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Solid game - encourages teaming & PVP, not powerleveling

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 450 / 468
Date: April 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Guild Wars is a very solid MMORPG that strongly encourages team play. The graphics are top-notch (if not up to the cartoon levels of World of Warcraft), the play addicting, and it's well-balanced. With no monthly fee, it's one of the best bargains in the MMORPG world. I take off a star and a half for the forced team aspect as well as the focus on pure fighting versus creating a world, but add 1 back for the value proposition so give this 4 and half stars, or a 4/5 fun/overall split.

This is a tough game to master with no outright 'uber' classes. Players choose 2 of 6 fairly standard basic professions (1 tank, 1 mezzer, 1 healer/defender, 2 nukers, 1 mezzer/nuker) with the second profession lacking one of the strongest attributes of the primary (including which armor you can wear and runes you can use). As you level, besides gaining hit points you do two things - specialize in the various basic class attributes and gain access to the real key: skills. You're limited to a certain number of active skills while in combat, so strategy and careful character building take precedence over getting to level 20. Experience to buy skills can be gained through basic PvE, missions, or PvP. Using a small set of skills wisely along with picking and choosing your attribute development is far more important than getting all the 75 skills available to each profession. This is definitely not a game that is easy to blindly powerlevel.

Cleverly designed, this sidesteps a lot of the problems surrounding the genre. Rather than deal with constant kill stealing, maps and missions are instanced, and you don't have to spend a whole slug of time traveling between regions. (Once you've been to a locale, boom, it's yours.) Recovery time is minimal as is non-combat time. You don't need to spend time harvesting mats and begging a friend to make your next weapon. Instead, kill things, complete missions, and you can bring mats straight to the NPC crafter to make a custom weapon (that can only be equipped by you, likely eliminating much of the secondary market for gear in this game.)

My reservations are four fold but minor. First, the way to truly advance in this game is through missions - and the only way to accomplish many missions is in a balanced team. Thus, you're basically forced to group despite the nominal ability to solo. This really means you have to figure out proper character development early - rather tough with your first few characters until you find a good guild, and frankly, sometimes many of us feel like playing solo. Second, the lack of any real crafting system here means you fight...and fight...and fight. CoH has done well with a similar model (without the PvP aspect) and it's worked well - not to mention the biggest headaches in most MMORPGs are the messes created with a bad item creation system - but if you enjoy socializing more than fighting (the typical harvester/crafter) this isn't the game for you. Third, the game really revolves around PvP much more than PvE for the above reasons - so if you're looking for a game without conflict, this isn't it. Finally, while the focus on instanced events does prevent many of the problems found in most other MMORPGs, it also reduces the multiplayer aspect except in non-instanced locales like towns. The net effect of all of these is to slightly dilute the 'world' aspect, and for those looking for total immersion this may not be a perfect match.

Still, this is a great game and deserves 4 1/2 stars, and if you're looking for an alternative to the hordes of WoW that strongly encourages teaming this should be at the top of your list. One final note: this actually runs quite well even on my soon-to-be discarded Athlon 1100 and is geared towards doing well on slightly older systems - and even 56k modems! - unlike most new games. Big plus.

Awesome

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: June 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is worth your time and money. It has numerous quests for you to complete, with or without other players, plus it has an amazing pvp (player versus player) mode to go along with them. This game is great for short, quick plays, and it's also great for long play-sessions that last into hours of the morning that you didn't even think were real. (Like 4 A.M., since when is that an actual time??) There are a few shortcomings, such as the little amount of customization and crafting. However, the fact that this is a one-time buy, that's right, there are no monthly fees, evens this out. All in all, this is a game for mmorpg lovers and single-player-rpg lovers to spend time on. Also, as stated by another, DO NOT buy this game used, because the game is fully installed, and you can play without the disk. So, somebody could sell you their used copy, and then keep playing, while at the same time, you would be at a $40 loss. Buy it new, and have fun!

Why aren't I playing guild wars now

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 14
Date: November 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game must be experenced, not read about. These reviews won't give you a solid feel of the game at all, even the guildwars website won't help. Let me try to explain it the best i can.
You have a world map. On this map are towns. Towns are the multiplayer aspects of the game. There are many people in these towns and you can sell things/buy things in towns. Also in these towns you can join up with a limited number of people to go out into the world to explore and do mishions ect. When you leave a town you get your own privite copy of the game along with your part alone. (that is how they keep the price low. This solves a lot of other problomes too because now you can't have an infidently large party going questing together. Outside the town there is a ,mazelike world that is very linear, but some variety is to be had.
I suck at writing reviews, don't I? I've never read a helpful review, but buy the game and you will see how awsome it is.

MMORPG without all the fat

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 21
Date: May 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

First off...I am amazed at this game....

I was close to swearing off MMORPGs because when you figure that you pay upwards to 50 bucks per game (and stuck with it if you don't like it) and then pay a monthly fee (that is like another bill if u already are paying them) You almost have to play them a lot and I don't have that kind of time. I also didn't like the camping, loot stealing etc found on a lot of those games...worse yet ...level grinding....grrrr.

That is where Guild wars is different.

For the one person that complained earlier about this game...info about what this game was about has been around since October...those who knew that, knew what this game was about....

That is what I like about Guild wars...when you go on a mish, you have the whole map to explore w/o worrying about others ruining the fun and taking key items, not to mention you have plenty to do because SOMEONE will always have a mish in store for you. Also you mish actions really do shape yorur playing world.

Also, if you like soloing and dislike waiting forever for parties to form, you can do it with very competent NPCs

Best of all, most quests are relatively short taking anywhere from 5 mins to 30 mins to complete and are done at your level meaning you won't go on a mish and be expected to take on a horde of monsters 3x your level.

Check this out, I have a level 8 Warrior/necro char. that I had since day one. I decided to make a new character because I know I missed a whole bunch of early mishes on the game so I created a Ranger/monk....I would say in about 5 hrs yesterday, I managed to give him a decent amount of skills and built up to level 6. Most other MMORPGs I probably would have spent that same amount of time getting to level 3.

And as said many times before, It's all about your skills that you get and not about leveling. Keep that in mind. And attaining new skills is something you can do as soon as you get on the game. No having to slave away just get to level 10 or 15 before u get a secondary profession.

Another great thing is that you will be fighting a variety of enemies from the start...no fighting wild rats and rabbits for 5 or 6 levels.

This game is fun, intense whether you fight alone with NPCs at ur side or with friends.The graphics are great even on low settings. And the storyline is tight to keep you drawn in...

My only complaint however is with the party system.
The plus is, no matter where your friends are you all can meet up on any server and play (no having to all have to join and stay on one server just to play) but if the party decides to break up and head for the main city, everyone gets dispersed between servers before they can form up.

But that is my only complaint in an otherwise great game.

A solid, but ever-changing game; refreshing to the RPG'er afraid to move onto pay-per-month MMORPGs

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: January 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have to say, I only heard about the Guild Wars cult following a few weeks before the actual release. I heard about the game intermittently though various gaming sites, as a possible widely-accepted contender in the MMORPG world. Though not being a fan of the pay-per-month fees since my anticipated let down with FFXI, I did find that these non-existant fees were tempting.

I picked up a copy of Guild Wars on day-one and I have not been able to put it down since. It is a game that yes, if you are more used to the need of one godly class/combination that the other, you will be greatly disappointed with the game as many of the classes are fine-tuned to balance with the others. The lack of one profound character-creation over the other may be discouraging to some people, as each 8 skill customizable skill-set can have its shining moments and then be rendered powerless in terms of PvP and/or different areas of the world of Tyria.

The part that makes Guild Wars unique is the system that depends on teamplay during storyline missions and/or PvP combat--though I personally had problems with trusting people I didn't know, and utilized the in-game henchmen or my real friends to play. Superb cooperation and communication between team members, I found, was vital in tackling the most difficult of foes. Not even the best PvP guilds in the game can stay the best if another guild had better teamwork and commnication.

On the downside, Guild Wars can be a very entertaining game, but it also can be quite slow. The instanced areas makes the world seem desolate and fairly lonely (though that is the general feel in the post-searing aspects of the game). If you don't have a group or at least a friend or so already established playing the game with you, then it will be semi-difficult for you to enjoy the game first off. Also, there is a need for more engrossing storyline, but you can only expect so much out of the ex-Blizzard employees that brought you partially-intricate storylines most of their professional gaming careers.

Though others may enjoy the story, it is not one of its greatest features.

So all in all, the game is great in gameplay and execution. The overly balanced nature of the game can be its best feature and its own worst enemy. Solid and addicting, yet you can walk away from it at any time. Just beware of the lonely, long runs to other places and, of course, the men playing female characters pretending to be female to get free stuff.

Just Great...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 25, 2006
Author: Amazon User

As an 'older' former DnDer, this is the first of the 'big' Internet Multi-User games that I've really liked. Has a definite role-play feel with the quest and mission directed play. Great graphics, too. And since I'm hand-eye-coordination challenged, its really good that success is as much determined by thinking out strategies and tactics as it is by having 'quick fingers'. Im addicted!

Totaly Awesome Game To Play

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 12
Date: August 30, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game may not be as good as World of Warcraft but it is still a good game to play if you don't want to pay monthly. But I think it is better than City of Villans and City of Heros. But it is slightly adictive so don't shout at your parents when they tell you to get off because they might take it away.

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.

Best online game available

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: April 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I played this game for all the betas and played during the launch which occured on the day I wrote this. This is the best online game out there. This game is doable by a casual player and hardcore alike. The only separation between the hardcore and the casual player will be the level that they are at unless they have hit the cap. Casual players can get great items unlike in Everquest.

An amazing fantastical adventure! Better then EQ!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: May 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Guild Wars is a game that will entertain and delight for hours! You can chose between completing quests and advancing in levels with other players with the fantasy roleplayer part of the game, or you can join interactive teams with other players and compete against opposing teams (also made of real game players) in an exciting sequence of chellenges!

Roleplaying- The graphics are absolutely stunning, they make you want to reach out and touch the screen! The possibilities in this game nearly seem limitless! You can literally dance and party with other players, form teams to conquer your foes and complete quests, or you could even take the solitary route of completing the quests and advancing in the game by yourself. The way the quest system is set up is solid and easy (but not so much that you will begin to get bored).

PVP- In the player v. player part of this game you create a level 20 character. You are them assigned a team that you will assist in vanquishing the opposing team. As the name "PVP" indicates, the teams are formed of real players like yourself. Testing your skill and fighting against real, thinking foes is very enjoyable and will bring you hours of entertainment!

This is a game that never gets old and will give you something to look forward to at the end of the day! I highly reccomend it for both the young and old. I myself am 14, and I love it equally as much as my 48 year old father. Age is no limitation to the inevitable enjoyment of this game!

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