World of Warcraft: The War Within Review – A New Beginning

Just a couple of expansions ago, World of Warcraft had hit something of a rough patch. Hot off the disappointing storyline and ending of Battle for Azeroth, Blizzard decided that an expansion that explores the afterlife in the World of Warcraft universe would be the ideal next step. Unfortunately, the Shadowlands expansion also ended up being plagued by lackluster writing, anchored by one of the most boring villains that the Warcraft franchise had seen so far. So it should come as no surprise that the recap cutscene for World of Warcraft: The War Within largely tends to gloss over the primary conflict in Shadowlands, choosing instead to focus on the story of Anduin Wrynn throughout the expansion.

While the previous expansion, Dragonflight, largely acted as a gigantic reset button for the overall Alliance versus Horde conflict that has buoyed the Warcraft setting, choosing instead to give us a brand new adventure, The War Within is now bringing with it a greater threat looming in the background, with its roots going as far back as the critically-acclaimed Legion expansion. With The War Within, the primary antagonist is an entity known as the Harbinger—better known to long-time players as a being of the Void named Xal’Atath—and players are thrown into a brand new subterranean world where they have to help the forces of light battle against the machinations of the Void.

After essentially sunsetting the faction war storyline that has been World of Warcraft’s bread and butter in the past over the last couple of expansions, the story in The War Within is now smaller in scope, despite still having world-ending stakes. Much of the storyline throughout the leveling process between 70 and the new level cap of 80 revolves around players finding new allies in the new zones of Khaz Algar—the Isle of Dorne, the Ringing Deeps, Hallowfall, and Azj-Kahet. As you get deeper into the story, the focus can often shift between various factions and characters, starting out with an emphasis on the Earthen, to meeting the Arathi warriors of Hallowfall, and culminating in allying with a splinter faction of Nerubians in Azj-Kahet.

The expansion essentially has two protagonists—Anduin Wrynn and Alleria Windrunner. While Thrall is around, he’s essentially missing for the entirety of the leveling process, and we get some excellent side characters in the form of Moira Bronzebeard and her son Dagran. If this list of names, aside from Thrall, makes you think that the character stories might be skewed more towards Alliance characters, you would be correct. The Horde is essentially missing for the entirety of the leveling process, only coming back with Thrall once you hit the new level cap and begin the endgame storyline.

As a Horde player, I found this quite disappointing, since the faction still has plenty of interesting characters, with some of them even having roots that go back with the Nerubians from all the way back in Warcraft 3 and the Wrath of the Lich King expansion from back in 2008. On the other hand, the focus on Alliance characters does make sense in terms of the story currently being told, especially with Alleria’s own history with using the Void for her own ends. Since the faction war is no longer a factor, the lack of Horde representation isn’t too bothersome, and thankfully, once you hit level 80, fan-favorite characters like Lilian Voss show up.

"The Horde is essentially missing for the entirety of the leveling process."

It is worth noting that The War Within might have some of the most visually striking zones the game has ever seen. Despite the expansion largely taking place in zones that are essentially massive underground caverns, the level of variety Blizzard has managed to fit in is definitely awe-inspiring. We get industrial areas in the Ringing Deeps, before heading into the drop-dead gorgeous Hallowfall—a zone where the main source of light is a gigantic glowing crystal stuck in the cavern ceiling—before ultimately descending into the Nerubian-focused zone of Azj-Kahet, where we get to explore a beautiful full-fledged Nerubian city. Azj-Kahet is especially interesting, since it harkens back to Wrath of the Lich King, where an underground Nerubian zone was planned before ultimately being scrapped.

The trip from Isle of Dorn all the way to Azj-Kahet isn’t the only part of the leveling process; there are four dungeons that players can fight through for more experience, loot, and story. These dungeons, be it the relatively simplistic Rookery, or the straight up siege against the Priory of the Sacred Flame, all offer up some great visuals, level design, and interesting lore tidbits, especially through environmental storytelling. The max-level dungeons are definitely a highlight; they’re all pretty fun, but special mention has to go to the Darkflame Cleft, which manages to include a minecart chase sequence, and Cinderbrew Meadery, which is essentially a prolonged bar brawl filled to the brim with mead-based puns.

When it comes to gameplay, every class has new features to look forward to thanks to the new Hero Talent system. The system essentially allows players to theme their characters in a more specific way. For example, as a Demonologist Warlock, I chose the Diabolist Hero Talent tree, which not only made the demons I summoned stronger, it also allowed me to summon even greater demons for larger spikes in damage, with some of these greater demons also changing a few of my key abilities. Calling in a small group of imps through Hand of Gul’dan can cause a Pit Lord to get summoned who, along with dealing a massive amount of damage, also makes turns my next Hand of Gul’dan cast into Ruination, which deals a massive amount of damage in a large area. Similarly, I was also able to summon other demons, like the Mother of Chaos, who changes my Shadow Bolt into Infernal Bolt, and the Overlord, who causes all enemies hit by his attack to start taking extra damage.

"Every class has new features to look forward to thanks to the new Hero Talent system."

One of the big new additions to the game with The War Within is the new Delves system. Essentially miniature dungeons that players can go through either solo or as a group of 5 players, Delves help break up the monotony that can often creep in while leveling new characters by offering up a fun new way to get loot and experience. Each Delve also has its own story, and even players that prefer to play solo will appreciate the new system, since it’s also supposed to go all the way into the endgame. Delves also have their own smaller form of progression where you get to level up your AI companions and unlock new abilities for them.

World of Warcraft: The War Within definitely feels like a breath of fresh air for the MMORPG. While Dragonflight was a fun expansion in its own way, especially since dealing with dragons in combat or diplomacy can be rather entertaining in the insane setting of Warcraft, The War Within is the first time where it feels like the overall story in World of Warcraft is getting on track, and building up towards something greater. This should come as no surprise since the expansion is supposed to be the first of a planned trilogy. Despite largely laying the groundwork for the next couple of expansions, however, The War Within doesn’t really feel like it’s not telling a complete story in its own right. The awakening and liberation of the Earthen, and the realpolitik machinations of the Nerubians are especially interesting high points of the entire campaign.

It can be difficult to come to a definitive verdict for a game that is going to change quite a bit over the next couple of years; at the time of writing, the expansion’s first season hasn’t yet started, and as a result, the main endgame activities—Mythic+ and the raid—still aren’t available yet. However, as it currently stands, World of Warcraft: The War Within is an excellent expansion, and the general story and gameplay changes have made it an absolute joy to revisit Azeroth.

This game was reviewed on PC.