A Deep Dive

The underwater combat in Guild Wars 2 isn't as good as the game's regular combat, but it's by far the best I've seen in an MMO.

A lot of MMOs don't even bother with underwater combat.  A character in Fallen Earth couldn't enter any body of water - regardless of how shallow it was - but seeing as that game was mainly set in an irradiated desert wasteland it's understandable that the devs decided not to include swimming.  There's not much water in space either, and that's perhaps why the rivers in The Old Republic are only ankle deep.  I'd give them a pass on that, except that this also applies to oceans.

Perhaps the strangest example of an MMO not offering underwater combat is City of Heroes.  This is a game that effortlessly handles combat in the air, so it's perhaps surprising that there was never any option to take the fight into the deeps, especially after the Rogue Isles became the second main setting.  There are one or two maps where it is possible to swim underwater for short distances, but otherwise a character stays on the surface when swimming.  Maybe the devs just really hated Aquaman.

Of the few games that do explore the depths the other ones that come to mind are World of Warcraft and RIFT.  In WoW the movement and combat isn't so much underwater as it is Zero-G and every ability works much as it would on land, including the ones that really shouldn't.  RIFT takes a similar approach, though that game's animations aren't quite so smoothly adapted to the watery environment.  Guild Wars 2 wins this one by dint of being one of the few to really make the effort to have underwater combat feel like it's actually taking place underwater.

Not that it doesn't cheat a bit.  Just as the story in GW2 is subordinate to the gameplay so is realism, and my character can swim and fight in full chainmail armour with ease.  Likewise there's a few abilities that probably shouldn't work like they do underwater.  Even so, just the fact of having to swap to a different weapon - and therefore a whole different set of attacks - goes a long way to making it feel like a different experience from fighting on dry land.  Way back during my original run of the game in 2013 or so I'd went with a ranged weapon - it was the first one I'd picked up and truth be told I'm not sure I realised back then that there were alternatives - but this time I've gone with a spear, which I find much more effective.

In between quests for the Durmond Priory and after my exploration of the Shiverpeaks and Ascalon I'd moved on to Bloodtide Coast, which offered plenty of opportunities to explore beneath the waves.  There's a lot down there, including one area which surprised me with how deep it was, and then I found it went down even further.  It's quite something to discover entire locations that are barely hinted at on the map.

Locations which I'm free to explore at my own pace - endlessly respawning Risen Krait notwithstanding - because Guild Wars 2 doesn't mess around with breath meters.  Every character has access to a rebreather that takes away the timed factor of underwater sequences in many games.*  Since this is almost always just a nuisance it's another very welcome example of GW2 breaking with the norms in the name of smoother gameplay.

*I played a lot of Tomb Raider in the '90s, and never did understand why Lara would kill enemy divers and then not take their scuba gear.  It's like she enjoyed drowning...

I've finished this second run of Guild Wars 2 at level 56, which means that if I continue to level at this pace - and I've seen no indication it's slowing down - then I'll hit max level toward the end of my next run.  I could be there much sooner since the game has been handing out XP boosts like they're going out of fashion and I now have ten instant levels sitting in my bank.  I don't plan on using them though, and will likely wait until after I reach 80 and then exchange them for spirit shards.  I have a natural aversion to level boosting and in any case I'm still enjoying my travels through the zones of the game, having added 100% completion of Harathi Hinterlands and Bloodtide Coast to those I did the last time.

This isn't a game in which I pay much attention to the rate at which I gain XP.  The only time I really have is when I was level 49 and was counting down to when I'd hit 50 so that I could equip several pieces of gear that I'd picked up as drops from fighting higher level mobs.  Other than that levelling has been something that happens in the background while I'm playing the game, rather than being something I'm actively working toward.  That's my usual approach, but rarely has a game felt so in tune with it.

Guild Wars 2 continues to occupy an odd place in my personal heirarchy of favourite MMOs.  It's extremely well made, excels in many areas and basically does nothing wrong so far as I've seen.  Even the things I don't like seem more like personal quibbles than anything I'd say is objectively bad.  I do like this game but I feel like I should love it and I just don't.  I'm not altogether sure why that should be.

Maybe it's the core gameplay loop, which remains repetitive at times.  Maybe it's the lack of immersion that leaves me viewing almost everything first and foremost in terms of game mechanics.  Maybe it's some lingering subconscious resentment of all things NCSoft.  I can't say.

Maybe it doesn't matter though, since despite the increasing competition for a slot in each of my six game rotations I came back to Guild Wars 2 as soon as my schedule allowed, and may do so again next time.  From that alone I can say this game is definitely doing something right.