WoW’s DRIVE mechanic can be frustrating, but it has a lot of potential to reshape Azeroth like Dragonriding did
World of Warcraft: The War Within has finally allowed players to venture into the goblin capitol, Undermine, with the release of its 11.1 patch. Befitting the mean streets of the industrial, cartel-run city, players will be ditching their skyriding mounts for an all-new ground mount system: DRIVE. The appropriately named G-99 Breakneck is given to players shortly after entering the underground city, with the mount and its underlying system being a simultaneously hilarious and frustrating addition to WoW.
While DRIVE and the Undermine have likely been designed with each other in mind, the incredible speed of the G-99 and tight corners of the city have certainly created a degree of unwieldiness. Sure, part of this frustration has to do with the inevitable difficulties of learning any new system, but there are certainly some pieces that need to be fine-tuned, or at least, need some additional quality of life features. However, if developed properly, DRIVE could be the next piece in modernizing WoW's traversal in Undermine and beyond.
DRIVE Is WoW's Mario Kart
With All Its Peaks And Valleys
Driving, drifting, and boosting through the streets of Undermine has an undeniable Mario Kart charm to it, with an added Crazy Taxi flair thanks to the big city backdrop. When the G-99 is working as intended, it's a joy to utilize, allowing players to blast through the streets at a record pace, moving from the central Intercontinental Hotel to any other subzone in less than a minute. Despite ground mounts traditionally being slower than flying, DRIVE's top speed is now the fastest mode of travel in WoW.
Perhaps one of the most memorable elements of any arcade kart racing game, and now DRIVE, is drifting. It's typically satisfying to pull off, and generally rewards players who can utilize it effectively with added speed. Drifting is the key to Mario Kart, the component that keeps the gameplay satisfying and replayable as players learn when and where to drift on specific maps. Drifting is a feature that's fun for nearly every Mario Kart player, but is also one of the primary ways to show mastery and win more competitive races.
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With drifting now squarely in WoW, the peak of the feature is much the same as in Mario Kart: exhilarating moments of precise turns around the winding Undermine roads. However, drifting also brings with it a level of frustration. Spinning out or slamming walls is inevitable in Mario Kart, a consequence of pushing drifting to its limit. In a kart-racing game, this is to be expected, and generally doesn't lead to any notable level of frustration: it's an essential component, a necessary counterbalance to the effectiveness of drifting.
Perhaps part of the strangeness of DRIVE, then, has to do with it being the primary method of travel in patch 11.1, with all flying mounts being restricted in Undermine. Spinning out, slamming walls, and overshooting destinations are core elements of a kart racer, but it definitely feels off in WoW when the primary goal of travel is to turn in or progress a quest, not to test the limits of speed and control.
WoW's Fastest Mode Of Travel, And The Most Unwieldy
Frustration Is Common, Especially While Questing
The G-99 is fast. It zips around the new zone in seconds as Undermine's excellent jazz tracks become intermingled with honking horns and revving engines. It's this speed, in combination with the relatively banal goals players are typically driving for, that is likely creating this more pronounced feeling of frustration. While clarity and consistency have been on an uptrend in the MMO, like with WoW's new and improved swirlies, DRIVE is chaotic and often finicky.
While normal ground mounts can be used in Undermine, they are significantly slower than the G-99.
This is partly due to the Undermine's design. While it's one of the most inspired patch zones to date, with an equally trend-breaking raid, it feels altogether too small for the breakneck speed of the G-99, despite being designed together. Traveling between quest objectives through the twisting roads of the city takes seconds, not leaving enough time to properly decipher a route. The result is often overshooting the destination or heading down the wrong path, then having to wait for the G-99's momentum to slow enough to eventually reverse back on track.
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I've been so used to skyriding that the change of pace is noticeably jarring. Before, I could point in the general direction of my destination, and, with a light down-angle, allow the momentum to carry me, free of obstacles, towards my destination. The momentum of the mount gives enough time to open up the map and double-check the destination, without the fear of slamming into a pipe or gate. There's simply no time for this in the G-99; hopping between points in Undermine is near instant, and almost always comes with a miscalculation of space, distance, or time.
Releasing DRIVE Into Azeroth Can Lean Into Its Fun
Break Out Of The City For Continent-Spanning Races
With that being said, this frustration is largely contained in traditional forms of WoW content. When utilizing the G-99 in content inspired by it, slamming into walls becomes a feature, both as a measure of skill and a necessity for that content to feel engaging. Like skyriding, there is a collection of races that players can undertake in Undermine which were made for the G-99. Here, the frustrations of slamming the G-99 or missing a flag are par for the course, a barrier to be surmounted in the efforts to land a gold score.
For players overwhelmingly frustrated, try switching the engine type to a slower model, which may aid in controlling the G-99.
Undermined also brought with it shipping and handling tasks, which lean heavily into a Crazy Taxi inspiration. Here, the player undertakes a series of truncated world quests, which are completed in an almost flow-like state. The player's blitz through these short tasks is helped, like the races, by a giant arrow pointing towards the destination. Particularly in Surge Pricing, a new timed event, moving as efficiently through the tasks as possible, following the arrow, looking for shortcuts, and inevitably crashing, are all part of the fun.
It's also easy to forget that Skyriding had a similar level of criticism during Dragonflight'slaunch. Before acquiring upgrades, I remember being grounded quite often in the opening zones of Dragonflight, waiting for my stamina to return. Dragonriding, by now, has become like second nature for me in WoW. Still, for players who prefer more hands-off traversal, it's also easier than ever to swap between the two modes.
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Bringing skyriding to the rest of Azeroth was a fantastic choice, and I hope that Blizzard gives DRIVE the same treatment, despite it being only a patch feature. I can only imagine a Kalimdor Grand Prix, racing across the deserts of Durotar into the rolling plains of Mulgore. The feature itself has clear potential, in much the same way that skyriding has been a foundational inclusion in WoW, not just for influencing more inspired zone design, but for giving creative room for more distinct world content.
Once players become more used to DRIVE, other traversal options become available again, and some of its clunkiness (such as the keybind for drifting and jumping being the same) is tuned, DRIVE may be one of the best new features to come out of The War Within, following Blizzard's ever-improving Delves. While not every player likes these more manual modes of travel, Blizzard can hopefully move on from the system's initial criticism, and lean into the features and content that make it so exciting for World of Warcraft.
World of Warcraft
Created and published by Blizzard Entertainment, World of Warcraft is a long-running massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) that features the lush and expanding lands of Azeroth. Released in 2004, the game has seen a multitude of DLC updates and still sees tons of players logging in each day.
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