Guild Wars 2 - An Existing Player Review

Guild Wars 2 has been around for a while now. It was released August 28th, 2012 after a lengthy but worthwhile wait after the original Guild Wars (along with its three expansions). Most major review companies gave it great scores for its amount of content, varied ways to play different classes, vast and diverse environments and elaborate PVP and crafting. But more than a year later, how does an average player view the game? You're about to find out.

I was an early adopter of the first Guild Wars game, which came out April 26th, 2005. I picked up that game instead of World of Warcraft because I wanted an MMO experience, but couldn't afford the monthly subscription since I was in my teens at the time. I still maintain that it's one of the best video games I've played. When Guild Wars 2 came out, I was on the fence as to whether I should get it or not since there were many changes made to the Guild Wars 1 formula, and it features drastically altered characters and classes. I ended up buying it the day it came out, and I immediately started aggressively leveling my warrior all the way to around level 40, at which point I had stopped dead. At the time, I was running a Battlefield 3 clan that cried for attention, so I dropped what I was doing and never looked back, until recently.

Shooters have gone a bit stale for me as of late, and I longed for some of the old adventures I've had in great past MMO's such as Guild Wars, Age of Conan, Warhammer, Champions Online, AION and RIFT. But as said earlier, Guild Wars has a special place in my heart, and since Guild Wars 2 is subscription free, I thought I'd go back and finish what I started; attempting to get a character to level 80.

This was the status of my character when I left for Battlefield 3 mere weeks after getting Guild Wars 2. In a way, I do have regrets about leaving when I did.

I reached level 80 on my first character, a Warrior about four days ago. In nearly every MMO I've played, a Warrior has almost always been my first character. I'm not sure how to best describe it, but if I had to put myself back in the 1400's, choosing a combat profession, I most definitely would have been the guy to pick up the sword & board and go slash stuff with it up close and personal. I think it's that feeling of action, that I'm constantly doing something and knowing that I'm big and bad that makes me love the Warrior class. That being said, I do have several characters in every MMO, but I'll talk about that later on.

"I most definitely would have been the guy to pick up the sword & board and go slash stuff with it up close and personal."

Story:

I hate to say it but the story doesn't piece together as well as it does in Guild Wars 1 for several reasons. But there are a few main ones:

1.) Humans were the only race available in the first game, meaning the story was linear no matter who you were.

2.) You had to come out of the same starting area no matter what, in Guild Wars 2 you can go anywhere you please provided you have the know-how, so you'll end up doing human quests as an example, even if you're a Charr that's coming out of another part of the continent.

3.) The storyline itself is completely optional. You can and will level simply by doing region quests for random NPCs, crafting, fighting in PvP matches and grinding monsters if you're into that.

The world story is fairly basic; the continent of Tyria is plagued by many evils, some old some new. It is 250 years after the first Guild Wars game, and some people who are in the story line (and technically even your characters themselves) can be direct descendants of those in the previous game. Races who can live to be old enough can even be from the last game itself, such as one of the last surviving Dwarves; Ogden Stonehealer. The rest of the Dwarves are assumed to be extinct (as is the case in other old-world lore for some reason), which would eliminate one of the threats in the previous game.

New threats would include races such as the Dredge, a type of underground mole people, and dragons who taint the land with their breath and threaten players from above regularly depending on where you are and the 'Risen', mainly in the area of the Temples of Orr (a reference to the Scepter of Orr from the first game). The Charr and Humans are now negotiating a peace treaty as opposed to their war of attrition in the previous game and some other factions like the Mursat and White Mantle are nowhere to be found. That being said, some places on the map aren't fully explorable, so this may change in future content updates. There are also references to places like Cantha and Elonia (other continents in the Guild Wars 1 world that showed up with new expansion packs) so players may eventually be able to return there.



”The Charr and Humans are now negotiating a peace treaty as opposed to their war of attrition in the previous game.”


New races have emerged after being briefly explained or at least hinted at by the last expansion pack in Guild Wars 1, such as the new 'Sylvari' race, people born from the trees who are created as adults with a fully functional English vocabulary (complete with British accent) and basic working knowledge of the world and its inhabitants apparently. Only the smallest of hint of the tree that spawns the Sylvari was mentioned up until GW2. Also noteworthy are the Asura and Norns, races that were introduced in the final expansion pack that you actually got to see and work with. The Asura seem to be a small race that are comparable to dwarves. They prefer to live underground, they are very short in stature but are highly intelligent and have very advanced technology at their disposal. The Norns are essentially very, very large humans. Basically equivalent to the 'Nord' race in the Elder Scrolls series. They are born in the freezing Shiverpeaks region of Tyria, and are known for their strength, size and skills in hand to hand combat.

Story: 7/10

 

1. Graphics:
   
   MMO's today have been taking different approaches as to how their games should be designed when it comes to visuals. World of Warcraft took a new direction when it was designed to use low polygon count character models and objects in order to improve performance on computers with poor hardware specs, and instead focused on brilliant and vivid art design to take your attention away from the dated game engine as it got older over the years. Other MMO's such as Age of Conan held absolutely nothing back and used the latest and greatest technology to produce some spectacular visuals, but ended up leaving a lot of people unable to play the game. Guild Wars 1 and Guild Wars 2 both have taken somewhat of a hybrid approach. Guild Wars 1 scaled very well on lots of computers. Not to the extent that World of Warcraft did, but enough to where Guild Wars 1 was playable at around 20 frames per second on a Celeron laptop with 256MB of memory. Guild Wars 2 has taken a leap forward in both player model and object quality, and also taken a new direction in its art design.
   
   
   
   While I wouldn't necessarily call every weapon or armor piece in Guild Wars 1 'realistic' or 'authentic' those items are fairly similar to their real life counterparts and it was tough to find some extremes. World of Warcraft features some very “wacky” armor and weapons as end-game content which kept players going, giving them something to look forward to even after hitting the level cap. Guild Wars has now become a bit more similar to World of Warcraft in this respect because they've kept the great looking character models and environments (and have infact improved things such as lighting and shadowing), but have some things in the game that are a little more bonkers and fun.
   
   As an example, I'll show you my current main weapon for my Warrior, 'The Crystal Guardian':
   
   
   
   ”Some things in the game are a little more bonkers and fun.”
   
   The thought of a large great-sword being made out of giant crystal fragments and pure light is absolutely ridiculous, but it makes me smile. “Eat your heart out, 'Hungering Cold.” I said as I first equipped it. For those wondering, the 'The Hungering Cold' is a weapon in World of Warcraft that was used in a South Park Episode. It's also a bright blue, oversized bonkers weapon, but it now looks docile in comparison to the similar Guild Wars 2 weapon. Here it is:
   
   
   
   I know which of the two I'd rather slung over my back.
   
   Armor is a similar story in some cases. Underneath is a screenshot of my character, taken a few days ago after he hit the level cap (80). He is wearing a custom set of 'Exotic' armor.
   
   
   
   It's called 'Primeval' armor, a skin that was lifted from Guild Wars 1 and modified to be a little more terrifying, moved over to the new game, and it can be applied to any armor set you like, that way you can have any stats you like with any look you like. My set is colored black and gold, and with the sword pictured above on my characters back, he'd look like an opponent you'd want to stay away from in any MMO game.
   
   Although similar sets in World of Warcraft exist;
   
   
   
   They don't have they intimidation or 'cool factor' due to the limitation of the graphics engine for the game.
   
   The game runs very well on my PC (Core i7, 6GB RAM, GTX 670, Windows 8.1) at maximum settings, and can eve record smoothly at full resolution using FRAPS which is more than I can say for many video games today. The game can also reportedly scale pretty well on lower end computers. This game, unlike World of Warcraft, is not playable on virtually every PC, which was Blizzards goal in designing their game the way they did, but Guild Wars 2 has a solid population despite being prettier. Art design isn't as bonkers until you get to places like the Maguma Jungle area or 'The Grove' where the Sylvari are born. But when you do, World of Warcraft has a contender that gives it a run for its money in originality. Magic spells look gorgeous and compliment the sleek looking mele characters mixing it up at close range and somehow don't bring the frame rate down much, even in abundance.
   
   Graphics: 8/10
   
   Sound:
   
   Sound in games of these type come down to a few basic, but important things, which I'll outline for you:
   
   1.) In-game dialogue.
   
   2.) Weapon sound effects.
   
   3.) Spell or magic sound effects.
   
   4.) Ambient music.
   
   5.) Monster noises.
   
   In order, I find the in-game dialogue to be up and down. Some lines during cut scenes are flat and read without any emotion, while the very next sentence from the same character sounds like it was delivered with heart. Character voices during battle can get irritating quick if you're alone or you don't have other things turned up. You'll constantly hear Rangers say “Urge to kill rising!” (a nod to a Simpsons episode) or Warriors say “My strength, increases!” This is triggered when performing certain actions like building adrenaline or casting spells. These can be masked however by the ferocity of combat or other noises such as music or spell casts.
   
   Weapon sound effects are about the same across the board when it comes to item types (all bows sound the same, all slashing weapons sound the same). Magic sound effects are pleasant and don't get irritating unlike the dialogue, but there seem to be so few skills (which I will get into later) that variation is hard to come by. Ambient music is good, as it is well composed. But a lot of the same music covers different areas of Tyria. I think it should be more varried depending on what zone you're in, and change more with the pace of what's going on around you. Age of Conan did this very well, and I still regard it today as one of the best game soundtracks ever. Monster noises are about what you'd expect them to be. Basically what you'd hear in your head if you were to think of that creature attacking you in real life. The only problem is that some of these sounds are ripped off from the previous Guild Wars, rather than being re-created.
   
   
   
   Growl...
   
   Sound 7/10
   
   Gameplay & Lasting Appeal:
   
   The big thing with MMOs is that it's not enough to have people buy the game. They need to keep their customers playing to continue their funding of day to day operations. The servers you play on will not stay up unless you pay for them, and most MMO games accomplish this with a monthly subscription fee, usually around $15 per month. Guild Wars 2, like it's predecessor is compltely free of subscription fees. You are only required to pay the price of the game itself ($60 when it was brand new, it may be less now). In order to offset this, the developer, ArenaNet, has included a cash shop built into the game where you can perform 'micro-transactions' for various items. These can be anything from character boosts, to cosmetic modifications, name changes, visual changes and even (in a round about way) buying gold, which reduces the use of the ever-persistent Chinese gold farmers.
   
   This formula is being adopted by several MMO games that previously existed with subscription fees. Some of these include Age of Conan, Star Wars The Old Republic, APB, The Secret World and RIFT. It works, and there are rumors of other games switching in the future as well.
   
   Lasting appeal will have to be earned through new content updates, whether its via quests, new items such as weapons & armor, new character classes or complete expansion packs. Currently Guild Wars 2 has stayed fresh with storyline “events” that change the game world slightly until players take a few weeks to “defeat” whatever caused the event. As said before, some areas of the map are not explorable thus far, and this may allow ArenaNet to add new content without necessarily having to make a whole new expansion pack, but time will tell. I spent a couple of weeks getting to 80 using a combination of normal play as well as grinding high level NPCs. Now that I have reached it, I'm supposed to be able to further make use of my Warrior by looking into 'Ascended' armor sets (that have stat boosts and must be crafted by hand), 'Legendary' weapons (again, supposed to be self crafted and have better stats), run level 80 and 'Ascended' specific dungeons for loot and new storyline elements, and PvP against other servers in large scale battles as opposed to normal guild vs. guild matches.
   
   You will need a decent 'Exotic' armor set to be competetive in World vs. World PvP, but luckily I can tell everyone that these are very easy to obtain. You can either get them through a 'Karma Merchant' with unspent Karma points you've collected by completing quests, you can get them as drops in dungeons, or you can buy them very inexpensively on the auction house, which is what I did. You are then well protected enough to mix it up with other people who have high level gear, or run in dungeons with bosses that hit hard. The trick to actually winning these events is making a competent build of skills and then knowing how to use it. This is universally true of MMO's today. Every game is different in regards to how both classes and skills are used and re-used.
   
   Guild Wars 1 was unique because it features many, many, many skills and revolved around being clever with your builds. Every character had a primary class, with a secondary class skill set you could also have on your character, making for some odd, but clever combinations that even spawned gimmick builds to be used to completely solo high end bosses, or wipe out scores of PvP opponents until a counter build was made, or it was patched. Guild Wars 2 unfortunately, is a lot less varied. You are given a set of 5 non-swappable skills per character that absolutely do not change unless you switch the weapon type you are using, and you are then left with 5 skills to alter to your liking. One of these must be a healing skill, as there is no dedicated healer class in Guild Wars 2. This was intentional, since finding a healer for a group of people proves difficult in many MMOs, and soloing an MMO can be challenging if you are a class other than a Priest/Monk/Tempest, whatever you want to call it. The final skill you get is called an Elite Skill, which in Guild Wars 1 was a knock out punch in many cases, and something you built your character around. In Guild Wars 2, the elite skills are largely watered down and serve specific purposes for specific situations. There are also a whole hell of a lot less of them. There are racial skills, specific to what race you choose (Norn, Human, Asura, Sylvari, etc.) and a few that are based on what class you pick. Unlike Guild Wars 1, there is no secondary class you get to choose, so this helps to restrict what Elite Skills you can use even further.
   
   While I won't say that these Elite Skills aren't helpful, they are not the knock-out punch that Guild Wars 1 elite skills were, and many players besides myself hope that ArenaNet changes that some day, along with giving us more choices.
   
   
   
   ” While I won't say that these Elite Skills aren't helpful, they are not the knock-out punch that Guild Wars 1 elite skills were”
   
   Skills aside however, there is a distinct feel to each class available in the game, and from my experience, I think there's something for everyone. Warriors, Guardians and Thieves lead up the mele front, while Elementalists (mages), Necromancers, Memsers, Rangers and Engineers head up the back line. Luckily, many of these back line classes can be played effectively up close because you can equip several of them with mele weapons with a unique skill set designed for it. Overall, it's the variety of gameplay that will keep people addicted. The desire to make and level more characters to 80 is there shortly after (if not before) you finish the first one. As of this writing I have a 35 Necromancer, 38 Mesmer, 23 Elementalist and a 20 Ranger. The Necromancer, Elementalist and Mesmer builds I find much more 'relaxing' while the Ranger allows me to take enemy focus off of me while still being able to go in closer if I like. Ultimately, the more you put into this game, the more you get out of it. Variety truly is the spice of life here.
   
   
   
   ”Vairety truly is the spice of life”
   
   The only other thing I'd like changed is the way players move around. Due to the previously mentioned Asura race, you can fast-travel across maps by using 'waypoints'. I however prefer to be able to ride across them on horseback (or some other creature if that catches your fancy) which in Guild Wars 2 you still cannot do despite the map size. Let's hope they reconsider if an expansion comes out and it introduces a new continent.
   
   Gameplay & Lasting Appeal: 9/10
   
   Overall: 8

The Good:

-Inspired Map Design.
-Fantastic Graphics.

-No subscription fee.
-Varied play style between classes.
-Story optional.
-No Healer Class.

The Bad:

-Story optional.
-No Healer Class.
-No mounts despite large maps.
-Elite skills lack “wow-factor” from previous game.
-Player dialogue can be boring or annoying.

***All screen shots shown taken by me.***
 

Edited March 21, 201412 yr by unr3al