Guild Wars 2 Preview and Human Walkthrough Videos

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Written by BuckGB on August 23rd, 2010

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Naturally if you're going to spend any time in a virtual world you will want to present your avatar in a way that best aligns with your own (or your role-playing character's) personality and aesthetics. Beyond the usual swag of character customisation options like skin colour, hair type, and race, Guild Wars 2 introduces a unique way to bring players a step further into the world. During creation players will be able to select their toon's social standing (commoner, nobility, or street kid), biggest life regret (being passed on for the chance to be great, failing to recover your sister's body, or never joining the circus), and even the chance to pick which God you believe in. While they may sound like gimmicky additions, each faction has its own race-specific kit out, adapting the story and putting you and your choices into cut-scenes rather than the same old slab of generic text about someone else's problems.

The sequel may make some assumptions on the capabilities of its first-timers, but the tutorial zone of Shaemoor throws you straight into the action as a Centaur attack rages. After saving a handful of local villagers we're told that the nearby garrison has fallen and is in want of a hero. News comes through a voiced cut-scene, and we were told that the final game will include in excess of 60 feature films worth of narration. Running over with our Elementalist mage archetypal character we started cracking skulls. An ability called Elemental Attunement allowed us to switch between our fire and water elemental skills on the fly, changing our action bar, and letting us dish out fiery pain or control targets more readily with ice. Rather than stand around still watching bars fill to make fireballs, combat is active, requiring you to move your character to avoid enemy strikes, and dodging away with steps and rolls.

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