Review of the game world of warcraft legion. Parade of old friends

The most popular MMORPG in the West, although it already smells, is still blooming. WoW - many multiplayer games were based on these three letters role playing games, writing off the best features both from the gameplay and the setting. They called themselves “Warcraft Killers” in every possible way, but did at least one such project manage to beat the old man?

At the moment, World of Warcraft is a kind of Schrödinger's game: on the one hand, it is morally outdated (read: dead), but on the other, it still lives, returning its standard 10 million subscribers with the start of each add-on.

The latest Warlords of Draenor expansion focused on veterans of the series. Alas, he still failed to retain the players for long. Now, with Legion, Blizzard intends to completely overhaul the game.

And the artifacts

Missed the WOTLK days when you could get Corrupted Ashbringer? Hungry for Thrall's Doomhammer and Tyrion's Ashbringer? Well, Legion will make your dreams come true.

Now everyone class specialization your own legendary weapon will appear. No, don’t be afraid, you won’t have to get it out with blood and sweat like the legendary Dark Mourn, Blades of Azzinoth, and so on. All classes, without exception, will be given their own chain of exciting quests, after completing which you can get an artifact.

What about the uniqueness of these items? Of course, each legendary weapon is tied to a specialization, and you won’t be given the choice between one legend or another. For example, a death knight in ice can only receive the Blades of the Fallen Prince, and a balance druid can only receive the Scythe of Elune.

Now how can you differentiate yourself from other players? So what happens, now all paladins will run with the Ashbringer? No, Blizzard got involved here too. Each weapon has a considerable set of skins and colors, so there is no need to worry about that.

What's the point? And the main thing about these artifacts is that after you reach level 110, you can continue to gain new skills. Now your weapon has a personal skill tree, which you will have to study for PvP points.

Oh dad, is it all over?

As sad as it may be, but with each year World of Warcraft keeps losing players. At one time the number of subscribers reached 12 million constantly playing users, but, for example, at the moment there are about 3 of them.

During the release of a new add-on, the old people return to the game in order to see what the project of their youth has become, but soon they leave. That is why rumors spread online that Legion could be the last add-on, plus the current antagonist allows for a logical end to a more than ten-year epic.

You have killed Ragnaros, Illidan the Betrayer, the Lich King, Deathwing, etc. etc. They are all flowers, and the berries will only come now. The "Burning Legion" - the scourge of all living things, the destroyer of entire worlds - returns to Azeroth. Several times the Azerothians managed to repel the attacks of the invaders, but now Sargeras and his henchmen will strike a truly powerful blow.

Do as you wish

IN WoW quests always went in a certain order. you come to new location, raise the maximum level there and go to the next one. There are those who are tired of this concept, so Blizzard decided to offer something new.

Legion will no longer have level restrictions. All living creatures in the Broken Isles locations now adjust to your lvl. Dungeons have undergone a similar change, whose difficulty will begin to increase in line with the strength of your equipment.

Will this hurt the plot? No, because extremely serious events occur in absolutely every zone, the significance of which is equivalent. That is, the Legion advances everywhere and with the same cruelty, so any quest chain, one way or another, will lead you to Suramar - a new raid.

Restructuring

Some time ago, Blizzard decided to take a radical approach to changing classes. They started from this principle: “What would I do if I had such powers?” Previously, the demonologist-warlock pretended to be a kind of Illidan, as soon as he turned on the demonic form, and the priests, in fact, were a copy of the same magician, except with shadow abilities. Legion will put everything in its place, turning the demonologist into a real demon lord, and the shadow priest into a unique murder weapon that draws power from the void, gradually turning into something terrible.

It's the same with robbers. The branches, which are not much different from each other, have been completely redesigned: the “liquidators” try to keep the enemy at a distance, giving him a portion of poisons first, the “combat” robbers began to look like pirates, using pistols and sneaky blows, and the “secretive” ones spend more and more time hiding in the shadows and wait.

Warlords of Draenor gave players so-called garrisons. Of course, Blizzard didn’t want to kill cooperation between gamers in WoW, but, alas, it was the garrisons that did it. Things will be different in Legion.

The Broken Isles will have strongholds for everyone gaming class separately. Robbers, for example, will settle in the cesspool of new Dalaran, and warlocks in the Twisting Nether itself. IN class strongholds The same comrades-in-arms await you, but, firstly, there will be fewer of them, and secondly, they will become much more significant. There you will have to improve your own artifact weapons, as well as communicate with living players, and not soulless NPCs.

Almost a damn dozen

Finally, a new, twelfth class will be added to World of Warcraft. For eleven whole years, Blizzard introduced only a death knight and a monk. Not much, right? Well, meet the demon hunter.

When the servants of Arthas himself entered the arena, it was not difficult for the players to guess that the demon hunters would soon appear. Alas, we had to wait eight years. Let's look at the class in more detail. New killers, unlike plate knights death, wear leather.

Only night elves from the Alliance and blood elves from the Horde can become the scourge of the main population of the Twisting Nether. There are only a couple of specializations: tank and DD. As a resource, demon hunters use rage, which is not required for skills and accumulates during the battle. The more it is, the stronger your attacks.

ADVANTAGES:

• Interesting artifact system;
• New race: demon hunters;
• Completion of many storylines.

Nowadays, it is extremely important for game makers not only to create high-quality and successful , but also be able to maintain users’ interest in their creations for many years. And many developers should learn both from Blizzard. Moreover, the legendary publisher has scheduled the release of the sixth (!!!) addition to its main online creation for mid-2016. So what should fans expect? multiplayer games from World of Warcraft: Legion?

What does it represent?

Legion, slated for release in September 2016, is a typical Blizzard addon. Essentially, its tasks are to expand the setting, add new original features and other “goodies” designed to revive users’ interest in the project. And the developers, who “ate the dog” in this matter, did not reinvent the wheel, but followed the well-worn (and quite successful, as the history of their company shows) path.

Key Features

If you try to include all the innovations in WoW Legion review, the article will turn out to be simply huge. But still, the main features of the addon can be summarized into several points:

The appearance in the game of the Broken Isles - a new continent consisting of six huge locations, each of which is inhabited by unique inhabitants and hides hundreds of unique things.

Leveling up of all characters has been increased to level 110.

Adding a new heroic class - Demon Hunter. Among its features original options character customization (choice of horns, tattoos and even eye shells), the presence of two specializations (“crit” Destruction and “tank” Revenge), endowing the character with the ability to generate and consume energy and other innovative features.

Improvements to classes and professions. For example, adding unique runes to the game, individual traits of old classes, an unusual resource called “Arcane Charge” and more than a dozen small adjustments that significantly affect the gameplay.

Adding new artifact weapons for each class. Moreover, users will be able to pump all these “fluffs”.

Two new raids and nine original “dungeons” at once, which can be completed by groups of five characters.

"Fresh" armor sets for different classes, for example, a rogue and a warlock.

And this is only a small part of the innovations that the game developers have prepared for Vovka fans.

Verdict

There is no doubt that World of Warcraft: Legion will become one of the most. Moreover, the creators of WoW did everything possible to continue original game not only revived interest in the project among fans who had lost interest in it, but also attracted the maximum number of users who, for some reason, are still unfamiliar with the world of Azeroth. And now it is becoming extremely clear that the idea of ​​​​the developers from Blizzard to attract new fans to one of the best among their creations will be successful.

Official video trailer for the game:

A tale about why YOU are the main figure in Azeroth, how to defeat demons, and why Legion - best supplement in the game's twelve-year history.

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Blizzard have repeatedly emphasized that this is their main addition. Like, it is the largest, the most interesting and the most important from the point of view of the universe. For the creators of the longest-running MMORPG, this is indeed a very serious statement, because “” is the seventh of the large content packs, each of which lasted players for a couple of years. Moreover, today, when the genre itself is experiencing better times, WoW feels quite comfortable. Before the release of the add-on, the number of players with an active subscription jumped again. And this is when there are simply no other MMORPGs with a paid subscription left. All this gives reason to say that the day of the release of “Legion” is the main day for the genre in all of 2016.

And so, the Burning Legion has returned to Azeroth. Moreover, if earlier we were faced with expeditionary forces, now we face a regular army. Never before has the threat been more serious. For comparison, let's say that the Lich King with his army of undead was only a derivative of the Legion, and in general all troubles began with the demons. Even the fallen titan Sargeras appears to be alive, and he has always been considered the main antagonist in the universe.

To show the seriousness of the situation, we are shown a monumental defeat for the combined forces of Azeroth. The King of the Alliance is brutally killed, the leader of the Horde dies of wounds before our eyes, the Supreme Paladin, who survived the battle with the Lich, in agony gives up his soul to the Light. And this is just the beginning of the local “Game of Thrones”. During the course of the plot, many will die, whom players remember from Warcraft strategies.

To battle the forces of evil, the Light requires only the most powerful heroes. This is where Blizzard shows how beautifully its writers can work. You and I turn out to be these very heroes. We who defeated Deathwing himself, saved Pandaria, destroyed the armies of the Undead and destroyed the plans of the Iron Horde. We've been sent to command expeditionary forces on Draenor before, but now the stakes are much higher. We have to become a chapter... At the head of something very important, because each class received its own story.

The Death Knight has been chosen - prepare to take the place of commander of the forces of the Ebon Blade and resurrect the mighty heroes of the past in the form of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Are you playing as a Shaman? Go straight to the Whirlpool to ask for help from the forces of the Earth. Do you like magicians? Your hour has come - the hero is named the Archmage of the revived Order of the Guardians of Tirisfal. Moreover, the head of the pack of Blue Dragons, the archmage of the Dalaran council and one of the first human magicians - Meryl Felstorm - will come into your service.

Lack of epicness? Check out the paladins. Here we will accept from the cold hands of Tirion Fordring almost the most powerful in the universe and the title of High Lord at the same time. The initiation scene in the Cathedral of Light makes your jaw slowly drop to the floor. It is clear that the whole Dalaran will be running around with such high lords, but what difference does it make? Isn't all this legendary status worth it?

Together with new position we get it too new home. There is one for each class. If the paladins live in the majestic Cathedral of Light, then the magicians climbed to the highest tower of Dalaran and set up a small Hogwarts there. The druids got a spacious clearing, the warriors generally settled down imposingly in Valhalla. The strongholds look cool, and they have to be developed using the mechanics familiar from Draenor. We gathered our comrades, sent them on missions, and spent special resources. The process doesn't get any more fun, and some missions last up to 20 hours. Reminds me of artificially stretching out the game time. Yes, a mobile companion application has appeared that allows you to send comrades and recruit students directly from the phone screen, but it does not change the main thing - delving into all this is still a bit boring. Each specialization received its own unique artifact. The same Retribution paladins now run with the Ashbringer - the most powerful weapon in the history of the game. The fire mages borrowed Kael'thas Sunstrider's blade and stuff like that. From now on, the artifact will have to be upgraded instead of the character itself. From time to time we will be given special items that increase the power of the artifact. There are also relics that can be inserted into special sockets. Inside the artifact there are systems of talents and skills. You need to choose wisely, because at later levels of pumping you will need a lot of strength. You can change and appearance artifact. You will have to run for some particularly rare “skins”.

The pumping itself also takes place in an unusual way. There is a class campaign, and there are four zones of the Broken Isles. You will have to go through the first one in any case, but the goal of visiting each zone is to find the Pillar of Eternity, an important item with which you can defeat demons. You can go through the zones in any order. The creatures' level will be automatically adjusted to yours.

The whole story is presented very beautifully and elegantly. Each location is preceded by a “prequest”, or even a full-fledged scenario. The dungeon crowns the story. As a result, we are told the main stories very consistently and smoothly - like in a good single player. If you like Warcraft universe and you, like us, have been waiting for details about the key aspects of this world, then pleasure is guaranteed. Never before have stories been told so smoothly. Lots of beautiful videos, bright characters, dramatic or funny stories - there is a lot of all this in the game.

Azsuna is the ruined realm of the night elves who did not survive the Sundering due to their queen Azshara. The queen's shadow has often hung over us - it seems, throughout the 12 years of the game's history. We defeated many of her minions, but we saw the queen herself for the first time only here. This evil naga has clearly been saved as a raid boss, and we will be only too glad to finally have a heart-to-heart talk with her.

Stormheim is a very picturesque autumn location. Here live dragons, ghosts and vrykul - the huge ancestors of modern people. You can also find the most controversial quests here. In one of them, we complete quite a lot of complex and long tasks, so that in the end, instead of a reward, we are called aphids. The other is the story of local friendly owlkin who are mercilessly exterminated by a dragon they wanted to befriend. In short, be careful: some of the tasks here may seem quite cruel.

Highmountain is the homeland of the local tauren. Here we learn the story of their struggle with the Drogbar tribe. The location turned out to be the weakest, both in terms of plot and pictures. It's a pity: it could have turned out well.

Valshara, the homeland of the brothers Illidan and Malfurion, completes the quartet. These are picturesque elven forests, overrun by the corruption of the Emerald Nightmare. Here we will take part in last battle one of the key characters in the universe and meet the oldest blue dragon.

There is one more, fifth location. We are talking about Suramar - the city of the elves, sealed for 10,000 years. Showing those same elves, but changed under the influence of the magic of the night well, was a great idea. The dome disappeared, and lifeless ruins lay around the stunning beauty of the city. This contrast only emphasizes the situation of the inhabitants of Suramar. It really looks amazing. Blizzard has made without a doubt the most beautiful location in the game.

By concluding an agreement with the Legion, the Nightborne, in essence, signed their own death warrant. We see the most beautiful city of elven culture dying, and behind the beautiful facades one can see fear and oppression. This is where the fun begins. Suramar is a full-fledged quest zone, which we find ourselves in after leveling up. That is, these tasks are high-level content that replaced the usual daily tasks, and this is the best thing at level 110. There are a lot of tasks, the rewards are good, and immersing yourself in the history of a dying city is really interesting.

In general, quests are absolutely everywhere here. We go through quests to get to a location, we go through quests to get recipes for professions, we go through quests to get equipment, and this is not bad at all, because familiar things have become much more interesting.

However, there are also regular repeating quests, although they are presented in a rather unusual form. From time to time, tasks of various kinds appear on the map of the islands: here you need to kill the harpies, here dangerous monster, and there they invite you to take part in a pet battle. There are incredibly many types of such activities, as well as the activities themselves. They are also rarely repeated, and the rewards are quite valuable. You can get good equipment, you can grab the resources of a stronghold, or you can get a boost for an artifact. If you complete quests in certain locations, you will also be given a chest necessary to increase your reputation. This, in turn, will provide the ability to fly over the Broken Isles. This is a complex scheme designed to extend the players’ stay in Azeroth.

No, the usual ones maximum level activity has not gone away either. The dungeons are amazingly good. They will let you visit a ghost ship, visit Valhalla and the lair of Deathwing himself. World bosses are dangerous, but thanks to the cross-server system, it is very easy to find a raid on them. The raids themselves have just appeared in the game. The first of them, “The Emerald Nightmare,” invites you to visit the territory that players have dreamed of since the classics.

Professions have also changed. In addition to the fact that many recipes are now obtained through quests, from now on you only need to level up to the limit for a handful of schemes. Jewelers make fewer stones and more jewelry. From now on, sketchers deal only with cosmetic symbols, but they have learned to write raunchy romance novels. Engineering - best way Travel quickly across the Broken Isles using a glider. At the same time, nothing particularly worthwhile was added to it from the new recipes.

Finally, it remains to talk about demon hunters. Everyone has been waiting for this class for a very long time, and here it is - appeared in all its splendor. These guys look cool and have amazing mobility. They soar on wings and can instantly shorten the distance or, on the contrary, run away. They also start right away at level 98 with a personal dramatic chain of quests, which is accompanied by epic cutscenes. In a word, the class was clearly a success, but because everyone rushed to level them up, it’s better to start playing “Legion” with a familiar class - it will be easier to both find a group and get into a good guild.

What can I say: if anyone tells you that MMORPGs are dead, send them to conquer the Broken Isles. The next time you see this person will not be soon. But seriously, seize the moment - this is truly the best and most important addition in the history of the game.

Introduction

This summer is definitely going to be a busy one for Blizzard. After all, players will already be fighting with all their might in the new shooter Overwatch, and will also finally wait for the launch of the sixth add-on for WoW. Legion was announced on August 6, 2015, alpha testing began in November 2015, and beta testing began just recently (May 13). For those who no longer play WoW, Demon Hunter and the Burning Legion's invasion of Azeroth may be another reason to return to the game.

Few would argue that Illidan is one of our favorite heroes. World of Warcraft. Now players will have the opportunity that many of them have dreamed of for years - to play WoW character, similar to the famous night elf renegade, become part of the Illidari (Illidan's elite squad).

Today I would like to talk about the main innovations in WoW: Legion. Therefore, we will deliberately miss changes to the current classes, transmogrification, professions and achievement system. There are many of them. Separately, it is worth highlighting the increase in the maximum level to 110 (previously the maximum was 100), but about the rest - in more detail.

Demon Hunter

Majority WoW classes- ordinary travelers, but the Death Knight and now the Demon Hunter are called heroic by Blizzard. Almost 8 years have passed since the appearance of the Death Knight, players have been waiting for a long time for the appearance of both the heroic class and the Demon Hunter. And now he will finally appear in the game. The Demon Hunter has two specializations - tanking (vengeance) and melee (extermination). He uses combat blades as weapons, which is typical for the image we are used to:

Among the features of the class, it is worth highlighting the following:

Unrivaled maneuverability

Double jumps, soaring in the air with the help of wings.

Metamorphosis

Instant teleportation (for fighters) and protective auras (for tanks).

Ghost Sight

Detection of invisible players and NPCs.

The Death Knight was a fairly popular and powerful class at the time of its introduction, then nerfs followed, but even now it remains one of the most favorite classes for many players. Will Demon Hunter be one? By the way, players who decide to play for him will start the game at level 98 (on the Broken Isles).

Artifacts of unimaginable power

With the introduction of legendary weapons, another dream of players and fans of the Warcraft series will come true - to play in WoW as a character who has a famous artifact (and we are not talking about the “Sword of a Thousand Truths”). This does not mean that there were no special weapons before; on the contrary, there were quite a lot of them. However, new artifacts and tasks to obtain them can be compared with the story of Arthas and Frostmourne. Which creates a special connection between the player and the weapon they receive, filling you with pride and giving you a feeling of cool. Mages with the Fire specialization will be able to obtain Felo'melorn (the sword of the Sunstriders, reforged and then lost by Kael'thas):

In addition, obtaining artifacts is associated with the need to battle the hordes of the Burning Legion. It will be possible to perform many different manipulations with this weapon - make it more powerful, discover new properties, etc.:

In general, there is a lot of content associated with it in WoW: Legion, mastering which will help you create the optimal weapon for your playstyle. Quite interesting.

Class Strongholds and Defenders

Like legendary weapons, strongholds (a base of sorts where you can recruit defenders to fight the Burning Legion) are unique to each class. This is what a mage's stronghold looks like:

The Stronghold must be developed if you want to get buffs for your class and defenders. Defenders can also be sent on missions to the Broken Isles.

Storyline and Emerald Dream

The main source of new plot twists will be events on the Broken Isles, where the Burning Legion will begin its invasion. Anduin, Maiev, Illidan and Sylvanas will play an important role, but it is worth highlighting such characters as:

Khadgar

Unable to stop the Burning Legion from invading Azeroth, he is now looking for a way to close the portal.

Gul'dan

It was he who achieved the opening of a portal to Azeroth, after which the Burning Legion began its invasion.

Found in Val'sharah, where the curse of the Emerald Nightmare spreads.

The Emerald Dream is a place created by the Titans, where you can see the true appearance of Azeroth (without the changes made intelligent races). But this place could not protect itself from external influence and turned into an Emerald Nightmare. There all the fears of intelligent beings manifest themselves during their sleep. During the events of WoW: Legion, the corrupted Tree of Life, Shaladrassil, spreads the Emerald Nightmare throughout Val'sharah.

Emerald Nightmare - new raid:

Bosses of the Emerald Nightmare:

Broken Isles and changes associated with them

The Broken Isles is another continent, which means new zones will be added:

This is the location of key events and the focus of content in WoW: Legion. The Broken Isles comes with the aforementioned artifacts and stronghold, as well as new dungeons, raids, and 10 new world bosses.

New Dungeons:

• Amethyst Fortress
• Black Rook Fortress
• Quarter of Stars
• Darkheart Thicket
• Eye of Azshara
• Halls of Valor
• Maw of Souls
• Neltharion's Lair
• Catacombs of Suramar
• Casemates of the Guardians

New raids:

• Emerald Nightmare
• Citadel of the Night

In addition to the invasion of the Burning Legion, various monsters and other dangers await you on the Broken Isles. Here you have to find the pillars of creation in order to save Azeroth from destruction.

Also, what do you think of the new loading screens?

Updated PvP

In WoW: Legion, the developers took PvP seriously. The changes are global and there are quite a lot of them. Here are the most important, in our opinion:

PvP equipment:

• In PvP zones, the characteristics of your equipment are canceled.
• You receive a set of parameters depending on your specialization.
• Set bonuses do not work, but the artifact will work (another reason to improve it)
• There is still a small stat impact in PvP depending on the level of your items. But it will be much smaller than before.
• The method for obtaining PvP equipment will be changed (it will no longer be possible to purchase it with honor and conquest points). Now new system receipt is being finalized.
• Thus, your effectiveness in PvP now depends less on equipment and more on the correctness of your actions.

Honor and Conquest Points:

• You can no longer buy PvP equipment for honor and conquest points.
• Honor points levels have been introduced (maximum - 50):

• Honor points can be earned by reaching the maximum level and fighting in PvP zones (you will only accumulate experience until the cap).
• By accumulating honor points, you receive various rewards and, most importantly, unlock honor talents:

• They are in addition to regular talents and are unlocked as you level up your honor points.
• Having reached the maximum level, you can reset your honor points, increasing your prestige and receiving additional rewards:

• Honor talents only work in PvP zones (or when fighting another player).
• They also vary between classes and specializations.

In addition, two new arenas are in development. So players will have a place to earn honor points and try out the updated PvP. How would you rate these changes in PvP?

Bottom line

WoW: Legion will launch at the end of summer (August 30) and then we can expect more detailed reviews and conclusions. For now, we can only say that the promised innovations seem very nostalgic not only for fans of WoW, but also of Warcraft in general. The upcoming Warcraft movie will add a few more sparks to the fire of nostalgia that will definitely result from the busy servers at the end of August. Everything is as usual.

Developer and Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment.
Genre: online RPG.
Similar games: Neverwinter.
Platforms: Windows, Mac.
Minimum system requirements: Win 7 32, Core 2 Duo E8500 or AMD Phenom II X3 720, 2 GB RAM, GeForce GT 440 or Radeon HD 5670, or Intel HD Graphics 5000, 45 GB hard drive, Internet access.
Recommended: Win 10 64, Core i5-3330 or FX-6300, 4 GB RAM, GeForce GTX 750 Ti or
Radeon R7 260X.
Age rating: 13+.

About the benefits of sleep and the reaction of elves to awakening

No, don't expect to see it here "The Witcher 3" or even Pillars of Eternity. Everything is simpler: from now on, completing quest chains is an important indicator of your success in the game, along with your character level or gold and foreign exchange reserves. If you want to buy armor from the latest season, go through the campaign of your class. If you want to hire more teammates, go through quests. You need resources to upgrade your base - complete the tasks. And it’s better to immediately say goodbye to the stereotype that you will complete all the chains in a couple of evenings. Session is great, but in some quests you will have to wait 8 hours in real time - and this is not the limit.

But there are really a lot of tasks, they add up to long stories, where there is everything that we love in RPGs: epicness, dynamics, unexpected turns, a sense of involvement in the fate of the universe. It all started with a new invasion of Azeroth by the Burning Legion and Gul'dan's attempt to penetrate the tomb of Sargeras, once the head of this very Legion. The best heroes of the world rushed to stop the orc sorcerer, but complete defeat awaited them. Then, foreseeing a catastrophe, the bitchy guard Maiev “unleashed” the demon hunters - and this gave a temporary respite.

Then you are personally appointed as the last hope of Azeroth and tasked with collecting all sorts of legendary artifacts - the Pillars of Creation. And at the same time, the solution to the mystery of the Brick, which fell from the sky and carries a message from Space: “Revive Illidan, he’s so cool!” And you ask: how come all the most interesting things are entrusted to you alone, if in WoW thousands of people playing at the same time? And here it is: you will complete all these epic tasks alone, with the support of bots. Multiplayer in Legion– entertainment is strictly optional, not for everyone.

Despite the well-thought-out plot, the solo game proceeds half asleep. Formally, automatic balance adjustment ensures that the strength of monsters matches the player’s level. In fact, in battle you don’t even lose health, and I took the maximum level 110 without even pulling out all the skills on the interface panel. The tasks have not changed either: still run to the marked area and do something according to the instructions in the diary. They will tell me: nothing new on the engine WoW You can’t imagine it anymore, everything has been tried a long time ago. Three times "ha"! Look at what designers are doing on the strategy engine, and what a fine balance there is. Just to the creators Legion It was forbidden for players to have even the shadow of a thought that they might have difficulties with some task. And even missions like the liberation of Exodar, where there is no difficulty, there is simply freedom of maneuver - these are the rarest exceptions, only confirming the guess that they could, but did not want to.

Of course, the missions are not the same and are fascinating. It could be beautiful flights in the form of a firefly through the elven forest, an escape from hell in the spirit Dark Souls or rune writing lessons in a time-lost elven academy. The problem is different: there is no game here. Because a game, not just a computer game, but any game, is when you make an effort and get a reward. The first necessarily determines the second. Breaking the dragon's mouth, doing something incredibly difficult and getting a beautiful ribbon for it is normal for the game. But the whole “talk to Khadgar to become LI-GIN-DAR-NY!! hero” only offends, and I want to quickly forget such falsehood. Quests Legion– an amazingly balanced chewing gum for the brain. They are not interesting enough to leave pleasant memories for a long time, but also not boring enough for the next piece of the plot to be perceived as a reward for completing them. The new addition contains quite a few videos, but the effect is not achieved - you still feel like a spectator of a performance.

Finally, the age rating is again confused with the target audience, and the battle-worn heroes behave like 13-year-old teenagers. In an hour of play, I twice participated in the attacks of the “invincible” Horde armada, and twice it ended in failure, but the Horde somehow managed to quarrel with the Alliance. Elsewhere, I watched as the heroes of the dark elves, who had already fought off the Legion more than once over the past 10,000 years, became lazy, became insolent, and in a fit of hysteria, one by one gave themselves into the hands of some third-rate demonic minion. And the endless “Wa-ha-ha!” I will kill you all! and “You’re late, Azeroth will fall!”, all sorts of “royals in the bushes” with bosses running away “with all their strength” and simply oversights when one quest contradicts another in meaning. And what? This is how it has always been WoW. It’s just that the plot wasn’t given a central role before.

About serial production and trade unions

Still have trump cards WoW there is, and therefore the game is still alive. Automatic difficulty adjustment has a chance in the future - it’s enough for Blizzard to introduce difficulty levels similar to heroic mode dungeons. And if she gathers her strength and attaches auto-adjustment to all locations, dungeons and raids of the world Warcraft? It will be just a bomb!

Further it is difficult to avoid irony, because in Legion all heroes of the same class use the same “unique” weapon. That is, they constantly tell you that your dagger (staff, bow) is simply legendary through and through - and then they force you to hang out in the company of other players with exactly the same weapon - isn’t it insanity? These two innovations are the stronghold of class and class weapon- by definition incompatible, did no one notice this at the alpha test stage?

Essentially, class weapons are another amputation of old mechanics. Previously, everything was built according to the proven laws of the genre: you went into a dungeon, killed the boss, received a new powerful “gun” - and this gave that feeling “I"ve got a power!”, for which we love all types of RPGs. From now on, the chain has lengthened. We start with quests, after a couple of dozen of them we get a relic, which gives us “experience” of the artifact. We collect more and more relics - and, finally, we are allowed to choose the “feature” of the weapon. We open a beautiful window, we even see a leveling tree. But we take a closer look. offered bonuses - and there are only modest numerical increases: +6% damage with such and such a skill, +5% healing with others. Seriously: is this all we can improve after several hours of play? Even though a dozen skills are actively used, huh? That means you need ten times more “features” for a 5% increase in DPS or HPS. Are you kidding me?

And it’s not a matter of numbers, but the fact that leveling up is not felt in battle in any way: it doesn’t affect tactics, doesn’t add individuality to your playstyle, doesn’t create a feeling of increased hero power, doesn’t even add any visual impact. Sacrifice for balance? But in earlier versions WoW there were talents that accelerated the casting of magic, reduced the cost or cooldown of skills, increased the critical power by 10% at once, or even gave new effects to previous skills - and everything was in order with the balance. Why such a balance at all? It's better Diablo 3 with its fireworks of effects, it's at least fun.

But Legion goes further and removes the "characters" entered in the addon Wrath of the Lich King. For what? They were almost decorative. But at least they gave us some flexibility. There are no explanations. Here's an addition for your money: one mechanic was introduced, two were killed. Don’t ask what the scribes are doing now - introducing a plug in the form of regular “runes” that give numerical bonuses in the raid is not a problem.

And since we're talking about numbers. In the hero's window, I counted a total of nine of them. In fact, only one thing matters - the level of objects. You can just say: “My hero’s power is 795.” Does this even happen in MMORPGs? Can you even imagine this in an action RPG or MOBA? Moreover, you unexpectedly find objects with interesting bonuses, such as “+N to movement speed,” but there is no way to find out where this is displayed and what the real bonus is. Is it any wonder that hundreds of thousands of players dream of opening servers? earlier versions WoW? Take a look at the talent calculator Burning Crusade- yes, this is simply a divine revelation against the background of the current fake rules.

Yes, regarding one-day rules - there really are a lot of them. There is “artifact knowledge” that speeds up weapon upgrades. There are “honor talents” intended for PvP. But you no longer believe in this: well, that Most Important Number will rise to 850 or even 853 - and what will this change in the gameplay?

About the attempts to fly of those born to crawl

Graphics WoW V best case scenario It's underwhelming and can barely compete even with games from ten years ago. Actually, I’m still in the review about problems with graphics Mists of Pandaria in 2012, since then the generation of consoles has changed in the world, and WoW stayed there. The question is not even about technology, but about design - it is mediocre and dreary. The corrupted lands of Outland are a fountain of colors, madness, and space. Corrupted Locations Legion- this is a pile of black cobblestones with poisonous green spots. Northrend is dozens of completely different zones, united by the theme of the north and cold. The Broken Isles are unconnected forests, mountains and ruins.

There are other reasons why WoW At first you have to get used to it. Let’s even leave behind the outdated interface, where you can’t drag windows, and you spend a long time looking for the right item in your bag. What’s worse is that the design of the armor is boring: only the pauldrons and helmet models change, the rest of the elements only have textures. Therefore, in principle, it is impossible to create a sorceress in a costume like Jaina or a warrior in armor like Garrosh. Let's go further: monsters run towards you through textures, and in other cases you cannot attack them, because supposedly you “can’t see” them. Contact personnel always need to guess the distance, and shooters always need to identify each target, and God forbid it ends up behind them!

Yes, this is all a legacy of the era when lags were due to bad internet were more dangerous than management conventions, but today in WoW these “crutches” are depressing. And now Blizzard is introducing a new class - demon hunters. They run fast, jump high, glide on their wings and look through walls. Introducing such a class was risky, but playing for it is damn fun - you feel the freedom and drive, as if you were playing a slasher film. Add to this the aggressive appearance “like Illidan” and an exemplary prologue campaign - and it becomes clear why almost every second person on the Broken Isles is a winged elf with glowing eyes.

In short, you want to enjoy Legion– create a demon hunter, go through quests and look at the statistics window less often. Playing with other classes is a complete pain from the feature cut, and you’re unlikely to want to go through the same missions with a different hero a second time.

Joys:

• The wheel of Azeroth's history is picking up speed.
• Demon Hunter is worth playing.

Nasty things:

• The game feels obsolete.
• Neither quests nor battles challenge the player.
• Key mechanics continue to be sawed off.

Rating: 6.0.

Legion I wasn’t surprised by anything and I wasn’t really pleased by anything. Old fans will come here to look at familiar heroes, wipe away the nostalgic trace and in a month forget about WoW until the next addon.

We thank Blizzard Entertainment for providing the game key.