World of Warcraft Dragonflight Review – Conclusion

With each expansion, the trick is to keep existing players happy, re-seduce former players, and possibly even attract new players. For a game that’s already eighteen years old, this is a challenge every time. You can never make it right for everyone, because one wants existing systems updated, while the other prefers to leave them as they are. Introducing a new race and class is also tricky. Does it fit the tradition and not upset the balance with the rest? And does it really add anything or is it more of a must?

As far as we’re concerned, Blizzard has done well for Dragonflight. Dragons have always figured prominently in gaming, of course, but they continue to capture the imagination and this is reinforced by popular series such as Dragon Age, Game of Thrones, and House of the Dragon. Dracthyrs are clearly distinct from other races and classes and have several unique abilities to match their draconic appearance, such as the ability to fly and breathe magical fire. The new layering spells are also well designed and offer many new challenges.

The game lives up to its title in several ways. The fact that you can fly quite fast to the Dragon Islands, and also the way you do it, is unique and makes exploring the new islands much easier. It’s very cool that this is also possible with your alts. As soon as they set foot on land for the first time, they will benefit from the dragons and glyphs your main unlocks. That makes it extremely appealing to put those characters from the past back in the spotlight. Dragon racing is a nice addition to the game and yet another minigame included in this great game. We’re just curious to see some of that in an upcoming expansion and hope the new flying experience and racing isn’t a one-off.

Graphically, there are nicer RPGs to play, even if the landscapes and lighting effects certainly don’t look bad. But WoW players are primarily concerned with the gaming experience. At the same time, we can only praise that this game can be played smoothly on ten year old hardware and can also use modern techniques such as anti-aliasing (FXAA and CMAA), artificial depth of field and even ray tracy. on modern PCs and Macs. Support for 21:9 monitors at 5k and high resolutions is also provided.

Not everyone will like the cartoonish style of World of Warcraft, but Blizzard has developed its own recognizable style and the imaginative landscapes and cities are beautiful to look at. The air and water effects are also quite nice. Also, the quality of the cutscenes is improving and it’s nice to see your character often. Lip sync has been improved, although this only applies to main scenes. As always, a lot of attention has been paid to the music and this time too it is very good. Create the associated epic atmosphere.

The introduction of this new extension hasn’t been entirely without problems. Especially during the intro it was incredibly busy again and took a while to log in. There was also a delay in the first week, some missions ended because the main players didn’t show up or it was temporarily impossible to turn in a mission. Seems to be better at the time of posting this review. Also, there are still a few details to note. What NPCs say is sometimes very random. If they just shared an enthusiastic story after you turn in a quest, they’ll just say, “I’ve been waiting for you,” as if they’ve already forgotten about the conversation before. And some NPCs, like the many dragons in this expansion, have now grown so large that you have to get unrealistically close to deliver a quest. Fortunately, this criticism doesn’t carry much weight. The story and endgame are much better than the previous expansion, Shadowlands.

Roadmap

The question is always how long a new set will stay fun to play. That stands or falls with the new challenges it offers right from the start and how fun it is to get started with alts, but also with new content. With the previous expansion, there was a lot of time between content updates, which led to criticism from players. This time, Blizzard meets the community with a clear roadmap and an update cadence of approximately eleven weeks.

One will appear in the next update, which can already be tested on the PTR test server trading post in the capitals. Every month, you can collect new items here as a player, such as weapons, mounts, pets, and cosmetic upgrades. You can purchase these items by playing certain parts of the game, for which you will receive virtual money called a swap race. In the 10.1 major update, a new zone and raid are added to the game, as well as new dungeons. A new mega dungeon is planned for this summer, similar to the Mechagon and Tezavesh dungeons from Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands respectively. Update 10.2 is expected to release in late 2023, with another raid and new area.

Verdict

Does Dragonflight offer enough to return to the fascinating world of World of Warcraft? There are only three weeks left for this expansion, but at the moment the answer to this question seems to be positive. The Dragon Isles, the new Evoker class and the ability to fly instantly with all your characters, as well as the story and other novelties really add to the fun. Blizzard seems to have listened to the community, reporting for example the talent tree, but also the possible playstyles after reaching the maximum level.

Dragonflight also seems interesting for casual players who prefer to operate alone. Of course you miss raids and mystical+ dungeons, but there are plenty of opportunities to get better gear in other ways, even if that takes longer or you get a slightly lower item level.

All in all, Blizzard has managed to put a good mix of new features, familiar old features, and a lot more freedom into the game. We hardly dare say it after three weeks of play, but the whole thing is so well put together and sounds so good that this could be the best expansion since Wrath of the Lich King.