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| YES TO ALL THE THINGS! |
GENIUS - I Love the Gameplay, Especially the Combat
I've only played one other MMO (Star Wars Galaxies), and even then only a little. One thing I never really liked about MMOs in general was the way combat was handled; the idea of defeating foes one at a time seemed tiresome. Yeah, I know there are "area of effect" (AOE) attacks; but I'm a melee kind of guy, not a long-distance man. These ideas didn't appeal to me, so I never really played MMOs. Enter, Guild Wars 2...
The combat in Guild Wars 2 is phenomenal. I've only really played as a warrior (and a little bit as a ranger and engineer), but I can say that the combat is genius. I'd even go so far as to say that I think Skyrim and any other RPGs should have this style of combat. It does have a few flaws, but overall it is one of the best "sword fighting" combat systems I've ever used. I also really like the sound of combat in Guild Wars 2. When I swing my greatsword around, it sounds like I'm really connecting; like I'm really doing some damage.
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| BOOM! |
The best part, in my opinion, is the idea that anything within my reach can be hit by my sword. I can "aggro" (aggravate) several enemies and "kite" (draw them towards me while I stay just out of their reach) into a bunch, then hit them all at the same time with any of my attacks. Technically,they would all be area of effect attacks, but they're not; they're my basic attacks. I just swing that giant greatsword around and BOOM! All ten of the guys in front of me just took a massive amount of damage, and a few of them might have keeled over. And this goes for most every melee weapon, not just greatswords.
Ranged weapons are, of course, a different story. They are directed, and can only hit one target unless you use an AOE attack (like a shotgun blast). Even then, you can just blindly fire a gun or bow at anything, you don't actually have to have a target. I do use a rifle for ranged attacks (when I'm getting my butt handed to me), but not very often. Magic is another style of gameplay that I haven't even touched, but I've seen a lot of both directed and AOE attacks as I'm running around in battle.
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| Weapons to maximum! |
GENIUS - I'm Happy to see Other Players
I can remember several times watching my brother play Star Wars Galaxies when I would see him standing or sitting around, doing nothing at the bottom of a dungeon. When I asked him what he was doing, he'd say, "Waiting for this guy to respawn so I can kill him." Then, when the guy respawned, it would be a mad dash to try and kill him first. Then, God forbid, someone "ninja loots" all the good stuff from the body before you can get to it. Then, if they did, it would be another angry 40+ minutes of waiting around for him to respawn (okay, maybe not forty minutes... or maybe it was. I don't know, I never really played it).
This was another idea that made me stay away from MMOs. The idea that one person could run in and steal all your hard earned loot made me upset, and I wasn't even the one playing. Then there was the constant waiting for things to happen, NPCs (non-player characters) to respawn, or instances to load. All in all, I didn't want anything to do with it. Enter, Guild Wars 2...
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| "Thanks to everyone for the heals!" |
Everyone gets their own loot and XP (experience). There's no "ninja looting" and no kill stealing. Everyone who landed a hit on the enemy gets, not a share, but the full amount of XP from the enemy when it dies. I can imagine this would be a problem sometimes, where someone hits the enemy once then runs off just so they can get XP, but I haven't really seen it in the game. Each person get's their own piece of loot when an enemy is killed as well. Whether everyone gets the same piece of loot or not, I'm not sure ( I haven't played with friends yet, so I haven't tested this theory). This destroys the desire to solo anything, making even that "average joe passerby" a valuable ally against whatever evil you may be fighting.
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| THANK YOU! You're a gentleman... er, gentlewoman and a scholar! |
I was worried that I wouldn't have anyone to play with. I played a bit of Star Wars Galaxies hoping that my brother would play with me and let me join his guild. When he told me to go do my own quests, I lost interest in the game. With Guild Wars 2, even though I do have friends online and I'm part of a guild, I don't really feel like I need to party up with them all the time. The feeling of "working together" is already there when I'm out adventuring, and it keeps me coming back for more.
GENIUS - The Graphics are Fantastic
(EDIT: Moved up from Good)
I'll be the first to say that, "Graphics aren't everything", but they do matter some when you're going to be looking at something for hours on end. I know that some game developers choose more cartoony graphics because more computers can render them (creating a wider customer base), but I can't stand a game with cartoony graphics. When The Old Republic came out, I kept asking my brother, "Why are the graphics so bad?", and he would tell me, "Because more computers can play it, and therefore Bioware gets more money." But I absolutely hated the look, and it made me not want to play. It's like game companies are taking a step backwards when they use such graphics.
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| Not bad at all... |
GENIUS - The Concept Art is Phenomenal
I was first introduced to Guild Wars 2 by its concept art. Even if I had never gotten into the game, or the game had been a flop, the artwork would have made the whole thing worthwhile. It can be beautiful and frightening at the same time, evoking emotions with a mere glimpse. The part I hate the most about the artwork? I love it all so much it was very difficult to figure out which piece of artwork to put on the sidebar for the blog...
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| "Goongala-fied" |
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I highly doubt most MMOs have a standard story mode, so Guild Wars 2 breaks the mold here (YET AGAIN). I've only done some of the Norn storyline, so I don't know anything about the other races stories. The best part is that these are well thought out and actually make you feel like you're doing something. Like most RPGs, you don't really have to do any of it... but why wouldn't you? There are cinematics (not extensive, but it adequately conveys the story) and rewards (just like an MMO with quests) for each completed story quest.
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| Not super cool cinematics, but they convey the story... |
Good - The World is Enormous and Detailed
As it should be. This is an MMO we're talking about, so it should be huge. I've played at least twenty hours by now and I've only been to the Norn lands and a few of the Charr areas. I've still got Human, Asuran, and Sylvari lands to explore; not counting the lands in between. And I'm going to take my time. I'm not just going to go running through every area just to see it, I'm going to explore and familiarize myself with an area before I move on.
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| So... Huge... |
GENIUS - The Music
The music is fantastic, and you want to know why? Jeremy Soule, people, Jeremy Soule. As I was playing, I noticed that a lot of the music sounded very Skyrim-ish. That's because both The Elder Scrolls and Guild Wars 2 share the same musical composer. And that person is a genius. Don't take my word for it, listen to these:
Remember those little floating exclamation marks over someone's head in World of Warcraft? What am I talking about? I've never played World of Warcraft... Anyway, there's no such thing in Guild Wars 2. This means that you don't have to go get a quest, complete the quest, then return to the quest giver for your reward. No backtracking (in most cases). In place of quests, you have events; which are almost always happening. Sure, the story mode still sticks to the traditional quest format, but other than that I haven't seen them. Events happen whether you're there for them or not. You can join in and help in an event halfway through, or jump out of an event before it's finished and go off adventuring elsewhere. You get credit for an event, and a reward, based on how much your participated. There's bronze, silver, and gold participation medals, each with a higher value and better reward than the last.
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| VICTORY! Everyone rush the corpse! |
Mixed - Level Balancing for Certain Areas and Quests
As you run through the world, you're down-leveled to match the area you're in. If I wander into a starting area, my level and stats are dropped to say, level four. The balancing is good because it allows you to get the same amount of XP no matter where you are in the world (unless you're attacking stronger foes in a higher level area, which gets you bonus XP if the enemy level is higher than yours). On the other hand, I could absolutely crush some of my foes if I was allowed to keep my level. I had a terrible time fighting the Jotun Elder Thruin because the game down-leveled me to level 6, when I was supposed to be level 13.
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| You're lucky I'm handicapped, bub... |
Good - Voice Overs for Almost Everything
Almost everything is voiced over; you're not constantly reading lines and lines of dialogue. There are also voice overs for random NPCs throughout the world. You could just be running by and hear two characters blabbering on about who knows what. All of the quest cinematics are voiced over, and the voice overs are actually pretty good. Even when they don't say things right...
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| *FACEPALM* |
BEYOND GENIUS - NO MONTHLY SUBSCRIPTION PAYMENTS
This is the factor that rationalized my purchase of the game. I'll put this out there: I'm broke almost all the time. My paycheck pays for my bills and occasionally a video game. Most of the time I have to buy games used at Gamestop,wait for them to go on sale on Steam, or pay bit by bit over several months on pre-orders in order to afford games. I can't even afford DLC for the games I have (I haven't even played Dawnguard yet). A monthly subscription would be out of the question. Isn't paying once for a game enough?
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| Here's where I'd spend my money... IF I HAD SOME! |
In the end, if the game does get shut down in only a year or so, I will only have lost $60, which I will probably have already gotten my money's worth out of by that time anyway.
Blech - Miscellaneous Grumbles
Trading: Other than mailing someone something, there's no easy way to trade between players. Also, a ton of stuff gets "sooulbound" when you use it, and there's no way to unbind it. Soulbinding has its good points, but the lack of an easy trade system could be frustrating in the future when I end up playing with friends.
Armor Variety: There's a real lack of armor variety at the lower levels (30 and below I've been told). It goes a little something like this: "Here, try these chainmail pants on. Oh, you don't like these? Well how about these chainmail pants? Or what about these chainmail pants? Oh! I think these chainmail pants would look good on you..." If I have to go in and change the color of my armor every time I get new armor just to keep things fresh, we've got a problem.
Dancing: Yep, dancing. It's not the ability to dance that has me upset, it's the inability to pick what kind of dance I do that frustrates me. I want to shuffle every day or do some Bhangra dancing, but all I'm stuck with is that stupid looking "Carlton" dance.
Final Thoughts
I could go on forever about this game. I haven't even touched on crafting, PvP, World vs World, or several other things; but if I did, I'd be here forever and never actually get back to playing the game. If you want to know how some of the other game aspects work, here's a video explaining them by a guy named Angry Joe. Warning: he swears a lot. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot. However, he's absolutely hilarious. He actually hits on a lot of the same stuff that I said. Throughout the video I was like, "Yeah! That's exactly how I feel!"
DO I RECOMMEND IT?
MOST DEFINITELY
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