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Gamescom 2010: Guild Wars 2 Preview
By Jake Gaskill - Posted Aug 23, 2010
What We Know:
ArenaNet’s follow up to their popular massively-multiplayer RPG Guild Wars expands upon the strong foundation of story, gameplay and, an deep player customization established by the first game thanks to a host of expansive new features that look to make Guild Wars 2 just as rewarding and engaging for series veterans and newcomers alike.
What We’re Seeing Now:
For Gamescom, ArenaNet focused entirely on showing off the game in action. Our demo started with the game’s new character biography system. The developer demoing the game forewent the character customization stage for the sake of time, but assured us that the customization options will be plentiful. The biography system is particularly interesting as it posits a series of questions that can be answered in one of three ways. How you answer determines your character’s starting off point.
One of the immediate effects of how players answer these bio questions can be seen in the opening cutscene. The developer driving our demo chose to give our human character (one of the five available races) a commoner’s upbringing, and, sure enough, there’s a moment during the opening cinematic where our character references how being raised by common folk has shaped her outlook on the overarching conflict of the game world.
This is obviously one of the more straightforward examples of how a player’s biography will factor into the game, but there will also be far reaching influences that won’t become apparent until much later in the story. It’s at these key points where players will see just how divergent their experiences have been compared to other players.
The second major tent pole ArenaNet has established for Guild Wars 2 is the game’s dynamic events system. “The things that we always get frustrated by,” ArenNet senior vice president Randy Price explains, “and a lot of other MMO players get frustrated by, is your typical quest chain. You see an NPC, you click on them, and up pops a huge wall of text that you don’t read, and, in general, it’s telling you to kill 10 of something. You find the 10 of something out in a field wandering around aimlessly, kill them, head back to the quest giver, boom, there’s a wall of text to get your reward, you don’t read it—we don’t want that.
“Instead of walls of text, you see smoke rising over the other side of a hill. You run to the top of the hill and you look down and there are a bunch of creatures fighting against villagers. Am I going to run down there and get engaged in this? I can, if I want. I don’t have to. I can go off and adventure someplace else. But that’s pretty compelling. So I’m choosing to go down there. I join with the forces there, and other players are joining in because we’re all seeing the fire. We engage the creatures. We battle them off and force them back. This opens up new events and chains, and the dynamic event system all chains together, and you have different events that move back and forth based on outcomes that you as a player influence.”
The third pillar holding up Guild Wars 2’s ambitious intentions is the combat system, which puts more of an emphasis on real-time action than traditional role of the dice schemes. Players can move, attack, dodge, cast spells, all on the fly. I didn’t get a chance to try the game out for myself, but based on what I saw, the combat looks fast and fluid.
Another area where Guild Wars 2 is looking to differentiate itself from the MMO pack is in how it gives players the freedom to jump between professions and mix and match abilities to their liking. Want a warrior who can also heal nearby allies? Just set the appropriate parameters, and you’re done. ArenaNet hopes this kind of versatility will appeal to MMO regulars looking for some variety, as well as first or second time MMO players.
And clearly, the developers on the right track in this regard, because I am not a fan of MMOs, and yet, as I watched the game in action, I couldn’t help thinking to myself, “If I was going to play an MMO, this is definitely what I would want it to be.” The game won’t be out until sometime next year (hopefully), so it’s going to be a while before we’ll know if Guild Wars 2 can be the genre-bending success ArenaNet believes/hopes it will be.
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Comments are Closed
Comments
Displaying 1–8 of 8
dirty_glasses
OMG nerdgasm!
Puppet777
The Manifesto trailer still gets me good!
miva2
I dislike most current mmorpg's.. I like the idea behind it but not the games. I have never played the first GW but it peeked my interest at times. GW2 seems like a game I would want to pay for. I'm interested in to how it will turn out. If the combat is near that of Savage 2 (FREE and awesome, check it out!) I'm sold. I hope each player has an influence in the game and not just 1 to 5 out of a couple thousand players.
I wish them luck and am looking forward to more info.
Khlaid
"From what I've see, I haven't played it myself" This is the note that I latch onto, hard to see how well the combat actually works until we see some actual hands on stuff. I was in the closed beta for vindictus and the combat was great, I think it spoiled most mmos for me at this point. I guess we'll just have to see how it pans out.
Ewoc
"Want a warrior who can also heal nearby enemies?"
Is that a typo? Shouldn't it be teammates or players?
Just letting you know.
Also, i'm with you on this. I'm not much of a mmo player myself, but it is looking pretty good. I just hope they can deliver.
zimmy91
Instead of walls of text, you see smoke rising over the other side of a hill. You run to the top of the hill and you look down and there are a bunch of creatures fighting against villagers."
-----This and,
"Players can move, attack, dodge, cast spells, all on the fly. I didn t get a chance to try the game out for myself, but based on what I saw, the combat looks fast and fluid."
Have me sold.
TheUkearchy
I hope for the best for them. Even if I personally hated the game I might buy it out of charity provided I knew it was good and gave Blizzard a run for their global empire.
Hooray no monthly fees!
Revshawn
I'll believe this game when I see and play it. Otherwise, it's a radical statement to say that we're changing the way that MMO's are played. Put the gameplay where your mouth is and make sure we have a trial to play. Otherwise, you're just doing a lot of barking without anything to back it up.
Displaying 1–8 of 8