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Definitely a good buy

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: July 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

WARNING: DO NOT BUY THIS GAME USED!!! Chances are that the access key has been used and all your getting is the CD, which isn't even required to download the game to play it. Can't play the game w/o a never-before-used access key.

My sister and I have been playing this game for almost a year now and we're still not tired of it.

Pros -
*Awesome graphics
*Nice amount of character customizations (though I suppose having a little more wouldn't hurt)
*You lvl up pretty fast
*Making money isn't hard
*Endless amount of quests to help you lvl up, earn skill points, earn money, get free items (weapons, etc.)
*You can easily relocate your attribute points (as long as your in a town/outpost) to help you w/ certain missions and quests
*Large variety of skills
*Large variety of monsters
*No random PKs
*Has an option to PvP or PvE
*You can create your own guild for a small fee and recruit new players to join
*Character designs aren't cartoonish like WoW (Not trying to bash on WoW but I just can't play games w/ designs like that without feeling like im playing DK on N64)
*Great music and SFX
*And on certain holidays they hold events w/ special missions to help you earn special items.
*Best part is... You just buy the game once and there are no monthly subscription fees =D

Cons -
*You can only lvl up to 20
*A lot of noobs on there and people that just assume you're a noob if you don't know something
*People tend to leave mission/quest groups in the middle, and depending on how much you needed them it may screw you and your team over
*Game isn't built like your average MMO. You only see the MMO part if you're in an outpost. But once you leave that outpost you get your own private copy of the map (unless your in a group, but they'll be the only other people you'll see out there)
*Not enough of a variety of armors (just my opinion though)
*Your country has to have favor in order to access certain areas of the game such as FoW(Fissure of Woe).
*Get to the desert and you find a lot of Mo/W farming bots. Kinda makes it hard to get into a group to complete the missions to move on in the game. I've just been noticing this lately.
*Map could be larger

Overall it's a fun game if your on a budget. You start w/ 4 character slots but if you buy the Factions campaigne you recieve an extra 2 more slots (which is very nice.).

A few things that bothered me personally was the lvling up factor. It's done too easily and you can't go past lvl 20. To me, lvling up is one of the main reasons why I play online/offline games. But w/ the new Factions out, I can lvl up my character to 20 in just a few short hours, and it really takes a good chunk of fun out of it for me. To me, when I reach a high lvl, I like to feel a sense of accomplishment. On GW, I just feel like my main reason for playing is collecting the 15k armor since it takes longer to do than it does lvling up. I recently just got done buying my Ritualist her 15k luxon armor, and w/ materials+crafting cost, it took me only a week and I spent over 100k on everything and before that 15k armor for my monk (before I deleted her). So you can see that lvling up and buying armor is easy. Too easy in my opinion. (So I've been occupying myself w/ making gold for new 15k armor for my other characters.)

If you enjoy maxing your character out quickly and not having to pay monthly fees, GW is probably the game for you, but if you enjoy that feeling of accomplishment from long-term hardcore grind, I suggest something like L2. (Sucks that L2 doesn't have more customization options though. ><; )

This is a MMORPG for those with limited time

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: January 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This MMORPG is for those folks who don't have 40 hrs /week to spend on a game.
If you are anything like me you are a casual player who wants the ability to put down a game and do something else with the option of coming back at a later time. Guild Wars allows you to do this by providing an easy and straight forward interface and not charging a monthly rate like most MMORPG's. This means you can play for a month or two do something else and come back without having to relearn the game or worry about the money spent.

There are several detailed reviews on the web so if your interested I would definitely check in to it.

Review from a non-gamer...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: January 30, 2008
Author: Amazon User

My college niece and nephew kindly hooked my husband on this game. Of course, he wanted someone to play the game with at home when they aren't online (despite how rare that is). So, he bought me a copy for Christmas; wasn't that kind? Since he also provided a new laptop, I couldn't complain. Surprisingly, this game is a lot of fun for die-hard RPG fans AND casual fans like me. I'm not a big gamer. I play everything on easy. We have an Xbox and a 360, and when I do play, RPGs are definitely my favorite. And, Guild Wars is one of the highest quality RPGs I have ever played.

The graphics are outstanding. The images are clear, realistic and variable. Colors are vibrant and the scenery and characters very detailed. However, they are best viewed on a larger screen. My husband has a 12" laptop, I have a 17" and it's definitely better on the big one. It is also a lot easier to control with a standard mouse, than a laptop mouse pad. We plug one into the laptop just to play GW.

This game comes with four character slots. Being a girly girl, I like being able to select the hair color, facial structure, and armor color during creation. And being able to have a pet (the kinds that fights too, or the kind that just hang around as decoration). There are classes like Necromancer, Ranger, etc. My only gripe with the character creation is that while you can change the armor color during the game (with dye), they don't let you change the hair color. You start as a beginner and fight enemies to get gold and items from them - just like Gauntlet or Baldur's gate. Use gold to buy better armor, cool things, etc. There are quests to earn skills and items. Missions earn the same, but also expand the storyline. This is great for cooperative play. Since it is online, I can play with anyone online regardless of where they are located. Need a team to complete a mission? GW allows you to speak locally by typing. So, just invite someone to join. You can play with close friends or complete strangers. Software programs like Ventrilo allow players to talk to each other in real time if they want. Just press a couple keys. No head set needed.

My main complaint about GW is there is no pausing. If you need to run to the bathroom, better get to a city first! But, that is a minor criticism. This is reasonably priced for endless hours of play. There are some features thrown in just for fun, like titles. I'm the type who opens every chest, looks in every crate, etc. So, I'm working my way toward the "Treasure Hunter" title. My husband is working on the "Drunkard" title. Yes, you can buy and drink spirits in the game. And when you do, the screen goes blurry and shaky just as if you're really tipsy. If you're waiting around for someone to join in, you can instruct your character to "emote." Like dance. Your character dances. No reason for it other than it's fun. GW is filled with little nuances like this that enrich the playing. Advanced players and beginners can both enjoy GW.

Overall, I highly recommend this game. Though it can be annoying to have to buy expansion packs to get new realms to explore and extend the story, it's a small price to pay for a an online community that is free. And a lot of people, like me, take so long to play that the expansion packs aren't really needed.

An amazing game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: November 01, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I've played the open beta, without much expectation. Every rpg game i've played after Neverwinter Nights has let me down. Until now.
I'm a player from Argentina, here this kind of games are not sold, so it's very difficult for me to obtain an Online only playable game, i was sure that (apart from it being too expensive for me to buy) i wouldn't be able to play it well because of the lag. I was wrong, i've played this game quite good, (with an ADSL 512/128kbps connection from Argentina) there were some slowdowns but nothing too annoying, the graphics are just EXCELLENT, i have a PIV 2,4ghz 533mhz fsb, 1gb RAM and a GeforceFX 5900 and i played at 1024x768 with Anti-aliasing 4x anisotropy 8x all details in high at excellent frame rate and no slowdowns.
The game itself is excellent, so intuitive (great for starters!), with so much to discover, the skills, the enemies, the crafting materials, the possibility to find your friends (if you are in a different district, you just go to the upper left a select the district where your friends are, you just need an instant messaging program to chat and you tell the others in wich district you are in). If you have no friends online, (or you can't get a party) or simply if you want, you can choose to go for the quest with henchmen, controlled by the pc.
Overall, an AMAZING game (as far as it could be played in this beta) you should try if you are a Fan of rpg games, and if you aren't, you will start to love it too.

On-line newbie

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: July 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I can't comment on other massive multiplayer on-line games. I've lost friends and relatives to Everquest and World of Warcraft, so I avoided them till I had a surplus of time and money. However with Guildwars I was able to avoid one of those, money. Once you've purchased the game, on-line is free (respective to your cost to get on-line).

The game itself looks and plays great; I have a 2Ghz AMD Shuttle computer. With a dedicated cable modem and the only lag I have is when I'm in a very busy city. Since the game provides a dedicated `area' for your party when you're on a quest; there's no lag during that part of the game.

I've been told by others there's very little to do; but I've been working on it for 2 weeks, and I'm still swamped with quests to do. But I'm a very through player.

My only problem is; single player mode. The game is built (and scaled) around team play. If you try to go off on your own; you will be handed your, um, assets. So I often find myself waiting till my friends are on; before doing anything.

A Cure for what ails MMORPGs?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: August 31, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Having read a few of the reviews on this game I honestly wanted to play the game for a few levels before wanting do a review.

Specifically speaking on the Collector's Edition, and having only bought one of these "special edition" products, I must say that the primary value comes in the art book and the headphone/microphone set. The headset is a quality model allowing quick communication with one's guildmates. If it isn't a Logitech model, somebody should be calling a lawyer, as it is that good. The art book is interesting and makes for a nice thing to drop on ones coffee table, but really doesn't hold much interest beyond that.

As for the game play? What appeals is the mission based format. XP isn't from grinding (which I hate), but from missions that develop the story and give your character skills that are useful in both PvE and PvP. Crafting does take some thought and doesn't involve activities that you could teach a water fountain to do or wear out your keyboard. It's more like putting together puzzle pieces that you gather from around the world. Your salvage items can be recovered for their materials, which in turn help you put together more and more powerful armor and sometimes weapons. At my level (13) Soloing is possible with good strategy as henchmen you can hire fill in the holes in your abilities. I'm told later that only a few soloing character combinations are possible, but then again I'm not there yet. Though the game hype says that you can't build a bad character, you can, but it is *very* easy to re-prioritize within a particular primary/secondary class configuration. The usual priorities while soloing apply here: enough defense/healing to live, enough firepower/offense to survive.

As for the background and story? It's well-developed. The missions bring out a little more story each time, and the plot-based stories have their own cut-scenes built into the engine. Voice acting is passable and the story is... good. George R R Martin fans can keep looking for their next book, 'cause the story here isn't going keep you. Mind you they'd have to do a few more "thrilling" emotes with the story line for that kind of thing to occur. But I digress.

Basically, it comes down to this. Do you like Fantasy MMORPGs? Do you hate "grinding" out XP? Do you like to group, but hate feeling like you "have to" in order to progress? Then this is the game for you.

Go order a pizza for that $15/month you're saving and enjoy!

Good Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: October 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I use to play Ever Quest, Dark Age of Camelot and others for hours as often as I could then one day, I got married and had kids. Now, I have almost no time to do anything. Heck, I am lucky to go mow my yard and I hate yard work. I still love MMORPG games so, when I heard about "no subscription fees" I bought it.

Since I do not have the time to socialize like you have to in other MMORPG games, I think it's nice to have the option to hire henchmen that actually play better than most players. The storyline missions are a must and actually is the best way to see what Guild Wars has to offer for the solo player.

Guild Wars also has player vs. player opportunities, you can join a guild which is extremely helpful in the growth of your character assuming you join the right one.

Guild Wars will sell you additional "chapters" as with any other MMORPG; however, the patches, general updates, and some music downloads and additional game content are FREE.

Good for a minute...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 14 / 21
Date: June 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is a lot like pancakes. It's really awesome at first, but before you get to the end of the stack, you're completely sick of it. My buddies and I all bought this game at the same time, all signed on together, and within minutes, were so in to the game that we were all thinking of quiting Star Wars Galaxies (which we all still play together). The big dissapointment comes when you realize the lack of staying power and replay value. For the first problem, there seems to be no cure. In this game your character maxes out at Level 20, which you can get to in under a week (if you happen to be on vacation or if you are just a jobless/no life looser... which I wish I was). Then all that is left are a finite number of missions and an otherwise directional storyline. Other games of this genre are very open-ended, and allow you to choose your direction through the game as you go, even to the point where you can back up at will. This game doesn't even allow you to change professions.

This game has many problems, but there are a few good things as well. There is no monthly fee, which is awesome. The graphics and cut-scenes rock. The story is good, dispite the fact that it limits the total game play. You can also get rid of skills that you chose and pick up other skills. Also, the PvP structure is pretty damned good, and the fact that everyone is limited to Level 20 keeps away the problem of the Level 200 wizard insta-killing some brand new bard. Lastly, the system that puts you and your group on their very own private map keeps those nasty PvP gank-squads at bay, though it does make it impossible for your pals to come bail you out if you end up in over your head.

In conclusion, if you are looking for a D&D style game that runs like a story-line based offline game with the touch of online fun, than this is what you want.

Simply Unbelieveable.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: August 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I live in a town where high-speed internet is pretty much unheard of, excepting if you want expensive DSL from Alltel.

One of my friends recommended this game, and I thought it would require a broadband connection. So I'm in the store looking at "Guild Wars" and on the bottom it says in the requirements, "Internet Connection Required". It didn't say "Broadband Internet Connection Required".

This was looking good. I bought the game...
AND IT WAS!

I have the slowest dial up known to man, and the game still has to download from ArenaNet, and that took an hour and a half(!), and then I was overcome with fear of cruddy graphics on my slothful connection.

And everytime I thought it was done loading, something else had to load, but let me tell you, it was worth the wait. I made my NcSoft account, and made my warrior character, and then Ascalon city had to load. 5 minutes later, I was outside the walls of a city that looked nothing like I anticipated.

With my dial-up connection, and my Nvidia Geforce FX 5200 128 mb video card, I beheld graphics that I thought only games with subscriptions had. That's another good thing about the game: you only pay the initial 50 dollars for the game itself.

That's a good buy.

Overall: This game is the best MMORPG (or Co-OpRPG as the makers of the game like to call it) game on the market, considering the price, the great graphics, and the ability to run it on a slightly neanderthal video card and a dial-up connection.

FIVE STARS!

Joruus of Ascalon

Great Game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: May 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Guild Wars is what i believe to be one of the best free to play MMORPG I've seen. It's from the makers of Diablo II, the programmers broke off from blizzard and joined another group, so if you liked the Diablo series, you would enjoy this game.

There are in game stashes that are shared among your 4 character accounts, your CD Key is linked to your account so nobody else can steal it which prevents the selling of these keys on ebay. Only downfall is as i stated above, 4 characters per account.

This game is mainly PvP oriented, you play the Role playing portion to unlock items and skills which are then used in PvP combat. Your guild then battles other guilds if you have the ingame currecy to buy a guild hall.

Unlike Diablo, not all the items are exactly the same. You have your base items, may have one or two modifications on it, but you also have your upgrade components which you can use to enhance your item even further.

The programmers of the game took what they say where problems from their Diablo experiences and tried to prevent those same issues in Guild Wars. For example in Diablo, when you reached a high level where you have finished the game and are about 20 levels away from the max, 100, you start going into an endless loop of Baal runs. Baal runs are when you get a group together and run the boss in the game over and over and over again. This can go on for weeks, maybe months. Well, they prevented this from happening by making the max level 20, and as soon as you hit a certain point on the game, you are automatically set as a level 20 character so it creates an even playing field for RPG PvP.

When they made they game, they wanted to make the PvP so that it is not based on your level, but on the equipment you have so you can have three level 20 characters fighting each other, but if you dont have the right equipment and skill combinations, you are not going to make it far. Another important part of PvP is like i said, skill combinations, you have your different skills and spells and special skills/spells to interrupt or try to prevent a certain action from taking place, so keeping a balance in a team of these skills/spells is important.

Another important factor is strategy. It is crucial in team PvP that their team work together and help to protect each other and help your teammate out where they are weak. An example would be monks. A vital part of a team is for them to have some person to heal the party members, but monks are not hitters, so they need protection, someone to stand between them and their opponents.

The requirements for this game is pretty low, yet the graphics are awsome. I've seen some people who said on their reviews on here that they had graphics errors when they played this game. All that i can say is that you shouldnt be talking to GuildWars tech support about your issues, you should be the makers of your graphics card. In my laptop, i have a 32 MB GeForce 440 MX GO. IT'S AS CHEAP AS YOU CAN GO! and it runs pretty good, the load time is a bit long (almost 2 minutes at most) but hell, at least it runs! I've had an issue before with another game where it wasnt the game causing the problems, it was the settings of my graphics card. I had to disable anti-aliasing or something under the NVidia advanced tab for your display properties on my graphics card because it was not that stable. There are times when you get a lot of action on your screen and your computer has a really hard time keeping up, but thats why you have teammates, either henchmen or real players to help out.

There is one downfall to the game though, and that is not all missions can be played with henchmen, you have to have players as a group to do them. I think you shouldnt HAVE to have players to do a certain mission, it maybe a bit more difficult, but you shouldnt have to. I know some people are anti-social and dont like to interact with people.

Well, i can probably go on for days about this game, but i think I've said all that really matters about this game. This game is a great alternative to WoW and Diablo. The only reason why i do not play WoW is cause it's not free to play. You have to pay a monthly cost, and when you have 3 members in a household who wants to play the same game, it get really expensive within a year just to end up quiting the game of bordom and watching all that money goto waste.

Good luck deciding.

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