Progress Report provides ongoing impressions of games as I play them.
When you reach the end of the quests in Tirisfal Glades, a breadcrumb quest leads you onto Silverpine Forest where the undead Forsaken are engaged in combat with Worgan (werewolves) that you encountered in a brief quest in Tirisfal Glades. So far, I have to say that Silverpine Forest is one of the most interesting zones that I've encountered in World of Warcraft, epic in feel with some real storytelling and in-depth exploration of lore and area (re)design.
One of the ways that the area draws you in immediately is as you enter the zone, you are greeted by Forsaken troops marching along the main road, ettins hauling troops to the battlefront with the Worgen and other ettins hauling the (permanently) dead back. And then you encounter none other than Sylvanus Windrunner, the Banshee Queen of the Forsaken and she ends up speaking with none other than the Horde Warchief, Garrosh Hellscream. Story is revealed in a number of short cutscenes and the story of the zone is principally about the Forsaken's dominance in the area being threatened by an invigorated Worgen threat and as you progress in the zone, you also learn about the Forsaken's new desire to prosper, their new means of building their population and the conflict with the Worgen, even taking to the warfront with the Worgen and witnessing, via phasing, the warfront move forward and back into and from the Worgen lands of Gilneas.
All this is suitably epic and I love how drawing Sylvanus and the Worgen conflict really ties this zone together so well. The redesign of the zone again shows immense improvement to playability and smoothness of the leveling experience, providing flightpoints through the whole zone, from one stop to the next, meaning that you spend much less time running those long distances on foot. Silverpine Forest is a clear example of how to do a WoW zone right and, even though I've progressed several zones ahead, it still remains my favorite zone. I imagine that playing through the Worgen starting zone before playing Silverpine Forest will provide even greater story insight into what's going on as these two experiences seem linked, from cast of characters to locations and settings. Silverpine Forest was perhaps the most fun I've had in WoW so far.
Links:
- Game website
Zone Index: