Guild Wars - World Preview Discussion

[GnR]

Ok, for everyone who participated in the World Preview, what do you think? How does the game compare to others you played? What did you like or dislike? Will you be playing the game more? etc...

My thoughts:

Overall I enjoyed the game. I have never played EQ or Lineage or other games that may or may not be similar. This is my first look at a RPG other than Star Wars Galaxies.

Some things I liked about the game were:

• the quickness and lag-free play.
• the skill system and fighting style.
• the linear story-line for missions.

I thought the speed of play was very impressive. My personal downloads were fast. The game ran very well on my middle of the road gaming setup and I experienced very slowdowns from any lag.

I also very much enjoyed the skill system. I felt very confident after playing the weekend that I was a useful member of any group I joined. Unlike other games that require time invested to become the top players in the game, the preview made me feel good about my contribution to any party I joined. Especially after I switched to a role that appealed more to me, like the monk.

I also like the linear story-line for the missions. Following the story-line missions, I never felt like I was in a grind to try and get better. I was enjoying myself, battling to get the end of a mission to see what would happen. Wiithout knowing how or why I made it up three levels of play simply by doing the first 4 missions. Unlike my experience in SWG, I felt that every mission was just another requirement to gain an amount of XP that would contribute to my character development. I ended up fighting the same creatures in SWG hundreds of times just to try to earn some xp and money to continue my character development. While I definitely felt the rewards from completing the missions, I didn't feel bored while doing them.

That's a few impression for now eventhough I'm certain I could say much more. I have pre-ordered and I'm going to continue playing the beta events to see even more of the game. I think this preview showed only a part of the game, and I expect there might be even more fun things to do in the future beta events.

[Liz]

Hi GnR,

My first time playing MMORPG, & I thought it was great... Shame first time in ages I was thinking about a game at work, but alas couldn't come home to play...

If the beta keeps improving, it's a must to play...

Only had a few minor glitches while playing, but generally its easy to pick up & get going...

Liz...

[Bulgroz]

MMO experience: had a go at Planetside (open beta) and Lineage 2 (free beta) - can you spot a pattern ?

GW was OK, nice graphics, I agree the "follow the story and you'll get XP" factor is a nice change from L2 for example where I had to kill hundreds of these dog-thingies to get to level 5. I wonder what the long time appeal might be, but as it's not "pay by month" it doesn't matter as much, so buying it and playing once in a while may be an option, as opposed to other games where if you don't grind at the same speed as everybody else they're all 20 levels above you in a month and you're pretty much useless to a party or guild. Here you can just grab some henchmen and go off without bothering any other guild member if they don't have time.

On the other hand managed to do a quest with 3 other TOGers (and 2 henchmen) and it was good fun.

Edit: also liked the free travel with the map, no need to walk for hours to meet your mates ...

Did anybody try PvP?

What are the preorder options for Australia? I just flicked through their website but they seemed to mention mostly US stores.

[Rickety]

I thoroughly enjoyed the game! This event had much more to offer then the E3 demo earlier this year.

The first of the big changes was the inclussion of NPC henchmen that you could take with you on your missions. Not only could you take more than one (you had a choice of four), they were usually better than actual PC's!! I was able to complete every mission with just henchmen (except for the The Hedge mission, was this the last one as this required a coordnated group effort). Overall, I'm very impressed with this added feature. They can even gain levels!! One con about them though, I think they reduce the amount of loot you get (since loot is sared). I could have been my imagination but I never seemed to pick up as much stuff when I took henchmen with me.

The were more skills available in this demo. I'm not sure if you all found out but there was a second village (not on map) that you could to go for another selection of skills! Further, these all the skills were very different to the 'standard' skills that you would expect in other RPG's. For example, I had a skill as a Monk that when you cast this on an ally player, each time that player hits an enemy, I got healed!! Cool.

The game allowed pets. Both the Ranger and the Necro could have pets. I never manged to get a pet for my Ranger although I did see them with other higher level characters. The necro raise dead skill was great fun. You could raise up a veritable army of deadites although they were only short lived (or un-lived ).

The story line was interesting. Although the cutscnes themselves were a bit on the lame side, they did tell the story well and, well, for no monthly fee I can handle 'game engine' movies/storyline advancement. The story was just getting good when the demo ended

I had no idea how crafting worked. There looked like a fair variety in what could be achived but I never really looked into it. I know you could get 'runes' to upgrade your items (think of socketeds in Diablo2) and you could create Charms from you own skills (no idea what these things did). From what I could tell, you do not gather resources but rather pick up resources as loot from mob drops in missions. Not sure how this will play out in retail.

Finally, PvP. What a absolute hoot!! This is probably the best PvP implementation I've seen in a PvP game so far. The demo offered 4vs4 (final day offered 8vs8 and a Tournament mission) but I only tried the 4v4. The 'Arena' as it was called pitted you with 3 other randomly chosen players against another team of 4. Simply running in spells/swords flying would get you swiftly killed and a humiliatiing defeat. If you win the fight you get to keep the team you are in and fight another lot of randomly chose enemies and so on untill you loose. When I was playing, there were no rewards for PvP (no penalties either), it was purely for fun. On the last day, PvP exp was awarded although I never tried this to find out how much.

Overall the game shows much promise and for just the initial purchase price it seems well worth it

[Twiz]

[quote="GnR"]
Some things I liked about the game were:

• the quickness and lag-free play.
• the skill system and fighting style.
• the linear story-line for missions.

[quote="GnR]

The lag free was nice, but the skill system, fighting style and linear story line made it more "hack N slash", than RPG in my opinion. I understand some people like that and don't like the learning curve of an involving RPG, but I like games that captivate me for many months or years, and I don't see this one doing it for me. Granted, I don't have ANY background lore for this universe, so more like a jump in, kill stuff just because, log off...

But then again, I don't like PvP and I suppose you would have to have hack n slash play style to make a PvP successful...I do realize this is an early beta and perhaps they will add more character depth in the future, but as it stands, I really didn't feel I could do much to "personalize" my character along the lines of RPG--pretty much the same as every other playing my chosen class...

[Ellianora]

The name of the connection was a big tip off. Arena net sounds alot like battle net for those who remember Diablo. As Emeril would say this was like Diablo kicked up a notch...bam. Not to say I didn't like the game, it was a fun diversion. Though I would not call it a mmporg per se' orpg.

here are a few points:
It was lag free and it was easy to switch between districts.
The buttons on the map made it very easy travel
The henchman helped one get thru the missions. I did them with a team and with my henchman. Rge movies were a nice touch and reminded me of Diablo again.
Combat was fast paced and there was no sitting or medding
From what I could see crafting was gathering materials and handing them to a crafter to make the desired item. I may be wrong on this
PvP was fun and fit with the fast pace of he game
The linear mission was differnt but reminded more of role playing game then a conintual world like Norrath or others.

Summary: Would I play GW? Yes most definetetly I liked Diablo before it fell apart and the fact you only buy the game is more of an entiicement. I don't think I would make is my main game or consider it a mmporg. But, for what seems to be and accomplish it does it very well.

[GnR]

The henchmen were definitely very good to have. I also played a few mission with simply them and fared very well. You definitely do not receive as much loot with henchmen. Ideally a full guild group would net you the most loot.

The henchmen were also better in many cases than real players. The henchmen all concentrated on whatever my target was and did a good job of healing etc. I did find however, that at the end of the World Preview, the players got much better. At 10-12pm on Sunday, I was in 2 pickup groups that were excellently co-ordinated. We had no problems running through the missions we faced.

As Rickety also said, for those who missed it. There was another settlement in the explorable area that had a guy selling skills. In fact, if you did only missions you missed a good part of the world. I walked from the Lion's Arch to the Divinity Coast through the explorable areas. I can't say it was the most exciting trip with my henchmen since I didn't get many drops but there was some beautiful scenery and creatures that were not in any mission. As you got farther ahead, the creatures got much stronger. I detoured into the explorable area off of the Hills and my group got killed multiple times. At one point me and my 4 level 15 henchmen ran into 4 level 18 enemies. At that time, a guildmate was looking for a group so I said, "This is a good time to warp back to civilization."

This game has been advertised as single-player or multi-player and they are definitely right. If you can't find anyone to play with, the henchmen do an excellent job. Also, if your the right class, which it seems is Monk and Warrior, you'll have no problem finding a pickup group. I never stood around a mission spawn point for more than 30 seconds after I switched to monk without getting an invitation. That's how I found some very good groups at the end of which the people said "I'm adding everyone here to my friends list!"

Although I didn't even get to the PvP area, that definitely sounds great as well. I envision a competitive portion of the guild that wants to participate in the International ladders and tournaments. I think that'll be a lot of fun since I'm from an competitive FPS background. No need to go out and find a ladder when there's going to be the best one built-in.

Oh one other thing that I liked ("Did I like anything else" - GnR Fanboi), was the game looked very polished. They seem to have done a top notch job of putting together a game that will be ready for release and working excellently on day one. When you think about it, they have no choice. The game is either working perfectly or else they're going to lose sales. And sales is what this game is all about. There is no time to fix the universe by releasing a game that is not fully-fun to play.

Finally, I agree with Twiz's and other players comments. This game is definitely missing a lot of MMORPG features. ALthough the designers themselves prefer to call it a Cooperative ORPG. There won't be things such as player housing, very large zones of people, or dedicated support and crafting-type skillsets. Basically, it's kill or be killed. It might also be very easy for the hard core gamers to max out their characters and not find much new to do until the next expansion comes out. Given my gaming-style this suits me just fine. But the game is definitely not in direct competition with EQ2 or other persistent universes.

As the latest interview says, Arenanet sounds like their hoping to hit millions of sales vs thousands. I think they might be able to do it.

[kreebog]

I'll tell you what impressed me the most about Guild Wars - The installation! I've never seen an online game that installed so smoothly (or quickly). The initial installer was tiny and within 3 minutes (admittedly, my cable connection is fast) the character generation was available and the client downloaded the Starter zone while I was making my first toon. I didn't have to wait at all to get in and start playing through the starter zone, and while I was doing so the client was busily downloading other areas of the world! Impressive

The graphics are very, very nice, especially if you can max out all of the effects like I did... I have a nice machine, but its not an uber-machine by any means (AMD 3200+, 1gb DDR400, Radeon 9800 pro 12 so I was pleansantly surprised by the quality and smoothness of the graphics engine. The models were nice (especially the chicks! YUM YUM), the landscapes detailed and engaging, and the animations smooth and believable.

I noticed a few brief moments of lag, but overall things were smooth and reliable... more good marks for a game in beta!

I really had no expectations as to what the game would be like since I haven't been following it at all, but I don't think I'll be buying it in retail.

Zones - For one thing it is restrictive... the zones, while appearing to be large, are actually just a series of cleverly disguised corridors that you cannot break out of. I don't know how many times I ran up against an invisible wall between myself an my objective... I found that frustrating. There were a few exceptions (a huge swamp outside of Lion's Arch comes to mind) and maybe this will change as more zones are added in the future *shrug*

Skill Slots - Only having the ability to carry eight skills into combat frustrated me as well. I recognize the "tactical" aspect that this brings to the game but I also forsee a huge problem with 'uber-templates' in this game... when you only have eight skill slots you can't get too creative!

Shopping/Crafting - I didn't care for the crafting / drop system, which seemed to drop cool items that were only for use as salvage items (as stated in the object's description). I did find a few weapons, but no usuable armor. This is something I'm sure will change, eventually (or maybe I was just very unlucky?)

Missions - I thought it was an interesting idea and I did enjoy the mission I did (twice)... the one where you have to protect the cleric guy from surging hordes of undead. The henchmen were smart and useful (more so than the other players haha) and, if anything, made the mission too easy, but it was still fun enough to do twice

PVP - I didn't try it

Overall - While the game was fast paced and enjoyable it is just a little too simplistic to hold my interest for long. I had the same problem with Diablo... it was fun for a little while but once I figured it out there just wasn't much reason to keep playing.

It seems like a good game, but just not for me.

[mad_kinkajou]

I think I liked it enough at this stage of its development. Would I buy it if it was going retail today, no. I did like it enough though to spend the $5 to pre-order it to keep playing on beta weekends though, so we'll see how it goes.

Cons:
--simply not enough of it, but thats to be expected at this point
--Other biggest thing, is I too agree that 8 slots is simply too few. To me it seems like a larger section would prove who had the better skills and could think faster. 8 slots seems like the winner can be determined simply more by who picked the "right" skills for that pvp then who is a better player. I am not advocating having a lot more skills, but more than 8 wouldn't be bad either. I don't know about anyone else, but I found investing my points into fewer/main skills was a bit more effectively then spreading them evenly between my 2 classes. To offset that, it seems like if they gave a hard 8 slots for your primary class and an extra 4 for only your secondary class you'd see more variety in builds and skills carried.

Pros
-- it was fun and well paced pvp (something I am not a big fan of usually)
-- I liked that pvp was restricted to certain areas, it made those areas fun, and because players get to work together for much of the game you get to make friends that you might pvp against later thereby keeping the atmosphere more friendly in the game.

Basically I think its a decent enough game at this point that holds some promise for the future. I probably, even at release, wouldn't pay a monthly fee for it IF it had one as I'll already be paying for WoW/EQ2, but with no monthly fee if it keeps making progress I'll definitely pick it up on release.

[Ellianora]

For those interested... NC soft is offering free weekend beta games to those who pre-order..with even a bring a friend code. Got to hand it to them, they do know how to market. My roomie is signing up for the beta and I guess I can be friend. Either way, nice way to track the game