Guild Wars 2

I have played it. Its been out for about 2(ish) weeks and I feel like I have sold my soul. I have at least 70 hours on it, and that comes from someone who didn't find World of Warcraft too exciting. If you are a fan of MMO RPGs, you should think about getting it.

It may be a bit pricy but it's totally worth it. There is no monthly subscription and the Free2Play model after buying is totally fair, no pay to win. If you need the real-money currency called gems, you can also get it ingame by exchanging it for gold. With these gems you can buy mostly cosmetic items or some experience boosters used for killing mobs, although you don't really need them as most of the experience points come form the dynamic events and karma quests and some dungeons all around the world. You basically dont have to pay a single cent after you bought the game.

As for the gameplay itself: most of the bugs are ironed out, there is a lot less lag, occasional crashing, but that might just be me. The classes are all very interesting in their own way. There is a lot of variaty because you get new spells depending on which weapon you use. I am also a really big fan of the dodging mechanic, it works perfectly well in most situations (unless you time it wrongly like me and roll of a cliff xD)

There are really balanced trade skills and the crafting is kinda fun. Don't need to grind too much which suprised me as well. Lots of variaty, you can basically craft anything you can wear with the right crafting skills. There are lots and lots of zones to do PvE with and some dungeons that you can do with groups. There are also dynamic group events and bosses that come around every now and then. If you enter a zone lower level than you, you and your stats will be scaled down to that zone's leve, which lets you play with your low-level friends and still have a bit of challenge.

Also, it doesn't really matter on which server your friends are too. You can still play with them in PvE, which is still a big part of the game. However playing PvP with them while they are on a different server is another matter.

That was the PvE bit. Now to the PvP. Personally, I'm not a big fan of the classic Red vs Blue capture the points model, it definitely needs some work. For example, you cant join as a group and reliably get into one team. At least not yet. And if your teammates are idiots, it will make you want to throw yourself down a well! >.< What I do absolutely love is the World vs World (vs World) system. Basically it's 3 servers fighting eachother in a huge match with large zones where you besiege castles, towers keeps and outposts, sometimes with siege engines. It's also fun defending as well. Big fan! Best done with a guild where you can coordinate a team. Winning these matches will give you bonuses for your server (such as +1 % regeneration rate or experience). You can also take these points for your guild and the upgrades that your guild reserch with influence will be given to other allies as well, giving your server team a small advantage over the other servers.

All in all, I really love the game. You can really tell that arenanet put their heart into this game. There are some more bits that I didn't mention in this little review, but if you can imagine enjoying some of the stuff you read here, you will enjoy the game.

But be wary, this game is more action as a direct result of the ability to dodge attacks, so there aren't really specific roles like healer or tank, although you can specialize your character in that direction. But more often than not, you're gonna be using both hands for this game.

 

I have it and enjoy it. Coming from the original Guild Wars some things are taking getting used to, but I enjoy it overall. The lack of the mmo trinity (heal,tank,dps) definitely takes some getting used to as well.

 

I'm still undecided on this game. I played beta and played during the headstart weekend, but other than that I haven't played much. When I last played, they still hadn't worked out the "join-in" bug. The "join-in" option allows you to join your teammates in the overflow servers, but it only worked *sometimes* the last time I played. So I rarely got to play with the people I purchased the game to play with.

I reeeeeally miss the trinity. I hate tanking. I don't really like DPS that much. I was made to heal. In every game I play, I gravitate toward the healers. Sure, I enjoy blasting someone in the face with fireballs now and again, but 99% of the time I'd rather heal...and GW2 doesn't really allow for that. Guardian is mildly satisfying because it's the closest I've gotten to being a healer in this game.

PvP...eh. I wish there was more diversity in the types of matches they have. They're all red vs. blue capture the point. The should have thrown in a regicide or capture the flag just for a little diversity. And there's no way to ensure you and your friend end up on the same team, so I end up fighting against my significant other more often than we get to play on the same team. World vs. World is fun, though. It can get boring though, because I've seen instances where one server takes over the entire map and it's like pulling teeth to find a decent fight. It also seems a little unbalanced. It seems that no matter what class I play, thieves and rangers rip me apart in like three seconds.

The choice of powers is kind of lackluster as well. In the first game you had a ton of powers to choose from(including powers from other classes) and you could have any number of different power setups. With this game, you have 5 powers dependent upon which weapons you are using, a heal power you get to pick out of 3 or 4 powers, and then 3 powers you get to pick out of three tiers of powers.

I do like the crafting, though. It's easier than the crafting in most games and it's more satisfying. Crafting in games like WoW or Rift left me bored to tears or frustrated beyond belief, but mining and chopping wood in GW2 entertains me...and before you know it you've got a stack of materials. The actual crafting isn't too bad either. I heard some people complaining in game about it being too hard to get the last few levels of something(like going from lvl 47-50 I heard was hard), but I had no problem with that.

The character models are fantastic, but some other other graphics are just...eh. They're okay. It's not as pretty as it could be.

Overall, it's a halfway decent game. I'd give it a 3 out of 5. If you're looking for something new, I'd say give it a go. It's different than most of the games out there, and after thinking it over for a little while I think it's definitely worth a try. Just don't go into it expecting it to be anything like the first one.

I just expected something more after waiting so many years for it to come out.