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2.6

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 2560 Ratings

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  1. Nov 27, 2020
    8
    The new expansion brings in a nice breath of fresh air coming from BFA. Getting introduced to Covenants and their abilities though questing has been a fun process for me personally.
    Leveling: Getting from 50 to 60 has not been rather... Fine. While you level for the first time you get to go trough all of the new zones and test the covenant abilities within them, while some zones may be hit
    The new expansion brings in a nice breath of fresh air coming from BFA. Getting introduced to Covenants and their abilities though questing has been a fun process for me personally.
    Leveling: Getting from 50 to 60 has not been rather... Fine. While you level for the first time you get to go trough all of the new zones and test the covenant abilities within them, while some zones may be hit or miss depending on your preferences, most of them are generally fine. 4/5
    Story: Without getting into any spoilers, the story takes an odd turn into the new and unknown. We are headed to the realm of death and getting to see what afterlife looks like. While getting to see some familiar faces in the afterlife is nice, the whole experience feels a little not "warcrafty", for those not familiar with the lore it can be very fun, but for the others that got used to a bit more of a traditional style of warcraft lore it may feel a bit odd, this is probably the weakest part of Shadowlands. 2/5
    New Systems: Shadowlands brings with itself a couple of new systems, I'll be mainly talking about the Covenants, conduits and legendaires.
    Covenants are something like Harry Potter houses of Shadowlands, each has it's own theme, abilities and addition perks. Without getting into each covenant, they feel a bit better than I expected. They all feel fairly balanced, I was more encouraged to take the covenant with the ability that I liked the most instead of "The best one for my class". With that being said, your favorite covenant thematically might have a boring ability, which could be a problem for your average PvE or PvP player, they could be forced into a covenant they not prefer just cause of the ability. 4/5
    Conduits bring a new, fun way of making talents. They are usually smaller power ups but could contribute a lot to your character. You will be collecting different conduits while doing verious content. You will have to choose from 3 different types of skill trees and mix and match your conduits within them, making a little, personal and more fun skill system. 5/5
    The new legendary items are gonna be the major power up to your character, these are made by picking the legendary power you want and combining it with a profession crafted piece of gear and some more stuff. All in all, it will be a very customizable piece of gear with a nice buff to your class. Obtaining these legendary powers can be somewhat tough and will sometimes require you to go out of your comfort zone of doing the content you don't enjoy. You might really want a power that comes only from PvP, but you are a PvE player with little to no interest in PvP. Most of these legendary powers are hit or miss with the most effective in most types of content already being figured out. 3/5
    Dungeons: The new 8 dungeons are in, and I've tested them all on the mythic difficulty. I have to say that I'm satisfied. The dungeons provide some challange with room for being creative for the trash packs and boss fights. The bosses have some new and fun mechanics, for example one of them being throwing two players into a pit fight and the winner gets a damage buff, and a bunch of all mechanics mixed and matched into new fun encounters. With that beings said some encounters can get pretty boring and simple once you break them down, so the challange goes down by a lot in those fights. 4/5
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  2. Nov 27, 2020
    10
    These reviews are wack this is the best expansion to date. The wow community is so whiny and toxic. Best expansion for new players to join.
  3. Nov 27, 2020
    10
    Sicuramente meglio di bfa. Le ambientazioni sono bellissime e stavolta avremo qualcosa in più da fare.
  4. Nov 27, 2020
    0
    The Warmode system is still in play. This has caused my server (Horde Heavy) to become PvE. This was introduced in BFA to encourage PvP, but has had the opposite effect. People can opt out of PvP on PvP servers now (couldnt before BFA).

    At least islands are gone.
  5. Nov 27, 2020
    3
    Graphics and textures are amazing in this expansion so far, I've been very impressed with how things are look visually in this expansion.

    Leveling is a very linear and almost boring experience, nothing new here just same old mmo quests. You just go from zone to zone doing the main quests while only doing side quests when you are level gated, quests rewards are just gold and gear. When i
    Graphics and textures are amazing in this expansion so far, I've been very impressed with how things are look visually in this expansion.

    Leveling is a very linear and almost boring experience, nothing new here just same old mmo quests. You just go from zone to zone doing the main quests while only doing side quests when you are level gated, quests rewards are just gold and gear. When i look back at the leveling experience and ask myself if I had fun, it is a resounding no.

    The story is a little confusing and it is very easy to miss certain details that are important to the story. The story is hard to connect with, and honestly I'm tired of being called champion/mortal/maw walker every 2 minutes. There are some cool cutscenes but personally I found most of the story to be pretty boring, with no actual fun parts to it. Compared to Legion or even WOD's campaign I'm pretty disappointed.

    Torghast is pretty fun due to some of the cool choices you can make and the fact you can play with your friends. Some specs will have a really tough time solo while others breeze through relatively easily. You basically have to keep grinding it to unlock your legendary gear and the higher tiers are currently time gated. Overall, pretty cool but very grindy.

    PVP so far is very fast paced, focusing on huge burst damage and killing in one stun. I would avoid for now unless you are playing as one of the burstier specs or as a healer.

    Covenants are interesting but you can not change covenants without being punished severely. This will be one of your many end game grinds that revolve around doing world quests/collecting anima for upgrades. Right now I think spamming the same world quests where you kill 5 mobs then click 5 things or do buggy mini games really isn't that fun and it feels very tedious to do.

    Dungeons are well done and feel fun to do. Each covenant brings a unique power to each dungeon which changes up the experience. For mythic+ as a dps it is very hard to get into groups unless you are playing meta specs, so same old stuff here.

    Overall, it's hard to justify paying 60+ dollars for this game unless you really like more of the same old WoW. There is a lot of cool art and animations but there are a lot of time gates/currency gates which make the game seem too tedious and honestly the story for me was a huge let down.
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  6. Nov 27, 2020
    10
    Português Br.

    História - 10
    Som - 10
    Gameplay - 10
    Gráficos - 10
    Diversão - 10

    Esse jogo é incrível uma verdadeira obra de arte muito imersivo você pode fazer o que quiser no game serio mesmo o problema é parar de jogar! Di
  7. Nov 27, 2020
    10
    No titan forging
    PVP scaling removed
    Doesnt take 30+ hours to level a toon
    Dungeons are good
    Gear matters more
    Zones are interesting

    Cant wait for raid
  8. Nov 27, 2020
    3
    Shadowlands does little things good and a lot really bad. I will concentrate on the bad here which made me do a negative review:

    Assets: Almost the whole expansion is recycled. Old mobs in new colours- very little new mobs, very little new animations, walk cycles and so on. Just recolors. Maps: While the first map is basic but functional, second and third are recycled, fourth is what
    Shadowlands does little things good and a lot really bad. I will concentrate on the bad here which made me do a negative review:

    Assets: Almost the whole expansion is recycled. Old mobs in new colours- very little new mobs, very little new animations, walk cycles and so on. Just recolors.

    Maps: While the first map is basic but functional, second and third are recycled, fourth is what all maps shouldve been like. Oribous is the most lazy attempt of a city hub in the history of WOW

    Thorgast: A complete mess. While there was so much potential it was awfully screwed up with buggy, uncreative and unrewarding mechanics. If it was somewhat balanced, and would ve gotten love it couldve easily been the greatest thing in a wow expansion in over 10 years. Imagine it just beeing a little like diablo- wouldnt that be great? Instead it plays like a early alpha of a inexperienced dev team.

    Gameloop: Is 85% the same of Bfa - get azerite through worldquests (now anima) buff your stuff and go m+ or raiding. Thorgast is mostly (atm) no use and little fun at all. So no innovation on that point...

    Leveling: It is pretty stupid but a normal geared bfalvl50 char with Ilvl120 will be stronger/as strong than a lvl 60 char full myth0 equipped . If you start the expansion you will start change items at around 58- until then you will become weaker and weaker. Until you do less dmg than you did (after squish) in Bfa.
    Apart from that leveling is same as ever. but shorter (which is good) It just feels completely stupid to lvl down (instead of up) to 60

    Depth: the content delivered with release is shallow at best. you lvl to 60 in about 10 hours without hustle (which is ok for me since i dislike leveling but its still lazy).
    We cleared all current content on day 2 of the expansion (all myth clear) without even trying hard.
    Ive never seen a normal instance from inside.
    You get 60, buy 151 gear set for small money, go heroic instances and thats it. content done.
    There will be more- we know that - but 2 days is a little stupid.

    Gear: There is about 1 gearset for every class at the moment- everybody looks same. random, green gear you get looks same as mythic gear.. its completely ridiculous.

    Overall: Activision delivered (so far) as catastrophic as expected. The result goes hand in hand with the rumors about the companies Ex Blizzard department. They delivered exactly enough to not be lynched but everybody who hoped for a game that might last a year or two - you will be disappointed.
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  9. Nov 27, 2020
    0
    The worst World of Warcraft has ever been. Feels like this expansion was made entirely by interns. From the writing, cutscene cinematography, quest design, and class balance. You're better off playing FFXIV Shadowbringers instead. The Metacritic ratings for Shadowbringers speak for itself.
  10. Nov 27, 2020
    8
    So far the game is excellent , the story line and quests feel much more solid and thorougher then BFA, whilst we are all entitled to our opinion i feel as though some people haven't given the expansion enough time , i feel and i have been in the same boat before burnt out. if a game or this expansion is lame , then seriously don't play it, i find this expansion wonderful so far and whilstSo far the game is excellent , the story line and quests feel much more solid and thorougher then BFA, whilst we are all entitled to our opinion i feel as though some people haven't given the expansion enough time , i feel and i have been in the same boat before burnt out. if a game or this expansion is lame , then seriously don't play it, i find this expansion wonderful so far and whilst many will not agree i feel that Cata was the worst expansion from blizzard, again raiding full time from BC , then Wrath into Cata i was bored and burnt out , have a break , take months if needed even longer. the other issue is people belted through 10 lvls in a few hours then complained ... really take the time to explore do the story side quests, the game isn't a week old yet. The most positive things about SL so fart has been the story , not just the main story , but stories of old enemies that i have killed in previous xpacs, the zones look amazing , yes it is an old engine but they really nailed it, the instances are fun and different with some strat needed. New sets look really good. My biggest grips with the game so far and has been for a while i hate been forced into a spec as certain specs are just not cutting it , IE warlocks, even DK's , perhaps most classes, also choosing a covenant, some of the spell binds who get are just useless for certain class specs , and my last gripe far too many escort quests ... geez. no game is perfect and neither is shadowlands , but is no where near as bad as some have said. so now if you will excuse me i have some more story to catch up on :), have fun Expand
  11. Nov 27, 2020
    10
    Great story as Blizzard takes things to the afterlife of the World of Warcraft! I'm intrigued to see how things develop!
  12. Nov 27, 2020
    2
    The new leveling system is a damn joke. It is poorly implemented. If you have already done the first area of the expansion they bridge the gap. So that you can fill in the holes. You pick up the quest from Chromie and go off to the area, turn in the quest and wonder. Now what because there isn't anything to do.

    If instead you want to do the BFA storyline and skip the Battle For
    The new leveling system is a damn joke. It is poorly implemented. If you have already done the first area of the expansion they bridge the gap. So that you can fill in the holes. You pick up the quest from Chromie and go off to the area, turn in the quest and wonder. Now what because there isn't anything to do.

    If instead you want to do the BFA storyline and skip the Battle For Lordaeron. They have removed the quest to have you go talk to Anduin. So you have to heroes call board and there is a guard standing there with the quest to talk to Anduin. So you head off to Stormwind Keep, and no one is sitting on the throne. You have to go to the area by the library and find the blue bubble. Then go back in the first room of the left of the main hallway (that wasn't used in BFA) to meet the war council. Very Clunky and not well thought out.

    They should have waited another two to three weeks before releasing this sh*t show.
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  13. Nov 27, 2020
    9
    It's really really fun. So much better than bfa. They clearly put so much work into all the areas to make then unique and beautiful. Professions are finally useful too!
  14. Nov 27, 2020
    8
    Played since BC, the level up experience was nice, story is interesting, covenant are ok. pvp is nice (vendor and all). Cant wait for raid, People giving this a 0 are disingenuous. They did learn a lot from the BFA mistake, they need to continue and make it better.
  15. Nov 27, 2020
    9
    Launch was great; very smooth play experience. Stories in each zone are interesting and engaging; the cinematics are very good. New abilities in each zone are fun; loving the covenant choice, gives me a new play experience on each alt character. Threads of fate leveling is fantastic, so I don't have to go thru the zones again if I don't want too. The new leveling experience is also veryLaunch was great; very smooth play experience. Stories in each zone are interesting and engaging; the cinematics are very good. New abilities in each zone are fun; loving the covenant choice, gives me a new play experience on each alt character. Threads of fate leveling is fantastic, so I don't have to go thru the zones again if I don't want too. The new leveling experience is also very good, new characters can reach max level in a good amount of time. Overall a very good expansion! Expand
  16. Nov 27, 2020
    8
    Story flow, yes. Crying? Yes. Yelling? Yes. The grind? All right. I made it to 60 on a vengeance demon hunter, I chose my covenant. I'm actually happy overall. MUCH better than BFA. They listened on this one.
  17. Nov 27, 2020
    10
    One of the best expansions they have done. Made new and returning players welcome with easy to catch up tutorials and experiences. Beautiful new zones, npcs and a compelling story.
  18. Nov 27, 2020
    0
    WoW Shadow BF, Same broken game as before, same lack of commitment and investment in history and game as a whole, end of an era.
  19. Nov 27, 2020
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. И так дополнение Тёмные земли.
    На мой взгляд, это просто один из самых лучший аддонов или самый лучший аддон.
    Не хуже легиона уж точно, и скорее всего даже лучше выйдет.
    С первых минут игры чувствуется эпичность и необычность происходящего.
    Квесты понятные и доступные (они озвучены голосом), прокачка цепляет и это первый раз за всё время моей игры в WoW (с 2009) когда на прокачке мне было абсолютно плевать на мой уровень, и я просто проходил все задания и совсем не спешил взять максимальный уровень потому, что было прям интересно.
    Красивые локации, крутые подземелья (одни только "туманы скитта" и "та сторона" чего стоят, торгаст который можно проходить даже одному, всё это даёт огромный кредит доверия дополнению с первых дней.

    10/10 Я в восторге!
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  20. Nov 27, 2020
    0
    Draenor EU sends their regards.
    Fix. your. damn. servers.
    Abysmal support.
  21. Nov 27, 2020
    8
    10 is stupid, 0 is stupid. People are stupid. With no M+, no raid so far, leveling was above average, zone was above average, i'd say its an above average xpac so far.
  22. Nov 27, 2020
    10
    Best expansion since legion, No infinite grinds, better story, easy leveling, beautiful art, wonderful songs, fun tower levels with crazy powers. I can't wait for raiding to begin!
  23. Nov 27, 2020
    10
    Wonderful leveling system! The covenant system actually made me sit and think about what I wanted, all of the options are varied and worth choosing. ALL of the areas are beautiful and well made, the story and lore of the xpac are all well done and coherent. The classes all feel great with the new abilities. This xpac is so wonderful and I for one am thankful for all the blizz employeesWonderful leveling system! The covenant system actually made me sit and think about what I wanted, all of the options are varied and worth choosing. ALL of the areas are beautiful and well made, the story and lore of the xpac are all well done and coherent. The classes all feel great with the new abilities. This xpac is so wonderful and I for one am thankful for all the blizz employees working from home to give us this masterpiece. Torghast is the best end game I've ever seen in ANY game. Expand
  24. Nov 27, 2020
    0
    TLDR: Wait 4 or 5 months before buying/subscribing to this expansion. It likely is going to be another WoD or BFA.

    Long story: When this expansion to the World of Warcraft game was announced, it was weakest expansion with the lowest bar set for features and things to add to a game. Note this is a game with a monthly subscription greater than your monthly Netflix or other streaming
    TLDR: Wait 4 or 5 months before buying/subscribing to this expansion. It likely is going to be another WoD or BFA.

    Long story:
    When this expansion to the World of Warcraft game was announced, it was weakest expansion with the lowest bar set for features and things to add to a game. Note this is a game with a monthly subscription greater than your monthly Netflix or other streaming service, and then charges you a premium at the start of each expansion to play the latest content. That is already a fairly high cost in the modern market. All that was added this expansion:
    Questing to a new level cap (the old level cap of 120 was scaled down to 50 in a recent patch)
    Four Factions, similar to your old Aldor/Scryer reputations from BC, where you pick one and are on unfriendly terms with the others, so pick correctly. Think of it like Hogwarts Houses, the one you pick determines how you experience Hogwarts, or in this case the Shadowlands.
    A new raid (standard, usually one to three ship with an expansion, in this case just one)
    Some new dungeons. (a medium 8 for expansions, 4 leveling dungeons, 4 max level dungeons)
    Borrowed powers based on which of the four factions you picked.
    Legendaries make a return, as crafted items.
    Choose your own Math Adventure (this one is complicated, and will be expanded upon later).

    That is it. No new races, no new classes, no new talents rows, no new permanent class growth, no class sets or armor.

    So for the Choose Your Own Math Adventure "feature".
    So WoW has had a balancing problem, that was mitigated over the years by normalizing the classes to an extent up until MoP, an iteration of WoW back in 2012 to 2014. Class normalization was seen as bad and so classes were almost gutted with literal respect to the overall impact of what taking things out of the game does to its overall balance. Since then there has been a huge issue with class balance that the developing studio Blizzard has attempted to fix by adding in extra passive abilities and borrowed powers to try and fix old problems. Note borrowed powers are built to fix old problems not current problems, which is a big problem, because old problems should have been fixed and new problems should be actively worked on to be fixed. Instead of fixing current problems actively, Blizzard instead attempts to make small adjustments to passive traits in the hopes that it will be enough to cover a gaping hole in class design. Imagine you are with a group of players, and they can all run really fast and can start combat without you very early. They can nearly finish the combat by the time you join it. So they'll do more damage and you will do less. This feels bad for everyone involved, so Blizzard decides instead of giving you some way to catch up with your friends, they will just increase the damage you do on your first ability when you enter combat. On paper it looks like you've all done similar damage, so it's balanced, right? Except now to balance your class they tune down all of your damage after that first strike, so only your first ability in a fight does anything, and everything after that you might as well go afk, or find a way to break combat, so you can get your first strike ability back. So instead of the simple answer, make everyone go around the same speed, there is a whole new weird problem, that Blizzard painted themselves into a corner in. There are thousands of problems like this within the game. Blizzard tried to keep this expansion feature-light in order to try and fix these problems. Rather the problems directly and admit they were wrong to remove certain things from the game, instead they went the latter route in the example. They've created systems upon systems that complicate the game. Imagine Path of Exile level of systems, introduced within the faction you choose. You will have three new pseudo-talent trees in the form of NPC characters, that are like the Legion Artifact Talent Trees, but simpler and unable to be completed. You can only change the choices you make in them on a Freemium Mobile style charge system that you have to wait to recharge. None of these talents or abilities will give you a plain "x does y more damage" but instead say, "a has a b% chance to do c". Now one or two percentile things are easy to track, but when you add several of them, then you have to rely on the Simulation community to crunch numbers and figure out what works best, which normally changes on a fight by fight basis. Not to mention that at the moment, the choices you make can change your dps by 80%! So there isn't the old "it's only a 20% difference" between doing a completely wrong choice and a good choice. Now picking the wrong choice means you are 1/5 of a whole player. 5 players who made a choice without consulting outside simulation and theory sources will perform the same as one player who does minor outside reading. This is just sloppy development.
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  25. Nov 27, 2020
    10
    It shines like diamond on the summer sun! Tonns of new contntent and mechanics only at first patch, enemies gotted stronger and more dangerous, perfect working system of covenants, pretty good plot, new graphics and a lot of little things that made it game much better!
  26. Nov 27, 2020
    10
    Having a blast so far! The sweaty people aren't happy, but I haven't run into any issues at all as I'm just enjoying the levelling experience and dungeons.
  27. Nov 27, 2020
    10
    Jajaja, 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.
  28. Nov 27, 2020
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. In short, the storyline of World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is absolute garbage. However, I am not surprised because the storytelling of their previous expansions (starting at Warlords of Draenor) have not been impressive either.

    I strongly advise to not listen to the super positive reviews if one of their supporting points is that the storytelling is great. There are so many logical flaws and headscratchers within the storyline.

    For example, when the player is on top of Icecrown Citadel about to traverse into the "The Maw". Bolvar Fordragon makes it clear that he will not be joining you on your journey into "The Maw" because he fears that the jailer may enslave him. After the player escapes the "inescapable maw" through a dormant waystone that transports them to Oribos. The NPCs are shocked because the player is "touched by the maw". Shortly after, Bolvar Fordragon enters Oribos through a death gate and the NPCs state that they are touched by the maw as well. Therefore, Bolvar Fordragon went into the maw even though he said he wouldn't go to the maw. The player has no supporting information as to why Bolvar decided to do this. Unfortunately, you just need to accept the fact that he is there now for the set up of a forced dramatic scene between Taelia and Bolvar Fordragon. This is an entirely new level of cringe and bad writing. Then there is the storyline about the "emo" angels also known as the "Forsworn Kyrian" which are a monstrosity in itself.

    I can only compare the storytelling of World of Wacraft: Shadowlands to that of a child sitting in their room playing with their toys. Specifically, imagining random things that do not make any sense or progress the plot in any shape of form.

    The cutscenes and voice acting are not any better than the story either. Both are extremely underwhelming when you experience them. In fact, most players skip through them because they are so underwhelming.

    The gameplay and mechanics of the game are what keeps this review from being a straight 0. World of Warcraft: Shadowlands has decent and engaging gameplay for all classes. I believe most WoW players understand this now because most of them skip through the storyline quests and cutscenes so that they can get to the end game content and do the only enjoyable thing in the game.

    If you do not care about any RPG aspects of an MMORPG and simply enjoy mindless raiding, dungeons, and PvP. This game is a good buy. However, if you are looking for a game with an engaging storyline and RPG elements - you are way better off playing Final Fantasy: Shadowbringers.
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  29. Nov 27, 2020
    10
    After BfA a breath of fresh air. As good as no mandatory content. Do what you like to do, rather than developers telling you what to do. Great dungeons, awesome story line to level through and PvP is as good as ever. A++
  30. Nov 27, 2020
    10
    Great expansion, story line is beautiful classes are fine zones are awesome i'm glad we got that expansion and i can't wait to see what it has to offer
Metascore
83

Generally favorable reviews - based on 32 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 31 out of 32
  2. 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. 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.
  3. 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.