It’s the year of the dragon – and thus very apt that this year will see the release of Guild Wars 2, the follow-up to ArenaNet’s vastly popular MMORPG that won over many online fans thanks to its subscription-free model, and awesomely fun gameplay.

Even though massively-multiplayer online gaming is somewhat of an acquired taste, Guild Wars allowed you to circumvent the hazards of actually interacting with people online through the use of henchmen and heroes.

And two campaigns and one expansion later, the world of Tyria is set to take a dramatic turn – so prepare yourself – here’s everything you need to know about Guild Wars 2.

Guild Wars

The original game is actually comprised of a few different campaigns, which were all sold as new titles – except for Eye of the North, which was an expansion. Each new game was a separate entity that ran parallel to Prophecies.

The game, overall, consisted of co-op adventuring as well as PvP battles – you customised your character and chose its class before setting out on your adventure.

Prophecies

The original Guild Wars was retrospectively given the campaign title of Prophecies once the game was expanded.

The game centred around your chosen character going about, or rather stumbling about, the continent of Tyria, to fulfil the Flameseeker Prophecies made by an ancient dragon called Glint.

Events take place after ‘the searing’ which sees creatures known as the Charr laying waste to the land.

The game introduced the 6 core classes (Warrior, Ranger, Monk, Elementist, Necromancer and Mesmer).

Factions

Taking place on the continent of Cantha, Factions emphasised the concept of feuding guilds, with the main story (independent from Prophecies) revolving around the rival nations of the Luxons and the Kurzicks, and the return of a disgraced imperial bodyguard called Shiro Tagachi.

Factions introduced two new classes – Assassin and Ritualist.

Nightfall

The Nightfall campaign takes place on the continent of Elona, where as part of the Order of the Sunspears, the player works to prevent the Nightfall – an event that will resurrect a forgotten god, Abaddon.

Nightfall introduced two new classes – Dervish and Paragon, and replaced the NPC ‘henchmen’ with more customizable heroes.

Eye of the North

Eye of the North isn’t a full new campaign, but rather an expansion that serves to bridge the world of Guild Wars to Guild Wars 2.

The expansion introduces new races – namely the Norn, Asura and Sylvari – all of which feature as playable races in the sequel.

The game continued the story of Prophecies – set 8 years after those events, happening across three acts.

A network of tunnels are revealed after an earthquake tears across the continents of Tyria, Cantha and Elona.

Creatures called ‘Destroyers’ start coming out of the crevasses, and through a chain of events, the player uncovers the presence of ‘The Great Destroyer’, who serves as the antagonist for the story.

Guild Wars 2

Guild wars 2 is set in Tyria once again – 250 years after the events in Guild Wars.

Five elder-dragons have awoken from their slumber and are causing mayhen and destruction. Cantha and Elona have been cut off from Tyria, and the once-dominant humans have gone into decline, with nations having split and become isolated.

That’s where you come in – it’s up to you to reunite the guild of Destiny’s Edge – a multi-racial guild that’s representative of the unification of all the playable races.

Your mission? Defeat Zhaitan, the undead Elder Dragon.

Features

• The game will feature real-time 3D environments, updated graphics and animations and a physics system.
• You can choose one of five races: Humans, Charr, Asura, Norn and the new race for the sequel – Sylvari.
• There are eight professions to choose from: Elementist, Warrior, Ranger, Necromancer, Guardian, Thief, Engineer, Mesmer.
• Professions are divided by armour class – Scholars (light armour), Adventurers (medium armour) and Soldiers (heavy armour).
• The healing class has been removed.
• Combat is skills-based, with players able to assign 10 skills to slots – some of which have pre-defined roles.
• There will be fewer skills to choose from than Guild Wars.
• Because of the 250 year gap between Guild Wars, expect very different technology and culture to be present – amongst other things, more advanced weaponry, such as firearms.
• The level cap has been pushed up to 80 (compared to the cap of 20 from Guild Wars).
• In PvP, all skills will be unlocked, and levels will be fixed so that all players will be on equal footing.
• There’s a World PvP feature, which sees large-scale combat happening that players can drop in and out of.
• There will also be an elaborate crafting system and other non-combat interactions in the game, as well as underwater exploration.

Beta

A few journalists and press people were invited to take part in the game’s closed beta this month (February 2012) – more information about the game is likely to surface once whatever embargo on the game is lifted.

The game is set to broaden the beta, opening up to the public in March and April.