Elementalist cutting loose!
To start this bad boy off let’s talk about the main storyline. This is a hard topic to brush on due to there being so many different ones. During character creation you will be asked a series of questions and your answers are the casting for your own personal story. The smallest things from choosing where you grew up can impact majorly on your story. As being an MMORPG I have yet to venture to the conclusion of my story, and I would believe I haven’t even scratched at the surface. What I can tell you though is that you will be given a number of choices throughout your story that dramatically affect the outcomes and how the citizens of Tyria view your character. Simple things like go left and go right can turn into your best friend being slaughtered to save hundreds of people from being poisoned and visa versa. Really messes with your head.
As you progress through the story, next to the story title on your HUD will be a number in brackets, e.g. (9), which allow you to know what level your character should be on before attempting that quest. This forces the character to do 1 of 3 things. Either go off and level on side quests found throughout the region and participate in major events; Getting a friend or even a potential stranger to come join in your own personal story to help beat whatever foe you come in contact with; and finally braving the quest yourself with the aid of the Dynamic combat system in place which I will touch on a little later on. In addition to the Main storyline and side quests available, you are given the chance to take on more personal missions if you will, similar to the Achievement or Trophy system found in todays console games, you are given your own personal achievements, whether they are daily, weekly or even monthly.
My character participating in a group event.
The Dynamic combat system is unique to say the least. It allows you as the character to take on the toughest foes in the game based on your own personal skill level. If the enemy takes a swipe at you and you skilfully dive out of the way and dodge it then you wont take damage. Even if they miss you by the width of half a pube you will be set! This, unfortunately for me because I’m so unco-ordinated, can be both a blessing or a curse. I’m sure with time, skill with set in and I’ll be able to dodge more attacks. (Hopefully!)
Another great feature is the fact that there is no set “Healing” class, this is because every character has their own healing skills. That’s right, everyone’s a healer. All Classes are equal in their own way but at the same time are very different. This combined with the varying storylines available make this title almost impossible to finish, but I’m sure there’s someone out there that can do it.
If you have a friend or guild mate in strife during a quest, you can easily go help them if you are a higher level but don’t expect it to be a simple walk in the park! Your level with shift down dependant on the area you are in. If you are a lvl 20 and your friend is only 10 doing a level 10 quest and you go to help them then you can guarantee your level will automatically adjust to roughly 12ish so that the quest still requires skill, cunning and keeps the interest of it up. This is a major feature that I loved and found help keep interest in even the lowest level of quests.
Professions available in GW2. See if you can pick which one is what.
The list of professions are rather interesting and feature many differences based on their races also. The 5 main races to choose from during character selection are Charr, Human, Norn, Asura and Sylvari.
The Charr are best recognised by their beast like stature, many veteran WoW players would easily affiliate them with the Tauren race found in that game. They are rather large and look basically like a bull on steroids with an anger management problem.
The Humans are, as you probably guessed by now, humans. They are basically the middle men (and women) and are amongst the highest population race in Tyria. Fully set with massive cities and castles they are not a race to be toyed with likely.
Norn are the human version of the Charr I would think. Either that or they possess giants blood because these guys are friggen massive. A standard human would in most cases come to either their waist line or elbow dependant on the height settings set in character customization. While more primitive than the human race, they thrive in the forests and worship the animal spirits of Tyria which is a major bonus to their class.
Asura remind me of angry dobby’s. (If you didn't get the Harry Potter reference then you need to nerd up!) I have yet to create a character in the Asura race but I have seen plenty around. They are tiny little elf like creatures, but in their case size doesn't matter. What they lack in strength is easily made up in speed and agility.
And finally we have the Sylvari, another race I am yet to toy with. They are forest people that literally resemble the forest. Almost like walking trees in a sense. They strike me as both agile and cunning, and with the power of the forest behind them, who knows what the possibilities might be.
The professions are vast and offer many different attributes. You have the power of the world at your fingertips as an Elementalist, the force and power of a Warrior, the honour and vitality of a Guardian, the wisdom and knowledge of an Engineer, the precision and distance of the Ranger, the dark magic and risen dead of the Necromancer, the agility and stealth of the Thief and the deception and illusion of the Mesmer. All of them feature their own unique features based on race and leave the choices limitless.
The world of Tyria is huge and easy to manoeuvre. The map features blurred out areas yet to be travelled too but also have a numbers written all over the place advising the player to travel there unless that are, for example between levels 15-25. Along with this you have the waypoint system allowing the character to fast travel to a previously discovered in the world for only a small fee from as little as 4 copper coins depending on distance. You also have a portal system allowing you to fast travel to undiscovered areas in the world and I am yet to find one that is inaccessible to any level.
The world of Tyria.
The most important feature about this MMORPG that cant go without a mention is the monthly subscription fee. The non-existent one at least. Best thing I have to say about Guild Wars 2 is that once you buy the game in the shop or online that’s it, you don’t have to spend anything else to play it. You can purchase in-game “Gems” which are one of 3 in game currencies that I know of which in turn can be used to buy additional slots in your bank or fashionable items that carry no additional stats to help give the character an unfair advantage. Nothing can be purchased in the game that couldn’t be obtained through time spent in the game anyway.
Like most MMORPG’s, the release did come with its major influx of gamers keen as mustard to have a go and carried with it a list of bugs and errors that were unanticipated. Most of which have been addressed and fixed but a few major ones still linger around like a problem with guilds that I know nothing about and the unfortunate breakage of the trading post. I don’t feel the need to comment on what the trading post is as its been in-accessible to me since launch due to some error. What I can tell you is that it is like an auction house in your back pocket. You can apparently purchase items on the go and sell them also, this is of course all superficial as I am yet to sample it. The one thing I can say for certain is that the team have been working around the clock to resolve these issues so everyone can enjoy the full experience of the game.
This is all I’m going to write on this topic so far as there is still a whole lot for me to explore and I can’t just let it stop here. This is only the first part of many more reviews to come and I will most definitely keep you all up to date with my progress. All in all, I have been a veteran MMORPGer from Wow and SWTOR and I can safely give my opinion of this title. F**king awesome!
5/5 so far, and that’s even with the bugs. Stay tuned for more on Guild Wars 2 from me!
