Ily Reviews The War Within Level Up Story
Happy spooky season folks! I hope you’ve all bought your amazing harvest golem transmog from the trading post to celebrate autumnal things.
Today, we’re reviewing the level-up story of TWW. I’ll write a separate review of the max level campaign, side stories, and rep questlines, as putting everything in one post would be too much (yay content!). Let’s dive right into it!
THIS ENTIRE POST IS SPOILERS FOR THE TWW LEVEL-UP CAMPAIGN (BUT IF YOU HAVEN’T DONE IT WHY WOULD YOU BE HERE)
rip girl
Dalaran
At least our weakest point is at the very beginning of the story! Dalaran is…fine. It serves as a good enough inciting incident that ticks all the required narrative boxes: character investment, status quo change, and perpetrator for us to look to. Let’s start with the really good moments:
-Obviously anything Xal’atath does is gold. Her two cinematics here are brilliantly acted, generally good, and actually have some decently refreshing dialogue! They’ve finally found more interesting ways for our heroes to say “we’ll stop you” and our villains to say “ahahahaha you could never.” I was a big fan of Khadgar’s “like hell you will” and of Xal’s fabulous “ohoho it’s not time for that yet” when Alleria was getting ready to shoot her.
-Alleria is basically on fire throughout this entire scenario: she snaps into leadership very quickly, is always looking for kill shots, not wasting any time, and does literally everything she can to try and stop Dalaran from falling. Our Dwarven companions are equally supportive and helpful, just with less void-ranger energy.
-The beginning of Isle of Dorn afterwards, set in the wreckage, is pretty excellent. The in-game music plays reworked versions of Legion Dalaran themes, and for a bit there, you actually take the hint that we just got dunked on by the hot dead elf lady.
The things I would’ve improved:
-Xal saying Drenden’s been dead for years is uh…not awesome. Would’ve been totally fine if she sniped him in the 10.2.7 quests and then controlled his body, but having him dead for years is a bit frustrating for canon. But since he’s so minor, it’s not game-breaking like the canon errors of something like BFA.
-You do the scenario and the beginning of Isle of Dorn and then that’s kind of it. We spend an ounce of time grieving Khadgar but not a lot of time grieving an entire exploded city and the people who lived there.
-WHERE IS VEREESA? GUYS? Vereesa gets written out of Dalaran later when you ask Alleria where she is and, surprise, Vereesa moved out of Dalaran a few years ago? Why? She’s the ranger general of the Silver Covenant and that’s the city her husband loved. Does not quite make sense to me. There’s another moment later that we’ll get to that makes it seem like someone forgot their Windrunners, which is why Vereesa isn’t at Dalaran. It isn’t that Alleria’s moments are bad, it’s that there was a sister with an even stronger tie to Dalaran who just…wasn’t there.
Dalaran is the first instance of TWW’s literally breakneck pacing, which will be my main constructive feedback on this level up experience. What’s there is super good, but we went waaaaay too fast. An expansion like Mists of Pandaria, for example, would’ve handled the fall of Dalaran by having multiple other survivor camps set up throughout Khaz Algar with some of our favorite characters to drive home that their home got destroyed. We get some NPC’s giving us wanted quests for prisoners who broke out of the Violet Hold but that’s kind of it. I would’ve handled the ramifications of Dalaran blowing up for a bit longer, not too long, to drive home to players that they lost bad. Whereas something like the Broken Shore left an impact until 7.2, Dalaran is over very quickly. It’s a nice kickstarter, but if the goal was to ruin my whole month like Broken Shore, we did not quite get there. 6/10.
LOVE the vibes here
Isle of Dorn
Oh yes. Great music, immaculate vibes, an even more functional capital than Valdrakken, we’ve got it all in the Isle of Dorn. The plot in this level up is great: we get a quick rundown of Earthen society, immediately establish that the next step is fixing the Coreway and stopping the above-ground Nerubian attacks, and it all takes a little over an hour. I am a huge fan of a first zone like this being quickly-paced, because it knows that it isn’t the main event of the level-up story (it’s definitely the main event of the side stories though, but that’s for next post).
Highlights include the foundation of Unbound Earthen, chats by the Coreway after the end of level-up, a well-incorporated follower dungeon, and a nice, simple story to get us started. Earthen might be cool, Nerubians bad, punch them in the face. We also get our first chunk of the spectacular personalities in this expansion: the first stormrider cutscene where Magni calls the Nerubian lord a “chitinous bastard” then panics when Baelgrim thinks hes a Thraegar is too funny. Moira, being Moira, saves her dad from blowing their best shot at entering diplomatically.
I would say that this zone does what it needs to do, in the process becoming the weakest of the level up stories. But that’s ok! You get introduced to your agenda for the level-up, meet many of the crew, and of course, have your first super fucking awesome trip down the Coreway at the end. I am super impressed with how they’ve woven the cross over to the Ringing Deeps: sometimes I take the long way down just because of how cool it is. 8/10.
The Ringing Deeps
If you told me at any point since BFA that I would not only care about Magni but actively shed a tear over a cutscene involving him, I would’ve blocked you on discord. This zone owned.
At first you think you’re just going into the awkward basement of the Isle of Dorn. No surprise, something is very wrong here, but it’s unclear what. Is it a Kobold problem? Is it a leadership problem? Why not both! With a dash of SKARDYN?
Skardyn have been anticipated in WoW since at least Cata if not earlier. I was beyond thrilled to see them finally utilized, especially with a character like Xal’atath around, who was literally instrumental in their creation. As we discussed in the Xal’atath post, Modgud cursed Grim Batol using the dagger. Ever since items on the Grim Batol loot table mentioned them, I’ve been waiting for these nasty boys to show up in game. Surprise: Xal is out of jail and is beginning the gradual re-enactment of her previous schemes that went well. It starts with luring a mortal in Crucible of Storms to give her a body, then logically proceeds to her other previous victories. She prevailed over the Aqir once, why not utilize them again? She made Skardyn once, why not do so again?
MOTHER/MY SON
We find out that, understandably so, the High Speaker has despaired over the awakening machine’s dysfunctions. Xal tricks him and I actually think he doesn’t look stupid, which is rare for minor WoW antagonists. The depiction of how the Skardyn have cropped up is actually pretty well-done too: you mozy over to Taelloch with Dagran (my son) and Magni, do a little detective work, then find the former foreman completely fucked up and merged with an earth elemental. Yikes!
This zone really slays its last bit, answering the question we all had in the beta of “why are new Earthen popping up anyways?” As you get to Eirich’s last bit in the hall of awakening, he’s succeeded. Azeroth then speaks in a cutscene for the first time and tells Magni this is his moment, showing once more that someone in the writers’ room for TWW is genuinely interested in pulling threads together. It’s not that I think someone knew back in 2010 that Magni got turned to diamond to save the Earthen, or that someone knew back in 2010 that Skardyn would appear in 11.0. It’s that some writer cared enough to look at what was previously written and see what would make sense. And they found it brilliantly!
look what happens when you stop being a misogynist. so proud of him. well done.
Azeroth likely diamond-ified Magni to utilize her gift at a moment when it was needed. In our case, he can immediately purify the awakening machine for the Algari Earthen. This owns. In beta, I was like “why are there new Earthen?” Then I watched this cutscene, played the side stories, etc., and the Earthen quickly became one of the best written races in WoW. Many folks had this same experience where they were simply won over with the power of good writing. It happens!
Magni turns back to flesh and blood in a long-awaited moment that actually landed, even after his hyper-memeification in BFA. I am so impressed with what they did with him this time. Brinthe, my ASD coded cousin, is all surprised Pikachu when Moira tells her to be in charge, then says ok bet and becomes our new High Speaker.
To add one more banger to the Deeps, someone decided to do a rare “show, don’t tell” moment in the Stonevault. Eirich’s initial introduction is played as comedy, rightfully so, and extremely campy. He rides in like a pre-potion Kuzco from Emperor’s New Groove, acting high and mighty complete with a personal chairlift. When you find him in the Stonevault, after an entire zone of Void juice, his voice has become raspy and he’s basically lost control of his senses. It’s a super effective moment at showing you what happens to a Dwarf who gets Skardyned, and I’m very glad someone decided to depict it through visual and vocal changes rather than just the usual “I’M CORRUPTED NOW BWAAAARGH.” I thought this zone was great. 10/10.
jaw on floor tbh forever and always
Hallowfall
The Ringing Deeps’ only flaw is that it isn’t Hallowfall! This is basically the best zone ever?
Immediate strong start with the wide shot of Beledar, interrupted by the radiant song returning. Eek! Why does that big ass crystal provoke an Azeroth response! That’s bad!
While everyone else was a bit rushed in TWW, Anduin was done right. He does not magically get better at the end of the Hallowfall story, he just takes his first step. He is rightfully the star of the show here, with well-acted, well-written stay awhiles across the entire zone. You should listen to all of them!
Anduin only gets to start his recovery because he meets Faerin, who is simply excellent (we’ll see that more in the side stories). Faerin has already gone on her journey of what to do when you’re feeling hopeless. Her decision is to soldier on and just do her best. Anduin’s struggled with decision paralysis after recent events: if he can’t ensure that everything is going to go correctly, is it correct for him to make any decision at all? Instead of using Faerin as a foil for Anduin, the writers opted to show Anduin someone who had gone on a part of his journey and deeply sympathized with him, which I loved.
this quest is an immediate all-timer
The visual storytelling throughout the level-up is also excellent. I’m glad they knew they struck gold with Beledar’s shifting cycles, and the way it is used at specific story moments lands. We inch ever closer to Xal’atath in this zone with another of her appearances to Alleria, learn about the Hallowfall Arathi (who are absolutely fascinating btw), and learn of some strange coincidences. Why did Beledar first shift on the day Sargeras stabbed the planet? What the fuck is Beledar anyway? Who’s the Arathi emperor?
Hallowfall, along with Deeps and Azj-kahet, takes a much-needed note from FF14 by having the zone anchored by a character we know and love. While this choice is great in every zone, its implementation in Hallowfall is impeccable. The quest where you order a round of drinks for yourself, Faerin, Anduin, and Alleria, and have as many questions to ask them as you want, is exquisite. I can’t think of the last time my character got to just sit and debrief with the other heroes of Azeroth. Afterwards, you have another opportunity to ask the characters questions, stay awhile and listen, and complete your next objective. Some of the best acting in-game is in this zone, as Josh Keaton delivers another knockout performance as Anduin. His conversation where he tells Alleria she isn’t the only one hearing voices is pure excellence.
The zone ends on a gentle cliffhanger: Nerubians attack after we save Mereldar and we pursue them near Azj-kahet. Anduin attempts his Varian moment by jumping off an airship and trying to make a heroic sacrifice. Did it pay off? Did it accomplish what he thought it would? To find out, we must go deeper. 10/10, up there with Ardenweald and Revendreth for my favorite zone story in the game.
Azj-Kahet
Picking up right where we left off from Hallowfall, we descend into the Nerubians’ territory. While there are character moments and plot stuff to get to later that are more Nerubian-centric, perhaps the most harrowing part of Azj-Kahet occurs at the beginning: what the fuck are those giant roots?
Orweyna, who I need more of immediately, informs us of the urgency of the Black Blood situation as we protect the surrounding big-ass roots. Theories abound as to what the roots are (it’s obviously Elun’ahir), and I was thrilled they opened the zone with something unexpected that wasn’t on the box art. What the fuck are these? Why are they down here? I am looking forward to more Harranir content in (hopefully) 11.1 as we get into the nitty gritty of some of this subterranean shit.
Once we advance, we find the Severed Threads through Widow Arak’nai. I won’t be reviewing the max level campaign in this post, but I will say that this character went from just ok to excellent due to the max level campaign. For the level up, she’s fun, a more shadowy twist on the rebellion than something like Suramar or Revendreth. I will note that this story beat of rebelling against a questionable ruler has been done multiple times, so we lose a bit of originality, but max level and side story do a lot for making this version land, even if it’s a beat we’ve seen before. Same concept, very different faces.
WHAT ARE YOU!!!! WHO ARE THE HARRANIR!!! WHAT IS YOUR STORY!! WHAT DO YOU MEEEEAN!!
Character wise, we have one of my favorite Anduin moments ever. Poor boy thought that the Light would answer him again if he emulated his dad and made a heroic sacrifice. It didn’t answer! Anduin is left there going “yeah, that’s me, you’re probably wondering how I got here” in a swarm of Nerubians. This is, at last, where my favorite Anduin, the guy from MoP, comes back. As the resourceful, clever boy he is, Anduin picks up on a brewing conspiracy and uses his natural superpower of Godly Insight to buy in. This is my favorite Anduin: rather than passively reacting to things that happen to him, he drives the bus and shows significant initiative. Our third partnership with a Nerubian lord solidified, we take a peek at Xal’atath and Ansurek addressing the Nerubians.
Alleria decides to chill out in this zone after she goes for a kill shot on Xal and fucks up. This zone has one of the funniest cutscenes ever, where Alleria stays to 1v1 Xal and Xal says “oh please” then yoinks her bow. Iconic.
Azj-Kahet is where we run into some more breakneck TWW pacing. I think Alleria finished her journey a little too fast, but thankfully Anduin is still cooking. Azj-Kahet has some good drama, some good worldbuilding, and resolves our level-up concerns. We head back above ground and wait for our ships to arrive. That said, it’s a little too short, especially since it’s the final zone, and while the max-level and side stories do a lot to make it feel like the final zone, I would’ve liked to see a lot of them shifted to the level-up story. 8/10.
Conclusion
With my scores totaled, TWW’s level up story gets a 42/50 from me, or 84%. This is very good. It has already stolen MoP’s place as my favorite level-up campaign (I felt MoP really took off at max level) and has laid a great foundation for what’s to come, but was still interesting in its own right. This is a big step forward: the past few expansions have promised “wait and see” but the waiting wasn’t enjoyable. If this is TWW’s “wait” portion, I can’t wait for the “see” portion, because I already did a lot of seeing.
Next, we’ll review max-level and side stories (spoiler: I think they’re even better than the level up).
Happy Monday,
-Ily
