Captivating zones and a satisfying endgame loop.
The War Within kicked off an entirely new era for World of Warcraft, and at this stage it likely stands as the strongest expansion in the game’s history, so Midnight had massive shoes to fill. Or perhaps a long shadow to step out of, considering Xal’atath still refuses to wear shoes. Factoring in the flexible player housing system, breathtaking new zones, and an endgame that sharpens some of its predecessor’s best ideas, the second chapter of this trilogy is shaping up to be genuinely heroic.
Midnight would be tough to top on pure visual spectacle by WoW’s standards. Riding into the reimagined elven capital of Silvermoon is the kind of moment that sticks with you for a long time. Its gleaming ivory spires soar overhead while an excellent new score referencing classic compositions delivers a true sense of awe. The level of detail may be the highest ever achieved for an in-game WoW city, packed with evocative interiors that interconnect unexpectedly and beg to be explored. Framerate performance during peak hours has been less than ideal, though.
Expanding legacy areas like Murder Row into sprawling subzones full of activity really helps the city breathe. Full disclosure: the Thalassaboo tendencies run deep here, with the elves of Quel’Thalas holding a special place in my heart since the Warcraft 2 era. Even the smaller optional adventures in Silvermoon successfully immerse players in the decadence, pride, and political maneuvering that define the city. As an Alliance player, the amount of accessible territory came as a pleasant surprise, with only about a quarter of it sitting off-limits.
Beyond the shining capital, Eversong Woods has also received a gorgeous overhaul. It was already one of the best zones in WoW history, and seeing it get such a glow-up, finally healed from the scars of Arthas’ invasion after all these years, is fantastic. The forest troll homeland of Zul’Aman was another delightful surprise, contrasting the storybook elven kingdom with a rugged, piney wilderness that invites players to get lost in it. It says a lot about how enjoyable these areas are to inhabit that even at higher levels, crossing them on foot or ground mount remains preferable to flying.
The remaining two zones lean much more high-concept and otherworldly, though they’re just as visually striking. Harandar, a tangled plane of primal elements watched over by the empty cradle of a goddess, echoes Hallowfall in terms of its fantastical flair. The Voidstorm where Xal’atath is marshaling her forces is bleak and hostile, but it leans into vibrant primary colors to dodge the issues of Patch 11.2’s K’aresh zone, which frequently drowned in grey.
The narrative doesn’t distribute as evenly as the visuals do, however. Additional context on Xal’atath’s motivations did finally arrive, and the just-released Voidspire raid closes with exciting plot developments that build anticipation for what’s coming. But Turalyon feels reimagined as an almost completely different character with newly minted flaws purely so he can carry an arc, which feels pretty weak. Arator’s Journey, marketed as an epic quest spanning all of Azeroth, wrapped up in under two hours, which felt distinctly underwhelming. It did land some neat callbacks for Warcraft 2 veterans, though.
Once again, the sidequest writing at its best proves decisively superior to the main plot. All the family drama unfolding between Alleria, Arator, and Turalyon gets outshone by one small story about two estranged troll siblings reuniting to grapple with the complicated grief of losing an abusive mother. This has been the pattern across four straight expansions now. Are these the same writers? If not, why not hand a full expansion’s main story over to some of these sidelined talents? Seeing that level of emotional nuance paired with high-end CGI cutscenes featuring marquee heroes would be extraordinary.
The new Haranir allied race is another mixed bag. Their customization options are fantastic and they look genuinely cool. Less appealing is Blizzard’s habit of constantly inventing new humanoid races rather than making long-requested existing favorites like the Amani playable. The Nightborne should have just been night elves in different outfits anyway. This remains a continuous pain point. A moratorium on entirely new, previously undiscovered humanoids would be welcome for a while.
Playing through both sides of the story across three characters, including the new Devourer Demon Hunter, has been a mixed experience. The other Demon Hunter specs still hit hard, but Devourer’s flavor skews more caster-coded than the melee monsters Demon Hunters have traditionally been in the lore. Baseline abilities like Consume don’t feel kinetic enough, at least in terms of animation. The theming is cool; it just isn’t a satisfying button to press, especially without the talent that shortens the cooldown. Reap, which is genuinely engaging, would be a stronger main filler. Annihilator will likely be the long-term choice.
For fellow disciples of the Marksmanship Hunter tradition, the spec still sits in a pretty solid spot. Losing Streamline took real adjustment, but with the apex talent turning Aimed Shot into a guaranteed crit, the overall shift toward it being a massive nuke that demands setup lands well. It matches the class fantasy and feels great, especially during Trueshot. The changes to Sentinel hero talents are less welcome, however. Moonlight Chakram underwhelms and Lunar Storm has effectively become a random proc firing off without meaningful player input. It plays like an extra trinket at this point, stripping away any real tactical decision-making.
Time at level 90 as a Retribution paladin also failed to click. The spec has great AoE damage, but single-target feels seriously underwhelming and there’s too much visual clutter. Consecration is going, fire shoots out of the sword, bells rotate around the character. It plays like a light-themed gimmick class. It brings the “Random Bullshit Go!” meme to mind. The class fantasy demand here is simple: be a cool holy warrior who hits things with a giant hammer.
Whichever spec is in play, the returning and new endgame activities have been consistently satisfying since season launch. Delves show clear evolution over their introduction in The War Within, with one particularly memorable delve casting the player as a wrestling heel performing in a fighting pit for a crowd of rowdy mushroom people. Tier 11 delves in particular stand out for containing very few hard gear checks, allowing their one-shot mechanics to be navigated on pure skill, which is fantastic.
Den of Nalorakk in Zul’Aman is the most interesting five-player dungeon, featuring an open area where the party races greedy predators for dwindling food supplies with freeform routing options. It builds toward a gauntlet of howling winds requiring the party to take shelter in small safe zones while pushing forward, and an icy boss fight on a slippery floor that can be mitigated by baiting the boss into throwing snowballs that give the party sturdy footing. Boss design in dungeons and raids has clearly shifted in response to the removal of excessive add-on functionality, and the game seems better off for it so far.
Prey, a new feature positioning players as both hunter and hunted against increasingly deadly outdoor enemies, is definitely compelling. Making the main zones feel dangerous again is a great design goal. But like delves last expansion, this reads as an initial swing at the concept and could use tuning. The new zone-specific activities also mark an upgrade over The War Within, particularly the tower defense Stormarion Assault. Saltheril’s Soiree forcing players to pick favorites between Silvermoon’s factions delivers an interesting twist. Abundance is a bigger disappointment, even if Dun Dun is a real one. It stands as one of Midnight’s only features that completely misses the mark.
Coffer Key Shards for Bountiful Delves now drop like candy, but there’s a strict weekly cap that gets hit in under 90 minutes. That trade-off actually works. Ditching valorstones is another win, and upgrading an item to the highest level previously obtained in the same slot now only costs gold rather than crests.
The headline feature of Midnight, however, is player housing. It launched back in December, and well over 100 hours have gone into it already. The expansion proper is stuffed with awesome elf- and troll-themed decor. The decor editing tools become powerful once mastered, and what some players are building is genuinely inspiring.
At the same time, housing shows clear signs of being a first draft in places. The hotkeys for switching between editing mode and normal gameplay are clunky and add unnecessary steps to basic tasks. Some common-sense features are missing, like being able to duplicate a decoration or furniture item directly when multiples are in storage. It’s cool that dyes can be crafted by other players, but currently previewing different colors on a piece, compiling a shopping list, and trekking back to town to visit the auction house and buy the paints becomes a frustrating loop. That process needs to be far more seamless.
A significant amount of decor can also be obtained through crafting, and while the devs talked a lot about simplifying crafting to appease vocal players online, most of what worked about Dragonflight and The War Within’s detailed crafting system remains intact. It has simply been smoothed out in a few places barely noticeable in practice.
One other significant complaint concerns the changes to Skyriding. Races appear to be missing from the new zones, which is a bummer. And while Midnight introduced many positive UI changes, ditching Skyriding’s vigor bar is baffling. This was supposedly done to make it less confusing for players who skipped Dragonflight, but that reasoning doesn’t hold up. How is turning vigor charges into tiny numbers at the bottom of the screen clearer than a big, readable, purpose-built UI? The original vigor bar deserves to return, or at least exist as a toggle option.
Article by PaleShadowGaming
