Guild Wars 2 has just turned 10! The MMORPG celebrated with the addition of Twitch Drops and a launch on Steam. Unfortunately, I wasn’t playing until 2013 or 2014 and so I don’t have a 10 year old character, but I still love this game and wanted to take a moment to share some of the reasons why I love Guild Wars 2 in honor of this milestone. If you play it I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments and if you haven’t played it yet, I recommend you check it out.
Low barrier to entry
It is not difficult to get into it Guild Wars 2. In the last few years there has been a free version of the game that has the main story and has pretty low limits. This is perfect for trying it out and seeing if you like it. You can enter, create a character, get a taste of the mechanics and the story and then decide. If you decide to get into the game more, you can purchase expansions which will give you loads of additional story content, additional mechanics like mounts, additional character slots, and much more. You can grab all 3 expansions for $ 49.99 and there are no subscription fees unlike other MMOs and so you don’t have to worry about constant drainage of your bank account. This is what initially drew me to the game honestly. An MMO without a subscription plan? It looks fantastic!
In line with the low barrier of entry, Guild Wars 2 it is not pay-to-win. Yes, there are in-game purchases you can make. For the most part, these are for cosmetic items like skins for your weapons, armor, and mounts. There are a few things you can purchase with gems (the in-game currency purchased for real money) that help make the game more enjoyable, such as unbreakable collection tools for crafting materials or collecting nodes for your home instance, but these are just quality of life items and are not necessary to do well. I want to note that gold can be converted to gems and vice versa, so if you are good at grinding gold you can access all these items. It’s also true that you can buy gems, convert them to gold, and then purchase powerful items, but that’s not a necessity.
If that’s not enough, Guild Wars 2 it doesn’t even require a gaming computer to play. After all, the game was designed to run on machines 10 years ago. Yes, some expansions have built on this and require a little more oomph, but it still doesn’t take much to play at the lowest settings. I can play it on a laptop with an integrated graphics card.
Fantastic growing story
Guild Wars 2 it has an amazing history. The base game is fantastic and complete. However, the story then expands through the Living World chapters, Heart of thorns, Way of fire, Icebrood sagaand more recently End of the dragons. Each set has a solid beginning and end that build on each other in fantastic ways. Plus, if you’ve played original Guild Wars, there are always plenty of little things to catch and enjoy. Throughout the game’s stories, you will have to face different dragons, face a god, and even return from the dead.
Easy to play casually
I am a casual player. I have many dishes to juggle and don’t always have time to access a game every day or sometimes even weekly. There have been times when I took months off for one reason or another. However, it’s quick and easy for me to get in Guild Wars 2. Many other MMOs have a million skills that you can easily spread across over 4 large quick bars and I hate going back to those games because it takes me over 30 minutes just to remind myself what my character can do. In Guild Wars 2, get 1 quickbar with 10 skills. There are a few additional things to remember based on the class you’re playing, but these are significantly fewer items than many other traditional games in the genre. I can stay out of the game for a few months and after about 10 minutes of refreshing my skills, I’m back in action.
It looks gorgeous
Guild Wars 2 it’s a great looking game. No, it doesn’t look like a current AAA game, but it holds up very well after 10 years. Over the past year, the ArenaNet team has implemented support for DX11 which certainly helps a lot in the modern era. However, if you have a powerful machine and can run it on High, the game just looks amazing and sometimes it’s fun to walk around and watch the world go by. The game has Map Completion Viewpoints that give you a 360 degree view of a location and sometimes it’s great to watch that short video.
Much more
There are so many things I haven’t touched. I love the mounting system. Gliders are great. Masteries are a great post-game system for character growth. The community is so helpful and great overall. I feel like I just scratched the surface. Obviously, if you’re not a fan of PvE, there is PvP and even World vs World, but I have very little experience in these areas so I didn’t feel comfortable talking about it. But that’s another great aspect. You can choose which content to participate in. I don’t have to play PvP or WvW. I can stick with PvE and history. Try the game if you haven’t already and if you have, let’s continue having fun with Tyria.
by Tommy Williams
Source: Geek Tyrant
