Article by Pietro Gualano
World of Warcraft: Legion comes at an extremely complicated time for the giant Blizzard. Warlords of Draenor has disappointed the expectations of many and, in the long run, has proven not to be an expansion that can keep fans glued to the screen for months and months. After taking note of the slow but constant decline in registered users, Blizzard therefore found itself at a crossroads and was, pass the term, forced to really give it all to regain an increasingly disillusioned user and looking for something. new one. Has the goal been achieved? We will not waste too much time and we will tell you immediately: at the moment it is simply impossible to answer. The reason is quite obvious, two or three weeks are absolutely not enough to have a certain and precise picture of the quality of a WoW expansion, even if in a similar period of time it is still possible to guess what will happen and give a general judgment. on the work done by the development team.
After having made this necessary premise we can start with the real review of World of Warcraft: Legion, are you ready for the arrival of the legion?
But how I missed you!
Let's start from the plot, an element on which Blizzard has focused a lot with several special videos and trailers with an epic atmosphere. Everything revolves around an event destined to shake the game's fantasy world forever: the "Burning Legion", an old acquaintance of ours, is back and our job is to send the demons back where they came from.
We don't intend to reveal too much so as not to spoil the surprise, this is obvious, but we can say that the presence of important characters from the World of Warcraft universe such as Gul'Dan and Illidan Stormrage manages to give a greater boost to the whole narrative of the game. The topics covered are not particularly original, this is true, but Blizzard has worked well in this respect and we have often forgotten to level or face alternative missions to continue in the story and discover new developments, places, characters and enemies.
Certainly, compared to the most recent expansions, progress has been made from the point of view of the quests, of course, there is no shortage of simple collection or production missions but in general all the tasks assigned to the player are quite pleasant to perform and we rarely get bored.
The ultimate goal, stopping the legion's advance, can only be achieved by going to new lands (we'll get to that later) and finding the ancient Pillars of Creation - these special tools are the only key to saving Azeroth.
A new world to explore
The Broken Isles, the new setting proposed in World of Warcraft: Legion, are undoubtedly a pleasant addition. Exploring this new continent has been a pleasure and initially, arriving in Dalaran, the longtime player can only go back to the days of The Wrath of the Lich King. The city is an excellent starting point, the perfect area from which to explore the five macro-zones present. A news that some will not like, but that many will probably appreciate, is that this time we have the possibility to manage the discovery of the world and the exploration as we prefer: we do not have to worry much about the level of our character, since each zone automatically assumes our level by offering an always adequate challenge. This goes for all areas except one, designed for players who have already reached the level cap (increased to 110) in which we can really progress in our exploits against the fiery legion.
The settings proposed in World of Warcraft: Legion, the colors used, the places of interest and above all Dalaran have really convinced us: it is not easy to create a world capable of capturing the player without becoming excessively heavy after hours and hours but Blizzard has already proven to know how to do it in the past and, fortunately, once again the company did not disappoint.
The right weapons to use with the right company
Let's now move on to the analysis of some very important and intriguing new features introduced in this new expansion: the artifacts and the class enclaves.
In the very early stages of the game we are immediately invited to find a legendary weapon, a very special tool that will accompany us throughout our adventure and that will almost become a real ally. To get the "artifact", the special object we are talking about, it is necessary to face some rather interesting quests and, once we have reached the conclusion, we have the possibility to customize it to make it truly ours.
Each class, of course, has its own particular artifact that must be managed not as a trivial instrument of death but, as we said before, as a kind of second character. Moving forward in the adventure, in fact, we can unlock new skills and special powers for our legendary weapon by spending points earned in various ways (quests and more) and, skill after skill, the player ends up with a truly devastating tool in his hands.
The artifact is absolutely central to this new expansion and represents a great addition to the World of Warcraft universe. The idea behind this mechanic, if we can define it that way, is apt and manages to involve the player also thanks to a successful aesthetic realization.
In addition to the artifact we have talked about so far, there are also 6 legendary artifacts (weapons and more) divided by class, but there is a limit that will undoubtedly make many turn up their noses: it is not possible to use more than two legendary artifacts at a time. It is however possible to take advantage of the two legendary pieces plus the bonus of the Tier armor since a sixth piece (the cloak) has been added.
Now let's move on to the class enclave, one of the most interesting elements of this new expansion. What are we talking about? The enclave is, in essence, a meeting point for players who have decided to focus on a certain class, a place where we can get in touch with a lot of users and better manage our artifact. Furthermore, from the enclave, we have the possibility to manage our followers with some specific missions to face and complete.
We really enjoyed this new feature introduced by Blizzard in World of Warcraft: Legion, the enclave is a simply perfect place to interact with other users who may be experiencing difficulties in using a particular class and allows players to form a sort of "team spirit", if we can define it that way, which manages to give that added value that can significantly improve the gaming experience.
Followers of Illidan
Blizzard very rarely introduces a new class into World of Warcraft, but when he decides to take action, he uses a heavy hand. With this new expansion, the “Demon Hunter” debuts, a new and intriguing class that can only be used after reaching a certain level (the missions start at 90). In addition to the unique aesthetic characteristics of the characters belonging to this class, characterized by an appearance as fierce as it is disturbing with horns and tattoos, we must immediately emphasize that the branches of specialization available are only two: we have "Havoc", perfect for Tanks since makes us extremely resilient and suited to serve as a human shield, and Vengeance, a specialization that basically allows us to take a more dynamic role and, through our fury, inflict a monstrous amount of damage.
The "Demon Hunter" is, in our opinion, an interesting addition to the World of Warcraft mix, a breath of fresh air that was probably needed that will surely lead many veterans of the title to experiment with new combinations. The class is fun to use, the possibilities offered are many and although it is quite simple to manage we believe it is extremely complex to master one hundred percent. It is probably early to give a definitive judgment on the "Demon Hunter", but the first sensations are positive and we believe that players will not tire of using it over the next few months.
Restoration operations
World of Warcraft, as many will know, has not really come out for a few days ... The game has more than ten years on its shoulders and it shows, but the work done by Blizzard in recent years has greatly modernized the title from a technical point of view and, as a result, Legion looks aesthetically pleasing. From an artistic point of view, a truly excellent job was done, there are places and structures that kidnap and it's easy to get lost in the game world forgetting your main task.
The various areas of the Broken Isles present a commendable variety and we believe this is a huge plus since it prevents repetition and, consequently, also boredom.
Furthermore, as regards the sound, our judgment can only be positive: the music and the effects are clean and free of particular defects and, an aspect not to be underestimated, they are always suitable for the context, managing in certain moments to convey a feeling of enthralling epic.
From the point of view of connectivity, we initially had some problems but subsequently, in the last days of our test, the situation improved a lot: probably, as reported by Blizzard itself, the large number of users who chose to try the expansion generated a lot of traffic.
Conclusion
World of Warcraft: Legion is apparently a great expansion, as we said at the beginning of the review, in our opinion it is still a bit early to speak but the premises are certainly all there. The artifact, the new class, the enclave… All the main innovations convinced us and we appreciated the ideas the Blizzard guys had.
Our advice for longtime fans of the game is definitely to give Legion a chance, the expansion deserves and could capture you leading you to spend tens and tens of hours in front of the PC screen again.
