[00:00] Hey, we're here at BlizzCon. I just went hands-on with WoW Forever. Here are the main takeaways. Takeaway number one is there are so many changes. Racial abilities have been reworked. There's new talent trees. There's an entirely new legacy perk system that you're getting rewarded for
[00:18] leveling up professions, leveling up other characters, and those are giving you different bonuses. It really feels more like a new game than even Season of Discovery, and just being able to dive in and kind of look at all the different new stats and bonuses and items.
[00:37] There's a lot more here than I think a lot of people are expecting, including the new dungeons and the new zones and even the new playable race. Takeaway number two is they fly now.
[00:49] And by they fly now, I mean the elves. The Skyborn is the new playable race in WoW Forever. they are basically blood elves but a little different uh if you want a little more a winged
[01:03] elemental flair there is a price tag associated with the skyborn they are 30 which is something they've never done before in wow normally when you buy a new expansion it would come with a new
[01:17] class or race since wow forever is included in the normal wow subscription they are charging for the Skyborn and the new starting zone If it worth you know your mileage may vary If you really want to play a Blood Elf or a High Elf character maybe that is worth it for you For everyone else
[01:38] you don't have to do it. You don't have to buy it. You can still enjoy all the new changes and the new zones and content without having that Skyborn pack. Takeaway number three is the visual
[01:50] improvements. Wow Forever has had a lot of graphical improvements including using the HD character models from the modern retail WoW version of the game. Now, that is an option. You can
[02:02] toggle those off if you'd like, but I played with them on and combined with the different lighting improvements and just the other graphical changes. Wow Forever doesn't look like WoW Classic. It looks like a new game. It's
[02:15] very impressive. The new dungeon experience that was in the demo that I went on hands-on with is very impressive. As soon as you walk in, you're kind of treated to this giant fish skeleton.
[02:27] It's an open kind of air dungeon. It's a troll dungeon. And I was just really impressed with the lighting and the water effect, and it just doesn't really look like anything in WoW Classic.
[02:39] It really does kind of stand out while still having that true kind of classic feel. takeaway number four is that wow forever is playable here on a controller now when you start using the controller it does say that it is in alpha uh in in development but it works
[02:56] surprisingly well right now even when you have a ton of different abilities uh they basically allow you to to map eight different buttons on each trigger and then you get another eight buttons when you hold down both triggers, which gives you a total of 24 abilities at the kind of just
[03:13] press of a few buttons. It actually works surprisingly well from someone who's played WoW on keyboard for, you know, since the game came out, and it's pretty easy to map abilities to those different buttons.
[03:25] The inventory is a little more of a struggle trying to get through the radio menus to your bags and your gear and equip new items and all that kind of stuff. But in terms of the actual combat and being able to access the huge number of buttons
[03:38] that some classic WoW classes have, I think the controller actually is going to be a viable solution for a lot of people, whether they just want to play on the couch or just they like how the controller plays more than mouse and keyboard.
[03:51] Now, will this mean that WoW is coming to consoles anytime soon? They have not announced anything, and they've kind of said they will give people a lot of warning when they are working on WoW for consoles, if that ever happens.
[04:03] But I think the controller support is going to go a long way towards maybe making that an eventual reality. And of course, also being able to play on handhelds like Steam Deck and things like that,
[04:15] the controller support is going to be a pretty cool feature. takeaway five is that wow forever is surprisingly customizable there are those HD graphics improvements that I talked about using the newer character models
[04:27] there also more built quest health like in the modern version of the game telling you kind of where to go and what to kill There also going to be transmog for the first time in Classic allowing you to customize your outfits
[04:40] Now, a lot of WoW Classic purists will maybe scoff at some of those ideas, and the good news is you can just literally turn all that off if you don't want to use it. And not just for yourself, you turn it off for other people.
[04:52] So if you don't want to see someone's hideous outfit, you can turn it off. You can turn off their transmogs, and it will just show what they are actually wearing. And if you want that more classic quest experience as well,
[05:05] you don't have to see the guidepost of where it's telling you to go and what to do. You can instead read the quest text like an old schooler and figure out where to go from there.
[05:17] And so you have options on how to customize your experience. If you want to play with the old character models, you can do that as well with a really easy toggle. It actually prompts you kind of when you're booting up the game if you want the more kind of old school visuals across the board or if you do want the new school ones.
[05:33] So there's a lot of options there I think WoW Classic fans will appreciate. But for those who are making the jump from retail and want to kind of see what WoW Forever is about, it's going to feel a lot more accessible and more at home while still having that classic kind of slower paced gameplay.
[05:50] Those are my five main takeaways from playing WoW Forever here at BlizzCon. It's a surprising blend of old and new, new content, new features, but it still has that old school WoW classic feel. For more BlizzCon coverage, stay right here at GameSpot.com.