Welcome to the latest weekly game-focused column here at MMOGames – The Tyrian Chronicle. Each and every week I will use this column as a means to talk about Guild Wars 2 in all facets. From the latest Living Story content and new patches, all the way down to specific features that should be changed or implemented and the adventures I have across the diverse landscapes of Tyria. Luckily, the launch of this column coincides with the launch of the Living Story’s Season 2 of content – it’s almost like it was planned this way on purpose or something.
Guild Wars 2, like any MMO on the market today, has of course experienced its fair share of ups and downs. From the launch surge that resulted in record breaking numbers, to the gripes and complaints that follow every game’s launch, the fanbase is large and healthy with lovers and haters alike. As far as I am concerned, this is a sign that things are going quite well. ArenaNet cannot make everyone happy, but they have done a great job of not only delivering on most of their major promises, but also on evolving the game as it has progressed over time. Personally, it is my favorite MMO right now and my game of choice, but that doesn’t prevent me from being able to criticize it just as well. We’ll save the general chatter about Guild Wars 2 for another non-Living Story focused entry – this first article in the column is going to delve into Season 2’s debut episode instead: The Gates of Maguuma!
Some of Tyria’s most prolific heroes unite once again!
I was overjoyed when I learned that your new alliance with who are being referred to as the “biconics” would return. These new allies are some of my favorite characters that I’ve ever seen in an MMO, due to their unique personalities and how each of them interact with one another. Often times after the first year or two, MMOs get complacent with delivering new in-game content or features, but forgetting to push the story forward in meaningful ways. Fortunately the likes of Marjory, Kasmeer, Rox, Taimi, and Braham keep everything very interesting. Not everyone is a fan, but I truly enjoy their banter and personalities.
Things start out in Season 2 with you investigating disturbances in the Brisbain Wildlands, on the western side of the map. After meeting up with and helping some Seraph forces fend off an Inquest attack, you quickly discover that the Zephyrites were ambushed after departing from the Labyrinthine Cliffs’ festivities. Once entering the Dry Top, you are presented with a zone completely in ruins. Sand storms kick up violently to obstruct your vision, small storm clouds twist and thrash at you, and Inquest enemies and contraptions are spread across the entire zone. As is to be expected, there is a whole lot more going on than meets the eye.
My Guardian looks out across the deserted Dry Top of the Maguuma Wastes.
I won’t go into too much detail about what this new episode has in store in terms of story elements, but let’s just say that the legacy of Scarlet Briar is far from over. Don’t worry though – she does not come back to life or anything crazy like that – but her work does live on. Near the end of The Gates of Maguuma, you find one of her lairs with a lot of very interesting information. Taimi’s reaction to the discoveries is truly priceless, so it’s worth paying attention to once you find it all.
Once the story elements are out of the way though, Dry Top actually has quite a bit to do and see. The top half of the zone is split into several layers and tiers where the Zephyrite ships crash landed. Much of this area has been destroyed, but left I the convenient layout of a sort of makeshift jumping puzzle. With the assistance of different light shards that allow you to jump higher, dash forward, and even leap to far away places, you are able to quickly traverse the cliffsides.
Once you make your way farther down south, you will find a larger open area with sandstorms and deadly quicksand ready to swallow you whole. This space also plays home to a handful of dynamic events that range from running around to pick up crystal flags and fighting enemies, to getting turned into a llama. The zone itself, as a whole, isn’t very large, but there is a lot of room for expansion, so hopefully ArenaNet invests some time into developing this area of the map more thoroughly. Since this is just the beginning of Season 2, it would be foolish to render complete judgement on the area based on a single Living Story episode.
The main bad guy in this episode is obsessed with AoE attacks.
The biggest feature change in this episode comes in the form of the Story Journal. Previously for the Living Story, if you logged in while an entry was active, you were notified by mail and would have the marker in your quest tracker and on your map. Opening up your achievement pane would show you progress and that was about it. Needless to say things were far from organized and it was very easy to miss out on entire sections of content unless you did your research beforehand.
With the new system, every Living Story episode will be treated as such, like a brand new episode of true content. You get notified on your screen and access it from your hero panel – it’s now combined into the same tab as your Personal Story. This creates a connection between the two, something that should have existed from the very start, and makes navigation much easier. This also means that as long as you login at some point during an episode’s live period, you retain permanent access from your hero panel to replay content and get achievements at any point in the future. It’s like Guild Wars 2 On-Demand!
I do have some gripes with this, though. With this big change also comes a change to how achievements are distributed. New zones (such as Dry Top) have their own new achievements in the panel still, but now the episode itself, the actual instance story parts, have achievements as well. My issue with this threefold:
1) You can only see and fulfill the story achievements after beating it once, meaning you have to replay big portions of content to get them
2) The achievements are “challenge-based” which just means they are difficult to get without an appropriately valuable reward to match it
3) The achievement point values for the story-based goals are very low.
Maybe they are still testing stuff out and they can be improved in the future, but as of now it seems a little misguided. Also, what happened to meta achievements?
Quick glance preview of the final faceoff at the end of this episode!
This is the part where we discuss spoilers. If you have not played the story portion of this episode, or you do not wish to see what might happen next, then you should probably stop reading right now.
That was your warning.
The bad guy this episode is, once again, a crazy sylvari. He is a rantin’ and ravin’ lunatic, with a strange obsession with bombs, that is responsible for sabotaging the Zephyrites and attempting to kill the Master of Peace, the Zephyrites leader. Upon investigation, you learn that he was somehow connected to Scarlet in her plans and the secret hideout of hers that you find is full of her notes and research.
All signs, obviously, are pointing towards the rise of Mordremoth. It is highly likely that Season 2 will end in not only the rise of Mordremoth, but hopefully a brand new epic story instance + dungeon, similar to the likes of Zhaitan in the main story. Perhaps once more areas of Maguuma are explored, we will have other fights to look forward to with challenging enemies. This episode could have used more interesting encounters, instead it focused mostly on AoE spamming that got old fast.
Where do you think the story is headed next? Let us know down in the comments below! Next week I will take a look at the guild system in Guild Wars 2 and talk about where it does things incredibly well, but more importantly, where it could improve. Check back next week for another edition of The Tyrian Chronicle!
Age of Wushu: Prepare Yourself Before Taking on Bosses
Trove: Tips for New Players.
Just Cause 3: Here's how to get Fast Travel ability
MOBA Monday: More Holiday Events in League of Legends and DotA 2 .
Trove Interview With Andrew Krausnick