Guild Wars - The Sequel

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Roughly a month ago a company called ArenaNet came forth with a surprise announcement: 'Guild Wars will be getting an expansion pack later this year - and we're giving you Guild Wars 2 in a couple of years'. A wealth of information on both games has been revealed since then. I've already covered the upcoming expansion pack in an earlier preview, but now it's time for the real deal - the big one - Guild Wars 2.

Many Guild Wars fans already know some about this game - as most fan forums offer small overviews of information. This preview will be a fair bit more in-depth however, offering a compilation of known and confirmed information from magazines, interviews and forum posts. It might be a few years until this game is released - but I'm certain any MMORPG & RPG fan will be interested in the new developments ArenaNet has planned for this fifth entry into the Guild Wars franchise. It sounds very impressive - and you'd be missing out by not reading this entry... so scroll on down - and enjoy!



Technical Improvements

The engine powering Guild Wars 2 will be vastly different from the one we're used to in Guild Wars. Not only will everything look much prettier and support DirectX 10, but it also offers full freedom of movement! This will likely result in a world where you no longer get stuck turning around (just about) every corner. Better yet: players will finally be able to jump and swim in Guild Wars 2!

A more important change with regards to Guild Wars will be the inclusion of persistent world elements. This means that the world will no longer be entirely instanced, although instancing will most certainly still be present (particularly for missions). As such you'll no longer be wandering about an explorable area with a party of four, wondering why there's no one else around... this time you'll be amongst hundreds of other players!
An unfortunate by-product of this design is that players will be divided across servers. In contrast to traditional MMORPGs however, players will be able to change to other servers freely - if they so desire. So if you joined the wrong server in the beginning and want to take your character to the server your friends are on: no problem, perfectly possible. Also the server distinction is a perfect means of offering language-specific gaming... so (for example) German players can talk in their own language, without ruining the experience for other people - although nothing like this has been officially announced it would be a logical (and common) solution.



The Setting

Guild Wars 2 takes place several hundreds of years after the events of the Guild Wars: Eye of the North expansion pack on the continent of Tyria. It seems as though the events of EotN have forced humanity in a tight spot as it find itself besieged from all sides by new up-and coming races. A perfect premise to introduce some further playable races - which is exactly what ArenaNet has done. And while these races might be competing with one another - a further, fifth, race proves to be a threat to the entire world and all races on it. Each of these new races will be introduced in the upcoming EotN expansion pack and will of course have their own strengths and weaknesses. The differences between races will likely be a lot more noticeable than in games such as World of Warcraft, in that the racial abilities and proficiencies aught to be rather distinct. On the other hand - players of different races playing the same class will be equally powerful... the difference lies purely in visual appearance and racial abilities.

ArenaNet has currently announced four new playable races for Guild Wars 2, but it's also been revealed that these are not all the playable races that will be present in this sequel. So far they've been rather tight-lipped on both the setting and races, so all I can really provide is an overview of the various playable races we currently know about:

• Asura - A small and ingenious people which excels in craftsmanship and magic. They appear as tiny creatures with gray skin and big heads.
  
• Charr - This race aught to be familiar from the Guild Wars: Prophecies campaign. They're large feral creatures with a love for fire.
  
• Humans - I know nothing of this race, sorry.
  
• Norn - Imagine if you will a half-giant viking, used to living in the deadly cold lands of the Far Shiverpeaks (introduced in Eye of the North) and revering dead animal spirits and strength above all else. Then imagine it can shape shift into a giant bear. That's a Norn.
  
• Sylvari - ArenaNet has revealed their name and a picture, but that's it. The picture is of a green-haired fairy-like girl, but nothing can really be ascertained from that - hopefully we'll get some more information soon!
  

Social Improvements

Remember those AI Henchmen in Guild Wars? They're gone. Oh - and those Heroes from the Nightfall campaign? Yep, they're gone too. It seems like ArenaNet is striving to make Guild Wars 2 a much more social experience than the original. Still - what are you to do if you just want to solo for a bit, if you can't take along Henchmen or Heroes!? Take your companion along of course!
Guild Wars 2 introduces these companions, which appear to be optional pets of sorts. You can take it along with you on any mission or quest and it won't even take up a character slot in your party! Companions are best compared to the Heroes introduced in the Nightfall campaign in that they can be commanded into battle and are fully customizable. But if you don't want a companion, you'll be treated to a statistics buff which allows you to remain competitive.

The trade system you know and hate from Guild Wars will be drastically altered. it is not yet known whether Guild Wars 2 will feature auction houses, but it'll certainly be an improvement in comparison to the original game. ArenaNet wants players to be able to sell their items significantly easier than the cumbersome trade channel present in Guild Wars.



Advancement and Combat

Guild Wars 2 will significantly raise the level cap in comparison to the original game. ArenaNet is currently considering a level cap of over 100 or perhaps even no cap at all. The leveling curve will be thoroughly different from Guild Wars however, as the difference between a level 80 and level 100 player will be significantly smaller than the difference between a level 20 and level 40 player. Nothing is set in stone yet - and it is as of yet unknown how this new leveling system will affect PvP.
Further innovations in character advancement stem from a more traditional equipment system. The amount of weapon and armor upgrades (as well as other usable items) has increased dramatically in comparison to the original game - and players can now decide for themselves what kind of armor they want to wear. As such it is perfectly possible to have a mage carrying heavy armor, or a light armored warrior. Additionally - Guild Wars 2 will feature an extensive crafting system involving a revised version of the salvaging system introduced with Guild Wars: Nightfall.

Fortunately - players who have invested hundreds, if not thousands, of hours into their Guild Wars characters should not be afraid of it all being for naught. The upcoming Eye of the North expansion pack for Guild Wars will introduce a personal instance called the Hall of Monuments. This will track your character's progress in the game and set it's accomplishments into stone to be remembered permanently. As such - when you create a Guild Wars 2 character you can opt to bind it to one of your old Guild Wars characters - and receive various unique rewards (such as equipment and companions) depending on it's recorded achievements.

In terms of combat a lot has changed as well. Firstly the skills will be a lot more visual - it should be more apparent when an attack or skill hits an enemy, which should make combat an easier experience for newcomers. Of course the free movement also plays a part in combat, allowing you to dodge about much easier than before. Another alteration to the way in which combat will play out is the removal of a mouse-control scheme, which forces players to utilize their keyboard for movement.



Classes and Skills

The new Guild Wars game will not feature all the classes from the original. Instead ArenaNet is opting for a smaller selection of classes that encompasses all the uses of the current ten classes. None of these classes have been revealed as of yet however - and it is not yet known whether some classes will be race specific either (although that seems unlikely).

Many a new player gets confused by Guild Wars' unbelievably huge list of skills. There are nearly a thousand different skills currently present in Guild Wars - and ArenaNet doesn't intend for Guild Wars 2 to be similarly needlessly complex. As such the number of skills will be trimmed down considerably - instead offering far more variation between skills, rather than a dozen different skills that do pretty much the same thing, with slightly different values.



Player vs Environment

In terms of PvE Guild Wars 2 will offer quite a few innovations. While there will still be an overarching storyline and instanced missions - these will no longer define the world and as such artificial barriers are no longer present. Additionally the missions are likely to be targeted towards lower party sizes than they were in Guild Wars and should no longer be the defining feature of PvE play.
Instead Guild Wars 2 introduces persistent explorable areas, where players can hunt monsters and complete quests amongst many hundreds of other players - and invite them to join a party if they want. These persistent environments will even feature events (which can sometimes be triggered by player actions in missions and the like) that can change the world permanently and have players in a particular zone band together for a period of time.
An example given was that of a dragon coming out of hiding to attack a village - which would alert all players in the area to come and help. If you do help and manage to defeat it, you'll receive plentiful experience and loot (everyone who helped will!), but if you don't defeat it then a nearby bridge will be destroyed by the dragon as it retreats to it's lair. In response to this a group of builders is called in to repair the bridge, but bandits attack them in order to steal the construction supplies. Now players can opt to help out the villagers. In this manner a bit of dynamic gameplay is introduced to the world - which aught to make PvE play a lot more interesting.



Player vs Player

In Guild Wars 2 there will be two types of PvP combat: World PvP and Structured PvP. Both of these will be different to the PvP gameplay currently present in Guild Wars, although structured PvP aught to resemble it to some extent. This structured PvP can be accessed by your regular PvE character (note that you won't have to choose between PvE and PvP characters anymore), who will then temporarily be transformed into a maxed out PvP character with all skills unlocked in order to be able to compete on level playing grounds.

World PvP is the real PvP innovation that Guild Wars 2 offers - in that it's true large scale combat between the inhabitants of two servers (the match up will be changed every few weeks). All this takes place in a region of the world called The Mists and will offer PvP gameplay to regular PvE characters. In these gigantic battles even the lowliest of newbies can make a difference - with a multitude of objectives to complete at all times (think WoW's Battlegrounds). Best of all - a low level player can be temporarily buffed up to the level of a friend by means of the new side-kick system.
This new kind of PvP is specifically geared towards PvE players and people not interested in the exceedingly competitive PvP that Guild Wars had to offer. It's designed to be simple and fun - without the insane elitism plaguing the original game. It's also fully geared towards enormous player battles, which clearly shows in it's lack of a maximum player cap for parties! And you can even spend all of your gaming time in World PvP should you so choose, because your character does advance from World PvP play!

Much like the current world vs world PvP in Heroes Ascent - Guild Wars 2's World PvP will offer bonuses to the winning side's entire server. These bonuses can range from increased energy regeneration to better drop rates - and should be well worth fighting for. It does differ quite a bit from WoW's battleground - in that the experience is much more like an ongoing war than a separate battlefield-style gaming session. The conflict between servers will endure for weeks - and players can opt to scout enemy troop movements, defend resource convoys, take control over resource points, etc... Note that it is not known as of yet how long the actual World PvP games take - they could be somewhat BattleGround-esque in only taking a couple of hours before a reset of sorts. They might also be day-long affairs that truly resemble an on-going war... it's simply not been revealed as of yet (and to be honest: I wouldn't be surprised if it hasn't even been decided on yet).



Further Details

Guild Wars 2 will be entirely free to play upon purchase, just like the original game. ArenaNet currently plans to fund their game by releasing regular expansion packs, rather than chapters, although this plan is certainly not set in stone. As of yet there is no word on whether Cantha and Elona are included, although that's looking doubtful. is currently scheduled for a beta test in 2008 - and a release date has yet to be revealed, although it's likely to be in the 2009-2010 range.

All in all Guild Wars 2 looks set to improve according to every fans wishes. People who were looking for a more persistent, dynamic and social gaming experience will get what they want. People who wanted a better trading system a proper crafting system and more unique characters will get what they want. And people who were hoping for a truly accessible PvP experience like Guild Wars offered during beta testing - will also get what they want. Better yet it offers some new features that aught to appeal to plenty of other MMORPG gamers - and ArenaNet does this, all for free (not counting the initial purchase)! And the established players even get some overlap between the original and the sequel, which is something no other MMORPG sequel has ever offered.

ArenaNet is back on track - now all we can do is wait for release!
Hopefully I'll see you around - in a DirectX 10 powered Tyria, soon!


(note: all the in-game screenshots used in this preview are from Guild Wars: Factions due to a lack of Guild Wars 2 screenshots)



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