Guild Wars 2 - 3 Day Trial Experience (Warning! Long post and lots of Pictures)

He has no idea really

I've been always wondering what's the fuss about this MMO, Guild Wars 2? What's so fascinating or how it will make me play and stay, maybe because I've seen too much recycled/facelifted MMOs. There comes a game I like... subscription based. There's a free to play game... not so free to play after all. A lot of things can discourage me play a certain MMO. Here I will try to give you people a review of what I have experienced on that 3 day span though I may not be able tackle all the aspects of the game.

I've been eyeing on Guild Wars 2 since beta. I watched videos, looked for screenshots, and read reviews. The interest and urge to play it is there but the hindrance is GW2 being Buy to Play and questions such as, "Is it worth the time and money?", "Does it have a long lifespan?" or "Will it get repetitive and boring?" keep on bugging me. If only I had a chance to at least try it.

THEN, there did came a time I get to try it. Thanks to Arenanet, existing users can invite 3 friends to try the game for 3 days (November 15 - 18). Special thanks to Jazzy (Celesica in GW2) for providing an invite which actually was intended for my other friend who will actually buy the game.

So me and my friend downloaded the client like crazy. Been thinking what character should we make or what should we do once we step in the world of GW2.

Yeah we mean it

And so the day came we were like waiting for New Year since the trial starts at 1:00AM at our time (GMT+8)

Then, World selection.

Blackgate... the gate there must be black.

Then character creation... call me a perv but seriously I was hoping there was something like "boob" customization LOL. GW2 has a wide array of customization but not as wide as the other MMOs I've seen, but nevertheless they have nice presets. They also have this background personality which they say will affect your personal story line, yes you have your own story line in GW2, ain't that neat? There are 5 races and 8 different classes which you can mix and match. I googled up information about them before actually making a character and it appears that there are some skills that are only available for a certain race and that in GW2 they broke the tradition, Holy Trinity of MMOs - The Tank, Healer, and Damage Dealer which means you can be what you want on a certain class and race.

I was a Ranger Mesmer at GW1 back then :3

No, I'm not going to name my character mask3db!atch69

After character creation you'll come across with a well made cinematic (which you will experience all through out the game), which is based on the details you provided in your character creation. I've never seen such an MMO "THIS" detailed when it comes to the Lore department, it's like you're playing Skyrim or Dragon Age as such and it excites me to play already. I strongly recommend to NOT to SKIP cinematics and NPC to Player conversations.

And finally, Inside the game. Honestly I thought the Sylvari I saw there were actual players but not. NPCs here are alive and not just those in other MMOs where they stand there all the time and say the same things. NPCs actually converse with each other which is neat. I strongly suggest that once in a while you eavesdrop their conversations because some of them either prove to be informative or downright humorous.

Mesmerizing Mesmer :D

At first I thought they were ACTUAL players

At first I didn't what to enter combat that early, I had to see someone do the thing first before I try it. The combat is somewhat same as this-that-should-not-be-named famous MMO but with a mix of action combat which somehow same as this-that-should-not-be-named-MMO-about-dragons. Oh I forgot, NPCs here also fight hostiles whenever they come in contact just like in that... oh nevermind.

Too bad I failed to take a screenshot of this combat

NPC conversation cutscene after combat with that plant dragon...

Don't react... you were born naked, aren't you?

Boromir... is that you?

Wait what? That was only a primer? Well I was thinking it could be a sign of great things to come for me in this MMO. So I'm at this place called Caledon Forest, my first impulse was to explore the surroundings whereas my friend who's from another race and place (He created a Human Warrior) was to level up. To be honest again, I really don't have an idea where to start exploring so I just ran around in random and combat occasionally. First I had to check out my character and its skills.

Equipment window is neat and tidy, showing on the left side are character statistics and on the right are the equipment your character is allowed to wear. Oh I almost forgot, you can further customize your character appearance through the use of dyes, some colors are not available though but you can look for them in the world .

One of the most important things here are the skills, there are weapon skills and slot skills and traits which seems like stats with added effects on skills as I have read. Skills you can use differ depending on what weapon you plan to use. You can also mix and match your main hand and offhand and later swap between your weapon sets in actual combat. Skills also differ when underwater, yup... underwater.

My personal storyline info

So I ventured further into the game and came across a body of deep water and tried to take a dip to see I can swim there and I do can swim. I tried swimming below and to my surprise I got attacked. Yeah, underwater combat really do exist here in GW2. I'm looking forward to GW2 having AERIAL combat, *wink* *wink* ArenaNet *wink* *wink*.

Aaahh.... I hope someone or something doesn't pull my leg below... NOT!

Eeeeep! Don't look!

Taste my spear!

So after that I surfaced to this place called Morgan's Spiral and saw a few people flocking about and to my surprise again... Encounter!

This guy sure is tough

There's no such thing as Kill Steal here, only participation. You participate well in any way... you are rewarded. That's one of the things I've been looking for an MMO

If you are wondering why lots of people are ganging up on a single boss, it is because it is impossible to solo that guy, even high level players go to this place but they cannot overpower bosses at this level because their level is scaled down to the level of the place as indicated of a green down arrow beside their level. On certain (but not all) places, low level characters are scaled up on the level of place. It's no joke running around, never an MMO gave this feeling that I have to be very careful in every place I go.

It's quite surprising that you don't feel that you are grinding your levels, simply discovering new grounds (Vistas, Point of Interest and Unrevealed locations in your map) or covering a few events/quests gives you exp and I'm not even doing the Personal Storyline. The events/quest are not those typical fetch this talk to this type, events are spontaneous and dynamic. One moment you are being attacked then you escort an NPC to a location (that NPC can die but you can revive him/her). Sometimes there are errands like helping an NPC light up torches or kill mosquitoes flying around lamps which rewards you also with decent exp. Some even require you to transform to a certain form and some even require you to pick up a shovel and dig something up. Exploring also rewards you especially the Jumping Puzzles (which is my dreaded weakness in GW2) that is if you are patient enough whenever you character faceplants itself on the way down falling. Before I forgot, you also take damage when falling down or may even die if it's high enough. When exploring you may come along with interactable objects such as a tree or an ore vein, you need to have a certain consumable tool to harvest with a chance of ruining what you are supposed to gather (Yes, you don't get instant Copper Ore in a Copper Vein using only a Crude Mining Tool, you get the idea) and they are vital in the crafting aspect. I once saw a player shouted "DPS THAT ORI VEIN!". And simply put, the world of GW2 is so astonishing, you would rather run around and appreciate the view of the landscape than actually play.



The loots on the other hand I simply had no idea what I've been stocking up or what I've been salvaging. GW2 has this "Send to Collectibles" feature where collectibles that are used for crafting are sent to your collectibles bank for easy access later when you craft and to clear also your inventory. I failed to explore Crafting though due to time constraint but I heard that you will be doing a lot of crafting in GW2.

Some may ask, "What about death ingame?"
In GW2 there are two phases, Downed then Defeated (Seemingly similar to Dark Souls). And whenever I get careless it always happens. When downed you still have the chance to get up IF you can manage to bandage yourself without taking further damage or someone helps you up. IF you fail to do so, you are Defeated which in this case you are asked to return to a waypoint of your choice OR you can wait and ask someone who could possibly passing by or there to help you up (Trust me, there are a lot of generous people in GW2). On the other side GW2 also rewards you EXP and achievement points for helping up a Downed or Defeated character. Me, someone who I revived gave me like 1g. (I'm pretty sure he's a player since he asked me if I'm trial or not) Well that's an isolated case and pretty random if you ask me. On the course of the game for 3 days I revived like more than 100 people already. Worth it.

What about PvP and their famous WvW? (World vs World, yeah you are reading it right)
I had problems exploring this content since I'm not that of a PvP fanatic (you know, I always dodge conflicts even IRL)and I had connection issues at that time but once I stepped on the tutorial grounds I kind of got the grasp of what PvP would look like. Everyone is on equal footing there, maxed out levels, skills and traits, it is you who will decide how to customize your character's build. There is balance and IMO the only difference could be the way you use your character. WvW (World vs World) is overwhelming. Imagine worlds duke it out with each other on a MASSIVE map, either controlling a certain point, crashing gates or intense clashes. If you are not a fan of conflict you can either help supply stuff to create support units such as Trebuchets and Rams. In every way, an individual can help.

After being busy exploring the game, me and my friend decided to meet up and do a few stuff together. GW2 encourages companionship and punishes soloists as far as I have observed. I only joined Jazzy's guild (Imperial Blood; tag IMBA) on the 2nd day of the trial and I recommend that you also join a Guild right away as they are of great help to your adventures. Your guild members help you, you help the guild.

Nearing the end of the trial, I really sought after that new content (Lost Shores) unfortunately I have to explore on my own since my friend was rushing his target level (which is level 50, yeah it IS that fast in GW2). It's exciting and scary at the same time since in things like these I automatically disconnect myself from spoilers and such. As expected, I either die often or swim around the coastline (Yet encounter a giant shark - whale level lol). You really need companions when exploring so I always tag along with random people running around and reviving whenever possible (You reap what you sow)

And so the 3rd day came, being only a couple of hours left for my character to live in GW2, I really had the need to experience that One-Time Event they are so excited at. But it was held on the main servers on 4am (GMT+8) but I never lost hope since a few people say that there are ones that are still up on certain overflow servers. With the help of my Guildmates, the last hours of Sylvianita were worthwhile. (And luckily, my internet connection went along well). I'm so amazed of the GW2 community.



So to wrap up my review, If I was given more time I could have at least explored most of the content but so far GW2 indeed raise up my hopes for the future of MMOs and for its future itself. It's a must try and must buy (my friend was going gaga over GW2 after the trial). Money could be an issue but if you're playing a Free to Play or Subscription based game, I'd be a hypocrite if I don't accept the fact that we are spending more than GW2's worth but not getting the fun and satisfaction that GW2 is offering at that so called Free to Play/Subscription MMO. I'm not saying that GW2 is perfect, it has its flaws (Connectivity and such) but the pros of GW2 outweighs its cons. I will definitely miss GW2 and all the experiences and people I met along with it.

Sylvianita - Female Sylvari Mesmer - Blackgate Server


P.S.
On a serious note, call me weird but I felt like disconnected to everything after getting booted out due to the trial expiration. But hey that means the game is THAT great. And no joke, THIS PC (the pic below) is where I played this awesome game.

Don't react... I tell you.