You know you’re addicted to a game when you close your eyes and are completely mesmerized by images of that game haunting you. Watching yourself running, jumping, and fighting enemies over and over again in just the split second it takes you to blink. I’m sure the true nerds and hardcore gamers can relate to such an addiction. But even then, some of you out there can’t. Just to say the least, this game is epic. This game makes this hardcore gamer excited like a child at Christmas about to open the biggest present under the tree.
Now with this all being said, Guild Wars 2 isn’t my first MMO. I played Final Fantasy 11 when it first came out 10 years ago. Then in recent times, I played DC Universe on my PS3 and Star Wars The Old Republic. There have been a couple times when I had to play something else. Since I now have a computer that is worthy of playing the newest games of the last couple years, I have also tried World of Warcraft, City of Heroes, and Eve online. So I feel that I have got a pretty good range of experience to give a qualified review of this game. I never really got into any of these games, and people are always comparing MMOs to WoW because it supposedly is the groundbreaker for all MMOs. But to me, it wasn’t. I never got hooked on it, so my comparisons to an MMO will be to SWTOR, FFXI, and DCUO.
Getting Started
When you start Guild Wars 2, you are asked to choose your server. Now from what I hear, the original Guild Wars didn’t have a server to choose from, so this has put off a lot of GW players. But most people don’t know that GW2 has World versus World player versus player. This a massive battle on a map where it puts a server against another server. This is impressive because it is a day long battle to see who is the stronger server. But I’ll get back to the PvP later. Once you have chosen your server, and you have found out that a friend has chosen a different server, they do allow you to change servers which is amazing. So far you can change servers repeatedly, until further notice. When the free server changes are no longer available you will still be able to with the use of Gems.
Gems is a monetary system that ArenaNet has put in place for you to purchase things from the auction house with real money. They have also allowed Gems to be purchased using your in-game money. So as of now, it will cost me 1 gold for 288 gems. Now just like the stock market the value of the gold and gems vary from day to day which keeps things interesting.
Character Creation
Creating your character is pretty in-depth. You have five races to choose from. The Charr, a cat like race with huge fangs and horns. The typical humans, normal sized and beautiful. Norn, something like a Viking people, bigger and taller than humans. Asura, a cute, tiny race, with big eyes and leather looking skin. They remind me a little of Golem from Lord of the Rings, but much, much cuter. Then you have the Sylvari, a plant type people, with leaves for hair and a lot of color. They remind me of the typical elf.
Once you have picked your race you get to pick gender. From gender then you have the huge opportunity to change how that character looks. From skin color to the shape, size and the position of the eyes and shape of the body and markings on the body. It is very in-depth, and comparing the the three major MMOs that I have played and put most time into, it is the deepest. Once you have picked your characters looks, it’s off to the game. First things first, an exciting world event.
Gameplay
You get into the game and instantly you are in action. You must follow your orders and “class” story line by following the green star on your map telling you where to go. As you go through you are put into a huge boss battle, but you aren’t alone. This is the key thing about this game, you are never truly alone. As you go through the world you are always facing new events and world missions that maybe at first you are alone, then out of the blue you could have anywhere from ten to twenty other people all at one time fighting the same thing that you were initially fighting alone. Even your main story element can be shared with a buddy if you are having problems doing it. When you are exploring the world you are also scaled up or down relative to the area you are in. For example, if you are a level sixty and you go to an area where a friend of yours is and he is a level ten then you too will become a level ten. That way you aren’t so powerful where going there to help wouldn’t be worth your time. This is a plus for people who don’t like to help because they feel its not progressing their own character along, but it is a minus for those that want to help their friend through the game and “power level” them up faster to be the same level.
The PvP (player versus player) of this game is done in two different ways, you have an arena PvP where it scales everyone to level eighty, and unlocks all weapons and abilities, and makes everyone equal with the same weapons and armor. Then you are able to join in a match where you are put against others in a eight versus eight “control the node” match. First team to earn five hundred points by kills or controlling points wins.
Then you have the massive WvW (world versus world), and what this is, like I mentioned earlier is a server versus another server. Where it scales your level up to the max eighty, but if you haven’t unlocked all the powers and abilities for that character then you are at a huge disadvantage. The gear you wear in the open world is the gear that you get to wear in WvW.
Now, this is epic! You and two hundred other players are trying to storm castles and wipe out the enemy servers. It puts your server against two other servers on equal footing. You have the ability to purchase siege weapons and try to break down walls and doors to a “keep”, to take that territory over. The server that holds the most territory at the end of the day long battle wins, or the server that completely dominates and takes over the whole map wins. There is so much much more.
So far I am a level seventy seven Ranger, and there is so much to do in the game that I have barely scratched the surface. I still haven’t level up to the max of eighty, nor have I done very well with the crafting. Some people will have the hang of things much better than others, and others will definitely be a higher level and have more gear than most. There are still bugs in the game that they are continuously being worked on. There is so much more to the game that I could go on about, but besides the main story line being a cliché and definitely an over used thing, having to fight hordes of zombies. The games story and voice acting are superb and the sound effects and music are some of the best I’ve ever heard. If you have a good computer, consider upgrading a little to great. It is worth it. This game is so outstanding that it’s hard to believe there is no subscription fee, and if you haven’t bought it, do so.
Five out of Five
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