World of Warcraft: The War Within is brilliant, but Blizzard had something better at Gamescom

Gamescom’s show floor is a jungle at the best of times. It’s a cacophonous wonderland (or Hell, if you’re trying to get to an appointment) of recognizable brands and video game characters all screaming, “look at me, we want your attention!”

Most of the time, this involves either getting you in front of a game and playing it months, potentially even weeks, before it hits the shelves. For others, you wander into a presentation booth and watch some gameplay where you have a hands-off demo. After going to a lot of these events, It takes something special to get your attention. 

Blizzard brought something special to this year’s Gamescom. To celebrate the launch of World of Warcraft: The War Within and the World Soul Saga, Blizzard cooked up a 4D ride called Escape from Dalaran that con-goers were able to jump on and experience – and I have got to say, I hope this isn’t the last time we see it. 

The WoW factor

The conceit of Escape from Dalaran is simple. In The War Within intro-campaign, the spider-like Nerubians invade Dalaran at the behest of Xal’atath, the big bad of at least The War Within, if not the broader World Sould Saga. Within the ride, you fly through the crumbling floating city as towers and buildings collapse around you. 

How this actually plays out is you jump onto a saddle, you place VR goggles over your head, and the platform you’re on moves in tandem with the scene to create a sense of motion. It’s a surprisingly convincing effect, and it’s achieved without hundreds of millions of dollars of equipment. 

For something assembled just for Gamescom, it was a shockingly elaborate demonstration. The movement was intense, the blasts of air all synched up with the destruction around you. It was a surprisingly compelling experience and really has informed my time with The War Within already. 

The invasion of Dalaran already feels more real because I was there. I dove 50 feet down as towers collapsed around me. It was pretty great and honestly really exceeded my expectations. I’ve been quietly a little disappointed in the marketing push for The War Within. This is the big moment to get everyone back in and playing WoW as much as possible. This, however, more than the impressive story trailers and beats put out, put me in the headspace to play some WoW. 

This was a massive effort, and perhaps what strikes me most is its impermanence. A lot of work would have gone into making this, but it was made for one moment, in a convention center in Germany for a couple of days. However, what if this was just a test run?

Warcraft more of these

So, why am I writing this? Gamescom is done. As far as I know, there’s nowhere else in the world you can try this experience now. But I sincerely hope this is merely Blizzard dipping its toe in the water. A test for something bigger down the line. 

A Blizzard theme park has floated around as an idea for a long time. That only picked up steam when a Blizzard World map was revealed in Overwatch in 2018. Now, there’s no way this happens — Blizzard doesn’t command the public cache it once did, and it’s fair to say that the toxic work culture and horrendous allegations back in 2021 would make a large-scale celebration of the broader company go down poorly. 

However, for individual games that have all gone through a process of recovery and ousting, this would be a fun way to expand their vision. What I played was around two minutes of VR at its best, achieved with a brilliant level of technical execution. However, it felt like a taster for what could be in the future.

Perhaps an Overwatch ride, where you ride the back of Winston as Null Sector tears apart a city. Or an intense horse ride through hell, running from the hoards of Mephisto in Diablo. Why make everything so stressful, though? What about just a relaxing ride above Azeroth in a zepplin? This tech feels like it could unlock these kinds of experiences be they at conventions or housed somewhere more permanently. 

These ‘rides’ really do feel like they could be a rich vein for Blizzard and its properties, as they do cement them, making them feel bigger. It was just a small thing at Gamescom to promote a specific expansion right when it was dropping – but there’s room for so much more here to bring us closer to the worlds we’ve inhabited for years.