Guild Wars Review by Hekutaa

• Author: Hekutaa
• Last Updated: June 4th, 2011

Warning: This review is copyright of the review author listed above and reprinted by permission by ggFTW. This review may not be reprinted on any other site without express written permission from the review author. Game elements are copyrights of their respective developer and publisher.

Guild Wars is a fantasy MMORPG that takes place in the world of Tyria, where six regions-–and the guilds within them-–are eager to help you get started on your journey. Although Guild Wars is not a free MMO, it boasts fantastic graphics, an immense amount of character customization, and an intense and balanced PvP experience.

Guild Wars plays like a standard 3D MMO, with the area surrounding the character acting like a sandbox. You can move your character by either with the click of a mouse, or using the arrow keys to move you character. Fighting enemies involves clicking the opponent and letting your character do the rest. You can use acquired skills via usage of a skill bar (you can have 8 skills on at one time).

What Guild Wars features, unlike some other MMOs, features a "Weapon set," a system that allows players to swap weapons, shields, and other off-hand weapons by the simple press of a button. This little feature allows a great freedom to a player, because it does not limit them to one weapon, but allows the player to play with the multiple effects of different weapons to augment their skills.

The jobs (called "professions" in-game) of Guild Wars feature 10 different classes, ranging from the standard warrior to the Mesmer, a job class that focuses on weakening its opponents' stats rather than using brute force to defeat it. The uniqueness of Guild Wars comes from its wide pool of skills within one job class. The warrior class, for instance, contains five different skill branches. The primary skill tree, "strength," gives any warrior fundamental skills that allow them to smite their opponents and keep themselves alive. The other skill trees focus upon more specific uses, for there exists a separate skill tree for axe-only skills, sword-only skills, etc. Guild Wars does a fantastic job with its classes, mainly because it allows characters of the same job class to have more noticeable differences in skills, rather than have every single warrior be a carbon copy of one another in terms of skills.

There is a very good reason why this game is called Guild Wars. GvG and PvP are one of the most defining aspects of the game. The game allows a PvP-only character, which automatically maxes the level of the character and allows them to completely skip leveling up at the cost of no PvE combat (Those who made a PvE character can level up and enter PvP and PvE freely) The skills of all the classes have been weakened greatly (some skills are not even usable in PvP) to make for completely balanced and fair combat. In GvG, guilds will simply be at war. In this case, one must know their character from head to toe; in GvG, the guild who suffers even a single causality will find that their efforts to fight back are significantly addled. This causes a massive learning curve, for one must take into account the team itself and the tendencies of the actual players behind them to create a flowing strategy.

However, although there are many, many good aspects of Guild Wars, one problem stands out the most: The cost of the game itself. The game itself costs anywhere from $35 - $40 USD, which may turn some away who simply wish to play for free or simply want to try out the game. Guild Wars is truly an exceptional game. The amount of depth one can place in their character, to the balanced and fast-paced PvP, Guild Wars is definitely worth the pretty penny.