Massive Attack
Engineering
Solut ion s
We grab our turrets and explosives, and take on GUILD WARS 2’s
dungeons as the gun-toting Engineer profession by Josh Augustine
I claim this land in the name of PC Gamer!” With 15 mines, four Rifle Turrets, three Healing Turrets, and four Engineers armed to the teeth with flamethrowers and explosives standing in a close circle around it, I dared anyone to try to take it from us. Then a ghost cast fear on our entire group, forcing our
characters to run off the edge of the nearby cliff and plummet into
the poisoned water below.
“
In every war there are regrettable civilian
casualties. At least this one gives us bacon!
Underwater, the Engi uses a speargun,
torpedoes, and depth charges.
Cutscenes smoothly mix concept art
with character models to great effect.
When in doubt, you can’t go
wrong with the flamethrower.
That humbling experience was just one of many deaths during
my recent trip to ArenaNet’s Seattle office, where I was a part of
the first outside group to play the Ascalon Catacombs dungeon on
both Story and Explorable modes. We tackled Story mode first,
since it’s the easier of the two, it’s designed to be accessible and tell
the game’s lore with beautiful cutscenes.
My group—four Engineers and one Thief—was a fairly odd
combination, and we had some difficulties early on as we tried to
take down the cursed souls of Ascalon’s former inhabitants
that haunt the dungeon’s winding underground catacombs.
d
h
c t
l
a c
Perilous spelunking
Four things I learned about Explorable
mode while dying repeatedly in it:
1. IT’S NOT FOR THE
FAINT OF HEART
We’re talking heroic-level
difficulty, designed for
coordinated groups
working together on
voice chat.
2. IT’S DIFFERENT
Set in the aftermath of
the events in Story mode,
this repeatable version of
the dungeon has completely
different objectives, enemies,
bosses, and story.
3. YOU CAN CHANGE IT
We ran into a camp of three NPCs who each had a different plan
to get at the treasures inside. Our group voted to let the Asari rip
our souls from our bodies (probably not the wisest choice in
hindsight), which set us down one of three entirely separate and
unique wings of the dungeon.
4. I’M NOT A GOOD ARTIST
Being able to draw on the minimap to coordinate your group
before and during battle is awesome. Especially when we had to
defend two soul-sucking machines on opposite sides of a large
cave against marauding reptiles that emerged from burrows
popping up all over the room. And while it’s tempting to draw
smiley faces mid-fight, I learned that doing so will get you yelled
at by your teammates.
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