Guild Wars 2, Part 3

This is the third part of my Guild Wars 2 review. Read the previous parts (one, two) if you haven’t! This will be my middle (not initial or final) thoughts, after playing the game for a month or two. Find it on the official site here.

Things I can’t really talk about yet because I haven’t done any, instanced group content, PvP (player versus player) content, WvW (world versus world) content. I will give a bit of an overview on them, about as well as I can. Instanced group content includes Dungeons, Strikes, Fractals, Raids. Dungeons are older content and have pretty much been replaced by Fractals. They are both meant for 5 person parties. Strikes and Raids are both 10 person content, though I believe Strikes are shorter and easier than Raids.

I haven’t touched PvP at all and have only dipped my toes into WvW. WvW is pretty cool. It takes place on several huge maps. You and everyone else from your world goes up against two other worlds. You fight to capture territory like keeps, fortresses, camps, and more. You can reinforce your structures while the enemy brings things like catapults to break down your walls and invade. I do want to try WvW more when I’m not doing other stuff.

Now what about the gem store? Does the things it sell make those that don’t buy anything feel limited? A bit, yeah. Like there is a 250 item limit on storing crafting material that you can increase by buying it from the store. Some Legendary crafts take 500 items or more, so without capacity increase upgrades, you will need to take up inventory space. Also, there are convenient items like an unlimited use equipment salvager or unlimited gathering tools. More slots is always useful for hoarders like me.

(Also random crafting hint, crafting stations can also access the bank, so you don’t need to go to the bank if you happen to be doing crafting).

A lot of other things have limited slots, too, such equipment set slots and skill loadout slots.

The game does have a lot of different currencies. If you look at the wallet tab, you might be shocked at how much you can scroll down. Now most of them are only map specific currencies. They are only useful for buying things from that particular map. It does help keep various maps populated if you have to go there to get the right currency.

There are still a lot of general currencies from the simple Gold to WvW points to Laurels and more. It does get confusing. There is also Astral Acclaim, which are points you can get for doing daily tasks. A big hint on Astral Acclaim: You can set what kind of tasks you want! When I first started, they were giving me a mixture of PvE, PvP, and WvW stuff, and I wasn’t able to do most of them since I didn’t go into PvP or WvW. You can tell it to only give you PvE stuff, which is great for me. Or PvP or WvW if that’s more your speed.

So, at the end of the day, the game is fun. Exploring the world is fantastic. There is just to much to do and see, and the game doesn’t really tell you to go do it (unless you start looking at achievements). This game gives you a reason to go out and explore. You’ll start seeing places to jump everywhere. Sometimes it’ll work out, sometimes it won’t. With many different activities to do, the main world is bustling and active.

The design of the zones are fun with lots of wonderful structures and scenery. The map isn’t the most helpful since the world is so layered on top of itself. But just going out there and trying to figure stuff out is a fun part of the game.

Still, the aggressiveness of the zones, both enemies and environmental effects, means that I rarely have the time to properly look around. It is often better just to rush through, taking a quick scan of anything that may be interesting. If the world was more calm, I would be better able to appreciate it.

Combat is a blend between action combat and tab targeting, which I think is strange. There are too many buttons needed for action, but is too high-paced for tab targeting. Now there are proper rotations you can do to maximize damage, but I find myself just pushing all my abilities as they come off cooldown. I do prefer the slower pace of Final Fantasy XIV’s combat.

With different builds and gears for character classes, it does take work to figure out what’s effective and what isn’t. Then there is all those different currencies and crafting on top of that. Unless you want to slowly fumble your way to something effective, you will need to do a lot of research. I’ve done more research for Guild Wars 2 in my first week playing than all my time playing Final Fantasy XIV. (This may or may not be hyperbole, but it sure feels that way).

Of course, you could figure it all out yourself, or you don’t need to worry about it at all depending on how serious you want to take the game. Though if you want to do group content, it is recommended that you figure it out or read what other people have figured out.

Guild Wars 2 is a game with lots to do. I’ve pretty much been focusing on the story for now while doing map exploration here and there. Finding out where stuff is happening in the map is easy enough as players can put a tag on themselves along with a message on what they’re doing. You can just follow the tagged players to doing group events. It’s a pretty great system, and overall, people in the main world are helpful since everyone needs to work together to complete certain events.

Find it on the official site here.