IGN Article - Guild Wars: Eye of the North Dungeon Crawl

http://pc.ign.com/articles/793/793584p1.html

Amazingly, the article actually decreased my interest in GW:EN.

There's also a video with the article: http://media.pc.ign.com/media/896/896299/vids_1.html

So, in GWEN, how many skills on our 8 bar skill-slot will actually be from our professions?

Sounds like more annoying NPCs. Other than that, I'm getting more excited.

"Actions have permanence, so if your guide gets crushed by a rock trap, eaten by a monster, or immolated by lava, that's it. You're on your own."

Hahahahaha! That's gonna be awesome!!

HOW can you say that? Have you seen the video? The art and expanses shown are simply breathtaking. Reading-wise, the article offers more of what was really already said in the PC Gamer article.

If this new chapter isnt gonna excite people, mebe they should just call it quits eh?

cheers.

I'm still as excited as I'll ever be, the only thing that could get me more pumped is some new armor screenshots (please please please something cool for assassins, like the one shown next to the Norn is wearing)

I agree. if this were the case in Prophecies, Rurik sure wouldn't have made it close to the Frost Gate. and Togo would have been blessed to make it off newbie island.

My interest remains the same for GWEN. I'm rather old school in RPGs. I seriously fear the effects of closed quarters combat for a game like Guild Wars though. I've seen what Madness Titans can do in a field.

Edit: @Nevin: I'll be happy with some decent looking male Elementalist armor. Decent is all that I ask.

The new chapter will just be a few more hours of dull pve for $30, a total waste and a fitting end to a game that has been ruined by the developers

I could say the same for your funeral troll. Go get farmed.

i like this news, kill the npcs early on and get them out of the way. not like now where npcs die and you start over.

But yeah, it actually sounds rather interesting.

I love the sound of that. Dungeons. No more skirting around patrols. I wonder how if rangers could still shoot arrows properly inside dungeons. Lack of visibility. How could elementalists call forth their meteor showers? Lol!

I love the Heket in the video.

the video=aweome beyond belief

was that an ele using a fire wand and a shield?

hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

thats seriously what i thought of when i was readin about eggs and spiders

hahahaha

I am soooooo taming on of these dinosaurs .Other than that,GJ on the scenery Anet

When they were describing how different the dungeons would be from Elona, like how they would be claustrophobic, I kept think Kaineng, Kaineng, Kaineng.

I'd rather be in Kaineng than Elona. Bring on the dungeons!

Think Catacombs

Cantha looks much better than Elona imo...

It's taking forever for me to load the video

Perhaps with the importance of Guides the PUG will become important again despite HERO's?

Also is that one of the new ELE armors? In the video..

To each's own. Elona has some equally beautiful areas.

Every time I think to myself: There is absolutely no way that ArenaNet can outdo itself in the pretty factor for it's next release. Yet somehow it always happens...

Those dungeons remind me of diablo 2 for some reason. Not sure why though.

So the new dungeons are reminiscent to what we have seen before in Sorrows Furnace, & Urgoz Warren/The Deep; with a bit of an upgrade in mechanics and artistic style? If it’s close to being Sorrows Furnace it is not necessarily a bad thing. That leaves the question how much will EotN be indoors and how much out doors. Is it like 50/50 or 20/80?

Its just completely awesome. Imagine what GW2 is going to look like ? Heck yeah, sign me up !

I really have to agree. My primary character is a male Elementalist and it'd be nice to have some armor like the male Assassin's Vabbian Chest and Pants. Though I doubt it'll happen but they will make sure the female Elementalist and Mesmers get some more swimsuits and nightgowns to wear.

Sadly, I'm sure you're right. I'd love to see some nice form fitting outfits for the male characters for a change, specifically for the Elementalists... but it seems the horney/desperate heterosexuals on the design team are only interested in ogling the female characters in more unrealistically skimpy lingerie. I doubt we'll ever get sexy outfits for the guys, despite how much many of us would like to see that (90% of everyone in my guild for example) but I guess ArenaNet is just too close-minded and/or homophobic.

I hope its no more than 50/50. I was rather expecting wintery landscapes, tundra, heavy forests, frozen fjords and the like. Dungeons would be interesting I suppose. Not sure I'd like to see a majority of dungeon crawling though.

Shame that the article doesn't give out any real new info on how the dungeons will work. Still no explanation of 'multilevel'. We only know they're chained instances and that the game remembers dying npcs in one instance when enterring a following one.

From screenshots and video we can see the dungeons are very Sorrows Furnace-ish (a good thing) and have a great variety of styles distinguishing them from each other.

@ Loki & Rohan - You guys beat me to the punch by four hours. I'm hoping to find a smartgun or two in some of that 'phat loot'.

I'm not sure what you're looking for Yaw - The dungeons are connected by asuran gates, and you have chained instances and NPCs that, when they die, stay dead as you've pointed out. What else would you want to know? I'm sure they'll have traps and pitfalls like you would find in any other d20 out there.

Can't be sure, but I'm guessing thats one of the guides the article mentions, since she seems to be holding a torch.

AoE will be crazy, SS and Eles will utterly destroy dense packs of mobs in a narrow tunnel. However twisting passages can make vanquishing an even bigger pain.

Looks like the level design will be exactly the same as it's always been. I've been in plenty of caves before. Asura Gates = zone portals.

It sounds like they just removed the quest markers so you're forced to "explore" to get to the next outpost while in a dungeon, if you haven't kept your pet NPC alive. You know what that means... lots and lots of wiki referencing! I hope by "dungeon" that they don't mean they'll remove maps like they do for UW, FoW and Abaddon's realm. I get sick of that crap.

It kind of sounds like they're removing navigation functionality to try to force players to experience the environment. Which to me, I'd go out and explore their maps if they'd actually put something worth having in them, besides buttloads of snare-heavy monsters intent on making me waste four minutes to slaughter them all for 24 gold and a req 10 fire wand.

Remove all the monsters (make them optional spawns) and place lots of puzzles and secrets and triggers that unlock other things throughout the game, and then it'll be fun to explore every corner of a map. As it is, in Guild Wars I find getting somewhere to be a chore. It's kind of funny how looking at how popular running was, that ANet has ignored WHY it was popular, and just made it unnecessary by funneling the player through town after town via mandatory quests.

Really, finding secrets and treasure isn't all that exciting when you can just wiki all the places worth visiting, so you don't have to waste time "having fun" with mobs of a dozen level 28 whatevers. I think that's the bottom line. It's only fun the first time, figuring out something on your own. After a week, people have already done it, so you can just look up the solution online or ask the guy in your party that's already run two of his characters through the storyline. And the only way to prevent that is to just... not ask anyone.

Even though it's an expansion, I really hope EotN doesn't feel like all of the chapters have, like you're trudging through mobs just to get to the next town, rather than freely exploring beautiful landscapes. I really enjoyed places like Majesty's Rest, where the environment is beautiful, and isn't peppered with a sea of red.

Underground = no map, so I guess you'll probably hate it.

Sounds like fire nukers won't be to usefull here ^^

I was really hoping for some kind of instanced random dungeon map generator, but the article didn't even hint at it. After all, how much fun can you have exploring the same static zones over and over? Even older games like Diablo1+2, Everquest, etc... managed to pull it of, so why can't GW:EN???

Static content with fixed maps = boring. Randomized dungeon generation grants far more re-playability with the elements of surprise. If GW:EN wants to have dungeon-crawl, it would greatly benefit from using this time-proven technique.

At 1:45....that rhino.....will be my pet.

Ok, besides all the nerfing and other stuff people dislike...
You've gotta give Anet credits for the amazing designs in this game, just look at the dungeons, they look beautiful! And yesss, I hope that rhino is a pet *evil laughter*

After watching that video...I know where my new home will be for my characters...
UNDERGROUND DUNGEON LEVELS FTW!!!

I do hope they include maps for the dungeons. Even DnD dungeons had revealable maps to make it through the labyrinthean area.

At ~00:40 there looked to be an elevator, I wonder if we can ride those?