Guild Wars

The Good
Before Guild Wars, I had never played an online title before, as much as the opportunity was always there. The one thing that always scared me off was the subscription based systems that every title had. I just didn't fine it reasonable to pay for the game at full price, then have to pay per month to continue on after the initial free period (they always try and suck you in, I might add), especially when I don't really get that much time to play video games every hour of the day, which in my eyes is the main reason to play an MMORPG.

So along came Guild Wars ... wait a second? Free? I can play as much as I want and not pay a cent more? Praise the heavens! Someone is listening to us!!

So off I went into the wide world of Guild Wars. It plays out much the same as, say, Everquest or World of Warcraft. Create your own character from a range of options, and then you build your character up through various missions, exploring the world within a game and maybe even making a few friends along the way.

Where GW differs from other titles is the emphasis more on strategy then 'point and click, hoping the spell works'. You can build up the most powerful beast you can imagine, but in the end they may not make any difference at all if you don't have some idea of your enemies ... or your allies. While working as a team is a priority, essentially you can play the game by yourself with assistance from AI bots, who do a decent job I might add. So you need to understand their strengths compared to yours, and use that as an advantage in battle.

Guilds, as the games name suggests, is the other key addition in the game. Outside of the 'world', there's an option to play against other Guilds or players separately. It's more then just a secondary add-on, too. Huge tournaments can be created, where by you and your Guild can compete against others in a deathmatch like environment. Any rewards you make can be transferred from the PvsP character to the World character, and visa versa, though with its limitations. For example, you can purchase improvements to your characters powers within the World, but only be able to use them for PvsP games.

Anyway, enough about explaining. How does it play? Very well, I must say, and not just because it's free. There's plenty to like about GW, from the visual splendour to a huge environment that can take many hours to explore ... hell I'm still going. Everything else falls into place well, from a solid musical score and voice-overs, to an interesting fable played out as you complete each mission. Speaking of, the main story will keep you occupied, but there's plenty of other things to complete on the side as well.

The Bad
It's hard to come up with any major criticism of Guild Wars. Granted, I do have the right machine to play the game the way it was meant to be played. Perhaps that's one minor gripe, then. But as with all MMORPG's, you can't expect to get the most out of them with a slow PC, so high specs are warranted.

Gameplay wise, exploring the game could be just a tad bit better. I find it at times frustrating that my character can't jump over a small ridge, making me have to backtrack a long, long way to get to that same point just a metre away. It does happen fairly often, those kinds of situations, and whether that's a design flaw or a reasonable move to reduce 'cheating' by evading conflict with enemies is an interesting debate.

The Bottom Line
It's free. It's arguably better then World of Warcraft. And with the constant updates flowing and a strong user base, it's hard to pass up the opportunity to join such a well crafted and well supported title. This, as my review summary suggests, is the way online games should be made. Do away with subscription fees and give people a reason to shell out for the game and the endless expansion packs that will follow it. If you build it right, they will come ...