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ArenaNet, a subsidiary of NCsoft best known for publishing a slew of traditional Massively Muliplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG) such as City of Heroes and Lineage series, was founded by some of the great minds behind Blizzard’s highly successful Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo franchises. In addition, they also have some of the founding fathers of Battle.Net on board. To say they are talented team is an understatement. "So what’s this Guild Wars all about", you’re wondering. Why should I pour my money and time into this game, you ask.
What is Guild Wars? Immediately, I can tell you Guild Wars is not a traditional MMORPG. So if Guild Wars is not an MMORPG, what is it? Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, classifies Guild Wars as a Competitive Online Role Playing Game (CORPG). Several key differences which set this game apart from other MMORPGs are: • The level cap is 20. The technology behind the game
Before I progress any further, it may be a good idea to review some of the system requirements for Guild Wars. Minimum System Specs: Recommended System
Specs:
The system requirements for this game are surprisingly accurate and to a certain extent generous. ArenaNet put in the effort to ensure the largest number of gamers would be able to play. Does that mean dial up modem users can play too? Yes! During the Beta Weekend Events (BWE), I’ve played with dial up users and they had no complaints, except the downloading of regions if they have never encountered it before. Downloading of regions? You read correctly. ArenaNet prides itself with their excellent streaming technology. During BWE, players were streamed specific regions and other content as they became available. When bugs were discovered and fixed, the fixes were automatically streamed to the player when they entered the region. On occasion, the user would be prompted to exit the game and log back in as a new build of the game client was released. These clients were no larger than 1 MB. All in all a very well designed system both in theory and in practice. In retail, this streaming technology would be used to distribute fixes and content. The greatest benefit for this streamed patch system is that players will receive these fixes when they need them and are not forced to download 15 MB patches to repair bugs or add content which they have yet to see. Special events such as Christmas can be celebrated with festive ornaments or fireworks which can instantaneously appear in the world without delay. ArenaNet displayed this power on the final moments of several BWEs. Graphics and Performance
Intel Pentium 4 3.0E @ 3.2 GHz I am playing the game at 1280 x 960 @ 85 Hz and it is absolutely gorgeous looking. Vibrant colours, detailed textures and fluid animation all create a surreal world for your character to live (and sometimes unfortunately die) in. Guild Wars is very good at scaling for various machines. Those who have high end machines can really turn up the eye candy and get the full effect of great graphics. For those on the lower end of the spectrum, you will still be able to experience a great looking game without a huge set back in performance. I have seen the game run on a Pentium 3 866 MHz @ 949 MHz with an ATI Radeon 7500 @ 800 x 600 and it performs admirably. ArenaNet did a fantastic job with Guild Wars’ performance in other departments as well. It literally takes the same amount of time for me to login to the game (without patching) as it takes for me to login to my G-Mail account with Opera. Even when there are new client builds, it takes less than a minute to download and install them on my 3 Megabit cable line. Fast. Loading between regions is just as fast as logging into the game. Audio The audio side of Guild Wars is slightly less spectacular than its graphical counterpart. Despite the awesome soundtrack being used in various major towns and locales, there is nothing really out there to grab your attention and engross you into battles when you’re out questing or on a mission. Each skill or action your character makes is represented well with the sound effects. Guild Wars does a great job in delivering that satisfying “thump” when your warrior smashes that hammer into an enemy. Complimented with great sound effects, the ambience noise, such as rustling of leaves or the sound of waterfalls, adds a nice level immersion to the game. Although most of the townsfolk do not speak to you beyond the use of text bubbles, the in game cinematic does feature adequate voice acting. Gameplay As soon as you launch Guild Wars and enter the necessary info, you are presented with a character creation screen. ArenaNet allows you to make up to 4 characters per account. Personally, I believe that number is adequate, but doubling that amount to 8 characters per account, would please those who like to play with numerous builds. Along with picking a name and which type of
character you want to make (PvP or PvE; more on that later
on), Guild Wars has 6 professions to choose from including
the monk, mesmer, warrior, ranger, necromancer and elementalist.
The profession you choose while in the character creation
screen determines your character's physical appearance,
type of equipment your character will acquire, initial skills
learned and the character's primary attribute. This profession
becomes your primary profession. Within the first few hours
of the game you may end up with opportunities to obtain
a secondary profession. This secondary profession allows
your character to use skills from two separate professions
simultaneously. Unlike your primary profession, primary
attributes are not available to your secondary profession.
For example, if your character's primary profession is mesmer
then its primary attribute is "Fast Casting" which
allows your character to increase the speed in which it
casts all its spells including that of your secondary profession. Each profession has 4 to 5 sets of attributes, which categorize their set of skills. Each profession has approximately 75 skills. Thus, each character you make potentially has 150 skills to choose from. Here is where the strategy aspect of Guild Wars comes in for skills; you can only have a maximum of 8 skills at a time while in battle. This may seem severely limiting for those coming from other MMORPGs, but if you think about it, a player does not use over 8 skills on a regular basis. Taking the time to determine what you will need in battle is key! Obtaining new skills can be done through various mediums such as completing quests, learning from skill trainers or “captured” from enemy bosses. Quests and Travel
The second type of "quest", is categorized like a mission. These missions propel the overall story forward. These missions reward players with a fair amount of experience points in the end, depending if all the objectives are completed. The types of missions are very similar to those found in quests, but are usually larger in scale and/or more difficult. Within these missions the story is commonly conveyed to the user with the use of in-game cinematic and voice acting. Luckily, if a party has already seen the cinematic, they can all agree to skip it. These missions have a predetermined destination with various paths to get to it. Although, exploring is not the purpose these missions, shortcuts and bonuses can be found if one takes the time to look. For both the quests and missions, you can party with others in groups of 2 to 8 depending on the maximum number of players allowed. Once you have gathered your party, you are dropped into your own private version of the mission or area. These are known as instances which are similar to the ones found in the Diablo games. ArenaNet chose to do instances to combat the unnecessary bickering, kill stealing, spawn killing, ganking and other related issues that are found in MMORPGs where anyone can interfere with your mission and fun. Getting rid of the grind Quite possibly the most noticeable difference aside from lack of monthly fee is the lack of a heavy grind in Guild Wars when you are leveling your character. Gone are the days of slaying hundreds of monsters and spending countless hours just to reach from level 58 to level 59. In Guild Wars, leveling is relatively painless and quick compared to the other online RPGs. With a level cap of 20 (yes, twenty), players will be on the same playing field with one another within 30 hours or less. For those who do not wish go through the world of PvE and jump right into competitive PvP, they can choose to create a PvP character instead of a standard role playing one where they will be instantly level 20 with a preset number of skills. Your PvP character can expand their skills with those you unlock from your PvE character. This just proves the fact that Guild Wars is dependent on skill and not number of hours poured into your character.
Items and Equipment High quality equipment such as armor and weapons are not found by killing monsters. What you do find from monsters are mediocre weapons and other items which can be salvaged and brought to a crafter to create better equipment for yourself. Thus, in Guild Wars, there is no such thing as a unique ultimate weapon. Everyone has the opportunity to acquire the same equipment as you. So does this mean you have an army of similar looking characters? One way ArenaNet attempts to throw in individuality is through their use of color dyes. These dyes are used to change the color of your armor. It may sound trivial, but eventually you can find yourself trading pieces of valuable gold just to get that illusive silver dye. Guilds With a name like Guild Wars, it's not surprising that a guild system is in place. Players can create their own guild or join one at anytime. When you are part of a guild you have the opportunity to enter a Guild Hall where you and other guild mates can gather. On top of a guild tag attached to your name, you are identified as being part of a guild by use of a cape with your guild's insignia on it. Once you are part of a guild, the most beneficial aspect would be an opportunity to enter tournament play such as guild vs. guild battles. Enter the World of Competitive Play There are two distinct playing styles in Guild Wars. Player versus Environment (PvE) or Player versus Player. Mentioned above, is PvE where players engage in battles with computer controlled monsters. PvP is just what the name implies, you fight other players. PvP is the heart and soul of Guild Wars. The focus of the ArenaNet developers was to create the most balanced PvP game ever. In Guild Wars, PvP battles are 4 vs. 4 and up. With anything lower, such as 1 vs. 1, the balance mechanics are thrown out the window. Within PvP there are three distinct modes: Random PvP - Where you are thrown into a random party and pitted against another randomly assembled party. Your party remains intact as long as you are victorious. Guild vs. Guild - Guilds duke it out with one another for the highest ranks in the Guild Wars Ladder. World at War - International Guilds fight one another for world supremacy. There are currently three regions in the world: North American, European and Korean. Which ever guild holds the "Halls of Heroes" (i.e.: the victor of the battle), their respective region will have the opportunity to enter special areas only available when they hold the "Hall of Heroes." These unique regions have various bonuses including better equipment drops. Future for Guild Wars So without a monthly fee, how will ArenaNet continue to support Guild Wars? Well, since they are a subsidiary of NCSoft, it’s safe to say they will not just up and leave with the money within 3 month’s time. ArenaNet will continue to release expansion packs in 6 to 9 month intervals which players can choose to buy or not. These expansions may contain new regions, items, weapons, skills, classes and additional chapters to the Guild Wars story. I will use the same analogy used by others to describe these expansion packs. They are more like booster packs for a trading card game such as Magic: The Gathering. Obtaining additional booster packs does not necessarily make your character better, it just means that your character will have more options at their disposal. So what can we expect between now and the next expansion? There’s plenty to do in Guild Wars. Casual gamers will find PvE itself can take a large chunk of their playing time and once they’re finished with that the competitive world of PvP awaits them. If you do grow bored of the game though, you can easily set it aside without worrying about not playing your money’s worth. The future looks bright!
Conclusion When ArenaNet first debuted Guild Wars at E3 of 2004 and allowed users from all over the world to connect and preview the game, I knew something spectacular was born. To find an online RPG with balanced PvP is a rarity in itself, but to find an online RPG with strong PvP and PvE like Guild Wars makes this game just an arm’s length short from perfection. With no monthly fee, grind-less play, and balanced competitive play, Guild Wars has set the bar for other online RPGs to follow. Gameplay – 19/20 95/100
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