GUILD WARS 2 "No Quarter" is a Fantastic Addition to the Game
Today, Guild Wars 2 launches the next chapter in The Icebrood Saga, “No Quarter.” I was able to play a preview session with some of the developers and I think players are going to love what this new chapter has to offer. I will be doing my best to not spoil anything and focus more on the gameplay and less on the story aspects.
The new map, Drizzlewood Coast is divided into camps that actually work a lot like the World vs World map. You’ll go around using siege weapons to break down forts, so you can then go in, slaughter the enemy and take control. The big difference here is that instead of fighting other players for control of the map, you’ll be fighting with players against NPCs. The devs talked in our session about wanting to find ways to bring interest of different play areas to a variety of players and this is a perfect example. This map brings a WvW experience to a Player vs Environment map. This should entice some WvW players to join the PvE side of things and give PvE players a taste of WvW.
Once you control a camp, the players on the map will gain a bonus. Each camp’s bonus is different and they affect the entire map, and so you may want to camp out at certain camps to help prevent the computer from taking back your favorite. This is all part of the Meta Event which culminates from taking over camps into a final big battle against some very important and impressive villains. It’s reminiscent of The Silverwastes and is a great way to get a lot of the players on the map to team up.
Another fun part of “No Quarter” is the new Strike Mission. The one for this chapter is a fun Horde mode where you and your party will have to take down wave after wave of enemies. This is pretty hard and the mini-bosses and boss that you encounter will really be testing your abilities.
As a quick note, do I want to talk about the lack of voices in the chapter. Yes, it feels a little weird. However, the team has assured us that the game has been developed in a way to make it super easy to include the voice once they are recorded which will happen as soon as it is safe to do so. I’m very excited for this to happen as it is sure to take what is already a great chapter in Guild Wars 2 and make it greater.
Another great thing about “No Quarter” is all the awesome new gear and skins that we are getting. We’re getting the Stormcaller and Tengu weapons. I think the Tengu ones are some of my favorites. We’ve also got cool charr-themed backpacks based on the different factions and a Bear Shaman armor set. I’ve included some screenshots below to show off these awesome new pieces of gear.
