Closing Thoughts on Gilneas

Last time we were talking about the Worgen in World of Warcraft, and my utter love and fascination with Gilneas.

So, having finally finished the Worgen starting zone, I've got some thoughts about it.

I first saw Gilneas as a Blood Elf running through the destroyed remains of the countryside, as worgen insurgents slowly reclaimed every Forsaken outpost I came across (ending in what appeared to be a messy phasing bug where we tried to raise a Gilnean human into undeath, possibly because I did Shadowfang Keep before these quests.)

Upon rolling a Worgen, however, I got to see Gilneas City in its full glory, to watch the countryside shifting under the onslaught of the Cataclysm and the war looming on its fringes, while the curse ripped the human survivors apart from the inside. It's well-written and interesting throughout, and unlike almost every other race, new Worgen players are literally forced to endure the hardships of their own race: it's impossible to leave Gilneas until you've overcome your curse, not to mention the entire invading army.

In fact, the only thing I didn't much care for - the only thing which made the experience the least bit unenjoyable - was the bugs.

The entire zone feels a bit buggy, from one of the very first quests where you're given a dog to hunt worgen (With alarming frequency, I found, the dog would leap at a worgen as commanded, then neither attack him nor unveil his presence. Very frustrating.) Then as one of the final quests, you have to follow a relatively quick-moving NPC to a Cathedral to spy on your enemies. Only if you do it wrong, or don't catch up in time, it seems that your enemies don't spawn, while the NPC despawns. Maybe I just have an awful sense of timing, but when the quest log says only "Follow an NPC who left an hour ago, good luck!" it's difficult to work out the in-between steps. Given Blizzard's habit of leading players by the hand, that was rather unexpected.

Regardless though, the zone is otherwise well-polished and fascinating, and I strongly recommend Worgen if you're going to roll a new alt for the Cataclysm.