A great successor to the Tyrian World , but not without some negatives. Re-scored due to security events.
Its been a long number of years we have waited for Guild Wars 2 to be released, countless release dates broken but finally it is here.
The game is set several years after the original Guild Wars game, where the Charr have reclaimed their ancestral lands of Ascalon, Norns moved south, Humans are in Kryta in Divinities Reach, Asurans are in the Metrica Province and a new race the Sylvarians are in Caledon Forrest set in the west.
But one thing to note, each race has their own level 1-15 areas which are huge, plenty to explore and there is a system to encourage this. By finding all View points, all teleport points, all Points of Interest, Skill challenges and all quest areas. You will be rewarded with a chest that has some possible very nice goodies inside. You can earn these chests through daily and monthly achievements also.
While you quest in areas that require you to kill a number of beasts/ghosts or collect things, there is a hard mode quests to do also which require the help of everyone else. The final hard mode boss in the Norn area is an Ice Dragon and even with 30 people it can take 5 minutes to bring down and it hurts. So these are not soloable.
You can level up to a maximum of 80 a far cry from the original 20 from GW1, but people have to know that even if you are level 50 if you go into a level 1-15 area your level drops according to the level restrictions for some mini areas. This keeps the game tough in a sense, and stop over farming of areas since nobody is in their own instance anymore in the world. That is except for...
Story areas, through out the game depending on your character choices when creating them you will go through story quests/areas where the game shows a cinematice of sorts between the characters involved including your own. This is a negative in my opinion, although its new I can't help but feel that this was done as to not do nicer cinematics or scenes. But they are still enjoyable and get you involved with other characters thoughts etc. I feel this may have been designed so GW2 may be introduced to consoles at a later time.
Skills are earned by using whatever weapons you are allowed to use, the more you use them and the higher your level, the quicker you learn subsequent skills for that weapon. So no more visiting a skill trainer and getting your Glyph of Capping, as you level you get skill points to earn other types of skills, from the simple up to the elite skills. And also trait skills, you start collecting them at level 10, and you have to purchase a book from your trainer to allow the usage of the points, these include things like first attack to be a critical, high chance to block from start and at every 10 points you can assign your own choice of trait, for example 20% quicker skill cooldowns and so on.
Skills are quite varied as said depending on weapon, and they are easily used and flow nicely, there is a combo finisher skill for each but its hard to explain as it is easier to see it used in game to fully understand, and with of course other skills gained by skill points you can uniquely build up your class. No monks I am afraid people or other classes that could solo in GW1, they have made sure that nobody can do that.
PvP is enjoyable as is the WvW (world vs world), that was essentially what kept GW1 alive was the good enjoyable PvP. But cleverly NCsoft has introduced a system for people who own GW1 with Eyes of the North, to allow them to earn points for GW2 characters, by visiting the Hall of Monuments in GW1 and earning the achievements needed to get the statues etc, these are good for points in GW2 which can reward your character with new Armor skins and pets for hunters. Not the ancestor line we were originally promised years ago but still a good system that will have players old and new still be able to play Guild Wars 1 for a long time.
The game also houses professions like Huntsman (for making ranger weapons and dyes), Chef, Artificer, Armorsmith etc. And you can equip a collection tool for each type on your character so everyone can collect the same things. I have noticed people also mining on my same spot, which I thought was people trying to be greedy, but I think they have their own nodes. Professions are also not level specific and you can go from 1-400 skill on level 1 if someone supplies you the ingredients.
Another useful profession feature is you can invent things with ingredients, some recipes aren't sold or found in the world normally, so you have to experiment and the system is nice enough to let you know from your choices what goes with what.
Another good feature is your bags, while out in the world your bag can be filled pretty quick with collectibles for crafting, there is an option to send them to your bank space so you don't have to go out of your way to do it manually. Also when crafting you can access your bank from the crafting tables. Very handy.
So there is potentially a huge of your year taken up by playing Guild Wars 2 constantly. Hurrah... but wait now the negatives...
Some who have played have noticed that NCsoft has introduced an online store function, where you can buy items for your characters but also Diamonds. These diamonds can be used to purchase bank slots and an extra bag slot among things, 2000 of them you can upgrade your standard edition for the digital deluxe edition of the game. £8.99 = 800 of these diamonds. You can buy them in game with gold which people think is fine as they are priced at 20-30 silver coins per diamond, but once more people play and gain higher levels and gain more money the demand will go up and so will the prices. Again forcing people to pay to gain more. NCsoft has obviously looked at the play for free model used by other MMOs and want to follow suit, shame that they did.
The game is buggy also with things, no Auction House/Trading Posts as they are down for maintenance, the game can also be a bit laggy at times and requires a very very nice system to play it at full settings. Some skills that make you jump back sometimes stutter in motion. But it is early days and im sure subsequent patches will fix these minor issues.
And as said before the cutscenes are not fully rendered scenes just characters in close up which is a shame.
Anyway, apart from the negatives and one major negative of cash grabbing, the game is unique in its way, incorporating ideas from different MMOs and introducing new ideas also. The game is huge very much so, and so much to do.. People will be playing this for months.
So I gave it a 8.5/10