Guild Wars® Trilogy Reviews

Sehr gutes MMORPG, sehr Teambasierend.

the best game of all time

Old, but it's extremely massive despite that.

I remember skipping a relatively important school event because I got my hands on a gaming magazine that contained a ten-hour trial of Guild Wars Fractions. I do not regret missing it, as it was an awesome night I had playing a then-unknown MMORPG to me. I was too poor at the time to afford a full version, but the game made such an impression on me that I know I had to start a more complete adventure with Guild Wars at some point in my life. That time is now. Having reached the 30-hour mark in Guild Wars, I know I want to spend more time with it. The game has aged very well and is much more fun than today's MMORPGs. There's a huge amount of content that you can enjoy at your own pace, without having to rush to get to the maximum level. The real fun starts from the first level and feels like it will continue for a very long time. I know it's kind of cheeky to say this after playing it so little, but ever since the aforementioned trial, I think it's the kind of game you'll never forget once you play it. If you are into the MMORPG genre, then you definitely have to play it.

Guild Wars: Trilogy, Written by : ISayonI ------------------------- Gameplay: 9/10 Puzzles: 3/10 Action:9/10 Atmosphere: 10/10 ------------------------- Classic RPG, but so EPIC story lines! Specialy when you have all the expansion's! The level system works very easy and is fast! You will start as a level 1. (Charactar) And you have to fight your way trought epic battles. To safe the world from EVIL. Have fun!

[spoiler][i](Note 1: I played Guild Wars 2 for almost 3 years before starting GW1, so a lot of my views are informed by that baseline.)[/i] [i](Note 2: My review is only about PvE, as I don't play any PvP.)[/i] [i](Note 3: I used Idle Master to be able to leave a review, because the app itself doesn't have its own store page. See my profile for my real playtime.)[/i][/spoiler] [h3][i]Most recent update: 2,300+ hours of playtime[/i][/h3] A quite good and unique party-based online instanced* RPG. Recommended, if you don't mind playing it mostly as a single-player game. (Also it's more enjoyable if you're familiar with GW2.) * Outposts and towns are shared with other players, but the combat and mission areas are instanced only for your party (typically at most 7 other players, but more commonly just you and your NPC heroes). [h1]The good:[/h1] ➕ The gameplay feels tactical and methodical – GW is not about quick reflexes, but about being prepared for the challenge you face, and knowing which enemy to target and when to regroup. ➕ You can build your own team of hero NPCs, and run around with a small army. ➕ You can combine two professions and change the secondary one whenever you're not in an instance. ➕ The campaigns have very diverse themes and environments. My favourite is Factions that features East Asian-inspired themes. ➕ The soundtrack is superb, although it gets a bit monotonous if you stay in one map for too long. I hadn't realised how much of it they lifted over to GW2 unchanged. ➕ Build templates! You can save profession/attribute/skill choices into txt files, and manage them via the game UI. You can also share the builds via template codes, and load other people's builds onto your team this way. ➕ The game offers both mouse and WASD movement. You can also target a player/NPC/object (even through walls) and automatically run to it. ➕ The UI and hotkeys are [i]very[/i] customisable. You can resize/reshape/move/hide most UI panels. ➕ It actually works very well as a de facto single-player game. If one prefers to play with others, there are many guilds around, the largest one with thousands of active members. (American districts are the de-facto multiplayer districts, even though the European player population is higher. But you can freely switch district in any outpost.) ➕ The trilogy version of the game includes GOTY bonus items, one of which is a very helpful summonable ally. Some bonus weapons are decent too. ➕ Last, but not least, as a GW2 player it's really awesome to experience all the places and stories I only heard of as historical events. [h1]Mixed:[/h1] 〰 Very diverse skill and build options. It gives you great freedom, but it can also be quite overwhelming for new players. Unless you really enjoy theorycrafting, I highly recommend to look up build guides because the game is complex and doesn't shy away from throwing difficult challenges at the player pretty much from the start. (Here's a very good teambuilding guide for [url=https://gwpvx.fandom.com/wiki/Build:Team_-_7_Hero_Beginner_Team]beginners[/url].) 〰 Lots of GW veterans praise the game's story, but as someone who started it as an adult, it's 90% nostalgia goggles. While there are some epic or poignant moments, there are many more plotholes and nonsensical elements. There's almost no character development over the course of the four storylines. Overall the writing feels flat, which is actively made worse by the terrible voice acting (see below). That said, the secondary quests are often quite well-written. 〰 The visuals are nice for their age, but they [i]are[/i] made by a 2005 graphics engine, which shows, especially in the character models and animations. [h1]The bad:[/h1] [i]Most of the negatives are due to the game's age.[/i] ➖ The movement is clunky, characters are prone to some rubberbanding and getting hit by melee attacks while already 5 meters away. Positioning is supposed to be an important aspect of combat, but it's a pain in the arse in practice. This harms especially the melee playstyle, as you (and your melee heroes) spend more time running after enemies, than actually hitting them. The pathfinding is also very janky, you get stuck on [i]everything[/i]. I also miss GW2's jumping – that single ability causes a fundamental difference in the landscape design of the two games. GW2 maps encourage you to scramble over diverse terrain, while GW maps often feel like a series of long corridors. ➖ There is an intentional aftercast delay for most spells, meaning characters freeze for ¾ seconds after casting most spells and take no input during that. For years I thought it was just jank due to the game's age, but turns out it's a feature, not a bug. Regardless, it's really annoying. ➖ No trading post / auction house. Getting most kinds of max-stat weapons is a lot of hassle, as the only way to do it is to sit in a specific city in the American districts, keep shouting on trade chat, and hope that another player who has that item happens to be on the same map at the same time. Due to the low player population even this method is not reliable. The experience is so miserable, that I gave up on getting optimal weapons for the specs that are not available from NPC crafters. ➖ The game has a very steep early difficulty curve. I struggled a lot until I reached a mostly meta hero team composition, which eventually removes almost all challenge from normal mode gameplay. Hard mode is another matter, some areas are downright brutal that way. ➖ The voice acting is pretty much the worst I've ever heard, and I'm not saying this lightly. It sounds like they grabbed random people from the street with no talent or training whatsoever. Most performances sound wooden, while some are over-acted or just downright bizarre. When the dramatic lines of the campaign's main antagonist make you laugh out loud, it kills any remaining dramatic atmosphere the mediocre writing left intact. ([url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0QfZdLgdTc&t=145s]spoilery example[/url]) ➖ Might be a stretch to miss this from a 2005 game, but there's no wardrobe system. Want a different look for your armour or weapons? Too bad, you can't just change the skin, you need to craft new pieces from scratch. ➖ Related to the above, the dye system is really convoluted to use if you want to stray away from the 12 basic colours and start mixing them. ➖ There are some annoying automated announcements that can't be muted without using a 3rd-party mod, and some of them not even with that. (People winning at a specific game mode every 15 minutes, random people in an outpost gaining new skill points or leveling up.) ➖ The price of the "micro"transactions on the game's website are ridiculously high, even a dev admitted that "mtx prices aren't up to date with the reality of where the game is in its life cycle". [h1]Final thoughts:[/h1] This game is much more enjoyable if you're already familiar with GW2. The awesome lore immersion helps to balance out all the aged and non-player-friendly aspects of the game. Still, it's a solid party-based RPG. If you enjoy complex and challenging games of this genre, GW1 can become a really satisfying companion providing [i]years[/i] of fun. GW1 has a small but extremely committed playerbase still playing after so many years. GW2's Hall of Monument feature also brings a steady trickle of new players to the game. As of May 2024, a developer is now working full time on the game again (after many years of 2 devs only being able to work on GW in what free time they had from their actual GW2 job.) PS. If you do pick up the game, the [url=https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page]official wiki[/url] is an invaluable resource. PPS. The [url=https://www.gwtoolbox.com/]GWToolbox[/url] mod was recently officially approved, and I [b]HIGHLY[/b] recommend it to every player – it provides tons of QoL features and UI polishes, such as quick travel, hero team loadouts, an actually useful minimap, and much more!

I enjoyed this game at a time when it was popular and I still can have fun with it nowadays (even if I'm not playing it often). This game is old but it has decent graphics. The musics are a delight to listen to, the story is interesting enough, and you can have fun customizing your skill bar to get the most dps/support possible out of eight skills to choose from the plethora of skills obtainable throughout the different campaigns. The game is still enjoyable now, especially if you like Hack'n Slash and have friends to play with (although you can have a chance to meet players if you play on American servers). Don't worry, you can still play alone if you want and get help with henchmen (characters you can hire in cities with an already determined set of skills) or get help with heroes (characters you obtain during the main story of Nightfall whom you can assign skills you have learned beforehand).

Good MMO game, actually not much players but good to play with friends

One of the best MMO's on the market, I love the engaging story the most which is followed by good combat solo or a group of great players that fills the world of guild wars. A must play for any mmo fan.

The graphics are a delight to look at ( especially considered the first game was made in 2005 ! ) , great gameplay, interesting and fun character creation and skill system. I am really falling in love with this game! I also play D&D online, and I love that game too. The big differense between these two is definately to GW`s advantage: GW has a way better story(ies), it is much easier to play single ( which I prefer, and many with me), - And : You buy the game once, and then it is fully paid ! With D&D online and most other MMORPGs , you have to pay a fee continually . Think I`m gonna play this for years! :))) ......................................................................................... Added to my review : I had some trouble when I needed to contact GW support, - which seemed impossible for a while, and I stopped playing . This might be one reason a lot of people left GW1, even if they loved it . It does not say so anywhere - but to contact support, you have to contact the GW2 support ! It`s really strange that the devs never added an easy way to do that , - there is no way to find out in game options ! Even worse ; I was able to purchase in-game items, like armour appearance, - but these items never showed up in my inventory ! How come , when the support and devs left this game - what they obviously did ! Why could`t they simply add a click to reach them , - and Really !!! Remove the option to purchase stuff that`s not available any more !!!??! For those of you who might need it : GW 2 support : [email protected] This should maybe be a reason for me giving GW1 my thumb down - but I still choose not to, because it is so much fun to play !