When combined with Caledon Forest's lush forests, blooming flowers, and elegant architecture, the result is a number of striking views suitable for framing (or at least setting as your desktop background).īut my favorite part of the entire experience had to be Morgan's Leap, which is a platforming puzzle located at Morgan's Spiral in Caledon Forest. The zone also makes excellent use of the newly introduced vistas, which are locations in the environment that you can examine in order to be treated to a sweeping panoramic view of the nearby surroundings.
It was suitably epic and felt very rewarding when the gargantuan wurm finally collapsed to the ground.
Upon the creepy-crawler's demise, everyone was rewarded with a glowing chest full of fabulous prizes. After I put the beasts down, the event progressed to a battle with the true threat of the swamp: a massive jungle wurm that would give Shai-hulud a run for its money. My personal favorite occurred near the end of the Caledon Forest zone, where a number of "unclean" creatures were rampaging through the swamp. The renown hearts present a fairly wide variety of objectives ranging beyond the usual kill-10-rats, and the zone's dynamic events are myriad and varied. I made my way through this surreally oversized garden assisting the Sylvari in a number of tasks ranging from slaying marauding undead to transforming into a fern hound to play with the pups of the pack and lead stray hounds back to the pen. The entire Sylvari area is marked by massive organic structures, such as 50-foot lily blossoms and monumental, cloud-grasping trees. After squaring off with a colossal tree-dog-beast-thing in the premiere dynamic event, you awaken in Tyria in the Sylvari territory known as Caledon Forest.Īnd Caledon Forest, my friends, is beautiful. But all is not well in the realm of the Dream, as Sylvari hero-thief Caithe quickly informs you, and of course it's up to you (and all the other newbies in the area) to put a stop to the corruption seeping into the Dream courtesy of the despicable Nightmare Court. When you first step into the gameworld as a Sylvari, you find yourself in the Dream, which is a parallel dimension of existence (a "dream") shared by all Sylvari, where the young of the race mature and learn the way of the world before "awakening" in Tyria. The character customization options for the Sylvari are quite extensive, as I've come to expect, and it took me no time at all to whip up an adorable little plant-man.
Note that there will be minor spoilers for the opening parts of the green-armored knight questline, but don't worry - I'll give you fair warning beforehand. Follow along past the cut, where I shall make like a tree and get the hell on with it already.įor the purposes of this journey into Sylvaridom, I decided upon a Sylvari Thief. It was a journey full of mystery, surprises (both pleasant and otherwise), and a whole lot of oversized foliage.
But you'll be happy to know that I spent my entire weekend prancing around Tyria in the leafy soles of a Sylvari's boots. So here we are: Guild Wars 2's final beta weekend is over, and it's just a matter of time before launch is upon us. So of course, when time rolled around to stake claims on the impressions piece of the newly introduced Sylvari starting experience during the final beta weekend, you better believe I pounced on it. It's not often that you see races outside of the generic Orc-Elf-Dwarf-Human spectrum, so the sylvan-esque race really appealed to me as something different. The Sylvari have been my race of choice ever since they were announced as a playable race in Guild Wars 2.