Guild Wars 2 – Review

The new challenger on the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) market arrived with a lot to live up to. With Guild Wars 2’s refreshing take on the genre it managed to gain a large following quite quickly.

A new threat has emerged in the world of Tyria: elder dragons and the undead, along with: bandits, rogue factions and even natural disasters. You are a hero of one of five races: Human, Charr (Feline people), Norn (large Nords), Asura (Short elves) and the Sylvari (plant people) that have to banded together to survive.

Compared to World of Warcraft this game has a few interesting takes on the genre, most significant of them all are the dynamic events that occur at random in the game. These events can not only have consequences to the game world, but also have chain events that unfold as the game progresses, and by providing fresh content throughout and after levelling, Guild Wars 2 fully immerses players and provides an ever changing experience.

The new spell mechanics with 5 utility spells of choice and 5 weapon spells allows for interesting gameplay with frequent weapon changes and tactics in combat. The limited, longer cool down spells means more thought has to go into the choice of spells for different situations compared to the large list of spells that the clutter of MMORPGs out there often provide. Bringing dodging and self-healing to PVP creates a more engaging experience.

There are a few shortcomings, notably the lack of endgame player versus environment content and server troubles, but this isn’t surprising for a new MMORPG.

The question is: with fresh mechanics, dynamic events, fulfilling PVP, impressive graphics and a beautiful score by the genius Jeremy Soule, will this game survive long enough? I hope so.