov 29, 2020
    10
    This review will be from long time semi casual Player since tbc.
    First time in my case i was feel that end game is what is supposed to be, people always said that end game is just the beginning well i never felt that, for me games always missing end game activities simply Mythic + and Raid wasn't enough for me.
    Now due to the fact we got Stunningly beautiful zones varied type of quests    This review will be from long time semi casual Player since tbc.
    First time in my case i was feel that end game is what is supposed to be, people always said that end game is just the beginning well i never felt that, for me games always missing end game activities simply Mythic + and Raid wasn't enough for me.
    Now due to the fact we got Stunningly beautiful zones varied type of quests end game activities just makes you wanna play the game, not because you have to You just want to play this game, easly better game for me than legion.
    guys don't even read reviews beneath 6 those guys are cry babies but i understand them very well Bfa also makes me wanna stop play wow entirely i was sceptical but when i hit end game i was Rly positive suprised :) just consider 5 to 0 ratings as low IQ baby rage i will give this game 10 just to balance overall score but honestly for me is 8.5/9.0 im not a Fan boy i was flaming bfa and didn't bought WoD i just wanna play good game that's all :Dl thanks for reading    … Expand
  20. Subiculum
    Nov 29, 2020
    8
    I should have waited for pvp season opening. I just would like to increase the rating though, because I like the game so far
  21. arbitrator
    Nov 28, 2020
    4
    The game had so much potential, I was excited to play it, and honestly it has some very good features that are implemented well. However, its flaws shine through any positives. For starters, some quests don't work well, you have to abandon and restart them because it'll randomly just not work. (can't pick up items, cant use items on target). The other big problem is class bugs, all sortsThe game had so much potential, I was excited to play it, and honestly it has some very good features that are implemented well. However, its flaws shine through any positives. For starters, some quests don't work well, you have to abandon and restart them because it'll randomly just not work. (can't pick up items, cant use items on target). The other big problem is class bugs, all sorts of spells don't work how intended, as a pally my friends and I noticed that ashes and divine storm just did 0 damage about 1/3 of the time.
    A more minor bug but equally annoying. sometimes when you die, it will just put you in a random other zone at a spirit healer. Got put in bastion twice when I died to horde ganks in Maldraxxus. On that note, the other big issue is people can use npcs in zones to assist in pvp, and for some completely unknown reason they made it so pvp can happen in cities, no guards or anything. Many times while checking out the new cities, groups of horde/alliance will just roll through and murder people hanging out. It makes very little sense.

    My least favorite actual feature, is the simple fact that side quests are actually a hinderance to you. I did many of them checking out the stories on the way to level 60. Only to find out when I get to 60. You cannot do ANY max level content until you do the entire chain for the campaign quests. So after hitting max level, I am currently stuck questing for about 5-7 more hours just to be able to see what max level it.

    If you take anything away from this, don't do side quests...    … Expand
  22. Detu
    Nov 28, 2020
    10
    Слишком хорошо, чтобы быть правдой.
    После бфа конечно ожидался хороший аддон, но не было ожиданий, что аддон будет настолько хорош. Удивительная сюжетка, удивительные инсты, интересная система ковенантов(конечно жажда дпса немного портит её, но тут уже отдельный разговор). Множество секретов по всему миру, удивительные пейзажи и бесячая, как и задумывалось утроба. По бете рейда попытался    Слишком хорошо, чтобы быть правдой.
    После бфа конечно ожидался хороший аддон, но не было ожиданий, что аддон будет настолько хорош. Удивительная сюжетка, удивительные инсты, интересная система ковенантов(конечно жажда дпса немного портит её, но тут уже отдельный разговор). Множество секретов по всему миру, удивительные пейзажи и бесячая, как и задумывалось утроба. По бете рейда попытался оценить рейд, механики интересные и визуал отличный. Офк филлер боссы будут всегда, но чёрт побери как же хороша половина.    … Expand
  23. Nek147
    Nov 28, 2020
    10
    Gorgeous addition !!! People who are unhappy with something, sorry, but you got drunk! the first week of the supplement, and you are already drawing conclusions. The Covenant is awesome, score 10/10
  24. YoungTad
    Nov 28, 2020
    0
    I created an account just to rate this game and warn others. It is around a 3-4, there are no new features that make this an expansion. Merits the title of "Patch". Launch was dicey depending on server. For whatever reason, people are giving it a 10.. Are these paid reviews, fanbois, or something else? When I see a 10 it makes me very curious..
  25. Trashcanwizard
    Nov 28, 2020
    9
    Loving the changes so far. Story is fun just hoping end game is as good. better than BFA and alt friendly
  26. slipciok
    Nov 28, 2020
    10
    Best expansion! Rares are now little adventures. Side quest have one long story and mechanics. Graphic is beautiful. Dungeons are super interesting.
    Whole vibe of SL is Destiny meeting Planescape Torment.
    Great job Blizzard!
  27. Chakyolo
    Nov 28, 2020
    10
    Отличные локации, очень интересный сюжет, НЕВЕРОЯТНО красивые данжи и локации,
  28. niyatimk
    Nov 28, 2020
    10
    I created a MetaCritic account solely to review this game after I saw the abysmal (and childish) reviews it was getting. I just hit level 60 and am nearly finished with the Ardenweald story, and I had to stop to write this. I've been playing WoW off and on since 2004, and I felt neutral? about BFA, and went into Shadowlands with low expectations. I am blown away. The graphics areI created a MetaCritic account solely to review this game after I saw the abysmal (and childish) reviews it was getting. I just hit level 60 and am nearly finished with the Ardenweald story, and I had to stop to write this. I've been playing WoW off and on since 2004, and I felt neutral? about BFA, and went into Shadowlands with low expectations. I am blown away. The graphics are incredible, the worlds are immersive, the little treasure hunts are fun (vs previous xpacs where it'd be some amount of "war resources" etc and junk to sell, this is mostly fun pets and unique surprises). The quests alternate between "just pure fun" with a sense of humor and serious story. The cutscenes can be downright "MY EMOTIONS" at times, which I didn't expect at all. I actually stopped playing only a few hours in on release day because I knew this was a game I wanted to savor (and oops I'm max level already, I've been bingeing it since). This might be my favorite expansion of all, which I realize is a big claim. I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far and I hope it's not over too soon. (Will that be my fault for rushing, or will that be evidence of not enough content? Who knows!) I just wanted to give an honest, thoughtful review because I'm really delighted with it and offended by all of these...frankly garbage, immature comments here. MORE LIKE THIS PLEASE, Blizz! :)… Expand
  29. Uldrey
    Nov 28, 2020
    10
    I have been playing evry day now and im just loving the game. Leveling feels great and the story is really good, dung are top notch...
  30. ThatRickGuy
    Nov 28, 2020
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I like that the leveling and intro quest chain through all zones are largely aligned. No more max level at 2 zones and missing all the content.

    Also, I can't speak for all the covenants, but the night fae induction is friggin hilarious! Kudos to the writers on that one, the who sequence is awesome.

    The covenant progression so far feels good. Honor bound, anima, renown, a few ways to grind.

    The new solo/group instance seems pretty legit. If you ever wanted to play Diablo with your wow character, this is your chance.

    The zones are huge and all have very distinctive feels, and the interesting moral dilemma each presents is interesting. The launch was incredibly smooth. Only issue I saw in the first few days was a world server being down for a couple of hours.
    Also, with the newest gear specs, it's been super easy to bounce between tanking and dps, so getting quick queues is easier than ever.    … 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.
    Read full review
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