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Guild Wars Review: Trilogy Re-Review - Edit
8.6
| Pros |
 Great graphics and soundtrack. Interesting storyline. No monthly fee. Solid balance of PvE and PvP. |
| Cons |
 “Instanced” zones add repetition. Botting issue needs more attention. Fewer opportunities grouping. Smaller player population. |
After six years, three expansions, and a long-awaited successor, the Guild Wars Trilogy has become one of the most prominent MMO games in the market, taking an unusual spin on some familiar, critical concepts. The game has attracted millions of gamers globally due to one of its features: no monthly fee. Trust me, I’m well aware of the fact there are countless Korean F2P MMORPGs out there, but where is the content? So, if you haven’t really ever taken the time to delve into Guild Wars because you figured there’s no way a solid MMORPG can exist without a monthly fee, you have met your match.
Aesthetics – 9/10
You would expect mediocre graphics from an older game, right? Not in this case. Guild Wars has always been one of the most visually attractive MMOs you can come across. If you’re going to be spending hours doing anything, it might as well look good. Armor and weapons look great; it is pretty easy to notice the detailing and small touches that really make each and every character stand out from the next. Guild Wars offers such a unique setting everywhere you go in the game, ranging from mountain peaks to deserts. All of the major towns have a distinct feel to them, complementing the scenario and setting of every expansion. With compelling sound and stunning visuals, Guild Wars does an impressive job transporting the player into the game. While the UI of the game is pretty simple and plain – and could use a bit more fleshing out – I think everyone at ArenaNet deserves quite a bit of praise for what they managed to accomplish, given the context of its release.
Gameplay – 8/10
Guild Wars is simple, yet innovative. To start things off, it should be noted that Guild Wars is technically not an MMORPG, rather a CORPG. The reason for this is solely due to a basic concept that ArenaNet decided to sway away from: a single and shared environment by all players. One of the major differences of Guild Wars is that many of the zones in the world are “instanced,” meaning they are specified only for the party entering the zone. Was this a smart move? Well, yes and no. Sometimes, if you’re not able to get a group going, you are forced to have NPCs, known as henchman and heroes, which I’ll elaborate more on later. If you’re just now starting to play the game, it may be difficult to find many players eager to start one of the campaigns with you. On the flip side, the “instanced” zones allow for less loot stealing and make for the game to add a unique feel specified for just you and the rest of your party.
Next, the level cap in Guild Wars is set at 20. The best thing about the leveling experience in Guild Wars is that because it’s very short, you don’t feel like you’re grinding relentlessly to finally finish. The campaign experience in Guild Wars is very enjoyable and shifting the focus away from a level number to the actual content was a fairly smart move. The campaigns in Guild Wars are really engaging with a fairly interesting storyline to go along with it; you don’t feel left out. Each campaign offers a whole new setting and environment to go along with everything so players don’t dread the next zone. On the other hand, you’ll find that sometimes the problems you encounter can be a bit repetitive.
Tired of reading? Here's our video review!
Players are given eight skill slots within Guild Wars, making players truly have to utilize every single one. As a result, the combination within the community becomes known as a “build”. As you progress within the game, you’ll notice that on top of your primary profession, you may get to choose a secondary one, i.e. Assassin/Monk. If at any point you decide you do not like your secondary profession, you have the option of changing it. The concept of the second profession creates quite a bit of variety within the focus of each individual character, because every player can become specialized as a certain role, utilizing different builds. So when it comes down to it, Guild Wars acts as a good example to show that you don’t need to have an overwhelming amount of skills to add depth to the game.
Finally, the game is one of the few that is able to perfect a pretty decent balance of PvE and PvP. There are numerous styles of PvP, each being unique in their own way and providing a challenge for all players to regularly compete globally. During character creation, you can actually choose to either create or Roleplaying Character or PvP-Only Character. By doing so, the game kind of does indirectly draw a really big red line between those who are interested in PvP or PvE. However, because the PvP system in Guild Wars is so well-developed and suited to the way it relates to the game, it does not become an issue.
Innovation – 9/10
ArenaNet took a gamble on some aspects of the game to provide players a unique experience every time they played the game, and it paid off. Familiar concepts such as PvP and competing factions were approached with a different outlook, providing players a new way to engage them. Guild Wars really makes the competing factions, the Kurzick and Luxon stand out by allowing Guilds to “own” large towns, with respect to the amount of reputation they have earned in allegiance to their faction.
PvP becomes a whole new story. The name of the game is essentially the highlight of it all, Guild versus Guild (GvG). In short, every guild is able to compete in competitive, rated matches against other guilds in order to gain high global rankings and potentially compete in sponsored tournaments. Guild Wars also has an “Observer Mode” option for anyone to watch recent top-rated PvP matches between guilds and groups. This is really interesting because it allows for players to actually witness and learn how the best in the game compete.
Guild Wars also implemented the “Hero” NPCs during the Nightfall campaign and can be accessed at most times within the game. Heroes are customizable NPCs that a player can set and control to uniquely function in the way a player would like. Each hero can be set with different weapons, armor, and even skills to help aid players through campaigns and other portions of the game. Heroes really provide a refreshing touch to the “instanced” aspect of the game, so players do not have to necessarily rely on minimally controlled NPCs. With so many games that have followed the same trend, it is nice to see the folks at ArenaNet envisioned a completely different approach to tie it all together.
Polish – 8/10
For a game that has been on the market for over six years, it is only natural to expect a pretty stable game without many hitches. Guild Wars is definitely one of the more well-developed games and even with the release of Guild Wars 2 looming on the horizon. ArenaNet is still covering the little bugs here and there that are natural for any game as it implements patches and updates. The major problem still comes with the issue of how ArenaNet has left the game since the announcement and development of Guild Wars 2. The game has been suffering a macro-ing problem without much attention to actually rectify the issue. The concern simply revolves around the fact that the game is losing its overall stature as time goes on, but ArenaNet still seems to be doing a bit of what is needed to at least make things solid. However, at times there are still some server problems have occurred for a few years now, but still nothing largely noticeable that would heavily affect your gameplay. On another note, NCSoft customer support is still pretty reliable. There is no customer support hotline for in-game issues, but you can expect most of your problems to be resolved timely. Overall, Guild Wars and NCSoft have a pretty good relationship with one another to provide a smooth in-game experience.
My first great MMO love... Well besides Runescape, but I don't count that one. It's a great game that deserves a near-perfect sequel.
Something about the GW trilogy is off. I say this because while I enjoyed the music, graphics, skill set depth and size of the game, I find myself suddenly not logging in for many months at a time. It just doesn't pull me or call me. Part of it I think has to do with the combat and the other part is how blasted hard it gets to solo the storyline past level 20, even with the right henchman setup. FOR ME.
That and the instancing completely ruins the immersion for me. So glad GW2 is getting away from that and making the combat more fluid and reactionary.
I give it a 6.5.
Somone on other post say Guild Wars its a GIFT and i strongly agree with that.
About cons and population go on American districts i dont think population its low
Great game, always has been. End game is greared more towards PvP then anything else imo, but if you enjoy the dungeons and PvE grind of end game, it has that too. One of the best games I have ever played...off and on now for 6 years.
If you started from Prophecies or Factions and you're not sure what you're doing, you can find the game EXTREMELY tedious but if you start from Nightfall, you'll find that the game is just a lot more fun and well paced. The reason is Nightfall has the Heroes (Note: Heroes are very different from Henchmen) and due the fact that you can control what skills they have and even micro-manage how they play, it becomes a more engaging experience.
If you've gotten to Lion's Arch in Prophecies or Kaineng City in Factions and you just happened to have the Nightfall Campaign, all you need to do is find the NPC that has the quest which will send you to Nightfall and all you need to do is complete the quest to get the heroes. If you also have the Eye of the North expansion, you can also get some new Heroes pretty quickly by just playing the first quest.
Guild Wars 1 was -- and still is -- my all-time favorite online RPG.
(1) Great stories/writing
(2) Heroes/henchmen
(3) The level cap at 20: ingenious!
(4) The 8-slot skill bar with countless combinations: I love this (in contrast to WoW et al. with 85 skill bars cluttering up your screen)
(5) Gorgeous graphics, character models, and armors
(6) Accessibility of content to variably sized player groups (thanks to heroes/henchmen)
While I am looking forward to GW2, I really wish ArenaNet would continue making campaigns for GW1 -- or else design a similar type of game to GW1. No other multiplayer game I have ever played was as versatile and flexible for players playing solo, in pairs, in groups of three or four, etc.
Most other MMOs (I'm looking at you WoW, LotRO, AoC, etc., and even YOU, GW2) force you to LFG or LFM to meet the requisite number of players for a given dungeon. Geeze, how I do hate that.
What's bad about GW1?
(1) Too much instancing.
(2) The group size of 8 (used for most of the game) is too large, imo
(3) No z-axis :(
(4) No swimming, poor crafting, no AH
Even so, GW1 rocks. What a wonderful game.
I think it's important to mention the recent Guild Wars Beyond updates which are big content patches which bridge the story of GW1 and GW2 and help to keep GW1 fresh. Skill balances and bug fixes are also still being done although of course not as much since GW2 was announced. Not that Guild Wars is a buggy or unbalanced game however.
My first online game, it kept me happy nearly every day for well over four years, made some fantastic friends, for those reasons alone it holds a special place in my heart. Arenanet also come across as one of those companies you really, really want to work for, nice folks.
Another of the great things about the low level cap is the ability to customise your armour, all max level armour has the same stats, you can add and remove runes at will which gives you great scope for mixing and matching armour pieces to get a more unique look. Same is true of weapons, you wield what you wield because of the skin and the fact you like the way it looks.
Review didn't really touch on the secondary profession and attributes system, gives you massive amounts of ways to customise your game play style, if you're the kind of person that likes trying out different builds GW has millions of possible combinations. I love the skill system in GW, all that choice yet you can only ever equip 8 before leaving the hub, once equipped your stuck with it until the finish (unless its so bad you need to restart). Allows for some wild and wacky combinations and some strange builds - one of my favourites being the '1 hp BiP' Necro/Monk, one hit point of life and skills that sacrifice your life to provide energy to other players, beauty being that the game doesnt deal in percentages of less thn one so that sac of 20% of life ends up being 0, a manic battery for your team that needs to stay out of aggro and provide hex removal, still like playing that role in Urgoz runs.
Great game and a fair score.
My all time favourite by far.
One of the best and most underappreciated things about GW1 is that the servers NEVER go down. They've had one instance of scheduled downtime in the past 5 years, when they physically moved the servers to a new location. The weekly downtime other games have like on Tuesdays does not happen.
The game also just loads files if it needs to right before zoning. You never have to patch or wait more than a few seconds ever. I don't know if GW2 will be able to pull off the same thing, but if they can it will be yet another reason to love it.
That being said, I like GW1, I don't love it. There are things about it that I find clunky. All my concerns seem like they will be addressed in GW2 though. Still, for the amount of content you get in this game, no subscription, and just checking out a game that does do a lot of things differently, it's well worth the purchase price in my opinion. I'm still playing it from time to time.
This is a great game to play, had a lot of fun with it. But now it isn't as fun (tho i have 2 accts and have run everything 50 times over no joke) It just doesn't seem fun as a solo player that I am now. I hope GW2 is different, even if it isn't it will still be a great game i'm guessing.
ive just recently returned to GW1, primarily for the HoM rewards, i will admit, as i plan on purchasing GW2.
i played it for a short time right when Factions came out. I started though in Prophecies and it is one of the few games that really offered a gorgeous environment and some of the twists in the storyline were great. i was actually taken off guard by the pre/post searing aspect of the game. something which could not, at that time, be accomplished w/o the instancing that GW1 so heavily relies upon.
when i came back a month ago i have to admit i was initially put off by the empty public spaces in Prophecies and the instancing. later when i finally got the other parts of the trilogy plus EotN, that changed. i began to actually enjoy the fact that i did not have to PUG, or belong to a guild, or spam channels LFG. instead i just followed the advice of others, started in Nightfall, ran to level 10, finished the entrance to EotN, picked up my heros very quickly in one quest and came back to Nightfall to finish up.
while i am not sure why, the whole henchmen-instanced spaces thing has really begun to grow on me. and while i am sure i will thoroughly enjoy GW2 i will miss both of those aspects of the game.
now pardon the WoW reference, but one can only hope that more companies will take advantage of the change in technology that allowed Blizzard in WotLK to change the open world as a character progressed through certain major storyline quests. this resolves the instancing to progress an individual's storyline while keeping an open world, of sorts.
as far as the classes go, the above accolades are absolutely spot on and i will leave it at that.
Great game that aged better than many others imo
EVE is the only online game i played for more than 1 straight year, but GW comes right after it, and it's free :)
I bought GW 4 months ago and I LOVE IT. I play it everyday and most important thing, no monthly subscriptions. Lots of content in my opinion, and so far I only focus on my main character, gearing up my character's heroes and maxing up titles(if you know what I'm talking about). I pvp rarely tho, but mighyt get more involved from now on. I just mainly do the daily missions and help fellow guild/alliance mates.
Just showed this game to a friend and he thought it was recently released because the graphics were beautiful and it played smooth. lol
most value for money game i've ever bought
I remember how distressing it felt walking out into the world of post-Searing Ascalon the first time, having become entranced by the beauty of pre-Sear. Nothing else I've played has left such an indelible impression. It's easy to understand why some people *never* leave pre-Sear.
And stepping into The Crater for the first time? Whoa. I couldn't help but stop and just take it in for a while.
These are things I think of when recalling Guild Wars.
I actually stopped playing for a short while after leaving Pre-Searing, my beautiful beloved Ascalon had become that horrible charred landscape (forgive the pun). Once I returned I was on a mission though and that mission was vengeance!
I have never understoood what people liked about this game. I spent 50 bucks on it when it very first came out and didn't play it a week.
To this day I say it's the worst $49.99 I"ve EVER spent on a game.
I've tried it again a few times over the years and really, I think the game is just garbage.
The graphics "aren't" great and never were.
Gameplay mechanics are silly and the cross-classing makes no sense.
Boring quests.
blah blah... w/e just not my cup of tea I guess.
ok this sounds too good to be true and I read this word for word. 8.6 and basically F2p, but WoW is still owning this MMO market.
Color me skeptical, but is it really that good because I have had zero urge to play this game, but this review makes Guild Wars sound like a full fledged MMORPG.
I forget what interview I read where they said that didn't realize people were going to treat pre-searing ascalon as home and be upset when something happened to it. They made a point in Factions and Nightfall to quickly establish home and not take it away.
I just did the GW trial and what really ticked me off was the way you needed to run up a hill. The hard coded line you couldn't cross. Having played MMO's where jumping is a given I couldn't stand the game for very long. GW did not impress me in those first hours, even taking it's age into account. There are some nice looking classes in there and the trial limited me to the basic Prophecies campaign, but still...
GW2 with Z-axis should be more to my liking, not just for that, also for the DE system. The only thing that might turn me away from it is that if it scales too much with the area you're in. If the mob that almost killed you one on one at level one, can still almost kill you at level 50, then the part where the player is supposed to be feeling special may grow very thin fast.
I don't mind challenging gameplay, but if it feels like you're not growing, the game may lose appeal rather quickly.
It would be willing to go into discussion if you would use arguments that aren't 100% opinion.
It's not a mmorpg, it's an online cooperative rpg with some fantastic pvp elements as well. The world is heavily instanced, but you can interact with others in hubs as well as group with them to quest. If you think of it as a fantastic single player rpgs with multiplayer elements, it'll be easier to wrap your head around.
People use that when talking about Rift. He brings up good point. This article really confuses because 8.6 MMO i put on par with WoW quality and last I heard Guild Wars was not coming close.
I have never been remotely interested in this game until I read all that up there and eventhough they call it a CORPG it sounds like a MMORPG from the way they describe it.
We could go into discussion if he wants to come back and give examples, but *shrug* it's his opinion and he's entitled to it. He tried the game a couple times, didn't like it.
That being said, I would ask he keep an open mind about GW2. Great graphics (I think), different gameplay and doing away with cross classing. Also quests are completely replaced with an event system which is the next evolution past public quests to get people working together in a persistent world (no longer instanced). Still no monthly fee. Pretty much a totally different game, except for the lore, actually.
GW is one of the best games I have ever played. I hope the hub system is what Diablo 3 will be doing.
Well considering Guild Wars is one of the most bought pc games ever, it seems pretty accurate.
This website really overinflates just about anything produce by Anet.
Best value ever for a game. At least for me it is.
A good re-review. And I agree.. if there's one game, that deserves an award for best value, it's GW1 hands down.
Really? Or is Anet just THAT good.
To counter this I can say it is also one of the most "quit" games ever. Sell 10million copies and have a active population maybe of a million? Does anyone know actual numbers on Guild Wars?
Not to knock the game, but I really have not heard about it in this light before.
My favourite MMO
Guild vs Guild was the most enjoyable PVP ive ever played. Never saw this kind of group coordination in any other MMO. And it is just awesome that you can observe other high ranking matches.
As for PVE. I think it is great, but it has some major flaws for some ppl I think. Invisible walls, instancing and no auction hall. Trying to sell/buy something from players in GW is a pain.
Also the writer made it look as if you have to make your choice for PVP or PVE at character creation. You can do PVP with your lvl20 PVE toon too. It just makes more sense to create a PVP only toon, so you have all unlocked skills (from all toons on that account) at your disposal.
EDIT : For ppl who are hesitant to try PVP. You can practice against teams of 8 Zaishen npcs that carry popular (well used to be popular) GvG builds. This is also a nice way to test your heroes and henchman setup.
Population numbers, I have no idea. But we do know income. Keep in mind that this figure is in millions of Korean Won, so the 20000 line is approximately 19 million dollars.
The Q2'06 mark is for the release of GW: Factions, and Q4'06 is for GW: Nightfall. GW: Utopia was supposed to be released in Q2'07, but they decided to scrap it and instead focus on GW2, so they took part of what they had and made it into an expansion, Eye of the North, in Q3'07.
I do like to point out that even though it doesn't earn anything near what the big MMOs are making, it did clearly outperform City of Heroes, which was only released 4 ticks to the left of this graph.
For a game that hasn't released paid content in four years, it's still doing ok, generating what looks like 2-3 million per quarter (8-12 million annually) either on people buying the game or on the vanity cash shop.
There have been free content additions as part of GW: Beyond, in anticipation of GW2. There is also a Hall of Monuments, which players can unlock vanity rewards in GW2, we believe that these have led to a resurgence of players in recent times.
In a way though, it doesn't really matter. It's an instanced game you can play entirely solo if you want due to the heroes/henchmen system. The servers are still running, and will continue to run even after GW2 comes out. GW1 creates new versions of the cities as they fill up (districts, they're called), so all the major ones seem pretty filled regardless of how many people are on.
Good review.
Easily one of the most well written and informative re-reviews I've seen here in a long time. I'm not familiar with the author, but he should most definitely be added as a full-time writer if he is not already.
I would prefer to play a open world sandbox game, but since there aren't really any MMOs to satisfy that craving, I spent a lot of time on Guild Wars, which is its own brand unlike other MMORP games. My main reason for not playing it still is that I got too into soloing it and it got lonely, and I do not have a lot of friends who play it and don't want to invest my time trying to make new ones in a game that is not fresh.
I would prefer to play through the levels with me and one or two heroes. I hate running solo with 7 henchmen.
I as well believe this review inflates the numbers greatly. The graphics are not "stunning" by any means. How low can our standards get? Character models look flimsy, armor looks like it has been painted onto the character, and overall texture resolution is very low. Particle effects and animations are also unimpressive and the game certainly does not deserve a 9 in the aesthetics department.
While I had my fun with the game, that was a few years ago. It has grown old and the gameplay has become extremely dull and repetitive. The storyline quests create no real emotional attachments to the player and it seems generic altogether. Cinematics are poorly made and encounters are usually all very similar. Gameplay modes usually revolve around mindless killing, and the non-combat aspects of the game feel underdeveloped including a sad excuse for crafting.
I do have to give credit to the skill system present within the game as it provides the player the opportunity to engage combat in a more tactical manner which can diversify gameplay by allowing characters to use vastly different skill sets.
Even if the game charges no monthly fees, it ultimately provides a smaller amount of content updates between expansions and old expansion content soon becomes archaic. Furthermore, the game feels rather desolate during its core gameplay as you only get to "interact" with the game world at the presence of a handful of people or none at all (many just forget about community and solo with henchmen/heroes).
Overall, the review gives off the scent of hype coming from the Guild Wars 2 bandwagon and I personally believe it proves to be highly distorted. I do enjoy Guild Wars for what it is, yet in no way does it show traits of being one of the highest scoring games of the genre.
As far as I'm concerned it's an MMORPG because it has all the facets I want from one, without the negatives of having to trip over morons every step of the way. But that's my definition and it's certainly not widely shared.
As far as opinion goes, GW far exceeds WoW in every department except crafting and numbers of players. But opinion is so subjective as to be completely meaningless when used as a measuring stick as to whether you will enjoy it. Out of all my friends, I'm the only one who "got it". The rest are still WoWing. You either get it or you don't. Many don't and I don't blame them. But for me, it's the cream of the crop of MMOs and offered unique experiences that no other ever came close to. After playing WoW for something like three years, nothing in that time has stuck with me, while events I went through six years ago in Tyria are still fresh. That marks it as great game to me.
For me, this is also my most beloved game. I've spent more than 2.500hours in this. Best game money can ever buy.
The graphics are still pretty (especially in EotN), combat is fluid and very dynamic. I would have liked a fourth campaign, but I guess GW2 is fine as well. :P
I bought this game for the Hall of Monuments when it was announced. However, I really enjoyed the game and now I am pretty much hooked. This really is a gem and I would recommend it to anyone.
About the "WoW vs. GW argument".. it's all a matter of opinion. My opinion.. I prefer Guild Wars because you progress horizontally instead of vertically. No stupid gear level to keep up with the 'best' (most hours spend). Instead, you play for extra customization. Visuals are amazing. Story is very well written in every campaign. It is a very well made game and you can see they had a vision for the game.
While I respect everyone's opinion, I do not understand yours. I bought this game last year. And while some areas of the game feel a bit dated, I never had the same feeling you had in 2010/2011. The game felt fresh for me. Especially the way your character develops. Instead of the mindless vertical progression (raiding for better stats), Guild Wars progresses horizontally, which offers players a lot of choice.
GW is still one of my favorite games. I think the game still looks nice and is fun to play with my wife and son. The review is pretty good and I agree with the score.
It's a great game and has been right from the begining.
I'm happy i left WoW ( as a player ) along with Mike O' and his team.
The last six years have been amazing and I can't w8 for the next chapter to begin.
ArenaNet has changed the landscape of MMO's , this time I will not be playing catch-up.
I know the landscape well.
This is my story........what is yours?
I agree with the sentiment of most of the praise about this game and i admit im a huge fan of this game and rank it as my top mmo, largely because it isnt an mmo and i find most mmo's to be less fun. Most of the criticism about GW is always based on how it doesnt have full mmo features, while ignoring that it also doesnt have mmo problems, like gear and lvl grinds, or monthly fee's, or kill stealing, or waiting in line to kill a spawn, or unbalanced pvp, or ganking, or needing to wait hours to get a group set up to be able to do anything.
One thing however that troubles me about this review is the supposed cons listed.
Instanced zones add repetition: Ummm, how is this different from any other mmo. And if it isnt than what is our basis for comparison that we are measuring GW against? And since there is no need to run the same instances repetitively since there isnt a gear tier grind, than how is it necessary to repeat instances? Im pretty sure if i chose to run the first instance in WoW, 50 times that would strike me as repetitive too, but unlike in WoW, i dont have to. So WTF are you doing running the same instance over and over again? The few times you are put in the same instance in GW, the instance actually changes based on what you have already done there and based on the quests you are working on. If anything this game should be praised for its use of instancing since it lends itself to not being repetetive.
Botting issue needs more attention: What botting issue? Bots cant ks my mobs and money is a virtual non issue in this game since you dont really need it for alot and you get tons of it without trying. Also unlike in other mmo's if there is botting going on, i never have to see it since we arent even playing on the same game map ever. I played the game for 3 yrs straight from beta on and recently came back to it and i have never in that whole time been made aware of a botting issue. Im curious what you are talking about here.
The other 2 cons you bring up basically come down to a problem of a lack of population causing it to be harder to find a group. It isnt a lack of population that is the problem. Unlike true mmo's your not seperated from the majority of the player population by different servers so in fact your playing with a much larger population of players than you would in almost any other game. Where as in most mmo's you might be able to play with a possible pool of 10-20k players, In GW you able to play with a possible pool of millions of players(at least a few hundred thousand are probably on as we speak).
So you see population isnt the problem. The problem (which is actually an amazing problem for a game to have) is that the hundreds of thousands of players are all scattered around because the game has so much content. And since most of the games content is "end game" the players are not bottlenecked into all doing the same handful of instances like in most mmo's. The players are free to pursue any goal they wish in a game that has many different goals.
I just want to bring up one more thing in relation to people complaining about something that wasnt in the game review. The lack of a z-axis/jumping. Maybe im just a little too old school when it comes to my gaming but when i play a game i accept it for what it is in the context of the game it is. When we were all playing Super Mario Bros back in the day, we didnt complain about how we couldnt just punch the koopa troopa's, we just enjoyed playing the game. Games where you could punch existed, but we didnt suddenly expect mario to box turtles just because we just got done playing Punch-Out. Its a game, and all games have certain limitations. I dont complain that i cant just perscribe penicillin and antibiotics and be done with Dr. Mario. I dont complain that i couldnt have just jacked sephiroth's sword out of the shinra president's back in FF7. I didnt complain about not being able to shoot the dog in Duck Hunt (ok, now that one is an outright lie). So why are we complaining about not being able to jump in a game where its simply not in the mechanics? Should we just start complaining about all the games where we couldnt jump so we can all get together and agree on how terrible they where? Hell, i know i can give you a list of games where you jumped and the game sucked. Why does it matter so much?
Sounds like your real problem is that you are trying to play a challenging multiplayer game as a solo experience. For one thing, many of the classes are almost impossible to solo as, unless you really know your stuff, because of this it is really almost impossible to solo the game comletely. Anyway, the game is designed to be a multiplayer experience, that is one of reasons why it is so challenging and why people who play on their give up.
GW 1 is the only game I have played for the longest time. Almost six years since then and still playing it today. To say that "longevity is 7/10" is just plain subjective
Guild Wars is one of my favorite MMOs and all you have to do is buy the game.
Just check out all mmos on the site.
The review score of 8.6 is almost better than every game on the list except Rift.
Guild Wars also has a 8.18 on the site for the user review.
The updated reviews shows us that this is one of the best mmos hands down.
The only thing with more rating/hype is Guild Wars 2.
If you look at the cons two of them have to do with population so if there were more players this game could easily get 9 out of 10.
Best money i ever invested in a game !!!
Been playing it for years! It is always installed in all my PCs.
Not paying a monthly fee makes it a GIFT!
Can´t wait for the sequel GW2!!! :)
The ability to use characters on your account as henchmen/npc party members is something that i wanted for any game ever. Its like aNet actually knows what they're doing.
He forgot one thing...
Characters can't jump.
0/10
If there was not wow and eve online i would play this game longer. It is good game and for me it is in group with best MMO-S
Love GW, such a good series.
Thats it, This site has lost all crediblity when in comes to reveiws in my eyes.
Seriously, WoW:8.1 GW1:8.6?
8.6 means its nearly a must buy game and let me tell you from personal experiance you are not missing out on anything.
I really love Guild Wars. It's a wonderful series of game. I don't know which one in the trilogy I love the most.:)
I have to agree with this. WoW got a 8.1? I remember back in school if you just copy pasted things from a different source they called that plagerism and if they knew you were doing exactly that, you would get a failing grade. Seeing as how that is about all WoW ever did i cant see how it scored that high. GW at 8.6 on the other hand sounds about right. Especially since It is definitly unique among mmo's.
wow... that is a shockingly rosey review of guild wars. especially if you're trying to say. As of today these are the marks.
GW has many interesting features. and has some interesting visual elements. it still is a very different game than almost any other sub based MMORPG. but with almost every pro there is an obvious con.
it's not for everyone, but for a certain type of gamer... it provides the teamwork and mmo vibe but with no recurring cost. which ultimately is what draws most people. that combined with the low level cap... allowing people to quickly transistion to a survivable end build... with the F2P model. moderate graphics... with asian sex-z theme to it. strikes a cord for some.
others... find the game grows stale really fast. and isn't even worth the "free" price tag. which says a lot.
I've never understood the love for Guild Wars.
I've even bought the game twice to give it a second chance. Same thing happened both times. I played for about an hour and then uninstalled.
It probably holds the record for the fastest I have unistalled a game.
Here's hoping that Guild Wars 2 is nothing like it's predecessor.
Me too, I think I played if for maybe 4 hours and couldn't stand it no more.
Guild Wars was my first online game and I love it still. Have been playing for 5 years with very few "breaks". I think Anet hit it out of the ballpark with this game. First, I personally consider a monthly sub to be a rip off (my opinion), especially when seeing that Anet can put out a quality game for only the box fee. When I think about the amount of money I would have blown playing WOW or EQ or any of the other great sub games out there, I cringe. Secondly, I don't have the money to blow on a great gaming rig (kids will do that to you!), so the fact that I can get such a visually stunning game that will run on a mid level PC is awesome. Lastly, the storylines (for each game and for the whole series) are great fun and well developed.
Yes, there are some cons: mostly finding the right team to work with on a quest can be difficult at times. And it can get a little grindy especially if you're working on titles. However, I think every game has its cons. In GW, just like in LotRO (my other love), if I can't find a team for a quest, I do something else. It's as simple as that.
All in all, I think Guild Wars is a fantastic game for a great price and can't wait for GW2.
What a silly comment... Quality, not innovation, is the defining factor of a game's success.
Care to elaborate as to why you didn't like the game or do you just want to hate on it? Was it the graphics? The gameplay? The instanced world? No crafting? Or maybe that it didn't have a sub fee so it's obviously an inferior game?
Some people just have different opinions. I would just quibble with his first statement, I've never understood the love for Guild Wars, as it is a subjective point. You don't like it so you don't understand. Well there are a lot of things I don't like but other people do. I understand it is a preference. So there is your reason Mr. Atlan.
I played it, liked it, bought all expansions and now after more than 800 hours of playing, I don't give a damn about it anymore. Yes it does get old and I have my reservations concerning the community. My advice would be to wait for GW2 since its coming soon.
lol most games get old after 800 hours of playing. I take breaks from it for a month or two and then go back so it feels a little fresher. I would agree, though, to wait until GW2 comes out if you haven't already started playing GW1.
It just didn't grab me I guess.
I tried a lot of mmo's before I tried it. I guess it felt like a really crappy version of WoW. I had already played WoW and quit before I picked up Guild Wars.
So by the time I played Guild Wars it felt like I had already played this game before only it seemed worse than I had remembered.
Aside from both having a fantasy setting, what about GW is reminiscent of WoW? Art style, combat, skills, character creation, quest system, crafting, storyline, PvP, payment method, end game (such as it is). None of these are remotely similar between the two titles. Having played both extensively, I don't see how they can even be compared.
This ^^
I prefer to think of it in terms of quality innovation. If there is nothing new to the game at all from the game you are already playing, then why would you bother playing it? Unlike most of the people who played WoW, i had already been playing MMO's before it. If its your first mmo, then i can understand defending it as your first love who took your virginity. But WoW is just a big slut it turns out. I played WoW's open beta and friends of mine bought me an account and tried to get me to play with them, but i couldnt last more than a few hours each time before i would apologize to my friends from not being able to take the boredom from the game offering me nothing new to work with. Not a single new feature was introduced until years into the games lifetime. It had all the same problems of other mmo's and no solutions.
I cant say the same for GW. Arenanet identified problems with MMO's and they changed things to address them. Not everyone liked the changes which is why they have been reexamining the problems and came up with alternate and possibly better solutions which is why we have GW2 coming.
This is really common for vet MMO players I think. It happened to me the first time I tried it.
GW is very different to s atandard MMO but most folks from that background expect it to be the same, so when it isnt they don't get it.
The second time I played it though I went in with a clear mind and no expectations of what it should or shouldnt be, just a willingness to learn it and enjoy the story, and had a blast.
On a side note, uninstalling a game like this after an hour of play is basicially... well, can't say here, but you get me. Ofc you don't 'understand the love', you never saw the game.
lol the entire game with all the packs is like £15 and no sub... I would say 800 hours is stunning value :P
Aaaah, GW. One of my greatest online loves ever.
Not for everybody, though. I think 8.6 might be a little high right now. Community is a tiny shell of it's former self (Heroes are more competent than your average pug, but only half as interesting). I'd say get the game if you're looking for a fun co-op RPG with a deep combat system and stellar PvP. Otherwise, temper expectations. The game feels archaic at times, but it's well worth the trouble, imo.
Funny. i rediscovered the game few weeks ago. I finished factions in which i got stuck before at second to last mission, and nightfall, where i got bored in the middle of campaign.
Now working on on building my hall of monuments.
The game is still amazing! Graphics is not dated and beautifull and i'm having lots of fun.
btw. What is best place to trade in game?
Played it during Beta and wasn't impressed but with GW2 coming up I thought I'd give it another go and honestly...Well it's still rather terrible. The excessive instancing, rubber banding, lack of jumping and just poor movement all leaves me feeling really detached from my character and the world in general.
I'm not sure at what point these great quests and storylines come in but so far it's just been poorly written boring fedex crap...
Have to throw my lot in with some of the previous posters in wondering what everyone sees in this game...
Honestly, it just sounds like neither of the 2 games are for you.
While the movement does feel restricted (it is a very old game), The story is very much around you. All you need is a little bit of patience to read some of the text. They even organize the quests between main storyline, the campaignes, etc. All of the major storylines start from the moment you make your character, and if you can make it a couple days you may even start to see how they intertwine.
While GW2 will have better movement, and voice acting (which will require less effort from the player to follow along), they're still strategy based games. You can't be good with strategy without patience and timing.
My only real gripe with GW1 atm, is just that it's a lot more solo-centric than it used to be, and the emphasis on heroes can get a bit old.
Im sorry but i just have to ask. Are you playing on dial up? how the hell are you rubber banding? This game plays smooth on a toaster. Are you wireless? Hell, this game runs on a 1 gig pentium 4 processor with 256mb of ram and 64 bit on-board integrated graphics without lag (only about 20 fps though). Your other issues are part of the game design. No you cant jump. Besides, nothing ruins immersion more than some jack off in full plate armour pogoing around town. (immersion: because somehow game features are supposed to make me forget that im playing a video game with a keyboard and mouse while staring at a monitor)
Kamadan, Lions Arch, and Embark Beach.
I've actually had an issue with rubber banding myself in the game. If you use the windows key to go to your desktop and then come back, all your heroes will be rubber banding every time you take a step. If you use the minimize button instead, it'll be fine when you come back. Maybe that's what happened.
Don't know if anyone already commented about this but: do you know what really makes me think "Good, boys!" when I play Guild Wars?
I don't think instacing is the best solution for the classic "I don't feel like a real hero" problem, but that's what ArenaNet gave us this time and I liked it:
You know that quest when a random NPC in a town tells you that some monsters are grouping together to destroy the town in a massive attack and you should kill them so a tragedy won't happen? Well, you get the quest and you leave the town and you find out the attack is really happening!!!1!! This should be kinda obvious but in my previous experiences all that would happen is that I'd have to kill some generic mob where the possibility of attacking something have probably never happened to occur in their AI minds. If I failed all that would happen is that I'd have to begin the quest once again (no burning towns =/), anyway it's still a step forward and I hope they go even further with GW2.
I love this game. It probably also has something to do with a weak case of "underground syndrome" that I have and with my tendency of "overrating" different stuff for the sake of they being different (even more when they succed), but this game united the single player and story driven mechanics I loved in JRPGs, the action oriented battle system a la Diablo and the mmo aspect in a very satisfying way. So, yeah, there are games a lot more profitable and maybe this even means something to ANet guys. Means nothing to me though.
After playing Free to Play Grinders like MapleStory and Rappelz, Guild Wars caught my eye. I ended up buying it and loving it... one campaign for four years, since money became tight for me after a little while. Now that I have enough money to get the other campaigns, Guild Wars 2 is right around the corner, so I think I'll save a bit.
Immersion is always a very personal thing, so I don't want you to take this as an attack, but: why does instancing break your immersion? Single-player RPG games are plenty immersive, so it's not like you need other players around to feel like a world is alive. The world, the story, it's all crafted around you, the player; that's very immersive, IMO. On the other hand, in games with persistent worlds, my experience is that few people talk anyway, and the talk that does occur is rarely "immersive"; this is compounded by the fact that, while questing, it's generally in one's best interest to avoid other players so you don't fight each other for mob spawns. Incidentally, the fact that GW2 is breaking this by making it nearly impossible to be upset by the presence of another player is one of its biggeset draws for me, because (as mentioned) persistent worlds have left a bad taste in my mouth.
RE: not being able to get past content once you're lvl20...that means you're probably doing something wrong. Sorry, it's true. The game is silly easy in normal mode right now, especially compared to how it used to be. Hard mode makes it, well, hard, but if the basic campaign is stumping you in NM, that's an indication that you need to change your build and/or tactics.
[edit]Oh, unrelated: GW1 looks fantastic. I hate the WoW aesthetic, so GW gets points just for being more realistic (really, just less cartoony), but seriously, the environments are gorgeous, particularly the later campaigns/expansions. Anyone who says otherwise isn't running the game at decent settings. Re: bad textures...other players' armors will be displayed with compressed textures automatically, but there is an option in the menu to display them with full resolution. Use it. It makes a world of difference.