The new expansion Shadowlands for World of Warcraft is currently gathering a lot of bad reviews on the review site Metacritic. Users are complaining about all sorts of things. How did it get such a low score?
This is happening on Metacritic right now: The user reviews for the new expansion Shadowlands are currently in the cellar on Metacritic. As of November 29, they are at 6.2 and have already risen – a few days ago they were still at 5.5.
For every 127 positive reviews, there are 105 negative and 10 neutral. Many reviews come from users who simply rate it with 0 points and either provide little explanation or do not explain at all what bothers them.
Many of these reviews actually appeared already on the release day, November 24. While there are players who have already reached maximum level after 3 hours, the majority probably has not seen everything from the Shadowlands that quickly.
Criticism of features – What’s the matter?
This is being criticized: Finding solid criticism in the negative reviews proves exceptionally difficult. Many users just complain that Shadowlands is boring or what is missing for them. Mentioned points include:
- no new races and classes
- repetitive tasks
- warmed-over content from old expansions
- alleged problems at release
The user Khatmar gives a somewhat more detailed review. He criticizes the lack of new content, the restrictions, and the “timegating” of cosmetic items and the story that he doesn’t like. However, he still gives it three points.
Is it all true? Cortyn said shortly after the release that Shadowlands punishes those who want to see everything. However, this is one of the few points of criticism that have at least emerged among us on MeinMMO.
Even the topic of “recycled content” is only partially true. Some mechanics actually return with Shadowlands, and many old characters are also back in the game. However, we are ultimately in the realm of the dead, and the reunion with beloved NPCs can be a beautiful thing, especially for veterans:
Furthermore, the release went extremely smoothly. Just shortly after the launch there were some problems, which still persist but occur rather sporadically. Most players, even on large servers, can play without issues.
Overall, the mood in both the press and the forums is rather positive to very positive. In the GameStar’s review of Shadowlands, for instance, the new expansion received a strong score of 84 points.
While playing, hardly anyone is complaining; the forum features recurring posts from users praising the addon. For example, in this thread by Shahrivar, who is actually quite critical himself.
On Metacritic, players have also joined in, taking action against “review bombing”. They write positive reviews, in which they sometimes criticize the negative reviews. User niyatimk writes, for example:
I created a Metacritic account just to rate this game after seeing the terrible (and childish) reviews. […] It blew me away. The graphics are incredible, the world is immersive […] the quests alternate between “just fun” and serious story. […] More of this, please, Blizzard!
Terrible trend on Metacritic and the like.
The bad reviews on Metacritic have set a certain trend for World of Warcraft. Since Wrath of the Lich King, it has been declining here with few exceptions. The user scores for the expansions are (chronologically):
- Burning Crusade: 8.1
- Wrath of the Lich King: 7.9
- Cataclysm: 5.7
- Mists of Pandaria: 5.1
- Warlord of Draenor: 5.8
- Legion: 7.3
- Battle for Azeroth: 3.0
This assessment roughly aligns with our worst expansions of World of Warcraft, but even here, these ratings are likely still significantly lower than what would be realistic.
This phenomenon is not just occurring with WoW. Metacritic and other platforms like Steam repeatedly have problems with “review bombing”, meaning users give extremely poor ratings without really having a critique. Individual points annoy them, so they refuse to give the game a chance at all.
Recently, with The Last Of Us Part II Metacritic took action against review bombing – but too late. And apparently, the problem still persists. What do you think about it? What is your opinion on Shadowlands and its bad reviews?
