Guild Wars Review

Let me start this article by saying one thing - I have played most MMORPGs out on the market. From Everquest to World of Warcraft to Star Wars Galaxies, if you name it, I've probably played it. So I felt almost obliged to pick up a copy of Guild Wars for myself. A friend of mine who owns a LAN shop convinced me it would be worth my $50. So, I picked it up on April 26, its release date.

Now, let me go and tell you that I'm going to tell you why this game is worth buying. Here's one reason - no monthly fee. Yes, that's right, you pay for the game once and that's it. Extra installments cost nothing (you can just download them from their website), and you can keep your account for as long as you want. That was one of the main things that convinced me of the sheer awesomeness of this game.

Upon loading the game, the first thing that struck me was the incredible sound offered. It filled the speakers with fully orchestrated music. Wow. Fully orchestrated music in an MMORPG from a new developer that doesn't make you pay monthly? I really do like this game so far! I just sat at the title screen for a moment as I listened to the fanfare, then I logged in and moved on.

The character-building system was very easy. It doesn't offer as much detail-tweaking as say Star Wars Galaxies (SWG) or World of Warcraft (WoW), but with several faces to choose from, it was all right. You could also change hair style and color, body size, and skin color. But a year later, loading it up now, it's even better, by being much easier to follow and pick and choose. All the profession icons are very crisp and clean, and now you can even choose the color of your clothes to start off with (You can only do that in-game by buying fairly expensive dye).

After finishing up my loading, I stepped into the actual game world. Even though several help boxes had popped up, I was in awe of the immense environment detail after I had closed them. And better yet, it's like that for every single area inside of Guild Wars. Every area offers its own unique and amazing detail. You start off in lush green, but go to ruins, charred cities, dense forests, and icy cold mountains. If you have a good enough computer, you can see the detail from very, very fair away, too, with no lag.

What's better yet, every moment in the game looks like a cutscene. The graphics in towns and outposts are just as good as everywhere else. It's all beautiful. The light on the characters is different depending on your surroundings.

In Guild Wars, there are 6 classes - Warrior, Necromancer, Monk, Mesmer, Elementalist, and Ranger. Each class offers their own set of unique skills, armor types, dances, and special items. Once you choose your first profession, and you get in game, you can choose a secondary profession. While you don't get all the perks of that profession, you get the good majority of them. So basically, you can be an axe-wielding warrior that rains fire down on his or her enemies. This system was very, very well done.

Now, Guild Wars isn't like most of the MMORPGs out there. Here's a quick rundown of things they did that work that aren't in others.

1) It's not like your average online RPG. As in, some level 20 (highest level) can't come in when you're level 5 and demolish you. The only way to fight it out is with people in your level range in certain arenas.

2) You can get to any town/outpost instantly once you've been there. No more running for hours, you just open up a map and click on its icon and you're there. It makes things much easier for people that are not hardcore players. (You could run if you wanted, but who wants to?)

3) Everything outside of a town or outpost is instanced. Instances are basically where it's just you and your party. No outside intrusions. No one stealing your quest goal. No one sniping your kills. It's a nice feature. Even all the quests positions are marked out nicely on your main map when you're in an instance.

4) There is a main storyline that is followed by 25 missions. These missions take place at certain towns and by completing one mission, you move on the storyline and get to a different town.

One of the best features in Guild Wars is the battle system. Unlike other MMORPGs, winning isn't based on level. It's really based on skill. No matter what level you are, you have 8 skill slots available. It's up to you to choose complimentary skills to make things easier for you. This is one of those things that makes it fair for non-hardcore players to play, too.

But, of course, ArenaNet is not perfect. There are several collision errors. Say you decide to type /dance on an incline. Your character starts dancing, and will go inside the land. That should be fixed (if it is in the future, I'll edit this). Also, a lot of the little control and camera issues are annoying. Sometimes the camera goes kind of weird and you can't see very well, but that happens fairly rarely.

Having said that, I still play Guild Wars to this day. I'm much more of a casual player, having only two level 20s and one level 7, and I'm only one mission from beating this game at the time of writing. I love not having to grind. I love not having to go corpse hunting. I love not having to dedicate all my time to this game. I love not having to gather the best loot. I love being able to play freely and enjoy it without a monthly fee. Guild Wars is a definite must-have for MMORPG or RPG lovers who don't want to pay monthly.