Guild Wars 2 Reveals Scaling and Equipment Details
NCsoft revealed details on their upcoming title Guild Wars 2 at Gamescom, Cologne. We have heard big promises about a truly innovative MMORPG, bringing the RPG element foward and battling against the grind. How will they make this happen? OnRPG joined their events to bring you the finer details.
Less class-play, more role-play
Upon character creation you see a polished setup with a very personal feel. You choose your magic line (not quite like a class, it will be more flexible than that) but you also choose your personality and answer a small list of questions which will affect your personal story in the game. Literally this means that the quests and story-world you will encounter match your character, and you will get a more authentic experience.
Against the Grind
In order to keep the combat interesting you will not simply follow a standard list of quests, but you will be joining random events as well while you travel and explore. Events may already be started by other players, and you can select to join the event automatically. The event then scales to the new amount of players and more mobs will join the combat to keep it interesting. Large groups can form this way and events will become larger and larger. The rewards are handed out per player, more or less scaled to their character’s status. This means, no more ninja-looters or full-scale accounting systems required!
Some interesting details include a freedom of movement throughout all combat; casting no-longer requires you to stand still. You have to aim, and keep moving, which looked very exciting during the presentation. Another interesting detail is that your equipment decides your role in battle more than your magic type or class (there are no designated tanks or healers anymore). You can easily switch to accomodate the team, or as you join a specific outdoor event. Of course, when more players join a big event like an outdoor boss kill, the boss scales up to be more powerful as well. Everything seems so balanced and free from restrictions that the resulting focus must be on gameplay, because everything else just sorts itself out. Does this lean more towards hardcore or casual in the end though?
The game pushes for a more social play-style. You can join each other on missions, and you will be scaled down to the level of the player on the mission. As an example, a level 80 player can join a level 5, but will then be scaled both in level and gear back down to 5 as well (And similarly a level 1 can join a level 80 player and spoil the end-game for himself, if he chooses to, hmm). This offers re-playability, detailed explanations by higher level characters and of course the option to venture into the other starting zones for another authentic leveling experience. The game feels very dynamic, but we have to wonder if that won’t break down the status of having reached a certain level or carrying certain gear.
Certain Credits
There will be several credit systems to ensure that both high level and low level play remain interesting, for example participation credits for quests and a leveling system for guilds. You have to also give NCsoft credit for opening up the discussions about bringing role-play to a higher level and truly battling both the grind and ninja-looting. The game will offer a lot of innovative features (though not all unique) together in an intensely deep experience.
