Guild Wars 2

I have to say Arena Net have done a fantastic job of making a massively multi-player online Diablo. I’m not sure why everyone wants to compare this game to WoW or GW1 when it obviously has more in common with Diablo games than either. You know what Diablo doesn’t have? Dedicated healers, or mounts. Oh and what about dungeons with the same layout but sometimes…guess what, different mobs? Sound familiar? What about waypoints, which of the three has those? Have you gotten your Magic Find gear-set put together yet? I have.

I’m not even hating, I love it. GW2 is my new Diablo.

As for an MMORPG though, I’m still waiting for another SWG, with player cities, open world PvP… let’s just say an actual sandbox. But for what it is, which I think a lot of people still have a misconception of, I think it’s great.

That seems to be exactly what this game is, an MMOARPG. But the weird part is that loot isn’t really emphasized in this ARPG as much as others.

The only thing which reminds me of that game is the awful state dungeons are in now, but here the junk mobs take even longer than in D3. I hope they will ever make it more of a skill based experience than a grind based experience.

It does in a very small way remind me of the Diablo Series. Which, GW1 didn’t for some reason… I wonder what it is about GW2…

Fox.1054:

The only thing which reminds me of that game is the awful state dungeons are in now, but here the junk mobs take even longer than in D3. I hope they will ever make it more of a skill based experience than a grind based experience.

Did someone refer to Diablo III? Diablo III is a kitten terrible game, but it was made by the same people who created World of Warcraft so no big surprise there, but in general GW2 does share a bit of the Diablo series in a whole. Besides WoWablo III

Failsociety.4569:

It does in a very small way remind me of the Diablo Series. Which, GW1 didn’t for some reason… I wonder what it is about GW2…

GW2 certainly moved farther towards ARPG for me. I’ve played GW1 enough to beat every campaign, as much as I’ve played every Diablo, or whatever other ARPG out there, even Darkspore… GW2’s more action based combat, the way attacks can fire and miss out of range, hit other targets that are in front of your target, combined with everything else I mentioned in my OP, definitely comes close to ARPG. Also, the classes with set weapons they can use, limited pool of abilities into the other slots, and the trait system also just feel more ARPG to me. Then there is the lack of other things.

The combat really does feel close to an ARPG. It’s one of my favorite things about this game.

But will it stand the test of time? Anet choosing for instant gratification combat rather than strategy based combat is in my opinion not the best way to prolong the lifespan of your game.

Having played Diablo III, WoW, GW1, and now GW2 I can say I wholeheartedly disagree with your statement. Combat is more “actiony” in the sense that they added instant weapon-switching and the evade mechanic available to every class. This is where the similarities end between D3 and GW2 though. The crafting system in this game is almost identical to the one in WoW. The map layout and waypoint system also very closely resembles WoW. The way gear works in this game with light/medium/heavy armor instead of profession specific is again, much like WoW. Having unique vendors in leveling areas, portals to different cities, mail and auction house system, “glancing” on higher level mobs, etc. are all elements that did not exist in the original GW but exist in WoW.

That’s not to say that this game doesn’t have any similarities to GW. Many of the professions remain the same and function similarly. Mesmer plays completely different, there is no monk, and you cannot have two professions. But still, they brought these professions at their core from GW1 and I wouldn’t be surprised if they brought back more in upcoming expansions. sPvP is about the same as in GW. Everyone has the same access to gear and skills so it relies completely on your build and your overall skill rather than gear grind. WvW is a completely different story.

Overall, when I play this game I feel it’s a lot more like WoW than the original GW or D3. The overall layout of Diablo is completely different and isn’t meant to play like an MMO. It makes sense that the game would play more like an MMO…because it is.

bgvortex.7483:

Having played Diablo III, WoW, GW1, and now GW2 I can say I wholeheartedly disagree with your statement. Combat is more “actiony” in the sense that they added instant weapon-switching and the evade mechanic available to every class. This is where the similarities end between D3 and GW2 though.

You can fire off attacks out of range or whenever you please. Those attacks will simply miss. Or attacks such as ranged attacks will hit enemies in front of your target. Perhaps it ends there. But I’ll agree to disagree. The sole way to travel relying on waypoints instead of mounts, flying mounts, flying ships or whatever was in WoW is definitely more similar to an ARPG than WoW. But I’m also to lazy to break down your whole post into sections to reply to each point. The GW1 classes may be there in spirit, but gone are the dual-classing, plethora of skills, builds that revolved around an elite skill that recharged in seconds, and so much more that is nothing like what we have in GW2, where your main skill is almost always that first attack on your weapon set.

I agree completely that the overall feel of the game is a huge departure from GW1. While “Build Wars” was the game I loved for that reason – GW2 is more action oriented as you say. Combat is for sure a lot more action oriented in this game rather than tactic oriented. I don’t think that reason alone makes it a fair comparison to Diablo though. Waypoints exist in WoW – there just is no way to instant travel. There are purchasable means of transport to get to these waypoints just like GW2. That’s what I meant by that specific point.