World of Warcraft: The War Within Alpha has shown us a beautiful new zone and big promises

World of Warcraft is a phenomenon that, while it’s had its ups and downs, continues to be one of the flagships of the MMO genre. For almost 20 years since its release, Blizzard Entertainment has released expansion after expansion for the game, with hordes of players rushing back into it every single time. But somehow, The War Within has felt somewhat different ever since it was first revealed back in Blizzcon 2023.

Touted as the beginning of a new way of storytelling, as well as the first in a trilogy of expansions that comprise what the devs are calling “The Worldsoul Saga”, War Within has promised to shake things up for the game in more ways than one. We’ve had the luck of having been invited by Blizzard to give the first Alpha of the game a try, and for the better part of this week, we’ve been exploring the initial areas of the Isle of Dorn, where this new expansion is set to take place.

Right into the thick of it

As soon as we logged into the Alpha, we spawned in the middle of a hectic scene: our character awakens under a pile of rocks, having survived a massive crash due to as-of-yet unrevealed events. But from the horde of spider creatures (the Nerubians) tearing into the other survivors on the beach, it’s not that hard to guess what could have happened. Here, Warcraft heroes Jaina and Thrall hold off monster after monster, giving you your first quests: kill some beasts and help other survivors of some cataclysmic event that happened to the floating city of Dalaran.

After pushing back against our assailants, we’re saved by a group of Stormriders who proceed to take me on a flight through stormy clouds, slowly soaring through airstreams until I see the massive city of Dornogal, its mechanical and magical pillars rising from the ground high up into the sky, rise from the horizon.

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It’s safe to say that, even in such an early state with missing cutscenes and text where the dialogue should be, this expansion is doing a lot of work to be much more cinematic and dynamic than what we’ve been used to in previous ones. This time it doesn’t take long before you’re able to explore the city and everything surrounding it. From the get-go you can see a clear identity in the design of everything around you, difficult to explain simply in words: it’s a beautiful and epic city, clearly meant to be bustling with many players but at the moment standing still. The Earthen (this expansion’s main race of creatures that look like dwarves, but aren’t) walk around, and you get to learn of their history, culture, and technology in almost every quest you find.

It’s all in the adventure

So what exactly do you do in The War Within? While there’s plenty of lore to discover and be slightly overwhelmed by Blizzard has bet on delivering fresh swathes of content for players to enjoy. Aside from the usual many quests scattered around the new zone of Dorn, which don’t deviate much from the gameplay aspect of what you may be used to in WoW and other MMOs, the main novelty in the game is a new kind of PvE instance called Delves.

Delves are essentially a new type of dungeon, much smaller in size, which can be done solo or with a team of 2-4 players. These instances are short PvE experiences that are meant to grant players loot: from gold to gear and everything in between. The main difference between these and regular dungeons is that Delves are actually designed to be narrative experiences. Throughout each of these, you’re accompanied by an NPC character that interacts with you and the dungeon, all the while advancing the story and sometimes even being part of the main plot of the expansions. However, we’ve been told by the devs that Delves are planned as a new type of content that can be updated and built upon in future deliveries.

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What they actually are in-game is short adventures, of 10-15 minutes in length, where you go on a quick jaunt into interesting scenarios. Every time you go into a Delve you’ll get new loot, and there are unlockable difficulties for each of them that can both offer a greater challenge and better loot quality. Delves are clearly designed for players who prefer single-player content and discovering the world, rather than the demanding exercises that Dungeons and Raids have become.

Other than that, in the very short time we had with the Alpha, the other main feature that shined clearly above all else is the new Dynamic Flight. Previously showcased as Dragonriding in the last expansion, Dragonflight, the popular new method of transportation became so popular that the devs had no doubts about making it an integral part of the game. And it shows as the design of the new zone is much larger than classic areas of the game where this type of flight is not allowed.

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This is the first expansion ever that allows players to fly from its start, which means that maps are meant to accommodate for this kind of travel, being massive and oftentimes taller than ever before. Your mount (a blue glowing griffon that the Stormriders of Dorn use themselves) is meant to be upgraded as you go, with abilities and “Vigor” dictating your capabilities for flight. Once you actually get the hang of it (as it can be a bit tricky at first) it is incredibly engaging and fun.

So… is it the biggest change in World of Warcraft so far?

Looking at only this small serving of the full course, it’s difficult to assess how things will turn out in the end. Blizzard seems to be pushing The War Within as THE best moment new players can join the game, given that they’re only now starting a new story arc. But when you look at how things are done in-game, this just isn’t really the case at the moment.

Besides the very obvious issue that you need to be level 70+ to enjoy this expansion, which means you either slog through leveling in older content or purchase a boost so you can start playing right away, there is no true way in which The War Within is newbie friendly. If you do the former, you’ll start playing with so many talents and skills that it’ll take you days to get used to the controls.

Looking at it from the story, the initial quests we were shown don’t help either: the story doesn’t treat players as the protagonists, instead making you feel like a fly on the wall while dozens of other characters deliver buckets of lore and drama between them to set the story. Yes, you’re “The Champion”, and yet you’re received with quests to “kill x amount of monsters” and “help x people laying on the ground” from the actual heroes, who are fighting off monsters heroically.

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Even the Delves focus on the NPC that accompanies you, which while being cool wouldn’t be that exciting for new players who are thrown into the mix unaware of who’s who. We’ll always mourn the loss of the original duality in Warcraft, that which pitted the Alliance vs the Horde in an eternal rivalry, and that is completely gone from any kind of storyline here.

However, we must reiterate that we’ve only experienced a very small part of the game. This is still a work in progress with much stuff still to be added into it, so we won’t know what to expect from the story or the game until Blizzard chooses to reveal more.