Guild Wars 2: A Headstart

Guild Wars 2 for the Personal Computer by ArenaNet started its Headstart Access last night for those who pre-ordered the game and since that event started sooner than midnight - a friend of mine told me that he was already able to get into the game - I was able to log in and play the game around 10:30pm PDT. I didn't play for long though since both of us discovered a bug with the Asura race where the final part of the prologue where you have to fight a monstrous golem cannot be completed as it kept resetting over and over again. After that disappointing start, things worked a lot better when I played as the Norn and the Sylvari races this morning.

 

The story intro - yes, it's as cheesy as it looks.

 

Since I played a bit as the Mesmer with the Asura, which is still the most interesting class in the Guild Wars universe, I made my Norn a Hunter and my Sylvari a Necromancer. An interesting feature that I noticed right away was the placement of players in a temporary server while queueing to get into the destination server. This is quite a brilliant move to combat wait time during a massively multiplayer online role playing game launch - we all know how lengthy that could be. The first section that you have to complete for your characters does feel rushed even though the game tries to give that personalized feel to the whole occasion. These prologues could have taken their sweet time to build up your character's background so I know that at this point that the promise of a "Personal Story" is probably going to end up being unfulfilled, especially after seeing many of my own clones running about the game world.

 

Not sure why ArenaNet is so obsessed about transforming people into animals.

 

Thankfully, the haphazardly told storyline is the only glaring problem that I have found so far with the game. The graphics, oh my galaxy, those graphics are truly, ridiculously incredible for an MMO. The game is no longer instanced-based the way the first one was because now, you gain access to large open adventuring areas with other players and to achieve this level of graphical fidelity is quite remarkable. From the character models, to the clothing, and all the way to the environments, everything is meticulously detailed but be warned that the game will require a decent rig to run at the higher settings. On my PC, the game fluctuates between 40-60 frames per second with everything maxed out. Some of the character designs are questionable though, like the ugly Asura race that if not customized properly could end up looking like a mangled bunny. Just avoid playing the Asura and you will find yourself staring at your characters in admiration for a long time to come.

 

Let's kill some crystallized wurms before we drink, shall we?

 

Now those who said that the battle system in GW2 is revolutionary has probably never played an MMO before. Besides the fact that any kind of obstruction, environments or other enemies, will stop your attacks from hitting the target, everything here is rather standard. You click or tab over to an enemy, click you spell buttons and repeat until the target is dead. And oh, dodging can make you immune to attacks. The questing system isn't all that new nor is it perfect either. From what I have experienced so far, a majority of the quests in the starting area are presented in the form of events and when they start, you can just join in on the fun and complete whatever task it was that you have to accomplish at the risk of knowing nothing about the events' significance. Sure, the battles and the quests are fast and fun but basically, you are doing the same thing that you are doing in other MMOs, only that the grind is less apparent.

 

I do have some reservations about the skill system but since I have barely started the game, I am going to see how things develop before I can make a solid judgment on it. I am disappointed that the first five skills that you can use are weapon-dependent. I thought that after the whole 8 skill limitation of the first game, they are going to do away with such restrictions but it seems like things are a bit more rigid in this sequel. I do like that all classes can heal so that everyone can focus on actual combat. I have had enough with healing my party/raid because I had done it for 9999+ hours while playing World of Warcraft.

 

Yes, you may be killing together but are you really playing together?

 

GW2 doesn't feel like a full-fledged MMO because of its strange skill system but I can certainly see some potentials here. Thus far, it doesn't feel like the MMO revolution that it likes to brag itself to be but it is indeed fun and there is no subscription fee without having to revert to nasty "supposedly free to play" tactics. I am glad that I got the game - thanks hun - as much as I tried to avoid it and if you are on the fence about GW2, there are worse options out there.

 

FIRST IMPRESSION: 4 out of 5

  

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