| | |  | All Games | Home » » » Guild Wars Game of the Year | | | | | | | Description: | | Presenting Guild Wars a Competitive Online Role Playing Game with an emphasis on tactical combat. In single player multiplayer and guild-based missions players will explore a fantasy world while pursuing professions and gaining skills that help them develop and advance their unique character.Guild Wars is the first title from Seattle-based ArenaNet which was founded by key members of the creative teams behind the hit games Warcraft StarCraft and Diablo as well as Battle.net the most-successful gaming network in the world.Guild Wars offers cooperative group combat single player missions and large head-to-head guild battles. While each combat experience will be different achievements will be permanent so that the character grows and progresses over time. Unique items special abilities and a wide variety of skills add meaningful value for the player and for his comrades. Missions are not scripted adventures but are tactical battlegrounds where victory or loss is determined by skill and teamwork.Free Online Play (Internet Connection Required)System Requirements:Minimum: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP 800 MHz Pentium 3 or equivalent 256 MB RAM GeForce 2 class video card with 32 MB RAM 250 MB hard drive space Internet connection Recommended: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP 800 MHz Pentium 3 or equivalent 256 MB RAM GeForce 3 class video card with 64 MB RAM 250 MB hard drive space Internet ConnectionFormat: WIN XPVISTA Genre: ENTERTAINMENT UPC: 892566000507 Manufacturer No: FGXP000501 | | | Features: | |
• After learning the game and building up your first character, you can jump right in to head-to-head competition or guild warfare
• Choose from a wide range of professions - Master nature as an Elementalist, serve divine spirits as a Monk, subvert with charisma as a Mesmer - along with more traditional classes like Necomancer, Ranger and Warrior
• The game includes integrated support for guilds, with guild banners and halls, chat rooms and forums -- guilds can challenge other guilds to battle, compete for control of key parts of the world, and be ranked on a worldwide ladder
• Unique streaming technology means no more patches -- new content is always being streamed to you directly, for new challenges and a continually changing world
| | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 7.5 inches | | Product Width:
| 5.25 inches | | Product Height:
| 1.75 inches | | Product Weight:
| 0.38 pounds | | Package Length:
| 7.5 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.4 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.3 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.5 pounds | | Release Date:
| April 28, 2005 | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 289 reviews |
| | | Game Information: | | | Platform:
| Windows NT / Windows 2000 / Windows XP | | Media:
| CD-ROM | | Item Quantity:
| 1 |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 289 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
460 of 476 found the following review helpful:
 Solid game - encourages teaming & PVP, not powerlevelingApr 29, 2005
By D. Parvin
"dparv"
Guild Wars is a very solid MMORPG that strongly encourages team play. The graphics are top-notch (if not up to the cartoon levels of World of Warcraft), the play addicting, and it's well-balanced. With no monthly fee, it's one of the best bargains in the MMORPG world. I take off a star and a half for the forced team aspect as well as the focus on pure fighting versus creating a world, but add 1 back for the value proposition so give this 4 and half stars, or a 4/5 fun/overall split.
This is a tough game to master with no outright 'uber' classes. Players choose 2 of 6 fairly standard basic professions (1 tank, 1 mezzer, 1 healer/defender, 2 nukers, 1 mezzer/nuker) with the second profession lacking one of the strongest attributes of the primary (including which armor you can wear and runes you can use). As you level, besides gaining hit points you do two things - specialize in the various basic class attributes and gain access to the real key: skills. You're limited to a certain number of active skills while in combat, so strategy and careful character building take precedence over getting to level 20. Experience to buy skills can be gained through basic PvE, missions, or PvP. Using a small set of skills wisely along with picking and choosing your attribute development is far more important than getting all the 75 skills available to each profession. This is definitely not a game that is easy to blindly powerlevel.
Cleverly designed, this sidesteps a lot of the problems surrounding the genre. Rather than deal with constant kill stealing, maps and missions are instanced, and you don't have to spend a whole slug of time traveling between regions. (Once you've been to a locale, boom, it's yours.) Recovery time is minimal as is non-combat time. You don't need to spend time harvesting mats and begging a friend to make your next weapon. Instead, kill things, complete missions, and you can bring mats straight to the NPC crafter to make a custom weapon (that can only be equipped by you, likely eliminating much of the secondary market for gear in this game.)
My reservations are four fold but minor. First, the way to truly advance in this game is through missions - and the only way to accomplish many missions is in a balanced team. Thus, you're basically forced to group despite the nominal ability to solo. This really means you have to figure out proper character development early - rather tough with your first few characters until you find a good guild, and frankly, sometimes many of us feel like playing solo. Second, the lack of any real crafting system here means you fight...and fight...and fight. CoH has done well with a similar model (without the PvP aspect) and it's worked well - not to mention the biggest headaches in most MMORPGs are the messes created with a bad item creation system - but if you enjoy socializing more than fighting (the typical harvester/crafter) this isn't the game for you. Third, the game really revolves around PvP much more than PvE for the above reasons - so if you're looking for a game without conflict, this isn't it. Finally, while the focus on instanced events does prevent many of the problems found in most other MMORPGs, it also reduces the multiplayer aspect except in non-instanced locales like towns. The net effect of all of these is to slightly dilute the 'world' aspect, and for those looking for total immersion this may not be a perfect match.
Still, this is a great game and deserves 4 1/2 stars, and if you're looking for an alternative to the hordes of WoW that strongly encourages teaming this should be at the top of your list. One final note: this actually runs quite well even on my soon-to-be discarded Athlon 1100 and is geared towards doing well on slightly older systems - and even 56k modems! - unlike most new games. Big plus.
272 of 285 found the following review helpful:
Engaging Team-Based PlayMay 13, 2005
By Yu-jin Chia
"Yu-Jin Chia"
Guild Wars has been touted as being revolutionary in several ways. For those that haven't read the game overview, these can be summarized as follows:
1. Doesn't require immense amounts of time to be really 'fun.'
2. Little or no time spent doing repetitive tasks and travel.
3. Competitive guild-based play, with custom guilds.
4. No monthly fees and dynamic content change/addition.
The last point is of great interest to many people (myself included) in that this is the first MMORPG to be completely free of fees. However, everyone knows expansions are planned, so this is only 'kind-of sort-of' true.
Though you don't do repetitive tasks like gathering food or resources, to find anything remotely useful you do have to kill enemies over and over again. Additionally, the travel waypoints are sometimes very spread out, so you are still going to do a lot of walking. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, however (more on that later).
The level cap is 20, and it's true that this doesn't make it very hard to become as powerful as you'll ever get. In PVP only mode, you start at 20, so you spend no time at all building up a character. However, this doesn't mean you can become level 20 overnight- it does take quite a while, and the quests are challenging enough that you will likely need (human) help.
That said, this game is definitely built for guild-based play. The designers say that solo play is optional, but truth be told it probably isn't. Now that the main features have been addressed, a general overview of the game is in order.
The only 'MM' part of the game is towns. While in towns you can see other players in the same district, form your party, trade items, start quests, and configure your skills (a maximum of 8 can be used at one time). You can also take along henchmen if you want to fill out a party or go solo.
You can leave town one of two ways- by walking through a portal or by starting a mission. The missions address the main quest and often take you to major cities, thus saving you the trouble of walking. They also reward you with experience and skill points. Quests are separate from these, and reward you with experience, skills, and items. In general, the mission and quest design is well done, but you will find the occasional glitch- some of which can force you to repeat one. When in a quest area, a pointer will show where the next objective is.
PVP can be done at arenas, and there's a level cap for each to prevent overly unfair competition. You get experience and (if you play enough) fame for winning matches. This is always a team-based mode, and teams are selected either at random or by party assignment. In RP mode, however, it's quite possible to get far superior equipment than your competition, and thus have a massive edge in combat. A winning team will continue to play matches, and the game doesn't seem very good at auto-balancing the parties.
While exploring the wilds, you'll encounter many and varied monsters, which range in classes and difficulty. Most come in groups, and usually are too dangerous or numerous to solo. This is where my first complaint shows up. Frankly, the henchman AI is beyond pathetic, which is why playing with other people is generally advisable (on occasion, however, I've found human players that are worse in that regard than the henchmen. Such is life). If you're in a party, you'll divide the gold, experience, and spoils. This applies to henchmen party members as well.
Exploration is really the meat of the game. I've done PVP, but it gets old pretty fast- especially if you keep ending up in a poorly balanced team, which seems to happen alarmingly often. You also get no loot for winning, and nobody really cares about fame. The wilderness areas are very well done, with excellent graphics and accompanying music. The world is massive, and the monsters are hard enough that you have to think about what skills you take- and what your fellow party members are taking. Unlike many other RPGs, a bunch of offensive-oriented people each doing their own thing will likely meet a very quick demise. Guild Wars really forces you to coordinate (especially with healing others and focusing to take down hard enemies) and punishes you if you fail to do so. I personally find this a welcome change in direction.
If you should happen to die, you can either wait for a party member to revive you, or (if everyone's dead) you'll respawn at an altar. Sometimes these are placed in very awkward places, which does need to be addressed. You don't lose items, but suffer a 'death penalty' that reduces your health and energy up to 60% (15% per death). You can work this off by gaining experience, killing boss monsters, or completing mission objectives. Going to a town negates the penalty, and this is highly advisable if you get to 60%. Nevertheless, sometimes you really can't go back to town, because leaving an area causes all monsters to repopulate. This can lead parties to conduct suicide raids, in which the sole objective is to kill at least one more monster blocking the way to that quest goal. At times it can be rather frustrating- especially with the more difficult quests. Since the max level is 20 and many monsters are higher, even if you're an experienced player you will likely die scores of times doing quests and missions.
As for character customization, you have a choice of skills in which to invest points (a max of 200, which each successively level costing more), and you can design guild capes and dye items various colors. This, aside from the standard appearance choices at character generation and of course equipment, is about all that makes you unique. If you decide you want to change your skills, you can acquire 'refund points' by gaining experience. These let you reallocate skill points. There are six classes to pick from, and you can have one 'sub-class' that gives you access to some skills from another. This is a permanent choice, so it's best to choose wisely.
The classes in general are quite well balanced, but there is a 'paper rock scissors' arrangement there. That is, Rangers dominate Elementalists, Warriors dominate Rangers, Necromancers dominate Warriors, etc. If you know what you're fighting, there are skills designed to counter every other class, but some are necessarily better than others. Usually you'll learn what to pick the hard way. Fortunately, there's unlimited refund points available, and you can quite quickly rebuild your character if you decide to just junk it all.
In sum, Guild Wars isn't an easy game. This is especially true if you're not a team player and don't like to make friends online. The bottom line is, this isn't a game for everyone. I personally like the party-based exploration and missions, but I know some others that despise it. If you haven't played in the beta and aren't sure which sort of player you are, I'd advise you to get the game and find out. Since there isn't a monthly fee, it won't hurt too badly to try, and- if you decide to quit- you won't feel like you're losing something you paid for by ditching your characters.
21 of 21 found the following review helpful:
Just love this gameNov 19, 2004
By J. Mila
I got dragged into playing this game for the word preview event and absolutey love it. I ran right out an bought the presale package so I could play the beta events too. This game is a lot of fun. It has storylines, missions, pvp in two different arena type games, and even some armor weapon crafting. The basis, of course, is competing with a rated guild and engaging in a capture the flag type combat with other guilds, where teamwork is emphasized. However, if you feel like guild stuff isn't your thing you can go out adverturing solo. And for those who KNOW that going out alone might get you killed but you still don't like working with others, you can HIRE OUT, healers, rangers, warriors, elementalists, etc, to give you a hand in the field!! And finally, if you think you'll miss out on the pvp by not having a guild, you can go solo in a random entry arena where you are pitted against another random, and possibly uncoordinated, team.
I love this game and can't wait till the next beta event. The graphics are pretty decent and surprisingly enough, I can actually run it on my 5 year old computer with no problems and a cable modem connection. I can almost never do this with the latest rpg games. I wouldn't suggest this game to anyone running on much less than that, though. People with dialup connections tend to spawn so late in the pvp arenas that they're dead as soon as they appear. Overall though, I highly suggest this game. It allows to you to enjoy the game and allows character progression even if you don't have 7 hours a day to play, which you sometimes need with other mmorpgs.
24 of 25 found the following review helpful:
100 hrs of play reviewJul 09, 2005
By Most Lee Harmless
ok, so you can guess from the title of my review that i have enough experience playing this game to say what i think of it and be acurate about it.
I'll just get right into it and tell you strengths, weaknesses, and comparisons (i have a wealth of knowledge from other MMORPGs)
1. This is not like any other MMO on the market. plain and simple. I've played Ultima Online, Anarchy Online, EQ, EQ2, Asheron's Call 2, Shadowbane, Star Wars Galaxies, Final Fantasy XI, and Matrix Online. Believe me when i say this, none of the those games is anything like Guild Wars. The only thing that makes them the same is the fact that you level up a character to a predefined top level.
2. If you want to compare it to another game or two, try EQ or EQ2. Medieval in nature with warriors, mages, necromancers, rangers.... but that's as far as it goes. EQ is the standard in this game genre and Guild Wars does not compare. Guild Wars does not have 6+ years of the developers adding story line changes/additions. This is not to say that the GW's story sucks. It's awesome. There are a few shallow points and sometimes you'll say to yourself, "what was the point of doing that quest? what did it acomplish other than to earn me some xp (and maybe a useless sellable item or two or three)?" sometimes the changes in the world are subtle in nature and when i say that, i mean it. There are few statues of the gods scattered around the entire world. Something i hadn't noticed at first but then later realized what had happened was that a statue of the god of war, Balthazar, was glowing a blue flame after i had completed many of the quests contained within the region. i have a habit of taking screenshots while i play cause i find things that i really like to look at. i took a picture of that statue initually when i first saw it and it was not glowing at all. i had to go back through my screenshots to make sure i wasn't just thinking it was different. so yeah.... it might not seem like much, but it may be something that may prove to be worth while later on down the road(ie. a major game wide quest to make all the statues glow by doing various tasks within a zone/region).
3. Strengths- first and foremost is the fact that you can move from place to place all over the world just by opening the world map, clicking on the place you'd like to go and then wam bam thank you ma'am, you are there. that is of course, you've been to the place already. that's the only requirement for being able to do all the jumping around. you just have to step into the place and it's put on your world map so that you can jump to it later. it's invaluable come quest time when you don't feel like going back the way you came.
another strong point is the quest system. some people would complain that they made it way too easy. it's too easy if you're the kind of person that likes to spend countless hours trying to find a paticular person or place or thing somewhere in the world. not me. the quest system will give you an arrow on your compass/map in the upper corner of your screen. it's not specific as far as what pathes to take. that you have to figure out on your own. but if you look at the world map, you can see a green star where you are to head for the quest. also, when you get close, you'll get that same green star on the compass/map in the corner so you know you're getting close.
the rune/weapon upgrade system. i love this in the fact that you specifically have to find the different runes and weapon upgrades to unlock them. for those of you that are thinking, "oh crap, now i will have to spend tons of hours trying to find one paticular rune for my character." not to worry. they can be bought from other players and also, a new addition added after the release of the game (meaning it won't be talked about in the instruction manual) is rune traders. you can buy any rune available in the game as long as you have the money. here's the catch. when you create a PvP character those runes aren't unlocked for you in the char. creation section. this is the point of unlocking runes/weapon upgrades. so you can eventually create a PvP character that is customized to your liking with the runes/weapon upgrades of your choosing. it may take a while, and believe me, i'm not even close to having them all unlocked.
the skill system is another strength but can also be a weakness at some points. this is another area of unlocking you'll do. this is more class specific though. you play through an adventure character (as apposed to a PvP char.) and unlock skills along the way by doing quests and/or buying skills from the Skill NPCs in different cities. there is a new way that's just recently been implemented and that's fighting in the arenas and earning faction points. you use the faction points to unlock skills/runes/weapon upgrades but it's not cheap. it'll take alot of fighting to get the amount of points you need to unlock certain skills/runes/weapon upgrades.
4. Weaknesses- for starters, as i said earlier, the story. there isn't alot to it. this is a new game though. the story that's there will surely be added to along the way with new expansions and patch updates. there is already a plan to have two new major zones added to the game some time this summer.
the quests are a little lacking at this point also. there isn't a ton of them, like many other games, but they are there. new ones are added almost every two weeks in the weekly game patches. when i say there isn't a ton that doesn't mean there isn't any. it's just that, some places only two or three quests while other places have about ten to fifteen. some are a little weak in content also. they pose almost no challenge even to someone that has just reached that region/zone. for whatever reason, the devs decided not to add a crap load of quests like most MMOs that are released right off the shelf.
last but not least is the varience in weapons. many of the ones you pick up look the same as one you may have picked up earlier in the game, but it's got higher stats to it. some people don't mind this, but i do. i like to find new items that have a different look than any others out there. when i find a gold unique item, i want it to look different than anyone elses. right now, the weapon models are rather lacking in some departments. staves are kind of bland whereas swords and hammers later in the game are awesome looking. armor is somewhat in the same department as this. they all look nice but when you get to a new city where you can upgrade to a better set, they are exactly the same. that is of course if you choose the same type as the one you are wearing. each armor is class and sex specific, so a male ranger's armor is going to look different than a female ranger's armor even if it's the exact same type.
i know at times in my review it almost sounds like i hate this game. i don't. i love it. it can be improved on and i'm sure it will. i've seen games that rise and fall very quickly (shadowbane and asherons call 2) but this will not be one of them. not having to pay a monthly fee is the biggest reason for this opinion. when you don't have to pay for something constantly, you're more willing to play.
17 of 17 found the following review helpful:
A Highly Promising Game (With No Monthly Fee)Nov 01, 2004
By Simkin
"J"
Having played the original Everquest long ago and dabbled in free trial versions of other massively multiplayer online games such as Lineage II, I have become somewhat disenchanted with MMOs. I dislike the general concept of paying a monthly fee to play a game that often involves long hours of tedium, and lately I have little time/money to spare for games in general. But from October 29th to 31st there was an open world preview event for Guild Wars, and I decided to give it a try.
Guild Wars was developed by a team of former Blizzard employees, and they have managed to inject some strategy into the typical role-playing fantasy setting. However, some role-playing elements have been sacrificed in exchange for reducing online tedium. You may not enjoy Guild Wars if you absolutely love the role-playing element. That being said, the game in its current stage of build is amazingly fun.
Players start with the option to create characters with a primary and secondary profession. These profession choices determine the skills/spells you can acquire, and you can only take eight skills into a mission/battle. This by itself creates a new level of strategy for the player, as certain skills combo well together. You can also decide to emphasize skills that make you able to solo, or you can choose more support skills for your party. And having good support people in a group is essential in Guild Wars.
The preview event allowed players to start out at level 15 and max out at level 20. I was pleased to find that leveling and gaining decent equipment was no longer a pain. I easily made level 20 in the three days that the event ran and actually had fun doing so. This was thanks to a mission-oriented leveling system that encourages groups of six players to team up (alternately, you can hire NPC henchmen). The missions are instanced for your group (meaning no swarms of other players to compete with for objectives, kills, experience, loot), and have mini-narratives that follow a sort of linear plotline. As you complete each mission, a new area is open to you on your overall map.
Ah yes, the map. No more insanely long travel times. You just go to your map, zoom in on the area you want to go to, and click "travel." Areas open up as you complete each mission, and you can travel freely among all the places you have been to.
Large-scale player interaction takes place in the mission-waiting areas and main city (Lion's Arch). Here you find players forming groups or trading/buying/selling, and this reminds you that the game is a massively online multiplayer game. This brings me to player versus player action, which is the highlight.
You could say Guild Wars is all about player versus player, but it's done in a way that emphasizes the fun aspects. PvP takes place in areas like the Gladiator Arena and the Tomb of Primeval Kings, with groups of up to eight players battling several other groups. The objective might be to simply kill the other groups, or it might involve protecting a resurrection shrine (where an NPC monk can resurrect fallen team members periodically). There is no loss of experience or equipment when you die (though within missions there is a temporary health/mana penalty), you can only gain experience and fame.
PvP also brings out the strategic elements of Guild Wars. A well-balanced group that has excellent support combinations, skills, and strategies will do much better than a group where the players do not cooperate. There are no large-scale sieges or battles involving hundreds of players, but in other MMOs those tend to dissolve into freewheeling melees with little cooperation or strategy.
Finally, players can found guilds once they have enough gold (which is not that hard to get). They can then freely invite other players to join up. Being in a guild gives you your own nifty guild symbol/colors to wear, as well as a group of players always ready to form a team for missions or PvP arenas. The game also has a special arena for guilds to compete head-on.
I can already envision Guild Wars being popular outside the traditional MMORPG community, especially given that there is no monthly fee. The Guild Wars developers seem well on their way to creating an immensely entertaining, accessible, and affordable game. Good job guys.
For a more detailed review from an experienced Alpha tester:
http://www.epinions.com/content_142722436740
Related Links:
http://www.guildwars.com/default.html
http://archive.gamespy.com/landing/guildwars/
http://www.photics.com/index.php
See all 289 customer reviews on Amazon.com
| | |
|
