Wednesday, February 22, 2012

GW2 and WAR

With an NDA drop this week, a ton of Guild Wars 2 information has become public knowledge.  I am, of course, only really interested in one thing and that's PvP.  There are 2 types:  Structured PvP (scenarios) and World vs World vs World (WvWvW or 3W) which is similar to Open RvR.

First, let me say that GW2 and WAR are fundamentally different games.  There is no campaign or city siege as a goal in GW2, among other major differences.  This post is to highlight some of the ways that they are similar.

Attacking the Door.  The keep siege videos I watched mostly consisted of players trying to beat on a door.  They also used siege weapons on the door.  It was very reminiscent of pre-1.4 WAR.  I've been told that there are destructible walls, but they were not shown in the videos.  Also, some keeps don't have walls.  Instead, they use geographic obstacles like cliffs.

Golems.  In one of the videos, a GW2 player became a Golem and went to attack the door.  This is pretty much the same thing as WAR's Play as Monster system where you can become a Skaven Rat Ogre.  What I did like was that this Golem was built in the field.  Can I get a Steam Tank?

Supplies.  In GW2, small objectives, when captured, generate supplies which are then transported to the keep via NPC (Supply Caravans).  Once there, they are used to build siege weapons, strengthen defenses and repair things like the door.  This is how WAR works right now with objectives and resource carriers.  GW2 does seem to take it a bit further and allow players to carry supplies as well.

Area Buffs.  Guilds can claim keeps and provide buffs to friendly forces in the area.  This is similiar to how Fortresses work in WAR at present.  It also reminds me of how keep claiming and banners worked in WAR prior to 1.4.

Guards.  Keeps in GW2 are defended by NPC guards, very much like they were in pre-1.4 WAR.  One complaint often heard was about having PvE in PvP, so those guards were eventually laid off.

These are some of the ways GW2 3W is similar to WAR RvR.  There are a number of ways in which it is different too, but that deserves its own post.

I think it goes without saying:  I'll buy and give GW2 a shot as soon as I can :)