The war campaigns in World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth are somewhat disappointing. Because they do little and certainly do not escalate the conflict.
Actually, World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth should stoke the conflict between Alliance and Horde, after all, the breaking war is the core aspect of the expansion. Even before the launch of the expansion, players were divided into two camps and felt more attached to their faction than ever before.
And although both Horde and Alliance have a war campaign that deals with the fighting of Horde and Alliance, no conflict mood arises. This has several reasons.
The San’layn Problem
On the Alliance side, the war campaign was quite cool. One finds out that the Horde has taken in the San’layn, basically “vampire elves”, and actively uses them in the war. While hunting a particularly powerful blood prince (a leader of the San’layn), one’s own troops suffer heavy losses, leading to a lengthy game of cat and mouse.
The San’layn as “vampire” opponents are quite interestingly portrayed and are a clear gain for the Horde. They are powerful adversaries, and almost the entire campaign revolves around the hunt and destruction of the San’layn. That’s cool.
The catch is: As a Horde player, one learns nothing about the San’layn. It’s never mentioned that these vampire elves suddenly belong to the Horde and work for Sylvanas, not even a small hint is given.
There is absolutely no indication in the course of the Horde story that the San’layn have joined and are now operating under the Horde’s flag. Thus, players on Reddit were quite astonished that the San’layn appeared.
But it doesn’t end there. At the end of the current war campaign, the Alliance sinks a ship of the Zandalari. This all ends with a rather absurd speech from King Anduin Wrynn, who claims that under these new conditions the Zandalari can hardly offer any support to the Horde.
And again, here is the problem: As a Horde player, one notices nothing of this. There are no signs that something has happened and no indications that anything went off course.
No impact on the other faction
This makes the war campaign seem as if the Horde and Alliance are “playing past each other”. They do not influence each other. Each is cooking their own soup, and there are no noticeable effects.
The class campaigns in Legion handled this better, as the campaigns worked together or sometimes against each other.
But of course: Battle for Azeroth is still in its early stages. It may well be that Blizzard will better connect the plot threads. At the latest with a big showdown of the two fleets, this will likely be unavoidable – thankfully!
What is your opinion on the war campaign of Battle for Azeroth and the course of the war in general?
