Guild Wars 2

[Dante]

GamesCon Trailer

 

EuroGamers Preview:

Since the game's announcement in 2007, NCsoft's Seattle-based developer ArenaNet has been quiet about what's been going on behind its doors with Guild Wars 2. With today's trailer, we get our first glimpse of the developer's re-imagining of this phenomenally popular online RPG. A lot has changed, but the developer's vision remains true to what made Guild Wars such a refreshing experience in the first place: accessibility, flexibility and incomparable value for money.

 

Guild Wars: Prophecies was a shot in the arm for the MMO market at the time of its release in 2005. It married a flexible, story-heavy, varied and hugely enjoyable campaign with a revolutionary player-versus-player system that has since grown to be one of the most fiercely competitive in the world, and it didn't force its players to pay a monthly sum for the privilege. Instead, two subsequent campaigns and an expansion pack were what drove the series' revenues, and there are no plans to dispense with the "pay once, play forever" business model. Once you've paid for Guild Wars 2, you'll be able to play it for as long as you like.

 

Set 250 years after the last Guild Wars campaign, Guild Wars 2 thrusts you back into a Tyria that's been taken over by big, bad Elder Dragons and their undead armies. The game's five races have been pushed back into their own territories, and the player's role will be to unite them in the struggle to reclaim the continent. Good news about the dragons, too - we definitely get to fight them. "Primarily the game will focus on one in particular," says designer and writer Ree Soesbee, "but the others are present in the world. Their activities will be have an impact on Tyria, and players will have the opportunity to experience the real danger that all of these creatures present."

 

Guild Wars 2's switch from an almost entirely instanced game-world, where you would adventure with only your party members, to a persistent, fully-populated one like those in more conventional MMOs, is the driving force behind most of the changes in the gameplay. The quest system, for instance, has been completely overhauled, and will offer something quite different from its competitors. "I think I can safely say that you won't see a single exclamation mark floating above a character's head in Guild Wars 2," claims lead designer Eric Flannum.

 

"We actually don't have a traditional RPG/MMO quest system," Flannum continues. "Instead what we've got are Events. Think of them as group-orientated activities. This is one of the many things that will encourage the player to explore the world - you can wander through and never quite know what you're going to see. You might come across a fortress that's being attacked by centaurs, or it might be that the centaurs attacked half an hour before you got there and they hold it now. You might start walking along a road you've walked a hundred times and suddenly there's a caravan travelling along that road that you may not have seen, and you can go help that caravan out."

 

These are bold claims for a persistent-world MMO. Guild Wars' heavy use of instancing made setting up dramatic storytelling much easier, but how is that narrative strength going to carry over to the sequel? "While our game is persistent, one of the things we learned from heavily instancing GW1 was how to really use instancing to our advantage," says Flannum. "The story will take place through a combination of instancing and persistent areas. We're really throwing our entire bag of tricks at the storytelling in GW2. I think we're going to be doing some things, especially with narrative, that people haven't seen before in an MMO."

 

The Charr, a playable race this time.

 

There's also an attempt to introduce more variety into how the players can interact with this new, living world - and not just the welcome addition of a jump. To say that Guild Wars was combat-focussed would be something of an understatement; the absence of crafting and non-combat professions meant that there wasn't a whole lot else for players to take up on a whim if they felt like it.

 

"We're definitely introducing crafting, as well as a few other things that are going to provide players with other things to do," assures Flannum, although he can't say what those other things are. "I don't want to say it'd take the focus off combat, but it's definitely not going to be the case that the only way to interact with someone in Guild Wars 2 is to hit them on the head with a sword."

 

Guild Wars 2 will also still be fully soloable. As with the Heroes in Guild Wars Nightfall, players will be able to use their own customisable companion as a henchman to help them through the game, and will receive buffs if they decline to use this option. "We can't fully explain the companions system yet, but we can say that the game will be soloable," says studio head Mike O'Brien. "This goes back to that accessibility issue - we want players to be able to pick up the game and play it in the style that they want to play it. If they want to solo, we want to enable that... if they want to play with a group of specific people, we want to enable that as well."

 

Guild Wars 2 is attempting to show us a lot that we haven't see before, but as the trailer demonstrates, Tyria looks rather familiar - we've seen a lot of the trailer's environments in Guild Wars 1. "Whilst we're indeed trying to improve the visual quality of the game, we do plan on maintaining the sensibility that made the first game what it was," says art director Daniel Dociu.

 

"What differentiates Guild Wars 2 is the more stylised approach to a lot of the aspects of the texture work, grander spaces, more epic environments - all these enhancements go hand-in-hand with advancements on the engine front, so we are trying to parallel the advancements on the tech front with steps forward artistically... But there will be continuity, definitely," Dociu says.

 

There are significant new areas, of course: most excitingly, the prospect of exploring an underwater continent. Flannum claims that there will be "a lot" of underwater exploration, and it will be possible for all races and players. "It's going to be really easy and accessible for players to go underwater. In a lot of other games you see the underwater environment as this really hostile environment where you have to worry about running out of air constantly and you're always on the verge of dying, and that tends to make the area less fun. We really want to emphasise the fun, the differences, the change of pace of going underwater, to encourage that exploration."

 

Players are still going to be able to have multiple characters on one account, and though the professions system is still shrouded in secrecy, ArenaNet has been willing to share a few details about what differentiates character types. Instead of the original's one, obscenely beautiful race of humans, customisable through the player's choice of professions and skills, Guild Wars 2 offers five races.

 

We know four of them from the Eye of the North expansion: Humans, their eternal enemies the Charr (whom Guild Wars 1 players will have spent an awful lot of time clubbing over the head), northern warriors the Norn, and the magical Asura. The last race, the Sylvari, an earth-magic race with a strong connection to nature, is new to all of us. ArenaNet can't tell us exactly what each race's special skills will entail at this stage, but we already know that the nine-foot Norn can transform into a bear for a huge boost in combat, and that the crafty, technologically-minded Asura will be able to use golems to fight for them.

 

"There's going to be a slightly different story for each race," says Soesbee. "To start off, everyone knows that there is this great threat, but at the beginning the races are operating on their own, they don't understand that the threat is so great that they simply must come together... It's going to take the player character being a hero to get these races to overcome their pasts: the humans who hate the Charr, the Asura who are naturally sceptical about every other race, who think they're better, the Sylvari who are young and new and don't understand the nature of the world, and the Norn who are just naturally independent. Someone has to bring them together, and that someone is the player character."

 

Despite their differences, we won't be fighting players of other races. "Competition has always been consensual in Guild Wars, and we've retained that as one of our core tenets. It also goes along with accessibility and being able to play with your friends," says Flannum. "We looked into dividing the races early on, and we decided against that, specifically because we want you to be able to play the race that you want and also be able to play with your friends. We didn't want to fracture our player base by having a good-versus-evil vibe going on between the players themselves."

 

However, player-versus-player has always been hugely important to Guild Wars - guilds regularly compete for thousands in cash prizes - and ArenaNet is obviously keen to keep the attention of its hardcore players, offering the same jump-right-in PvP system where everyone has access to the same skills and equipment, and success is determined by strategy. "We wanted to give our competitive players, who were a really important part of our GW1 audience, what they want," says Flannum. "Those people don't want to lose to someone who's just played more time than them. They want access to all the same skills as the other person, and they want it to be their skill in making and executing a character build to be what wins them the day."

 

In addition, there's also a new World PvP system, which lets you use your PvE character and equipment to play against other people on a more open battlefield, the Mists. "It's very casual PvP where you can gain levels and have ten-on-one fights or 100-on-20 fights or whatever, where everything flows naturally on the battlefield and there's no limits to how many players can be involved," elaborates Flannum, though the team can't go into specifics about exactly how players will gain access to the Mists.

 

 

A massive zone; look closely and you'll spot a character standing by the water.

 

Splitting the PvP into two modes, Flannum believes, is the best way to accommodate the broadest possible range of players. "We gained a lot of experience with a lot of different types of PvP from GW1, and we grew to recognise that there were really hardcore PvP players, but there were also people who wanted that more casual, in-world type of PvP. And so we decided to give both groups what they want."

 

It's clear that lessons have been learned from the first game, and that goes for the professions and skills too, although ArenaNet can't tell us specifics about how they will work. "I think that we allowed GW1 to get too complex, and with GW2 we have a new opportunity to make it a game that's easy to get into but which has the depth of mechanics that keeps people interested over a long time," says O'Brien.

 

 

"To give a simple example, we eventually had 1200 skills in the game. And I think that through adding three campaigns and an expansion and having ten professions and the number of skills that it did, Guild Wars grew unwieldy. We've come to realise, through developing Guild Wars, that what makes it such a fantastic game is not quantity - it's quality. This time around I think that we can really focus on the parts of the game we want to focus on, make a clean break, make sure that it stays true to the original intentions of Guild Wars, and make it the game that we always wanted it to be."

 

As for whether it's the game that Guild Wars players will want it to be, O'Brien is confident. "Guild Wars was a very unique game. It takes a different approach to role-playing. Looking at our competitors, it has its genesis in the Magic the Gathering tradition rather than a straight Dungeons and Dragons tradition, and I think players really appreciate that breadth. Because it was so different, I think we got a lot right, but we also got stuff wrong. Guild Wars 2 is the ultimate game for Guild Wars players."

 

Guild Wars 2 won't be going into beta testing until much nearer its release; ArenaNet is keen to conduct most of the testing within its own, fast-growing team. The trailer, though, and the team's enthusiasm, have redirected our attention to this potentially landmark sequel after two years of silence. If it retains the accessible values of its predecessor across a bigger, persistent, more interactive world - without forcing us to pay a monthly fee for the privilege - it could really shake things up for MMOs.

Edited August 21, 2009 by Dante

[Deathjam]

Wow, just...wow. I am bit conflicted now. I have my heart set on Aion, but what happens when this game comes out...

[Choze]

Looks insane.

 

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/gc-09-guild-wars-2/54628

[Dante]

Screens:

[fex]

I love the art direction and style of those screen shots. I played through the first and whilst I enjoyed it. There were alot of flaws and down sides to the game. I hope they make some great improvements over the first.

[Deathjam]

I love the art direction and style of those screen shots. I played through the first and whilst I enjoyed it. There were alot of flaws and down sides to the game. I hope they make some great improvements over the first.

 

What class did you play as...or rather, what class did you NOT play as I got through all of them from the first release. Fave was probably...the necro as sometimes you could feel really powerful as enemies die giving you more ammo. Oh and did you ever hear of the bullet proof monks? Boy were they tough. Or did you ever see the tactics of mages all armed with chain lightning which they would synchronise and use at the same time? Decimated teams.

[nightwolf]

I'm interested to see this, I never really got into this so its why I switched to wow, so if this improves on the first I'd be happy!

[Choze]

No fees i a big advantage for this game. Scenery wise this looks the best as well. Would love to explore!

[Deathjam]

Just wow. Walkthrough of low level human elementalist and mid level char warrior i think? Anyways very impressive:

 

 

 

[Choze]

Yep. FFXIV looks very dull in comparison and this is free to play.

[Sméagol]

For some reason the first never appealed to me, I never bothered to check that one out. But out of curiosity I checked some of the news on this sequel.. And it's looking quite good actually.. I think I'll put this on my PC-games wishlist.

I may even finally check out the first.

 

For some reason the first never appealed to me, I never bothered to check that one out. But out of curiosity I checked some of the news on this sequel.. And it's looking quite good actually.. I think I'll put this on my PC-games wishlist.

I may even finally check out the first.

[nightwolf]

This seems to have fallen down into the icy depths of forgotten threads.

 

Just seen some play through footage from the Yogscast of all guys who've been on the beta for this weekend, it looks so good, very swish. I'm looking forward to this a bit more:

 

 

[Cube]

It's also been announced for consoles.

[Sheikah]

Got interested in this despite not having played GW1, had an Amazon £25 voucher and it seemed to be a tenner cheaper to prepurchase on there (£40) so went ahead. Downside is they don't e-mail the codes and expected delivery is between Friday to Sunday! I'd like to try out the beta event this weekend so it'll be a shame if it doesn't come in time...

[Sheikah]

[Deathjam]

Tera pulled my interest away from this slightly so...for me it's probably gonna be later.

[Cube]

Well, with every single media outlet and stuff repeatedly saying "free to play", I was certainly going to give it a try. However, it seems that you actually do have to pay to play it (there's just no monthly subscriptions), so as I'm not a big fan of MMOs I'm not going to bother at all.

[Sheikah]

Well yeah, they have to make money somehow. It's pretty unique in that it's one of the few proper MMORPGs without subscription fees.

 

Anyone who still hasn't decided and might want to join in on the epicness at 8PM tonight, there's a few sites offering instant email of the code (including the GW2 site).

[Sheikah]

This game is fantastic, from having played the beta a lot this weekend. It doesn't have the format of a tired old repetitive MMORPG. I've had loads of fun and I think knowing there's no subscription means you can actually just enjoy it and not feel pressured to play due to having a subscription.

 

It's just so easy to play. You can also just be wandering around and an active event triggers, such as some kind of behemoth raging havoc and you're given the option to take him down. Gone are the days of waiting around pointlessly for certain job classes to team up with you since every class heals, and there's no real tanks either.

 

Would be really good to party up with you guys. Again, I can't praise this enough, and this is from someone who is fairly disenchanted with the MMORPG genre as a whole.

Edited April 29, 2012 by Sheikah

[Sheikah]

Faack man, this topic is offensive to my being.

 

Will someone else please gain interest in this, it is rather brilliant. We could start together...

 

 

...friend?

[MadDog]

I'd be all over this, but no way will it run on my laptop.

[Sheikah]

Just nerf the settings to minimum, you'll be fine. C'mon, let's roll.

[MadDog]

Just nerf the settings to minimum, you'll be fine. C'mon, let's roll.

 

Is the beta still live?

[Sheikah]

The beta events take place when they announce and for one weekend per event. To get on you pretty much need to prepurchase.

 

They've had one beta weekend so far which was 3 weeks ago, and an intelligent guess is that another will be next weekend (because last time they did a beta weekend 2 weeks after a stress test, and they just did a stress test a week ago).

 

I'd imagine it'll be released after one more beta weekend. Can't wait.

[MadDog]

The beta events take place when they announce and for one weekend per event. To get on you pretty much need to prepurchase.

 

They've had one beta weekend so far which was 3 weeks ago, and an intelligent guess is that another will be next weekend (because last time they did a beta weekend 2 weeks after a stress test, and they just did a stress test a week ago).

 

I'd imagine it'll be released after one more beta weekend. Can't wait.

 

Hmm, are sign ups closed now? It should run fine, but I'd prefer to check it out myself before considering buying it.