Guild Wars 2

Humor’s Review (thus far)

First off, I’d like to say good job ArenaNet, for trying new things with your game, and to many it has succeeded, and to quite a few players, it’s just become another “Retail” game they’ve picked up, and put down after they’ve reached the end.

Secondly, I’d like to say this right away. This is my own personal views on what Guild Wars 2 is to me, and in no way should represent what anyone else thinks of Guild Wars 2. At the end of each section are my thoughts in Short. If you’d feel like skipping through. It is a long post…

Character Customization

I can honestly say I was impressed to an “extent”. I felt the character customization was well done, the races all had their own unique and distinct look, and whether you like it or not, you’ll probably never see these races in another game, except maybe a Norn, and a Human, everything else is completely diffferent, and I love it.

The variety of Hairstyles, and a slider to control your characters height, and given a good option of body types was more then enough to make your character stand out from the rest, that is for sure, but could your character really stand out from possibly millions of others? Of course not. Given the amount of customization options, and the variety of different features, I could only say there’s a “select” few faces, hairstyles, and body types you’ll see a good majority of the population actually using, thus, giving us so many options to play around with feels almost obsolete. I have yet to see a plump round, and or fat Human, Norn, Sylvari, run around. As difficult as it may be to believe, not too many people enjoy using the “fat” options, and well the Asura, I don’t think there is actually a possible way to make a little round one.

It’s difficult to believe that a Human’s hairstyle couldn’t be bright red, more less brunette, I was sad to see the color palette options for some of the races, the Human in particular is an almost instant killer if I can’t choose a good shade of red, that actually looks more red then not. I really can’t say I understood the option to give other races loads of colors to play around with, however, when it comes to a Human, and Norn, “You’re either blond, black, or brown” for the most part. It definitely wouldn’t have killed ArenaNet to throw in some colors to play around with.

The races in this game are just well done, it’s nice to see Norn are ten times the size of everyone else, and actually have their racial “role” input into the game. I can’t speak much for the humans as they are incredibly generic for every game out there which isn’t bad. Now, let’s talk about the other races. The other races I have yet to see in any other game out there. Of course I speak of the Asura, Charr, And Sylvari.
The Asura I can say honestly didn’t impress me much, it’s an interesting character design, and it’s nice to see something other then Dwarves. I am just incredibly disappointed with the lack of customization with this race. It’s a little harsh to say I know, but this race feels completely rushed, why is it there is absolutely next to no customization for this race? One page of hairstyles, the colors aren’t too bad, that’s “if” you can find a hairstyle you like with your Asura, and it feels almost as if the female, and male genders are two different races all in itself. The male Asura are just disgusting, the face options are horrid, anyway you want to look at it, you’re basically making a mortified version of Stitch from “Leelo and Stitch” with no fur. It’s the closest thing I could compare the males customization to. Switching over to the female Asura, they look like cute mice with no fur. All their faces are completely different from what the males faces look like. The females faces, most of them look like they just belong, so why is it, the Asura male faces look so… “destroyed” is the word I want to use. I was definitely not impressed with the Asura customization at all.

The Charr, ah, who could forget those lovable creatures from the first Guild Wars, and in the back of your minds you thought to yourself, “I wish they’d come out with a Charr character creation already”, and 3 expansions later, all we get was Norn. Finally the time has come to sink your teeth into being one of the most desirable creatures in Guild Wars, the Charr. I can honestly say I am actually impressed with how the Charr was thought out, and presented within Guild Wars 2. The Charr seem to have the most customization out of every race in the entire game, which is a bonus… If you like playing as a Charr. Colors, sliders, features on the Charr are incredible, and almost gives me the feeling that this was the race they worked with the most. This is exactly the type of customization options that every other race deserved, yet, no other race received so much as Face Paint, or tattoo’s, which is disappointing. I love how you’re almost immediately able to pick out a Female Charr, from a Male Charr, (except the one in the story which looked awfully brutish).

Finally, the race I have personally awaited for a while ever since hearing about it, the Sylvari. This is by far the newest, and most interesting race I have ever seen. I remember seeing a Dev video, on the artist who was working with the Sylvari Race, and how at first she wanted to make an Elven like race, but then instead, scrapped the whole Elvish feeling (kind of), and turned the entire race into plants. I was so incredibly amazed at the concept art, and idea’s that were floating around the mind of the artist. This race is unlike anything I can say I’ve ever seen in any other game out there. This race has the “Elvish” feel to it, and many might say it’s just a “Glorified Elven Race”, which is true I suppose. But the way the armor, weapons, and looks of the Sylvari are just well done. I did however feel a lack of customization with this race too, and the Sylvari kind of felt rushed, of course, not as much as the Asura, but, the options felt a little too limited for what the race should have been. I’m not to sure why the customization could not have been more like the Charr’s, the Sylvari could have seen some Vine features, decals, roots, etc. something more along the line of what the Charr customization would have been better. I’d have to say the absolutely favorite attribute of the Sylvari, would be glowing in the dark, a real nice touch to a brand new race.

I felt the overall customization was great, gave me a good amount to play with, but to someone like myself, customization is almost what sells games for me now a days, at least Mmorpg wise. I don’t feel the need to look like tons of other players out there, and in this current day and age, I don’t feel anyone has an excuse to limit their customization, not after what Aion has thrown out there. I won’t get too much into it considering it’s an entirely different game, but, having more sliders for to play around with would be much more to my liking, and some others likings as well. It’s funny to just see some of the absurd, and messed up characters out there in other games, and it’s nice to have those entertaining people who make their character incredibly skinny, or just incredibly small and large. Brings a smile to my face when I see characters like that just going all out in PvP.

Long Story Short

• Humans, and Norns felt way too bland
• Asura had absolutely dreadful customization
• Charr had by far the best customization
• Sylvari felt like more could have been added to customization
• Overall didn’t mind the character customization, but could have been so, so much better then what it is

Gameplay and Visuals

The artistic feeling of Guild Wars 2 was done very, very well done. A round of applause, and a pat on the back should be given to the ArenaNet team. I absolutely adore your artwork, everything looks amazing, and I’ll never get bored at looking at one structure, piece of environment, or just my surroundings in general. Everywhere I look, it feel as if the environment is moving, and or changing around me. From birds, to butterflies, no matter which direction you look, there is always something entertaining to look at.

The designs on some of the monsters are decent too. I think some of the creatures such as the dragons took some very well thought out designing to do. However… it does get rather boring seeing the same creatures, over, and over, again. Even if you paint a monster a different color, toss in one skill here or there, the fact still remains, it’s the same monster no matter how many coats of paint you give it. Which brings me to the undead monsters. Honestly, the designs on the undead were “kind” of thought out well, but, you didn’t so much as slap a new coat on the undead. It’s all the same looking, and later on in the ending area’s, I don’t even know how you even want to stay in the zone for longer then 30 minutes without feeling bored of looking at the same rotting, walking corpses over, and over. The undead I feel were very poorly thought out with their design. At first when you meet the undead in the game (first time), you get the feeling “oh Yay! Zombie mode!”. But everyone and their dog now a days with game uses zombies, hell, Call Of Duty is the perfect example, a first person shooter, turned into nothing more then Zombies, and quite frankly, I’m tired of seeing the undead already. It’s all I’ve been seeing for the past 20 levels already and not one of them looks remotely different from what they used to be. For example, the Sylvari race, near “Morgans Spiral” doing the two events near it, waves of zombies, and escorting Alexx, you pretty much see every type of Zombie the game has to offer right then and there. You see a risen Hylek, you see Abominations, and you see the normal, and very dull Undead. I don’t think I’ve seen anything different in the undead other then those three types of undead, and maybe the “Bone Spines” if you’d count those as being undead…

Other monsters visually look great, the Centaur are well done, there’s no, or seems to be no animation issues of what you’d expect a man crossed with a horse to look like, it’s not to see they’re galloping around, and heck, you even went so far as to throw in some white, and brown spots on some of the Centaur. I am also very glad you’ve made different genders of this race as well, it seems like they’re not overly used in Guild Wars 2, however, you did well, on making them not incredibly boring to look at while you’re bashing their heads in.

Recycled monsters from Guild Wars, such as the Scales, Drakes, Moa’s, etc. Are well done as well. It’s nice to see you’ve added some changed to the previous monsters you’ve had in your first game, and didn’t just say “You know what? There, monster finished!”, and threw it into the game. It feels as if you actually went back, looked at the designs, and changed around the monsters appearance, skills, etc. I can’t say I’ve played the Guild Wars expansions to the end, so, I am not too sure if you’ve had the phasing/stealth Scale in the previous game. But, I love that monster, it shows me, you’ve added in the Scales back into your games, not only as just the normal ones, but you’ve given these creatures some style, and almost as if they have a completely different feel to them, then the original Scales, absolutely love it.

Dynamic Events… At first these were just awesome, when the population in the lower leveled area’s were just filled to the max, I miss those days about a month ago, where you’d see hundreds of players just doing the same event, and watching the difficulty scale so that everyone was, or looked like they were working together, and it was nice seeing that events went from one state to another. As time progresses though, you begin to feel like the events aren’t so “Dynamic” anymore, and just events that reoccur every 5-10 minutes, which I guess is fine, I have no complaints about any of them I still run around and do them for the fun, experience, money, and Karma. But, looking back, at the video’s, and how they explained dynamic events, and how continuous things would just keep happening, I suppose I now realize, well, did back then too, that it has to end somewhere, I just expected every event to have some kind of “chain” to link to it. I am thoroughly impressed with how the Dynamic events are played out, I do however hope that ArenaNet makes some changes, and “Special” events during special occasions. I don’t wish to see the same events all the time, and it feels like there needs to be more incentive going back into the lower level area’s just to do the same dynamic events, over, and over. It would be nice to see ArenaNet completely scrap every Dynamic Event in every map we know, and just create brand new ones entirely, of course, the amount it would cost, and the time it would take to do it, I do think everyone in Guild Wars 2 would be pleased to see something along those lines, where going back is actually fun, because new and interesting things keep happening. I do not wish Guild Wars 2 to see the same fate as every other game where ALL The content is just added for high levels, and the max levels, that is just stupid business, and encourages absolutely no one to pick up the game, and or start a new character period. Keep all the area’s different say every month to two months, and it’s almost guaranteed the game will stay alive.

Finally, the storyline. I love the storyline in Guild Wars, and loving the storyline in Guild Wars 2. The time and effort spent with all the voice acting, cinematics, etc, was just outstanding in my eyes. The personal storyline, and being able to pick your story was just so much fun, but all good things must come to an end. I don’t know why the personal story is intertwined with the "Main’ story, from my understanding everyone’s personal story was supposed to be completely different, yet, like mentioned in another topic on the forums, after level 40, you’re finished your personal story, and you’re off saving the world with everyone else. I get the point of the game obviously is to “Save Tyria, and slay the Dragons” with all the other races, but why should this directly effect my personal story, and why should my personal story come to an end? In my opinion, your personal story, and “Main” story should have been kept different all together. Your personal story could have been going through the orders, doing missions, side missions, finding someone you “Love”, etc. Saving the world doesn’t really apply to a personal story at all. You’re doing the same thing everyone else is doing after level 40. Also notice the same voices being used over again through cinema’s for lesser significant characters, the voice acting just got sloppy, and shoddy. It almost felt as is everything just fell apart after level 40. I’m doing exactly what a linear game is telling me to do now. I have no choices, no options, no freedom to do anything about my personal story after level 40. The story is good, but… I believe they could have kept the two, Personal, and Main story different from one another, to make the game that much more interesting.

I hate to complain too much, just a personal review, but, the cinema’s when talking to others in the story was just done bad… I don’t mean the voice acting(kind of this), the art, etc was bad. I just meant the characters aren’t showing any emotion, and majority of the time the background is exactly the same depending on which area you’re in. It doesn’t feel like ArenaNet has tried to convince me too much that the characters actually have emotion whatsoever. They all stand there with their arms down, moving their heads side to side, maybe raising their arm a little, no facial expressions, overall it was just a bad experience. I can’t even say through the voice acting did it give any emotion. When Trahearne or whatever his name was is giving the speech in the future vision, he doesn’t sound as enthusiastic as he really should. He should be shouting at the top of his lungs, trying to boost morale, but, at most he’s just using a “kind” of loud indoor voice. Sorry to say it, but there’s absolutely no emotion in the story at all. I wish they would have tried harder, with the cinema’s, and voice acting. It in a way kind of kills the story. Sure, voice acting is nice and all, but just like a movie, if it’s not convincing, you might as well have just gave me the text to read, and or skip.

Long Story Short

• Love the art Style of Guild Wars 2
• Undead is way too plain, feels like you didn’t event try, I’ve seen all the monsters at level 5 the undead has to show me.
• Great design on the recycled monsters from Guild Wars 1, added new skills, new looks.
• Dynamic Events are still fun to do, but they feel like more “Reoccurring” now, then anything new. Change up events every month or two on EVERY Map.
• Storyline is good, but after level 40 becomes a bit boring having separated from your personal story.
• Feels like next to no effort was put into giving the Cinema’s Emotion, or feeling.

I suppose that just about sums up my “Review”. If any dared to read, hope you enjoyed. Feel free to leave thoughts, and comments.

A few comments. One, I have a human and a norn with red hair; not sure what you’re talking about with limited options on that color. Also, norn have tattoos. One feature of character customization that you didn’t mention is the dye system. I have yet to see two of the same character when you include this feature. Heck, I have yet to see two of the same character regardless! It’s definately not as robust as Aion, but overall I’m pretty happy with the options given so far.

Regarding dynamic events, I prefer them now as the population in zones has thinned out somewhat. Closer to launch they were just one big zerg and I’d be lucky to actually hit anything before the mobs died in a cloud of massive AOE. At least now I’m finding these events somewhat more challenging. I didn’t think the events scaled well with larger groups; or, if they did, didn’t scale quick enough to offset the power of the zerg.

Nicely written, Humor.

I have mixed opinions on the “cinematic” dialogues. They were interesting at first, but the more I see of it, the more I find myself wishing for something a bit more substantial. That said, I consider it a minor shrug-worthy point at most, and I think the voice-acting is quite good.

Dynamic Events do have mini-story chains, depending on whether the initial event succeeds or fails. These are relatively simple, straightforward affairs, but they do exist. Here, too, I like the idea and find most events fun, but the whole “changing world” thing that was touted in advertising and asked about in beta weekends is very transient, at best. Makes things seem ultimately inconsequential, and some of the “decisions” you make in the story suffer from the same ho-hum sense. No matter what you do (or don’t do), everything comes out in the wash.