Guild Wars 2

I often get asked in dungeons why my character is screaming.

I’m never asked by other asura, though.

I considered Trahearne to be one of the most interesting and developed character in the personal story. I didn’t find him to be particularly interesting nor developed, though. He merely had the leisure of existing in a sea of characters even more bland and shallow than he was. Even my own character had no depth or growth throughout the story, which is sad, as that was the whole point of the story in the first place.

Did anyone else laugh at Trahearne’s “loss of faith” moment? I was starting to think that the game was supposed to be taken as satire from that point on. The ending certainly didn’t show otherwise.

This post contains spoilers. Read at your own risk.

As much as I love Guild Wars 2 and its vision, it’s hard to get over the faults of the personal story. I didn’t come into the game expecting J.R.R. Tolkien or G.R.R. Martin, but I had hoped to see some growth from Nightfall and Eye of the North, both of which were some of the better MMO storylines out there. Instead, Guild Wars 2’s story felt clumsy and watered down.

It’s worth noting that I played an asura and picked the Priory path. From what I’ve heard from others, those have some of the stronger story elements. This makes me reluctant to see what the other paths have to offer. The following are my thoughts and criticisms of the story I experienced.

- None of the characters have ulterior motives. There is a scene early on where an asuran councilor lies to you, but it’s painfully obvious, and it’s the only lie I can remember in the whole story. Everyone else is so honest that they come across as utterly and hopelessly naive. Even the Order of Whispers is this way, introducing themselves as spies and assassins, then asking if you want to join. These characters don’t feel real. They feel like they only exist to further the main character’s story.

- None of the characters have much depth. I love the scene where the player is introduced to the game’s main heroes (Rytlock, Eir, etc) in Lion’s Arch. These characters have a past, there is tension, and things seem a little hopeless. The problem is, this scene then repeats in every dungeon and every scene in the personal story again and again like a broken record. There’s just no sense of growth or depth to them. This happens for just about every character along the way except perhaps Trahearne, who is the games strongest character.

- There’s no sense of hopelessness in the game, which is odd, considering that the plot seems to be so focused on finding hope. There is never a time where the players or the characters are really defeated in any meaningful way. There is a moment, which is nearly comical, when Trahearne attempts to purify Orr for the first time and fails. He loses hope for one line of dialogue, but restores it again after your character responds with one more line of dialogue. I almost laughed then, but didn’t until later, when Trahearne remarks at how he almost lost faith in a later scene. At this point, I wasn’t sure if the game was being serious or it was satire. The ending is entirely undermined by the story’s lack of giving you a point in which you feel you cannot win. I always felt like the game was handing me victories on a silver platter, even if the mission was actually difficult.

- There is something to be said for grit and dark fantasy. Guild Wars 2 is all rainbows and puppy dogs, and this really clashes with the game’s themes (undead rising from the ocean threatening to swallow the world, dragons eating finite supplies of magic, etc). The story just needed a little more darkness to round it out, like shadows round out a painting. I felt that this was probably intentionally left out to reach out to as wide an audience as possible, but it just went to far. I just can’t bring myself to believe this world. It’s too bright, even in the ruins of Orr.

I should take a moment to say that the game’s dialogue has some good moments. These generally happen outside the personal story. NPC chatter in towns and around explorable areas is fantastic. My favorite lines are all from random NPCs. The same is true for some of the non-verbal dialogue in the story missions. Some of it is so good that it clashes with the spoken dialogue. I’ve tried reading these lines out loud, and there’s a noticeable difference in quality. The writing in Guild Wars 2 seems to be all over the board. Some of it is exceptionally good.