A dragon’s breath of fresh air for an old MMO - World of Warcraft: Dragonflight Quick Review
World of Warcraft’s ninth expansion, Dragonflight, has wowed me, so to speak. I’ve been playing Blizzard’s much-loved (and just-as-much-maligned) MMORPG on and off since it launched eighteen years ago. Every time a new expansion comes out, I wonder if this will be the one where I finally lose interest. Thanks to a mix of smart quality of life changes, compelling new gameplay mechanics, and an exciting and adventurous new locale, Dragonflight won’t mark the end of my adventures in Azeroth.
TIME PLAYED
I spent somewhere between twelve and fifteen hours playing World of Warcraft: Dragonflight last week. This time included leveling my main (an undead mage) to level 66, just over halfway to the level cap of 70, as well as completing one-and-a-half zones worth of quests (of five new zones in total), running several of the new dungeons, and spending a lot of time exploring and taking in the heavily revised crafting and gathering systems.
WHAT’S AWESOME
• Setting. After the last expansion, Shadowlands, took players to the literal afterlife, you might think that just heading off to visit some unexplored island on Azeroth isn’t all that exciting. You’d be wrong, however. Not only are the Dragon Isles absolutely gorgeous zones packed full of stuff to do, but the idea of finally gaining access to this long-lost land and slowly discovering its people and stories lends the game a sense of smaller-scale adventure that’s been missing for a long time. It feels similar to 2012’s Mists of Pandaria and like what 2018’s Battle for Azeroth should have been.
• Dragon riding. The biggest new feature for Dragonflight is a new approach to flying mounts that feels closer to actual flying: Players gain momentum by aiming down, flap their wings to gain height, and so on. It’s a brilliant addition that adds a ton of gameplay to the act of exploring and navigating each zone. The dragon riding time trials are a blast as well.
• Professions. Gathering and especially crafting have been a dull, predictable process in World of Warcraft for at least a decade now. We’ll have to see how the much more complex forms of crafting and gathering shake out in the endgame across months of play, but at the very least they’re much more engaging to level up and work through now and involve making actual decisions as you go.
• User interface improvements. After eighteen years of players needing to rely on user-created mods to do some of the most basic tweaks to how the game’s interface is laid out, Blizzard has finally put in a comprehensively adjustable UI. Thank you!
• The return of real talent trees. Blizzard has spent the last decade-plus focusing on pruning down character choice and making the game more approachable. Understandable, but I am ecstatic to see the return of full-scale talent trees in all their complexity and number-crunching glory. Even playing as a supposedly underpowered spec (fire mage), I’ve felt that the new talents give me freedom to experiment and shape my own playstyle.
WHAT SUCKS
• Story. Nothing about Dragonflight’s plot is a complete disaster in the way the last couple expansion narratives have been, but it’s still not particularly strong. The dragon characters like Wrathion and Alexstrasza are interesting enough, but I can’t shake that eternal World of Warcraft feeling like I’m just a side character who gets to stand nearby the main characters during cutscenes...and then run errands for them.
• Questing, sort of. I’m fine with traditional MMO questing, but it’s a little disappointing that most of Dragonflight’s quests so far have stuck to the usual “go here, kill X bears, bring me Y bear paws.” Some more exciting set piece questlines break up the monotony, but I’d love to see a little more inventiveness.
SHOULD YOU PLAY IT?
If you’re a long-time World of Warcraft player who skipped the last couple expansions or has been waiting to hear thoughts on Dragonflight, here it is: It’s worth playing! I can’t speak to the endgame yet, and Blizzard notoriously has problems keeping players invested and getting new content out fast enough. But in terms of its leveling experience, at least, Dragonflight is full of cool new stuff, and frankly, dragon riding alone is enough reason to give it a shot. Just don’t expect a lot of innovation in questing.
💬 What's the longest you've ever stuck with a single game, MMO or otherwise? Share your record in the comments!
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