I am only 2 weeks into this game and so far I find myself not wanting to play it as much as I would in games like Everquest, Ultima Online, Skyrim and Diablo. I remember the days back when I was playing Everquest 1&2, everyday I was so eager to get off work as early as possible so that I could rush home to play them. GW2 does not make me want to do that.
1) The graphics
It is very cartoonish and everything looks so colorful and bright. All characters look like some out of proportion Japanese animated prince and princess. Arts is very subjective and everything come down to matter of personal taste. So it is neither good nor bad. I just need some time getting use to it.
2) The controls
I spent the first 10 days in this game trying to figure out the best key binds for moving around and combating. Since combats are usually fast, everything can come and go in split seconds, I can no longer do it the old ways by clicking icons on the screen with the cursor. For a fast action MMO, it could be a real challenge for me since there are just way too many keys I need to worry about. It can be quite frustrating at time and I find this part of the game… not fun at all.
3) Combats
10 days into the game, playing about 2 hours per day, I am now OK with my key bindings and I can fnally put that aside and start to actually enjoy the game. Combat in general is quite easy. For any monsters close to your level, you can just stand still face tank with auto attack and win. For anything higher than your level or an event mini boss, you just die. However, there are still ways to defeat them. If it is a one on one battle, I can just auto attack while running around the monster circling very close to his body and win. This method works like 100% of every battle with a red named monster. But the first 30-50 battles were like: cool~~~ after doing it the exact same way for a 100 times… things start to get a little… hmmm…
4) Rewards
I can not get anything that I can use for the first 12 levels. Every pieces of armor and weapon I got form mob kills are not useable by my class. When it takes a bit too long to take down mobs and things are getting a little dull, I bought full upgrades from the trading post and I keep wanting to do that. It is like, I am not killing monsters for gears and upgrades, I am killing them for coppers and silvers to spend on the trading post for stuff I want. The basic idea behind RGP is somehow twisted here. It does not feel right and it does not feel rewarding. As a result, it is not fun.
5) Questing
Personal quest is a very innovative idea in MMO. I enjoy playing this part of the game very much. A job well done here. However, the rest of the generic public quests are just the same thing over and over with different location and theme. Pick up those apples on the field, pick up them branches, gather me some grapes… and the dynamic quests are the same thing keep repeating endlessly, protect this wagon from 10 waves of bandits and monsters… bamb bamb bamb… big skill spamming feast one after another, no plan no tactic no feeling of excitement and no feeling of accomplishment.
I can not complaint too much for a buy to play no monthly fee game. It is just that I read so many overwhelmingly good reviews about it, the angry jo reviews was the trigger point for me to buy it, people keep saying GW2 is the next generation of MMO, the graphic is stunningly beautiful, the ideas are so fresh and innovative etc etc etc… well… maybe it is true for some… but just not me.