This past weekend was the final beta weekend event for Guild Wars 2 before launch. Â I got ahold of a key, and was able to spend some time playing. Â This isn’t a real review, because I don’t feel I spent enough time playing to provide a fair review… think of it more as my first impressions.
First off, the game is pretty.. the environment, the characters, the armor.. it’s all very pretty.. the team has done a great job with that aspect of the game.
Like most new MMOs, there are conversational ‘cut-scenes’ scattered throughout part of your questing journey (primarily for the main story arc from what I saw)… unlike another new MMO (Yeah, I’m looking at you Secret World), your character doesn’t stand there slack jawed and glazed eyed while you’re supposed to be participating in the conversation. Â Unlike The Old Republic, you don’t choose your response or really actively participate..but your character is at least speaking the lines.
Tutorials.. there are lots of them, my favorite ones that I came across were the PvP ones.. I think Arena Net did a great job providing introductory information to players to try and show them the different ways to contribute to PvP.. From resurrecting dead players, killing and finishing off enemies, to capturing and holding an objective.. it’s all well done and should help new players get off to a better start in PvP (which, from what I’ve heard, is a big part of the Guild Wars experience).. I was unable to actually PvP, as every time I tried, the PvP war zones were non-functional.
Customization.. lots of options for character customization, you could probably spend a couple hours in there, and, my favorite.. armor dye.. so you can constantly change how your gear looks..seems pretty flexible and that level of customization for your gear is something all MMOs should have added.
Local Events – These are public quests that you can participate in, if you’re in the area when it’s ongoing.. these are fun, and everywhere.. the character I spent the most time on this weekend was a Sylvari engineer.. and the Sylvari starting area seemed to have an event that I stumbled into every few minutes. Â It actually got to the point where I was trying to avoid the events, because I wanted to try and progress further through the story.
Combat.. combat is very ‘run and gun’ you don’t need to stand still to attack (I think you do for channeled stuff though), and if you do, a lot of the fights are probably going to be harder then they might otherwise be.
At times, I found the game world to be confusingly laid out, and managed to get lost several times in the Sylvari home city.. I assume that with more playtime, I’d get to know my way around better.
Arena net did an ‘end of event’ event that was apparently based on The Hunger Games.. there were 4 teams, you had to run around and gather rations, exploding rations (to trap the other team), defensive items, and ammo… then the game started.. everyone was losing health due to hunger.. goal was to kill the other teams. Â After a little while, you got a ‘death penalty’ if you died.. you didn’t respawn as yourself, you respawned as a little floating robot who couldn’t attack, and could only drop ammo, shield an area, and ‘expose’ an area (unhide any stealthed enemies)… and that was all you could do.. couldn’t attack, couldn’t leave, couldn’t participate… after about 30 seconds as a robot.. you were doing nothing but hoping the ‘event’ would end. Â All in all, the end of beta event was very underwhelming and I was kind of disappointed by it.
I don’t have GW2 on pre-order yet, and haven’t really decided if I will… the game’s story didn’t hook me in early.. it seemed disjointed and at times, not well written. Â A redeeming point for me, is that the game doesn’t have a monthly subscription, so *IF* I do pick it up (and, I probably will so that I can play with friends) it’ll be a ‘backup’ game for when TOR is down, or I need a break from it (or whatever games I’m playing at the time). Â From talking to some friends, they’re of the same opinion, GW2 seems like a good choice for a ‘reserve’ game, not good enough to take any of us away from our current MMO(s).
Guild Wars 2 streets on August 28th. Â If you have a Guild Wars 1 account, you can reserve your character names in Guild Wars 2 now through launch.