- It's beautiful. When you start playing as a Panderan, the opening area is quite pretty. While this isn't unusual for WoW, each expansion manages to make it look smoother somehow.
- It's influenced by other works but is its own animal. I watched some people in general arguing the other day about the influence of Kung Fu Panda on the area and story. One person said the influence was obvious while the other claimed that there was no influence because Panderan existed before Kung Fu Panda. It seems to me that maybe they took some visual cues from Kung Fu Panda, but Kung Fu Panda took inspiration from other places. There is nothing wrong with taking inspiration from other works as long as you synthesize it into something of your own design. Regardless of what inspired the game-makers, Blizzard has created something of beauty that is their own.
- The quest system has seen little change for this expansion. The quests in the starting area are pretty similar to other quests through out WoW. This isn't a complaint, as the questing system is tweaked regularly to make it more interesting and to keep our interest.
- The lore is supported, explained, and expanded upon. Through the starting area, you get a good idea of who the Panderan are, as well as who they are. Most of the information seems pretty surface level, but there are nice touches that illustrate what the Panderan are capable of. I would have enjoyed a bit more depth, but the starting area does a decent job of introducing us to the Panderan.
The Panderan starting area is a well crafted group of quests and characters. It's fun to play though, but it doesn't last very long. As none of the starting areas are particularly lengthy anymore, I can't fault them for that. I would like to see greater depth of information, but I'm pretty happy with the Panderan area overall.
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