First of all, happy late thanksgiving to all my american friends! It’s not a holiday we celebrate much where I live(in fact we have it on another day!), but still, happy thanksgiving.
I was planning to make a post about my experiences in the post Shattering Azeroth but a lot of little things conspired to prevent me from doing so. In a way, I’m thankful for that because it gave me more time to experience the content and gather my toughts.
Through the eyes of the NUB
It’s New Undercity Bataillon you band of twisted minds! Seriously, the NUB does really exist in game and Blizzard is having a lot of fun with it while your questing in Silverpine.
I made a choice last tuesday. There I was looking at all the new options and wanting to explore all the new places and I couldn’t decide where to start. Maybe I should make a new troll to see the new starting zone, or go on an exploring spree with my Death knight. Or again maybe I should go play some Plant vs Zombie in Hillsbrad. So many choices! Eventually I settled on a simple choice. I chose to experience the new content at a deliberatly slower pace, to take my time to enjoy it and savour it, not rush through it.
And what better way to do so than through the eyes of a new character experiencing the world for the first time?
I ended up making an undead hunter instead of a troll. Sure there would be less “new” content, or so I tought, but if I was going to level a character might as well be a combination I enjoyed and I’ve been wanting to make a hunter for a really long time. This turned out to be a really good choice because I feel it allows me to really see the new Azeroth while comparing it to the old since Tirisfal glade is not that different from the old one in essence.
The verdict
Am I satisfied with the new low-level content or is it simply a rehash of old-tired content? That would be the question most of us would want to ask no? But first I’m going to ask you another question. Are you expecting a new game or an updated version of the old one?
Because that’s what it is really. The Shattering is an update of the old Azeroth. The game still plays mostly the same, the quests have the same mechanics, a lot of the old textures and looks are still there and there’s quite a few of the old quests who are still present.
Does this means that I’m disapointed with WoW? Hell no! In fact I’m more motivated to play than I’ve ever been in a long time. I love the new storylines (Silverpine kicks major ass by the way), the new quests, the new mobs and new NPCs. They changed the flow of quests in old zones so that now you get a fun story as you go along. I had a blast seeing that poor forsaken you helped become a deathguard or following the storyline of an ex-scarlet crusader who became forsaken. You also have to see an NPC follow you around and pile cadavers on his back to appreciate how far Blizzard has come in quest design and implementation.
The final verdict is still up in the air as I want to give Cataclysm a few months to see how things will evolve but so far it’s been an awesome adventure.
