Sever your light, sir. It's the end of the day.
Well. This was meant to be done uhhhhhhh 2? 3? months ago? Shoutouts to The Computer Arc delaying everything! But whatever. I will allow myself one mention of all that in this post, and that's it.
Part 2 of the Worldsoul Saga is here. For those that don't play WoW, Blizzard has a pretty solid good expansion, bad expansion cadence. You're gonna get peak, you're gonna get trash, you're gonna get nice, you're gonna get what the fuck is this. With Midnight, I definitely feared that in advance. It didn't help that I wasn't able to go into it 100% raw no spoilers, so I had the general doom and gloom of the internet, of reddit comments, lingering above me. But after successfully leveling 6 characters from 80 to 90, I think I've managed to finally squeeze my genuine Jared opinion, uncorrupted by the void.
Obviously, like all MMO expansions, not everything that will be known as "Midnight" is out yet. Like I did with Dawntrail and The War Within, I was just gonna make this on release content. Loremaster, Dungeons, Delves. But (and honestly I should have done this with TWW!), due to the delay, I slotted the Raids in here as well; everything before the Sporefall Raid (ok I didn't really touch Ritual Sites) Let's get into it!
New to Midnight, we got Apex Talents, Prey, and Housing.
Apex Talents didn't really sauce up classes as much as Hero Talents did. I barely felt what they did, for the most part. But hey, I appreciate them giving a different node to put things into other than just bigger tree. Unsure how evergreen they'll feel compared to Hero Talents.
Prey is cool. I've felt the open world fatigue for a while now; I was there on Legion launch. I've been in the world quest mines, I've been tired of them for some time now. But Prey just adds that little extra bit of sauce and extra reward to make me go out there. I feel like I'm doing multiple things at once, which is nice. I don't know if it'll really work for the long run, but it did have a Season bar like Delves, so we'll see how they iterate on it in the future. Also Astalor is great and I think it's funny when he yells at me to go slaughter a squirrel.
Housing was released before the expansion, but it's a Midnight feature, and it's very very cool. I personally haven't delved too deep into it, because you have to level your house up to make it bigger, and for my wants, I need a big base. I feel like it's a little too slow to level, but also I guess it's supposed to last a while. What I DO like though- it's cheap, it's seemingly infinite, and it's NOT XIV housing. You can have 2 houses! And that's like, a reasonable goal! You're not struggling just to get the one! Clipping is encouraged and allowed! It does really seem like such a solid system. I've gone around and seen some other players' houses, and they go absolutely insane with it. I'm very glad it's a thing, I've wanted to make home bases for my characters for a while now, and now I can do just that. I just need to uh... actually get a high enough level to do so. Side note: I also don't care for how each house is separately leveled. I'm an Alliance main, but I have Horde guys, and I'm not liking how their house is smaller cause I can't focus on both.
There's also the per zone outdoor activities, but honestly? I didn't really care for any of them. Saltheril's stuff is just Undermine rep, Abundance is a grind I don't wanna do, the Stormarion thing is whatever; but I do like the Harandar stuff. However, it's weekly quests with awesome lore, and not a grind, so that's kinda the points in its favor.
Void assaults... do not impress me. I hope they make some more unique feeling repeatable content in the future patches. I need some novelty.
The real big stuff that everyone looks forward to each expansion.
The usual 8 new dungeons. I'm not particularly a dungeon guy- I feel like they take too long for what you get out of it, and I'm not a Mythic+ doer, so I recognize out of the 3 things, these are not it for me. But they are cool! I appreciate how more of them got integrated into the story this time along. Not great for when I'm leveling alts that I don't wanna dungeon with (tanks and healers (I'm a coward)), but I do think it's an improvement overall. I like the bits of alternate gameplay to shake up a usual runthrough of "kill elites", like Den of Nalorakk's foraging, or Murder Row's serving minigame. I also really enjoyed the revisiting of old areas. Magister's Terrace still being a dungeon with a different routing, while also seeing those old familiar places; or Windrunner Spire being turned into a full spot with cool lore. The dungeons this time around are very fun from that first time playthrough perspective. Ask other people for how they are in the long run though.
We got multiple raids in one patch again! I missed having smaller ones instead of the one big guy, so I'm super happy here.
They all have killer fight design, some of the most fun I've had doing raid battles in a long time. Voidspire had some fights that reminded me of XIV fights in a way (this is good!), as well as really cool mechanics. Averzian's tic tac toe was very unique and showed that people don't know how to play basic children's games. I loved the sliding avoid sections in Crown of the Cosmos. Vorasius is probably one of my favorite raid bosses to fight, period. He's got such a solid rhythm to get into- simple, but fun.
The Dreamrift brings back one of my favorite styles of raids- One Big Guy. Again, bringing back the XIV comparison; these raids just feel so low energy to hop into. Join a group, fight the one big guy, easy done!
March on Quel'Danas is an AMAZING finale raid. Belo'ren is another simple yet fun fight, and Midnight Falls is Not Simple At All, but INCREDIBLY cool thematically. I love the design of it all, the music, the sound effects, holy shit. I'm really bad at that fight, but I love it regardless.
My personal favorite method of progression is here to stay. There's really not much difference here gameplay wise from TWW, but that's fine by me. I still really enjoy Delves as being my single player way to get decent gear, and I still love the Nemesis as my ultimate goal.
I've been liking Valeera as a companion more than Brann in gameplay (but she can never meet up to him in personality, sorry). Her healing and defensives feel stronger, and she actually does damage. My only complaint with her is that she seems to pull extra mobs and thus isn't focused on what I'm focused on, but whatever. She heals me good and does good damage, so I'll accept that over Brann's "I'm gonna sit in place and die".
The new Delves are cool, but I can't help but feel like that they're less adventures for treasure and more overworld story type stuff. This is a really minor complaint, like gameplay wise I love Shadowguard Point and Collegiate Calamity, but they are just places I can walk on in the normal world, and they don't even have treasure rooms. You could at least give me a treasure room. I also would have appreciated greater boss variation. Excavation Site 9 was cool with each boss being different, but then I gotta fight Lord Antenorian and his stupid instant teleports every time Shadow Enclave is up. But there'll be more.
I also managed to get the Nemesis done before this post! Nullaeus felt super easy compared to Zekvir, Underpin, and Ky'veza, but honestly, after the hell I've been through, I kinda needed the easy win. I wasn't really a fan of his character, either. The other 3 had some kind of reason to go get them and hate them, but for Nullaeus you just find out Finley got kidnapped and that's about it. I hope the next ones have more sauce to them.
Oh shit, it's the big thing. Blizzard's easiest to fuck up point, the place of big contention. Is Midnight the next Shadowlands? Is this "the most dogshit writing I've ever seen"? Is the game WOKE!?
Yeah. It was hard to keep my own opinion of the story straight having seen the public's opinions. But to say it straight: No. I do not think that Midnight's story is as bad as Shadowlands. I do not think it is dogshit, or terrible, or whatever other heated word you want to use. It is woke though. They had gay people! Nonbinary people! Dealing with emotions! How dare they
Not really sure how I wanna go in depth with this; it's not gonna be my usual style, I don't think. But might as well just write it and see what comes out.
The intro was very cool. You're summoned to the Sunwell to fight off the Void, you get to see many old Light/Blood Elven related characters on the sides, it's neat. But already from the get go I felt like they were a little heavy handed on their new topic- The Vanguard of the Light (and Turalyon) are too focused on killing void, and not being reasonable about everything else. The finger on the scale of "light isn't as good as you'd think" just feels like it's being pushed a little too hard too early. But, some good starting moments with Arator- pretty much exactly what he needed to be set up as "the main character" of the expansion.
Eversong Woods; I do not think had a good starting point to the expansion. We've just barely beaten off the void, and the moment we're sent out into the world, our first enemy is the Lightbloom. Again, already coming fresh off the train of feeling that the "light is not good" aspect is being shown off too heavy handed, the hard focus on it as an antagonistic force with no void to be seen sucked. I do not like the Lightbloom at all. But then we get to Tranquillien, and the focus is in a good view again- the Twilight's Blade is the enemy, we get some good focus from the Void Elves (Umbric) and Arator, and it feels focused in the way that it should- the Voidstorm above the Sunwell is scaring people, and cults are doing what they do. This leads into more Lightbloom stuff, but then THAT goes into the Amani, which again- great. Start them off as an enemy as they should be, as they have been, before Arator and you figure out that you guys have a common enemy. Eversong ends with Turalyon, blinded by Light wrath, not stopping his sword from hurting Arator. I think that could have been done a little smoother- it was very much an accident, but it didn't seem like they wanted you to feel like it was. But I do think what came of it was good.
From here, we got Zul'Aman. I think Zul'Aman is the best zone in the entire expansion, storywise. The way that you and Liadrin; people that have directly committed crimes against the Amani (won't go into if they deserved it or not), manage to unite with Zul'jarra and Zul'jan against your common enemy of the void cult about to kill all of you, felt great. The Amani never felt like they had their tusks shortened; they always felt like they were that same people that trend towards violence and battle. But you're given the opportunity to see them as people, see their struggles, and that's where the bridge is made. Liadrin and Zul'jarra work together, directly learning to understand each other- while Zul'jan takes up that role to keep the Amani headstrong and self-reliant. I loved how they expanded on that original raid for a whole zone. The bosses were turned into full Loa, you get explanations for why the raid happened and the behind the scenes of it all- I honestly think it's the most successful way they could have expanded the original Zul'Aman into a whole zone. I just wish it came with a Zul'jin model update I mean come ON
Next, we got Harandar. It's. Fine. I've seen many people call it cut content from The War Within, and I do agree with that. Narratively, I think it would have been stronger to be placed then. But instead, it's been put into Midnight, and as a result, we get to deal with the Lightbloom. Before I rant about that though- the things I did like. Finally getting more lore on the Haranir, and I loved how they did it. The actual paintings to show off their lore (with lore on how those paintings were made!) was a great idea. I think they did very well at crafting this new society and species here- clearly where Azeroth's world soul once was (before it probably got taken somewhere else by the Titans?), and it's a great place for the saga they have going on. But then... why the Lightbloom? I get it. Light not as good. It's just as bad as Void. I don't really like how heavy handed they've been about it, but I ESPECIALLY hate it as this naturally corrupting force. I feel like it should have been the Black Blood we already dealt with with Orweyna, with the Void which is KNOWN to be a naturally corrupting force. I'm fine with Light villainy, but it should be a tool used by someone who sucks. Not this thing that if you get too much you go insane. It just doesn't feel right. Anyways, before I move on, I do like how Halduron got to come with- having a Farstrider join makes it feel just a tad more natural to fit into the story. It's still not perfect though. Should have been last expansion. Should have been threatened by the Void somehow.
Arator's Journey was great. I saw a lot of people call Arator a child, or ridiculing him for throwing a fit, and ultimately I just need to chalk that up to a lack of empathy, honestly. It was a short bit of story that showed someone have extreme doubt of the things they dedicated THEIR ENTIRE LIFE TO literally slashed into them. Arator may be 40, but I think if you spend 40 years of your life devoted to 2 things, and you suddenly, violently, get those 2 things thrown at you, you're reasonably going to be depressed and lost. Am I crazy? Are 40 year olds (especially those in a species that lives for thousands of years!) just supposed to not have emotions? I don't think so. I loved Faol here- he's a very fun mentor character. Has that traditional fantasy goal of thinking a quest will help. Not denying his failures- he was a really fun leader for this journey. This was also a wonderful time in the story to give some light on some more of the world beyond Quel'Thalas- building up the Scourge as something (probably before we go back to Northrend), exploring the Scarlet Crusade and their continued existence (nazis always gonna find a way back), and having that theme of what is a Paladin, what is following or using the Light? THIS is what I want out of the Light being used as a force of evil. Make it a tool in the hands of the wrong people. It's like the Super Soldier Serum, it can enhance what's already there. If your beliefs, your zealotry sucks? It'll suck HARDER. I'm fine with that. Then we have the right path shown with Arator- it can be used to protect, out of love. He literally picks up his father's shield, and spec switches to Protection, and I think it's the perfect way to continue his story- many years blindly following the same path, he gets shaken up, but finds resolve in using it to protect instead. I do not think Arator "was throwing a tantrum", I think he had a reasonable shake up, and quickly managed to find his way again.
The final zone, Voidstorm. With a really cool intro featuring Magister's Terrace and the continued lovers to enemies with Rommath and Umbric, we get Void Elf lore, which is GREAT. The fact that the guys that were just supposed to give the Alliance High Elves are getting this much sauce, is the best thing. My first run through Voidstorm, I was pretty fresh off the "I really don't like this whole Light=Evil" thing. But after revisiting, I think Voidstorm does it the best out of any of the zones. The Void is the prime threat here. That does not change. But Lothraxion's hatred against the Void makes sense. His zealotry makes sense here, and it actually supports the Light not always being good, by being a person that's in the way, and not a force. It sucks that it ends in his death, cause Lothraxion is a cool character, but like, this is way better than the Lightbloom. We also get Decimus, who is a very fun character, just wanting to eat popcorn and watch us, only getting themselves involved cause Xal'atath is gonna break their VHSes and delete their Tivo recordings. Arator once again shows himself being the cool awesome main character by being an anchor for Alleria. Alleria wasn't doing too much for me, but she also wasn't particularly doing anything wrong. I just think the characters around her were more interesting. Also, in regards to the zone itself- I was really confused with why there were so many void monsters. It didn't feel very voidy. I was confused what the Voidstorm was, even. Side quests fixed this. Finding out that this was an Outland like chunk of an old world called Predacea, where these monsters are natural to that world, and the void is just attracted to the constant conflict and consumption? Made perfect sense, you've sold me. I do wish it was clearer HOW Xal'atath made this planet chunk appear above Azeroth, and I wish that lore was made more clear in the main story, but it was really cool to actually find out, at least.
Finally, the post leveling storyline- The War of Light and Shadow. Overall. I think that this part of the story hit the right beats, but in between those beats, it was lacking. I think the leadup to the Voidspire was cool, but I wish it had more between Alleria and Turalyon. We got a stay a while and listen, but I wished for more. The Voidspire itself was really cool- I was originally pretty upset at The Lightblinded Vanguard, but that was before some rereading of the previous quests, and after playing through the Normal raid, cause LFR cuts out dialogue. It was hinted that they were more zealoty, and that they didn't just "turn evil". Is it as smooth as I would have liked? No. But it's better than I originally thought. The raid ends with Xal'atath finally doing her magic on Alleria (not in a cool way in a bad way), releasing L'ura and completely voiding the Sunwell (the Darkwell lmao she stayed up all night thinking of that one). We lose Alleria and Turalyon, it's said that everyone in the Sunwell is gone, save for some survivors. This part is very cool, a great victory for Xal'atath to continue to show that she knows what she's doing (but I still don't feel like I'm literally handing over the victory to the Jailer), but then the next part.
We need an army to fight back. Yes, absolutely. We skip... right to the other elves to help us. I am NOT upset at this story beat occuring at all, I just wish we had a clearer reason why the rest of the Horde was not able to help. Maybe the void is attacking Orgrimmar. There could be a REASON that we have to get the others that hate the Blood Elves. But we just skipped over that, and it feels worse because of it. Beyond that though, I do like the bits of reuniting all the elves together, and that final battle on the bridge to the Sunwell, with everyone having their proper moment to shine. It was really cool! Just.... really fast, and felt rushed through. I wish we lingered on everyone just a little more, cause it would have made that end destination feel all the sweeter. Because the March on Quel'Danas, was sick as fuck. The fight against L'ura was so sweet. It felt like the PERFECT end story final boss, that actual fight against Midnight itself, the title of the expansion. Then.... Blizzard did. A Thing. Sylvanas comes back. For just a moment. I'm really unsure how I feel about it, but ultimately, like some other things from this story, I just need to see the future to fully make an opinion on it. We'll see if this was a sign of garbage to come, or an actual redemption of the poster girl of terrible Blizzard writing. After the raid, there was a nice moment with all of the elves restoring the Sunwell (Dawnwell), but some longer story and a smoother path there would have turned a good story beat into a great story beat.
Fuck that was a lot. There's a lot to say. A lot to think. I'm nervous for the future. I'm not hopeless about the future. I think that Blizzard needs to slow the fuck down, to make the journey between destinations smoother, and they really have something. But I'm not confident in that.
It also has to be said that I really liked all the side quests, that's really where the writing shines. Seeing Blood Elf culture's sharper and more corrupt parts in the shadows, getting highlights on the Amani and other Forest Troll tribes, a whole SHIT ton of lore on the Haranir, and lore on the Voidstorm as well as the Void Elves themselves- big fan of all the Sojourner related things. If you were upset at the main story, give those a shot. I guarantee they'll help SOMETHING.
This is usually my longest section, but I don't think it will be this time. Midnight didn't seem super character focused, but that's ok. There are some characters I don't really feel much about, but I do wanna at least summarize some thoughts on my highlights.
Those are the ones I really have like, feelings about. I'm not particularly upset or loving about anyone else, but this post is long enough and the way I wrote the story I basically handled it anyways
Oh it's so fucking good this expansion. WoW music has always been good, but I really feel like they're finding their way with how to incorporate it more into the gameplay and to make it more iconic. I loved when the Silvermoon cello comes back, the troll horns in Zul'Aman, that crazy piano song with the Haranir, and the entire soundtrack in the Voidstorm. I don't know if they'll top Undermine anytime soon, but they're definitely on track to. (THE L'URA BATTLE THEME???? HELLO???? THEY'VE ACTUALLY SOLVED REAL BOSS THEMES??????)
We're back in Quel'Thalas! Finally, at long last, those ancient Burning Crusade starting zones separated from the rest of the world are getting love. Well. Half of them. (Please Blizzard I'm a Draenei stan give me updated Azuremyst)
I love the new zones. Eversong, Quel'Danas, and Zul'Aman have all those recognizable bits, yet they're all expanded on in size and in detail to bring them up to the quality of the new zones.
Like. Holy shit man. I've said it once I'll say it a thousand times. Blizzard's art team does not miss. I loved seeing the Blood Elf starting area of Sunstrider Isle, and how it was still full of yellow mobs. I loved seeing Tranquillien and the Dead Scar healed, but still having those Ghostlands vibes in Deatholme and around Windrunner Spire. The areas outside of Atal'Aman (the original raid!) felt like such a natural filling of what would have been there. The isle of Quel'Danas as a whole just felt like a heaping amount of BC nostalgia with how I recognized each and every part that I couldn't fly around in the original zone. Also, continuing that feeling from the starting zone, I loved how all the gathering materials are just renamed versions of all the original classic materials??? Copper, Peacebloom, etc. They did an amazing job at still keeping that feel of the original zones.
Then of course, the new places. Harandar is beautiful and has many different aesthetics to the zone that I couldn't capture in one screenshot. It was so cool that they took the Rift of Aln from Emerald Nightmare and expanded on it! The rest of the areas in that raid had an Azeroth equivalent, so it only makes sense the place we fought Xavius in does too! We just hadn't been there yet! Voidstorm has incredible colors, and while I don't have anything special to say about it, I just love looking at it.
Bonus screenshot of the coolest skybox we've ever had. It lasted way too short (theme of the expansion).
Oogh my fingers hurt. I gotta wrap this up now so I can finally close this chapter that's been open for too long.
Side notes that didn't quite fit anywhere: I saw some people complain about the voice acting. When it comes to hearing some Blood Elves sound like Robin from Teen Titans; yeah, I get it. That voice should not be coming out of a Ranger General. Also I feel like some of the word pronunciation was off? I don't expect it to improve, but I can hope. Also, the cutscenes. I feel like they're depending too much on that awkward in engine animated style, and that they're not getting enough budget and time for the really well animated stuff, like we got at the end of Arator's Journey (the Turalyon cutscene though???). I see the sauce, it just needs more time to cook.
Do I feel less confident about the game now compared to when I beat The War Within? Yeah, absolutely. Do I feel like that the game is going down the same direction as Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands? No, not at all. The theme of this year for me has been "What is worse: writing that fails to make the most of itself, or writing that actively contradicts itself?", and I stand by the fact that a story that could be presented smoother or expanded on is far better than a story that literally goes against itself. Midnight's story was too fast paced. I really don't like the Lightbloom. But there's a lot of good bits in there that I can't ignore. Like, a whole god damn lot. As for the gameplay, I love the fight designs and how they really try their best to make a wide range of fun mechanics, I just worry that they don't have the time or budget to really succeed in that. I didn't experience any bugs, but I know people did.
I'm not confident that Blizzard can do it. But I'm also not confident that they can't.
7/10. A solid expansion with many good bits, but I can see the cracks of rushing which could expand further if not managed properly. I'm still looking forward to the future.