Tyler F.M. Edwards's Blog, page 28

Sad Music, Dark Stories, and Finding Beauty in Sorrow

If you’ve been following my “Song of the Month” segment, you’ve probably noticed by now that I don’t exactly listen to a lot of happy music. Even the songs I listen to that do sound peppy and upbeat at first glance usually have crushingly dark lyrics.

[image error]You may find it strange or even unhealthy that I spend so much time listening to music that is so full of pain and heartbreak, but the fact is sad music makes me feel good. And there’s a reason for that, a reason that cuts to the heart of my artistic sensibilities and perhaps even includes a bit of a life lesson.

I don’t think happiness and sadness are really opposites. Or at least not in the sense that they cancel each other out. You can feel both at the same time.

Some of my happiest memories are from some of the unhappiest times in my life. Despair has a way of reminding you what really matters, and allowing you to appreciate the beauty in life.

I currently have about 230 songs on my MP3 player. Of those, the only one that predates 1990 is Bad Moon Rising by Credence Clearwater Revival. It’s not exactly a happy song to begin with, but it’s especially sad for me.

For whatever reason, Bad Moon Rising was in heavy rotation on my father’s favourite classic rock station around the time my parents were divorcing. Thus that song has always been associated with one of the most painful periods of my life (my parents splitting up wasn’t the only thing going wrong at that point).

Choosing to regularly revisit a song with such painful associations may seem masochistic, but it reminds me that I survived that time. It was horrible, but I’m still here. There were good times after that, and hopefully there are still good times to come.

[image error]It also reminds me that as painful as that time was, it was also a time when I did a lot of growing as a person. It was a time when I was exposed to many wonderful new places and new experiences, and it helped shape my life for years to come in very positive ways.

And therein lies the appeal of sad songs. Music that manages to be both sorrowful and beautiful reminds me that even in the darkest moments there is still the potential for growth, and discovery, and beauty.

I apply a similar sensibility when it comes to story-telling, both my own and that of others. As I’ve said before, I enjoy dark stories, but it needs to be done right. You need to be able to still find the moments of warmth and joy even in the darkest story. Stories where nothing bad happens are boring, but so are stories that spend all their time wallowing in awfulness.

My favourite stories therefore are not the ones that make me happy, nor the ones that make me sad. They’re the ones that do both at once. The ones that really stick with me are those that can still find grace and hope in the darkest moments, or fill you with such joy it makes your heart hurt.

Because in the end, that’s what life is about. You take the good with the bad. Even when everything is seemingly going well, regrets and insecurities can rise up to swallow you, and even when everything seems hopeless, you can still find little moments of peace and beauty to lessen your burdens and put a smile on your face.

Why I Don’t Crowdfund: Legends of Aria

I tend to take a pretty dim view of crowdfunding, especially where MMOs are concerned. It seems the last resort of those whose ambition outstrips their ability, and neither the developers behind crowdfunded MMOs nor the players who back them ever seem to appreciate how time-consuming and complex MMO development can be.

[image error]Still, there are one or two crowdfunded MMOs I’ve kept an eye because their concepts intrigue me (though not enough to actually back them). One is Legends of Aria, formerly known as Shards Online. Its promise of letting players run their own servers and design their own content is tantalizing, but I wouldn’t want to design my own content (or play amateur content) in a game that isn’t fun at the baseline.

Thus, when Massively Overpowered started out handing out trial keys for the closed beta, I was eager to give the game a try.

Normally when I do my impressions on a game, I tend to take a top-down approach and provide a general overview, but in this case I think it would be more educational to describe my experience with the game in detail, from beginning to end.

My first impression was that Legends of Aria has absolutely lovely log-in music that hits a perfect balance of soothing yet epic. My second impression was that the character creator was bugged such that it took me two tries to build a character without her being obscured beneath another avatar I couldn’t get rid of.

The character creation options are quite limited, but I was still able to make a character I felt pretty good about. The addition of diverse clothing choices was a nice touch.

You also get to choose your starting skills, this being a purely skill-based game without true classes, though there are basic archetypes you can start with. I chose to be an archer, but I tweaked my starting skills to have a little magic.

[image error]Upon logging in, my character woke up on a beach with no memory [wince] and was greeted by a sparkly globe that serves as the game’s only source of guidance. This is a true sandbox, with no quests at all so far as I can tell, so you need to figure out goals for yourself.

Being me, I just wanted to kill things. I asked my sparkly accomplice about this, and it recommended I seek adventure and glory at the local graveyard. Having chosen this as my destination, it put a waypoint on my minimap to guide the way, and I set off.

So far, so good.

On my way, I came to a town, where I met three NPCs. One offered me skill training (but I couldn’t afford it yet), another didn’t seem to serve any purpose at all, and the third vanished from existence when I tried to click on him.

Outside town, I encountered bears, deer, and some trees with severely bugged graphics. I tried fighting some of the wildlife, and that’s when things really started to go down hill.

Combat in Legends of Aria seems to mostly consist of standing there and auto-attacking. You have active abilities and spells, but half the time they just fizzle, and even when they do actually activate, they don’t seem to accomplish much of anything.

[image error]And this goes on for really quite a while. Them bears don’t go down easy. I lost about half my health in the first fight, and then had to spend another good thirty seconds slowly getting it back through a combination of bandages (which have a cooldown for some reason) and healing magic (which, again, only works about half the time). I never did figure out how to recover mana or stamina. Maybe the food in my backpack?

Finally, I reached my destination: The graveyard. There, I encountered two skeletons and a zombie, who promptly massacred me. I got one skeleton to maybe half health before dying.

Let me remind you: This is what the game told me to do.

I was able to resurrect at a nearby… shrine? A pop-up informed me I would lose all my equipment until I recovered my corpse, but when I resurrected, my inventory was restored to me unchanged. I’m not sure if this is another bug, or some mercy afforded to people in newb zones.

I hurled myself into the skeletal meatgrinder a few more times just for the sake of being thorough, but I met with no greater luck.

And that was pretty much that. After about thirty minutes of dealing with bugs, spectacularly tedious and old school gameplay, and generally terrible design, I decided life was too short.

[image error]

This is not how trees work.

I feel like the skeleton of a good game is here. The open-ended character building and organic skill progression appeals to me a lot in theory. But the tuning and implementation are so far from anything resembling fun it’s hard to imagine anything being salvaged from the experience.

Yes, it’s beta, but even for a beta, this is pretty shockingly unpolished. It feels like an early alpha at best. It’s also worth noting you can already buy beta access via founder’s packs, which makes this a soft launch as far as I’m concerned, and Legends of Aria still feels like it’s years of intensive development away from a finished product.

I don’t think it matters how good the player creation tools are. No one’s going to bother investing in a game this outdated and poorly executed.

It’s a shame. But I can’t say I expected much different from a crowdfunded game.

ESO: Summerset Is Pretty, But Hollow

Having not played the original Morrowind or even ESO’s Dark Elf zones from the base game, the first expansion for Elder Scrolls Online largely passed me by, but given the standalone nature of ESO expansions (or “chapters,” as they somewhat obnoxiously insist on calling them), there was nothing stopping me from jumping straight to the next.

[image error]When Summerset was announced as the setting of the next one, I was excited. As an Aldmeri loyalist, I’ve wanted to visit Ayrenn’s homeland pretty much since I started playing. The inclusion of Razum-dar, objectively the best character in the game, only sweetened the deal.

So I pre-ordered. I even sprang for the deluxe edition, which is a decision I find retrospectively baffling.

In case it isn’t clear by now, I’m feeling more than a bit of buyer’s remorse.

Taking in the Summersights:

First, the good news.

Summerset is ridiculously, stupidly, unbelievably pretty. I’ve never been the biggest fan of ESO’s visuals — finding both the art style and the graphical fidelity underwhelming — but hot damn this expansion looks good. The white sand beaches, the pale blue of the ocean, the brilliant colours of the flowers and the greenery, the stately architecture… it’s all just breathtaking.

[image error]And that’s without getting to the island of Artaeum, which is a delightfully whimsical departure from ESO’s usual low fantasy style.

It’s not just the environments, either. The new armour models are also incredible, and even the new monsters look beautiful in a horrible kind of way. There is no part of Summerset that isn’t a total feast for the eyes.

The music’s pretty good, too, and hey, it’s always good to see Raz again.

But once you move past the superficialities, Summerset has thus far proven a pretty underwhelming experience.

What a Bummerset:

Going in, I was excited about the possibilities for interesting stories in this area of the world. Might we finally explore the Maormer in detail? Perhaps the Sload would take centre stage as a threat unlike anything seen in ESO before? Or maybe we could get some spy games with Raz and Ayrenn?

Then it turned out to be “Daedric cultists are trying to blow up for the world for reasons.”

[image error]You know. The exact plot of 95% of ESO to date. Again.

What a waste.

Now, I’m only about halfway through Summerset right now, so maybe there’s some epic twist I haven’t gotten to yet, but right now it feels like I’m just retreading a story I’ve already seen several times before, and didn’t much enjoy the first time around.

It’s not just the story, either. I thought by now ESO would be innovating or improving its mechanics in some way, but aside from the improved visuals, there’s absolutely nothing to distinguish Summerset from any of the zones that launched with the game. The quests are based on the exact same mechanics. The delves play the same. Even the much-vaunted new Abyssal Geysers are just a reskin of the old Dolmens. Don’t get me wrong; I liked Dolmens, and I like Geysers, but again, it’s nothing new.

In fact, if anything, quest design seems to have gone downhill since launch. I don’t remember ever having to do this much back-tracking or repetition in the base game.

I was also hoping by now they might have some more interesting rewards. From the perspective of an endgame player, it’s hard to get excited about quest rewards when a forty-five minute quest gets you only enough gold for one day’s mount training, a pittance of XP, and a single piece of gear that’s little more than vendor trash.

[image error]Finally — and I can’t believe I’m saying this — this expansion might be too Elfy. I’ve come to the conclusion the High Elves are by far the least interesting Elves in ESO, but they’re getting 100% of the spotlight in Summerset. That makes sense lore-wise, but it gets old when every single NPC is either a haughty noble or a scholar with their head in the clouds.

I’m almost starting to sympathize with Syp’s point of view here.

I will probably finish Summerset at some point, but right now I’m struggling hard to find the motivation to keep logging in. I look back on the wit and personality of Thieves Guild and wonder how this is even the same game.

It does also have me pondering my future with ESO as a whole. I’ve tended to view it as my new “main” MMO following TSW’s demise, but my actions have not even come close to backing up that intention.

I feel like I should love ESO. On paper, it’s pretty much everything I ever wanted from an MMO. Open build system, level-scaling, strong commitment to story, highly soloable, action combat… But somehow it still struggles to hold my interest.

I think it’s some combination of a story that’s usually interesting but rarely exciting, an incredible sameness of content design, and a very stingy approach to in-game rewards.

[image error]It’s such a good game, but yet it’s so hard to get excited about.

Song of the Month: Metric, Live It Out

It’s my birthday.

To mark the occasion, I wanted to pick a song that just makes me happy, without thinking about it too much. So that pretty much made me go straight to Live It Out, off the album of the same name.

Picking a favourite Metric song is like picking a favourite child, but Live It Out is one of the top contenders. Metric might have other songs that affect me more powerfully emotionally, but for sheer fun, it can’t be beat.

This is just such a good song.

New Articles: The Case for Player-Created Content and More

Time for the latest round-up of my new articles published at MMO Bro.

[image error]First, I make the case for more player-created content in MMOs, inspired by a fit of Landmark nostalgia. I really do miss that game, and I think not capitalizing on the creativity of players is leaving a huge amount of potential untapped.

Next, I’ve got a pair of listicles on the most influential innovations in MMO design over the years, and in-game thrills that just never get old.

Review: Vampyr

Vampyr has been one of my most anticipated games for a while now. I may not be the biggest fan of vampire fiction, but Dontnod has made interesting games before, and this seemed a fresh take on the idea.

[image error]In Vampyr, you take on the role of Jonathan Reid, a doctor returning home to a flu-stricken London following a tour of duty in the Great War. After an attack by a mysterious assailant, Jonathan wakes with an uncontrollable thirst for blood. As a doctor, he is sworn to do no harm, but as a vampire, he must feed on the living to survive.

This dichotomy lies at the heart of what makes Vampyr special.

The temptation of blood:

The combat and the main storyline in Vampyr are both firmly in the realm of being okay, but not great. Neither offers one much cause for complaint, but neither really stands out compared to other games, either.

What makes Vampyr memorable is its mechanics around difficulty and progression, and how they tie into the story and game world.

There are no difficulty settings in Vampyr. If you find yourself struggling, the only way to make things easier is to level up more. But this isn’t a game where grinding is a viable strategy. While there are other sources of XP, by far and away the quickest and most efficient way to level is to “embrace” Citizens, killing them by drinking their blood.

[image error]But there are no faceless Citizens. Every one of them is a deeply fleshed out character, and they all have their own relationships and social connections with other Citizens. If you kill someone’s family member, friend, or lover, the survivor will mourn… sometimes with consequences for you.

Thus the heart of the game is in the decision of when to take a life, and in the question of who deserves death. And rarely is it an easy decision. Even cases that seem cut and dried can become surprisingly complicated.

Early in my playthrough, I met a character who confessed to being a serial killer, without remorse. Feeding on him was a no-brainer… but what about his elderly mother? She knew about his crimes and kept the secret, allowing his predations to continue, but is that enough to warrant her death? Before you answer, consider also that she’s looking after a local homeless boy who would have no support without her…

The amount of XP you gain from embracing a Citizen is heavily influenced by how well you know them and their current health. The more you learn about them, the more they trust you, the more XP they’re worth. Their XP value is also lowered when they’re sick, so you can find yourself in a situation where you’re offering friendship and medicine to people only so that you can gain more power when you ultimately kill and betray them.

And as noted, killing has consequences. Embracing an important member of the community can have ripple effects, and if you kill too many, an entire district of the city can collapse, killing off all remaining NPCs, cutting off access to their missions, and causing the area to be overrun by powerful enemies.

[image error]That never happened in my playthrough — I was able to keep all four districts intact — but it was a very near thing.

There are story consequences for killing, as well. Vampyr has multiple endings, and it’s surprisingly hard to avoid the bad endings. Be very careful about how eager you are to embrace people.

If I have one complaint about this system, it’s that the stories of all the various Citizens are largely frozen in amber, never progressing. I respect that they didn’t go the Bioware route of making the player an omnipotent being who can fix everyone’s problems, but it’s a little disappointing that the lives of NPCs never change or evolve unless you start killing their loved ones.

Even with that minor issue, though, I think the mechanics around Citizens and the need for blood are one of the most clever marriages of story-telling and game design I’ve ever seen, and it’s stuff like this that keeps me following Dontnod games, despite their flaws. Very few developers offer innovative game design like this.

The dead of night:

As implied above, Vampyr does have some issues, though most are minor.

For one thing, it’s a bit unpolished. There are a lot of bugs — though none are close to game-breaking — and more than a few typos in the game’s text.

[image error]My one big problem with the game, though, is how much running around it involves. It’s a big game world, and there’s no fast travel, so the only way to get somewhere is by walking.

Which you will do a lot of. Every time you rest (which you need to do to spend XP), more citizens become sick, and if you don’t give them medicine regularly, it risks destabilizing the city. So you’ll spend a great deal of time making your rounds to deliver meds.

Now, I get what they were going for here. Jonathan’s duties as a doctor are central to the story’s themes, and walking around the city by night to deliver medicine helps sell the ambiance of the game. These are good mechanics to have, and adding fast travel would have broken immersion a bit too much in a game so devoted to it.

The tuning is off, though. Too many Citizens get sick too often, and it becomes too big a part of the game.

That aside, though, it’s a pretty consistently good experience.

* * *

At this point I feel like we know what to expect from Dontnod. They make games that are brilliant, deep, powerful, and occasionally flawed.

[image error]All of that is true of Vampyr, but I think this the best job Dontnod has yet done of accentuating their strengths while downplaying their weaknesses. I strongly recommend Vampyr to any fans of vampire fiction or intelligent, story-driven games.

Overall rating: 8.8/10

A Belated Anniversary

I’ve been so caught up in all that’s going on in my life I completely forgot about the seventh anniversary of this blog. Usually I like to do a reflection post the day of, but I guess this year it’s going to have to be a few days late.

[image error]Since this kind of snuck up on me, I haven’t had the chance to think much about what to say.

I suppose the biggest change to come out of the last year — at least as far as topics relevant to this blog go — is the fact that I’ve returned to writing fiction regularly with the goal of finally finishing the Soulcleaver books.

That has been, perhaps unsurprisingly, a bit of a rocky road. Things have not progressed as quickly as I might have liked. But they are progressing at least.

As of this month, I’ve finally finished my first draft of book three, currently titled The Bloodforged Host. This was probably the most difficult book I’ve ever written, and I’m very glad to finally be moving past it.

Of course now there’s book four to deal with (and eventually book five), but I’m hoping that will be a bit easier. Those later books will have more action. And Dragons.

I do think I might take a short break before starting on book four — I need time to collect my thoughts anyway — but I’m going to try not to waste too much time. I really want to see this series finished.

[image error]Another noteworthy change over the past twelve months is that I’ve been spending less time on video games and more on offline gaming, like Dungeons and Dragons.

Unfortunately the campaign I blogged about a few weeks back has fallen through due to our DM being too busy, but one of the players from that campaign has now stepped in as dungeon master for a new campaign.

In the new campaign, I’m playing as a Tiefling monk who is also taking the occasional level in bard. I was inspired by the Brazilian martial art of capoeira, which was created by slaves and disguised as a dance. Being Tieflings are something of an underclass in D&D lore, it made sense to me that they might develop a similar fighting style so they could learn to protect themselves without arousing suspicion.

I’m enjoying the character so far, but I will admit I miss my Elven paladin. That was pretty much my perfect RPG character. Angsty Elf girl with a bow and support magic. All of the yes.

I don’t ever want to reach the point where I give up on video games — I’m loving Vampyr at the moment — but I do think it’s been good to get out more and spend less time staring at screens.

[image error]That’s also part of why I’ve spent less time blogging. I want to spend more time out in the world and less in cyberspace.

And that’s about the limit of my sleep-deprived brain can come up with as far as reflections on the past year, I’m afraid. I want to once again thank my readers for their support. May there be many more years of bloggery ahead of us.

Song of the Month: Billy Talent, Kingdom of Zod

We’re having an election here in Ontario this month. And whenever I’m feeling political, there’s just one band I want to hear: Billy Talent.

Making a comparison like this feels like a disservice to the band, but if you’re not familiar with them, Billy Talent could be viewed as a Canadian version of Rage Against the Machine. They’re loud, they’re angry, and they’re quick to attack the injustices of our society.

Aside from their politics, my favourite thing about Billy Talent is their singer, Ben Kowalewicz. Part of the reason I don’t often listen to louder music like punk or metal is that the singers always seem to me as if they’re simply screaming, but Ben has the fairly unique talent to be very loud and very intense in his singing while still producing a sound that’s melodic and pleasing to the ear.

He’s a pretty good guy, too, based on the interviews I’ve heard with him. While his music may be filled with rage and aggression, off-stage he’s the living stereotype of a Canadian: humble, soft-spoken, polite, and fond of hockey.

There’s no shortage of good Billy Talent songs I could have picked for this post, but I went with the absurdly titled “Kingdom of Zod,” which was inspired in part by Toronto’s infamous “crack mayor” Rob Ford, whose equally troglodytic brother is now at serious risk of becoming Ontario’s premier.

Fair warning: This is a loud, intense song with lots of screaming and NSFW language.

If any longtime readers are still unclear as to my political leanings, this song should make things clear.

Gaming Round-Up: The Reject Pile

I’ve been having trouble finding anything I’m passionate about to play lately. I’ve tried a lot of different things, but none have stuck. Let’s work our way down the list, shall we?

[image error]Soulworker:

I started by continuing my tradition of trying new MMOs whenever I’m bored. First up was Korean import Soulworker, an instanced grinder in the vein of Vindictus.

Of all the games in this post, Soulworker impressed me the most. It’s actually got a lot going for it. The cel-shaded graphics, for instance, are gorgeous. Screenshots absolutely do not do justice to how vibrant the colours are, nor how fluid and full of personality the animations can be.

The combat’s great, too, and I found a character I quite enjoyed: a pale-haired, sword-wielding girl who bore a certain resemblance to my heroine from the Soulcleaver novels.

Most surprisingly, there’s clearly a lot of effort put into the story in Soulworker. The meta-plot is pretty rich and elaborate — if decidedly quirky in the way one would expect from an Eastern game — and the quest NPCs actually have a fair bit of personality. Each playable character also has their own backstory and style of conversation that influences the feel of the game.

However, Soulworker is crippled by two severe flaws.

One is that the people who cared about the story are the ones who wrote it back in Korea, not the ones who translated it into English. The voice-overs haven’t been translated at all, and the subtitles are incredibly awkward. You can still understand what’s going on, but the style of speech is so unnatural it rips you right out of the story.

[image error]The other is that it is incredibly grindy. I expected that to be the case going in, but even so, I was shocked by how little time it took for me to reach a point where I couldn’t even progress the story without repeating the same dungeons multiple times in order to level up. It stops being a game and starts becoming a chore very quickly.

It’s a shame. With a few rough edges smoothed out, this could have been a pretty good game.

Closers:

Next up was another action-heavy Eastern grinder, Closers.

Not gonna lie, guys, I managed maybe twenty minutes in this game before I couldn’t take it anymore.

Somehow I completely missed the fact going in that Closers is a side-scroller. Like, what the hell. I know side-scrolling MMOs aren’t unheard of, but that doesn’t make it a good idea.

The controls are spectacularly awkward, too. I managed to rebind everything into something semi-normal, but it never felt quite right.

[image error]Add to that more sloppy translations and one of the most unbearably obnoxious interfaces I’ve ever seen in a game, and you get a recipe for endless frustration.

I very rarely say things like this, but stay away from this game. Life is too short.

Getting what I paid for:

A few months ago, Ubisoft gave away a bunch of games — Watch_Dogs, Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, and World in Conflict — and it took me until now to play them all.

I was underwhelmed by them all. Watch_Dogs had something approaching an interesting story, and I enjoyed the music and ship piloting mechanics in Black Flag, but both suffered from an over-reliance on stealth, clunky controls, and a general feeling of dullness.

This was my first time playing an Assassin’s Creed game. I can’t say I was particularly encouraged to play more. Though in fairness I’ve never liked pirates in fiction. I don’t understand what people find so compelling about a bunch of rapey, scurvy-ridden sea-muggers.

[image error]As for World in Conflict, it was just kind of dull. There didn’t seem to be a lot need for micro, and there wasn’t much macro, either, and the story didn’t attract me at all. I’d love a good RTS, but I don’t think this is it.

Overwatch PvE:

Finally, Overwatch recently had another free weekend, and it coincided with a repeat of the two events that comprise all of the game’s story content to date: Uprising and Retribution. Naturally, I was eager to try that.

It was fun, but I’m still left a bit baffled as to Blizzard’s thought process here.

The thing is, these are basically two missions extracted from a campaign that doesn’t exist. Without that context, they can’t achieve much in terms of story-telling, but they’re also far too linear to make much sense as repeatable content. They’re not enough to fill the gap of story content, but they don’t work as grindable events, either.

Sometimes I really don’t understand why Overwatch is so successful.

* * *

I’m just glad Vampyr isn’t far off now.

The Mustering of Azeroth: Ranking Every Artifact Quest

My journey to complete every class story in World of Warcraft has finally ended. Along the way, I also completed all thirty-four of the game’s artifact quests, and now I bring you my thoughts on them all, ranked from worst to best.

[image error]Fists of the Windlord (windwalker monk):

Wastes far too much time on the insufferable Li Li Stormstout and features a generic no name villain whose plans and motivations are never explained in the slightest. A sloppy, underwhelming quest all around.

Light’s Wrath (discipline priest):

This is a mage quest.

No, really. It’s an almost exact copy of the Aluneth quest, and it doesn’t make sense for a priest artifact at all.

The Kingslayers (assassination rogue):

Deserves credit for being one of the more elaborate artifact quests and requiring you to make smart use of pretty much the entire rogue toolkit, but I found the stealth mechanics irritating, and the story only makes sense if your rogue isn’t Alliance and hasn’t finished the rogue story yet.

Twinblades of the Deceiver (havoc demon hunter):

Kind of a sloppy quest. I got excited when I saw Illysanna Ravencrest was involved because I thought it’d help explain how she came to be a boss in Black Rook Hold, and I guess it does, but if you blink, you’ll miss it. Wasted potential there.

Plus the ending just doesn’t make any sense.

The Dreadblades (outlaw rogue):

Not a bad quest, but an unremarkable one. I’ve never understood the appeal of pirates in fiction, and the story has basically zero relevance to the greater Warcraft lore.

[image error]Warswords of the Valarjar (fury warrior):

Very basic. Feels like any other random side quest.

Fangs of Ashamane (feral druid):

Meh.

Aldrachi Warblades (vengeance demon hunter):

Short and forgettable. Nothing particularly bad about it, but nothing that stands out, either. Tells you nothing about the artifact or its history.

Maw of the Damned (blood death knight):

Nothing wrong with this quest, but nothing to praise, either. It’s very adequate.

Ebonchill, Greatstaff of Alodi (frost mage):

SUPERB CASTING. GET BACK TO THE FOCUS. I’LL KEEP AN EYE OUT.

SUPERB CASTING. GET BACK TO THE FOCUS. I’LL KEEP AN EYE OUT.

SUPERB CASTING. GET BACK TO THE FOCUS. I’LL KEEP AN EYE OUT.

[image error]Make… it… stop…

Also the boss fight was too easy.

Strom’kar, the Warbreaker (arms warrior):

Maybe it’s because I did it last, but I found this the least interesting of the quests at the Tomb of Tyr. Seemed very easy, too.

Arms is a lot more fun to play than I expected, though.

Thas’dorah, Legacy of the Windrunners (markmanship hunter):

It started out well, but was too inconclusive. Ultimately little more than a tease for longtime lore fans, bringing us tantalizing close to the answer to a very long-held question but never actually giving it. That wouldn’t come until Argus.

Titanstrike (beast mastery hunter):

Seemed meatier than most artifact quests, which I appreciate. Needs less Mimiron, though.

Skull of the Man’ari (demonology warlock):

Hard to separate how much I dislike the new demonology from the quest, but Mephistroph is a good villain. Seemed unusually challenging, but maybe it’s just because I’m not used to the spec.

Ulthalesh, the Deadwind Harvester (affliction warlock):

[image error]Had a nice spooky feel, but was a bit confusing. Didn’t explain the history of the artifact very well.

Talonclaw, Spear of the Wild Gods (survival hunter):

One of the more fun artifact quests in terms of gameplay, but kind of a giant heap of nothing story-wise, especially considering the history of the artifact. There’s a lot more they could have done.

Aluneth, Greatstaff of the Magna (arcane mage):

Interesting revisiting the Ethereum and the Nexus War. Not sure I like the idea of a weapon that talks back so much, though.

Scale of the Earth-Warder (protection warrior):

Not a huge fan of artifact quests that have so little to do with the actual artifact, but the story of the son trying to save his father’s soul was an interesting angle.

Scythe of Elune (balance druid):

This is pretty much the quest for Ulthalesh with slight tweaks. It’s a good quest, but a weapon with such legendary history deserves better.

Apocalypse (unholy death knight):

Another Ulthalesh clone, but better executed. You still don’t learn much about Apocalypse itself, but the story surrounding its acquisition is complete and satisfying.

The Doomhammer (enhancement shaman):

[image error]I’d probably rate this quest higher, but I expected more for such an iconic part of Warcraft lore than just bashing Troggs and fighting one demon.

Honestly the best part was probably Stormcaller Mylra, who has always been and will always be awesome. Sassy Dwarf lady FTW.

Sharas’dal, Scepter of the Tides (restoration shaman):

I don’t understand why this is a shaman artifact. I mean, I get the water connection, but it still feels weird for an item associated with one of Azeroth’s most infamous and evil mages to be wielded by a shaman healer.

That said, this quest is pretty good. I always liked Vashj’ir, and the end boss’s fate is… memorable.

Xal’atath, Blade of the Black Empire (shadow priest):

A somewhat short but entirely satisfying quest. Interesting story, nothing to complain about.

T’uure, Beacon of the Naaru (holy priest):

Interesting thing about this one is it features cameos by a couple of characters from other class stories: Vindicator Boros and Jace Darkweaver. Nice bit of continuity there.

And it’s a pretty fun quest all around.

Sheilun, Staff of the Mists (Mistweaver Monk):

[image error]Not very story-heavy, but the familiar characters and location still gave it a great jolt of Pandaria nostalgia. Challenging enough to be interesting, but not frustrating.

Felo’melorn (fire mage):

Less Blood Elf lore than I expected/wanted, but was interesting to revisit Icecrown.

Fangs of the Devourer (subtlety rogue):

This quest did a great job of capturing the rogue feel and making use of the class’s mechanics — from stealth to pick-pocketing — and had a surprisingly epic story to boot, sending you face to face with one of the greatest villains in Warcraft lore.

The Silver Hand (holy paladin):

Paladins have excellent luck with artifact quests. This one is very intense, and I hope we see the final boss again. That the best the Silver Hand has to offer were merely able to hold it off, and then only barely…

Blades of the Fallen Prince (frost death knight):

This is clearly meant to be the first artifact quest you do as a DK, and if you don’t, the timeline gets a bit wonky, but otherwise, this is an excellent quest. There’s a surprisingly clever little puzzle, and the final boss fight is a lot of fun.

Truthguard (protection paladin):

Excellent quest. Lore-rich, good use of Wrath of the Lich King nostalgia, and engaging gameplay that forces you to use your full toolkit as a paladin tank. There’s even a little humour, though not enough to detract from the epic feel of the quest. I loved how your allies bubble-hearth at the end.

G’Hanir, the Mother Tree (restoration druid):

[image error]Best of the healer quests. The mechanics make inventive use of the healer toolkit, and the story is exciting and intense.

The Scepter of Sargeras (destruction warlock):

Larger in scale than many other artifact quests — visiting many locations across the face of Azeroth — and captured the feel of the class incredibly well. Betrayal, murder, the quest for ultimate power — everything you could want from a warlock story.

Claws of Ursoc (guardian druid):

Has more effort put into it in terms of unique art and maps than probably any other artifact quest. Also serves to set-up the Emerald Nightmare raid, and revisiting Grizzlemaw for the first time in nearly a decade was warmly nostalgic. Generally pretty awesome.

Not sure this was the time for a random Mylune cameo, though.

The Fist of Ra-den (elemental shaman):

Any opportunity to revisit Pandaria is welcome, and I’m glad they let you do it on at least one non-monk class.

It’s also a very well-rounded quest. Lots of backstory on the artifact, reunions with familiar faces, some of the most inventive boss fights I’ve seen in an artifact quest, a little humour, and a very intense ending.

Plus I finally got to smack Li Li Stormstout. What’s not to love?

Fu Zan, the Wanderer’s Companion (brewmaster monk):

[image error]If you were to distill Mists of Pandaria into a single one-hour story arc, it would be Fu Zan’s quest. It was charming and whimsical in places, yet deadly serious when it needed to be. It did an excellent job of showing how widespread the Legion invasion is and how vicious it can be.

It had some subtlety, too. Though the Monkey King’s task seem simple at first, afterward it occurred to me his request for a special brew was really an attempt to save Pandaria’s food supply. Every place I went to for ingredients was some crucial location the Legion was on the brink of destroying.

A very clever, fun quest.

Ashbringer (retribution paladin):

The Ashbringer quest is an absolute tour de force from beginning to end. It features iconic characters from throughout Warcraft lore and actually represents a pretty major moment in the game’s overall story.

Balnazzar puts on one of the best villain monologues I’ve ever heard, echoing Sovereign’s equally chilling speech in the original Mass Effect, only for the player to turn the tables on him in epic fashion.

Unlike many artifact quests, you claim the Ashbringer before the final boss fight, and the fight mechanics are tailored around the sword’s ability, which makes for a very satisfying experience.

[image error]As much as I’ve enjoyed artifact quests, I generally wouldn’t say they’re worth making new alts just to experience them, but this is the exception. It’s worth making a paladin just to do the Ashbringer quest. It’s moving, it’s exciting, it plays to nostalgia without leaning on it as a crutch, and it’s just plain fun.