Small details can be crucial, as in WoW: Shadowlands. At least Cortyn has found a few little things that stand out.
For quite a while now, I, Cortyn from MeinMMO, have taken a look at the Alpha of the next expansion of World of Warcraft. While we often report on the major innovations such as entire areas or features, the small details often get overlooked.
However, it is precisely these small details that greatly contribute to the atmosphere of Shadowlands, which is why I want to address them separately.
NPCs pay more attention to you than before
One of the subtler innovations in Shadowlands is that NPCs pay more attention to you. Not through comments, but through movements of their heads. Whenever you approach an NPC, they turn their head in your direction. This is done by both quest givers and patrolling guards, or simply the various characters of the game world.
This is a small detail, but it makes the world feel immediately more lively and less static. The NPCs do this, by the way, before you have selected them – so even when you simply walk past them. Especially in Ardenweald, it’s very noticeable when you walk past the large Tirnenn and they look down at you.
Freedom of choice in quests
Sure, the quests of World of Warcraft are basically very linear and that hardly changes. Nevertheless, I noticed that in some missions there is indeed a choice in how the character proceeds.
In Bastion, for instance, we have to help aspiring Kyrians to undergo their cleansing. They have to confront their memories and fears, overcome them, and conquer doubt. We have the choice of whether to help the Kyrians and uplift them or to reinforce their doubts.
This usually drives them directly into a transformation, and they become “Forsworn”, a rather evil faction in Bastion. Such decisions remind me of SWTOR with the “Light/Dark” effects.
Elsewhere, quests sometimes offer optional dialogues. We are to assist a Sylvari with a task, standing in for a fairy who usually takes care of it. For the fairy, it was customary to demand song and dance in return. If we wish, we can also demand this from the Sylvari and make him sing a silly (short) serenade before we proceed with the task.
Consideration of past experiences
Also in Bastion, right at the start, there is a quest where players are confronted with their past deeds. The Kyrians want to see what the character has experienced in their past and expect us to face these memories again.
In the corresponding quest, we must defeat enemies from our past – depending on which expansions we collected achievements in, different opponents appear.
This could be fighting against the Burning Legion or battling the Scourge and Arthas. The quest givers comment on this, and it is a nice throwback for the player to look back on the “old life” of the hero.
Sure, these details are, at the end of the day, just that – details. They will hardly decide whether WoW: Shadowlands will be a truly good or bad expansion. But such lovingly crafted details show me how much passion still goes into the work of the developers at Blizzard, and at least give me hope that I will discover many more small things that will delight me about Shadowlands.
Have you been tempted by the new expansion? All information about features, story, and release of WoW: Shadowlands can be found here.
