I think it's important to remember that every expansion has its detractors. Back in 2008-2010, I remember tons of people complained about Wrath of the Lich King, saying that the raids were too easy, or that Burning Crusade had more interesting environments, or that the game had been given over to the "casuals." These days, most WoW players would rank it as one of the best expansions, if not the best one. Indeed, I think Legion is the only expansion where it seemed like the majority of players tended to praise more than criticize it while it was live - and there are certainly those who hated it.
BFA is in a weird place right now. I think that a lot of people like the current concepts that came with 8.3 - Horrific Visions, Old God ominousness. Maybe people are much more divided over Corrupted Gear (I think it's cool, personally, but I'm also not a serious razor's edge raider who is getting gear that he can't use yet because of the gating on working on the cloak.)
But BFA nevertheless does not feel like it's going to go down as one of WoW's best expansions. Indeed, some are calling it the game's worst (though I think those people must have amnesia if they think BFA could unseat Warlords of Draenor.)
In fact, let's talk about BFA's problems compared to those of Warlords.
Warlords, to my mind, had three key problems:
The first was that Blizzard had always had this ambition to come out with an expansion every year prior to Warlords, and it was with 6.0 that they attempted to actually do this. Given that, in a typical expansion cycle, the final patch of an expansion tends to come out roughly a year after the expansion came out, for Warlords, they just cut that final patch, giving us two raid tiers in place of the usual three. Blizzard couldn't actually deliver the follow-up in 2015, though (holy crap I feel old) and so, rather than speed up the expansion cycle, we just had a massive content drought. And this is before we even consider the fact that maybe, two years is actually a better interval for expansions, as one-year expansions would make every threat we face feel underdeveloped and gone too soon (not to mention I don't think players want to plop down the cash for a new expansion every year on top of subscription fees.)
Second, the story was convoluted as hell, and then didn't even make use of its most interesting elements. The eponymous Warlords - the original leaders of the Old Horde - were almost all wiped out in the first patch, and the notion that this would be an alternate path for the Horde wound up being undone as they just fell to demonic corruption anyway. The only fun time-travel trope to occur was the production of a new Gul'dan, but you could count the actual long-term impacts of the expansion on a single finger. And while yes, time travel is a hard subject to write, for those of us who love it as a sci-fi/fantasy concept, don't promise it and then totally ignore its potential. Where the Fel was the Infinite Dragonflight in all of this?
Third, Garrisons. Blizzard demonstrated how their "gameplay trumps flavor" preference for design turned what should have been a fun player-housing concept into a joyless ghost town with myriad solutions in search of problems to solve. Garrisons dragged down various systems - including gearing, kind of the most central system in the game - with them.
So let's compare those failings with BFA:
BFA does not lack for content. We got a full three raid tiers (with a starter raid and a bonus mini-raid) even if the elimination of tier gear means they're not "proper" tiers. (Also, can I just take a moment to complain that raid gear this expansion is really underwhelming aesthetically? It all looks at best like blue dungeon gear. Where's the crazy glowing bits? Where's the intricate designs and particle effects? At level 120 I'm a ridiculous battle-god, and I should look like it.) But we've also seen experiments in world content like the more free-form Mechagon world quest, stuff like the Bee mount grind, and stuff like the Nazjatar findable quests. Plus, we've got a totally different leveling story for Alliance versus Horde, and tons of story quests to take us through the War Campaign.
Story-wise, I'm very split here. I think BFA's story was one that I didn't want them to do, but that they told very well - or rather, part of it was. I know that defenders of the expansion keep telling me that Sylvanas was not Garrosh 2.0, but frankly, I disagree. Sylvanas was unexpectedly named Warchief by her more enlightened predecessor, went on to make the Horde more ruthless and expansionist, and then escalated the conflict by attacking a major Alliance settlement and destroying it with many civilian deaths. Her brutality and authoritarian tendencies inspired a celebrated hero of the Horde who had previously been partially complicit in her actions to turn from her and organize a resistance, which ultimately led to a combined force of Alliance and rebel Horde forces to the gates of Orgrimmar. Then, when she was unseated by the actions of this rebellion, she escaped punishment and broke reality in order to usher in the next expansion.
I mean... are you really telling me that this is totally different from what we saw with Garrosh?
But I think the early stuff - showing the outward appearance of Zandalari stability crumble in the face of Zul's actions and deep-delving into Jaina's psychological journey and quest to win back her peoples' trust (guys, we got a pre-rendered cinematic for a dungeon) - were really well-done. Yes, I'm sick of how my characters are forced to forget the lessons they learn every expansion about how Azeroth is safer and better for everyone when the factions learn to work alongside one another instead of murdering one another (a lesson the Horde seems to have a harder time with than the Alliance, I'll note) but the story was told well.
If anything, BFA's problem here is that, rather than not touching on enough (like Warlords ignoring any of the cool time-travel issues,) BFA basically had two major plots, and while I think it gave the faction war story plenty of material, the N'zoth story - one that I think could have underscored an entire expansion - felt short-changed, despite having three of the five raids dedicated to it (arguably four given that Uldir is basically an Old God raid.) Indeed, when you actually take a step back, this definitely was an Old God expansion. So why didn't it feel like one?
That's a genuine question, and one that speaks to the title of this post. Are we going to look back on BFA as the big Old God expansion that, in the end, it actually was? Or were there too many distractions from that plot to make it feel satisfying?
Let's talk gameplay.
If we want to talk about convoluted systems, look ye to Azerite armor.
Let's get this straight:
You have a necklace, and it upgrades with artifact power like the weapons in Legion. Ok. But in this case, the necklace's upgrades are pretty much just item level. Simpler, right?
Ok, but you also have special pieces for your helmet, shoulders, and chest that have, essentially, artifact traits that you can choose from. In the end, epic pieces wind up with two major traits, one medium trait, one minor trait, and a final item level boost, all unlocked based on your Heart of Azeroth level. Sometimes, if you get a higher item level piece, you'll need a higher HoA level to unlock the same trait. But every piece has its own array of options.
Ok, and now you also have Essences that you plug into your Heart of Azeroth that give you one activated ability and one passive one. You have a slot for the activated ability one and can unlock more slots for passives as you level your Heart of Azeroth.
Ok, and now there's corrupted gear. You have a chance to get a piece of gear with a cool effect, but it will add to your corruption level. As your corruption level increases, you get various detriments that can make things harder for you. However, you can do Horrific Visions to upgrade a legendary cloak (there's a cloak now) to increase your corruption resistance, which can negate those effects.
Horrific Visions are not time-gated, but you need to get Coalescing Visions in order to buy a Vessel of Horrific Visions to run them, and the sources for Coalescing Visions are mostly time-gated, though you could, in theory, grind like crazy, getting 3-4 per mob killed to speed you to the 10,000 you need to get a single vessel.
Are you exhausted? I'm exhausted.
There are also Island Expeditions, which are kind of like 3-player scenarios from Mists of Pandaria with a bunch of randomized elements that are designed to be the most efficient way to get Azerite.
Wait, we're not done?
Titan Residuum. Warfronts.
It's a LOT.
And honestly, while new gameplay systems can make an expansion feel different, dear lord what the hell, Blizzard?
To wrap up:
It's obviously too early to assess the longterm legacy of BFA. I haven't even touched on Allied Races, for instance, which I think are almost entirely a positive for the game (though I worry for any new player who starts in Shadowlands or later that wants to play a Mechagnome - that'll be a tough grind.) I cannot think we're going to rank this as low as Warlords given that there was, truly, tons to do this expansion. But I also think Blizzard would do well to take a step back and get some perspective on things like gameplay systems and also the sort of story that players want.
Personally, while I'm disappointed we're not getting a Necromancer class with it, I'm really excited about Shadowlands in a way that I was not about BFA. It remains to be seen, of course, whether Covenants will be cool like Artifact Weapons or a convoluted mess like Azerite gear. What I think I'm most excited about is the fact that it looks to be a massive expansion of the lore - bigger than anything we've really seen before, in fact. If this is basically World of Warcraft: Planescape, I'm super in.
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