Guild Wars 2 trailer prepares to storm the 'Gates of Maguuma'

Guild Wars 2's next season of The Living World story arc debuts on July 1 and a new trailer builds to its arrival, while Arenanet further explains the story journal to Shacknews.

Ozzie Mejia

June 24, 2014 6:00 AM

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A good amount of time has passed since Guild Wars 2 ended its first season of The Living World. But even though the wicked Scarlet Briar has fallen, the story is far from over. Season 2 is ready to pick up right where Scarlet's downfall led off and NCSoft has released a new trailer to build some anticipation for the July 1 premiere.

The trailer for the first episode, titled "Gates of Maguuma," reveals that there's still trouble brewing near the Brisban Wildlands. Players will find themselves working with friends and party members to storm Maguuma and confront the source of the disturbance.

The first episode of the new season will debut Guild Wars 2's new story journal feature. The folks at ArenaNet were happy to discuss this aspect of the game in a private meeting during E3.

"The story journal is basically a way for you to manage all the episodes from Season 2 forward," GW2 Living World asociate game director Steven Waller told Shacknews. "It's got controls that you could liken to DVR-like functionality, where when you log in while the release is live, generally during a two-week window, you'll be able to bank that episode into your story journal and, from there, you'll be able to choose when to play the episode. When you click the 'Play This Episode' button, all of your UI and direction tools will tell you how to get started on that episode's story and you have the ability to replay the content."

The first episode of Season 2 will also debut some all-new achievements, many of which become available following the episode's first playthrough. Example scenarios include taking out a boss without taking damage or completing the episode within a certain time window. The idea is to challenge players and push them to their limits, rewarding them with special loot for successful completion of these tasks.

The new season of Guild Wars 2 kicks off next week. To get you ready, watch the new Season 2 trailer below. If you need a refresher, the Season 1 recap is also available below.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?