Guild Wars 2 Godspawn launches today, but we got an early look at the latest titanic threat and a new take on some familiar gameplay.
After Elder Dragons, oppressive jungles, evil geniuses, tectonic shifts, and more another ancient threat marches into view today. The Titans returned to Guild Wars 2 during the Janthir Wilds expansion, but these monstrous forces are about to get a whole lot more challenging with the latest free update for this long-running MMO.
Story Starts
Like recent updates to ArenaNet’s online adventure, this free content drop adds in more than just simple peril. Like so many powerful and ancient interlopers eager to upend the tranquillity of modern-day Tyria, they’ll appear before players soon enough. First, the battle to be king of the sulfur mound begins on a more pedestrian note. A familiar refrain opens this new update. A mail summons players to drop everything and attend to an emergency, where an errant scholar drives a search for trouble. Much like previous Living World updates, this starts slow. A return to the Drumand Priory provides an opportunity to explore an underserved location and an opportunity to lore dump. Unfortunately, ArenaNet seems to have chosen a purely functional format for this opener, ahead of an action-packed finale. Walking around the halls of the Drumand Priory, it’s a reminder of the push forward into new lands and the stories left behind. However, we’re not really here for that and a relatively uninspired set of point-and-click searches give us a library of lore, a reason to head off to a new battle, and little else. The opening acts might have been better without the missing voice actor dialogue, and despite the welcome return to an esteemed seat of learning, this iconic backdrop feels a little underserved by this episode.
Moving on, this narrative entrance leads Godspawn down the trail to the Janthir Syntri, an area of the world introduced during the Janthir Wilds Expansions. It plays host to the Sulfurous Springs, a putrid location pitted with Bloodstone and swept clean of visitors by the powerful Mist Tide storms. It’s a reflection of the Titan Greer, and it’s where things begin to get interesting. Lost between the geysers is a missing researcher and a chance to uncover some essential information that might tip the balance against one of these monoliths. Really, there is scarcely much more story to wind through, and after some speeches and rather functional framing, all roads point to Mount Balrior.
Attacking Up an Incline
The core of Godspawn revolves around the slopes of Mount Balrior. Forced forward and up, our band of heroes for this mission find themselves scaling the cliff and facing off against gargantuan enemies. Like so many other mythic monsters, the Titans and their powerful spawn hide beyond immediate reach and this ascent doesn’t stop once the monsters are felled.
Mount Balrior is an interesting design choice. While this map opens up onto green pastures, the sandy mountainside that lies ahead is a far more dynamic backdrop than it first seems. A winding path snakes around the mountain. Unlike the sheer cliff edges we’ve come to expect in other locations, you won’t need a Skyscale to overcome this. Instead, this map favors diversity over imposing scale. Pick your way across the open road, through tunnels, over bouncing geysers, or hop on a springer to scramble up the cliffside. There are plenty of ways to get through this opening run, and that’s by design. ArenaNet built this mountain with a range of areas that can be opened, closed and added to in different ways, to create a number of different experiences across the same map. The first run through, however, is largely a tutorial for what comes next.
Godspawn.is designed to provide an iterative experience that can be replayed with a variety of different approaches, and scaling difficulty. Most of the announced challenges, the story quests, Convergence, and Normal Mode Raid that unfold on Mount Balrior seem to be designed provide a slowly increasing content incline, which means the newest Convergence is next. Every three hours, players can form up and take on a Convergence that returns to the mountain, with the opportunity to experience the final face off against the Titans in a different way. The Convergence mode is delivered like a story retold, and the content is equally approachable.
The Convergence climb is a little more difficult than story mode, but Titanspawn are easily dispatched, even by our preview group on loaned characters. While the events that pepper the trail are a little more demanding, turning inconsequential interactive objects into build and defend events, failing any of these won’t have any serious consequences. After all, you’re listening to a bedtime story for the Lowland cubs. What does make a much more obvious entrance is the final encounter of the Convergence. I won’t spoil this too much but it’s an obvious foe. Brought in from earlier encounters, ArenaNet redesigned an ancient force from the ground up to incorporate the ideas and themes of its personality while creating something that can’t just be burned down by a bunch of stacked particle effects. Familiar skills and twists on existing attacks play out in an engaging way, but with an appropriate level of complexity for the upcoming raid.
The raid, once again, is a variation on a theme. The same location, and similar ideas, but increasingly complex objectives and unpredictable elements are promised. Unfortunately, we didn’t have an opportunity to try it out. Still, ArenaNet’s description is an encounter that incorporates the core capabilities of raids and opens up an avenue for new players to try this out. If you do want to spawn in then you won’t even need to face the Aerodrome. There’s a portal and raid vendor at the northern end of the Sulfourus Springs, inviting the masses to engage with the raid as easily as stumbling into an open-world event. It’s even more enticing when you get to see the loot on offer from this new raid instance, and other content.
Loot
Boasting rights are still relevant in raids, so the aforementioned raid vendor comes crammed with recipes for Tokens, Homestead Trophies, and a range of exclusive miniatures and weapons. You’ll have to take down specific raid challenges boss to loot the Venshot Mini, grab some gloves, and the Raid locked Ascended Spear,
Loot isn’t all about raids this time either, there are a raft of other minis, decorations, and armor sets. A fully reworked Wizard’s vault includes a bunch of new loot, meaning you’ll be able to get a new look with the Sea Wave Glass weapon set and Rot Stalker armor. The Sea Glass weapons are far more to my liking, but you do you. ArenaNet also introduced a new take on the Legendary Weapon unlock. This new key allows players to teleport to a separate instance of the world where they can try out a more interactive trial, rather than lock in with little more than a wiki as reference. It’s all very impressive and a definite roll of the dice for ArenaNet.
Godsopawn is clearly an on ramp for Raids. ArenaNet aims to draw players into the attack on Titans and draw down the entry barrier for this content type. After seemingly abandoning the format, we’re now told that the studio still sees value in t it. The Challenge and Legendary versions of this content are due to land soon, but I can’t help but wonder what this means for Strikes? Still, anybody looking for a hefty challenge can expect it soon. ArenaNet confirmed that the Legendary mode version of Mount Balrior will be steep enough that they hope a race for world first breaks out. If you’re looking to get into raids and be rewarded in return, Godspawn is a fantastic way to play. If you want lots of lore and narrative, this might not be as fulfilling as you want.
Guild Wars 2 Godspawn is out now and is free for players who purchased Secrets of the Obscure.
