Have you seen the title cinematic for Mists of Pandaria?
This is a very different type of opening than we have seen before.
The original World of Warcraft opening used a simple metaphor to great effect - The Drums of War. In a series of scenes we are introduced to the races and classes of World of Warcraft. Each cut happens faster and faster, like the beating of a drum, or a quickening heartbeat. It instils excitement and anticipation.
The opening to The Burning Crusade went with the different tone. The general message was a challenge, but it wasn't unified. There was a lot of filler, showing off things that people had come to love about World of Warcraft - such as Polymorph, Murlocks, and Mounts. It also took time to introduce the new races, the stoicism of the Draenei and the sinister lust for power in the Blood Elves. That was framed with the message: if you want to fight Illidan you'll need to gain 10 levels and claw your way through three tiers of punishing raid content.
Wrath of the Lich King introduced us to something new. The sole focus was on the Lich King, no mention of the players. This set up the most cinematic of the World of Warcraft expansions. Each new patch focused on a significant amount of NPC character development.
Cataclysm brought the players back into the cinematic, but subtly. The opening showed us what happened to the world; showed us the terrible power of Deathwing; showed us places we could recognize being destroyed by our new foe. This engaged the player, making us feel helpless and driving us to fight back against this force of nature.
This new opening is something different, something...more.
First we have a Darkness to Light metaphor that perhaps gets a little heavy handed at the end but is still very effective.
The character models used are amazing. The level of detail is staggering, and still, even with the human, you can tell immediately that it is a Warcraft art asset.
When it builds to the fight scene it feels perfectly in place. Something straight out of a 1980's Jet Li or Jackie Chan period film (Once Upon a Time in China series, Drunken Master, or Chinese Ghost Story). Demonstrating amazing choreography with just a dash of comedy. It fits perfectly right down to the conclusion where having been beaten the Horde and Alliance characters resign their conflict with each other and their new foe to appreciate the beauty of the land that they have discovered.
The only odd moment for me is the very end with the weird tongue smacking, I'm not exactly sure what that was about. Maybe they thought just sniffing the cherry blossoms was too stereotypical, but didn't want to anger to Parent's council by having him take a swig of beer, because let's face it, that's what Chen Stormstout thinks is worth fighting for.
The music, the story telling, the animation. It all combines to become something more than you'd expect from a video game.
Blizzard is in the wrong business.
Also, before people start shouting nerf monks, obviously the monk is level 90 and the Orc and Human are level 85,
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