Guild Wars is an exceptional MMO RPG that provides the player with a variety of options for entertainment.
The game takes place in the fantasy world of Tyria. Initially the game starts in the idyllic setting of Ascalon, a gorgeous and picteresque kingdom that is home to your player. There is a fairly lengthy tutorial that takes place in this kingdom that will easily get most players up to speed on the controls and tactics of the game. Through the tutorial, you learn the early story about your home kingdom and how it is undersiege by a group of monstrous creatures known as the Charr. Once the player is ready, they can choose to leave the tutorial's setting and start the main storyline. After experiencing a cataclysmic event in Ascalon, the true story begins. It will lead the character out of Ascalon and across many different regions and kingdoms of Tyria.
The gameplay is fairly straightforward and easy to learn, but rewards those who employ some form of strategy. At the beginning of the game you have 6 main classes to choose from - elementalist, ranger, warrior, mesmer, monk, and necromancer. Each class has its specific advantages and all are well balanced. There is no right or wrong choice, it just depends on your own preferences. Each class has their own specific attributes. For example, elementalists have air magic, earth magic, fire magic, water magic, and their unique attribute, energy storage. The attributes all have specific skills that can be equipped by your character such as fireball, meteor storm, fire storm, etc. under the fire magic attribute. As your character gains levels, you get more attribute points to distribute and increase the effectiveness of these skills.
During the game, you will also be able to chose a secondary profession which further increases the variety of your character. You can make the famous warrior/monk, a monk/necro, or any specific combination you desire. The only downside to a secondary profession is that you do not gain access to it's unique attribute. There is no downside to having a secondary profession - you don't have to spend any of your attribute points on its attributes if you don't desire.
Once you have distributed your attribute points, you can pick which skills you'd like your character to bring. You have 8 slots to equip various skills, so it does involve some thinking and strategy. If you're trekking into the frozen wastelands of the north, you may want to bring some fire skills instead of ice attacks.
Another big perk about guild wars, is that the distribution of your attribute points and selected skills is not set in stone. You can redistribute the points between attributes at wills in towns and outposts. Same with skills. Your character can specialize in one aspect in one mission, and switch to a more suitable aspect for the next mission. This freedom and variety adds to the enjoyment of the game and prevents it from becoming repetitous.
Throughout the main storyline, you can play solo or join pick up groups to help you through hard regions. Depending on the area, you can have parties ranging in size from 4 to 8 players. If you prefer the solo track, the game provides henchmen in each town and outpost who can assist you. Their AI is fairly good and they can be quite helpful in missions. However, the real fun of Guild Wars is playing with other people. Pick up groups can be both rewarding and exceptionally frustrating depending on the quality and maturity of those you find. Fortunately, I've found that most people in GW tend to be very decent.
The game does have a low level cap of 20. Most players should hit that about halfway to two thirds through the storyline. The developers wanted the players to focus more on strategic use of skills, attributes, and teamwork rather than just power levelling through the game. Once the main storyline is over, there is still plenty to do. The game has literally hundreds of titles that the player can accumulate for reaching certain achievements. This alone can keep you occupited for countless hours. There are also special elite missions and areas that are both challenging and rewarding for more experienced players. Proper team selection is key.
Although the PVE alone justifies the purchase of this game, the is a whole other aspect to Guild Wars - PVP. You can bring your PVE character over to the PVP arenas or create a PVP only character and jump right in. There are various types of PVP combat that appeal to different people. The easiest is the random arenas. Here, 4 players are randomly assigned to a team and are pitted against another team of 4 random players. The tactics and strategies in this area tend to be more rudimentary. More experienced players typically take part in the team arenas or guild battles. In those areas, you can select who is on your team. Thus, these teams are generally well organized and most have some form of communication such as teamspeak or ventrillo.
At any point in the game, your character can join a guild. Guilds can be started by any player. They are advantageous for both PVE and PVP as they are a compilation of like minded players. It's usually easy to find a needed comrade for either a story mission or a PVP battle when you are in a large guild.
To summarize, Guild wars is an exceptional MMORPG that provides countless hours of enjoyment. It's large variety will provide something of interest to almost any type of player. Get it.