Guild Wars 2 Review [PC]

By Rick Whitlock / September 4, 2012

rating:4

The beautiful world of Tyria has been open to the public for a week at the time of this writing. Guild Wars fans have been playing until their eyes bleed and their knuckles are stiff since the 25th of August, when servers opened up 3 days early for the pre-purchase crowd. Sales far surpassed ArenaNet's predictions, as they have estimated over 1.2 million copies were pre-ordered. Numbers have not quite come in yet from post-launch sales, but I would be surprised if it was NOT at least another 2 million. It seems the whole internet is abuzz with Guild Wars 2 fever, but is it really all it has been hyped up to be? Let's take a look at the state of Guild Wars 2 right now, what works, what doesn't work, and what is downright broken (literally). Jumping in to the game the first time, it is visually stunning. The whole screen transforms into a vibrant oil painting as all 5 races of Tyria are laid out before you. The eight classes are as unique as they come, each employing their own incredibly distinct mechanics and play styles. I gave all eight a try, and each time I thought "Nothing can be as fun as this (insert class here)!", only to find the next one was at least as good if not better. The character creation process is detailed enough to give your character exactly the look you want, without overwhelming you with sliders and minute adjustments. After you create the hero you have always wanted, the real fun begins. You are asked a series of seemingly innocuous questions about your characters past and personality. The first time I did them, I flew right through, not paying them much attention. I figured it was a role-playing thing - but it is oh-so-much more than that. You will just have to check it out to see the ramifications of your choices, but in short, it's best to consider your answers carefully.

The game begins outside the home city of your chosen race. There is some NPC or another to talk to, and after a quick cutscene of your conversation with him/her, he/she sends you off to another NPC, or on a hunt, or through a portal, or some such menial task depending on your race. After completing said task, you will speak to another NPC, who will in turn set an event in motion. Now you get your first taste of the scope of Guild Wars 2. No matter what race you play, you will now fight a massive boss, the size of which is typically reserved for large raiding parties in other MMOs. This is also your first real taste of combat in Guild Wars 2: it is incredibly fluid, and feels powerful and dangerous right from the start, even with no flashy abilities to use. It is very possible to die here, which will be your first chance to see how the downed state works. You get a new health bar which constantly depletes, and a new set of 4 abilities. Basically the point here is to kill something, anything, before your health bar is gone, and you get a "second wind" and get back into the fight. After all is said and done and your massive foe lies dead at your feet, the real Guild Wars begins. After a cutscene where you are introduced to the main hero of your race, you are thrown into Tyria proper, where your only direction is to "help the residents" of your area. There are hollow heart icons dotting the map, which give you some direction and help you find things to do, but the meat of the game are Dynamic Events, known as DEs in game. These events show up constantly all over the map, and offer excellent rewards in every currency the game offers. They also typically chain into one another, so if you finish an event and stick around with the person you just helped, they will often have something else for you to do. The best part is that the events are: a) appropriate for any player who is at least the level of the event or higher thanks the "sidekicking", and b) they scale in difficulty depending on how many people are around.

Sidekicking is an ingenious system that artificially caps your level to the area you are in. Are you level 50 but your friend is just starting? No problem, just show up in the same area as them, and your level will be adjusted accordingly. Not only that, but you will still receive awards, both experience-wise and gear-wise, appropriate to your actual level in the process, making it a win-win situation. DEs also tend to attract flocks of people, so as more people show up, so too will more monsters. If there is a boss at the end, he will also have more health and be more dangerous the more players are around, but also offer bigger rewards. Sidekicking and event scaling combine to make DEs, in my opinion, the absolute best solution to the traditional level grind while also not only encouraging, but rewarding social play. Did I mention that you never have to group up with people to work with them on a DE? Just be in the same area, contribute, and get rewarded. Absolute freaking genius. We've established that game play is incredibly fun, engaging, and rewarding and that graphics are gorgeously stylized, making Tyria a massive interactive oil painting, so lets get down to the nuts and bolts. In-game systems SEEM amazing, and the small amount of testing I've been able to give them does seem to confirm as much. The Trading Post is Guild Wars 2's answer to the traditional auction house systems, which is not unique to your server: it connects to all servers, simultaneously, in real time - and it is HUGE. ArenaNet hired an economist onto the team to get some advice on how to set up a thriving and well balanced economy, and the answer was no restrictions on trade.

The tools within the Trading Post are very robust: beyond just listing your items for sale and buying items others have listed, you can place an order for a particular item with the price you are willing to pay and the quantity you want, and leave it for a crafter or gatherer to fill at his or her convenience. You can look at the average price and the price history of each item sold, and plan your economic strategy. People who enjoy playing the markets in MMOs should get ready for the best economic simulator within a video game I have seen to date. The game has no monthly fee, so it is entirely supported by microtransactions, and while saying the words cash shop is often an instant turn off to many MMO gamers, I strongly encourage you to take a look at the cash shop in Guild Wars 2. Known as the "Black Lion Trading Company", it is a perfect example of what a cash shop should be, and more importantly, what it should not be. The closest thing to "pay-to-win" are experience boosters, which are short duration, not massively huge, and are available without spending real money in-game. The rest of the items are cosmetic in nature: armor sets, armor dyes, mini pets and unique cosmetic costume pieces make up the rest of the store, ranging from realistic to goofy. There are also Black Lion keys, which are required to open Black Lion chests, which occasionally drop off random mobs in the world. They contain only temporary transformation tonics, dyes, mini pets, experience boosts, and sometimes another Black Lion key, and opening them is completely optional, since all the rewards are cosmetic in nature. All items in the Black Lion Trading Company are reasonably priced, and offer a nice extra layer of customization. Unfortunately, since launch, these tools have been very limited in their availability: many bugs and exploits have been keeping the Trading Post perpetually offline for most players since launch. The Black Lion Trading Post has also been available intermittently at best, not that I would recommend you using it right away. Unfortunately, many users have had their accounts hacked, and although there has been no word of personal information being stolen, I prefer to err on the safe side when it comes to keeping my identity secure. ArenaNet officially recommends you create a new email address for Guild Wars 2 and use a unique password you have never used before to enhance your security. They also have supposedly have an e-mail authentication system in place, although I have seen no evidence of it - I put in a ticket with customer support 4 days ago, and yesterday received an e-mail saying "The e-mail authentication system is now working,". Two days later, and I have yet to receive an authentication e-mail or a response to my new ticket in which I explained my situation, and therefore, I will not be making use of the Black Lion Trading Company until their security situation is well and truly sorted out.

The official launch has certainly had it's share of problems (read my other article, Guild Wars 2: Blast-off or Failure to Launch? for more info on that), but it cannot be overstated how downright fun it is to play. Graphically stunning in a beautifully stylized way, incredibly tight and responsive combat, and market tools which rival the best stock trading software out there, Guild Wars 2 is the total package for anyone looking for the next evolution in MMO gaming, or for those who are burned out on running the endless treadmill which is the "traditional" MMO experience. ArenaNet certainly deserves kudos for this incredible effort, and I can only hope they can inspire and motivate an entire market which has grown more and more stale in the last decade. Guild Wars 2 is certainly a must buy. Maybe just don't give them your credit card info quite yet. Guild Wars 2 is available to buy now.