I decided with Guild Wars 2 at least still a year away I would give Guild Wars a whirl. I forgot how awesome the game looks. It is just cool to see some of the casting spell animations. There seems to be no real learning curve to pick up the game, and start playing. You can hop right in, and easily know what to do.
The free trial is kind of a joke though. They make it sound like you can play for two weeks, but it is limited to about 10 hours of total play time. Anyone that plays an MMO can knock out ten hours in one or two days. Is that really enough to get you hooked enough to fork over the cash to buy the game? I am still undecided, but the price is making me lean towards buying it since there are no monthly subscription fees.
The questing flows pretty good. You have arrows on your mini map, and stars to show you exactly where to go. I love that in a game. There is nothing more frustrating than hunting for mobs or npc's for a quest.
The part that I am not used to is everything is instanced. I don't mind instances, but you go to a quest hub, and you literally are going into five different zone instances to do the quests. The nice thing is you have the mobs all to yourself so you never have to worry that someone else is camping the area.
The instances really throw you off a little when you are following quest arrows. You think it is close by, but you may have to go through two instances to get to the quest spot. Everything seems like you have to go so far to get there.
My biggest frustration so far is following quest arrows, but not really seeing a true path to get there. Unlike other MMO's you can't always just cut across the landscape, and get to where you need to be. You have to follow the rails which annoyed the hell out of me. It just seems crazy that I have to walk an extra two miles around some hill, or mountain to get to the quest area.
I find myself sometimes thinking I am going the right way, and soon find myself being guided a different way because of not following the rails. I just wish it was more clear on the way they wanted us to walk. At least Fable III gives you a little glowing walkway so there is less confusion. I may be missing something that makes it more obvious where I am supposed to be walking.
The game seemed a little laggy while playing. I am not sure if it is because the free trial is streaming, or what. It could be my computer too, but I don't notice it in other games. It seemed when NPC's were following me to help with a quest they were all over the place. I also had issues with mobs being in front of me, and the next thing I knew they were behind me.
The biggest bummer about the free trial is you can't pvp. I really wanted to try it out, and it may be the sole reason I end up buying the game so I can see how enjoyable it is. I remember initially in the open beta time back in 2003 or 2004 I loved the little small arena pvp. I ended up getting into closed beta of World of Warcraft, and never looked back at Guild Wars.
Overall the game is pleasing to the eyes, and graphically compares to games released now. For as old as the game is you can't say the graphics, and UI are dated. If you are looking for an MMO with eye candy than I would highly recommend Guild Wars.
Feel free to comment, and join the interactive discussion on Google +
The free trial is kind of a joke though. They make it sound like you can play for two weeks, but it is limited to about 10 hours of total play time. Anyone that plays an MMO can knock out ten hours in one or two days. Is that really enough to get you hooked enough to fork over the cash to buy the game? I am still undecided, but the price is making me lean towards buying it since there are no monthly subscription fees.
The questing flows pretty good. You have arrows on your mini map, and stars to show you exactly where to go. I love that in a game. There is nothing more frustrating than hunting for mobs or npc's for a quest.
The part that I am not used to is everything is instanced. I don't mind instances, but you go to a quest hub, and you literally are going into five different zone instances to do the quests. The nice thing is you have the mobs all to yourself so you never have to worry that someone else is camping the area.
The instances really throw you off a little when you are following quest arrows. You think it is close by, but you may have to go through two instances to get to the quest spot. Everything seems like you have to go so far to get there.
My biggest frustration so far is following quest arrows, but not really seeing a true path to get there. Unlike other MMO's you can't always just cut across the landscape, and get to where you need to be. You have to follow the rails which annoyed the hell out of me. It just seems crazy that I have to walk an extra two miles around some hill, or mountain to get to the quest area.
I find myself sometimes thinking I am going the right way, and soon find myself being guided a different way because of not following the rails. I just wish it was more clear on the way they wanted us to walk. At least Fable III gives you a little glowing walkway so there is less confusion. I may be missing something that makes it more obvious where I am supposed to be walking.
The game seemed a little laggy while playing. I am not sure if it is because the free trial is streaming, or what. It could be my computer too, but I don't notice it in other games. It seemed when NPC's were following me to help with a quest they were all over the place. I also had issues with mobs being in front of me, and the next thing I knew they were behind me.
The biggest bummer about the free trial is you can't pvp. I really wanted to try it out, and it may be the sole reason I end up buying the game so I can see how enjoyable it is. I remember initially in the open beta time back in 2003 or 2004 I loved the little small arena pvp. I ended up getting into closed beta of World of Warcraft, and never looked back at Guild Wars.
Overall the game is pleasing to the eyes, and graphically compares to games released now. For as old as the game is you can't say the graphics, and UI are dated. If you are looking for an MMO with eye candy than I would highly recommend Guild Wars.
Feel free to comment, and join the interactive discussion on Google +
