World of Warcraft: The War Within Review in Progress

ign.com:

At the time I'm writing this, I've put about seven hours into World of Warcraft: The War Within – basically every moment between when it unlocked and when I could no longer keep my eyes open. And that's very early to say anything definitive. But… I have a very good feeling about this one, you guys. From the story, to the environments, to the new features, this is World of Warcraft firing on all cylinders. I'm not utterly blown away or anything that hyperbolic, but compared to the last three expansions' launches, the warm glow of new adventure is hitting different this time.

I've been taking my sweet time – relatively speaking – so while some bedlamites had already hit 80 inside of a couple hours, I logged off for the night at level 73. That pace allowed me to collect three of my new Hero Talents for my Marksmanship Hunter, and I chose to go with the night elf-themed Sentinel over the tortured soul, Sylvanas-inspired Dark Ranger. I'm not super thrilled with these talents yet; we'll see how it feels at 80, but I'm not getting the sense of a significant change in my power or my playstyle with each level like I'd hoped.

I do like that The War Within doesn't add a bunch of new buttons to my hotbar, though. Part of why I picked Sentinel over Dark Ranger is that the latter makes you incorporate a new attack into your rotation, and I like that I have the option not to have to worry about that.

If you missed the big announcement last BlizzCon, The War Within is intended as the first part of a trilogy of expansions that aim to tell a larger, complete story. This is something WoW has never done before, and I'm pretty excited about it. Without spoiling too much, the first hour of the story definitely feels like we're going full speed ahead into something sweeping and epic. Some major sacred cows in the lore are actually on the chopping block (not literally – Baine is fine, don't worry). And Xal'atath is a compelling new nemesis – not just because she's a hot goth mommy.

I mean,