Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsBest MMO in many years, by a mile.
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2012
GW2 brings some key innovations to a very stale genre and pairs the excellent game design with a massive, expansive and deep world space and PvE content. Many MMOs since Vanilla WoW have had tiny worlds that can barely offer 80 hours of world PvE experience. I've logged 500 hours of GW2 since launch and there are parts of the world I still haven't seen as I've leveled three characters to the level 80 cap.
Combat is fun and dynamic, with dodging and using skills while moving a key element of efficient and effective game play. The skill system is different enough from the normal MMO fare that many MMO vets may face a bit of a learning curve as they adjust to a different way of doing things, but once you become adept at playing GW2, it can be hard to go back to more stale offerings in the genre.
The game offers a branching story, with choices made at character creation offering the first opportunity to determine the direction your story will take. There is some convergence of story regardless off what choices you make or what race you chose, but there is enough variety along the way to greatly enhance replayability.
The game also offers a robust Structured PvP format with instanced 3 to 8 man battlefields and casual, formal and "paid" tournaments, along with a game mode called World vs. World which features multi-zone, objective based world PvP that pits players from three separate game servers against each other.
For Dungeon Crawlers, the game offers a number of 5 man dungeons, starting at level 30 and running up to the level cap. The game has also just recently added a new semi-random dungeon that allows players to advance a level of difficulty that grants greater rewards depending on the difficulty level players have achieved and selected for a given run.
Character creation is among the most robust in any current MMO, the character models and armors are very well done and animations are excellent. The world is beautiful and though not as varied as the often incongruent zone layout found in WoW does offer a number of general themes, along with enough differentiation for each zone so it's obvious where you are in the game.
A good portion of world PvE content in GW2 is in the form of Dynamic Events. These provide an alternative to quest based MMO gaming. Things happen in the game world, sometimes on a timer, sometimes based on player actions and sometimes even based on the outcomes of other events in the zone. the objectives will be displayed on the right side of the interface and anyone can jump in and participate. At completion, the player is instantly awarded XP, Karma, (an alternative currency mostly gained via events that essentially allows players to visit a karma vendor and select their own rewards) and coin. No quest turn ins, no quest log. No pre-requisites. If an event is happening near you, you can participate. (Often, NPCs in the world will actually seek out and flag down players to alert them to some event that is occuring near by, which adds to the immersion and is a very nice touch).
I've had nothing but good to say about the game, but it is not perfect. Some Dynamic Events are bugged and stay that way a little longer than one would expect. Though the game is largely bug free, there are still some small bugs that pop up here and there. I think the biggest caution I'd offer people considering the game is that there is a lot here that is different from the traditional MMO and the game doesn't do the best job at guiding new players on how all these things actually work. Though it is not difficult to hop in and enjoy the opening levels, expect a learning curve to become comfortable with the game, your profession and all the features the game offers, many of which are not obvious. MMO vets may also have to unlearn some bad MMO habits and adjust to the way that GW2 does things. Going in with an open mind and a willingness to learn and adapt to the game are likely key pre-requisites to getting the most from this game.
In the years since WoW released, I've been lucky to get more than 80 hours from any subsequent MMO title. In the last three years, that number has most often been closer to 40-60 hours. I'm blown away that I have played over 500 hours of GW2 and see my self getting at least another 500 hours from the at launch content, if not much more. If you are looking for a long term game and can get past the initial learning curve, you may find the long term MMO experience you've been looking for.
The game's business model is Buy to Play. You buy the box and then there is no monthly fee to continue playing the game. You will always have access to the game content at launch plus the free content that is released on an ongoing basis. There will likely be paid expansions in the future that players wil need to buy in order to unlock that content, but there will never be a sub fee and the amount of content you get for the box price is massive.
To provide ongoing income, there is a variation of a cash shop. Nothing in the cash shop is needed to play, nor is there anything you need to buy to enjoy the game. The leveling curve is flat after level 20, with each level there after taking about 1 1/2 hours of play, so this is not a game that introduces leveling grind that has to be reduced by paid leveling rate boosts, as seen in many free to play games. Maybe the most controversial element of the cash shop is the ability to trade cash shop currency, (gems) for in game coin. The exchange rate is based on demand and other economic factors. On the plus side, in game coin can also be exchanged for gems, so people with plenty of time to accumulate in game gold can exchange the excess for gems and buy any cash shop items or account upgrades with out having to pay real world currency. (The most commonly purchased upgrades are probably additional account bank slots, or additional character slots for those that need more than the five included with the box price).
This is a truly superb, vast and content packed MMO title that is worth much more than the one time box price required to play the game. The lack of a subscription fee gives players a lot of freedom to take breaks and play other PC and Non-PC games, knowing they can always return to GW2 at any time with out financial concerns. No more paying a sub fee on a game you are on hiatus from, just because you aren't ready to give up instant access to the game when the mood so strikes you.
Ignore the one star reviews, as most are by those with some agenda giving the game a completely unfair rating in order to increase their impact on the score of a game they have decided not to like. This is a quality title deserving of nothing less than a 4 star rating based on objective criteria. I give it a five because it is such a great personal fit and I just can't help but being totally blown away by the 500+ hours of entertainment value, and counting, that I have received in return for the box price. Hard to beat the entertainment value! As a long time MMO vet I have to say I'm thrilled by an MMO designed to actually be played for months or years, which puts GW2 in sharp juxtaposition to most titles in recent years that are lucky to offer 80 hours of world PvE content.
Well worth the box price for anyone looking for a long term MMO, while also possessing an open enough mind and enough patience to overcome the learning curve necessary to get the most from what the game offers.