Well, it's a little later than we might have expected, but we have the first glimpses of content from Shadowlands.
And boy howdy, does it look fantastic.
Generally speaking, I'm always happiest when Blizzard goes for a more heightened, high fantasy feel with WoW (taking a couple allied race alts to Outland is making me wish there were the resources to give all of Outland a sort of Arathi Highlands revamp, because conceptually, it's amazing, but it does look like it came out in 2007, oddly enough).
Well, with Shadowlands, WoW is going to its most otherworldly locations ever, and what I've been seeing looks ridiculously cool.
Each of the zones has its own vibe, with monsters, equipment, and other elements that fit in with those vibes.
Bastion, while probably the most pleasant zone (I'll need to see more of Ardenweald, though) has, I think, the least unprecedented look. It seems to share a lot with the Titan/Vrykul aesthetic as seen in Stormheim and the Halls of Valor, though the color palette is more heavenly than Odyn's Valhalla feel, with more blue and brighter golds. My Paladin will surely feel best here, though as a player, I think it will mostly be best to serve as a counter-balance to the much darker looks we come across.
Ardenweald is all about the organic, and the models we're seeing out of it actually remind me of early impressions of Night Elf zones like Teldrassil (RIP) and Ashenvale - that kind of organic greens and purples, where it feels like nature-based fey magic is everywhere. Armor made of wood, weapons with crystals attached to wood define the feel here, and the monsters are generally pretty, but in that fey way where you need to be very careful about pretty things. Also (minor SPOILER): there are Drust here. I'm super happy about that, because Drustvar is my favorite zone in BFA, and I really wanted to see more of that story.
Maldraxxus is going to look very familiar, given that the Scourge was essentially a stolen portion of Maldraxxus' power. While I might quibble a bit about where the Scourge got its look and feel (I was under the impression that Naxxramas and the whole obelisks-and-floating citadels thing was stolen from the Nerubian remnants of the Black Empire), the kind-of gross aspects of the undead in Warcraft basically come from here, with abominations, skeletal necromancers and liches, and lots of goo-monsters.
Revendreth is gothic-horror world, with the vampiric Venthyr, and a lot of classic gothic imagery like tombstones, gargoyles, refined ornate clothing with a sanguine color scheme, carriages. It seems the intro raid to the expansion will take place here, and appears to be essentially Dracula's castle. Notably, while the previous three Shadowlands zones are meant as final destinations for souls that have some worth (yes, even Maldraxxus, which is gross but not, apparently, a terrible place to wind up,) Revendreth is essentially purgatory - bad people go here to be "rehabilitated" by the Venthyr. If you find redemption, you either get sent off somewhere else or you can become a Venthyr yourself. If you don't, they dump you in the Maw.
And yes, we also get some armor and monsters from the Maw, and damn if these don't seem like the most freaking hardcore "bad guy" looking pieces. Essentially, imagine Sauron's armor or the Nazgul, and apply that aesthetic to everything from armor to dogs to knights to necromancers. My Death Knight really, really wants a full set of armor from here.
But that's not all! Oribos, the hub city of the expansion, also appears to have gear associated with it (and, less surprisingly, some NPC models.) This fits a bit with the Eternal Traveler set that those who got fancier editions of the expansion might have, with a kind of otherworldly, almost futuristic feel. A bit more metallic and shining, but in a different way than that of Bastion.
I've been excited about Shadowlands, but seeing the art work that's already visible is convincing me that if nothing else, the expansion will have some really amazing visuals.
There are also story spoilers to be found (which, as always, Magister Rommath reminds you that you have to take with a grain of salt) and, of course, some major things we have yet to understand.
But this is definitely getting me hyped big-time.
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