Guild Wars 2

First of all I like the new LS. However there are things that make me worry. Who knows maybe I’m overreacting and ANet are going to surprise us.

To the point.

The new way the LS is handled somehow kills the sole idea of an open world gameplay. We get a small part of a bigger map every two weeks. While I like Dry Top and the story, this new zone offers no exploration. You just go forward through a narrow mostly path. This might change of course in later updates but so far it looks like zones in GW1 – walls all around you. The world map shows us how huge the Maguuma Wastes are. It would be so much more fun to explore other locations, even if they were to be delivered in pieces like Dry Top. Just imagine.

I don’t want to play the story, I’m going to see that other area, maybe there is something cool there!

We would have a choice. More content = more options.

Other thing that worries me are the events. Take Orr for example – it feels natural, a constant battle between the Pact and Zaithan’s armies. Here on the other hand the map is flooded with stuff we have to kill to achive a bigger score for the Zephyrites. Another festival?

Anayway, I wonder what you guys think.

I agree with your thoughts completely. So far I am really liking the story of Season 2 and the way it’s presented but it does seem more personal. Before, the releases felt like world altering events. Its a tradeoff, I suppose. I too thought the new map felt like GW1 and would rather have it be like the other maps with ecploration.

I guess it is just a case of: “It is different to waht we are used to”

Let us take a look at the rest of the geographical design of the world. We had no big claustrophobic areas so far.

Dry Top is designed to be akin to a big Canyon. We can go down, which is narrow, but we can also go on top, which is flat.

The area gets revealed step by step throughout the story and right now it is an asortment of Canyons we are able to traverse. The walls to high to climb and even even with aspects, we would not be able to get on top that easily.

I do expect the worldmap to open further, deeper into the wastes, but still. It is a big Canyon and it does deliver exactly that feeling.
A feeling that is a bit missing in the other parts of the game, thanks to scaling.
You can often see mountains in the back of other regions, but most of the time it is a rather “small” part of the map. A hindrance, which you can quickly run around.

The new map is not like that. Here a Mountainwall means you have nearly no way to bypass it. It is soemthing that blocks your progress.
That is great. You feel much more intimdated by this wall in drytop, then the big mountain in the middle of Lonars Pass.

Why? because you cannot go around it.
Claustrophobic, small, all of that. That is the feeling this map gives you and in my opinion it is refreshing.

On the other hand it feels “small”, but that is just because the world is so big allready.

Also on your open world problem: “We are just in Episode 2 and allready we see it reaching out into the world from Dry Top and beyond.”
It starts with small changes, but i bet (hope) there will be more int he future.
More desturction, more changes in enviroment, more danger.
Something is happening and it is not only Dry Top that will change

It’s interesting to see your perspective. To me it seemed like dry top had much more exploration than the open world. The open world always struck me as a big flat rectangle with very little of interest except sometimes at the edges, whereas Dry Top has a lot more ins and outs to search. And whereas in the open world the ‘secrets’ to find are limited to a few jumping puzzles, in dry top there are lost coins, buried chests (and llamas?) scattered all over in hard to reach places.

If you want to get somewhere specific (“hey look, a cool plateau”), you have to plan out your route according to available aspects and ledges that will take you there instead of just camping in the world map and navigating with left and right arrow keys while auto running forward.

I think you guys missed my point.

In the core game we are able to go anywhere we want from lvl 1. You have a Charr? Nothing stands in your way to go and start lvling in Queensdale. With the new LS we are limited to 1 place and additionally it’s served to us in pieces..

It’s been 2 years since launch and it just saddens me how little we are given to explore.

i think u mean really big areas with flat and sand everywhere?
well here and there a event passing through or appearing

i dont think this will be in the maguuma wastes just because maguuma dschungle was always quite vertically (if thats even a word) there are a lot of cliffs walls etc

there is verry unlikely a big waste

in elona there are pretty much likely such places
(since in the lore palawa joko changed elons direction southern crystal dessert is now quite green while vaabi is ruins and a lot of big areas without mich height difference)

but i doubt we will find the huge maps you are looking for in the maguuma wastes
simply because of sure the map has changed a lot but.. its still the maps from gw1
and if mordre havnt filled the old rivers with sand there will be canyons cliffs and stuff…