The Joys of (Re)Playing Guild Wars 2

GameSpy is offering a new, generally positive preview for Guild Wars 2, based on the last beta weekend, which includes some impressions on the Asura and Sylvari’s starting zones. Here’s a snippet:

Importantly, all zones brim with the important “fluff” I’ve talked about so much in my recent articles and reviews, and that’s a welcome shift in a development environment that flirts with the idea of well-written questlines and engaging cinematics sufficient to satisfy the demands of immersion. The dynamic events and zone-based scaling that set Guild Wars 2 apart already provide this variety in leveling, of course, but even those rest on little else besides constant combat. Pure combat, even when it’s good (as in TERA), gets old if that’s all you spend your time doing. That’s why I was so pleased to find seemingly minor additions such as the new “vistas” that reward explorers with a short, dramatic cutscenes of the surrounding area, somewhat like the view points in the Assassin’s Creed Series. That, and I was impressed that it usually takes some effort to get to them.

I discovered my first vista point as I was running toward one of Guild Wars 2’s dynamic events; at that moment, it struck me as a little more than a quickie screenshot opportunity. All I had to do, I figured, was to make two leaps onto a stone ramp and run up and touch the floating map that served as the objective. Not so. For one, the ramp was but a teaser; once I reached the top, I discovered that the map itself was just out of reach. I could now tell that I was supposed to leap down from a nearby laboratory of sorts, though, so I spent the next few minutes looking for some kind of stairwell inside the building that would take me to the roof. I found none. I was almost ready to give up until I noticed some Asura-sized platforms jutting from the building’s outside wall. I carefully climbed them, found myself overlooking my target, leapt down . and missed the first time. After repeating the climb and landing properly the second time, I was treated to a scenic view of the Mayan-like structure from afar.

Hundreds of such points exist in Guild Wars 2 now, and most require the same light thinking as this one did. Those that I’ve encountered have never been quite so difficult that I felt tempted to use a walkthrough to finish them, but they do provide a somewhat decent response to The Secret World’s investigation missions for players wanting to flex their mind a bit. Star Wars: The Old Republic’s hidden datacrons offered similar challenges, but Guild Wars 2’s vistas trump them through the sheer abundance.