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Forums - PC Discussion - The Official Guild Wars 2 thread *** First non-NDA beta is live! Impressions inside

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Well, played some hours with the Charr Engineer and then made another character (a Human Necromancer). The story looks cool, it changes based on the race, profession and aswers you give about your background. The difficulty is pretty high too I'd say, it's not as newbie-friendly as WoW...right now it's as challenging as GW Phropecies IMHO. The main difference is that here the level is what matters the most, so if you go around exploring, doing side-quests, world-events and so on, you'll level quite easily.

The teleports cost a small fee, which is annoying for someone (like me) who usually does not collect garbage to make coppers...and they have bugs sometimes, we and many others where stuck out of the Black Citadel unable to enter: someone was shooting at the portal, somone was screaming in the chat, it was really funny XD

The achievements work great, especially the daily ones: if you play two hours, you can unlock the most of the daily achievements, which give you experience, while farming gives little exp (with bosses too! I fought 5 minutes with three elite ghosts and they gave me like 20 exp -__-), so playing daily is more important than playing a lot!

I tried to commerce, but it was bugged, I was unable to sell items to people who asked for them...anyway looks a cool system, better than the "auctions" from other MMOs...the gem store is interesting too, the fee for 100 gems was 5 silvers yesterday, not too much, so everyone can enjoy the game without paying real money.

The world events are pretty fun. You just happen to walk on your way to a quest or to an NPC, and some other NPCs run to you asking for help, and your map changis according to that...you'll usually have to fight in these events, but there are different roles on the battleground...for example, protecting the main items from enemies who steal them, or reviving the fallen allies (there is a fun bug, fallen ally who walk around the map! lol).
The hearts are quite fun too: you have to help NPCs in many different ways: you can fight monsters, collect items, clean from garbage, feed cows (yes, I really had to feed a cow, and it was so happy to send me hearts!)...

The gameplay is where GW2 has so much potential, but fails to introduce to new players...5 of the skills are unlocked through usage of every weapon, the other five depend from you class and you can unclock them with skill points. I actually bought my first turret, the rifle one, which is not that great, but useful to gather enemy's attention while I finish them :P The battle are really impressive to see, but difficult to play, since there are always like 30 players/enemies in a space of 10 feets...I was able to target the enemies only with the "tab" button, but not as effectively as in GW, since there are no red circles on the map to understand who you're targeting.
Hopefully they'll improve the tutorial, since there are so many options (dodging!) not explained when you play.

Tecnically, the game is really good to see. I'm playing at low settings to have just small issues with frames and overheating (laptop...), but still what I saw was amazing. The musics are great, you can hear epic songs (the log-in screen *__*), war ones, ballads...the voice dialogues are well made to, I don't have a perfect english so they're just fine for me (even if an italian localization would be better!).

Well, I'll play today to, I plan to try PvP and some WvW, and go on with the human character too (maybe I'll create a Norn before the time elapses). Feel free to ask questions :D



CURRENTLY PLAYING: Xenoblade (Wii), Super mario 3D land (3DS), Guild Wars (PC)

 

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Buzzi said:

Well, I'll play today to, I plan to try PvP and some WvW, and go on with the human character too (maybe I'll create a Norn before the time elapses). Feel free to ask questions :D

And that I will!

What's the highest you got in level? Does things get more difficult as you level up? 

I think the difficulty looks like a good balance between challenging and fun, but I hope they do have a tutorial in the final game.  

Did you get a feel for dodging and how important positioning is? 

I know it's pretty important, but I'd like to hear your impressions none the less. ^_^



Rainbird said:
Buzzi said:

Well, I'll play today to, I plan to try PvP and some WvW, and go on with the human character too (maybe I'll create a Norn before the time elapses). Feel free to ask questions :D

And that I will!

What's the highest you got in level? Does things get more difficult as you level up? 

I think the difficulty looks like a good balance between challenging and fun, but I hope they do have a tutorial in the final game.  

Did you get a feel for dodging and how important positioning is? 

I know it's pretty important, but I'd like to hear your impressions none the less. ^_^


I got to level 8 with the Charr and to level 5 with the human. Things get more difficult every now and then, after the first two story-quests you are free to go around the world map, and you encounter events for a range of levels...for example at the southern entrance to the Black Citadel there was an attack by harpies, i was starting to battle when I saw the suggested level for that event was 10, and trust me, it's not easy evenat that level. The story-quests are challenging, I don't know if that's caused by brocken balance (as I said I fought a really hard battle in a ruin setting, you really had to play strategically to avoid death...but I died two times :P) or is a choice of developers.

A tutorial is needed, for example i found out about the dodging system only after one day of playing, no one tells you about that or how it works. I'm still figuring out how to use it well, but it's a nice addition to the game...right now, I wouldn't say it's necessary at all.

Two main concerns for me are the animation (at least the one of the charr) when you run, and the system of targeting/engaging combat. The former is annoying, it looks like there's no gravity, the cursor on the map procedes speedly, but the character moves sooo slowly in the enviroment! The latter could be another choice of developers...I was expecting something similar to WoW, where you know when an enemy is at range of a skill, while in this beta you can use a skill without an objective, or when he's too far away...for many skills this is a problem, if you use them in the wrong moment you'll pay that. The targeting of enemies should also be improved, right now you only see the enemy's name over the targeted character, and in a giant battle that's not enough.

I just tried pushing the settings of the game to "high" and it still runs quite smoothly, I hear many people saying it gived problems to them, but I find it very enjoyable and completely playable in most of the map.



CURRENTLY PLAYING: Xenoblade (Wii), Super mario 3D land (3DS), Guild Wars (PC)

 

Buzzi said:

Two main concerns for me are the animation (at least the one of the charr) when you run, and the system of targeting/engaging combat. The former is annoying, it looks like there's no gravity, the cursor on the map procedes speedly, but the character moves sooo slowly in the enviroment! The latter could be another choice of developers...I was expecting something similar to WoW, where you know when an enemy is at range of a skill, while in this beta you can use a skill without an objective, or when he's too far away...for many skills this is a problem, if you use them in the wrong moment you'll pay that. The targeting of enemies should also be improved, right now you only see the enemy's name over the targeted character, and in a giant battle that's not enough.

Yeah, the charr animations do look a bit funny, but I think it's just something we need to get used to. I'm pretty sure all races move at the same speed though, and I think it's a way of making dodging and positioning more important, seeing as you can't easily outrun a big spell, but you need to dodge out of it. I think the same actually goes for your second point, in it's really important to get in the right position.



The game is officially coming out on August 28th, can't wait!



CURRENTLY PLAYING: Xenoblade (Wii), Super mario 3D land (3DS), Guild Wars (PC)