Inven Global

With its scheduled launch on Thursday, November 5, World of Warcraft: Forever (hereafter Forever) is now just a month away. Given the immense anticipation surrounding it as "Classic+" even before its BlizzCon announcement, a vast number of players flocked to the roughly month-long beta test.

Despite requiring the purchase of a Skyborne Pack to participate, global interest surpassed that of Classic, leading to server queues and connection drops. With just a month remaining until the official launch, here are our impressions from playing the Forever beta.

The new race, the Skyborne, is a faction that branched off from the High Elves thousands of years ago. They lived alongside wind elementals in exile on the floating Zephras Isle. At the start of Forever, the elementals suddenly vanish, leaving the island in danger of plummeting from the sky. Resolving this crisis forms the core of the Skyborne's opening narrative.

The Skyborne were added as part of Forever's core design philosophy of introducing elements that "always existed in Azeroth, but were never spotlighted." Reactions have been mixed: many players felt averse to adding a brand-new race to a Classic experience, while others were dissatisfied that the new race essentially amounts to a Blood Elf palette swap.

However, built on the Blood Elf rig, they possess a visually appealing model that has always been popular. Moreover, their storyline ties directly into unresolved lore from the existing WoW universe, such as Al'Akir the Windlord, making the playthrough genuinely engaging. Personally, I would have preferred not adding a race like the Pandaren whose faction is hard to tell apart by appearance alone. Yet, with a clear source of conflict between the High Order and the Windshapers joining the Alliance and Horde respectively, the reasons for their rivalry felt well-justified.

My first thought playing Forever was, "So this is the joy of chance encounters that the developers emphasized at BlizzCon." Players gather around campfires to share minor buffs, and you find yourself sending party invites out of nowhere to players speaking different languages just to complete a quest.

As these experiences accumulated, the game delivered true role-playing immersion—feeling as though you had stepped directly into the world to explore, rather than merely leveling up a character. True to Classic, individual monsters pack a heavy punch, quest routes can be inconvenient, and progress takes time, yet every single aspect added to the fun.

Zephras Isle, the Skyborne starting area, features mountainous terrain, and bugs with the map feature early in the beta made leveling somewhat tricky. However, the questing route itself is streamlined and offers a completely new storyline, making it well worth experiencing at least once.

Leveling a character in Forever was genuine fun, but it did not feel fundamentally different from the charm of standard WoW Classic. At least up to level 20, there was little discernible difference between Classic and Forever. While new dungeons, revamped talents, and the Legacy system have been introduced, these changes do not significantly impact the low-level experience.

In particular, once players leave Zephras Isle—where they experience a completely fresh narrative—and begin traveling across Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, the thought creeps in: "Am I just playing Classic all over again?" Thoughts may change once Forever officially launches and players begin committing deeply to character talents and Legacy traits, but during the early levels, it is hard to appreciate the leveling progression driven by these systems.

That said, Forever possesses a unique appeal in allowing players to enjoy a lasting "Classic" experience backed by upgraded visuals and mechanics. True to the developers' remark that "Azeroth is the main character of the game," it faithfully delivers the joy of exploring the world as an inhabitant of Azeroth before being its grand champion.

Ultimately, Forever is closest to an enhanced version of WoW Classic. If you have grown accustomed to the fast-paced progression of retail servers, Forever's deliberate tempo, understated combat, and hands-on approach to professions—learning skills manually, mining ore, and brewing potions—may feel tedious.

However, if approached not as a rush toward raids and endgame content, but as a relaxing RPG where you clear elite quests with players you meet by chance, tackle dungeons, and uncover Azeroth's hidden lore piece by piece, it offers a proven formula with genuine added value. For those invested in Warcraft lore, discovering previously unrevealed backstories and exploring alternate "what-if" storylines unique to Forever provides entertainment far beyond mere nostalgia.

With developers promising not to raise the level cap or release subsequent expansions like The Burning Crusade, the pace of the game will likely differ significantly from retail. Once Forever officially launches, we recommend setting aside efficient power-leveling and endgame grinding for a moment to take in the atmosphere and rich lore of Azeroth at your own pace.