Judging by the problems encountered when launching the game on most servers (untimely disconnections, queues, high latency...), it would seem that the answer to this question is positive. It is too early to know if the success of this expansion will be sustained in the coming months, but one thing is certain: Blizzard has put all the assets on its side to seduce fans of the world of Warcraft again. Thus, the main scenario of Warlords of Draenor can be described as "historic" since it propels us into full corruption of the orcs. With the help of a time-traveling dragon, Garrosh Hellscream leaps into the past to stop his father from drinking the blood of demons. As a result, the orcs escape corruption and the various clans unite to invade Draenor, now known as Outland, and then all of Azeroth. It's up to you, and a few thousand other players, to prevent this! Along the way that will lead your characters from level 90 to charismatic level 100, you will complete many quests whose effectiveness is absolutely indisputable. More scripted than ever, World of Warcraft now multiplies the cinematic scenes produced with the game engine in order to involve the player in an adventure almost worthy of a solo game. The different characters encountered have a rich background and certain events recounted are not lacking in spice. Fans of World of Warcraft lore (and even Warcraft for short) will therefore be thrilled. However, Blizzard is also thinking of more casual players since Warlords of Draenor allows everyone to instantly raise the character of their choice to level 90. Similarly, the economic model which required players to buy all previous expansions to being able to take advantage of the current one has finally been abandoned on the occasion of this fifth add-on. Specifically, all WoW accounts can now access all content from all pre-Warlords of Draenor expansions!
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The latest game update is also an opportunity to give the graphics a little boost. The oldest races have indeed been reworked and now have 3D models, animations and facial expressions more in line with the newer races. The general graphic coherence is reinforced, but these improvements remain punctual and, in the end, the engine still shows its ten years of age. Fortunately, as usual, the artists of Blizzard manage to impose a strong and effective artistic direction, which quickly makes you forget the low number of polygons here or there. But the main novelty brought by Warlords of Draenor still concerns more substance than form. The Fief, since that is what it is, is an instanced housing system faithful to the spirit of the first games stamped Warcraft. It allows you to build different buildings (forge, tannery, barn, sawmill, alchemy laboratory, etc.) and is used to harvest resources. We can also manage our subjects there, these NPCs recruitable and workable at will. Sending them on auto-missions yields different bonuses, and ultimately this in-game play comes to enrich the World of Warcraft experience even further. Set in the same vein as the pet fight, in more developed, the Fief effectively breaks the routine of "monster bashing". On a similar principle, we also find ourselves dreaming that one day Blizzard will integrate Hearthstone inside World or Warcraft…
Fortunately, as usual, the artists of Blizzard manage to impose a strong and effective artistic direction, which quickly makes you forget the low number of polygons here or there. But the main novelty brought by Warlords of Draenor still concerns more substance than form.
But let's come back to (over)earth by briefly mentioning the difficulty of the new dungeons, revised significantly upwards compared to previous expansions. An obviously positive point, as WoW was beginning to suffer from an image that was too "casual". In the same vein, the general statistics of players and mobs (life points, damage, etc.) have been reduced in order to avoid the syndrome of the pinball machines of yesteryear. Indeed, over the different generations, these electronic machines have seen the order of magnitude of their scores become higher and higher in order to flatter the player... until they flirt with astronomical amounts no longer having any real value. senses. Victim of the same syndrome, World of Warcraft is now performing a salutary step back, which makes it possible to display more readable and more understandable figures on the screen. Finally, it should be noted that flying mounts are currently blocked on Draenor, so that players first rediscover the joys of walking and ground mounts. Through its scenario and its few gameplay adjustments, Warlords of Draenor therefore performs a certain return to basics, while remaining forward-looking thanks to the arrival of the Fief and the graphic facelift. Well done Blizzard, well done!
