World Of Warcraft: Shadowlands will tear into the afterlife
Go to heck
After a world's been trashed enough, how can you further raise the stakes (and the ruckus)? Mate, stuff it, tear open a route into the afterlife and give the already-dead a kicking. Blizzard today announced Shadowlands, the eighth World Of Warcraft expansion, where Sylvanas Windrunner will do just that. Off we'll go into heck, exploring, murdering, and meeting new people.
Descending into heck to figure out what Sylvanas is up to, we'll explore new places and meet new Covenants. These are factions we'll get to pledge to, moving through a unique story line and gaining unique abilities. Those range from fauny fae to flashy vampires and gosh, I do like a bit of fae.
The new level cap for this expansion will take it from 120 to... 60? Blizzard say, "Level up your next hero through a fully revamped 1–50 experience where every level is meaningful, then advance to the new level cap of 60 in the Shadowlands." Huh! I wonder if that's a lesson learned from WoW Classic, where levelling actually feels like a task rather than a side-effect.
Shadowlands will also introduce a new mode delving int Torghast, Tower of the Damned - a prison for folks bad enough to be sent to prison even in heck. "This everchanging, roguelike challenge is open to solo players and groups of up to five, and those who brave its trials will earn some of the afterlife’s worthiest rewards," Blizzard say.
World Of Warcraft: Shadowlands is coming to Windows and Mac in 2020. It will cost £35.
BlizzCon's opening ceremony began with an apology from president J Allen Brack for the lousy mess they made when they banned a pro Hearthstone player who voiced support for Hong Kong after a match. That's nice but insufficient. Blizzard also announced Diablo IV, announced Overwatch 2, and announced a new Hearthstone expansion and Auto Chess mode.