The trends in World of Warcraft are that the endgame zones of the game are becoming much more bizarre. For example, in the Legion expansion, when traveling through the incredible elven metropolis of Suramar, players were forced to move carefully, hiding in barrels and avoiding patrols, like Ezio from Assassin's Creed. And one of the end-game locations in Battle for Azeroth was a giant junkyard inhabited by cyborg gnomes.

 

Here the players will go to the Womb - a nightmarish hell where lost souls fall. Here they are being tortured by the barefoot Jailer monster, and it is up to us to save them. But if you make a fuss, then the wanted level will be increased, reminiscent of the mechanics from GTA - however, instead of the police, demonic assassins will declare a hunt for you.

 

Recently, some fans were able to try another piece of the big end-game puzzle that Blizzard is gradually adding to the Shadowlands test servers. It's about the Womb. This is the fifth zone of the Darklands where players will spend most of their time relaxing from raids or Torghast, the giant roguelike instance. Like Battle for Azeroth's Mechagon, The Maw is a large, open sandbox with several important markers to guide you where to go. It could be said that this is an incredibly exciting place to explore, if not for the fact that literally everything is trying to kill the character.

 

On the other hand, threat in World of Warcraft is a permanent state. But the Maw really, really wants to finish off the players. You can get here only through one entrance, as well as exit, and the only safe area occupies a tiny location. While players will quickly zip through the area during Shadowlands' story campaign, it's exclusively for max-level characters.

And even in this situation, you will have to suffer.

 

Curiously, even a demon hunter, who usually boasts self-healing abilities and kicks ass for small group mobs and single-handedly crushes some bosses, will be forced to think twice. And that's great.

 

Movement in depth

Part of the fun of World of Warcraft Classic is the memory of how challenging even the simplest quest can be. Also Im used wow mythic boost for all the time. The womb evokes the same nostalgic feelings. Instead of attacking packs of monsters, gathering them into a large group and letting demonic flames into them, you need to hide, be careful and destroy only small units at a time. Sometimes it's really cool to come down the Olympus of the food chain and feel a real threat!

 

Even without larger creatures like the armored minions of the Maw, the huge Charred Behemoths, and the demonic hounds of the Soul Eaters, the Maw itself is a creepy place. Only the landscape of this location is saturated with feelings of pain and anguish. Ruined ruins and twisted, twisting rock formations jut out of the ground, resembling broken fingers. And all this is separated by a river of souls, upon entering which a visual effect is triggered, reminiscent of the moments when Frodo put the Ring on his finger. Ghostly shadows of souls suddenly appear, howling loudly as they are washed into the very depths of Torghast.

 

But that's not the only manifestation of The Lord of the Rings inspiration. While the Maw is an area open to exploration, where you can complete dynamically spawning quests, kill bosses, or hunt for treasure, players are constantly watched by the Eye of the Jailer. He monitors the actions and creates more and more difficult obstacles on the way, hindering progress.

 

The system works similarly to wanted levels from the Grand Theft Auto series, except that the Jailer's Eye has steadily increased since entering the Maw. Killing enemies and completing quests will speed up this progress, which will eventually lead to the activation of the first of five levels of punishment. At the first level, some opponents that were once neutral become aggressive. As soon as the Eye goes into a rage, the second level is activated, the Torghast tower begins to shoot powerful magic spells. If you do not dodge in time, then the character is chained, after which you have to destroy the restraining shackles. 

At levels three and four, players begin to be hunted down by demonic assassins who periodically set up ambushes, thus making the already difficult battles even more deadly. And at the fifth level, the character's health begins to gradually deplete until he (a) dies. At this point, you have to leave the Maw to return the very next day, when the Eye's punishment levels are reset.

Some gamers may not like that the Maw actually has a daily timer, but the threat levels rise so slowly that you can safely spend several hours a day on the location. This creates a pleasant feeling of increasing pressure as you explore, but eventually you will need to back off.

In other parts of the Warcraft world, death doesn't matter much. But in the Womb, it has disastrous consequences - the character loses the earned resources. Known as Stygia, the resource is given out by killing enemies or completing various quests, and is subsequently exchanged for ciphers by the only "friendly" person in the Maw, the whimsical Ve'Nari. She is indifferent to the fate of the warriors, but she sells items that open up new areas or useful amplifiers.

 

However, even in case of death before the sale of Stygia, half of the reserves remain on the corpse, so you can always return and pick up the resource. Less brutal compared to Dark Souls, but it's nice to feel an additional threat that forces you to proceed with caution. The tension reaches a breaking point when you start to abuse the hospitality, too much Stygia is collected in the bags, and you have to urgently retreat to the portal until the Eye reaches its last level and finishes off the character. Considering that mounts cannot be used in the Maw, you have to rely only on your own strength... and also clearly understand how far you have gone and how long it will take to retreat.

 

The womb is already available in the Shadowlands beta, so you can get to know its current state for yourself by watching the development towards release. First impressions of the Maw are positive, but Blizzard still has some serious work to do to keep the location interesting even after months of hiking. Most likely, as the players develop, the developers will add new activities and quests.

 

Many World of Warcraft players will agree that in recent years, the regular world zones have become too simple, and the main challenge has migrated to group dungeons and raids. The womb is a response to the appeals of gamers. This is an atmospheric and creepy location, which, although not completely up to the Classic level, where exploring even a small cave can turn into a painful journey, still provides the opportunity to feel like a small shrimp in a huge, demonic hellish pool.