I watch the merchant smile as I groan and take my silver coins from the latest sales. A measly profit, but it would have to do. Suddenly a behemoth of metal, fur and teeth emerges before my eyes, a chicken between its jaws. It roars out a challenge and I shake my head, attempting to keep a stern face. “Put the chicken down hon. Seriously.”

“Awww..” He whines as he drops the chicken from his jaws, his armor glinting in the light as we head back towards the town square together. “So, where is everybody else?” I tap my foot, don’t these guys know that there’s adventure to be had outside of these town walls?

“Well, they are-” Suddenly there is a huge explosion, We fall to the floor and glance around. “What the heck was that!”

With an angry bellow, a huge creature storms through the town gates, the cannon defenses at the doors already destroyed in its wake. A giant! It snarls and stomps the floor as it begins to swat Iron, Blood and Ash Legion soldiers left and right as if they were merely flies. It would seem adventure had found us!

“Come on guys! We got this!” I confidently shout as I bring forth my magical ace in the hole, a shield of rock forming in my fingers as the creature raises its foot and stomps down. The force of the impact cracks my shield and I grit my teeth in shock as the pain runs through my arm. My shield has broken. I glance to the right and see that my Charr friend is already curled up in agony, his armor useless against the force of the attack, he is simply kicked aside like a child’s toy.

“Okay…okay, maybe we don’t got this…” I murmer as the creature strides towards me. My daggers are in my hands and I find myself fighting for my life as I dash, roll and jump at the giants legs, slashing with electrical charges all the while.

Crunch. Snap.

With a sickening blow, I hit the town wall. My vision clouds as I slide down the rock and onto the ground, my hands pressed against my the pain in my chest. Suddenly, a huge hand is offered to me and I see the grinning face of a huge muscled man, a great sword hung over one shoulder.

“Ahahah! What a fall little one, by the Bear! Come, lets be having you. Hurry now! There is a fight to be had and I don’t intend to miss it!” He glances to the fight then back at me. “…And if I do, you buy me an ale. Two if we win!” Stunned, I simply nod my head as we turn and rush back towards the combat.

A Typical Tyrian Day

What is Guild Wars 2?
Guild Wars 2 is the latest title from Arena Net, the sequel to the original title Guild Wars. The game takes place 250 years after the original, and the world of Tyria has changed. Guild Wars was an experimental title in a time where companies were focused mostly on subscription based models for MMOs, and they dared to be different. They chose to have a higher retail box price, and then support the game itself with expansion packs and a simple micro-transaction cosmetic shop.

Could a MMORPG survive without subscription fees? Its competitors believed that it was not going to become a reality. Arena Net’s dream looked to be about as reachable as the gold at the end of a rainbow. Fast forward to 2012, the release of Guild Wars 2. With well over 400,000 players confirmed to have been online simultaneously in the head start before launch day alone, Arena Net has certainly thrown down the gauntlet to its opposition. Guild Wars was incredibly successful, it had several expansion packs and was a very popular example of its business model, one that Arena Net has kept for the sequel and which seems well on the way to proving that subscription models are a thing of the past.

Now let me start by saying this: Arena Net have done very little new with Guild Wars 2. You will not find any game breaking, genre breaking amazingly new concepts, nor will you find some sort of mythical WoW killing gem. Wait, stay with me, before you start getting annoyed! What you will find is a gemstone full of content that has been polished so much it gleams with a brilliant shine that will last for a very, very long time, and when the shine wears off, you will still be able to find a solid stone beneath. It would be impossible to mention everything that Guild Wars 2 has to offer in just one post, as the game boasts an impressive amount of content, so for this article I will be focusing on the PvE parts of the game.

Arena Net has taken many features we’ve seen in other games and not only polished and refined them to perfection, but most importantly, made them work fluently. These features include a cross-server auction house, server to server mail and chat, unique names and worldwide guilds. It also has dynamic events, quest chains and exploration. These have all been done before, but never have they been put together so brilliantly.

Don’t get me wrong, there have been some problems with the launch – account hacking, broken guild tabs and the in-game mail system and auction house being inaccessible for days were among some of the larger problems, yet take a moment to think about it. If the biggest complaint for a hugely anticipated MMO launch is that ‘the mail isn’t working’ or ‘the auction house is down’ something must be going right somewhere.

I have played through many launch MMOs in my time, and I was anticipating server queues, huge downtime and patch issues. I saw nothing of the sort, and was astonished. At the time of writing this post, the longest server downtime has been an hour.

Role diversity

Guild Wars 2, like any other MMORPGs, has classes (or ‘professions’). However, the similarity to other games ends there. Each class has access to a range of abilities from weapon-based skills to class specifics such as, say, an elementalist using fire and ice, where an engineer might use bombs and grenades. Each profession looks and feels like a unique, fluent character, they have their own animations, visuals and aesthetics to give them all a very different feel. You may find yourself loving the warrior in a traditional hack and slash mode, but should you wish to, you can play a warrior who uses a rifle and acts as a sniper using ranged damage.

It is this ability to choose and adapt a play-style that you find enjoyable that sets the game apart for me. In most MMORPGs you pick one class and stick with it, but in Guild Wars 2 I constantly find myself wanting to play them all, for the experience is drastically different from class to class. There are elements that reflect the traditional trinity; a Warrior or Guardian can take more hits than a Elementalist or Thief, who are rather squishy, but the opportunity to mix up the style is always present and encouraged. I myself play as an Elementalist who uses double daggers and attacks in melee.

There are 8 professions, or classes, in Guild Wars 2. They range from a sword wielding Warrior, to the illusion spinning Mesmer. Each of these professions comes with its own set of abilities, as well as a healing ability which can be used to either heal yourself or, in some cases, to heal others. To unlock these skills you must use skill points, which are awarded to you for leveling up and completing special quests in-games. Skill challenges will grant you a skill point for completing them, they are often combat based but in some cases can be puzzles or platforming.

Sword, Mace or Bow?

Each class can use different weapons. When a Guardian picks up a sword it will have a different set of weapon skills to a Warrior or a Thief. Weapon skills are unlocked simply through combat in game, and tend to be incredibly quick to unlock, except for the elementalist who has to unlock them four times per weapon. Some classes can then swap between weapon classes and carry two types of weapon at a time, allowing for multiple roles in combat while fighting. Others, like the Elementalist, are given the ability to swap through the elements of water, fire, wind and earth instead, each element having its own skill-set for the weapon of choice.

There is a wide range of weapons available, from simple daggers and swords to huge greatswords, longbows, rifles and torches.  There are some restrictions; certain classes cannot use certain weapon types, one example being that the Engineer cannot use swords.

This does not mean that you will never fight with one though. In the world itself, players can interact with the environment to gain new weapons with their own set of abilities. Most recently, my elementalist was able to pick a rock off the floor and throw it with fire to turn it into a meteor, while my warrior friend simply threw the rock at the enemy instead. Same rock, different effect for a different class. These world weapons can be picked up and used by any class; I have had great fun as an Elementalist using a rifle I found in game and was able to snipe with.

Interesting Combat

The combat of Guild Wars 2 is nothing revolutionary, but it is incredibly fluent and fun. It plays a lot more like an action RPG than a simple MMORPG. Players have an energy bar which they can use to perform dodges, rolling or jumping away from danger to avoid an attack. This mechanic can then be combined with class ability to further avoid attacks. This mechanic becomes essential as players will very quickly find themselves dodging as they fight bosses, and it is very likely you will be downed.

Downed is a new style of combat. When you are first knocked down you enter a ‘downed’ state, in which each class is given abilities to use on the enemy as they try to get back up. If you succeed in killing the enemy, you get onto your feet and continue the fight, if not you are killed and must respawn or wait for a friendly player to help you up. Other players can also pick downed players up, adding another element of co-operation to the game.

Combat itself is challenging. Ranging from avoiding enemy attacks to surviving traps and environmental hazards, the combat never feels boring when you get into a real fight. Bosses can range from smaller enemies and champions through to huge towering giants, oh and don’t forget dragons. This is not an easy game, so be prepared to die a lot as you learn your class. Guild Wars 2‘s dungeons are very unforgiving to uncoordinated groups, and are very much geared towards  the player who enjoys a challenge.

Immersive World

The world of Tyria is back with a vengeance. Players of Guild Wars will be able to visit several locations they may recognize and have a sense of nostalgia for, though plenty has changed in 250 years. The geography of the land itself is different, with the movement of the dragons changing the landscape as they make themselves known.

It looks incredibly beautiful on DX9, which is a fact that may astonish most people. The game has been built from the ground up to work well with older computers, especially for those who played the original Guild Wars.  The graphics not only help the experience but improve it, as the world feels incredibly alive. Wildlife fights with other wildlife, hunts and lives in the wild as the players walk past. Common NPC bandits do not simply stand and wait to be killed, they roam the land and ambush players, set up traps, raid towns and murder other NPCs.

Tyria feels alive. I cannot emphasize this enough, it is a living, breathing AI world. The human city of Divinity’s Reach is bustling with citizens going about their daily lives, from shopping merchants and wives washing clothing right the way through to children playing in the street the game is incredibly immersive. More than once I have found myself stopping to listen to the dialogue of the world which is often interesting and informative. Sometimes, this has led to adventure as I have heard in the world NPC’s talking about buried treasure and gone off to find it, or heard rumors of a huge beast stalking the lands and headed out to hunt it down.

It is not just in the cities that life moves on in Tyria. From bandit raids on towns to all out wars on the front lines with the dragons, you can see NPCs going about life, adventuring, roaming and chatting. See that trader with his cart moving from one place to another? Maybe if you escort him he will arrive safely and you can buy his wares…but what If you leave him? Perhaps bandits will strike and you will later have to help him get his goods back, or some beast will slay him and whatever rare item he sold will no longer be found.

In the seas, lakes and ponds of Tyria you will find fish and creature. Some of these, like the Quaggan will be friendly and open to talking and perhaps providing quests, while others will be aggressive and hostile. The water part of Tyria is its own little game within a game, boasting explorable shipwrecks, caves and complexes, all underwater. Water exploration has been done before, you tell me. Yes, it has, but it has been built into the game not as a add-on or afterthought, unlike in most MMORPGs.

Water combat has its own weaponry set with its own skills, player skills can change what they do underwater and there is even a drowning system in place. Worrying about air? The Asura have you covered. In Guild Wars 2 you can breath underwater using simple breathing masks, which players are given by default, allowing full exploration of the wet depths. This eliminates the often tedious part of water exploration where most MMORPG’s involve some sort of air or breathing system that is time based or requires replenishment while underwater.

The possibilities go on and on. Dynamic events have been done before, but never on this sort of scale and interlocking with each other. Arena Net have created several win-and-loss scenarios, so there could be chaining event lines players will never see because they never lose a certain fight or fail to stop a boss. Everything has a consequence, a cause and effect, and Arena Net is very eager to get this across to its players.

Cave Diving

Exploration is a huge thing in such a large world as Tyria. There are many unmarked locations in each zone, ranging from simple caves to huge underground caverns, underwater landscapes and stormy mountain homes. To help players out, there are marked points of interest and locations that players can visit on the map, but these are simply the tip of the iceberg. In my starting area alone I discovered two hidden platforming puzzles, four mini-bosses in hidden caves and at least two treasure chests.

The main reward for this is the experience of finding something. Exploration in itself is its own reward in Tyria, but there are also achievements and treasure chests to be had for those looking for something more substantial. Every zone has something to offer the players, be it simple quests or hidden rewards. This is the meat of the game for me, and I have found that exploring with friends has brought some great adventures to light that would have been missed in a standard MMORPG experience.

Gripping Storyline

I will be the first to admit I was not initially impressed here. The storyline does branch, and your choices to send you down different paths, but they are very easy to spot and not as immersive as they could be. Most boil down to a simple ‘Plan A or Plan B’ option, which was disappointing. They also don’t seem to integrate much of the game’s dynamic chat system, which, depending on your characters personality (fierce, noble or charming), can change your dialogue to the worlds NPCs. I feel that was a disappointing choice, as I would have loved to see a ferocious aligned character punch an annoying NPC in the face or have had a charming character flirt in conversations.

The storyline tends to have three branches; your starting life, your companion and finally, your chosen order. For the Asura, this is reflected in your choice of College, your chosen mentor and which Order champion you choose to fight with later on.  The Asura storyline was often incredibly funny, but at times felt bland and uninteresting. However as soon as I reached the choice of orders, things escalated quickly. I went with the Durmand Priory, an order dedicated to gaining knowledge and using that knowledge to find a way to stop the dragons.

Here is the overlying storyline. The dragons have arisen and are wreaking havoc with Tyria, destroying and consuming in their wake. Throughout the game, players will attempt to stop the various dragon champions, lords and minions as they arise, though this part of the story tends to begin around the 30+ area, just before the first dungeon.

The initial storyline focuses more internally on your race and personal character, before branching off to involve Destiny’s Edge and the main enemies of the game, the dragons. The dungeons themselves come in both storyline and exploration versions, with story focusing on Destiny’s Edge and various events throughout the world, while the Exploration mode are just that. You go back into the dungeons and pick a path to explore, ranging from incredibly hard to just plain difficult. These can be as simple as choosing what is the biggest threat, or as complex as seeking which path may have the most treasure.

I am very eager to start new characters and see the world of Tyria through the eyes of a Norn, Sylvari and Charr race, all of which boast their own storyline branches to go through which give plenty of content to the game. If personal story is not your interest, there are also world story events and heart quests which will guide you through the lands of Tyria as you explore.

Adventure, Ho!

What Arena Net have done here is create an incredible example of how a top quality MMORPG should be created. It should have masses of content at  launch and it should not need to charge a subscription fee on top of a box fee. Arena Net have proven that with Guild Wars; the old model is outdated, and they aim to destroy it with Guild Wars 2. Does it work? Yes. It works far too well, I find myself horribly addicted.

Adventuring in Guild Wars 2 feels real. I get lost in the experience, and as a role player and lover of immersion that is exactly how I want to play an MMORPG.

Guild Wars 2 is full of content to explore and enjoy. It comes with an incredibly immersive world, boasting beautiful graphics and interactive gameplay with plenty to explore, dungeons to fight through and challenging content to clear. If that doesn’t strike your fancy it also has two modes for PvP, which I have not covered in this article. Is it worth the price tag? Yes. Take a chance, dive into a world of adventure. You won’t regret it.