Guild Wars 2

[harhar]

Originally Posted by skel1977

Its out!(if you pre ordered)
Graphics are lovely and it runs smooth. It has a "rift" feel to it as well as a GW feel. I cant say much because im only level 8 so far.

I've been playing (I'm a level 17 Thief, started on "pre-purchase" date) and I like the game, but I don't know if there'll be staying power (for me).

I tend to jump from MMO to MMO so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

I do like this game better the more I play though. I like the AH/Trading House, when it's working. I like gathering things. I like how there's no "quest givers" but...

Dynamic quests are fun, but I'm worried about them in the long term. Also, there seem to be only a handful of quest styles. Escort quests, wave invasions, gathering/killing monsters. There may be more, and of course there's WvW and all of that too. However, GW2 basically replaces talking with a quest giver with an "approximate quest area" and got rid of the number (kill ten rats) by introducing a "level bar" per quest.

It does hide the grind though, and so do the exploration, POI and vistas. I also completed the main human starting map and got a reward for that as well. I like when my human says, "I'm an achiever, I achieve things!" Basically you're getting a lot more EXP just by doing things you'd already be doing.

For a F2P game, I can't complain. It's very polished. I had to authenticate my login by email which was nice. I've had no problems being booted. I've only had a little lag here and there. It's been one of the smoothest launches I've been a part of.

Rift as a comparison, was a better WoW with Rifts. However it was still too grindy, through rifts were very fun. PvP was fun too, but it gets tiring after a while with the same maps. Also I remember at launch, there were Rifts that were deserted. Sure you could solo them, but where's the fun in that. And I was on a PvP server so I was ganked so many times, but also it was cool when opposite factions helped each other in big Rifts.

GW2 seems and is, set up more like a single player game. The music is better, the world seems bigger than it is, even with those teleport points.

We'll see!

[Ming Ming]

downloading the trial right now. Is this like wow or eq?

[skel1977]

Its like rift, wow, and gw1. It has all three elements. I agree with harhar, they hide the grind well. You dont even realize you are getting lots of experience until you are like wow, i just leveled. A large part of the game is figuring out how to get the poitns of interest and vistas which you can see up the mountain over your heard. Now you have to figure out how to get up there. The pve is really easy. You dont have to be skilled, auto attack is good enough to kill any mob your level.

Instead of portals like wow, there are different points you can instantly teleport too after you have uncovered them and they are all over the map. It doesent matter if its on the other side of the world, you can get there.

Like rift, there are events that randomly pop up depending on how many people are in the area. Last night my buddy showed me KOL which is a large giant boss. He pops, kill him with 30 others or whoever is near get the reward, immediately another event starts, escort through the caves which leads to centaur camps, another event starts, and so on. I did that all day yesterday and gained 5 levels in about 5 hours.

Anyways im really enjoying the game and I dont feel frustrated like i use to in wow.
There is no forced pvp like in wow. You wont be killing a mob when poof, level 80 rogue pops out of nowhere and backstabs you for 9k damage.
But there is pvp if you want it. Word vs world vs world, kind of like a smaller version of DAOC where all 3 sides are capturing forts and what not, or smaller
pvp games like wow had with 10 vs 10 and such.

You can group with your friends even if they are higher level than you. When they enter a lower zone, their effective level drops down to whatever the level of that zone is, but they are still stronger since they have better gear

I dont know much about the crafting system yet so i cant comment.

[harhar]

A bit more commentary since I'm bored:

The only thing difficult about GW2 are some of the story quests. I've died a few times. Luckily GW2 doesn't really punish you. You can respawn right where you left off and try different tactics (weapon sets) until you find some that work. I've fought a world boss, but haven't done any dungeons yet.

GW2 otherwise is an "easy" game. Meaning all the stuff that should be easy, like gathering, AH, crafting, is. "Deleveling" in starter zones, is a really good mechanic. You can still fight and gain exp, but depending on your gear and abilities you'll do a lot better.

I would have liked some more class tutorials in the beginning but after 20 or so levels, things start to click and you'll see how certain abilities work together.

As far as thief goes: If things do click attack/skill wise, you can take down a 4 mobs at a time. If things don't, you'll die two on one. Moving and evading count for a lot in this game.

[skel1977]

Originally Posted by harhar

A bit more commentary since I'm bored:

The only thing difficult about GW2 are some of the story quests. I've died a few times. Luckily GW2 doesn't really punish you.

This is true. I had trouble and skipped it, actually forgot all about it. I came back at level 35 and it became much easier