This past weekend I had the opportunity to play through Episode 3 of the Season 1 rerelease, Clockwork Chaos. This is the first time Guild Wars 2 players will have been able to play through this content since it was first released and features the first appearance of Scarlet, whose impact on the story of GW2 has resonated throughout the years. However, anyone who started after Season 1 has only heard about what she did. Now those players will be able to experience her firsthand.
This episode combines some of the events from the Queen’s Jubilee and the original Clockwork Chaos from Season 1. It was a bit odd to be in the Queen’s Pavilion when the gauntlet and everything else wasn’t active, but since this story is all instanced when in Divinity’s Reach, it worked well enough. There is also a two-week time skip in the story, which was a bit jarring, but that’s how it worked originally. The first part of the story was told with the Queen’s Jubilee release on August 6th 2013, and the second part came out on August 20th 2013. This is one area where the gap in the story lets it breathe a bit more.
My memory of the second half of this story was entirely off; in fact, I forgot an entire section of this storyline existed. I thought we only ever saw a glimpse of Scarlet from afar, and she taunted us during this storyline. I was completely mistaken about that. Somehow, I also completely forgot about Faren’s involvement, which is, as always, a delight. It is a little sad that we didn’t get to do the whole election event between Kiel and Gnashblade again, but I don’t know how it would be possible to recreate that entirely. After all, that in particular was a huge event that the entire GW2 community participated in, and you can’t just have everyone recast their votes.
Despite my faulty memory, replaying this storyline was a delight, and spending more time with Logan, Rox, and Braham back before all the things happened is a treat. It’s easy to forget how much they have grown over the years. It’s easy to discount some of those changes when they happen slowly right in front of you over the years. Comparing them to how they are after End of Dragons is staggering. I mean, Rox had a brash impulsive side to her back then. That’s crazy.
As we get further into the story of Season 1, the stakes consistently keep increasing, and each update gets better and better. Although the original Season 1 started slow and sometimes a bit incoherent, we are now at the point where everything started to get interesting. Additionally, we are on the cusp of the update I am most looking forward to seeing: The Tower of Nightmares. Let’s go!
