Guild Wars 2

After starting GW2 I realized just how much lore was referenced throughout the world and how much backstory I was missing from the first game. I tried reading the wiki for storylines of the first game but honestly, it’s just not the same as experiencing it.

My question is, would it be worth playing through the first game or is the system so atrociously old-school that it would be hard/painful to solo through (I wouldn’t expect to be able to finish the final bosses by myself)?

The game itself is and will be one of my favorite games of all time, as mentioned, most of the game can be done solo with henchmen and heroes. I played all the guild wars games and I still have trouble keeping up with some of the lore, but its definitely worth the time to invest in the game if you don’t want to play guild wars 2 that is. I recommend creating a ritualist and playing through factions, then nightfall, after you gather the skills and hero’s prophecies should be a breeze.

It’s worth playing through because it’s a decent, solid game despite the age. The biggest problem at the moment is the lack of other people to actually play it with, but one of the best (or worst, depending on who you ask) parts of the game is you can basically solo the wholekittenthing using heroes and henchmen if you want to.

As said above, you should play it because it’s a solid game. The story is convoluted and overpaced in some ways and less in others I’d say just to read up some good synopsis. If you want a rundown, it’s sort of like this for Tyria:

Gazilionyearsago history: Dragons. Forgotten. Creation of gods. Something like this, it’s half theorycraft, half fanstuff and measly bits of scattered mismatched official info.
Old-old-ancient history: Gods, Abbadon’s exile, creation of the world and the giving of magic.

Old-old history: The Guild Wars, Human races of Tyria fighting themselves. Charr invasion. The sinking of Orr via reading the Lost Scrolls by Vizier Khilbron. (Insert somewhat retconned Abaddon intervention here)

Old history: Charr Searing, firenuking Ascalon. Rurik leaving his father to rule a fallen kingdom, fleeing to Kryta. Undead situation in Kryta. Meeting the Mursaat/White Mantle, Scepter of Orr, Vizier Khilbron . Ascending the hero. Flameseeker Prophecies and Glint. Raiding Ring of Fire. Killing the Lich/Vizier Khilbron and nuking Titans. A bit later, offscreen, the Foefire is started and Charr kinda get charred. badpun there.

Contemporary-ish: Destiny’s Edge is formed in the arena of Lion’s Arch, they kill some dragon liutenants and come barely-close to killing Krakkaltorik. Glint dies in the process.

There’s also other stuff happening with Cantha in Guild Wars Factions with the Unwaking Temple and Shiro’s betrayal at about the same time as the other stuff’s happening in the old history, retconned Abaddon intervention again.

In Guild Wars Nightfall you basically make Kormir a God and kill Abaddon and also find out about the mischevious plots retconned in the other two games. Also, slight spoiler, but you fight the earlier game’s two bosses.. AT THE SAME TIME. Snap.

Eye of the North is basically a prologue for GW2. Before this moment, we did NOT know of any other races except Charr which were perceived as animals, Deldrimor Dwarves which were the only other real sentient race and maybe Glint as a mini-dragon. The Norn and Asura are introduced just now. The Sylvari arrive just before GW2 starts, like literally 20 years ago.

Small note about the story in GW EOTN, Asura were underground-dwelling creatures, they used the power of a sleeping dragon, Primordus, to power the Asura Gates from a central Hub, Dwarves fought against the first risen dragon liutenant.. The Great Destroyer, and use some mumbojumbo to turn their entire race into a stone-something to kill off the Great Destroyer, as that appeared to be their prophecy/destiny. Never liked that, felt just horribly not needed. Also, they stand guard and fight the Destroyers in the depths of the Earth, hoping to eventually kill Primordus.

Also Jora kills Svanir in EOTN striking up the Sons of Svanir movement.

Aaand.. i think that’s kind of it. There’s a lot to dig into, but the wiki should handle all your needs. The book/novels are not needed in the least, except Edge of Destiny which tells the story of Destiny’s Edge. A new book is coming out soon-ish, Sea of Sorrow, but no feedback on that.
Hope this has enlightened you a bit, and my memory might be joggy, so just double check all the facts i said and don’t take them for granted.