Recently (the 25th March I think) there was a gameplay demo for Goddess of Destruction. A full video, in Korean, could be watched here (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_C76wYXLcQ&feature=player_embedded#at=153)
I did some screens if you don't have the time/bandwith/will to watch it :)
Please note that all I say is subject of changing, or missinterpretation from me. I'm not a pro with korean language, and a lot of things could be wrong :P
First, if I understand right, there is a common area for all new characters. This place takes place at the current Talking Island location. You could see it on the map here (
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/5605/newtalkingisland.png). This place seems quite big, as you could see on this map (
http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/6927/startermap.png) of the whole town. The town itslef looks quite good, like a mix between elven, titans and kamaels architecture (a small screen could be see here (
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/6237/starttown.png), and here (
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/9500/aerialstarter.png) you could see an other area on this island, more spartiat)
There is one reason for a common starting town : others starts town are destroyed, or non-livable. The Dwarf village has been completely annihilated (
http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/5520/goddwarfvillage.png) and the Mother three (
http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/4361/godelven.png) in the Elven village is dead, surrounded by blood rivers
Apart this new area, the demo show us a new territory : Magmel Territory (
http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/8097/magmeld1.png). It's possible to get to this area by walking over the Anghel Waterfall (
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/9285/pathtomagmeld.png). You will quickly arrive to the main entry (
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/4862/magmeldentry.png), which is quite beautiful. It clearly remind me the old Elven Village, and even Heine (which is an Elven town, don't forget that :p). There is a lot of summons (
http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/9024/lotofsummon.png) visible as npc here. The little orb near the Orc on the screen allow you to do an aerial trip around this area, and even if the screens are quite poor, it's really wonderfull : look here (
http://img848.imageshack.us/img848/2528/aerian.png),here (
http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/4823/aerian2.png) and here ! (
http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/9293/aerian3.png)
Apart from this "magmeld area", two news zones have been shown : a new spot in Seed of Annihilation (
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/1712/newsoa.png) (actually, the area already exists but is innaccessible and empty) and a new cave (
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/3120/newarea.png) which should be linked to the Earth Worm which destroyed the dwarf village.
To conclude, here are some screens about some features already announced. First, you could see here (
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/3120/newarea.png) a jump area. By clicking on the green icon, your character begin jumping again and again, but it's not controllable at all : it's like an animated way of teleporting :)
You could see here (
http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/1968/aoegrappin.png) the mighty orc using an aoe "aggro" which put mobs just next to him, like the "grappin" in Aion.
And last but not least, here (
http://img858.imageshack.us/img858/3148/auctionhouse.png) is a pic for a possible auction house.
To conclude, I think NCSoft showed this demo to reassure most of L2 players, and this demonstration was very classic : some new armors and weapons, new areas, we saw the new classes as announced at the start, but I does feel less like a totally new game. May be developpers understood what people want :)
I hope you enjoyed this tour !
Laby