A little background history is necessary here. Guild Wars was the first MMO I ever played. It held immense appeal after the hundreds of XBox 360 hours I had logged in Oblivion. Hubby bought himself a copy too, but always told me that it wasn’t a “true” MMO, but he was gracious enough to play with me when I asked and didn’t get too frustrated with me horribly gaming skills when he did. The game served as a nice, gentle introduction into the MMO genre and eventually led to WOW, Everquest 2, and others but I quickly outgrew the game once I tried others in the genre.
Over the years, news about Guild Wars 2 was hit or miss and then finally, open beta weekends arrived this year. Even though I was one of those lucky 1 million people who successfully registered for open beta weekends I never got an invite. And to be honest, after being burned by many “AAA” titles in recent years, neither of us was willing to pre-purchase the game just to get access to an open beta when hubby truly did not like the first installment of the game. However, I was lucky enough to receive a beta key from the Massively give away last week and waited to log-in for the first time as patiently as I could.
I quickly decided while the game loaded to try ever class at least once and every race at least once. I wasn’t interested in chewing through content or seeing as much of Tyria as I could. Rather I wanted to see if the introduction of new playable races worked, if the changes to professions and the elimination of professions was game destroying, and how character creation was.
The new playable races include the Charr, the Asura, the Norn, and the Sylvari. You can of course still create and play as a Human. First character I created was an Asura Engineer, followed quickly by a Charr Guardian, Sylvari Elementalist, Norn Mesmer, and human Warrior. I also briefly created and played, until about level 5 a Necromancer, Ranger, and Thief. Character slots were limited to five so early characters were created and deleted to try new professions.
Character creation needs to be discussed in two parts, the character look and the backstory. Backstory first just because it is so well done and unique in my experience. Once you are satisfied with how your character looks, you are then asked a series of question about your character which vary by race and profession. Your answer to these questions determines the cut-scene story intro to the game and how you are presented opportunities to solve quests in the world.
Character creation was very nice but still limited in comparison to another NCSoft title, Aion, unfortunately, however character creation is very true to the original game. There are sliders for character height and graphical depictions for weight and musculature. So you can be, within reason for your race, as short or as plump as you want. Hair styles are not as numerous as I would have liked, but the hair is very well done, has movement, and has LENGTH! Yes that’s right there is long hair in this game and more than one option for long hair. I can’t tell you how pleased I was with the long hair choices but let me just say WOOOOOOHOOOOOO!!! Make-up is pre-determined by the facial preset you pick. Although you can change the shape of the facial preset for features, like eyes and mouth. Overall character creation is solid.
I was skeptical about the total elimination of the Monk profession from the game and every character being able to heal themselves effectively. My skepticism has been laid to rest. Every class I tried could effectively heal themselves and others with no issues. The ability to resurrect fallen players while out adventuring is also an excellent game mechanic. Yes some professions can heal more effectively than others, Engineer and Elementalist spring to mind immediately, but every class has healing abilities. A pure healing profession would feel out of place to be honest.
How was combat you might be wondering? My somewhat jaded and burned-out on MMOs husband was enjoying combat so thoroughly that I heard him scream out repeatedly “THAT’S AWESOME” when I was out of the room! Combat is fast paced, dynamic, and feels connected. Skills are impactful to the enemy who reacts when you hit them. The ability to swap-out weapons mid-fight and have the corresponding skills swap at the same time with the push of a button is perfectly implemented. The range of weapon choices has improved dramatically from Guild Wars as well. Underwater fight is immensely entertaining and you have separate weapon sets and skills for underwater combat.
If you enjoy Rift or WOW, then there is something here for you too. The colors are over saturated, like WOW, which is a change from the first game. The rifts from Rift are here in the form of Dynamic Events. The game seems to have a little something from all popular MMOs to be honest. Effective Leveling reduces your current level to match area you are currently playing, similar to Everquest 2 mentoring and self-mentoring; world events, daily quests, achievements, and the list goes on. However, the borrowing doesn’t feel like they picked and pulled from the different games and threw it all in a blender and poured out Guild Wars 2. The picked and pulled features feel natural in the environment and have created a highly entertaining, fun to play MMO cocktail.
Guild Wars 2 launches on August 28th with early access beginning three days prior. I know what we’ll be playing at the end of next month.
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