Five Reasons Guild Wars 2 Should Be On Your Radar

Yesterday, Mr. Handshoe and I had the opportunity to see some Guild Wars 2 gameplay and speak with the guys from ArenaNet. We were able to see the beginning cinematic and starting area for a Norn Guardian and an upper level area with a Human Thief. Needless to say, we were extremely impressed with the innovations shown in the demo. So here are the five most impressive aspects of the game so far and why you should be paying attention.

1. The Dynamic Event System:

MMORPGs have a pretty set standard when it comes to quest systems: find NPC with marker above head, ignore background text, complete quest, accept award. Guild Wars 2 plans to abandon this bland convention in favor of a much more immersive and natural system. Instead of set quest markers around the map, events will occur at random and you can choose to participate or not. At any time, any person can jump into the quest, contribute their skills, gain experience, and obtain loot. In addition, these random events will trigger other events and also scale in difficulty based on the level and number of involved players.

2. The Combat System:

The modern day MMORPG has become revolved around numbers with the combat more about pressing buttons than truly fighting a battle. Guild Wars 2 tries to remedy this disengaging gameplay with a combat system based on movement and dynamic, fluid attacks. A large emphasis is placed on physically dodging attacks and the positioning of your character. In addition, spells and guns can be used on the move, resulting in very quick paced, immersive battles. Beyond that, Guild Wars 2 implements a “second wind” system similar to Borderlands in which if you lose all of your health, there is an opportunity to be revived by another player or by using specific “downed” moves and killing an enemy.

3. The Individual Player System:

Despite being a subset of “role-playing” games, MMORPGs usually limit character customization to physical attributes such as appearance and name. Guild Wars 2 seeks to broaden the role-playing experience by allowing you to choose certain aspects of your character's personality such as their core values, motivation, and approach when solving problems. Based on these selections, your beginning conditions will vary, and in game NPCs will speak differently to you, offering diverse dialogue options. In addition, each player will have their own “hub world” instance that is affected by in game choices. For example, if you kill a certain NPC in the open world, they will no longer appear in your “hub world.”

4. The Class Design:

Conquering the difficult quests in MMORPGs, always requires a well-balanced party in which different classes play set roles such as tank, healer, or dps. In order to even begin a mission, you must first search for a team composed of those members. Guild Wars 2 will eliminate that wasted game time by giving every class the ability to play each role with their own unique techniques. Every class will have self healing abilities and support skills that can be used on any player, removing the needless waiting and endless search for a competent healer.

5. Immersion:

In addition to all the factors above that contribute to the immersion of the game experience, Guild Wars 2 will be the first MMORPG to include fully voice acted cutscenes and quest text. Every NPC will have a voice and instead of reading blocks of quest text, you will hear the conversation between the characters. Over 60 feature-length films worth of audio dialogue will be in Guild Wars 2, making for an unmatched, realistic environment and truly original experience.