multiple expansions that were lackluster at best, I gave up on expecting that the magic of WoW's first years would be recaptured. Now, 16 years later, I finally found the expansion I was waiting for in The War Within.

The War Within revolves around Xal'atath and Alleria, who both have a connection to the Void. Alleria wants to resist the Void within her, but Xal'atath tries to tempt her to embrace it while she works to rebuild the Black Empire, which would remove the threat Alleria poses. Meanwhile, Xal'atath has the Dark Heart in her possession, and she's finally freed from the blade she was sealed in, so it's not surprising that she's ready to be the Harbinger of the end and try to destroy Azeroth.

Xal'atath Is The Villain World Of Warcraft Needed

She's Unapologetic & Cold

At the beginning of The War Within, the heroes are constantly a step behind Xal'atath, and they end up playing into her plan. This results in the destruction of Dalaran, a city that's been used multiple times since Wrath of the Lich King. But at the same time, having the stakes start out high and jumping right into the main campaign with Dalaran being crushed is exactly what the expansion needed to do. I like that there's one core villain in the expansion, and she's introduced in a way that makes you understand how much of a threat she poses to Azeroth.

The last villain that felt this threatening was The Lich King. Blizzard tried to recreate that foreboding presence with the Jailer, but it was hard to take him seriously, and his plan didn't make a lot of sense in general. Then, you have the villains where you see the faction they control more than the villains themselves, and this ends up reducing how threatening they feel because they're not shown often, so you don't see what they're capable of. This was the case with characters like Garrosh in Draenor and the Burning Legion in Legion.

Now, we have Xal'atath, and she's unapologetic about being an evil character. She wants control, and she wants to destroy Azeroth. She doesn't seem to care about the methods she needs to use to accomplish her goals, and I prefer this style of villain to other options because there's no need to try and justify her views or her morals. She's the villain, and you need to work with both the Alliance and the Horde to handle her. It's a far better situation than trying to pit the Alliance and Horde against each other again, because there's no reason for them to be enemies at this point.

Mountains Are No Longer The Worst Part Of Zones

You Can Fly Immediately

Blizzard loves putting mountains in zones. Even since Cataclysm, it seems like the zones have become increasingly mountainous, and this was always a feature that I absolutely hated. The reason behind that is you usually wouldn't be able to unlock flying until you hit the new maximum level, which meant that you were stuck navigating over mountains on a ground mount until then. Like Dragonflight, The War Within kept the dragon-riding feature — now called skyriding — to allow you to fly right as you enter the new zones. It might seem like a small detail, but this is a huge quality of life feature that I need Blizzard to stick with.

The new zones are actually fun to explore, too. In recent expansions, I haven't found the zones to be that memorable or interesting. It would get to a point where they looked similar enough that I wouldn't be able to tell you at a glance which one I was in at any given time. However, Khaz Algar's zones look distinct. I love Hallowfall in particular, and it almost feels like a throwback to Wrath of the Lich King because the Arathi and their goals remind me of the Argent Dawn in Northrend. Even underground, you know which zone you're in at any given time.

The War Within Feels Like A Renaissance

WoW Is Fun Again

It's been 16 years since I've enjoyed an expansion as much as The War Within. As somebody who loves the stories included in games, it's been a rough time to play WoW starting around Cataclysm. Even if the stories weren't bad, they weren't good either. At the same time, different features would be tested in expansions, but they wouldn't be enough to make an expansion worthwhile. They did, however, set up The War Within to be great, as those features have been polished to a state where they come together to make them worth doing, such as having Renown and World Quests return and work together.

Another positive change has been the way the quests are designed. By this, I mean that Blizzard has consolidated the main campaign by removing quests that provide extra context about a location or faction, but aren't necessary for the core plotline. This gives you more choice over which zones you want to spend more time in, and from there, you can work on the numerous side quests. In fact, you basically need to complete at least some side quests, because the main campaign has a break that makes you reach 80 before you can continue, and you need Renown 4 with multiple factions to continue.

After 16 years of not expecting anything from World of Warcraft, I'm more than pleasantly surprised by the latest expansion. It's done a lot to bring the game back to a state where it's enjoyable, and some of the features that have been included make it feel like Blizzard is finally listening to their players. While the issues with server lag and multiple quests being bugged are annoying drawbacks, they're also expected problems, since it's rare for a large, online game to launch new content without some issues. Plus, those aren't enough to ruin the positive features we finally received in World of Warcraft: The War Within after waiting for well over a decade.