GW2 Content Update - What Lies Beneath Update

[PACOX]

I still haven't done the recent story but it does seem to be a 2 week cadence

https://twitter.com/GuildWars2/statu...15460888248321


Now this could just be flavor text/dialogue or playable stuff. Anet has done both in the past. I'm still thinking the make will slowly expand like the season 2 and IBS maps.

[Edge-]

I still haven't done the recent story but it does seem to be a 2 week cadence

https://twitter.com/GuildWars2/statu...15460888248321


Now this could just be flavor text/dialogue or playable stuff. Anet has done both in the past. I'm still thinking the make will slowly expand like the season 2 and IBS maps.

So...audio logs are nice and all I guess, but man this doesn't really seem like it does much to clear up the continuing confusion and frustration in Anet's poor rollout of their new post-launch support.

But hey, their MTX team is crushing it. Yes, I totally bought one of those noodle shop chairs and seeing little "noodle districts" pop up around cities is great. I love that you can use it as a way to teleport people around, as well.

[Scyth]

That noodle shop chair was an insta buy for me as well. One of the coolest items they have released imo

[Edge-]

And part 2 is going live today. Final story update of the expansion, and I think only one more fractal is coming before they announce/ship the next expansion.

Doubt I'll play through starting today but will try to give it spin by the weekend to see if the second half improves upon the first. Wasn't a huge fan of the first half.

[PACOX]

Twitch drops are also live. Also also EOD is sale.


Haven't played part 1 yet after people said they cleared it all in 20 min, figured I would just wait until the entire thing was out. Will probably play it this weekend.

[Edge-]

Twitch drops are also live. Also also EOD is sale.


Haven't played part 1 yet after people said they cleared it all in 20 min, figured I would just wait until the entire thing was out. Will probably play it this weekend.

Story is maybe 30m-1h tops. It's nice, just super short. Apparently they've been dropping audio logs since then (placed throughout the zone every few weeks) but meh, it's a cool idea but I can't be bothered to remember to log in and look where the latest one is etc. etc.

I'm hoping this one has a bit more meat on it and a better finish, since this is the actual end of this little arc and not just the "To be continued" bit.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I completed the new episode.

That was... well...

This patch dropped on the same day as a new FFXIV patch. I played GW2 first because I thought that there would be actual gameplay, and new high fantasy places to visit.

The episode begins with 10 minutes of standing around listening to Gorrik's journal. *snooze*

The episode was insufferable. More wanking about how the commander has "endured so much" and their "trauma". The first hour of the episode is a crappy attempt at a nostalgia trip. Kissing up to mass murderers, more Blish, etc.

I was expecting a new map, or a second half of the zone to be added like Drizzlewood Coast. What you get is just a tiny sliver of a corridor.




I didn't care about this Yao or Cho-Mool stuff at all.

The demon was very underwhelming.

I guess the dinner date at the end was funny. At least we're not called the Friend's Detective agency anymore.

Disappointing, both gameplay and story wise. No new high fantasy zones to visit, non-threatening enemies, and insufferable millennial writing. The future does not bode well for this game.

[Edge-]

ooph, seeing lots of folks being pretty disappointed. And adjusting expectations, fuck it I may as well play through it sooner rather than later.

I hope this isn't indicative of the quality and scope of updates in general with this new non-LS structure. Feels like after Anet finally seemed to get back on track with the return of Colin and Grouch to give some direction to the 20+ year old studio as they work on their 10+ year old game, but that it's once again searching for a direction and way to sustainably support and grow the game.

As much as things change, oh how they appear to stay the same. Will post again once I've started playing through.

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Thoughts as I play through with some spoiler text -

Starting it by just listening to a bunch of audio logs is really engaging story delivery. I get it, they released these bi-weekly between the last update and this one, but /snooze

So the central point is still trauma and stuff as with the last episode, but holy shit the demon literally targeting/feeding on trauma/stress is the most hilariously stupid shit that I can't believe Anet is trying to have us take seriously in any capacity.. This is just kinda shockingly "bleh" of a direction after EoD.

Yao still sucks ass and is boring as fuck. Why the fuck is the first "trauma dump stop" for the commander Mai Trin's memorial? I get it, fits thematically but is her death really that traumatic to the commander? Didn't we kill her Fractal-self like a bajillion times already?

Not a fan of the early bits of this update so far, bleh.

Rofl, stopped by the Tarir meta, why would you do this Anet.

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Finished up the main story and...it was fine. Shorter than part 1 and similar in terms of having some good moments and some bad ones. Kinda grew on me overall, it just embraced the silly and stupid. Like, you're in a robot using emotions to fight demonic manifestations of your fucking stress. THAT IS OBJECTIVELY FUCKING FUNNY, Y'ALL. Rama literally jokes that you defeated the demon with the power of positive thinking even. All with the fairly silly and lighthearted date night at the end

I need to do the open world meta to see how that is, but beyond that whatever. It's not really good and it absolutely feels smaller than the fist part, but it's...fine. I hope we get to stick with this crew for a while though (minus Yao).

[Selah]

Just did my play through the story last night. Rough stuff. I was interested to see where they were going to take the whole thing with the commander but instead they just said "go to therapy" and then the whole damn thing became one giant therapy session. Except they decided to go with the whole "just think happy thoughts to make the bad feelings go away" route which was worse. The date was good and actually funny watching Rama squirm a bit. Glad at least Gorrik and Taimi are actually happening finally. Although, I think my favorite part was finding the Cho-Mool/Sylvari romance novel. Was better writing than the story for certain.

My question is, is this really the end of EoD and it's story? I feel like there's a lot of strings floating out there to be resolved. I'm still pretty new to A-net and their dev cycle but from what I'm understanding... it's been pretty rough for a long time.

[Scyth]

I haven't finished part 2 yet but part 1 was underwhelming and very disappointing and everything points to this being the same, unfortunately.
Genuinely hope this isn't what we will be getting with their new model. Even the most hardcore of fans would find it hard to keep playing and defending anet if that is the case.

Wonder if this new update they have planned in the summer will take us out of Cantha or if we unlock more maps there. I love the Asian theme so personally hope we stay in Cantha for longer lol

[Edge-]

Just did my play through the story last night. Rough stuff. I was interested to see where they were going to take the whole thing with the commander but instead they just said "go to therapy" and then the whole damn thing became one giant therapy session. Except they decided to go with the whole "just think happy thoughts to make the bad feelings go away" route which was worse. The date was good and actually funny watching Rama squirm a bit. Glad at least Gorrik and Taimi are actually happening finally. Although, I think my favorite part was finding the Cho-Mool/Sylvari romance novel. Was better writing than the story for certain.

My question is, is this really the end of EoD and it's story? I feel like there's a lot of strings floating out there to be resolved. I'm still pretty new to A-net and their dev cycle but from what I'm understanding... it's been pretty rough for a long time.

Snargle is a fucking gem, I'm glad I took the time to skim/read some of those lore books and that they made him a bigger part of the story. Otherwise yeah, I get why Anet wanted to tackle this subject matter but it was just so incredibly "mehly" done to the point where it's an almost offensive look at dealing with stress/trauma.

Otherwise yes, supposedly this is the end of EoD's story. We may stay in Cantha for the next expansion (I hope so, really disappointed we haven't been able to explore more of the continent yet) but nobody quite knows. There are a few strings left and all but Anet does that a lot so they may never be picked up. The expansion very much doesn't end with any breadcrumbs, just that twitter audio teaser.

As far as Anet and all...yeah they've had huge ups and downs. Pre-EoD was rough, they were doing a big free narrative arc that they basically killed halfway through to pull all the team to work on EoD, though at the same time the studio finally got some leads after years of "who's in charge?". EoD was good, we had steady updates last year with the return of S1, and since then the studio has had some shifts so it's a bit in flux again (Expansion is in full production, there's a UE5 project in the works). These updates are the first in their "new" approach to supporting the game - they're ditching quarterly living story episodes and instead having more flexible updates that will deliver a core set of content (a few maps, more story, strikes, fractals etc.) alongside more frequent, smaller scale expansions.

It's not a great start to the new plan so far : /

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I love the Asian theme so personally hope we stay in Cantha for longer lol

I too would like to explore more high eastern-fantasy zones, though who knows if the next bite sized DLC will be set in Cantha or somewhere else. I wish we had gotten a proper map set on the surface of the Jade Sea that we could explore. It's a waste for the Jade Sea to only be the last 1/3rd of a non-exploration map that revolves around a meta event. It's strange, because EoD had a lot of Jade Seat surface concept art and you think "wow! That's a cool place I want to visit!", and then you can't.

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[Edge-]

Wow the actual meta itself seems...shockingly bad?

I'll spoiler tag this in case anyone hasn't played it yet and is interested. This is purely gameplay discussiong.

So...collect orbs. Repeatedly. Do it more. And more. And again. And then get a gun and shooty bang at a boss. There's something happening to the side there but it doesn't seem to matter. Keep collecting orbs and shooty bang. Hooray! I hope they tune down turn in requirements across the board by like 25%. I'm glad the turtle is getting some use and all, but damn that was like way longer than it should have been, especially after how bleh the first bit is. And unsurprisingly basically 2 PoI's and that's it for that little strip.

Seems to be plenty of chievos, will have to look later to see if anything appeals to me. I don't mind the short story so much and especially if you turn your brain off for the second half. But this meta is just bleh.

[MisterHypocrisy]

I too would like to explore more high eastern-fantasy zones, though who knows if the next bite sized DLC will be set in Cantha or somewhere else. I wish we had gotten a proper map set on the surface of the Jade Sea that we could explore. It's a waste for the Jade Sea to only be the last 1/3rd of a non-exploration map that revolves around a meta event. It's strange, because EoD had a lot of Jade Seat surface concept art and you think "wow! That's a cool place I want to visit!", and then you can't.

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Beautiful screenshots