Guild Wars

Oneiromancer · October 30, 2004, 07:34:50 AM

Probably belongs in the OoC forum, but no one ever goes there. ;) I made this post to my guild's board, I'll repost it here.

http://www.guildwars.com/preview/wpe-clientdownload.html

Decided to try this tonight. With a fast connection the downloads are all pretty fast. This game is very nice looking, and is pretty simple to master it seems. This free preview starts you off at level 15, with several skills available, and you can't get higher than level 20.

I logged on (have to enter an e-mail address and choose a password) and set out to make a character. Rangers also have the "beast taming" ability, so I made that my primary class since I love being a Beastlord so much. :) You have to choose a primary and a secondary class...you get fewer skills in the secondary class but there is definitely some variety to make people unique. The 6 classes available in the preview (not sure if there will be more in the final product) are Ranger, Warrior, Mesmer (like an Enchanter), Necromancer, Elementalist, and Monk (basically Cleric). I made my seconary class Elementalist to get some nuking power.

You start out in a little tutorial area...learning how to move around (can point and click like Diablo or use the keyboard) and attack (just click on a monster). As a Ranger I got a bow and started out with some archery special skills. You get 8 skills to use at first. Once I went through the tutorial area I came to the first town...where there were tons of other people finally. The tutorial was obviously instanced.

In town I found a few quests...found a merchant to sell some stuff, and also found the skill vendor. Basically, the 8 skills you get are only the beginning. When you're in a friendly area you can arrange your skills the way you like them for the upcoming mission. So I bought my beast taming skills (charm, heal, buff, rez) and equipped all but the rez, taking other skills out.

Then I took one exit out of town, to try to do one quest. But the mobs here were too hard for me, and I died. I respawned in town with no obvious ill effects. I could have lost experience but I didn't see a message. (By the way, messaging other people isn't quite as intuitive as it is in EQ, but I did get used to it before too long. It reminds me a lot of Diablo.) So I decided to go for the "main" quest.

I zoned into a new area. When zoning you download all the files for the next area...it didn't take long at all. When I got there, there were tons of people hanging around, looking for a group. I got invited by a one "Britney Spheres". Ended up in a group with an R/W, M/N, etc...that's how you see people...no names above their heads unless you have them targeted. But you can see who's in your group from a special head icon. And there's a party window of course. One of the rangers had a pet already...a Playful Lynx...I was jealous! Apparently you have to wait for one to show up and then you charm it.

Once the party was full we went in to the mission. It was instanced...just the 6 of us. I think all the missions are like this...a common area to make groups, and then when you take the mission it is just you. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that you *can* do these solo if you want. You can hire henchmen outside the mission entrances...not sure if they will fill the place of missing party members.

Anyway, the mission itself was happily chaotic. Several of us were true newbs, while others had been playing throughout beta. One of them really knew the mission well so he led us through it. Unfortunately, no follow function, but it wasn't too hard to make your way around. It's really interesting how they handle drops...basically, everything that drops is "reserved" for someone, and only they can loot it for several minutes. It's not based on your class or anything...we think it's mostly based on how much you contribute, although it does cycle in some way. If something drops that you really want...better hope your groupmate is willing to trade.

Eventually we came to this big scripted event. There was a priest...a Monk I guess...who was standing next to this healing ward. While inside the ward you took 50% less melee damage. Several waves of undead attacked us, and we drove them off. We didn't have any tanks or direct healers, hehe...but when you're not in combat you regenerate health *really* fast. The only thing that ever died was the lynx the other ranger owned, and he could revive it. We killed the boss, got a new part of the quest, and went on.

I found a lynx to charm, which I did, but then he died on the very next mob. Too chaotic, didn't even see in time to heal. And of course I didn't choose the pet rez to take with me. But the Ranger said it would be back when we won.

There were several chests throughout the mission to open, besides the loot the mobs dropped, and there was one "mini" quest, which gave us 1000 xp (very nice) for solving it. It seems to have been totally optional too.

After winning the mission (which had a decent cinematic after, since it was part of the main story) we ended up in a new central "staging" area for the next region. Once you beat a mission you can use the world map to travel between the areas instantly, although you can do them again too. When we zoned in, though, we got bugged by the game to log out so that a new build could be downloaded. It's pretty painless to log out and back in, but I was tired and just logged for the night.

There are other things in the game too...supposedly massive PvP with games similar to FPS ones...capture the flag, etc. Also an arena area.

I must admit, I found Guild Wars pretty fun. I always enjoyed Diablo I and II, even though I wasn't fond of playing online. Now that I have encountered the joy that is EQ, I don't mind as much. But I don't necessarily want to become really involved in the typical MMORPG timesinks. Guild Wars is neat because it's so fast-paced, and more of an action game than EQ. I could see myself playing both, for sure, especially since GW doesn't have a monthly subscription fee. I'd just be worried much more about the "Battle.net kiddied" in this game than in WoW because it's free like that.

Anyway, the free preview is still going through Sunday, so check it out if that sounds interesting to you at all. :)

Game on,

Lorathir · October 30, 2004, 10:48:17 AM

Yeah, I've been playing it to death. Of course, I picked a Ranger as they have a beast taming ability. 8) I got me a kooky looking Flamingo RAWR! Very easy to jump right into, I'm pretty impressed with GW. It's probably lacking a little depth, but this game will have no monthly fee when it releases so there's no doubt I'll be getting it.

A quick note on the 'henchmen' which you touched on Oneiromancer. Fancy playing but no time to put together a group? Got a group but it's a few players short of a complete group? Grab some 'henchmen' - computer controlled bots. Sure, the AI isn't great and they'll never be as good as a person controlling them, but they'll do in a pinch. Ingenious. Gonna try the PvP today, not usually my cup of tea but I've heard it's fun.

Nice write up One.

Incite · October 30, 2004, 11:23:28 AM

Y'know I've been looking at Guild Wars off an on for a while and I finally figured out the other day what's been putting me off ... it's got a damn stupid name.

Skanda · October 30, 2004, 11:27:04 AM

I tried it. Didn't like it. If you enjoyed the Diablo series then you'll probably like Guild Wars. Otherwise probably not your cup of tea.

Bulge · October 30, 2004, 03:22:48 PM

Guild Wars is the Hamburger under the mmorpgs. It will never replace my real mmorpg, but the no-fee thing made me decide to buy it. EVen though the world is very 2-D, it's still pretty. Combat is fast, lots of nice spells and abilities and the Henchmen feature is a great addition!

The Guild vs Guild and the several modi for PvP are a nice addition to a regular PvE mmorpg, also because dying in Guild Wars is pretty much dying FPS-style. I am not a true fan of PvP but I can see myself joing the fray once in a while, if I feel like Quaking it up Fantasy-style. The game is entirely focussed on getting you and your group or Guild into some fast action(through teleports and such) and you can even enter PvP or CooP missions with Henchmen, if you cant find a group. There are also Guilg vs Guild PvE missons, I heard, so there's lots of different styles.

If it would have a monthly fee I would not have bought it though, I am purchasing it as I would purchase a promising FPS.

A little about the Henchmen-feature: you get less xp, the more henchmen you take with you, but it is not linear. Your xp gets halved if you take a single one, but if you take 4 with you (making a group of 5), you still get 36 xp out of a possible 128. Not sure how much xp you'd get with 2 or 3, but with 4, it's *very* hard to die. The gold you find is split, so money is slow with Henchmen, but items all seem go to you, not really sure yet.

Vahaus Warder · April 27, 2005, 12:34:06 PM

I love the game. I played in a few Beta's, it went live last night and I have every intention of putting a lot of time into this game.

Oneiromancer · April 27, 2005, 06:04:26 PM

I'm gonna wait for a bit before picking it up. I wrote the review before I had played the WoW beta and obviously before playing the actual game, and I'm still pretty into WoW so I'd rather not split my time. My Hunter's 55 and I've started a new Rogue alt that I am liking a lot. And of course I'm working on my doctoral dissertation right now and I don't really want to have any more distractions. :-P When I graduate and get a real job with more disposable income I might check it out.

And I'm also curious what effect a game with massive PvP like this one will have on WoW. If it gets rid of all the idiots then I'll be happy. Hell, I don't really group at all anyway, so the less people the better IMO. ;) Maybe GW isn't for me any more after all...

Game on,

Jatrulak · May 06, 2005, 04:40:15 PM

I've been playing this since I picked it up friday afternoon. Have loved just about every bit of it.

The PVP in it is fantastic in my opinion; I have, though, only played RP characters and have not made any PVP Characters though, so my views are strictly limited to the arenas and whatnot that I've experienced. The arenas are 4v4, last man standing, teams randomly chosen from people participating. Your team keeps going until you lose. The classes, from what I've seen thus far, are very well balanced. None are completely overpowering and all have their strengths and weaknesses, which make the PvP much better.

The PvE play is also great. It's challenging, but not frustratingly hard or boringly easy, provided you're in the areas made for your level. The game's storyline is also fairly good, the main PvE game revolves around this with many many quests to do outside of the main story.

Anywho; who all's seriously playing it? I'm a 13(atm) Monk/warrior, Kenison Jeseyn.

Stingite · May 08, 2005, 07:12:31 PM

Picked this up a couple days ago and spent some time on it yesterday (5th level ranger). I picked a ranger for the beastaming and now I'm thinking I should have picked a warrior and went for the subclass of ranger just for the beastaming ability. I think that'd be more sensible for hacking and slashing up close with a pet by your side while gaining the +'s of warrior armor. Anyone who's playing, please check my head on that thought. Although the ranger /dance is super funky.

So far I've only done solo stuff . . . seems to be a lot of easy quests here to do at the beginning for kicks (carried a beehive across a bridge for a townsfolk). The environment and movement reminds me of Dungeon Seige only with really nice character models. Not many slots to equip.

I haven't done any of the pvp yet. Seems to be a big part of the game though.

TrueRWB · May 09, 2005, 01:55:47 PM

When you join the academy the game changes alot. The "Searing" occurs and you can unlock new skills, quests, armor, etc. Not only that you can add NPC's to your group so things don't become that hard.

PvP is alot of fun cause you have to choose to do PvP. The thought of a roaming band of children coming out of no where to maul me just didn't sound fun, but when I choose to let the roaming band of children come get me it seems like alot of fun.