Ruined My Life

Guild Wars Review

As of late, I’ve been looking for a video game to play that is not only fun, but original. I’ve grown tired of playing the same old game over and over in the form of Counter-Strike Source and Half-Life 2, I’ve played Counter-Strike since Beta 3, time to move on from that dated formula. So I’ve been debating either playing World of Warcraft or Guild Wars. Well guess what, I played the Closed Beta, Stress Test, Second Stress Test, and Open Beta for World of Warcraft and came to a realization, after all of that grinding, I had no desire to ever play it again. So lo and behold, I picked up Guild Wars and am loving every minute of it.

I first played Guild Wars in it’s First Beta Weekend and was anything but impressed. The game mechanics sucked and the lage was horrific, but what can you expect, it’s a beta. I gave up on Guild Wars and just kind of brushed it off as a crappy want to be MMORPG. Five months have passed since then and the release of Guild Wars and boy was I wrong.

The thing that I love the most about Guild Wars is that a semi-casual player can play it, and still keep up with the hardcore power gamers. I’ve played the game thirty hours or so and am almost to cap my level and complete all the story line missions, albeit there are still hundreds of quests left for me to do. The fact of the matter is, I haven’t had to expend 200 hours or more to compete in the game, I simply do not have the time to invest hundreds of hours into a game.

Guild Wars is an entirely new game, there has been no other like it. It mixes elements of Diablo with elements of MMORPGs as well as action games. To top all of that off, Guild Wars has no monthly fee what so ever, making it the first of its kind. While some may argue that Guild Wars is not a MMORPG in the traditional since, the fact of the matter is, Guild Wars is not only a MMORPG, but an exceptional one.

The graphics in Guild Wars are phenomenol, theyre not “ultra realistic” however they are beautiful and have their own little artistic flair to them. The environments are large and lush and full of eye candy. The characters and spell effects are great, each spell having its own casting graphic and attack graphic, while the characters have countless animations to show their current condition or action. Monster models are plentiful, and very few use the same model with a different name, giving you plenty of variety.

Sounds in Guild Wars are good, monsters sound unique and when hurt they sound like they’re actually hurt. The sounds aren’t over done either, so you won’t grow annoyed of hearing the same monster gasping in pain over and over. The musical score is good; however it is generic and won’t be remember as a great game soundtrack. As much as I dig the sounds in Guild Wars there is one thing I can not stand, and that would be the voice acting in the cut scenes. Absolutely horrid, it’s like watching a B movie with their voice acting, cheesey and pathetic, no other way to put it.

Perhaps my favorite part of Guild Wars is the character classes and character creation. As you may or may not know in Guild Wars you start out as a base character profession, in this case, Elementalist, Ranger, Warrior, Monk, Mesmer, or Necromancer, and as you progress through the early game, you take on a second profession to make a dual classed character. By using all the possible classes, there are 30 possible class combinations one can have. Every class in Guild Wars is useful and versatile, for me I have chosen to play a Mesmer/Monk. By choosing those classes I can lock down enemy casters and players, and also heal with the monk profession. A different class selection equate to different playing styles, and is ultimately up to the player to choose how he or she wants to play.

The real gold of Guild Wars not only lies in it’s terrific set up and character classes, but also with it’s Player Vs. Player combat. PvP in Guild Wars is terrific to say the least, players compete against one another to sway the favor of the gods to their side. However, players do not just compete against other groups, they compete against players in other regions. For example in game you may be competing against Korea or Europe to gain the favor of the gods. Players can fight in either random PvP fights, or they can enter Tournaments to claim their guild as the top position. All in all, Guild Wars is the best PvP model to be introduced into a MMORPG and will keep players occupied for hours.

Guild Wars is a terrific MMORPG, in fact it’s my favorite that I have played before, that includes UO, EQ, DAOC, SWG, AO, WoW and More. Buy it NOW!!!!

Popularity: 28% [?]

Share This