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

    No thanks. In the current state nobody in their right mind would pay for this game.    … Expand
  3. Enkl1
    Nov 19, 2021
    1
    This game has a lot of problems... so many, many problems...
    But considering recent events, that came out about Activision Blizzard, as well as changes in 9.1.5. like... "fruit bowls" (hrumph)... I truly believe the biggest issue with wow is the fact, that there is still racism in this game. Racism, that is represented as a pillar of wow. Simply disgusting.
    The races are still divided    This game has a lot of problems... so many, many problems...
    But considering recent events, that came out about Activision Blizzard, as well as changes in 9.1.5. like... "fruit bowls" (hrumph)... I truly believe the biggest issue with wow is the fact, that there is still racism in this game. Racism, that is represented as a pillar of wow. Simply disgusting.

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

    It's really, really disgusting, that Blizzard is representing racial segregation as essential to the game.
    And the sad thing is, that some players swallow this toxic mindset.    … Expand
  4. Dorik
    Nov 20, 2021
    2
    Just reset the game to Legion already. Seriously.
    The story in bfa and shadowlands -> cringe show
    Faction imbalance -> still ignored. Since bfa it's probably beyond repair. No wonder after all the stuff that was done there, yet still no cross faction play Racism -> still here, strict racial segregation between the playable races. Borrowed power systems -> big oof Content droughts ->    Just reset the game to Legion already. Seriously.
    The story in bfa and shadowlands -> cringe show
    Faction imbalance -> still ignored. Since bfa it's probably beyond repair. No wonder after all the stuff that was done there, yet still no cross faction play
    Racism -> still here, strict racial segregation between the playable races.
    Borrowed power systems -> big oof
    Content droughts -> Blizzard: Who cares. Buy our store items!
    Customization options -> Some races got a little bit, others almost nothing. Still no sliders... in 2021.
    Old world -> still being ignored. Blizzard: Who cares that our world looks like something from the early 2000s?

    Just don't waste your time and money! with this game.    … Expand
  5. Tamsom
    Nov 22, 2021
    1
    Shadowlands is a mess... so pretty much the same like bfa.
    The lore is a mess, the systems are a mess, the gameplay is a mess.
    My reason for finally quitting? The faction imbalance. Yes, it has been there for many years and yes, the devs apparently had a lot of fun making the whole situation in bfa so much worse (overweight and rediculous big humans vs Zandalari, gnomes with amputated    Shadowlands is a mess... so pretty much the same like bfa.
    The lore is a mess, the systems are a mess, the gameplay is a mess.
    My reason for finally quitting?
    The faction imbalance. Yes, it has been there for many years and yes, the devs apparently had a lot of fun making the whole situation in bfa so much worse (overweight and rediculous big humans vs Zandalari, gnomes with amputated arms & legs vs cute foxes for example), but some players wake up sooner than others and my time has finally come now too.
    I'm so done with the devs constantly abusing the faction system... no thanks.

    There are other mmos like Final Fantasy 14, that have a healthy faction system, no racial segregation, actual housing and customisation options, good lore and so much more then this pile of garbage called world of warcraft.    … Expand
  6. Grigax
    Nov 23, 2021
    0
    The developers of Blizzard are a bunch of hypocrites.
    Slapping themselves on the shoulder for doing things like replacing an ingame painting of a woman to a bowl of fruits, removing emotes and calling themselves progressive, while at the same time letting racism untouched and treating racial segregation and a hive mind mentality of the playable races as the very foundation of wow.
    /spit    The developers of Blizzard are a bunch of hypocrites.
    Slapping themselves on the shoulder for doing things like replacing an ingame painting of a woman to a bowl of fruits, removing emotes and calling themselves progressive, while at the same time letting racism untouched and treating racial segregation and a hive mind mentality of the playable races as the very foundation of wow.
    /spit on these double standards    … Expand
  7. 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
  8. Ywwo
    Nov 29, 2021
    0
    Don't waste your money on this game.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Players, who are still playing this game... take your blinders off, seriously.
    There are other mmos. Play them, like really playing them, not skipping everything and pretend you tried them. Only if you really played something else you might finally understand how bad wow really is.    … Expand
  9. Jakkl
    Dec 1, 2021
    0
    Oh boy, I thought this game couldn't get any worse than bfa. Well... then came sl.
    The story is laughable idiotic and on such a cringe level...
    The devs are hilariously hypocritical, claiming to be progressive, yet keeping racism as the foundation of wow and not letting players choose their favorite faction regardless of the race they want to play. They continue to force a lot of    Oh boy, I thought this game couldn't get any worse than bfa. Well... then came sl.
    The story is laughable idiotic and on such a cringe level...
    The devs are hilariously hypocritical, claiming to be progressive, yet keeping racism as the foundation of wow and not letting players choose their favorite faction regardless of the race they want to play.
    They continue to force a lot of ridiculous borrowed power systems on the players.
    So much time gating and looooooong content droughts, despite the greedy game design.
    So much imbalance, both in factions and in classes...
    FOMO
    No new classes, no new races, no world and npc updates (except for the dev's waifu Sylvanas, who constantly gets model updates), still no player housing, imbalanced and laughable few customization options (still no sliders)

    Do yourself a favor and don't play this clown show.    … Expand
  10. 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
  11. Taylor8O
    Nov 30, 2021
    0
    This game has become unbearable. It's a mess and the only ones left playing this "mmo" are the most toxic crowd you can think of, full of copium. No wonder obviously, toxic systems and toxic devs create toxic players.

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

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

    Overall it's just a really terrible game, that had some nice aspects during Legion, but lost those completely in bfa and now in shadowlands.    … Expand
  12. 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
  13. 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
  14. 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
  15. 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
  16. 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
  17. 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
  18. 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
  19. Acrol87X
    Feb 16, 2022
    1
    Just as bad as bfa.
    Worst part for me personally is the awful story, that continues to focus around that horrible written Mary- or in this case Evil Sue Sylvanas. That character has caused several retcons and idotic lore decisions just so she can be the focus of the story all the time... just really, really awful story telling that ruined the lore of wow completely.
    Stuff like faction    Just as bad as bfa.
    Worst part for me personally is the awful story, that continues to focus around that horrible written Mary- or in this case Evil Sue Sylvanas. That character has caused several retcons and idotic lore decisions just so she can be the focus of the story all the time... just really, really awful story telling that ruined the lore of wow completely.

    Stuff like faction imbalance caused by faction neglection of the devs, FOMO, borrowed power, Choregast, class imbalance, outdated graphics, drop rates, time gating and many more things... well, it's not like there wasn't any feedback, but the devs keep ignoring their player's feedback for the most part... overall a really toxic game design.

    Now I had some hope with the announcement that they would finally introduce cross faction play with 9.2.5.... better late than never I guess... but turns out that they are only making cross faction raids, dungeons and rated PvP available, so I was instantly let down, yet again, as I learned that they keep the races separated and also don't allow cross faction guilds, lfr, random bgs and alt mailing... so essentially ignoring all their casuals.

    Just wow... cater for like what? 5% of the playerbase while continuing to ignore the majority? No thanks. So again, that tiny step they are making there won't bring me back.

    If they are finally getting rid of racial segregation and let us choose a faction freely without binding the races to a certain faction, then we can talk, but what they are doing now is nothing more than a tiny band-aid on a broken leg, that hasn't been treated for several years.    … Expand
  20. 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
  21. 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
  22. JR7
    Mar 23, 2022
    1
    What a hypocritical company. They change an ingame painting of a woman into a bowl of fruits for example and claiming with that they would now be progressive, yet at the same time they keep racism in form of strict racial segregation (except for Pandaren) in their game.
    Like... what?? In what reality is racism as a foundation of a game progressive?
    But that are Blizzard's double    What a hypocritical company. They change an ingame painting of a woman into a bowl of fruits for example and claiming with that they would now be progressive, yet at the same time they keep racism in form of strict racial segregation (except for Pandaren) in their game.
    Like... what?? In what reality is racism as a foundation of a game progressive?
    But that are Blizzard's double standards for you...
    In their world what counts in order to pick a faction is what you look like, not what you stand for.

    Shadowlands is yet the second awful expansion in a row. It has incredibly bad lore just like bfa, it has long content droughts, repetitive borrowed power systems, still outdated graphics, incredible unbalanced customisation options between the races und still a serious imbalance between the factions.    … Expand
  23. HugoXY
    Mar 25, 2022
    0
    We have 2022 and Blizzard is still promoting racism with the division of the playable races. Yikes. Only exception being Pandaren, but all the other's have seemingly a hive mind and keep to only to one side. What an embarrassment for modern times.
    It comes to no surprise however, considering the lawsuit against this company.
    A friend of mine said I should try this game and I was    We have 2022 and Blizzard is still promoting racism with the division of the playable races. Yikes. Only exception being Pandaren, but all the other's have seemingly a hive mind and keep to only to one side. What an embarrassment for modern times.
    It comes to no surprise however, considering the lawsuit against this company.
    A friend of mine said I should try this game and I was disgusted that the first thing I saw was open racism. Jeez... and there are still players, who actually play this game? Just sad...
    Not to mention the limited customisation options and age old graphics in this game.
    I can't recommend world of warcraft at all.    … Expand
  24. Dhoris
    Mar 28, 2022
    1
    This game has soooo much outdated stuff...
    Imagine still holding on to racism in this day and age. Yeah, that's world of warcraft for y'all, where almost all races are split to a certain faction because, if you look a certain way, then you will of course only stick to your own kind, because that is how factions work! -Blizzard's mentality.
    The only race with free will is Pandaren. All    This game has soooo much outdated stuff...
    Imagine still holding on to racism in this day and age. Yeah, that's world of warcraft for y'all, where almost all races are split to a certain faction because, if you look a certain way, then you will of course only stick to your own kind, because that is how factions work! -Blizzard's mentality.
    The only race with free will is Pandaren. All the others stick to racial segregation. Makes you kinda want to puke honestly. And the devs probably think this mentality is fine.

    Also outdated graphics, FOMO (mage tower without artifact skins for example), stupid lore, no cross faction lfr and lfd, no cross faction guilds, lack of modern customization options, you name it. Just don't play this game until major changes happen... if they will ever happen that is.    … Expand
  25. Horok
    Mar 31, 2022
    0
    What a racist company. Racial segregation is still a thing in this game. It might have been acceptable in 2004, but they kept it til this very day. Only half of the races are available for one faction, while the other half is available for the other faction. In Blizzard's mind this is seemingly the way factions work, meaning what race you are is important, not your values. Like... wtf?
    I    What a racist company. Racial segregation is still a thing in this game. It might have been acceptable in 2004, but they kept it til this very day. Only half of the races are available for one faction, while the other half is available for the other faction. In Blizzard's mind this is seemingly the way factions work, meaning what race you are is important, not your values. Like... wtf?
    I just find it hilarious, how people only just recently realised how racist this company is due to the lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, while in reality this game had obvious racist elements since the very beginning.
    I for one won't touch this game as long as they keep racial segregation (and as long as the lore keeps being so unbelievable brain afk and as long as there is no cross faction guilds, lfr and lfd).    … Expand
  26. 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
  27. ZekanK
    Feb 23, 2022
    0
    Shadowlands feels like a mindless chore. There are way too many grinds, way too long content droughts and way too much time gating and FOMO.
    Not to mention the horrible story. The developers seem to be obsessed with Sylvanas, like seriously. They are going out of their way to make the whole story about this stupid character. Certainly a huge part why battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands    Shadowlands feels like a mindless chore. There are way too many grinds, way too long content droughts and way too much time gating and FOMO.
    Not to mention the horrible story. The developers seem to be obsessed with Sylvanas, like seriously. They are going out of their way to make the whole story about this stupid character. Certainly a huge part why battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands have a trash story.
    Also a huge factor why this game is trash is the faction imbalance, which the developers created. It's gotten so bad, that this game is beyond repair. They have to introduce cross faction guilds, raids, pvp, lfr, alt mailing etc. asap.
    They also have to allow all races for both factions. Not only because of faction imbalance, but rather because racial segregation is just a horrible aspect of wow in general.
    Racism should never be something that is as glorified as it is in this broken af game.    … Expand
  28. XxZxX
    Apr 3, 2022
    0
    Shadowlands is awful. Second awful expansion in a row...

    Along with the typical stuff like FOMO, racism -yeah, playable races are still split between the 2 factions, what really makes you question the mentality of the devs, but whatever,- no player housing, unbalanced and in general too few customisation options, no dyeable gear, no npc and world update -seriously, the graphic is    Shadowlands is awful. Second awful expansion in a row...

    Along with the typical stuff like FOMO, racism -yeah, playable races are still split between the 2 factions, what really makes you question the mentality of the devs, but whatever,- no player housing, unbalanced and in general too few customisation options, no dyeable gear, no npc and world update -seriously, the graphic is outdated af in this game-, borrowed power systems, huge content droughts, almost no communication between devs and players and unbalanced classes you get another expansion with really stupid lore with Sylvanas as the main character since the devs seem to be obsessed with her for several years.

    Do yourself a favor and don't waste time with world of warcraft. This game won't respect your time and on top of that glorifies racism.    … Expand
  29. Anatar90
    Jan 24, 2021
    0
    As every Blizzard product it is not a game it is a service for milking their playerbase. No fun, no rewards, extrimly toxic community of funboys. There are many good MMO's on the market with their own pros and cons but definitly better than WoW: Guild Wars 2, Final Fantasy XIV, ESO. Beware of Blizzard false marketing machine!
  30. Cookie728
    Feb 18, 2022
    0
    Activision Blizzard is as toxic as it can get.
    Do not play World Of Warcraft as long as this toxic game design and in general this toxic mentality of the developers continues.
    Since this will be a long critic, I will concentrate on the biggest problem, faction imbalance: The devs will tell you „Oh, well, we're listening“, „We're working on it“, „It's a player made problem, not our    Activision Blizzard is as toxic as it can get.
    Do not play World Of Warcraft as long as this toxic game design and in general this toxic mentality of the developers continues.

    Since this will be a long critic, I will concentrate on the biggest problem, faction imbalance:

    The devs will tell you „Oh, well, we're listening“, „We're working on it“, „It's a player made problem, not our fault“ and so on,
    while in fact, no, they are not working on it, they haven't done anything to improve the situation while they should have done something a decade ago, they are not listening, they make the situation worse and worse and it definitely is the fault of the devs.

    For example:

    They gave the overpopulated faction a new version of night elves with their own model, lots of lore and a beautiful and large city... the unpopular faction get's a copy & paste race, but blue and with incredibly ugly hair styles and tentacles with some rocks in the void as their home that nobody but them can visit and without a unique model...

    H-Gets a better looking version of an old race,
    A-get's an ugly fat version of an old race with a ridiculous big body height, probably because the devs want to reuse that model for heavily requested ogres for the overpopulated faction...

    And the biggest insult of all:

    H-gets a brand new race, that could be sraight out of a Disney movie and was heavily requested by both factions. A race that could finally bring players back to the unpopulated faction... nah, let't give that to the already overpopulated faction!
    A-get's a variation of an old and extremely unpopular race, that looks even worse than the old race.

    Congrats, Blizzard, you are clearly working on the problem by trolling the small faction. :)

    And this is just one of many things they did to insult the small faction.
    There are also the cities and zones for the factions.

    A- lost 2 zones, that are now in an endless limbo: controlled by the H and controlled by the A and not a final option, that would show them under the conrtol of A.

    A-lost their only and popular elf city and a world tree- Teldrassil, lost a big harbor city- Theramore, lost a druid village of night elves, lost several zones, Astranaar is still under attack, lost a sailor village in Kultiras.
    What did they get in return? Mechagon... a junkyad, literally.

    H-lost an unpopular and already broken city, that can be restored by removing the plague, that their own leader put there and a tauren village with like 3 tents or so.
    They get an extremely huge zone with a gigantic elf city and they get a second huge zone with a gigantic tauren city.

    Seems fair, huh? Good thing you are listening to all your players, Blizzard. :)

    Several friends of mine left wow over the last couple of years, who felt trolled by Blizzard for wanting to play the small faction and I had to switch to the overpopulated faction because my favorite faction became a ghost town... to no surprise.
    Eventually I quit this awful game too because there are no improvements whatsoever in Shadowlands.

    This problem wouldn't even be there in the first place, if one of this game's pillar's wouldn't be built on racism.
    If all races would be available for both factions, along with cross faction play we could all play the faction we prefer and wouldn't be forced to play the faction the devs prefer.

    A truly toxic game, that I can tell you and I won't give this company any more money for insulting a part of their playerbase... and for a painfully bad story (aka Sylvanas).    … 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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