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If you have been considering purchasing Guild Wars, hopefully I can shove you in the direction of your door to go pick it up.

What is Guild Wars about you ask? It is a Fee-less (beyond purchasing the client) online-only game, styled after but far exceeding Diablo 2. It is not a traditional MMORPG though.. you start in a town (with many players) and then you form a party of between 2 and 8 people. When you venture out to do what you will, you are put on a map with only those 8 people and the hordes of monsters. It also has Team Player vs Player components throughout the game, as well as Guild vs Guild.

This is one of the most visually spectacular games I have played both in quality and variety of visuals. There are tonnes of hidden visual gems for the explorers and a good deal of model and colour customization for your character. The detail level is off the scale. The screenshot above is taken in a town called Camp Rankor and is common of the quality of the look and feel. I’ll just leave it at this: the creators put a LOT of time into the look of this game. Just to give you a feel for requirements, I am running an Athlon 1.7Ghz, 1 Gb ram, and a GeForce 3MX 128Mb video card and I can play with high quality settings at 1024×768 with 2x anti-ailiasing with no noticeable slowdown unless I get into an epic battle, but it is still very playable.

Gameplay is a lot of fun, in the beginning it’s a bit hack and slashish, but you soon discover that tactics, strategy, timing, teamwork, and a little luck will be the only way to get through the mission. Guild Wars has a very well developed plot that makes sense and when you finish the game gives you a sense that you have actually accomplished something. The battles can be small or epic and some of the missions can take an hour to complete, so have some time. Remember you are online and leaving in the middle of a mission is not appreciated. I have completed the game twice as a Monk and as a Mesmer and it was a very different experience. I plan on starting a new character very soon… considering a Necromancer

Interface-wise it is very familiar and should be no problem for people with some Diablo 2 experience (or any other MMORPG). You will have it down very quickly even if you don’t have any experience.

The community is large and very active. You will encounter all sorts of players there, in all ages and ablitites. I regularly play with a group that’s age range is 15-40ish. I have found on average that the maturity level is exceptionally high, so don’t let “I don’t want to play with 12 year olds” stop you, they are some of the most competent and resourceful players I have encountered in this game.

Talking about the PVP a bit, it is very well thought out and vey challenging. If you only want to play the PVP side, you can just create a high-level PVP character outfitted with good equipment and skills and go at it. In many towns in the RPG side there are PVP Arenas where you can get a group together and start schooling the other team.

The main component for the PVP though is for battle in the “Hall Of Heroes” (HoH). Guild Wars is split into three regions: Korea, America and Europe, and only one region can have “Favour of the Gods” (means that areas in the game are open only when your region holds the HoH), so there is a constant battle between teams from the regions to gain the “Favour”. I have been involved in the HoH for a bit and it is INTENSE. Up to six teams from the different regions clashing in the same arena, trying to wipe out the other sides.. battles last at least ten minutes, but I have been in some that lasted almost an hour. Whichever team is victorious gets announced across all regions that they have won, so international recognition is possible!

I must also mention that the creators are keeping a close eye on issues and patch requirements and are constantly making new builds to correct problems. This game is from the same company that has brought many other successful MMORPG to the world (Lineage II for example), so they know how important fixing problems are.

To wrap up my sermon, this is a great game with amazing graphics and spectacular missions. I highly recommend purchasing this game and enjoying everything that it offers. I will be writing more articles about Guild Wars, so stay tuned. If you do purchase the game and have any questions, whisper “Broken Wave” or “Shaugh Keir” and I will be happy to help you out, as will many of the other players.

Explore and enjoy!