Guild Wars 2 - Sterling's impressions and quick review
Guild Wars 2 is the critically acclaimed MMO by Area Net. The first Guild Wars (Prophecies/Eye of the North, Factions, Nightfall, and related DLC) was a relatively innovative MMORPG. It was an instanced open world RPG based around a deeply woven story. Class determined your role as per usual and party choice was vital. In Guild Wars 2, most of this remains true. The exception is that there's less emphasis on party choice and more on the player's ability to control their class. Each class is totally self sufficient. On that same note, pure healers and tanks are all done away with. Gone are the days where meat shields need a dedicated priest, or buff whores. Guild wars 2 is much more fast paced; requiring quick reflexes and teamwork.
Area Net has transformed the series into something more along the lines of World of Warcraft. People who are used to Guild Wars may have a bit of trouble transitioning into the sequel. The same can be said of World of Warcraft players, but to much less extent. There are also much less instances much of the world map is open space filled to the brim with things to kill and do. The level cap has also been raised to level 80 and PvP has been revamped.
Guild Wars 2 doesn't mess around. It thrusts you into the world with very little direction. There's very little emphasis on questing, so much so that there's practically no physical questline. Instead, open world events called "Dynamic Events" occur frequently. Encouraging large crowds to gather and work towards the goal. Every event is hand scripted and many are very rare opportunities, sometimes it make take months for an event to take a similar turn of events.
Crafting is also a new addition. For people who are crafters, there's plenty to gather and even more to put together. You can also buy your equipment, but on a similar level such equipment is usually inferior to reward items and crafted items. An auction house is also available
Bottom line: Worth it. While the game is still quite young and content is basic at the moment, the combat is very fun and refreshing and the way questing is set out is also refreshing. As a general rule, there are a few barriers most people have trouble overcoming. The fact the game does not baby you is frustrating at times. "I want to craft something... Well, you have to wander over to the level 10 area to learn a trade first..." *Dies several times on the first run* Such things can cause a player to get very frustrated.
The combat also has a learning curve. Changing your view while in combat is a pain sometimes for people like me who have trouble with keyboard and mouse, the layout can be a night mare. I'd recommend getting a nice gaming mouse with some great hotkey options. Once you pick up on the finer points and get intimate with your character, and figure out how you want to play you'll definitely prefer this combat over Guild Wars.
Most people who played Guild Wars did so with the story. Guild Wars 2 is pretty disappointing in this aspect so far from what I've seen. I am admittedly not very far in the game, but Guild Wars picked up pretty quickly on the story line.
The difficulty in leveling is pretty screwy too. It's actually only slightly worse than the Prophecies campaign, but people got used to the hand fed levels of Factions and Nightfall (not a bad thing IMO). This is one of (if not THE) main complaints. You get used to the pace pretty fast though. I've actually leveled 3 character past 10 in the last two days.
Get past these barriers and you'll find Guild Wars 2 to be very enjoyable. It's fast paced and deep combat system works perfectly with the large scale events and open world. Crafting provides another aspect of customization with also helps the combat. The players are also pretty cool so far. I've yet to find a beggar, or annoying person. I think it was worth every penny I paid with.
If you have any questions I'll do my best to answer them.
(AAARRRRGGGHHH!! I cannot seem to get the user tag fuction to work properly...)
