subject: Guild Wars 2 - Review Of The Translation Game With Pax 2010 [print this page] After attending PAX, anyone would have celebrated the endless tail of the queue, rather wanting to see Guild Wars 2. And no wonder - the game claims the status of one of the most ambitious projects in the past few years.
Good gentleman impresario ArenaNet, in the midst of the exhibition caught me by the arm and led him into the lobby of the stand so I could see the ambitious plans of developers. Some of them we have already mentioned in the report on Gamescom, but now things became really clear. So, get acquainted, Guild Wars 2 gold.
The first thing I was introduced, is a little addressed an Ian in his report to the Gamescom - tweaks appearance and personal qualities that are very important to tweak the very beginning of the game. That amount of attention, which the player will give this process, subsequently affect the contents of their individual quests. In addition, in the same vein will be taken into account all the nuances of character development - native location, race, and all decisions made during the tiered growth. In fact, all this happiness will look like in other mmorpg - over the quest npc will hang some icons that indicate membership in a number of personal quest.
But, unlike the genre's neighbors, tightly clinging to tradition, the personal quest line will greatly depend on the character you play and what kind of fate in the early game, you saw him in great deeds. A man and a gentleman who prefers diplomacy bloodbath, faced with entirely different complexities in their history, who grew up on the streets than a fool. Well, the player finally felt himself surrounded by the comfort of the narrative, his attention now and then will be submitted story cinematics.
Jewelry approach to setting up your character, in general, was surprisingly "thin case", it even affects the appearance of your alter ego. Armour ringing on your shoulders - just cosmetic fiction, but marbles and other trinkets that you so lovingly mount up in a "chitin cuirass" entirely replaced by the statistics, with its ubiquitous bonuses.
Yes, realism is sent directly to landfill. Yes, in real life pirate costume or Superman without the tights options lose metal armor. But if you imagine that only under such circumstances your character will look authentic, it all priorities stand in its place. Of course, a chance to stop to rush back and forth through towns and villages, full of the same modelka characters speaks for itself. Besides, so players from one server community will begin to develop visual memory, and they finally begin to recognize each other without the help of dangling over the head with a label name.
Returning to the game narrative, it is important to mention that the gameplay will not be occupied solely by personal quests. On the contrary, most of the gaming activity will be provided with no npc. Henceforth, the ball is ruled by chance events. System of their creation impressed me with its dynamic far more than when I heard about it the first time, and forced me to nominate it GW2 for the title of "Breakthrough of the Year PAX '10.
Speaking of dynamics, I was just her and mean. Personality personality, but personal quests, as already mentioned, will occupy only part of the playing time. Others will have to look at the adventure map. In each zone you'll find a series of marks, indicating that this or that place people need help, but to understand the new challenges will be released only upon arrival. It is assumed that such incidents will randomly take time players, and ways to solve each new problem, logically, should be varied.
Imagine the situation - you come to the farm. Its owner may ask you to dig. And maybe - milk. Maybe even ask to weed. But you can opt out and simply pass on the corner. It is for the one where the knives are sitting naked by bandits. You can kill them. Can escape and try to do anything with a red rooster, which they have already managed to put on the roofs of the proverbial farm. Finally, you can come back later and beat off a farm seized from its gangsters. Options are countless. The most extraordinary of them may even include something like the battle with the giant lizard-monster, which spoils the whole fishing village, but at the same time, and microeconomics, or hunting charr to impressive size dragon. In any case, no matter what confronted the player he can be sure that what is happening will affect the game world. Keep alive a couple of robbers - and a couple of days to find the same place as a branch of a criminal syndicate.
Sociality - a key feature of random events. The system is designed so that any player at any time, could join the act and does not feel odd. You do not even have any active quests, no need to consist of a group or talk to npc - simply divide and conquer. Complexity automatically adjusts the number of players and their style of play. A group of two is hardly met by some Cyclops with epic epic mace at the ready, but here are ten of them are so cute beast could easily meet. Regardless of the contribution to the victory, each player will receive his award - the developers say they do not want to see as a couple dozen people laid some villain, and a cherry on the cake gets one or two clever fellow.
Continuing the conversation about the battles and events, to be told about the approach ArenaNet to entertain the player. Developers do not want him to be bored, sitting in the shoes of the same character. Class system, of course, will not go anywhere, but the range of possibilities of each class will be felt more than we're used to seeing in other similar games. I found this on the example Elementalist - caster "from God", which remarkably enchanting switched between its own specialties. The essence of his work is that he usually devotes himself to one of the four elements. Fire Adept habitually focus on fast and accurate application of a strong damage, but being in the water incarnation, he uses his abilities as a real baffer. Also, I managed to see a warrior who deftly switch between two-handed sword and bow straight into battle.
Particularly rich intellectually players always have an opportunity to completely avoid tactile contact with the enemy - every character has the skill of medical care, so that the statute hurl fireballs at enemy positions, you will easily be able to pretend to be a field nurse. Well, if you get tired and it is always possible to leave a rearguard defenses and shoot the mortars and ballistae in an angry dragon from a safe distance.
Whatever role or playing a character on the battlefield, the focus of the gameplay is still in activity. The player can run, jump and dodge elucidated in his charges. Generally, almost any ability can be used while in motion. No avtoataki - all have ponapryagat their fingers, so that the character is doing all that he can, and yet at the same time killing their enemies. Developers say they are trying to make the player feel that his presence and intervention is really necessary in every moment of the game. Yet they want to keep in your child the spirit of classic mmorpg, but it already begins to resemble science fiction.
Even though the system dualklassov from the first part of the game has sunk into oblivion, there are many ways to combine the different professions. Moreover, many skills will be using to leave traces on the landscape, such as, for example, happened to me demonstrated Elementalist - his fiery wall burned the required number of monsters and the remnants of the flame for a long time was covered by the tide of battle and lit by the passing arm. Such cross-class system of abilities gives scope for the development of military strategy completely new species. Now playing battle not only requires a certain level of dps and competent overhila, but the intuitive decision-making in the heat of battle.
In the appendage to random events and personal quests in the game plot appear instances, with a focus on players that are close to the local endgeymu. They will be calculated on a group of five people, and they can be held, as in any other online game countless times. Regarding assistance to low-level smaller brothers - for the passage of the old dungeon your level will be lowered, that a priori exclude the possibility of negative to roll, or the resulting experience. More about instances in GW2 is not known, nor are they clear the intended appearance.
Even during the development of the first part of the Guild Wars designers are very well understood that the instances, despite the benefit to the gameplay do not help to unite the gaming community, which is one of the main priorities of the development of ArenaNet. So the company decided to make the city one of the main public spaces in the game - something more than just "input-mail-auction-mail-out." On the streets will necessarily be a special "socializing npc with strange requests to pay attention to different urban action, would yield simple mini-games. I take serious doubts about the profitability of this venture, but there is a chance that razrabotchki not dwell only on her and light above their heads still at least blinks shortly.
This game definitely contraindicated (at least from a professional point of view) to argue, were so impressed by her, but one thing is clear - the desire to dilute the mainstream ArenaNet geymdeva flow of fresh air deserves respect. In a market littered with clichd second-rate substitute for - especially. Moreover, it is encouraging that the fresh air can be inhaled without any monthly subscription. Yes, of course, impossible to evaluate any new project without a drop of good old skepticism in his bosom, but personally I'll be very surprised if Guild Wars 2 will fall after the release.
