Guild Wars 2: The new expansion Secrets of the Obscure played – 5 things are really strong, but one thing is annoying

Next week, the new expansion for Guild Wars 2 will be released. During a press event, MeinMMO editor Alexander Leitsch spent about 100 minutes in the new content. Much of it looks really good for a seemingly small expansion. Unfortunately, he is disappointed with the visual design of the areas.

Secrets of the Obscure came almost out of nowhere. The expansion was announced on June 27, and the release is already set for August 22. Many players, including myself, were concerned that the content would be somewhat sparse as a result.

This concern was not confirmed at the press event. Of course, it will be slightly smaller in scope than End of Dragons from last year, but given the short time frame and the new update structure, that is not much of a surprise.

What is important is that Secrets of the Obscure contains everything that is needed for a good Guild Wars 2 expansion, including huge world events, cool boss fights, new achievements and skins, new possibilities for your characters, as well as a fully voiced story.

However, the three areas leave a somewhat bland aftertaste. They do not make a good visual impression. The magic world feels so disjointed and generic. Additionally, there is a lot of recycling.

You can get a first impression of the game world here:

The Skyscale, World Events, and a Huge Boss Fight

Our press tour began in the new area of the Skyscale Archipelago. There we were presented with the first highlight: the updated Skyscale. It is one of the best mounts in Guild Wars 2, which you can now unlock through a new collection.

The new collection is supposed to be better structured than the old one, allowing newcomers to quickly obtain the mount. However, those who have already completed the old collection or do so in the future will be rewarded with new bonus effects, such as the siege turtle charging faster and launching you further. A win-win situation for everyone.

Additionally, right at the first waymark, there is an adventure with the Skyscale, where you have to complete an obstacle course while also hitting 30 targets with the new Fireball ability. This attack can also be used while flying and without dismounting, which is a great addition. Only aiming is a bit clunky at first, as you feel like you are on a stationary cannon in action mode, but you also have to control the mount simultaneously.

New is also the ability for the Skyscale and the Griffon to utilize ley lines now. A fantastic addition, especially for older areas. You can see more about the new Skyscale and its ability in this video clip:

The second positive new feature are the new world events that made up a large part of the preview. You will learn a new skill that allows you to activate the “Rift Hunts.” These come in sizes 1, 2, and 3. The higher the size, the more players will be needed to complete it.

This new feature does not only eliminate the annoying trips to the bounty board but also gives you more control over which events you want to participate in. The Tier 1 hunts should even be doable solo.

In the bounties, you first need to defeat simple mobs to then lure out the boss. However, we encountered a bug where no boss appeared twice, so I can’t say much about the difficulty.

However, the events are worth it for two reasons. Firstly, there are mini pets and skins as rewards. Secondly, the essences obtained as rewards are needed for the new legendary armor.

However, the absolute highlight was the big boss fight at the end of the area. We can’t reveal too much about it, but it is reminiscent in scale and phase changes to the Harvest Temple event in End of Dragons. Dozens of players will need to work closely together to achieve success.

We were also shown a strike mission, which may be the second mission aside from the fight from the open world. The boss Cerus resembles a mix of the raid bosses Cairn and Sabetha. It takes place on a round platform, and you have to run together into green fields and avoid a wall of fire. For our press group, the boss was not feasible given the short time available.

The Coolest Battle Pass of All Time and the New Equipment

To provide players with long-term content, the Vault of the Wizard is being introduced. It completely replaces the previous daily achievements and the login rewards, but it also offers a bonus of 10 achievement points if you complete three of them daily, ensuring that new players have no disadvantages.

The Vault is a type of battle pass, but completely free of charge. You receive rewards for completing specific tasks per day, per week, or per “cycle.” These include gathering resources, participating in PvP matches, or defeating enemies in WvW – so far, so normal.

New is that you can declare yourself as a PvE, WvW, or PvP player. This should give you more tasks that match your player type.

Also new is a currency that you can earn through the Vault. With this, you can obtain items from the real-money shop, such as transmutation crystals or resurrection orbs, material bags like those from the laurels, and…. new weapon and mount skins that can only be obtained through these achievements. At launch, there are already two mount skins to earn.

The rewards are supposed to rotate regularly, but old ones will never be lost. They will then be placed in a “legacy tab” where you can purchase them at any time. You will also be able to buy mystical coins, laurels, and other content from the login rewards through the rewards.

New are the relics, which are an absolutely great addition to the equipment system. The runes are being revised and will now provide you with stats instead of a special effect as a sixth bonus, such as 120 power or 120 precision.

You will get the effects through the relics, which are located in the interface next to the earrings. These can be easily swapped with a click, allowing you to combine various effects with different runes. This will loosen up the rigid meta and increase build variety.

We have screenshots of some of these new effects:

New Weapons, New Achievements, New Legendary Armor

With Secrets of the Obscure, not only the features described here will come into play, but also a few other things that I will summarize briefly:

Every class will receive a new weapon master training that grants access to the weapons of all elite specializations, even if they are not equipped. A ranger can thus always use the druid staff, even if they have not selected the elite specialization. This is also meant to increase build variety.

Furthermore, every class will get a brand new weapon in a later patch, the ranger will, for example, receive the mace for main and off-hand.

The new expansion also offers over 70 new achievements, including diving goggles, new masteries, including one that allows you to create ley lines at certain locations, and legendary armor that is only obtainable through PvE activities in the open world. So, you will not have to run raids anymore.

My Big Disappointment: The Areas

Secrets of the Obscure brings us basically three new areas: the Skyscale Archipelago, Amnytas, and the Tower of the Wizard as a hub. The tower itself is a huge, round platform that strongly reminds me of Arborstone in its layout. However, the barren walls, the tiled floor, and the stairs do not look impressive and do not possess anything distinctive to Guild Wars 2. They could exist in any other MMORPG.

The Skyscale Archipelago is, however, my biggest disappointment. With its floating islands, it reminds me more of a cobbled-together fractal. This is further supported by the fact that they simply reused old assets for the islands.

One island is called Ur-Maguuma and has the typical jungle style along with pocket Raptors. In Jade-Mech-City, everything resembles Cantha, while the ravaged Garrenhof looks strongly like Kryta. Additionally, Rata Novus plays a role again, but this time in an established state. Still, none of that resonates with me. Instead of a unique world, the archipelago feels like a mishmash of the best locations from Guild Wars 2. I was really looking forward to a new setting.

The third area, Amnytas, remains a mystery to me, possibly because the map in the test did not load completely. There were blue patches everywhere, the textures were incorrect, and everything appeared somewhat torn apart.

The positive aspect is that we can walk around huge fortresses here, which is at least a new setting. But even here, everything feels like a lot has been cobbled together. Overall, there is a lack of a visual overarching theme for the expansion, which my colleague Petra Schmitz pointed out to me and which I can no longer overlook since then, even if I would like to.

Overall, Secrets of the Obscure makes a surprisingly good impression given the relatively short development time. It is also positive that there will now be a major update every quarter that will bring new areas, fractals, strike missions, and more for the expansion. The concept sounds very good on paper.

Secrets of the Obscure Has Great Potential