Does this game have style?

Well, well...
It's my first thread here, so I hope you'll forgive my noob approach to the game and the long post. I must admit I'm here just because of Ign review: when I read "specifically designed for PvP" and "no monthly fee" I looked for the best GW fansite and found Guild Wars Guru. Then I came to know that there's a lvl 20 cap, which means, to put it simple, that 17 yrs old guys with nothing to do in life but surfing the web for brand new porn AND playing MMOS won't rule this time. Or, at least, not so easily. It means that the focus is on skill rather than on the time you can put into the game.

Last but not least, dividing the game by districts is a stroke of genius. In MMOS or games alike there's little or no communication between different countries. I'm Italian and I can assure you it's difficult to enjoy a fantasy game when the strongest character in the server bears a name that goes like "Cacciavite siculo" (Sicily's screwdriver). I appreciate irony in all of its forms, but there's a limit, or else a game that is conceived in a fantasy world will lose its charm and above all, its slight "suspension of disbelief" that makes you feel like you're really living in this fictitious world. The division in districts doesn't force me to play only with italian people if I don't want to, which makes me glad.

Talking about "suspension of disbelief", is this game "believable"? Does it have its unique style which makes it recognizable among the others MMOS in town and the ones that are to come? I must confess I was disappointed by E2 (terribly anonymous) and by WoW as well, for different reasons. Before buying the game, which is something I'll do very soon, I'd like to know if GW has what it takes to be a unique experience. It's not about being better or worse than other MMOS, it's about distinguishing between Guild Wars and another MMO. How's the feel?
Thanks in advance for answering.

Best Regards,

Mormegil

Well, I like it; totally hooked...

But thats not saying much...

i play it partly because there is no monthly fee, but the graphics are "pretty". Personally, I liked the look of pre-searing ascalon better than post searing (basically, went from green countryside to scorched landscape).

PvP is pretty good and, from what i have experienced, very fast-paced.

Okay, I just finished the final mission yesterday, and I can safely say this game has some seriously bitchin' style. Before I go on, you should also know I'm a self-proclaimed MMO cynic, anti-fanboi extraordinaire... I've tried my darndest to crucify Guild Wars but there's just no end to grab - all non-pimped aspects of the game have been completely purged, and were since the first day of release.

Let me go down the list:

1. Art direction

Superb. It's neither the tiresome fantasy blandness of EQ2 nor the goofy cartoon world of WoW, it's completely its own. A Duke's estate nestled among grassy foothills east of Ascalon is a blend of traditional Gothic architecture touched with vibrant Oriental flourishes; the volcanic calderas of the Ring of Fire are engraved with haunting faces, reminiscent of Tiki but with notable outside influences; from the striking golden sky to the all-pervading celestial light, the Hall of Heroes itself is something like a blend between the Forbidden City of ancient China and what one might imagine the shining halls of mythical Asgard to look like. And these are just the environments. The Shiverpeak Mountains are afroth with wistful spirits of winter that defy description - massless, infinitely elastic, like they just floated right out of the ether. And finally, the character models are hands down the very ceiling of MMO characters. They look like real people, in ways that only my most whimsical dreams could envision. They're not fantasy hermaphrodites, nor are they cartoon characters. Pair this with a slew of top-notch motion capture animations and you get me, staring at my character dance for over ten minutes, a single strand of drool dangling from my lip.

2. Hard-coded graphics

The screenshots don't lie. I'm pretty sure the programmers defied physics at least a dozen times making this game, because it is A) the best looking MMO I've played (and I've given most of the market a whirl by this point) and B) runs smooth as a silk coccoon on my mid-tier laptop, at FULL graphic acceleration. And I do mean silky smooth. I've never had a jump, a freeze-up, even so much as a hiccup and in Tombs there can easily be 30+ players on the screen at once, casting spells, with magical obelisks going off all the time with starbursts of green light. I've been holding back the urge to cry ever since I first booted it up.

3. The characters and storyline

Okay, here's where things are a little rougher around the edges in my opinion (it had to be somewhere). The story is fun, engaging, and will make you want to complete the next mission in order to advance the plot. It's not spun from the mind of a master storyteller like you might get from a game like Thief or Bloodlines. I forgive it completely, and enjoy it for what it is, but that's me. It seems to forget about things now and then while watching a cutscene I'm left asking "Hey, I think our characters got so caught up in what they were doing, they forgot why they were here in the first place..." Also, the NPC characters you interact with are not as charming as, I think, they could be. Prince Rurik is a guy you have to not only put up with dicking around in your missions all the time, but also listen to his long-winded recitations and cliched interactions with his father. I could have done without him. For some characters like a certain dragon and another certain ancient creature, the voice acting can be way over-the-top and a little grating. The game though does occasionally redeem itself in this respect by including a character like the dwarf king, who throws the cliche overdone Scottish dwarf voice to the wolves and instead does this husky, Russian accent thing that I never tire of hearing. In any case, you'll decide for yourself when you experience it. It's far from game-breaking.

Now after naming all the reasons you'd want to play Guild Wars, I feel I ought to point out a concern you will almost definitely have with it, if your post is any indication. There's no naming policy at the moment, nor are there any kind of RP districts. Missions and travel can be done solo, with henchmen, or with a group of select friends and they're instanced so you won't have to deal with anyone else. But when you enter a town or settlement, get ready to rub elbows with the seething masses. And by that I mean, all the kids who couldn't swipe mommy's credit card for any other MMO and have migrated to Guild Wars because of the lack of monthly fee... Combine that with practically no chat-channel enforcement and a lack of naming policies, and you get some interesting results. My advice, if it really bothers you and wrecks your immersion, is to turn off all chat channels while in town. Trust me, you won't miss much.

Anyway, I got a little caught up back there but I hope this answers some of your questions.

Your description of the graphics made me cry...

I do have to agree that the storyline isn't anything great though. mediocre at best. But, then again, that is a small part of the game (for me at least)

The story line of this game is mediocre, basically follows the same cut and paste RPG plot, but the gameplay and graphics are astounding. The community, while overall, is comprised of a majority of "Farmers", there are great people that you find every once in a while. If you meet up with people from this forum, then you have found intelligent and skilled veterans with whom you should group up with.

The storyline can always be added to in depth and complexity with expansions and updates but don't let that stop you.

I agree that the RPG elements (the storyline) are rather shallow; as you've obviously played other RPGs (it seems you have, anyway) you will be more than familiar with all the contrived and hackish plot elements.

Gameplay itself is a blast and rather unique. It bears some superficial resemblance to D2 insofar as both are action-oriented RPGs, unlike every other MMORPG. "Action RPGs," in case you don't know the term, are more shallow takes on the RPG format that, generally speaking, permit more casual involvement and ease of use. D2 was once the posterchild for action MMORPGs, I would say that GW is the new posterchild. That said, the gameplay is still quite engaging, especially the PvP, when it comes to skill selection and attribut distribution. It's rather easy to reshuffle most of your attribute points for a given point/style of play as your redistribtuoin point naturally restore like your DP penalty.

Your GW character probably won't feel as "deep" as it did in other MMORPGs as it's highly likely you'll drop it after "beating" the game and getting mildly sick of your class. We power gamers (three lvl 60s in WoW and a lvl 75/34 in FFXI) often debate over dropping our end-game or almost-end-game characters to play a different one/another game, but the sheer hours invested in said character usually keep us there. The very low lvl cap and the "ease" of the missions, along with the henches allow you to run, "solo," through much of the game in about 2 weeks or so.

A lot of power gamers dislike GW b/c it is truly the casual gamers MMORPG. There is VERY little that is truly uber-only content: the only thing that comes to mind is the 15k armor, as I've already henched it through the Underworld.

The graphics are quite nice, though I, and others I'm sure, are getting frustrated by the same old costumes. Your lvl 1 armor may very well look the same as your lvl 20 armor (unless you shell out 15k for each piece). The costumes and the itemization are both a boon and a pain: with no real uber, distinguishing gear to be had, everybody starts to look the same (which is why people say this game is more skill based), but of course, with no real uber gear to be had, you avoid alot of the farming problems and you seriously put a damper on those teenagers that do little else but play.

Yeah I agree with almost everything here. Im one of those people who although not totally hooked on graphics, will easilly spend hour after hour doing nothing im particular in a game, just because what im seeing is so impressive.

For me one of the best moments iv had so far was in Pre Searing when I had to find Warmaster Grast at the statue of Balthazaar. I wandered around for quite a while, running into dead end hillock after dead end, not entirally sure what I was looking for.
Then I turned the corner of this hill near where all the grawl are, and suddenly this massive flaming statue appeared in the distance that had been hidden by the hill, and I was just awed. It was class.

The story might not be the best, thats true, but very few games are renowned for their story and little else. But when you consider the vastness and beauty of the world you have to explore, you can make up your own little stories if you wish or just kill everything there is to be killed while drinking in the sights.

I think this game has style, if their is anything this game does have its style imo. From bows bending and arrows glinting in the light, to the little combos a warrior does even though its the same base attack over and over.

I reckon iv explored 80% of pre searing Ascalon, simply because I wanted to see as much as I could. dunno how many of you have found it, but the cave near to the back exit of the catacombs, near to Barradins estate, is one of the most screenshot worthy places iv found.
Also the bridge near Devona, everyone will know this one, but every new character I make i still go kill that lvl 4 skale thing just so i can hear the water falling over my head as i move through the cave lol
And if you are a ranger then the area around where the 2nd and 3rd ranger missions are in pre searing HAVE to be some of the most beautiful and serene areas in ANY world ;p

Anyway, its not just graphics that i play games for I think the fact that skill are simply, yet highly indepth, and the way they are implemented (iv played WoW and its getting canceled) is brilliant. No more one skill doing 500 status changes to an enemy, and having every skill ever learned available to you so you can go camp Camp Taurajo at level 60 lol. Nah this game is class. I can tell without ever having the patients to ascend a charatcer that the high level pvp GvG etc. is going to be totally about skill and cunning and intelligence, and for any mmo that is a rare thing that will ENSURE longevity.
Look at classics like star trek armada. that must be about 5-8 years old, yet you will still find 10's of people on it daily NOW. The reason, because it combines a theme people can be very fanatical about, with a balanced and compelling gameplay. thats fair and fun.

We cant have Morrowind online mmorpg (yet ) and even if we did it would probably be a different game entirally to Guild Wars, but untill the release of Black and White 2, and the follow up to morrowind later this year, THIS imo is the best game out this year (Rome :TW gives it a close run imo), and one of the best ever, no excuses for any gamer not to have this on their desk/shelf.

I guess you have convinced me.
By the impressive number of positive opinions on the game's graphics, it seems the world of Ascalon is beautifully crafted, which is one thing of vital importance to me.
The story is not so relevant since this is a MMORPG, an universe in continuous evolution which doesn't need a spectacular pre-generated plot. It would have been a problem for a SP RPG, of course.
I'm going to buy the game no later than next week and hope to meet some of you in.

P.S.: (forgive the small OT) is the game multi-language? I'd like to play the English version, as it's meant to be.

Best Regards

Mormegil

Hi Mormegil.. The North American retail version, at the very least, is multi-language.. Options include French, Spanish, English, Italian and Bork! Bork! Bork! (I don't know either). I would assume that you would have the same options to choose from.

And yes, GW is BEAUTIFUL. And that's not so much a commentary on the graphics (which are, technically, quite good), but more on the design. Player characters are imaginatively designed, dripping with stylized fantasy and modern accents.. and the detail is spectacular - the Monk's robes, for example, are designed in a beautiful almost-buddhist style, and made up of individual scraps of parchment with magical runes woven into them. The effect is incredible... and the entire world gets this sort of treatment.