I'll come right out and say it. Guild Wars 2 was my favorite game of PAX. It's strange to say that because I'm honestly not a fan of MMOs. I find them to be plodding, repetitious, and lacking in the rewards that other games provide. I didn't find anything to change my mind when I played Final Fantasy XIV and while it was great to be part of the Star Wars universe in The Old Republic, it still felt like any other MMO. Neither had anything in their demos that truly pulled me in. But when it came time to take a look at Guild Wars 2, I was absolutely hooked by its live demonstration, forty minute demo, and truly engaging features.

Guild Wars 2 picks up 250 years after the original game and human dominance has waned considerably, allowing four other races to come to power: the Asura, the Charr, the Norn, and the Sylvari. The passage of time has allowed for new technologies to be created and these technologies are used by some of the races more than others. It is the player's overall goal to unite the races in order to combat the widespread destruction caused by the awakening of the five elder dragons. All five of the races will be playable and will feature a variety of skills to differentiate them slightly between one another. The Asura used to live underground but were forced to the surface and have carved out an existence for themselves thanks to their incredible intelligence and understanding of combining technology with magic. The Charr are a feline-like warrior race that was once splintered but have been able to unite under one leader to gain power in the world. The Norn are nine-foot tall nomadic race who can transform into anthropomorphic animals and have a strict code of honor, making them view those possessing of strength with reverence. The Sylvari are a newer plant-like race that has a strong bond with nature and feel that it is their innate duty to defeat the elder dragon scourge. Each race can pick one of eight professions though only four have been revealed so far: Elementalists, Warriors, Rangers, and Necromancers.

With that background explained, I was first given the opportunity to watch a live demonstration provided by the developers. They chose a high level Charr Warrior and entered a massive valley that was covered by dark and ominous clouds. In the middle of this area was an absolutely huge dragon, easily twenty to thirty times the size of the player character. Amazingly the developers said that this dragon was small compared to the immensity of the elder dragons. This beast was just as big and tough as any boss monster found in World of Warcraft except that this wasn't an instance. This Shatter Dragon, as it was called, had shown up in the normal play area and anyone who stumbled upon it could join in the fight to take it down. There wouldn't be any need to prepare for it either as everyone could quickly find a role to fill. Some could fight the Shatter Dragon directly, some could take down the minions it spawned, some could move special totems nearer to allies to apply buffs, some could mount nearby cannon emplacements to do heavy damage to the dragon, and some could defend those on the cannons since they were completely open to attacks. It was a thing of beauty as the demonstrator joined forces with players back at the office and the gamers who went to this section of the demo on the show floor. It took close to thirty minutes but the Shatter Dragon was eventually brought down.

Now a half hour fight against a huge dragon sounds fun at first but by the end it would seem repetitious and boring. Buff your team, debuff the enemy, pull aggro, heal, and deal damage; repeat these until you win. I think that's a lot of the reason I couldn't get into other MMOs. Strangely, in Guild Wars 2 this doesn't seem to be the case. Even just watching the battle I was completely entertained the entire time. The main reason for this was because of all the new systems at work. For one, every character has two weapon sets and abilities available to them at any time that can be switched on the fly. In the case of the Warrior, he could use a long range weapon until the enemy got close and then pull out his axe to finish the job. In the case of the Elementalist that I was able to play as later, I could change between fire and water magic. Another new element is that some skills could be charged in order to perform a more powerful attack. It's a simple addition but it certainly makes the player feel more involved with battles. Attacks from two different classes could also be combined for a brand new move. In this case an Elementalist cast a wall of fire that the Warrior could pass through with his whirling axe attack in order to send large fireballs everywhere. It's a great idea and makes me extremely curious to just how many different attacks can be combined in the game.

Then there were the abilities that all professions and races would have access to. The most surprising of these was the fact that everyone could heal themselves or others and revive other players. What that means is that there's no devoted healer profession in Guild Wars 2. Everyone can take care of themselves or help another player if the need arises. Even if a player is reduced to zero hit points, he has one more chance. That player is reduced to a downed state where he only has so much time to kill another monster using four special downed abilities to replenish a small amount of health. Another player could also heal the downed player during this time limit to eliminate this need. If neither happens, the player can wait for someone to revive him or pay a small fee to come back to life. Finally, positioning matters in the game as each player can roll in any direction to avoid enemy attacks. When I was able to try it for myself I thought it'd be a simple gimmick that didn't really help but enemy attacks will miss if you dodge at the right time. Eventually I found myself firing off a few spells before dodging away from a charging attack with a simple double tap of a direction. The feature gives each battle a great sense of style rather than just standing there taking damage and hoping for a miss. Finally, every event like the one against the Shatter Dragon will scale accordingly so it's never too easy and there's always a feeling that it is appropriately epic. And as long as a player has actively participated in a fight then they will be awarded with loot. It's random as far as what each player gets but everyone will get something that matches the difficulty of the enemy.

When the live demo ended, it was finally my turn to play. I began by creating my character and while I couldn't change my look, I could choose many other aspects of my character, particularly his background. I ended up creating a human Elementalist who grew up in the country and always regretted never saving his sister from monsters. He had an affinity for fire magic though I could still use wind, water, and earth magic. I also chose my patron god to watch over my character. I'm not exactly sure what all this background information will eventually cause in my character's story, but it did feel good to already have an established history going into the game.

The demo began with my character at level 10 and arriving at a village besieged by centaurs. A fully voiced cutscene (including my character) played out where the local captain of the guard asks you to tell the villagers to meet at the town hall before helping push back the centaurs. I quickly rescued three villagers and took the fight to the enemy. They weren't particularly difficult but they were all over the village. It didn't take long for me to be blown away by the combat. I only had two fire and two water spells at my disposal, but I felt incredibly powerful. My attacks were visually impressive and made short work of anything I came across. The pacing made everything feel fast, fun, and immediate as other players and I pushed our way to the village gates and took out the remaining centaurs. However, an earth elemental appeared brandishing a giant stone fist, and we were forced to defeat it as well. We were able to take him down, but his death explosion knocked my character out in the process. I awoke with the town saved and just beginning the process of rebuilding. I had leveled up and could increase my stats however I wanted; and had also received some loot. Around the village I could buy new weapons, armor, and skills so I picked up a new area of effect fire spell and began looking for new quests.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that all available quests were marked on the map and transitioning between this and the game screen was fast, fluid, and reminiscent of the mechanic in Valkyria Chronicles. I also discovered that there was an in-game achievement list as well as smaller daily achievements that would reward players with money and common loot. It's a nice little system that helps reinforce players along the way. Guild Wars 2 doesn't want to beat you down, it wants to encourage players to take risks, explore, and have fun.

There's so much more to discover about Guild Wars 2 that it still feels like I've barely scratched the surface. The game looks gorgeous, it plays fantasticly well, and I didn't want to stop playing when my time was up. Like I said, I'm not a fan of MMOs, but I cannot wait to play more of this one. It's hard to believe that there will be no monthly fee to experience all of this great content. The only unfortunate thing is that the release date is still unknown, and a beta has yet to be announced. Still, I'm hoping I'll be able to play more soon and that everyone else can dive into this fantastic experience by the end of next year.