Guild Wars review

[TomO]

Pro-G (http://www.pro-g.co.uk/review/392/) has an in depth review of Guild Wars, the semi-MMORPG that has no monthly subscription fee.

A quick twenty-minute quest quickly becomes two or three, or leads the player into an hour-long mission. The delicious urge to explore will often have you peeking into the misty unknown regions of the map, searching for some secret nugget of promise hidden deep within a swamp or at the edge of a forest. Do not purchase this game unless you have an awful lot of free time on your hands.
If you haven’t already picked up Guild Wars, consider how much free time you have to waste before doing so.

[Klade]

I personally have not picked up a copy yet and I really don't plan to. While I'm a huge fan of MMOs (and this may or may not fit into that catagory) this game is simply not for me. To give you some idea of why, I also didn't like Diablo 2.

[Vandenh]

Haven't picked it up.. might do it in a couple of months. Right now I am still busy in WoW and after that I plan a return to CoH.

[BalekFekete]

Haven't picked it up.. might do it in a couple of months. Right now I am still busy in WoW and after that I plan a return to CoH.

Just recently returned to CoH as well (well, back in March) so have NO desire to plans to pick it up. Having way too much fun beatin' the snot out of the villians of the world all over again.

Word of advice...if you had quit some time ago, as I did...before I2...then consider starting from scratch. The content they added early in the game is excellent and shouldn't be missed.

[Kamalot]

Put simply, Guild Wars rocks.

If you are worried about never seeing your family again, simply buy some extra copies for your spouse / kids. Both my wife and daughter play Guild Wars with me.

[SaintArnold]

Question for people who love the shit out of Diablo 2:
Should I buy Guild Wars, or World of Warcraft?

[feeble]

The review was glowing, there was not one thing wrong in the reviewers opinion.
I dont know if this is a good thing or not.
But my biggest concern with Guild Wars, is quest sharing with your group. Even if quests arent as important in guild wars, other then sometimes giving new skills, it would be nice to beable to view your parties(friends) quests and share them.

Also you really dont need alot of time for GW, the quests dont generally take that long with is nice. It only takes hours if you get addicted.

Anyway, im loving guild wars nearly as much as WoW. And in the long run, i think Guild wars will probably last longer.

Question for people who love the shit out of Diablo 2:
Should I buy Guild Wars, or World of Warcraft?
Depends both GW and WoW have similarities and differences to Diablo 2. But on the whole guild wars is probably the way to go.

[Rommel]

My friend has been calling WOW Diablo III for weeks now. I see some similarities, but many differences. The big one being that I like WoW.

[LilEvilFish]

But my biggest concern with Guild Wars, is quest sharing with your group. Even if quests arent as important in guild wars, other then sometimes giving new skills, it would be nice to beable to view your parties(friends) quests and share them.

You can in a way, me and my mate simply gather quests into the log then complete them at the same time. So you get one group of recruits, or one key item but it counts for both of you.

Overall I enjoy GW but that's only because I avoid everyone who stands around shouting "I GOTS TUHSI SOWRD FOR SALE 134-67 DAMGGE ONLYT 500GP!!!!!!!"

Thankyou god for implementing an "ignore local chat" option!

[Heretic Machine]

Word of advice...if you had quit some time ago, as I did...before I2...then consider starting from scratch. The content they added early in the game is excellent and shouldn't be missed.

Heh... I just quit CoH. The grind still isn't fixed, there still isn't an end game (with no sign of one in sight), the proposed non-combat system still sounds crappy, and PVP will never be balanced because of the very nature of the archtypes. I love CoH, but it just can't keep me playing.

Now I'm starting WoW from scratch again on a different server... It's been pretty fun so far, but I'm playing fairly casually.

EDIT: Oh, and I played Guild Wars. Was a bit turned off by the single-playeresque gameplay, the HORRID community (other than the EvAv's), and the general lack of loot given to players. I almost never upgraded my armor, and when I did it looked exactly like the first suit...

[bapenguin]

Guild Wars is fun. I love the fact I don't feel the need to play it every living second or I'll miss something.

[screwtape]

I'm having a blast with Guild Wars.

My only complaint (and this might be remedied if I ventured with other people instead of just hiring henchmen) is that some of the missions take too long because I have no idea what to do. I see the little green "waypoint" on my map, but I run around for 30 minutes because I'm not sure which path to take.

Other than that, it's very, very fun. I've read many of the Guild Wars threads here on EvAv, and it seems people either really enjoy it or just don't care for it. If you like hack n slash, if you want a more casual approach to the MMO scene, Guild Wars is a wonderful experience.

And there's an EvilAvatar guild, so you'll always have people to quest with.

[feeble]

You can in a way, me and my mate simply gather quests into the log then complete them at the same time. So you get one group of recruits, or one key item but it counts for both of you.

So what you mean is, that to "Share" quests, you can only play the game with that character when you friend is online, so you dont get inconsistency with each others quests?

[chronocrash]

I have watched people around me get sucked in the hole that is WoW. Although I played in two betas, and I loved it, I still haven't been able to justify its purchase or monthly fee. Simply because I'm a fulltime student and my interests span many mediums, my dedication to a game usually is strong for the first 30-50 hours, then I usually start to back off.

I am very close to picked up GW every day. I have two questions about it:

1) Are the controls similar to WoW? Controls are very importantly to me, and I can't see myself attempting a click-fest in a fully 3d world. It's one way I hope GW is not like Diablo.

2) After the first 50 or so hours, which I'm guessing is ample time considering the low level cap, is there still more that holds interest? Like I said, I can sometimes take a casual approach to gaming, even RPGs.

Not currently playing any games, and it's kind of making me antsy.

[PIPBoy3000]

It's interesting stepping back and observing how family, work, and other "grown up" responsibilities has eaten up all my free time. I find now that I value the shorter, high-production games rather than the really huge ones. Max Payne 2 was a great experience for me, as an example.

Guild Wars sounds like the sort of game I would have appreciated in the pre-kid days when I had three or four hours a day to play on my computer. Now that it's down to one or two at best, it's hard to spend time on anything epic in scope. Right now I'm playing Psychonauts and enjoying it quite a bit.

[diggable]

I'm on my 3rd day and I'm having a blast, didn't think I'd like it at all.

only complaint is the henchman that I take with me, I wish I could control them so I can lure the CHarrs to be slaughtered. I hate it when the henchmen would attack, get killed and I try to run to safety.

[DevDict]

1) Are the controls similar to WoW? Controls are very importantly to me, and I can't see myself attempting a click-fest in a fully 3d world. It's one way I hope GW is not like Diablo.
You move with WASD Q and E for strafing (you can reconfigure everything). You may click on the ground if you want, or just hold both mouse buttons to run forward. R activates Auto-Run. By holding the right mouse button, you may move the camera around your character and pressing A and D strafes you. You attack by clicking on an enemy or using keyboard keys to select one and hit space to attack. Once you start attacking, you auto-attack until your target is dead or you select an ally to cast a spell on him.

2) After the first 50 or so hours, which I'm guessing is ample time considering the low level cap, is there still more that holds interest? Like I said, I can sometimes take a casual approach to gaming, even RPGs.
There is arguably a lot of high-level content in GW. I say arguably because many people play just to level and leave once they get to level 20, ignoring the storyline and the challenges. Keep in mind that whereas you can only get to level 20, your foes do not. You may also unlock special Elite skills (capture from enemies), look for one of several 15 000 gold/piece armour sets, quest in high-level areas, PVP and GVG.

[chronocrash]

Thanks Death At The Door. Exactly what I was hoping to hear.
Now I just have to give in to the urge to buy it. That's really the hard part.

[TrackZero]

I'm still having an on/off relationship with WoW, with zero time left for GW. On/off in that the game is so good I can't stop playing and need to force myself to take 2 weeks off for every 2 weeks on. That and I'd never have time for other games at all otherwise. Not to mention something called the "real world" I have to keep taking time out for.

It also helps I gave up on PvP and went back to PvE, much easier when you're trying to be a casual player. It means I don't have to keep up with the rest of my guild to help out in PvP encounters.

[Vermillion]

The thing is, I think it's less of time killer than WoW. I can get in, pick up a mission and finish it at my leisure. Where with WoW, I was in a constant hurry up and tred mode the whole game because I had to try to keep up with my guild mates who had an insane amount of free time. Here, if I wanna go out with the guildies, bang make myself a character and go guild v guild or the such. Or if someone needs help, insta teleport to their town and give it a go, instead of WoW where it was a 30 minute travel grind to get to the other side of the map.

I love Guild Wars. I love that it's much less a tred than WoW is. I love that I can play at my own convienence and not feel like I HAVE to play. I just feel that I get much more bang for my time than with WoW.

And yes, I say Bang to much. All this game needs is a little more pepper... BANG.

[Mason]

2) After the first 50 or so hours, which I'm guessing is ample time considering the low level cap, is there still more that holds interest? Like I said, I can sometimes take a casual approach to gaming, even RPGs.

You should really take the low level cap as an encouraging signs. Games that have huge grinds to max out a character tend to have pretty weak endgames. GW is secure in its length (heh) because there's so terribly much to do after you've hit 20. Most players will get to 20 about 60-70% of the way through the game's missions, so finishing out the game's PvE missions is the primary activity. But there are others.

Dominating in tournament PvP, joining up with the EvAv crew and fighting in Guild vs Guild battles, exploring and capturing new skills from boss monsters, running high-end PvE instances (if you so choose, the equipment system doesn't require farming to stay competitive). And Arena.net's already talking about their first free content expansion.

I'd say GW is quite friendly to casual players. The lack of travel time, ease of finding groups for quests and missions, and lack of a notable grind all keep the game well-paced.

[agentgray]

I think what makes my enjoyment of GW so high is because of the guild. There is always someone who is willing to quest with you to help you out. That instills a desire to helpothers yourself in return.

We hit the Tombs last night and although my time was brief we had some fun. Of course, a couple of us in the guild got to experience first-hand the idiots that are out there and have no room for patience. I'm glad we don't experience that in the guild.

From what I've gathered, the EA guild is the place to be. I actually had two people request to join last night after recognizing the cape (Hey, the word is spreading!).

If you want in, make it quick. I think the cap is at 100.

[kickmybum]

I tried GW for a bit and thought it sucked so I went back to Lineage 2. With C3 release, Lineage is pretty good.

[Genital Eclipse]

Ea Guild Forever!

[51|RandoM]

As far as the diablo and gw comparisons go:

Diablo: Loved it.

Diablo 2: Disappointed, played through campaign, no interest in the online component.

GW: Really like the PvP. Some of the PvE is outstanding, but there just isn't enough of it to go around. Good thing I knew the game wasn't about PvE... unlike most of the naysayers on this site(not that there are that many GW naysayers here).

The diablo comparisons just don't hold up, since GW isn't even remotely as loot-oriented as diablo. heck, if you want, you can completely skip the PvE and what little loot is there and make a pure PvP character.

An evening in a major town and you can *buy* everything you might want for your end game character, after spending a few days making money. The only things even remotely rough to get are superior runes, and you usually won't use more than 1 or 2 of those in a PvP build, if any(I don't use any in mine, for instance, oops, would use superior vitality).

Diablo2, on the other hand, was 99% finding your uber loot and 1% PvP.

Oh well, people who don't get GW never will, I'm just wasting my time trying to explain it, over and over and over and over again. I need a form letter or something.

[Pumped'Up]

can't understand how anyone who praises and loves Diablo, so much dislikes Diablo 2.

D2 is by far superior to D1 in every aspect. nuff said.

[Taco]

Guild Wars. They took a decent idea, executed the shit out of it and released an awesome game. The more I play it the more I like, from the questing to PVP. This is the only RPG game I enjoy PvP with.

I loved D1, not two. Hard to put a finger on it, I didn't like the look or style of Diablo2, enemies, player characters, maps, everything. I just didn't like the structure.

[TheBrainKills]

What I love about Guild wars; is that I can completely play it with one hand on the mouse, and with a nice frosty beer in the other. Of course you can use the WASD keys but I consider that taking the wimps way out ;)

[Draft]

Oh well, people who don't get GW never will, I'm just wasting my time trying to explain it, over and over and over and over again. I need a form letter or something.Why don't you just stop being an ass an accept a person can completely "get" something and still not like it.

[TrackZero]

can't understand how anyone who praises and loves Diablo, so much dislikes Diablo 2.

D2 is by far superior to D1 in every aspect. nuff said.

No it isn't. 'nuff said (since you won't give any points at all for your argument).

(From another D1 lover, D2 hater.)

[Pumped'Up]

No it isn't. 'nuff said (since you won't give any points at all for your argument).

(From another D1 lover, D2 hater.)
sheesh obviously, you haven't even played D2 yet...lamer