World of Warcraft: Midnight Review

The War Within was the start of a whole new era for World of Warcraft, and at this point is probably my favorite expansion ever, so Midnight had big shoes to fill. Or maybe I should say a long shadow cast over it? It seems like Xal’atath still refuses to wear shoes. But when you factor in the flexible player housing system, stunning new zones, and an endgame that refines some of its predecessor’s best ideas, the second chapter of this trilogy is shaping up to be heroic.

Midnight would be hard to beat in terms of sheer visual spectacle by WoW’s standards. Riding into the reimagined elven capital of Silvermoon is one of those moments I’m not going to forget for a long time. Its gleaming ivory spires towered above me as an excellent new musical theme that references multiple previous ones filled me with awe. The level of detail is maybe the highest we’ve ever seen for an in-game city in WoW ever, with evocative interiors that interconnect in unexpected ways and invite exploration. My framerate has been less than stellar during peak times, though.

Expanding legacy areas like Murder Row into extensive subzones with a lot going on helps the city come alive. It’s no secret that I’m a big “Thalassaboo,” having been a fan of the elves of Quel’Thalas since Warcraft 2. And even the smaller, optional adventures in Silvermoon excellently immerse you in the decadence, pridefulness, and political maneuvering that characterize the city. As an Alliance player, I was also impressed with how much of it we get to explore – only about a quarter of it is off-limits to us.

Beyond the shining capital, Eversong Woods has also been reimagined gorgeously. It was already one of my favorite zones in the entire history of WoW, and to see it get such a glow-up, finally healed from the scars of Arthas’ invasion all those years ago, is fantastic. I was delightfully surprised with the forest troll homeland of Zul’Aman as well, contrasting the storybook elven kingdom with a rugged, piney wilderness that I loved to get lost in. It says a lot about how enjoyable these areas are to exist in that even now, I prefer to cross them on foot or on a ground mount rather than in the air.

The remaining two zones are much more high concept and otherworldly, but just as visually exciting. Harandar, a tangled plane of primal elements overlooked by the empty cradle of a goddess, reminds me of Hallowfall in terms of its fantastical flair. And the Voidstorm where Xal’atath is marshalling her forces is bleak and uninviting, but uses strong primary colors to avoid the problems of Patch 11.2’s K’aresh zone, which often felt like way too much grey.

The story isn’t as evenly distributed as the art, though. We did finally get some more context on The story isn’t as evenly distributed as the art. We did finally get some more context on Xal’atath’s motivations, and the just-released Voidspire raid does end with some exciting plot beats that have me eager to see what’s next. But Turalyon feels a bit like he’s been reinvented as a completely different character with new flaws just so he can have an arc, and that’s kind of lame. Arator’s Journey, which was billed as a sort of epic quest that would take you across all of Azeroth, took me less than two hours to complete, which felt underwhelming. It did have some neat moments for us Warcraft 2 fans, though.

Once again, the side quest writing, at its best, proves decidedly superior to the main plot. All the family drama we get with Alleria, Arator, and Turalyon is outshone by one little story about two estranged troll siblings coming back together to deal with the complicated matter of mourning their abusive mother. This has been the case for four expansions now. Are these the same writers? If not, why not let some of these sidelined scribes write the main story for a whole expansion? It would be amazing to see this level of emotional nuance paired with high-quality CGI cutscenes featuring some big name heroes.

I’m also not totally in love with the new Haranir allied race. Their customizations are fantastic and they look cool as hell. But I’m not a huge fan of Blizzard’s tendency to make up new kinds of humanoids all the time rather than making long-requested, existing favorites like the Amani playable. I think the Nightborne should have just been night elves with different clothes… this is a running pain point for me. I’d like to see a moratorium on completely new, previously undiscovered humanoids for a while.

I’ve played through both sides of this story with three characters so far, including the new Devourer Demon Hunter. And I have to say I’m not completely sold on it yet. I like the other Demon Hunter specs quite a bit, but the flavor of Devourer is a bit more caster-coded than the melee monsters Demon Hunters have always been in the lore. Baseline abilities like Consume don’t feel kinetic enough to me, at least in terms of the animation. The theming is cool. It just isn’t a fun button to press, especially without the talent that reduces the cooldown. I wish Reap, which I do really like, was our main filler. I think I’ll probably go back to Annihilator long-term.

For my siblings of the Marksmanship Hunter discipline, we’re still in a pretty good spot. It really took some getting used to losing Streamline, but with the apex talent that makes Aimed Shot a guaranteed crit, I overall like the change to make it a huge nuke that requires a lot of set-up. It fits the class fantasy and it feels great, especially during Trueshot. I don’t really like the changes to Sentinel hero talents, though. Moonlight Chakram is underwhelming and Lunar Storm has just become a random proc that goes off without much player input. It feels kind of like an extra trinket at this point. There’s no real tactical thinking involved.

I’ve also leveled to 90 as a Retribution paladin, and this spec really isn’t doing it for me anymore. It has great area effect damage, but single-target feels super underwhelming and there’s too much flash for my taste. I have Consecration, I’m shooting fire out of my sword, I have bells rotating around me. It just feels like a light-themed wacky gadget class. It makes me think of the “Random Bullshit Go!” meme. I just want to be a cool holy warrior who hits things with a giant hammer, you know?

Whatever spec I’m playing, the returning and new endgame activities have been satisfying since the start of the season, though. Delves are showing a definite evolution over their introduction in The War Within, with a particularly memorable one casting you as a wrestling heel to perform in a fighting pit for a crowd of rowdy mushroom people. Tier 11 delves in particular stand out in that they contain very few hard gear checks, and I felt I could navigate their one-shot mechanics using skill alone, which is fantastic.

Den of Nalorakk in Zul’Aman is the most interesting five-player dungeon, featuring an open area in which you have to race greedy predators for dwindling food supplies and can make up your own route to do so. It builds up to a gauntlet of howling winds that requires the party to take shelter in small safe zones as you fight your way forward, and an icy boss fight with a slippery floor that you can mitigate by getting them to basically throw snowballs at you that give you something crunchier to stand on. The boss design in dungeons and raids has definitely shifted based on the removal of a lot of add-on functionality, and I think we’re better off for it so far.

Prey, a new feature that positions you as both hunter and hunted against increasingly deadly enemies in the outdoor world, is definitely interesting. I like the idea of making the main zones feel dangerous again. But like delves last expansion, this does feel like a first swing at the idea, and it could use some tweaking. The new zone-specific activities are an improvement over The War Within, too – particularly the tower defense Stormarion Assault. Saltheril’s Soiree forcing you to pick favorites between Silvermoon’s factions is an interesting twist. I’m not a big fan of Abundance, though, even if Dun Dun is a real one. It’s one of Midnight’s only features that ended up being a total miss for me.

Coffer Key Shards for Bountiful Delves are now handed out like candy, but there’s a strict weekly cap that I was able to hit in under 90 minutes. I think I like that better overall. I’m also a big fan of ditching valorstones, and the fact that upgrading an item to the highest level you’ve obtained in the same slot previously only costs gold, not crests.

The banner feature for Midnight, though, is definitely player housing. It launched way back in December, and I’ve put well over 100 hours into it already. The expansion proper is full of awesome elf- and troll-themed decor. The decor editing tools are very powerful when you learn how to use them, and I’m astounded and inspired to see what some people have done with them.

At the same time, housing definitely shows that it’s a first try in some places. The hotkeys to switch between editing your house and normal gameplay are kind of clunky and add too many steps to certain tasks. There are some common sense features missing, like being able to copy and paste a decoration or furniture item if I have another one in my storage. And it’s neat that dyes can be made by other players, but currently I get frustrated previewing different colors on a piece, then having to make a shopping list and go all the way back to town to visit the auction house and buy the paints I want. I’d like for that process to be more seamless.

There’s quite a bit of decor you can obtain from crafting, too. And while the devs talked a lot about simplifying crafting to cave to hundreds of wrong people on reddit who have been constantly expressing their wrong opinions, most of what I loved about Dragonflight and The War Within’s detailed crafting system is still here. It’s just been sanded down in a couple places I don’t notice too much.My one other significant complaint is in the changes to Skyriding. Races seem to be gone from the new zones, which is a bummer. And while Midnight made many positive changes to the UI, it got rid of Skyriding’s vigor bar, which is just bizarre to me. This was supposedly to make it less confusing for people who didn’t play Dragonflight, but that doesn’t really make sense. Why is turning my vigor charges into these tiny numbers at the very bottom of the screen less confusing than having a big, readable, bespoke UI? I don’t buy it. I want the old vigor bar back. At least as an option.