World of Warcraft: The War Within is out—kicking off with banger zones, stupendous side quests, and early access gripes

World of Warcraft: The War Within has launched—although, if you had enough dough to shell out for the early access, you've already been playing it for a few days. And while it's early on in the expansion's lifecycle (I'm about two-thirds of the way through the second zone myself, as a complete-all-side quests fiend) things seem to be going pretty well.

The expansion represents a few major gear-shifts from Blizzard, angling for more detailed storytelling with better villains, the ability to engage with most of its story content solo (yes, even raids) and the further development of evergreen mechanics like Warbands to shore up the game experience.

So far, so good. The game's subreddit has quite a few early birds singing its praises already based on, quite literally, vibes: "It's probably recency bias, but this might be one of my favourite expansion continents of all time," writes one player alongside a cacophony of praise for Hallowfall, the expansion's third zone.

Even the Ringing Deeps—perhaps the least visually striking of the zones—has its fans: "[I] went in expecting to loathe the Ringing Deeps and it was actually kinda a banger," writes user Jibbles2020, and as someone plugging through that place myself I'm in full agreement. The Kobolds are fun, but I've also been enjoying seeing just how different the surface Earthen are to their work-obsessed subterranean siblings. It's all genuinely solid worldbuilding, shored up by some unexpectedly heartfelt character work.

What's really impressing me thus far are the zones' side quests. I shan't mention anything beyond names for spoiler reasons, but I very much recommend helping out Korgran in the Isle of Dorn. It's a moving exploration that makes me feel like WoW's found an emotional storytelling core that's been missing (or, at the least, inconsistent) for a while.

The story overall feels like a step up, and I'm not alone in that. Preach, a long-standing WoW YouTuber with a deep investment in the game, has felt similarly ambushed as he states in a video aptly titled "YES! You SHOULD Play The War Within".

"I never, ever thought I would sit here after all the years I've been doing World of Warcraft content and tell you—pay attention to the story. Don't just start skipping, give it a chance one time, and I truly believe you're going to have one of the best World of Warcraft experiences you're gonna ever have."

Mind, that's an uphill battle for most WoW fans—with commenters below the video plenty sceptical about the idea that Blizzard has turned over a new leaf. I find it hard to blame them, honestly, because they haven't been able to play the dang thing yet.

The War Within's early access period seems like a black mark on an otherwise very good first impression. For context, the game's had a three-day early access period. Unlike, say, FF14's EA periods, where early access is given to players who've pre-ordered any version of the game (and is mostly there just to split up server load), The War Within's EA period only came with the Epic Edition of the game, which is $90 (£75), around $40 pricier than the base edition at $50 (£40).

While three days of early access isn't much—and players don't exactly have much of a head start, considering heroic dungeons weren't accessible and you can power level a character to 80 in a day or two—I don't think it's controversial to say that this kinda stinks.

The value proposition itself isn't necessarily terrible: players are getting more trader's tender, a toy, a pet, a hearthstone effect, a month of game time, and a bunch of other stuff—considering a month of game time alone is about $15 (£8.50) it lessens the sting.

On the other hand, one of the best bits of an MMO is the launch day hype: Getting to rush in with all your mates and experience the content at the same time. Gating that behind a price point is bound to cause some unsavoury social friction and feelings of FOMO which, while temporary, could be avoided by just not bungling early access in with your epic edition at all.

That said, it was a temporary problem that's essentially over now. Even if I'm left with a sour taste in my mouth myself, the cynic in me recognises that these outrages tend to rise and fall very quickly unless they gain Helldivers 2 levels of traction, and I'm not getting that sensation here. Hopefully, it's a mistake Blizzard won't repeat when it comes to the Worldsoul Saga's other instalments because, despite that wart, I'm actually having a very good time.