Guild Wars

Posted on Tuesday, May 10, 2005 in the Games category.

Warning: geek factor of following entry is 10 :)

Over the weekend, I bought the newest entrant to the MMORPG genre, Guild Wars. The one thing that drew me to this game, was the lack of a monthly fee. Call me old fashioned, but I just don’t understand paying $15-20 a month for a game (although WoW sure was tempting).

Overall review

This game is quite impressive. From the start, I was expecting a substandard MMORPG, due to the fact that there was no monthly fee. Ill be damned if I wasn’t proven wrong from the beginning. I played it one time during the beta weekends (about 4 months ago), and was impressed, but saw many holes needing to be filled. Ncsoft definitely filled them, and more. From the start of the game, you are introduced to a world of complex skillsets, easy to use interfaces, but at the same time, not made to feel like a n00b. That is, until you go to the academy. Once there, you’re on your own. Make SURE that you take care of ALL of your skills, leveling up (I would say level 6, 7 is the minimum before entering the academy), etc before you enter the academy. Otherwise you will be a little bit limited in what you can do in the searing. You won’t be shit out of luck, but it will be a little tougher.

Expansiveness

This was one thing I was worried about before I entered the academy. The map was quite small, and I thought it would be quite limiting. Once you enter the academy, you will find out that the map grows 10 fold. I have been playing in the searing for quite a while, and I’m not even 10% through the map. This might be the same in all MMORPG’s, but I have nothing to compare to.

Skills

One thing that’s great about Guild Wars, is the fact that your ability is determined by skills, not hours played. I think in the end, it all boils down to hours played, but it is a LOT easier to pick up and compete with the more experienced player.

So ya gonna join my guild?

Well, I really haven’t started one yet, but wanted to see if anyone in the community had bought the game and wanted to team up. Leave a comment and we can meet up in Ascalon.