Last year I was blown away at how fun and original the Halloween event was. My expectations were pretty high, as every holiday event kept delivering, as did the other Living Story events. Here we are working on the second year of Guild Wars 2, and so far Halloween is a bust! It's the month of October, the time for for us all to face our greatest nightmares. While we aren't getting our scares from the Halloween event, perhaps we will get spooked by ArenaNet's newest tale, Tower of Nightmares! It seems like it’ll come right in time for Halloween too, so maybe ArenaNet was just trying to catch us napping?
While the Halloween event itself failed to impress, perhaps an interesting Living Story event will make things better. The best part is, it seems this event is going to be creepy. The Krait have been an amazing race to fight against since the original games, but they were never put in the spotlight. It seems that now is their time to shine, or in this case glow. The Krait have constructed what looks like a massive tower that hides a great evil. Perhaps they have found dark magics in a new type of plant. It's too early to tell now, but the effects this evil has on the Krait appears to transform them into something more powerful.
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What could cause the Krait to undergo this strange transformation?
With these new transformed Krait, we may see a new fighting style from this old enemy. After traveling the lands of Tyria, I find myself needing new enemies to conquer. I hear similar complaints from other grand master explorers of Tyria. While a glowing Krait is still a Krait, at least I won't know what to expect this time around.
A new healing skill called Antitoxin is being given to players to combat the many conditions one can suffer from. With the fact that this skill is being given to every profession, I think it's safe to say that the Krait transformations may do a lot of poison, and toxin attacks, since they now glow a bright green. Everyone knows a bright green enemy deals poison damage.
I do wonder whether this event sports a new temporary dungeon, or offers a new open world set of dynamic events for large groups to try and conquer. I'm actually hoping for a more open world experience. Judging by the size of this construct, I'd prefer to bring a large group of players rather than just bringing a few of my friends. No offense to my guild or anything, but this thing is pretty huge!
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How did the Krait build this without us even noticing it?
There is a good chance the story of this event may start with an instance, to show us what exactly is going on. ArenaNet has really improved how they use instances to tell their stories. They actually went back to their roots, using the same methods we saw in the original Guild Wars. Due to this change, I no longer groan due to static characters standing face to face in a robotic manner. The game feels more cinematic now, making instances more acceptable.
I'm very excited for this event, but I'm not sure if it's what I want. I'm still craving for some Halloween fun. They introduced a whole new character, the Bloody Prince, opening up a whole new world of possibilities. But all we got in Blood and Madness was maybe 6 minutes of brand new content. I'm still hungry, and no amount of candy corn will fill me.
Judging by the trailer and the screenshots we've seen, this may be the answer to giving players their Halloween scare fix. While that plan sounds right in my head, I'm not sure I like it. Especially with both events overlapping at the same time. I just hope that holiday events aren't going to be dulled down just to give more attention to the chaos that Scarlet is causing. A lot of players like the character, but we do need a fun little break from all the serious stuff every once in a while.
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The only thing creepier than a glowing snake person is a porcelain doll. I swear those things are actually alive!
No matter what, Tower of Nightmares is something to be excited about. It's offering a new type of condition, a brand new place of power for the home instance, and the possibility of a good story. Sure it isn't actually Halloween themed, but it may be good enough to send some shivers down our spines. When green glowing Krait are involved, how could you not be scared?
David North / David North is a freelance writer for MMORPG.com. David loves to play and makes games, but now he writes about them! If you want to creep on him and make fun of his ability to draw, follow him over on twitter @David_the_North.
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