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Just a few questions i hope i can get an answer to before i go out and buy the game.
1) Are there invisible walls - Or rather, are they omnipresent in the game? Does it ever stop you from going anywhere when you're just trying to hop along a path or what looks like a steep incline? Comparing it to WoW (which has virtually no invisible walls, the ones that are there are usually out of reach), how good or bad is it? Guild Wars 1 is an example of what i mean with 'bad' by the way, where you run up to the things constantly. The most important thing here is whether i'm constantly going to be stopped when i'm trying to explore the world, and i can't get up an obvious path that's blocked off by an invisible wall.
2) What are the options for customizing your character, mechanically? Is it only items and skills, or are there talents, glyphs or stats (ala wow and diablo 2) you can customize? Is the only mechanical difference between one warrior and the next the weapon and the skills they have equipped or is there more?
3) How fast is levelling? I'm going to play with at least 1 more, and i don't want to rush to 80. We want to take our time and just have fun along the way. Is the game made in such a way that levelling goes quickly regardless of what you do or does it allow you to take it easy?
4) Are the zones as big as they look? I'd like the game to really 'feel' big - That there are areas in the game where i don't feel i HAVE to go in order to get everything, if you know what i mean. Like in WoW, if you pass an area you didn't have to be before you immediately start thinking about what quest you missed or are going to get, this feels pretty annoying to me since it holds the world back from 'coming alive'.
5) It might seem like an irrelevant question to most, but can you go into houses and buildings, or are most of them locked off? I hate how especially Korean games never actually let you go inside anything unless it's a massive castle with a 15 square mile throneroom.
6) On a scale of 1 to 10, how "open" and fleshed out is the world? 1 being something like a Korean game with a mostly featureless landscape with little to no small details and pretty much 0 buildings you can go into, 10 being like Skyrim where everything is handplaced, handcrafted and there's pretty much nothing you can't explore or go into, and there's no mountain you can't climb.
7) On a scale of 1 to 10, how consistent is the world? 1 being the schizophrenic WoW style where one zone flows into the next like a brick through a wall of wodkabottles, to 10 being like (again) Skyrim where all the areas blend into one another so seemlessly that the world truly feels like it's one big place.
8) Will there be any world customization at any point? With this i primarily mean player housing, but also guild housing, fortresses or anything else managed by players, instanced or not.
The game world is very important to me. As you may have suspected, i'm looking for an MMO that comes as close to an Elder Scrolls game as possible as far as exploration and the feel of the world goes. The game has to feel consistent across the board, not just within a zone or dungeon, and it has to offer something beyond the beaten path, something that rewards you for thinking "i wonder whether i can get up there". I already saw some jumping puzzles in GW2, but they look rather artificial for this purpose - I wonder if there's more that isn't explicitely designed to be explored, but the game lets you do it anyway.
Playing: WF
Played: WoW, GW2, L2, WAR, AoC, DnL (2005), GW, LotRO, EQ2, TOR, CoH (RIP), STO, TSW, TERA, EVE, ESO, BDO
Tried: EQ, UO, AO, EnB, TCoS, Fury, Ryzom, EU, DDO, TR, RF, CO, Aion, VG, DN, Vindictus, AA
Comments
1) A few, but not many. Most of the time, the terrain does a good job of steering you away from any such 'invisible wall'. However, I've run into a few
2) There are tons of customizations outside of weapon skills. There are the heals, the utility skills, the elites. Then there are runes, sigils and gems. There are dyes and town clothes and from 1-79, easily acquired transmutation stones. Lev80 items use a higher quality of transmutation gem that are very rare drop or purchased from the store. There are NOT as many armor styles as GW1 and unlike GW1, the stats vary across types. I prefer the old GW1 way.
3) Levelling is pretty fast. 1-15 seems to be pretty average levelling experience. 15-30 seems to sort of slow down. I don't know why. It could be perception, but I don't think so. I remember the 15-25 zones in particular being a chore. After you hit 30, the pace seems to snowball faster and faster.
4) The zones are deceptive. They're big when you're on the west side and you want to be on the east side for a DE or something. However, they're not quite as big as the size of the worldmap seems to imply. The zones themselves are wide open for the most part, unlike say SWTOR. However, the zones are instanced, like planets in SWTOR, and there's usually only a handful of portals to different zones in each zone.
5) This is hit or miss. It largely depends on your race/city. Divinity's Reach has a lot of buildings and stuff you can go in as does the 'home' instance inside of it. Hoelbrak has a lot of structures you can enter, but the 'home' instance is a large meadhall.
6) This is also hit or miss. The Syvlari lowbie areas are pretty cool. The human lowbie areas are boring as all hell. The Charr areas seem to be the 'best' in terms of what you're describing. I'd give it a 6 overall.
7) This is a peeve of mine. The human areas are BORING. The Syvlari areas are VERY cool as are the Charr. Once you get out of the 15-25 zones for each, you begin to be dumped more and more into 'common' levelling areas. These are sometimes very cool and sometimes blase. Again, the Charr areas seem to be the most engaging. Probably anothe 6 overall.
8) Not in the game currently unless you count guild claiming things in WvWvW, which I wouldn't. They have stated this is an intended feature we'll see at some future date.
The game world is NOT as open as WoW's, but is certainly not noticeably as 'on rails' as SWTOR's. Graphically, it's GORGEOUS. Much prettier than anything in WoW or SWTOR.
You know, if I had to liken it to any other themepark's world design, I'd say it was closest to LOTRO.
1. So far I've encountered only two invisible walls that couldn't be explained by a steep incline or other geographical feature, and both times are when trying to swim out to the sea. I'd say it feels a lot like WoW in that sense, but of course more restrictive because areas are zoned (so you need to portal to go from one area to the next) so the surrounding area is blocked, but so far haven't found any instance (except for those I mentioned before) where the terrain tells me I could go on but an invisible wall doesn't let me.
2. There's also traits in different areas depending on class that can alter how skills work (things like, for example, add extra effects like burning to some attacks, do an AoE when your health reaches X%, and things like that). Basically you have 6 trait lines for each class, you get 70 trait points you can earn (one for each level starting at level 10), and you can apply them to any of the lines, every line increases a certain stat the more points you put there, 30 points being the max you can put on a particular line. At 5, 15 and 25 points you get minor traits that are predetermined for each line, and at 10, 20 and 30 you get a major trait that can be picked from a list (IIRC there are 12 possible traits for each line, you can pick up to 3). Plus you get your stats in gear, and usually each piece of gear has a slot for a rune or sigil. Also some of those give extra effects or stats depending on how many you have of them (kinda like set bonuses in WoW)
3. Leveling can be very fast or very slow, depending on how you go about it. There were people that got to level 80 in 3 days, I've been playing since release and have one level 53 and one level 20 so far. There's still lots to go when you reach 80, though, since you still get XP but you get skill points when you "level", so you still need to keep "leveling" if you want to buy more skills, the top tier of elite skills cost 30 points, and the best gear in game needs skill points to craft as well. Also this game is perfect for playing with other people, if you level too fast you can go back to play with your friend and you'll be de-leveled to the area level, so you don't overpower him much (you'll still be a bit more powerful due to better gear).
5. In my experience, depends on the area. You can go into buildings where it makes sense. For example, in human cities it's common to see lots of locked doors while you can go into stores and public areas, but don't really remember seeing any closed doors in sylvari or norn cities, for example.
6. I'd put it on a 8. There are of course areas you can't go into because of the zoned nature of the game, but there's a LOT to explore, and a lot of interesting things to see, plus one of the selling points of the game (and something I've found to be true so far) is that if you see something off in the distance, chances are it isn't just decoration, but somewhere you can actually go to.
7. Again, 8. You won't find things like in WoW where you can go from a desertic area to a lush jungle and then to a snowy area, mostly the world makes sense. I lowered it from a 10 because it's not as open since you do have to go trough portals.
8. Guild halls are planned, but most likely they'll be instanced and separated from the world like in GW1. Also once you capture a keep or structure in WvW with your guild, you can display its banner on it (limited to 1 structure per guild) Other than that, probably not, but we don't know for sure.
What can men do against such reckless hate?
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
To me the game world is the best ever created. Its vibrant alive and feels like a living place, espescially the dynamic events make sure to live things up.
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
Instead of not really adding to what everyone else has said (already some really good posts on the subject), I'll ask you this:
Do you worry this much over paying $60 for a single player game? Would you ask the same questions of a game like Skyrim or KOTOR?
Either way, I think GW2 is more than worth the $60. And there is no subscription. So basically, it's a AAA MMO for the same price as a SPRPG. I don't think you can go wrong there. On top of that, it's got more content than even Skyrim has. And way more than COD: Black Ops would ever dream of having.
You want me to pay to play a game I already paid for???
Be afraid.....The dragons are HERE!
It's really not a triple A MMO.
It lacks the depth of EQ, DAoC, WoW. It's really just a shallow, boring grind to 80, and some woefully boring PvP.
But, it plays smooth, and has beautiful graphics. Much like dating a gorgeous model, who doesn't speak your language. All of the aesthetics are there, but there is no substance.
Your money is best spent else-where. [mod edit]
He's right. Its not a AAA MMO and rather than wasting time answering each of your questions, I can tell you right off the bat that you will probably find the game enjoyable for about a month, tops.
Its a theme park MMO in a genre where at least 3 games I can think of do it better.
Dragnon - Guildmaster - Albion Central Bank in Albion Online
www.albioncentralbank.enjin.com
In terms of what the OP is describing, I think GW2 may be the game for him.
Considering he said he's playing with another - I assume a husband/wife type deal - a good leveling experience is what he's looking for.
He's in luck - GW2 has great leveling (if nothing else...) and exploring is pretty well done as well.
I was wondering what is your definition of a AAA MMO?
Pardon my English as it is not my 1st language
I can Answer
A AAA MMO has customer support, something sorely lacking in GW2, at least it was the first month then I gave up trying to get any response. It also fixes bugs, exploits and patches in a timely manner.
GW2 IMO is a AA MMO
Since the GW2 fanaticism will die off significantly over the next few months as it gas already started. I would not call GW2 a AAA mmo. Also GW2 did not innovate enough, is f2p and theme parks are losing their appeal greatly.
The next AAA mmo will be a lot different from what we're used to.
Dragnon - Guildmaster - Albion Central Bank in Albion Online
www.albioncentralbank.enjin.com
1.
I don't think you'll notice any invisible walls, unless you try to reach certain vistas from a ... unusual ... aka not intended path. Generally you'll follow the natural land limitations, which depend on territory. Underwater exploration adds another element and so do reaching hard to reach places. You can't really compare it to WoW, because in WoW flying anywhere is a form of cheating your way to anywhere that does't exist in GW2. GW2 is nothing like GW1 regarding invisible walls and a lot of other things. If you want to think GW2 as a evolution of something, I'd go with Warhammer.
2.
The first 5 abilities (buttons 1-5) are hardcoded to the weapon you have equipped. You can equip two weapons swappable in combat, out of a colleciton of 4-5 (When talking about 1H weapons, the main dictates the first 3, the off-hand the other 2). Beyond that you get an extra 5 abilities (buttons 6-0) that you can pick yourself and another 3 (buttons F1-F3) that are dictated by your build. You are given 80 points to distribute in a talent like system, although only the incements of five really matter.
The aquatic combat has its own set of 1-5 abilities, though the selection of weapons is more limited.
3.
Levelling is extremely fast. In fact, if you have all the materials for it, you can level to max in a day just from crafting. For new characters levelling is still pretty fast, especially if you combine adventuring with crafting. Ultimately your level doesn't matter, because you're downlevelled when you enter a low area (say you're level 50, when you return to a starter level 5 area, the game downscales you back to level 7 or so). The downscalling is sort of percentage based, so max level characters with best gear will be extremely powerful compared to their actual counterparts, so the game will be a lot easier for them, just not completely trivialised.
Drops are based on your actual level, so completing low level content makes here as much sense as pushing to max level.
4.
The map icon that shows the 100% completion of the area will probably compel you to complete everything. Areas are big if you don't hop around from waypoint to waypoint (and that's expensive, about as much as dying twice). The game is obviously not as big as WoW has become after the numerous expansions and at the moment only about a third of the total map mass presented is explorable.
5.
A bit of a hit and miss. In most you won't be able to enter, but in a good portion of them you will. Worthly mntion here are the starter towns for each race, which are big. While you won't be able to enter in every building there, they feel like actual towns, unlike most mmorpgs, in size, design and NPC density and chatter.
6.
I'd lean towards Skyrim as far as world design goes, just keep in mind about 5 regarding buildings.
7.
GW2 is a zone based game, unlike WoW and Skyrim which are a seamless experience. That means that to move to the next zone you'll visit specific exits (usually dictated by roads). The zones are rectangular is size and adjucent next to each other. If you zoom out a map and you see for example a snowy territory, it may expand in two zones and half of a third. So not all zones are entirely different from the one next to them, although they do have their individual characteristics.
8.
As far as PvE goes, no.
In PvP, and in WvW to be more specific, which is a four zone territory that three servers fight for dominance a guild can claim and upgrade a supply camp, tower, keep or the Stonemist fortress (I put them in terms of size and cost). The posession though is epheremeral, the enemy can claim them back (siege and take them) and the whole server vs server resets each week where a new set of servers are pitted against each other.
You'll probably get your money's worth out of the game. The long term appeal is up to you.
Triple A only pertains to the budget. Not the quality of the game, but more important your preference has nothing to do if it is AAA.
What this guy said. ZigZags is just twisting the definition of Triple A to fit his dislike of GW2.
Just to respond to this quickly: I'm still amazed by people who expect customer support to be 100% available within an hour for everyone right after a game launch. Many people in beta never report any problems because 'there's no point' or they just want to try a free demo of sorts. Then, with a big influx of people at launch, you hit problems you simply could not have anticipated beforehand, since you cannot simulate 100,000 or more players testing your software - Such a huge crowd is bound to find a lot more bugs than your QA department ever can simply because of the added manhours.
Hence, if you buy a game at launch (especially an MMO), be prepared to spend some time trying to get things to work on your own. It usually takes a month or two before the customer support can manage to work through the backlog, after which the launch issues are mostly either fixed or at least known. You can't just quickly put 200 extra people on customer support for 2 months either - They need training to learn the company's support tools aswell as to learn the rules and procedures, and after those 2 months they can leave again. It's an investment that over the long term just does not make sense.
I'm speaking from experience in both software development and customer support here by the way. Anyway, back to the topic!
At the moment, yes, $60 is a heft investment given my financial situation and the fact i'd have to spend it twice (for my GF) ;p
I haven't actually bought any games for months now (aside from a few sub $5 ones in the steam sale last summer), im just looking for something we can play together. We looked at some F2P MMO's, she rather likes Fiesta Online (of all games), but it's not really my cup o tea, hence i'm looking for something decent
And you're right!
Thanks everyone for the well argumented answers - As soon as the budget allows GW2 will have 2 more players :>
Playing: WF
Played: WoW, GW2, L2, WAR, AoC, DnL (2005), GW, LotRO, EQ2, TOR, CoH (RIP), STO, TSW, TERA, EVE, ESO, BDO
Tried: EQ, UO, AO, EnB, TCoS, Fury, Ryzom, EU, DDO, TR, RF, CO, Aion, VG, DN, Vindictus, AA
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
Please do not quit your day job lol.
Pardon my English as it is not my 1st language
Just a word of caution (as you are buying the game for not just yourself). GW2 is going to be a different experience (at least for your GF by the sounds of it).
I can honestly say that the game is well worth the 60$ price. However, it has a much different focus than that of most MMOs (which is one of the major appeals to a lot of its fans).
There are 2 things that are probably going to take some getting used to for you guys if / when you decide to buy the game.
1) Personal Story. If you guys are really sold on that, I would argue that this isn't one of the games' strongest features. Parts of the story are done quite well, but as a whole package it's not implemented very well. Some of the writing needs work, and the story often feels fragmented as you go along.
2) Combat. Some people just get it, but for a lot of people it takes some getting used to. It's done fairly well, but it is most definitely skill-based, and there is a learning curve for players used to more mindless MMOs (i.e. current WoW, or SWTOR). This is mostly apparent when people start to do dungeons. Due to the nature of general PvE, you can often rely on others to cover for your mistakes (either via a zerg, or having others distract enemies for you). In dungeons, people are a lot more responsible for their own well-being, and playing as a team is a lot more vital than most MMOs. This game doesn't treat kindly to those that are used to just sitting in the back spamming DPS rotations. Expect to die, especially at first, expect to have to change skills up a bit for the harder fights (especially if you don't normally bring defensive skills as part of your setup). This is one of the more fun aspects of the game, but it can be very shocking for newer players. However, this is a really fun MMO to play w/ others. Hope to see you ingame.
- Btw, if you guys have a lot of free-time, you can always buy gems using ingame gold. There's been some videos that explain how to make gold more easily in this game, and once you get the hang of that, you can make money fairly quick with some planning, foresight, and a bit of spare time. Aside from a couple character slots, I haven't spent a dime on gems for this game and have managed to purchase all the extra storage / bag space I need, plus some novelty items, and I still have pleanty of gold to spare.
Mostly agree with your assessment. Just wanted to point out, that while they don't currently have player housing atm, they have stated that they are working on guild housing & GvG as a future feature. It is coming, but we probably won't see it for a few months.
What this guy said.
Because we all know Raiding with 19 other douchebags is considered the only true endgame content worthy of an MMO endgame.
GW2 is also a shallow boring grind because its not like grinding quests and following a linear path from level 1-80 is the only true form of progression.
And we all know your money is best spent elsewhere since the only true beauty of an MMO comes in the form of a stale, archaic, bland vertical loot progression style endgame, where you chase tiered gear ad naseum.
IMO OP, GW2 is the best MMO to come out in a very long time, and as long as loot progression is nt what you are looking for, the content is varied and plentiful, more so then any raid centric game. There is literally thousands of hours worth of good solid content for the average gamer.
(Ohh BTW, GW2 has never merged a server, the population is growing and there are queues to WvW on most servers at all hours of day - I.e. right now, at 4:24am I am sitting in a queue for Yak's Bend Borderlands, I am on Sanctum of Rall)
Everything you need to know about Elder Scrolls Online
Playing: GW2
Waiting on: TESO
Next Flop: Planetside 2
Best MMO of all time: Asheron's Call - The first company to recreate AC will be the next greatest MMO.
Well thanks for your expert opinion but in my opinion it is not just about the budget but also the over all quality of the game at release. However, the amount of bugs, botting and gold sellers cheapen the feeling of AAA title. So yes it is also about your personal preference. Its been over a month and bugs present at release are still here.
Rift is what i call a AAA MMO.
1) Are there invisible walls - Or rather, are they omnipresent in the game? Does it ever stop you from going anywhere when you're just trying to hop along a path or what looks like a steep incline? Comparing it to WoW (which has virtually no invisible walls, the ones that are there are usually out of reach), how good or bad is it? Guild Wars 1 is an example of what i mean with 'bad' by the way, where you run up to the things constantly. The most important thing here is whether i'm constantly going to be stopped when i'm trying to explore the world, and i can't get up an obvious path that's blocked off by an invisible wall.
Very little but they are present. More likely to experience something on this level the further you get. Jumping puzzles can be a little finicky and do feel like they are purposely set up to very specific on this level and it will often times look as if you can't reach something and will be stopped, while other times it literally will just stop you from ever reaching a certain platform and its more so there for looks. They exist but over-all I have seen verly little, though exploring I haven't done to much of.
2) What are the options for customizing your character, mechanically? Is it only items and skills, or are there talents, glyphs or stats (ala wow and diablo 2) you can customize? Is the only mechanical difference between one warrior and the next the weapon and the skills they have equipped or is there more?
Talents.... allt here really is. Weapons each have their own skills and when your seeing a great sword warrior vs another, outside their alternate weapon (which probably will be the same) the only difference is utility skills (4 of them to pick) and talents they might have, though chances are utilities will be the same or similiar and talent wise with particular weapons they will most likely the same or simply put, the talents will have virtually little effect on how each person plays it. Theres very few talents that really 'change up' how a class plays. On a real notable level.
3) How fast is levelling? I'm going to play with at least 1 more, and i don't want to rush to 80. We want to take our time and just have fun along the way. Is the game made in such a way that levelling goes quickly regardless of what you do or does it allow you to take it easy?
Its extremely quick. The game was to boring to play non stop all day and I ended up playing in 1-2 hour spurts. If your doing EVERYTHING (aka exploring and doing low level zones) it will be a lot slower due to less experience it will start giving you, but its star by far one of the quest. Even playing it far lighter then usual, it only took a few days to hit 80 without no life grinding it.
4) Are the zones as big as they look? I'd like the game to really 'feel' big - That there are areas in the game where i don't feel i HAVE to go in order to get everything, if you know what i mean. Like in WoW, if you pass an area you didn't have to be before you immediately start thinking about what quest you missed or are going to get, this feels pretty annoying to me since it holds the world back from 'coming alive'.
It feels big, though the main reason is the lack of mounts. If mounts weren't in, the game world would be viewed much smaller though its still a decent size at least. As for the 'missing something' point, you can skip out of order but typically your going to be running much of the same stuff, particularly near the end, at least if you don't want to take longer by doing lower level stuff (which then your going to be doing practically everything below the zone your at to level.
5) It might seem like an irrelevant question to most, but can you go into houses and buildings, or are most of them locked off? I hate how especially Korean games never actually let you go inside anything unless it's a massive castle with a 15 square mile throneroom.
Most homes are decoration. There are some you enter but typically in any small cities and villages you won't be able to enter most buildings.
6) On a scale of 1 to 10, how "open" and fleshed out is the world? 1 being something like a Korean game with a mostly featureless landscape with little to no small details and pretty much 0 buildings you can go into, 10 being like Skyrim where everything is handplaced, handcrafted and there's pretty much nothing you can't explore or go into, and there's no mountain you can't climb.
7) On a scale of 1 to 10, how consistent is the world? 1 being the schizophrenic WoW style where one zone flows into the next like a brick through a wall of wodkabottles, to 10 being like (again) Skyrim where all the areas blend into one another so seemlessly that the world truly feels like it's one big place.
Hard to really rate. I honestly though the WoW model did a good job at creating an atmosphere that felt unique with its graphics. I'd say its a 6. The fact they are enclosed zones and the fact many biomes look practically identical (jungle looks like every other jungle, forest every other forest, swamp ever swamp, ect.) I really have trouble putting a number on it. Its really depending on how you view it. They are mildly transitioning even with the zone thing though it really depends.
8) Will there be any world customization at any point? With this i primarily mean player housing, but also guild housing, fortresses or anything else managed by players, instanced or no.
Not that I am aware of. I'm assuming by home district they were leaning at this though it really doesn't exist as of yet. The WvWvW has bases that guilds can 'claim' though honestly its mostly trivial and doesn't really do all that much. Feels more so tossed in.