World of Warcraft takes inspiration from the great Battle Royale for its new mode, but is the result as fun as Fortnite or PUBG?

Game news World of Warcraft takes inspiration from the great Battle Royale for its new mode, but is the result as fun as Fortnite or PUBG?

It’s been a few days snowfall Displays a pirate icon on its World of Warcraft social network. So, after much speculation about what the North American company is up to, we finally have the end of the story: A new Battle Royale mode set in the MMORPG universe is already available! Surely no one expected this, not even the most die-hard fans. So, is it really worth watching? We played it, and here’s our answer!

Very quickly addictive

As a reminder, Plunderstorm is a battle royale mode in World of Warcraft (WoW) whose theory is particularly simple. 60 players compete on the map, and the last one standing is the winner of this epic battle. If you know WoW, the region where this new mod takes place should not be unfamiliar to you as it is the Arathi Highlands. Games only last a maximum of 15 minutes, which is extremely short!

How does the game play? It’s very easy, you can join the game alone or in a pair with a friend. You appear in a pirate town while waiting for the maximum number of players to be reached, then you are launched into the air by a cannon. The game starts like this when you find yourself in the sky, on a giant parrot. As with many titles in the genre, you choose the best place to start this fierce battle. On the map, there are various hostile creatures and non-player characters to eliminate to level up and gain skills and spells. There are ten levels in total, which make you stronger and give you more health points. So you should make sure to level up as fast as possible while facing the players you encounter. The storm reduces the size of the map, forcing the combatants to face each other in a restricted circle.

A melee and ranged attack, a self-healing drink, four skill slots, and a one-time-use item are all you’ll need to defend yourself in this battle without thanks. You can improve your skills and spells if you find them again on creatures, in chests or on loot left by players who have lost their lives. So you are constantly adapting and on your guard. Very dynamic and easy to learn, the parts of this mod follow each other at breakneck speed.

You don’t need to know World of Warcraft to play it

One of Plunderstorm’s strengths, and you don’t need to have any special knowledge of WoW to enjoy. This mod is extremely easy to learn and has no disadvantages compared to players who have been playing World of Warcraft since 2004. What’s more, addons, i.e. downloadable content to make everyday life on WoW easier, are not allowed in this game mode. Here, all players are equal and only use their reflexes and tactics to succeed in the game.

No class, no specialty! Only skills and spells. What’s more, it’s hard to say that Plunderstorm has a deep story that demands any interest. In fact, without really understanding what you’re fighting for, you’ve landed on a huge battlefield. The important thing is to win, nothing more. In other words, this new game mode requires no prior knowledge to play. The same goes for fans of the classic version, who don’t like the most recent World of Warcraft. So there’s no need to play the Dragonflight expansion to have fun with Plunderstorm.

Requirement to pay subscription and install WoW Dragonflight

The fact that it’s objectively a good game mode, fulfilling its mission to be fun despite being extremely short, has two major negatives. You have no other way to play it without subscription. In other words, you have to pay for a World of Warcraft subscription to access it. As if that wasn’t restrictive enough, you have to install the latest version of the game, i.e. Dragonflight, to play it.. This mod of the game uses the graphics engine of the latest version of the game. A choice not so surprising, as we can imagine that Blizzard wants to encourage players to embark on an MMORPG adventure. So you should launch the latest version of WoW and face the character menu, then click on Plunderstorm version. So we deplore the fact that it’s not directly accessible on the Battle Net Launcher, so you don’t have to worry about installing the MMORPG. With an easy-to-learn and fun game mode, it’s a real shame that a North American company hasn’t opted for free and better accessibility like Hearthstone.

Players are forced to go all the way to select a WoW character

“I didn’t expect this from Blizzard”

On various official forums and social networks, many World of Warcraft fans talk about the fact that they did not expect Blizzard to introduce such a new feature. Some may have chosen to stick to the RPG aspect, offering new content directly in the two versions of WOW (current and classic). However, it’s not a bad thing that this iconic video game studio is trying to come up with concepts they’ve never done before. Certainly, some may think that the arrival of Battle Royale mode in 2024 seems outdated, however, but it is an interesting initiative. This addition, out of nowhere, predicts that snowfall will undoubtedly be another surprise in the near future.

What’s more, this game mode isn’t so much a surprise as it is part of players’ eternal loyalty to World of Warcraft. Almost 20 years old, this MMORPG continues to attract diverse player profiles, which is quite an achievement. In addition to accessing it via subscription and through the MMORPG, playing it offers new rewards. They’re just cosmetics, sure, but serious collectors feel compelled to participate in this mode, even if they don’t prefer player versus player (PvP).

Should I play World of Warcraft Plunderstorm?

The answer is very simple: if you already have a WoW subscription, then yes. If not, it’s not worth paying €12.99 per month to play. Classic fans won’t be happy about installing the most recent version of the game to access it, but will at least benefit from a subscription. It is a shame that Blizzard decided to make access to this mode difficult through the installation and mandatory subscription of the MMORPG, but this allows experienced players to explore new horizons.