Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - 03/Jan 04:06

World of Warcraft: Midnight – Preview

For the following preview, we were lucky enough to receive a copy of the Epic Edition of the new World of Warcraft expansion: Midnight, which is the second part of the World Soul Trilogy. We were able to take a closer look at the Early Access version of the new housing update, as well as the beta for Midnight’s content. While the new expansion brings additional content, as we have seen in the past, such as a new race, new story content, and so on, it was mainly the housing system that truly piqued our interest. With games like Ultima Online already having systems like this in place over two decades ago, we were wondering if World of Warcraft was adding this to the mix way too late. As stated above, the housing system is now available in Early Access, and this is probably the biggest gimmick of the upcoming Midnight expansion. A lot of furniture pieces have been added retroactively, based on achievements. This means that long-time players might already start out with quite a few furniture pieces, allowing them to dive right into designing their own house. On top of that, it also makes the achievements worth something again, rather than a meaningless and hollow pop-up that you’ll see appear from time to time. It also gives players who might be looking to ‘settle down’ a bit more from active playing to something more casual and relaxing. Players on both sides of the fence will be in luck, as the game allows you to have two houses. You can have one Horde and one Alliance house, and these need to be levelled up separately. This once again adds some replay value, and it allows you to create two distinct houses that might suit your favourite characters of each faction a lot more. Levelling up a house will give you extra floor space, making it possible to add more rooms and items. We’re not going to lie here, while we appreciated the creative freedom, the overall sandbox feeling of the housing system, we weren’t really that amazed by it at the moment. Everything felt really clunky and somewhat frustrating at times. There is a tutorial present, but it’s a bit basic, and should certainly be expanded upon to learn you the finer mechanics. For example, there wasn’t an explanation on how to get your second house, as you pretty much had to guess how that worked. It’s a weird system where you have to log onto another character, go to your first house, then find a new neighbourhood, which will then allow you to buy your second house. It felt a bit cumbersome, and truth be told, tedious. We also found the dye system not fully functional, and the plot outlines didn’t show when we were outside. This made it very frustrating when placing items, as we would get the message that we did not own ‘this’ plot, and then our items would pop back to where they originally were. This forced us to run back and forth until we found the right spot. We also encountered issues where our items simply vanished, but luckily, Blizzard was able to fix this for us. Again, while we were perhaps not overly impressed by the housing system yet, it is an interesting addition. That being said, it did feel like its own separate game, rather than an actual addition to the normal World of Warcraft experience. As stated in the introduction, it feels like it’s perhaps a bit late to add this to World of Warcraft, as it felt like this could have been part of the experience years ago. Even so, fans of designer games will have their work cut out for them, and having achievements to hunt for their rewards does add something new to the mix. Stepping away from the housing system, we also delved into the main content of the expansion. The new race, the Haranir, was moderately interesting, but we found it odd that they were chosen to helm this expansion. Their storyline was pretty much dropped in the previous expansion, making it seem like they weren’t actually all that important for the future of the game. On top of that, there are so many other races in the game that felt like a more logical choice to be introduced as playable characters. The Haranir are basically a crossbreed between Night Elves and Trolls, and could be considered the missing link, so to speak. It perhaps felt a bit like an easy choice for Blizzard, as the body rig was already completed, so gear fitting was simply easy. If you have taken a break from World of Warcraft for some time, there is now the Return to World of Warcraft quest, which reintroduces players to their chosen class. This recap teaches you everything from the absolute basics to more complex mechanics. On top of that, you also get a full set of gear suitable for your level, which is another extremely welcome touch. This newly added quest will make it so much easier for returning players and it might also be the motivation they need to find their class enjoyable and not too overwhelming. It’s clear that the art team did most of the heavy lifting here with the housing system and the complete overhaul of Silver Moon City and the Sunwell, as well as the surrounding lands. The city looks absolutely spectacular, even though it’s quite empty compared to the older version. It’s a rather odd feeling, as it feels so gorgeous and truly like a massive upgrade, but it also feels dull, lifeless, and too empty for its current grandeur and splendour. On top of the environmental overhaul, a lot of mounts and other models received HD models, which is certainly a welcome upgrade. We did find that the designers did a disservice to Lady Liadrin, who seemingly received a downgrade in the opening cinematic. As always, the dungeons and raids feel as they should, and they provide interesting and engaging experiences. Even so, things will probably significantly change with the upcoming ban of many (if not all) combat add-ons. This will probably be a learning curve for many veteran players, while new players will probably not know what they are missing out on. We did find the story a bit lacklustre, and it perhaps follows the current trend of weak, yet aggressive male characters and overly strong female characters a bit too much. It seems that this ongoing trend does shift the balance too much from an engaging story to a more politically loaded one. It’s a shame, as the Warcraft universe has so many likeable characters, both male and female. Conclusion As we will be playing the Beta and Early Access of the Midnight expansion for the coming months, we’ll keep you updated with any noteworthy changes. While we did enjoy quite a few things on offer here, we simply weren’t overly impressed with what is currently being added to the already expansive experience that is World of Warcraft. We hope that some tweaks are made to the housing system, and with a few additional layers of polish, it could perhaps be a game-changer, not only for diehard fans. That being said, with the current release schedule, we don’t think that much will change during the coming months.