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“It feels, paradoxically, like a fresh summit. It feels like a rebirth."Eurogamer
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“There was no closure and no emotional payoff."PC Gamer
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“Shadowlands finally ditches the hefty time commitment."Polygon
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“Endgame activities have never been this diverse and interesting."IGN Nordic
About Inside
You have to look at the game itself too, though, and Shadowlands represents something of a soft reboot for World of Warcraft. Narratively, it's a relatively easy jumping on point. Although the catalyst for players' journey into the Shadowlands - the Warcraft universe's version of the afterlife - lies somewhere in the convoluted lore-nerdery and soap-opera of 2018's Battle for Azeroth, once you are "beyond the veil", you will be mostly interacting with an all-new cast of characters and factions (with the added fan-service of a few deceased favourites getting a new lease of death).
But it's not really in the expansion's laundry list of new features that you will find a decisive new direction for World of Warcraft. 2016's brilliant Legion can make a better case for redefining the modern game; it introduced follower adventures that play out while you're offline, a viable solo endgame in World Quests, and in Artifact Power, an endgame resource/progression framework quite distinct from the regular gear grind - all ideas which both Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands have presented variations on.
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