World of Warcraft: Midnight's riff on Monolith's The Lord of the Rings Nemesis System was spurred on by a War Within feature Blizzard doubted: "We weren't sure how people would react"

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Blizzard wants to "get people a little bit more engaged in the outdoor world"

World of Warcraft: Midnight
(Image credit: Blizzard)

While World of Warcraft's new housing system is taking up a lot of Midnight's spotlight, another feature I'm almost just as excited for is the Prey system. However, we may never have gotten it if a new slice of War Within content didn't go over well, as Blizzard initially had its doubts.

Prey is best described as a system where you hunt someone who, in turn, hunts you. Initially revealed at Gamescom earlier this year, Blizzard went further in-depth during a preview event attended by GamesRadar+ for the MMO's upcoming Midnight expansion.

Astalor Bloodsworn leads the opt-in bounty hunting in Silvermoon’s Murder Row. You get to hunt targets like Magister Sunbreaker, High Vindicator Vureem, and Executor Kaenius, and there are three difficulty tiers – normal, hard, and nightmare. If you're brave enough to up the difficulty, you'll find they toss in 'torments' that add personal afflictions like time-limited kills or lethal spirits.

Do be warned, though. None of the above are happy to be hunted and will aim to take you out first – regardless of whether you're questing or enjoying a spot of fishing. If you're familiar with Lord of the Rings: Shadow of War's Nemesis system or Assassin's Creed: Odyssey's Mercenary system, you'll get the gist.

World of Warcraft ends 21-year drought and adds housing with MMO's new Midnight expansion – but Blizzard has a good reason it took so long: "We couldn't just check off a box and do the minimum."

Iain Harris
Iain Harris
News Editor, Games

I joined GamesRadar+ in May 2022 following stints at PCGamesN and PocketGamer.Biz, with some freelance for Kotaku UK, RockPaperShotgun, and VG24/7 thrown in for good measure. When I'm not running the news team on the games side, you'll find me putting News Editor duties to one side to play the hottest JRPG of 20 years ago or pillaging the depths of Final Fantasy 14 for a swanky new cloak – the more colourful, the better.

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