Adventures in Tyria: Guild Wars 2 Impressions

So my lovely bride, Sctrz, and I got into the Beta Weekend for Guild Wars 2 this past weekend. For various reasons we didn't actually start playing until Sunday morning, though I did mess around a little bit with the character creation appearance options on Saturday.

I must say the character creation process is pretty awesome, notwithstanding the naming issue I mentioned in my last post. Tremendous kudos to ArenaNet for enabling the seemingly impossible <space>, so I can finally have a last name for my characters. Sctrz and I both liked the customization process. After picking a race, gender, and profession(class), you start out with some basic body types and faces, which are then further customizable. So your character may resemble others, but will be somewhat unique, depending on the sliders. What we both really liked was the custom dye scheme available. I discovered toward the evening that the dye scheme carries through to new pieces of gear, but is alterable from the Hero(character) screen, so kudos again to ArenaNet.

We played three races: the Sylvari, the Norn, and the Humans. In the same order, Sctrz played a Warrior, a Mesmer, and a Thief. I played a Ranger, a Mesmer(solo), an Elementalist, and an Engineer.

Breaking the Ice

I could get a little facetious here and talk about the Sylvari as Elf stand-ins and the Asura as Dwarf/Gnome expies, but honestly they are well executed—and "Tropes are not bad." I liked that the Sylvari are not portrayed as "all Life is sacred" tree-huggers. One of the first quests we encountered involved killing fireflies simply to collect their glow powder, or some such. I'll admit, I didn't like the Sylvari starting area very much, but this can be attributable the learning curve I encountered at the start of the game. I wasn't that fond of the ranger, either; perhaps for the same reason.

The Norn are basically giant Vikings, much like the Vrykul in WoW. That is not a mark against them, by any means, just an observation. My Mesmer and Elementalist were both Norn, and I am intrigued by the mechanics of both. The Mesmer was the one I had naming issues with, as I mentioned in my last post. I do wish I could have picked the branch of Elementalism I would focus on right from the beginning. I thought I had done that in the character creation process, but then my first abilities were Fire- and Water-based. (This is assuming "Air" means "Lightning" which may not be the case.) I would play either of those professions again, though.

Overall, and admittedly we didn't not get far into either story, the Norn and the Sylvari were not very engaging. The Sylvari area, in particular, seemed very chaotic. The Norn didn't seem to have anything significant going on.

Picking up Speed

My original intent this weekend was only to play the game for an hour or two, besides character creation; and if that had actually occurred, I would not be writing this much about it. But Sctrz kept wanting to try something different, so we ended up trying the humans. And this is where the fun really began for us. Both of us agree that the professions we picked for our humans were our favorites of the few we'd tried. Sctrz picked Thief, and I decided to try an Engineer. I definitely settled on my main profession after launch. There's just something about the use of firearms that I like. Sctrz seems to have picked hers, as well.

We became much more involved in the story of the Humans right from the beginning, which involves a crisis in the kingdom. I am wondering whether the story, as it progresses, reflects the choices I made at character creation; for instance, whether I am of noble or common birth. Sctrz thinks that it does. That sense of purpose we got from the story quests in Kryta(?) carried us through for most of Sunday evening.

Talking Points

     Dislikes:

• Initially, both Sctrz and I both had issues with the process of quest completion. There is simply a bar instead a specified set of tasks.
• I also did not like that there seemed to be little benefit to grouping. That is to say, we received no group completion on quests that were individualized ("Heart" quests), and Event quests did not require grouping to complete. That left the story quests; which, while achievable together, always left one or the other of us out of the cutscenes and dialogues.
• As I said earlier, I found the non-story quests in the Sylvari and Norn areas unengaging, and didn't experience very much of the story quests. Looking back, I realize that the different race stories ran in easily identifiable patterns.

     Trifles:

• I wish my character would turn with the right mouse button. While the camera does turn, it is just like turning the camera with the left mouse button. I have to move to reorient my character.
• Related to the last, the characters refuse to stand still it seems, and that makes for crappy portraits. The above picture of Kerlanda and Hazel was the best one I got. It was like child photography.

     Neutral Observations:

• I was pleasantly surprised that the content was not as difficult to complete as I had supposed. I was led to believe that soloing "at level" was inadvisable. I found this not to be the case. In fact, grouped with Sctrz, we were able to finish story quests a couple levels above us. Now, some of the event quests might be a problem as a soloist could be quickly overwhelmed, but I personally did not find this an unpleasant situation. I am curious how these events will play out as player populations thin out in some areas.
• The moment-to-moment combat is interesting, and the skill progression is promising. I put this under neutral because I don't find the system outstanding, but I have no issues with it.
• The self heal takes some getting used to. I am usually a healing class, and left a tad rudderless by this lack of the unholy trinity, despite having railed against it for so long.
• I will need to read up on the various cultures in order to come up with fitting names for my characters, as anyone who reads me regularly knows is of utmost importance.

     Likes:

• Big like for both Sctrz and me is the aforementioned character customization. The clothing/gear system is a little different than TSW's, but the free(?) dying process at the beginning and in the middle of gameplay is phenomenal. I really liked the way my new pieces automatically fit my preferred color scheme. You will only look like a clown in GW2 if you choose to.
• Sctrz felt that the various worlds were plenty immersive. I was not quite as impressed, but the scenery is very well done.
• The characters themselves are beautifully rendered.
• I really liked the Engineer, very steampunk—or maybe clockpunk. I spent some skill points on a machine-gun turret that looked really cool. Sctrz seemed happy with her thief.
• The way the cutscenes play is an interesting change, though I understand it is inspired by older adventure games.
• Some of the choices made at character creation play into NPC interactions in a way that I didn't realize it would initially, which is pretty cool.
• [EDIT] I was just reminded of another like: Groups stay grouped through logouts and even across characters. This meant that Sctrz and I were still grouped even after creating brand new characters. Very nice.

In Sctrz' Words

Paraphrasing where needed, but this is basically Sctrz' personal observation:

Once I got used to the questing, I felt involved in the story more, and understood the "events" and how they worked as opposed to the "heart" quests. I liked that I got mail once something was completed. That was the signal that it was done, and I didn't have to run all over turning stuff in.  Area quests were triggered, that was good. It helped you remain in the "circle of things." And the heart quests were numbered by level. Once I realized that, it helped me plan out our path.

My Own Conclusions

People talk about The Secret World not holding your hand. Guild Wars 2 holds your hand even less. I don't know if it's because I am a seasoned veteran of MMOs, used to certain methods of questing, but there seems to be a bit of a learning curve on that front, that may be impenetrable to a brand new MMO gamer. Having said that, Sctrz and I had adjusted our expectations of questing and the world within a few hours of play on the first day, so maybe the learning curve is not too steep. The first area we tried seemed very chaotic to me, and the second not enough. The human area seemed just right, but by then we were getting the hang of things, and had roled professions we really enjoyed, so that may have had something to do with it.

While I had fun playing this weekend, and fully intended to play for only a couple hours, just to get a feel for Guild Wars 2, Sctrz really jumped into the game whole hog, very interested in playing all day. She had initially agreed that we would only need to play a couple hours. I'm glad we did play more, because the third and last area we played turned out to be the most fun.

In the end, GW2 did not grab me the way TSW, SWTOR, STO, Rift and WoW all did. I might get GW2 near launch if it were up to me alone. Sctrz, on the other hand, was caught up in it hook, line, and sinker. I have a feeling we'll be playing again as soon as possible, and loving every minute.