I laid out my complaints with the quest hub system to a few of my MMO friends and they kept mentioning that I should try Guild Wars 2. I did... and I love it so far. It answers just about all of my concerns with modern questing just about how I laid it out in my post about quest hubs.
I'm going to make this real quick and come back with a better post at another time...
EverQuest is pure exploration. Nothing is spelled out for you at all. Careful attention to clues and a knack for questing is required to do anything beyond find stuff and kill it. Even when you do complete quests, they are not a substitute for the grind in most cases. See a mob? Better "consider" it and see if it's something you should attempt to kill.
Tera is the complete opposite to EverQuest. Tera gives you a series of quests that take you by the hand and bring you into a beautiful world of adventure. Diverting from the guided tour of Tera's world is typically the worst way to progress. The grind is simply completing quests that lead you to other quests that lead you to other quests. Anything else is a waste of time. If the mob you see in front of you doesn't have a "!" next to its name, then you probably haven't found the right quest hub. There is no "consider" system... the game flat out gives you the mob's level.
Rift is similar to Tera in that it has quest hubs with things to accomplish out in the world, but Rift adds another layer with "rifts" and world events. These are things that can happen at any time and reward you for taking part with other players of appropriate level. Rifts are beautiful and can be a lot of challenge and fun. Then add in the world events where hundreds of players all band together to move around the world completing "raid" type objectives and it's a pretty awesome time. The only problem with this system is you had to be part of a raid group in order to receive the rewards. I don't remember the specifics, but I remember trying to get in on raids for world events pretty often. This game has a consider system that's similar to EverQuest.
Guild Wars 2 is not a completely different animal, but it does things in such a slick way that it was hard for me to keep playing without coming back to talk about it here. Guild Wars 2 has a quest line that brings you from place to place like Tera or Rift, but where Guild Wars 2 really shines is that you'll NEVER make it from place to place without some dynamic event making itself available to you. Not only that, but the first quest I ever did was a series of riddles. It wasn't the biggest deal, but it felt fresh. Then, while I was moving to find the next "point of interest" on the map I got a notification that a new event was nearby. "Oooh... what's this?" I had to kill stampeding minotaurs. A circle appeared on my mini map where they could be found and I went after them. When I got there someone else was killing them to, so I just watched. That person laughed at me when I asked if I could join the quest because EVERYONE WHO HELPS KILL A MOB GETS CREDIT. That means when a big group boss is hanging around I can just wait for other people to engage and jump right in! No need to fight over camps or spawns... it feels like we're all in this together. Kill stealing is a thing of the past.
After a half hour or so I was so lost in a series of dynamic events that I didn't know which way was up... but I sure as hell was happy. No more quest log cluttering up half my map when I'm across the world from the target... the game is super slick about the UI. It makes a ton of sense and leaves you to just go out and explore the world.
Oh, and if you have a new friend join and you want to quest with them... you can... because the game automatically "de-levels" you to the zone you're in... so the days of "uh... I didn't get xp from that mob... you are too high for me to group with you" are OVER. The game also knows that at level 10 you've got more skills and gear than a level 5, so when you go back to a 1 - 5 zone it will drop you to 3 instead of 5... which makes sense. I don't know exactly how that works, but it is AWESOME that I can play with whoever I want even if I end up having more time to play than they do.
I play on Yak's Bend which was listed as "Very High" population and it shows. There are people EVERYWHERE... and I've had more interactions with people in one day of Guild Wars 2 than I have had total in Tera. I can't say that this game is perfect for me or that I'll enjoy it beyond leveling and some PvP (WvWvW or whatever), but right now... I'm just super excited to log back in... it's great!
Look out for Guild Wars 2 on stream... and a much better post about Guild Wars 2 soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment