The Queue: Zero Point

I’ve said it before — if not here, somewhere — but no game does in-game events like Fortnite does. This week, we got the Devourer of Worlds event, which put players up against Galactus, who could probably fit the entire Battle Royale island in the palm of his hand. It put players in the driver’s seat of the Battle Bus (the thing you drop from at the start of the match) for the first time ever, and it felt like a mix of Star Fox and Star Wars (Fox Wars? Star Star? It’s hard to make this portmanteau work…).

In any case, it was fantastic and the post-event cinematic confirmed that the game is a simulation of some kind, which is always fun. I wish more gaming companies would do events like Fortnite does.

But enough about that. We’re here to Queue.

Just diving right in here today, huh? Anyhow, Maldraxxus is objectively the best because it’s basically the only one of the four zones where you can just be who you were in your mortal life if you want — memories, body, and all. Bastion wants to brainwash you and make you a Smurf, while Ardenweald puts you in an egg and says, “Eh, we might have to sacrifice so-and-so forever. No afterlife for them I guess!” And even if you don’t get sacrificed, you have to deal with a less exciting version of the Happy Tree Friends telling you how to have fun.

Revendreth, meanwhile, is basically an extended torture that either ends with your soul damned for all eternity or you joining a society that’s clearly serving the upper-class. I mean, it looks really cool. But it’s technically the “last stop before Hell!” zone.

So yeah, even though Maldraxxus may not be everyone’s aesthetic — it’s totally mine, though, for the record — it legit feels like the best afterlife in a set of only-kind-of-okay afterlives. (And yes, I’m aware it basically turns you into a soldier, but at this point, our characters have murdered so many things, it’s kind of like shifting into a new job with the same responsibilities but better pay and benefits.)

I’ll admit, the legendary system in Shadowlands doesn’t feel nearly as frustrating as legendary systems of the past — but I still do miss the days of Thunderfury and Atiesh. Sure, they’re legendaries I would never get when current, but there aren’t too many things in the game nowadays that make me stop and stare at another character the way tier armor and legendaries did in vanilla.

At this point, legendaries have a certain association with them, though, and it’s a much more casual one. That’s fine! I need to adjust my perceptions of what Blizzard wants legendaries to be and what I expect them to be.

That said, the easy solution is to add the infamous “Artifact” quality — the pre-Legion one — to the game and just make them like ye olde legendarys. It won’t happen, and if it did, it would upset people — but I’d still like something in the game to have that level of rarity.

I didn’t expect more in the expansion itself than what we’ve gotten — small bits of dialog that acknowledge what’s been done in the past (like the attack on Light’s Hope). I would have loved more for DKs, don’t get me wrong — but Blizz never really advertised this as an expansion for DKs. It’s DK-adjacent, but not really about DKs.

I will say, however, that I expected the Allied Race Death Knights to get a new starter intro. Like, you basically get a quick monologue from Bolvar and then you’re sent to your capital. That’s it. I thought we’d have a revamped experience, and I’m kind of sad we didn’t.

Technically, any of those blue folks in Bastion could be a Worgen. That’s kind of the terrifying thing about Bastion. I mean, canonically, yes, there are Worgen in the Shadowlands. But if you’re talking about visible NPCs, I don’t think I’ve run into any yet — but I absolutely wouldn’t be surprised if we did.

I know I’ve talked about zones a lot, so I’ll try to be quick:

• I liked Bastion less than I expected.
• Maldraxxus is great, and I expected it to be great.
• Ardenweald underwhelmed me the first time through, but was better the second time around. Both times were less enjoyable than I’d hoped for.
• Revendreth was as enjoyable, if not more so, than I expected.

All of that said, I genuinely do enjoy all the zones. None of them feel boring or give me that “Ugh, this zone” feeling like past expansions have. I suppose that’s a side effect of having only four zones, but it works, I think.

For what it’s worth, my take is that almost — almost — every soul is given a chance before going to the Maw. In the Bastion Afterlives short, Uther “intercepts” Arthas to make sure he goes to the Maw. That, to me, says that Arthas would’ve gone to Revendreth and had a chance at redemption, despite all the horrible things he did in life. I’m not really sure what it takes to get sent directly to the Maw, but it’s gotta be a lot.

I mean, if you think about it, there are entities out there trying to destroy whole worlds and galaxies. Not all of them may head to the Shadowlands — looking at you, demons — but on a cosmic scale, Arthas and Garrosh are small-fry jerks. In that sense, it seems logical they’d go to Revendreth first. Worse souls may not be so lucky.

They are not! I mean, I think the drop chance is high — I’ve seen a lot of folks (myself included) — who got them on their first runs, in multiple wings. But there are also folks who haven’t gotten them. This kind of goes back to Husskies’ question — the drop chance on the memories is a lot higher than I’d expected (which feels nice), but the materials needed to craft can be an investment (which makes them feel more satisfying in the end).

I tend to eat food I shouldn’t, hate myself afterward, say I’ll do better tomorrow, and then repeat.

So, y’know. Womp womp.

On that note, we’re done for today! Leave lots of questions for whomever is writing tomorrow’s Queue, and enjoy your continued time in the afterlife!