World of Warcraft: Legion Reviewed

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author: kristian ferguson | news editor

The series has released legendary entries since 2004, and Legion is no exception. Photo Credit: flickr.com

The series has released legendary entries since 2004, and Legion is no exception. Photo Credit: flickr.com

Does it hold up to WoW’s legacy?

I play World of Warcraft. There, I said it. For basically a decade, too. I am well aware of the negative association toward the game, but I can’t help it. The game always seems to draw me back in. Every new expansion, every major patch, there seems to be something that reignites my hype for just a short while. With WoW’s most recent expansion, Legion, I have yet to lose that spark, almost two months after its release.

I grew up with the Warcraft franchise. Warcraft 3 was something that I played (and still do occasionally) for hours on end with its, at the time, revolutionary online play. I was playing a game at my house with someone who wasn’t in my house, and (in most cases) with multiple people who weren’t beside me. Ten year old Kristian thought this was the coolest thing that had ever happened to him and I still hold that memory with a deep fondness.

I have been invested in this franchise for the vast majority of my life and let me say, Legion does not disappoint. There is literally something for everyone new to the series, or returning veterans like myself, in this expansion.

The folks at Blizzard have been doing a fantastic effort of making the game considerably more accessible for the average player. I don’t tend to have a lot of time to play games anymore, but I in no way feel I have been left out of end-game content because of it.

I am able to do all of the end-game progression like raiding thanks to the LFR [Looking for Raid] system that pairs me up with other random players. This means I don’t have to know forty guys and organize them all to show up for content on Tuesday at 8 p.m. CST.

For long-time players, that doesn’t mean that the days of raiding with your guild are gone, it is just as prominent and you always get access to the new content first. Whenever a new raid is released, we LFR losers don’t see it until a week or two after the regular guild raiders do.

Legion also introduced a whole suite of class changes so that each specialization feels fresh. Come the end of the last expansion, there were a lot of specializations that ended up being “x but better,” creating “trap options” that were wholly and fundamentally worse than other options. That is no longer. Each specialization feels unique and different from one another.

All of the new zones introduced in this expansion are different from one another aesthetically and it made the zones stick out. The abandoned coastal province of Asuna; the peaks and rivers of Highmountain; the distinctly Scandinavian feel of Stormheim; the lush, green forests of Val’Sharah; and a civilization’s last days, plunged in an eternal twilight in Suramar.

I could write about this expansion for days, but for everyone’s sake, I’ll stop here and summarize how I feel.

Legion is the expansion WoW fans have been dying for. The lore is engaging, the quests are fun, the end game content has infinite replayability, and it is easier than ever to get into it. The best part is that Legion still has yet to show us all it has to offer. With patches and releases still slated for a long time, this expansion will still feel fresh and exciting for time to come. I couldn’t recommend this game enough to anyone looking to jump into the series or return after a long time gone.

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