World of Warcraftwhen it’s not a game about collecting animal parts or fighting a god, is a game about time. That’s it reflective players for the present 22 years they have wandered the regions of Azeroth (and lands beyond it) and the life they live during adventuring or the makers of the world who count what it takes to change it, time is one of World of Warcraftthe greatest strength and a testament to its endurance—and this is fully demonstrated in its latest expansion, midnight.

When midnight already announced, I and my elf-piled brain are already excited about what Blizzard prefers as one of the main features of the expansion: that one of the new zones “added” to the game is, in fact, not an addition, but a change of the Blood Elf kingdom of Quel’Thalas, completely repairing and updating an area of World of Warcraft untouched since it was added with the release of The Burning Crusade back in 2006 (the game’s first expansion; midnight is its 11th). But now midnight It’s finally here and I spent the last week adventuring in Quel’Thalas as part of the early access season, it’s something to be excited about. It’s quite another to return to a place you’ve seen trapped in amber for nearly two-thirds of your life and find it brimming with a life you might have dreamed of stepping onto its virtual soil 20 years ago.

It was a huge undertaking, completely modernizing the region while remaining faithful to the memories built by players from the old zone. Quel’Thalas is a region of midnighta change to what used to be three major zones when it was introduced The Burning Crusade: the Blood Elf capital of Silvermoon City, the surrounding Eversong Woods, and the decaying Ghostlands, adding to its size, scale, and verticality to make it worthy of World of WarcraftThe modern style of flying mounts (flying everything is introduced in Burning Crusadebut only in the new region of Outland, which leaves you stranded in these lands even after much of Azeroth is open to flight).

Everything is bigger and nicer, with modern properties instead of leaning on strong art design but 2006 modeling. Silvermoon, now the main player hub even if you fight for Alliance or Hordetripled in size, what was once the ruins of its ancient form is now a fully rebuilt city filled with nooks and crannies to explore among its glittering peaks. The areas you know from the old zones have been changed to fit that scope, even with changes to accommodate the narrative events of midnight: The Forest of Eversong is now full of golden autumn trees, its decay mostly healed, but there are still some darker areas to create Ghostlands vibes. While the main story quests in the zone focus on the tasks at hand, the side quests allow you to dig back into the zones and even some characters who have been hanging around for decades, seeing how their lives are after you first defeated them as a low-level character generations ago, eager to start your own adventure.

That is, in fact, more about the redesign than the mechanical aspects: it is a land that is now eruption with life after years of literal and metaphorical decay and stagnation. The former is a reflection of where the Blood Elves are after the events of Warcraft 3—having seen the kingdom destroyed by the undead armies of Arthas Menethil on his fall path to becoming the new Lich King—and where they are, still trying to grapple with that trauma to come. Burning Crusadetoday is a reflection of a people who are healed, strong enough to stand tall in the face of the invasion that midnightThe initial story campaign revolves around

Silvermoon and its surrounding areas are already full of people, wandering around and living their lives (although the latest threat is looming over them, almost literally: a huge portal in the sky that has been opened by the tide. Warcraft the great evil Xal’atath to unleash an invading army of cosmic beings of shadow and emptiness): painting lush landscapes, partying with each other, cultivating newly vibrant lands, and researching arcane tomes. Silvermoon itself may now be the town of World of Warcraft that feels like a real city, a mess created not only by an army of player characters now settling there for the new expansion but by the hundreds of NPCs roaming the now expanded towers and alleyways going about their own business, instead of just being there to meet the mechanical needs of the player base.

It’s here that Blizzard also essentially keeps a bit of the edge on the Blood Doves as it is defined by The Burning Crusadea bitter people fresh from unfathomable slaughter and defeat, ready to do anything to survive and to feed their hunger for the arcane. Although for the most part as a society the Blood Elves have replaced their momentary reliance on fel magic with a religion that worships the light and non-demonic sources of magic, many storylines in the new Silvermoon both explore the transition as well as the fact that such an evolution has not completely destroyed the proud elves’ belief in their superiority over others, a stratification of their rich wine elites. the useless are left to fend for themselves in the city’s darker alleys. The fact that both factions are now using the city as a temporary base of operations creates a fun conflict as well, from the moments when the two sides fight each other in the story to the way that, depending on your player faction and race, some NPCs react to you silently (like someone playing a Void Elf Demon Hunter, the guards were not too happy to see me in the presence of the Palals, but I’m not too be glad to see me in the presence of the Paladins, help the light in this trying time).

All of these details, big and small, add up to create what is now the gold standard World of Warcraft taking one of his old zones and modifying it for the modern game. While there have been many changes to Azeroth since then World of Warcraft launched in 2004, there’s little of this kind of scale outside of the wholesale overhaul of the original game world in the 2010 expansion, Cataclysm. Blizzard tried to adapt and began to show signs of change as the narrative was built in the years since, such as the disappearances of the Undead capital in the Undercity and the The Night Elf capital is Darnassusduring the Battle for Azerothor the reclamation of the Worgen capital, Gilneas, in Dragonflight. But that pales in comparison to the work being done to rebuild Quel’Thalas, not only as a complete modernization of a land long neglected, but as a reflection of how far the world has come from. wow came in the last 20 years.

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