04 January 2011

Review: Vashj`ir

I`m currently working on some massive zone guide-ish posts but until those are ready I have some thoughts on the Cataclysm 80-85 zones. Note: contains spoilers for the zone!

Vashj'ir


Now this was an interesting zone. The design was really amazing: bright colors, exciting creatures, terrifying elite pats, and a very solid questline. As I`ve said before, the concept of quests has really improved, so even the less-exciting quests were still fun to do.

HIGHLIGHTS

Quests

Battlemaiden!
Definitely the Battlemaiden sequences. It`s awesome to play as a naga - both because the Battlemaiden is obviously badass and therefore enjoyable to fight things with, but also because it humanizes the naga and allows you to see into some of their politics and drama. For instance, there`s a point when you`re hanging with some higher ups, and Lady Naz`jar mentions that Lady Vashj is very different from her mother and left to pursue her own project. I had a weird fangirl moment of "OMG I found her in SSC!!!" Also, it was epic to hear Lady Naz`jar call out, "Battlemaiden!"while I`m out and about being rad.

Cutscenes

The final cutscene with Lady Naz`jar confronting Neptulon. I mean, it makes sense that this and Battlemaiden get achievements. They are truly epic. Having followed the story to this final confrontation was amazing, and it`s great that you get to fight alongside the NPCs (with no chance of dying, fortunately).

Kaaa-meeee-haaaa-meee...!!
Funny

Shark! The biggest one I ever...!
This is a toss-up between Budd and another quest. Budd has always provided fantastic comic relief, not to mention allusions to my favorite ride of all time. Then again, thanks to my perverse sense of humor, I also found the quest where you put a mind-controlling octopus on your head hilarious.

I COME FROM BELOW
Sweet

Come closer, little fishie
Helping the hunter reunite with his wolf. You even get to be an angler fish. Too cute!

Sad

L`ghorek! Unlike Nespirah, you are too late to save L`ghorek. At the end of that chain L`ghorek even says "I DIE NOW..." Nooooo!!!

GRIPES

The Z-axis! One day I`ll master moving in all 3 dimensions, but it`s not yet that day. I`m constantly spinning my camera to line myself up with the things I want to loot, get quests from, throw snowballs at...

MORE PICTURES

I need to see that octopus again...
This makes perfect sense
Smooth moves! Way to go!
What have you got there, Akabeko?

5 comments:

  1. Vashj'ir was one of my favorite new zones. It's gorgeous and a lot of the quests very very fun. The mind-controlling octopus was my favorite.

    My only gripe is that it never seemed to end. I wanted to open up the Throne of the Tides quests before doing the dungeon. 160 quests later...

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  2. I'm finding that with a lot of zones, both because you can level outrageously fast compared to the wealth of content that's available (and in lead-up quests, required) and because sometimes you only have one or two quests that are necessary to lead you to the next area.

    I actually dinged 83 in Vashj'ir - I ended up swimming out to Throne of the Tides before it was "ready" so I could queue before I got locked out of it in random dungeons -_-

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  3. I had the same reaction to the mind-controlling octopus.. "I should be horrified at this, but.. it's really funny!" /giggle

    I do agree with Jasyla though, while an absolutely gorgeous series of zones, it just goes on and on... and on and on and on. I never want to see another naga again.

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  4. Vashj'ir was my favourite zone of all of the new ones - I found the exotic setting and the story absorbing enough that I didn't actually mind the linear nature of the questing, which really bugged the crap out of me in later zones. Vash has a genuine sense of intensity and progression, whereas the others just feel restrictive.

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  5. Tam, I agree that there was a strong narrative in the zone and the quests did seem to be very related and exciting to advance the plot. Although the quest count on the achievement is higher, it didn`t feel "long" like some of the lesser quest-count zones did. Still, I`m annoyed that I quested so quickly through the zone that I had to stop questing in order to be able to run it`s level-locked dungeon!

    Angelya - I didn`t expect anything hilarious when I put the octopus on my head, but I was in stitches when it went ape-shit and started yelling at the NPCs. Then, just as I thought I could stop laughing, I saw the option "I need to see that mindless controller again..."

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