Up until a couple of weeks ago, you would be forgiven for thinking that – after several months and hardly a peep from ArenaNet regarding Guild Wars 2s newest PvP game mode – Push had fallen into the abyss of time. Honestly, I nearly did. But I’ve been trying to be a more organized human being, so I was ready for the return!
See, I’ve been keeping a Google calendar with all the games and patches I’m interested in playing along with their release dates. Lots of times, I can’t really nail down an official date so instead I’ll just put down some placeholders that spread across a month or so.
As the tentative Push weekend was approaching, I was actually ready to get back into the latest beta, and lo and behold, it actually happened: ArenaNet really did stick to the date it announced back in March. Remember, Push was originally previewed way back in September of last year (which may as well have been several lifetimes ago), and I said at the time that I thought the game mode had potential so long as Anet actually listened to player feedback (namely, me) and took some of the considerations to heart.
I’m pleased to report that one way or another, the studio has actually improved the game a bit.
But before I really get into my thoughts, let me give you a quick reminder of Push’s features. In Push, two teams of five battle with the ultimate goal to maintain control over a node and “push” it into your opponent’s base. If the circle is contested, it stops in its tracks and waits until a single team has full control. If you’re able to wrest the control point away from the enemies, then it’ll simple start moving in reverse.
There are a few power ups that appear on the map for teams to collect to gain some bonuses as well; they’re akin to the ones from the Temple of the Silent Storm. They devs have also added a power that provides the same AOE blast as the Skyhammer. This is a big update on how the ability worked in the last beta. I don’t really remember it well personally, but the idea was that it ended up acting as a full lock out on the other team, preventing them from contesting the primary node at all. I’m glad I don’t remember that, actually; it sounds unfun.
And that’s really all there is to the game mode. It’s pretty straightforward and simple – something that I wish the developers would take to heart more with their PvP modes. PvP really does not have to be some big complex ordeal with a ton of moving parts. Believe it or not, lots of us just want to fight other players – crazy, I know!
Now, let me tell you about some of the features that have changed since September. The largest one mechanics-wise is the Skyhammer cannon I mentioned before. The reasoning for the change is sound: The Skyhammer AOE’s can be dodged when properly timed – a boon when designing towards skillful play. Other than that, everything else the developers changed was really just art and visuals.
Push’s theme is Canthan; everything is very magitech. It feels like you’re battling in some underground lab or basement. The entire zone has been designed with this in mind. It feels both familiar and new, which is a good thing. The central node that players are fighting over is now a hovercart instead of the Super Adventure Box’s cloud. Obviously, the cloud was never going to be a permanent part of the game mode, but I’m still kind of sad to see it go. Personally, I still think a dolyak would have been the better choice as it would tie the concept back to WvW, but with the theme the team is going for, I suppose this works just as well.
Last is the update to the score tracker along the top of the map. Originally, it just showed some points, and I’m not even sure what those were meant to represent for the Push mode. Now, it actually shows the percentage of how far each team has pushed the hovercart along with the current position of the cart along the track. Whoever came up with this idea is clearly a genius. It works really well in practice, not just in theory!
Overall, I had fun playing Push this weekend. A close battle over the node kept me anxious for when the baddies would show back up and on the other end of things; succumbing to a team wipe didn’t feel like the end of the world. I had a few lopsided matches, but on the plus side, those actually did end relatively quickly. One of my biggest pet peeves is a long, drawn-out match where the winner is all but determined at the first encounter. With Push, I didn’t feel as angry about the speed of the games, even though it can get drawn out. You’ll never hear me complain that matches are too shortm, so I’d still consider a shorter time limit than 15 minutes.
One of the notes at the start of the match says that the cart will move quicker when it is reclaimed by a team and heading back to the farthest distance it was previously pushed by that team. I think this is a really good idea as well. I’d like to see it move even a little bit quicker to get back to that spot, but the concept is solid.
While I liked the theme that Anet chose for the map, it felt way too dark. Most of my screenshots here are pretty bad; the area’s lighting did me no favors. Let’s turn up the lights a little bit so we can see actually see the new map a bit better.
I know I said this the first time around, but I still think 5v5 is too many players for this game mode. GW2 and visual noise go hand-in-hand; there’s simply no getting around this now. But what we can do is reduce the number of players to give it a shot of not being just a spam-fest of skills. Three players per team would do a lot towards helping this out. It would be four fewer players spamming skills on the node, or maybe even fewer than that, as I would anticipate players typically fighting with two on the hovercart and one moving around for the bonus objectives. Not to mention, fewer players per team could improve the overall queues. It’s worth a shot!
My last thought on Push might also be to make the hovercart capture circle bigger, or possibly some other method to moving it. It kind of goes back to the fact that 5v5 team fights in GW2 are an AOE spam-palooza, so maybe having room to spread out would play better.
In practice, there’s a lot to like about Push, but I still don’t think it gets us all the way to where it needs to be to truly epic. Is it an improvement and a big enough change to Conquest? Absolutely! But I still think there’s room to push Anet towards improving Push to the point that it is something players will keep pushing to queue up for time after time.
Every other week, Massively OP’s Sam Kash delivers Fight or Kite, our trip through the state of PvP across the MMORPG industry. Whether he’s sitting in a queue or rolling with the zerg, Sam’s all about the adrenaline rush of a good battle. Because when you boil it down, the whole reason we PvP (other than to pwn noobs) is to have fun fighting a new and unpredictable enemy!
