World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth

Unless Blizzard has some real story shake-ups and a phenomenally tuned raid on the horizon, I’m honestly expecting the sharpest player decrease to set in within the next few months. The expansion itself has some interesting ideas, but sticking to a World Quest grindfest is quickly becoming the norm, and the Island Expeditions aren’t exactly exciting.

Battle for Azeroth will likely be remembered as one of World of Warcraft’s stronger expansions thanks to two interesting new modes and solid new zones.

The last World of Warcraft expansion, Legion, played with huge stakes in terms of player advancement and changes to systems and mechanics. Battle for Azeroth stands in its shadow in some respects, gently finessing some of those systems and providing a wealth of content, but dialing back the wow factor of acquiring legendary artifact weapons and unleashing them on the Burning Legion. Battle for Azeroth is a subtler ride, focusing more on impressive new environments and cool characters than sweeping transformation.

With two gorgeous new continents to explore, Battle for Azeroth is a welcome departure from the cataclysmic drama of Legion.

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth delivers the best storytelling and world design yet, but doesn't make any additional significant improvements to the World of Warcraft formula.

I will say this: I’m the most intrigued I’ve been to date with World of Warcraft‘s storyline. The enemy isn’t clear yet, and the breadcrumbs spread throughout the two campaigns are set. Battle for Azeroth isn’t my favorite expansion but it’s definitely up there.

Battle for Azeroth is a solid follow-up to Legion that'll keep fans happy - if only for the new continents, War mode, and dungeons. Time will tell if the rest of the features will give the expansion the shelf life it needs.

While World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth hasn't been my favorite expansion in the franchise, it brought with it some great new dungeons, fantastic new raid encounters, an excellent new story, and gorgeous scenery. I have hope that what is lacking, or "not working as intended" will be adjusted over time. My love for the game, and the thriving community I have built within it are what keep me logging in week after week. BfA is currently retailing for $49.99.

So far, World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth is a solid addition to the long-running MMORPG. Currently, I am trying to increase my item level so I can be ready for the raid in a few weeks. The grind to do that is a long one, requiring a lot of time that not a lot of people have. It is the one crux of this game. When you start World of Warcraft, you have to stay committed. If you’re serious about playing and want to enter the raid on the first day of release, missing just one day is a loss of progress. However, if you do commit and you have a group of people to play with, as it is right now, B...

In the end, Battle for Azeroth makes some great improvements in the levelling experience, but faults in its class design and the less rewarding Azerite system mean that overall, it takes too many steps back from Legion. It’s clear that Battle for Azeroth is an expansion that’s had a relatively short beta period, and many players find themselves unhappy – the messy Warfront launch typified this. Patch 8.1 needs to pull a lot of leg work to get several specs where they should be. More work needs to be done, and Blizzard is very aware of that, so there’s still hope that Battle for Azeroth may bec...

Note: The new Warfront mode, Mythic plus dungeons, and the expansion’s first raid, Uldir, have yet to be implemented. All of these features will, presumably, be released on or around Sept. 4. Once they’re released, we’ll update this review after we’ve taken the time to evaluate them.

The latest World of Warcraft expansion, Battle for Azeroth, is like comfort food. It’s familair, heartwarming, maybe a little bad for you, but you don’t care: you want it anyway. Battle for Azeroth has succesffuly recaptured my heart back to World of Warcraft with a streamlined questing experience, compelling overarching narrative, and a refocus back to the foundation of the entire Warcraft series: Alliance vs Horde. The expansion is not without its setbacks and shortcomings, yet I feel ...