So, as some of you know, I was invited into the Shadowlands Alpha. To avoid early story / quest burnout, I haven't exactly been digging too deeply or picking everything apart, but I have been poking around here and there. And, yes, I’ve been reporting bugs and submitting suggestions as I always do during the alpha / beta phase!

Today I went through the new Shadowlands intro quest line, and I decided to write up a review and include some screenshots. Now, if you don't want story spoilers, turn away now. I'll leave this first section here as this article's excerpt so you shouldn't get spoiled by accident. If, however, you don’t mind spoilers, then click-through if you're curious about what happens! You’ll also get my own personal thoughts at the end, too. Bonus, right?

Spoilers below!

Intro Experience Walkthrough

The intro starts out with some dialogue from Darion Mograine suggesting that Sylvanas's minions abducted some of Azeroth's leaders after her attack on Icecrown (the same attack seen in the cinematic). You're lead to the Frozen Throne, where you see an important gathering of the remaining leaders.

Once they’re done talking, you’re tasked with taking the floating fragments of the Lich King’s helm and placing them around the throne area so that a ritual can be performed to open a gateway to the Maw. There’s a minor issue in that the placement points, while represented by the usual “place item into this golden ghostly slot here” markers, are not obvious. They can easily get lost due to distance from the center of the circle and their proximity to clusters of NPCs standing around. They can just be hard to “read” in front of the background crowd, in other words.

The mechanics of it work just fine, though, and it’s a simple set of actions that use the “tethered to something so you can only walk slowly” mechanic we’ve seen at various locations through Battle for Azeroth.

Into the Maw

Once done, you’re sent through a large portal to the Maw itself. There’s possibly a cinematic that’s not in place, yet (none of them are at the time of this writing). It’s here, in the Maw, that you find Darion Mograine fighting alongside you. There are also Ebon Blade death knights there, too. Your task (and theirs)? Find the missing faction leaders.

You fight some enemies, rally some death knights, and look for clues until you eventually come across Jaina and Thrall. Thrall has been injured, and Jaina appears near exhaustion. This means that you need to defend them against a wave of really cool looking Mawsworn Kyrian, which I, unfortunately, did not get any screenshots of. Maybe I’ll snag some next time I poke at it! They’re cool, though. Trust me.

After being harassed by these Mawsworn, you make it to a cave where Jaina thinks it’s safe. Here she tells you about what they’ve been through during their time in the Shadowlands. She cannot say how long she’s been trapped, as time works differently in the Shadowlands and she’s still near exhaustion. It is very possible that they’re all feeling like they’ve been there longer than they have. Or maybe it’s not just a feeling…

Jaina describes what they’ve seen through a series of magical illusions, and this is the first (as far as I know) in-game view we get of the Jailer. Those of you who’ve been keeping up with WoWHead’s datamining will recognize this big guy.

That’s an illusion of Sylvanas at his feet, probably for scale. Figuring it’s a better representation than a banana.

This almost feels like an old painting in its composition. I really like it.

She continues with her tale, after which it is suggested that you go out and interrogate some amalgamated spirits to see if there’s a way out of the Maw. Darion suggests you use the shard of the Helm of Domination that Bolvar gave you to persuade these spirits to talk.

They really didn’t have much interesting to say. But they looked good not saying it!

These spirits look damned cool and creepy, let me tell ya… But they don’t tell you much, so you go after a bigger one instead. It’s your typical simple elite-style fight, and you can call in the Ebon Blade to help support you. You succeed, of course, and Darion drags the thing back to the cave to interrogate it some more.

Then Jaina tells you that you gotta go help save Anduin, who was taken to the top of a nearby tower after his abduction. You arrive in time to see Sylvanas there, taunting him like a villain does. I’m guessing there’s another cinematic, because things went dark and then we’re standing next to Anduin all of a sudden with Sylvanas nowhere in sight. The boy king cannot break free from his chains, so he asks for your help.

You refuse.

Nah, just kidding. You agree. This is your usual “kill enemies until you find keys, use keys to free X random souls, find main key and return to quest giver” set of quests. It’s pretty straight forward.

I did encounter a few line of sight and evasion bugs with the enemies, though. I’m guessing they still have some pathing details to work out in this area, as something as simple as a slight elevation change could trigger an enemy evasion. It didn’t prevent me from finishing any quests, but it was still a minor irritant.

River of Souls

Once you’re finished, you free Anduin. After that, you make your back to the cave and discover that Darion has succeeded in extracting the information from the big soul amalgamation. Basically, it tells you to "go to Location C and find a MacGuffin. Thing is, the MacGuffin is also around where Baine has been taken! So go save Baine and find the MacGuffin, too!

You do this, leaving the safety of your cave and crossing over the River of Souls, where you meet an old friend.

Helya pops up, taunts you, then flings you into the river of souls that runs beneath the bridge upon which you were standing. Now, this is actually one of the more heartbreaking parts of this entire intro experience. In the river—which isn’t really filled with water so much as just… soulstuff—you see countless souls fly past you. Each soul here is crying out its final words at the time of its death, and they just keep coming in an unending flow.

You make your way out of the river by following the other NPCs with you (Jaina, Thrall, and Anduin), and you eventually climb onto shore. It is here where you look up and finally get to see him in person. The big bad himself: the Jailer.

Okay, so maybe he’s a bit tiny when he’s that far away…

Then another cinematic probably drops on you, because the very next scene shows you next to Baine, who’s lying on the ground and almost dead. You’re tasked with finding a dagger that inflicted this curse upon him. At the same time, Thrall asks you help him find a new weapon. Seems that, like a dumbass, he threw his axe at Helya during the encounter. I was too busy getting flung into a river of souls, so I didn’t actually see this happen, but it happened.

Whoops?

So, you gotta kill some bad guys and click on some weapon racks to help the former Warchief find a new killy-instrument. The weapon rack part of this quest very much follows a “Goldilocks” pattern. Each weapon rack gives Thrall a different weapon that he complains about it before using it, sometimes incorrectly, as with the first weapon you find: a crossbow. The last rack you click—the fourth or fifth one or so—finally gives him a replacement axe.

But that crossbow, though…

No, Thrall, beating the ghosts upside the head with the crossbow is NOT the correct handling of that weapon…

Oh, and during this quest you also happen to find the dagger that cursed Baine. Hoo-RAY for batched quest areas!

You succeed in helping Baine survive by destroying the dagger and killing the curse / spirit / entity of darkness lurking within. Then you ask Baine about the MacGuffin. The MacGuffin, consequently, is a “Waystone” that has supposedly been dormant or deactivated for a really long time. Baine happened to notice it earlier, and claims that the Jailer and his armies don’t really give it a second thought.

So you sneak your way to the Waystone with Jaina’s help. Miraculously, it begins to wake up as you approach!

Not because of anything Jaina did.

Or Thrall.

Or Baine.

Or Anduin.

You.

Oooh, “the First Ones”. I kinda like that concept!

The Waystone begins to charge itself as you get close. The Jailer, though, happens to notice this, and he sends all his forces to fight you en masse. It’s a hefty fight, and I died.

Three times.

On my fourth attempt, I just respawned and hid behind the Waystone while it charged, and the bad guys just slapped around the NPCs for a bit while the gadget charged up.

Yeah, okay, maybe that part needs some tuning.

Once charged, though, BAM! You portal out of there to Oribos with a heroic click of your mouse!

Yay!

That’s where I stopped, though, because that’s where I assumed it ended.

Closing Thoughts

Overall, it was an interesting introduction to the Maw and the currently-known big bad of this expansion. He’s definitely not a mystery at the moment (aside from his motivations, specific plan, and power level), so there’s an opportunity here to treat him like Arthas / the Lich King was treated during Wrath. If he becomes a constant presence, then there’s a chance for more emotional engagement. To note, he did nothing but talk at us a couple of times during the gameplay, but the opportunity is there.

The character models and scenery are very appropriately designed and themed for the area, too, giving it a very creepy death / hell / torture vibe. Almost like something from the Diablo games. It all has a darker edge than the often bright color palette we normally see in WoW.

There is a risk with this, though. If it become over-used, it can reach the same level of “spikey death" overload that some people felt with the “green fel and steel" aesthetic of Legion. In the Maw, almost everything has that Ice Crown-esque look and feel. Whether or not you come to hate it, however, is purely down to your personal preference.

As was expected from an alpha build, there were a few little hiccups here and there. Some of the quest objectives were less than obvious, some of the enemy tuning could use refinement, and there was an overall sensation that things weren’t quite finished.

Which, of course, makes sense. Because things aren’t quite finished.

A few things of note: currently, you cannot mount up in this Maw area. While it’s not a long run to any of the objective locations, it’s important to note that you’ll be hoofing it on your own (or with NPC friends) for the extent of this experience. In addition, none of the enemy mobs drop anything other than quest objective items. This means no gold, no vendor trash, no consumables. It’s rather barren.

While, yes, it’s still alpha and that aspect could change, a part of me hopes that it doesn't. It really helps to sell that sense of being in a prison. Even though you have NPCs friends with you (and a handy horn to summon extra Ebon Blade death knights for the first part of the experience), the lack of ancillary drops really does sell the idea of this being a place without any hope for outside help. You’re not getting anything extra off these souls, prisoners and guards alike.

I’m sure there will be adjustments to this throughout both alpha and beta, but it’s a solid experience as it stands. Once the missing cinematics are in place (be they pre-rendered or in-game style) the story flow will fill itself out and this should become an excellent introduction to Shadowlands!

Shadowlands Intro Experience

Intro Experience Walkthrough

Into the Maw

River of Souls

Closing Thoughts