Easily, one of the least interesting MMOs I've ever tried
Soon I came to find nothing kills me. Nothing can. I can attack stuff four levels higher than me and it dies and doesn't even hurt me. No challenge. I tried some more quests - no challenge. It's just running back and forth - not fun. The combat zones being instanced might be liked by some but I hate it. I prefer everyone to be in one continuous large world - not one large world split up into little pens for each player. It just breaks the MMO part up and makes the game feel way less epic. I never had problems with other people being in the same area as me and I prefer the way most MMOs do it by having special areas that are instanced but otherwise all one big world. It's more fun to see other players running around and doing stuff. In this game I feel like I'm in a multiplayer lobby in the towns and then I run off and play by myself and run past people as I turn in quests.
The game offers no real challenge, and while I'm sure it can get more in-depth I just couldn't get a feel for it as I was playing the trial. To compare, I picked up EQII and liked it quite a bit, I got up to level 28 in that before I came to realize I was back in the typical boring grind of "Go find this" or "Go kill X of these". EQII felt grand and large though and rewarding. Every reward in Guild Wars just seemed like the same crap with a different effect. "Here's your +5 Energy weird blue thing shield" and then I complete another "Here's your +5 Armor hand thing". The rewards aren't very satisfactory and with all the running required it just seemed so boring. I played this game for a couple of hours and then I was just so bored I couldn't stand it anymore. This game doesn't feel like an MMO at all.
To its credit, at least you aren't paying a monthly fee...but I can see why. I'd rather pay $15 a month for a game that's good than nothing a month for a game that is extremely boring. I'm pretty forgiving of games in the first few hours I play them but this one never improved on itself for me. It surpasses a point of me being fair to the game to when the game is just bad and I'm torturing myself. I don't see why this game has all these high ratings, this is a mediocre game at best. Although I'm glad I was able to do the trial - saved me some money. NCSoft hasn't been known for making good games, I had suspicions when I realized they were tied to this and they were confirmed upon playing it. This game just is not fun, I had more fun creating my character than playing the game. Even some of the other less than perfect games I played like APB were at least good fun for awhile and interesting. This has the generic high fantasy setting, samey story, blah blah it gets so boring after awhile.
If you're thinking about buying this game, you'd be well advised to play the trial first. This game feels nothing like WoW or similar MMOs - and while I don't love WoW, it does have a successful formula that people like and enjoy that make it very fun and addicting as well as rewarding. Hence why WoW has millions of users despite a monthly fee and Guild Wars has next to nothing despite being free of any monthly charge.
EDIT: I would like to add a comment, seeing how the GW fan boys have thumbed me down into oblivion (I'm so hurt guys...:'( ) - the point of MMO games is to play a game that is part of a large world no? Which means lots of people playing the game instead of all the AI characters standing around and you being the ONLY human playing. So Guild Wars is like a social game - chat with strangers but WHOA NOW don't let them play in YOUR world, that's dangerous now! Better let every player have their own world - that is independent of the others. I can't explain this any simpler to you Guild Wars people, a vast majority of people LIKE that giant world feeling with tons of people everywhere that MMOs like WoW, CoH, etc have going on. Partitioning it off to just yourself is like playing single player, except you can play with a trusted group of pals...*ahem* Co-op...I argue that those playing Guild Wars don't really want an MMO (Obviously not since they refuse to pay a monthly fee) - but what does Guild Wars really do? Let you play a game that is both single and multiplayer at the same time, like Test Drive Unlimited or other worlds that have real people in them with you. But when you actually DO something they all disappear.
Sorry, that concept is not fun for me. I like the big world, and apparently so does most everyone else since WoW is what - 10+ million strong? How many players does Guild Wars, the game with no monthly fees have - 25,000? How many are ACTIVE? Eh, whatever - I'm reasoning with people who refuse to see it. Please just accept the fact though that NC Soft's stamp on a game is the plague to a lot of gamers - we hate those generic cheapo feeling games they make. Again...I'd gladly pay a monthly fee for a good game, but I won't buy a boring fee free game. Ha, the lack of fee means NC Soft KNEW the game wasn't same tier as the ones you pay for - hence the user base would have been even smaller if they billed you. Silly fanboys...