With the new expansion End of Dragons, Guild Wars 2 receives some new areas, including the city of New Kaineng. In the predecessor, Guild Wars Factions, it was the capital of the area. Now, details about Kaineng have finally been shared, and many players are quite taken with the city.
What kind of city is this? The center of Kaineng in Guild Wars 1 was a city with tall, rather ugly buildings and slums right at its doorstep. This gave Kaineng a unique atmosphere because one was not wandering in a rich, colorful area of the world but also saw the darker sides of civilization.
Many were correspondingly eager to see Kaineng implemented in the new expansion End of Dragons – this time in Guild Wars 2.
New Kaineng has been rebuilt a bit further south after a tidal wave and has undergone some changes due to technological advancement. The city is now much more colorful, intertwined with water, and planted with trees. At the same time, there are still some tall buildings, and the Jade technology gives the city a cyberpunk flair.
User Chris_7941 also shares this view, who described the city in the trailer as a kind of “Venice in Cyberpunk” (via reddit).
You can get an initial impression from this trailer:
Power outages and aggressive robots keep the city on edge
What can be seen in the trailer? In the first few seconds, the harbor of Kaineng is shown. Even here, some styles collide:
- You can see some buildings that have a typical Asian look. They are tall, have many small windows, and intricately decorated roofs.
- However, technology is already evident on the buildings. Flying platforms, pipes with flowing green jade, and a massive gray wall.
In the next images, the first trees can be seen, and you ride one of the new skiffs through the canals of the city. Again, you see different images of traditional lanterns and street vendors, but also robots wandering or flying through the streets.
Some buildings can also be entered from the inside and reached all the way to the top, as the trailer shows. This was one of the major hopes of players from Guild Wars 1.
The appearance of the residents of Kaineng also receives a lot of praise in the comments. User skirtsan writes on reddit: “The citizens look so beautiful! I’m totally into their designs and outfits!”
Is everything fine in the city? However, starting around the 30-second mark, the image of the city changes somewhat. The lights flicker, and there seem to be problems with the power supply.
Jade robots run amok, and battles break out in the streets.
While the main cities in most MMORPGs are rather quiet places to relax and craft, it seems that New Kaineng also regularly experiences events and fights. Many players on reddit find that good.
End of Dragons launches at the end of February
When will there be more about Kaineng? Already today, on February 4, the developers will hold a livestream to present Kaineng and the new Jade technology in more detail. You can tune in to the official Twitch channel of Guild Wars 2 starting at 9:00 PM.
From February 28, you can then explore New Kaineng yourself. That’s when the expansion End of Dragons launches. Incidentally, the developers had accidentally leaked the release date beforehand, which was very curious:
Guild Wars 2 Accidentally Leaked the Release Date of the Expansion – Disappointing the Fans
