Guild Wars 2: 10 reasons why you should play it

There was only one game for me I had to play in 2012.

It wasn’t Diablo 3, nor was it Mass Effect 3. No, that game was Guild Wars 2.

Launched about one and a half months ago in late August, it took me some time to post this review, partly because I was travelling in and out of the country but mainly because I was having so much damn fun playing the game.

I have played quite a bit of MMORPGs in the last seven years, like World of Warcraft (till Burning Crusade), WarHammer Online, and Rift.

But nothing compares to the time I spent on ArenaNet’s original Guild Wars, where I spent over 2000 hours(!) over seven years playing that game with all its expansions.

So how does Guild Wars 2 compare to its predecessor, whom I simply loved to bits?

In a nutshell: I fell in love all over again. Guild Wars 2 continues to suck all my waking free hours. Damn you ArenaNet for making such a spectacular sequel!

In short, if you want a new MMORPG poison, go buy Guild Wars 2. Yes, Blizzard’s World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria is just out, but Guild Wars 2, to me, is the game to beat.

Here are a list of reasons on why this game is so awesome, interspersed with some thoughts on what could make it even better.

1. It’s free-to-play, with no subscription fees

Yup. You never have to pay subscription fees, like in the original Guild Wars. Ever. It’s not like World of Warcraft, where you have to pay subscription fees every month.

Due to the success of the free-to-play model for MMORPGs, of which Guild Wars is one of the most popular, other MMOs like Star Wars: The Old Republic and Rift have adopted free-to-play aspects in their games in their bid to get more players.

I don’t see why, if you could fork out money for Diablo 3, you wouldn’t fork out money for this. You get tons more content for the same cost.

There is a real-money auction house in GuildWars 2, but it is mainly used for cosmetic vanity items and convenience mechanics like extra bank space and character slots.

You never get better gear through spending real money — you need to play the game to earn it — so unlike Diablo 3 you never need to spend a cent more on the base game than you need to do so to reach the highest tiers in the game.

2. There is no holy trinity

No tank, no healer, no DPS.

In Guild Wars 2, all characters are a blend of all three aspects, and the game enforces this through its design.

For example, all classes have a specific heal slot that must be brought along, and players are primarily in charge of their own survivability through self-heals and dodges. Also, all characters can resurrect other players.

When I first started out playing Guild Wars 2, I was surprised at how different the game felt from the original Guild Wars and other MMORPGs.

No monk to heal, no warrior to tank. In fact you can’t even heal or tank exclusively, and this will become very evident in the dungeons (instances in this game, which we will talk about later).

Many classes do not have auto-targeting attack skills, and to really well in this game you have to pay attention to mobs and watch the area in which you play.

I was demoing the game to a friend, and he mentioned it looked more involved than some other MMORPGs, where DPS can mash a button and stand at the back of a group. I concur with his statement.

Situational awareness is extremely important, and I would say good area and crowd control is the key to this game. Dazes, interrupts, knockbacks, conditions like blinds and weakness, wards and barriers are key to controlling fights in the environment.

Of course, some classes excel at various things. Necromancers are the king of AoE DoTs (Damage over time) conditions, whilst thieves can do spike damage pretty quickly. But don’t expect to do only one thing — e.g. just DPS — and get away with it in this game because you can’t.

3. Fixed toolbars and level autoscaling

One thing inherited from the first Guild Wars is a limited toolbar, where you only have a limited number of skills to choose from in a fight.

In Guild Wars 2, you’re limited to a 10-skill toolbar — five weapon skills, one healing skill, three miscellaneous utility skills, and one elite skill. That’s it.

You will learn many, many more skills than that, but at any one time, you can only activate 10. You can switch skills around when you’re not in combat, but it forces you to think how you can combine your abilities for combos.

With traits, Guild Wars 2’s tech-tree that affects your stat distribution and the power of your skills, the amount of customization is quite staggering. It can be intimidating, and it took me many, many hours to figure our just the basics of what can work.

Word of advice: Take your time and experiment!

One other major gameplay mechanic not much talked about is level autoscaling. Every zone or dungeon instance has a particular level, and you’re automatically downgraded to that level’s stats.

Whilst you might be a little more powerful because of your traits, if the scenario is hard, it doesn’t help that much at all, and good gameplay skills are more important than your gear or level.

I love this mechanic as you can go back to a lower level and play with friends to help them out, or jump in world vs. world (more later) and be levelled up to level 80 to help out.

If there is one thing that sets apart the Guild Wars games from other MMORPGs, it is that gearing means far less than others in the genre. I love this aspect of the game.

4. Dungeon delving and dynamic events

Guild Wars 2 really shines for me when it comes down to mastering fights, and you’ll learn this best in instanced dungeons. It really makes you react to the environment and zerging bosses and mobs will have you wipe in no time.

I’ve played a couple of dungeon scenarios thus far, and in all of them there is rarely the straight up tank and spank. There are eight dungeons in the game, but each dungeon has one story mode and three other different paths to go through, resulting in 24 different scenarios.

Smart play is the key to success, and it is it here that you really learn how your skills work.

So far, some of the biggest rushes I’ve gotten in Guild Wars 2 is through dungeoning.

One complaint though is finding people who wants to run specific dungeon paths, and rather than spamming the map channel for LFG for hours on end, perhaps ArenaNet might think about implementing some sort of dungeon finder.

Dynamic events (DE) is what replaces typical questing. Rather than have quest givers give you specific quests with the usual exclamation mark above their heads, dynamic events with objectives occur on the map often, and help focus players to hit certain objectives.

It’s not new, as many other MMORPGs have this kind of mechanic like WoW or Rift, but ArenaNet has done a decent job with the DEs.

Some of these are multi-tiered, require large groups of players, and can be tons of fun.

5. Personal storyline

Every character in this game gets a personal storyline to follow, depending on his race and starting history and affiliations that he or she chooses.

With literally tens of different branching storylines, the game personalizes your character’s eventual involvement and fight with the dragons of Tyria.

I’m around level 65 on my male human Guardian, level 50 on my female Sylvari Mesmer, and level 15 on my male Norn Thief. All their storylines were vastly different in the beginning till it started to converge later in the game.

I’ve still yet to finish the game’s main story, but at my point in the game, I do agree with many others on the Internet that some of the storytelling is uneven, and some stories are better than others.

In my opinion, I liked some of the lower level stories better than the later ones, which start to congregate along the same thread.

One nitpicking spoiler here for those who have played the game: Traherne’s storyline doesn’t have the dramatic impact that it should have at the later stages. Maybe it’s the voice acting, or the fact that he’s an emotionless scholar, but it’s pretty meh.

I liked other earlier characters like Sieran and Quinn, if you asked me.

Still, with five different races — the big Norn, the plant-like Sylvari, the cat-like Char, the intelligent Asura and humans — and eight classes to choose from, there is literally a ton of content to see, and you will probably not see them all unless you’re an insane completist with all the time in the world.

6. Exploring the lay of the land

Guild Wars 2 is heaven for explorers.

From vistas and waypoints to find, jumping puzzles, underwater areas, various types of resource nodes, there are a ton of things to explore in the zones.

It helps to pace the game with different content from the usual dynamic events or local reknown heart area objectives (like quests, but implemented a little differently).

And it helps that the game is so pretty. From wild and windy Norn snow capped peaks to techno-magic Asuran architecture, from the idyllic Krytan farming villages to the dank and dangerous bogs of Orr, the game boasts an impressive array of beautiful zones.

And the art! Cinematics in the game are hand-drawn and animated in a unique painterly art style (an influence by ArenaNet’s art director Daniel Dociu). If you love graphics, you will not be disappointed in the game.

On music, Jeremy Soule’s soundtrack is sublime. Old Guild Wars players will recognize some of the themes from the original series (which brings back fond nostalgia), but many of the new scores are hauntingly beautiful in their own right.

On eye and ear candy, Guild Wars 2 hits the right mark.

7. Griefing not allowed

Guild Wars 2 is one of the friendliest MMORPG environments I have ever played.

There is no ganking or griefing in this game. If you help someone kill something or if resurrect people, you gain experience, and when you group up to take down mobs you get more experience.

There is also no ninja loot-stealing, as all drops are for the individual only.

Based on the design philosophy of the game — it’s not about gears, stupid! — and how ArenaNet clearly separates the PvP and PvE aspects of the game (more on this later), the game world of Guild Wars 2 is a fun, friendly environment.

If you like ganking (taking down someone lower level than you) or griefing (camping them so they cannot rez), then I’m sorry to say this game isn’t for you.

8. I can’t believe I love the crafting

Normally I would say that crafting is a horrible grind to be avoided in most games.

Yes, in Guild Wars 2, it is a grind, but man, I have to say that this is such a fun grind!

I haven’t had so much fun doing crafting in a MMORPG in such a long time. Mainly because crafting does not involve you grinding mobs for ridiculous drops (at least not yet) or reputation for recipes, and whatever you lack in materials you can buy from the auction house.

It’s super fun to discover new recipes, and I’ve spent a sizeable amount of time in Guild Wars 2 crafting (and having fun), which I normally don’t do as much in a MMORPG.

You can more or less ignore crafting if it’s not essential to the gameplay. Kudos to ArenaNet for making crafting fun and enjoyable.

One comment though is that the amount of XP you currently get from crafting is ridiculous. Perhaps I’m in the minority, but I would prefer to get less XP through crafting.

With the right materials you can easily jump ahead in leveling. It gives as much, if not more experience, than exploring or dungeoning sometimes, and is easier with the right materials, which somehow feels wrong.

9. Player vs. player

I have tried the structured PvP battles and the World vs World big battleground fights for this review, but I have not scratched much of the content there even though I’ve put in excess of 100+ hours for this game thus far.

Mainly because I was having so much fun leveling and playing the PvE content, that I hadn’t had that much time to explore the PvP. Yet.

Suffice to say that in World vs. World (WvW), even though you’re scaled to level 80, your traits will make a difference and going in a lower level will put you at a disadvantage.

Still, more important than skills though, is finding the right group to help take down objectives and other players. And when you have a mass battleground fight going on, it can be a chaotic but beautiful mess.

For structured PvP, everybody starts out at maximal level with similar gears and stats in a PvP lobby, with all skills unlocked. In here, the game is all about skill and coordination, and the playing field is immediately fair in terms of gears.

Everything that you win in structured PvP can only be spent in the PvP area, typically for new skins.

10. The end game

It has just been a month and a half and already there are people complaining about not enough to do when they reach the end game of level 80.

From this and threads on the forums complaining about specific classes being OP (lingo for overpowered), a perennial thread if there ever was one, to others sulking about balance issues, I have one thing to say: Relax.

ArenaNet already has plans to make sure that the game is constantly updated with high quality content.

Why do I believe them?

Well, there is a reason why players like myself are such fanboys of ArenaNet. It is because I believe that ArenaNet really cares and love its games. Yeah, raking in fistfuls of money is necessary for a business, but not at the expense of their community or brand.

And they have built up a vast reservoir of goodwill on the original Guild Wars, where there were constant balance patch fixes, new areas and content, holiday events, etc. all thrown in for free over the seven years I’ve played that game.

It is what kept me playing long after I finished all the main storylines, sometimes more than once.

It helps that in Guild Wars 2 your level scales with the zone that you’re in, so you could still expect a tough challenge in a difficult area. Add the mix of classes and races to the list, and you have loads of content to explore.

So if your gripe is about being bored, I don’t really get it. But if your gripe is about not “progressing” through gears, you’re probably in the wrong game buddy, as the Guild Wars philosophy has never been very much been about that.

Conclusion

Guild Wars 2 isn’t your traditional MMORPG. It’s not Mists of Pandaria, so don’t expect it to be WoW. It’s different, and in my opinion, better.

More skill, more friendly, less grind where it matters. So go play this game and have fun!