Guild Wars 2: Impressions and Observations

Guild Wars 2 is an MMORPG developed by ArenaNet. It launched last August 28th to a lot of hype. It's unique in that it has no monthly subscription fee just like the first Guild Wars. I can't really offer a comprehensive review since I've yet to reach end-game content. As of this moment, I'm still level 29. I've enjoyed levelling in my own pace without feeling like I have to get tons done because I paid for game time. Instead, I'd like to give my observations about it so far.

Character Creation

There are five races in GW2 namely; the Asura, Charr, Humans, Norn and Sylvari. Asura are the short, highly advanced, mischievous but clever race. Charr are the huge, feline-like warrior race who really love war and making war and warring war. Humans are... humans. Norn are like humans but taller; vikings basically. The Sylvari are plant people born into the world from this mother tree and share experience and knowledge through the "dream" before birth.

The customization in this game is great. The ability to create your appearance was really well done. You can change the dimensions of your face as well as the color scheme of your clothing which will apply to all clothing you subsequently wear. The best part is choosing your backstory. For example, I created an Asura Engineer. You choose which college you belong, your previous teacher and so on. These choices figure in to your personal quest.

Questing
The main quest in the game is your personal story. Your personal story leads you deeper into the world so you can encounter world quests. The personal story actually progresses faster than the player. If you're level 14, your personal quest may suddenly need you to be 17 so you are "encouraged" to gain experience through world questing.

The world questing heavily emphasizes exploration. The maps are huge with quest hubs spread out all over. In addition, there are "points of interests" to explore. My favorite part are the "vistas". If you click on a vista, the camera pans out to the environment giving you really "breathtaking" views on say, a waterfall or a lush forest. If you're the type of player who doesn't give a shit, I guess this won't sound so appealing but getting all the vistas and points of interests offer good experience points and map completion which gives even more experience points.

Another thing is that there are many world events that appear on your map from time to time which anyone can jump in and participate. Your contribution determines how much points you get. It's a nice mechanic to bring players together.

The quests themselves are pretty standard. Kill this, fetch that. If you've played any MMO game before, it gets tedious. At least it's smooth.

Combat
The strange thing sbout combat in this game is that your main abilities (Num Key 1 to 4) are determined by the weapon you wield. Since i'm an engineer, I get the choice between rifles or pistols. Equipping either changes what abilities you get. For example, I can shoot a net with a rifle to snare enemies but with a pistol, I get poison darts instead.

The number 6 key is a healing ability. This is true for all players. Different classes have different healing abilities.

Keys 7 to 9 are class abilities. As an engineer, I can place turrets, bombs and such. As a game mechanic for engineers, I can equip different kits to change my basic 1-5 weapon abilities so weapons aren't such an extreme limitation to an engineer as it first appears.

Lastly, buttons F1 to F4 are abilities that can be used anytime and determined by the abilities chosen for keys 6 to 9. For example, if I chose a healing turret as my heal, the F1 key allows me to cast a healing spray anytime I want with or without a turret. If I chose a healing elixir as my heal, the F1 key allows me to throw a healing elixir to allies at long distances.

Also, everyone can dodge but pressing a movement key twice. I guess this compensates the game not having your standard "tank, healer and dps" dungeon set up.

Skills
There are no skill trees in GW2. There's a trait panel that allows you to put points in them. For example, as an engineer, my traits are Explosives, Alchemy and Invention. If you put points into any of these, you get stat bonuses and a special bonus. Putting five points in explosives allows you to drop bombs every time you dodge.

Honestly, I'm not so sure about the trait system yet.

Professions
I've ignored professions so far. I've just been focused on levelling and exploration.

Problems
I seem to have frame rate issues. The game is demanding on PCs made worse by many players running around the screen spamming abilities.

One big problem though is that the trading post always seems to be down. Having no auction house this late from launch seems like a big mistake. You'd think a modern MMO wouldn't have this problem since a functioning auction house is vital to the game economy. There are also numerous connection issues. I frequently get disconnected by the server.

Final Thoughts
I can't give a real verdict on this game since I'm not fully levelled. So far, however, I can say this is a pretty standard MMO. I'm not saying it's crappy, I'm just saying that it's on the high end of normal. It's good for something free. Of course, this could change once I get into dungeons and such.