So I completed the Sentinel portion of this campaign and played some of the Highborne.
I liked it overall. Terrain and gameplay are - for the most part - great.
There are some weaker spots like the Cave of Shadows map, which is just annoying, but still, great work overall. I want to emphasize that I like the campaign, before brining up the problem that I want to bring up.
And that problem is the Highborne part.
It leaves me somewhat dissatisfied as it becomes incredibly hard to suspend disbelief.
Okay, so you're taking Malfurion, an archetypical good guy and turning him evil. A great idea, unique and fun, but the execution is clumsy. One map after his decision to take on this new power to save his people he is outright extremely evil, dismissing almost everything he once cared for. He does a complete 180 turn and it's very hard to go along with it.
Compare and contrast Arthas Menethil, who we witness going through a similiar transformation. He takes up Frostmourne and at the end of the same map he kills his father and one map later he is slaughtering villagers. He also does a 180. But it doesn't come out of the blue. We spend the better half of the human campaign witnessing his descent into madness, from Chapter 6 onwards, we see him pushing his morality aside for vengeance and in a very naive and disturbing take on 'the end justifies the means', so that by the end of that campaign it makes perfect sense that he doesn't really care what becomes of his people and welcomes the new power offered to him by the Lich King.
Compare now, your Malfurion, in the Highborne section. He betrays his love, kills Furbolgs, dismisses his entire people. This is not the Malfurion we know. His turning to darkness is so sudden and complete that it's really hard to take it seriously. You need time to execute such character development.
I understand that it would be infeasible to go back and change the maps to make the whole thing more believable, so here is a suggestion:
Swap the role of his Inner Voice to one that at least berates or criticizes his descent into evil once he becomes evil. So, you know, kind of how like his Inner Voice is doubtful and menacing during the Sentinel part where he is good, his inner voice would be ashamed and disbelieving of the dismissal of his old ways in the Highborne part where he is evil.
Hello there, I'm glad you've played Malfurion's Quest 1.23b.
I would like to reply to some of your feedback.
First of all, the entire campaign has been for the most part reworked with new characters, a more evolved storyline, more balanced gameplay and we've been focused on filling a lot of plot holes. In the newest version of the highbourne story, I'm confident that a lot of the things that are happening will make a lot more sense.
We've worked on his highbourne's personality making it more believable, and while some people will not agree to his purpose or goal or the way Malfurion does things, they can't misunderstand his reason for doing so.
Your comparison to Arthas is quite interesting and we've noticed this as well but we're not aiming for something similar. Malfurion's personality changes or it's affected throughout his dreams in the Emerald Realm. The prologue, for example, focuses on his dream and what outcome might happen. When Malfurion notices that everyone is being oblivious to the Burning Legion's coming, he becomes afraid and doubts his own powers and people since they're not so well organized after Jeopardy of the Horde. All of these will be addressed on in the new patch.
I can't talk about his "Inner voice" without spoiling what it is or why it's happening the way it is, but there will be enough proper adjustments in the early chapters that will make it better.
Malfurion's Quest is far from being complete, the Sentinel version being planned for 2019-2020 where, once again, all chapters will be reworked both in gameplay and story and will add new characters and new story elements to this alternative universe. Throughout 2017 and 2018 we've been focused a lot on the story, the dialogue, and the gameplay to bring a better experience in the Highborne storyline.
Hopefully, you'll give it another try in the future when the new patch will be released and we'll await your feedback and discuss the campaign with you.
Have a nice day/evening and thanks for the comment.