Guild Wars 2

Love the new machanics in the map. This gives the game a bit more variety and this game needs a lot. The personal story has still some lame enemies and sometimes not good placed animation but the atmosphere, new mystery enviroment and characters i care about… awesome!

You are getting better keep it up!

The instanced content is fun and challenging. The story and characters feel better told. I love Aerin!

Finally I enjoyed instanced story content!

Still not as good as the first 30 levels of personal story (where it really felt personal), but worlds ahead of the personal story finale!

I think I’ll wait a bit till the bugs are fixed (they kinda ruin the moment), but if the rest of the missions are this challenging/interesting than this is on the right track

Zinus.6893:

Still not as good as the first 30 levels of personal story (where it really felt personal), but worlds ahead of the personal story finale!

I think I’ll wait a bit till the bugs are fixed (they kinda ruin the moment), but if the rest of the missions are this challenging/interesting than this is on the right track

You really enjoyed the first 30 levels? I found that crap BORING as hell. It was NOT personal at all. The things we picked during creation were involved in one quest.

Also, out of interest, which bugs? O: Not sure if I’ve seen any?

I think Anet did a great job.
The map is beautifull.

sazberryftw.3809:

You really enjoyed the first 30 levels? I found that crap BORING as hell. It was NOT personal at all. The things we picked during creation were involved in one quest.

Also, out of interest, which bugs? O: Not sure if I’ve seen any?

Well i really did like the Human/low class/lost parents part where everything was about my char, felt nice not to be on the sideline :p

As for bugs just minor things, like renewed justice not going off from killing inquest and NPC’s bugging out with their path-finding sometime. So far i haven’t encountered anything game-breaking.

P.S. About those things we picked at creation, ye they were only involved in several quests at start, and that’s why i kinda like the first 30 levels :/ … i wished they did more with it, but oh well

edit: P.P.S. Also the desert is pweaty

Aerin was evil, Scarlet was evil, Canach was evil… it won’t be long before we wage war on the Sylvari.

Zinus.6893:

P.S. About those things we picked at creation, ye they were only involved in several quests at start, and that’s why i kinda like the first 30 levels :/ … i wished they did more with it, but oh well

edit: P.P.S. Also the desert is pweaty

Yeah, I wish they’d done a lot more with it!

It is very pretty!

sazberryftw.3809:

Zinus.6893:

Still not as good as the first 30 levels of personal story (where it really felt personal), but worlds ahead of the personal story finale!

I think I’ll wait a bit till the bugs are fixed (they kinda ruin the moment), but if the rest of the missions are this challenging/interesting than this is on the right track

You really enjoyed the first 30 levels? I found that crap BORING as hell. It was NOT personal at all. The things we picked during creation were involved in one quest.

Also, out of interest, which bugs? O: Not sure if I’ve seen any?

I thought they were the best story telling the game has done. You make choices the whole way through (including who you want as your allies), unlike the Living Story where you have to bring the same five people with you and there is no choice or agency, only the illusion of it in the form of predetermined paths and dialogue.

I really liked how the first 30 levels were heavily rooted in your race. It really fleshed out your character’s identity and their role in Tyria. You choose friends and allies, you decide the fates of people around you (or your own) and all the characters involved are there because they are a party of the story, not because they were created to be wedged into every story.

Morsus.5106:

Aerin was evil, Scarlet was evil, Canach was evil… it won’t be long before we wage war on the Sylvari.

Everyone! Grab your torches and salad forks!

I love the atmosphere of the map. And finally the lore * _ *. Data! full of data!

And besides, playing Asura, Taimi reminds us a little of our home! <3

I’m almost sad that the area is so small! my thirst for exploration is greatest! happy

I wouldn’t call this a Personal Story. This is a Living Story event masquerading in the Personal Story tab, but Personal Story it ain’t.

If I had to rate it as a Living Story it gets a 3/5 stars. I penalized two stars for it having too much of a focus on Kas – 1 and making her too important over the remaining cast -1. I know it’s a first intro into the new story, but a mesmer who can blink over chasms when the player mesmer can’t… is over powered. (Edited for clarification, I refer to Living story as the parts in which you do the instanced missions – I am not including the map with the other events – Just the story part of living story – if that makes sense).

If I had to rate it as a Personal Story it would get 0/5 stars for failing to have

a. voiced content for the character
b. a story that involves your character (not just click text with no choice)
c. invests you as an important force of nature – you killed a dragon!
d. characters that actually recognize you and don’t just reference you as an aside like the last event where Kiel calls you their leader in an off handed manner and YET never actually takes the time to say anything more about you like she does for the others.
(lots of games include the player character name in the text even if they don’t include it in the speech)
e. content that doesn’t just ignore that you are there and actually reacts to your actions

It lost one star for each of those.

So for me this isn’t a personal story at all, but a Living Story event in which my poor character does the ox load of the work and gets no credit for it again.

Shardelyss.4807:

I wouldn’t call this a Personal Story. This is a Living Story event masquerading in the Personal Story tab, but Personal Story it ain’t.

If I had to rate it as a Living Story it gets a 3/5 stars. I penalized two stars for it having too much of a focus on Kas – 1 and making her too important over the remaining cast -1. I know it’s a first intro into the new story, but a mesmer who can blink over chasms when the player mesmer can’t… is over powered. (Edited for clarification, I refer to Living story as the parts in which you do the instanced missions – I am not including the map with the other events – Just the story part of living story – if that makes sense).

If I had to rate it as a Personal Story it would get 0/5 stars for failing to have

a. voiced content for the character
b. a story that involves your character (not just click text with no choice)
c. invests you as an important force of nature – you killed a dragon!
d. characters that actually recognize you and don’t just reference you as an aside like the last event where Kiel calls you their leader in an off handed manner and YET never actually takes the time to say anything more about you like she does for the others.
(lots of games include the player character name in the text even if they don’t include it in the speech)
e. content that doesn’t just ignore that you are there and actually reacts to your actions

It lost one star for each of those.

So for me this isn’t a personal story at all, but a Living Story event in which my poor character does the ox load of the work and gets no credit for it again.

The NPCs are supposed to be more powerful than our characters. Our characters actually aren’t very strong. We’re not OP heroes, the NPCs are. Kasmeer portalling across gaps, Marj summoning a bone bridge, Taimi blowing the kitten out of trash mobs, Rox not being a Bearbow ranger, it’s supposed to be that way.

And they do acknowledge you. They talk about you being the pact commander and taking down Zhaitan. Taimi even changes her dialouge if you’re an Asura or an Engineer. They become a little racist and harsh to you on a Sylvari character.

Taimi’s great…the story was fine (it’s a build up) and justified the aspect mechanic that makes the zone so much fun (for me)…dialogue is still a kittenildish/simplistic….delivery method of the story, though, was fantastic. The NPCs actually feel like party members and not annoying bystanders. they actually do relevant stuff to progress the missions.

missions themselves were solid…..solo-able without too much distress, but much more difficult/involved than the personal story missions. really enjoyed the boss fight (moderately easy from range, much more challenging if you stay melee).

love the map (and its sandstorm)…love the crystal aspects mechanic…love the JP. haven’t really gotten into the story achievements yet, but some seem difficult and others too easy…but who knows, difficulty is pretty relative.

overall…..4/5 for this opening installment of season 2. subtracting a point for the general banality of Marj, Kas, Braham, and Rox as characters…..and the new recipes/food made from them being account bound (yuck).

Pibriamal.8719:

And they do acknowledge you. They talk about you being the pact commander and taking down Zhaitan. Taimi even changes her dialouge if you’re an Asura or an Engineer. They become a little racist and harsh to you on a Sylvari character.

I know people have mentioned this, but in my play through of the Living Story, I got none of this. If these are side token comments made by the cast, then that would explain why they are so easily missed.

Edited for: So my special power I bring to this team that I’m suppose to be an equal in is… being the Commander of the Pact. I guess my special power is to summon Traherne! To me!

Shardelyss.4807:

Edited for: So my special power I bring to this team that I’m suppose to be an equal in is… being the Commander of the Pact. I guess my special power is to summon Traherne! To me!

What makes us special in the Investigation team is our leadership skills and ability to win against odds that would be considered unnatural. Don’t forget our character is the leader of the group for this reason.

Heck even both Trahearne and NPCs you meet in your Personal story will admit that our character is the reason why the Pact was possible back in the Personal Story due to our ability to handle things that would be considered impossible. Sadly these type of dialogues are easily missed due to being side dialogue that requires players to talk to the NPC out of cutscenes. This reason was why the PS felt like Trahearne was getting the credit instead of the player but in reality NPCS were given our character credit but just not in the main cutscenes and dialogues. This is something I hope Anet will fix in S2 story since once we hit Mordremoth it will be back to commanding the Pact again.

(Side note: letting Trahearne lead the Pact still seems a better choice since he more use to the Paper Work a military leader has to deal than our character is. )

+1 I loved this update.