The Tyrian Chronicle: Blood and Madness in Halloween .

It’s time once again for the Mad King and his actually insane son to return to Guild Wars 2 once more. I’m talking about the long standing tradition of Halloween. This year’s Halloween event is Blood and Madness, the same event we had last year just with some new goodies to be won. To be fair to Arenanet, they’ve been hard at work on Season 2 which has been fantastic and for the most part the Halloween is something that gets repeated every year anyway.

The primary focus of the Halloween event in Guild Wars 2 has always been the Mad King’s Labyrinth. It’s a fantastic mini game maze filled with skeletons, candy corn monsters, and much more. Every year it seems to be getting more and more difficult which pushes the need to stick with the horde. While it is fun I would hardly say it’s my favorite part of Halloween.

That honor goes to Lunatic Inquisition, a PvP competition that puts two teams up against each other on the same map as the Mad King’s Labyrinth. `Now, I’m not usually the sort of person who goes in for PvP, in my experience people take it far too seriously. But Lunatic Inquisition is just good fun. There are two sides, those living and those who are ghosts. Like any good game of tag the ghosts are chasing after the living trying to convert them to their side. Typically those living will pick a nice out of the way corner of the map and stay there until they’re discovered. At which point they attempt to make a run for it. You do have a power that last for 10 seconds that allows you to go invisible. Unfortunately it has a rather long recharge.

If you’re looking for Halloween out in the open world your best bet is to go out in search of doors to trick or treat at. They’re only being spawned in two zones this year which in my mind is a bit of a shame. Yes, it means that those zones will have a greater concentration of people to do doors with. But it also means that Halloween (which is a strictly Human holiday) is really only seen in a small fraction of the world. It’s a fun little distraction while you’re out playing the game already but I wouldn’t go so far as to say trick or treating is a highlight of the event.

The bane of my Halloween experience in MMOs is the moving jumping puzzle they call the Clock Tower. In this event you’re on a jumping puzzle that is going up the outside of a clock tower. To make it more complicated the entire thing is slowly filling with ooze that you have to escape. I find the entire experience to be the most frustrating thing in an MMO, possibly ever. After several attempts to complete it every year I’ve just given up. I’m clearly not meant to finish it.

This brings us to the story portion of Halloween. For many this was a huge letdown. It’s simply a repeat of the previous year’s event without anything new at all. What makes it even worse is that the story wasn’t even that good the first time around. As it turns out the Mad King has a son. That son is completely evil unlike the Mad King who is somewhat comically evil. This son was locked away for all time and of course he manages to get out and make trouble. So you go on a quest to find out how to defeat him and return him to his prison. It ends naturally enough with a confrontation with that insane son.

Perhaps I am only so forgiving of the Halloween event because next week is the exciting return of the living story. We left off on a fantastic cliffhanger that has had people speculating for weeks. The world is gearing up for war against Mordremoth, no one knows the status of the Pale Tree. But, what I’m most looking forward to is Rytlock’s triumphant return. Preferably commanding an army of Human ghosts who swoop in and save Tyria at the last moment. Who knows, this may usher in an all new age for Tyria, an age where a Human and a Charr don’t have to be afraid of their manly love for each other anymore.

If this was the true mid point in the season, and if they continue the update schedule as it has been going then we’re looking at the end of the season coming in mid January which isn’t all that far off if you think about it. It just means the next couple of months are going to be action packed! Of course we will also have the Christmas event in there as well, so already my estimate is off. Either way we know we will have exciting content for some time to come. Is it too early to start speculation on Season 3? Yes. Yes it is.