Guild Wars 2 overview

After playing World of Warcraft for many many years I eventually froze my account and I'm not too sure if I'll go back. Don't get me wrong, it's still a great game, I just think it's time to stop investing time in it.

This was difficult, however, because I really love the Warcraft Universe and have read many novels, I replay Warcraft 3 all the time (with cheats - for story), and I love the races and classes. So I may have approached Guild wars 2 with a slight hostility and skepticism (it'll never be as good as WoW); the races are different; the classes; I don't know any back story or history in this universe... It's a blank slate. I think this turned out to be a really good thing though. If your anything like me, one of the best things about MMO's is the creation of your avatars and testing them out.

I was a bit slow to fully take to it and in fact it was almost out a year before I started playing somewhat properly largely because I'm a Mac user and the Mac client didn't come out a while later ( playing on Bootcamp was just a pain) but also because it felt like I was turning my back on WoW, a fairly big chunk of my gaming life -- I was still only ever a casual player.

Right, enough reminiscing about what was and lets take a look at what is - now; Guild Wars 2.

I really think this game is superb. Below is a pro/con list:

Pros

• No subscription fee. Even if your only mildly interested in the game, why wouldn't you pick it up?

• The graphics are really nice; of course I can't really get the most out of it as the computer I'm playing on, the iMac, does not meet the minimum requirements although it still plays and looks fine. I love the look of the UI and the map and the cut scenes - that sort of sketchy arty look, I'm sure you know what I mean if you play.
• Character races/professions are new, different and exciting
• The game play style is really different. I wasn't sure about it at first but now I do really like it. I like the small pool of moves that don't clutter, I love the fact that moves are linked to weapons, which means that in the first couple of hours your after access to tons of different playing styles.
• I love the open group quests where you only have to be in the area of others doing the quest to get experience from it and you can join any fight/quest without having to join a group (of course this is not always the case, but sometimes you just want to cruise about on your own) if you don't want to And you don't have to accept quests or hand them in. I really really like this.
• New class types, I guess I should really call it professions, I'll talk a bit more about them down below
• Instant Auction House - called Trading Post.

Cons

• You only have 5 character slots. You can get more but I think it costs some money.

Ok, I don't have a lot of cons I can think of at the moment, I'm sure that there is a few more. however I do have a few nuances:

Nuances

•  I'm not familiar with the story and so am not too sure what's going on at the moment
• This goes for the map also, knowing where to go and where things are
• Crafts - I know it's like WoW professions but it took me a while to get a handle on it
• Different weapons can drastically change game play and so finding the right combination/fit for you will take quite some time -- but that's a major part of the fun, also there are tons of forums and youtube videos

Races

• Charr - They are like cat based werewolfs -- werecats? They look pretty cool and run on all fours, they just weren't for me.
• Sylvari - I sort of considered them elf like however they are plant based lifeforms with leaves for hair. These weren't really for me either
• Norn - These are like really huge humans - think 7ft wrestlers and vikings. I quite liked these but none of the professions I wanted to play seemed like a good fit for the Norn back story (really only warrior and ranger?)
• Human - These are my favorite class. I think they look good and suit all professions. 4 of 5 of my characters are human. This may be silly because I'm playing the same starting locations 4 times but I don't care.
• Asura - These guys are a cross between Wow gnomes and Stitch from Lilo and Stitch films. I originally didn't like them much but they have grown on me and I now have one in my character slot.

Professions

• Guardian - These are sort of like WoW palidans. Excel in support and survivability. I like this profession and it is one that I use. - First alt.
• Warrior - Standard warrior type, similar to WoW warrior, a great profession for easy play and attack/defense but is not one that I use.
• Thief - Again similar to WoW rogue, utilizes stealth. I never really played rogue in WoW and this class interested me and is one that I use. Last alt.
• Ranger - Similar to Wow Hunter, utilizes pet and bow. Not really for me.
• Elementalist - Similar to Wow mage but I think more versatile as you have access to all four elements. Actually it may also have some Shaman qualities, a mage/shaman hybrid. I am interested in this class by don't have the slots.
• Engineer - A really unique profession, may have been inspired by Team Fortress. I really like this profession, it's really quite different, uses guns, turrents and belts and kits which do a ton of stuff such as medic, grenader, bomber, flamethrower, elixers that have many boons (buffs). This is one that I use, however having such a vast amount of different skills it may be difficult to juggle them. - Second alt.
• Mesmer - Another really unique profession. Can cast illusions (clones and phantasms) to confuse and manipulate foes. This could be my main profession at the moment, it really interesting but could be quiet difficult to use. - Main
• Necromancer - Maybe a sort of WoW warlock but just in name classification, and perhaps it's use of minions and it does have a demon mode of sorts. I was too sure about this class but after seeing a couple of youtube video, I changed my mind and could be a contender for my main, not sure yet.

 So these are just some of the things I wanted to mention about the game. I wanted it to be brief and simple initial experiences of what I thought of the game. I also deliberately made quite a few Wow comparisons because that is the game I moved from, essentially replacing. There are loads of websites and forums that go really in-depth, like all MMO's, so if you want more info just ask Google. The Guild Wars 2 wiki is really good.

I really think this is a great game and would recommend it to anyone who likes the genre.