Guild Wars (PC)

Manufacturer: Part number: 00057

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CNET Editor rating:
4.5 stars Spectacular
Average user rating: 4.5 stars out of 17 reviews

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Description:: Guild Wars takes the best elements of today's massively multiplayer online games and combines them with a new mission-based design that eliminates the tedium of those games. You can meet new friends in towns or outposts, form a party, and then go tackle a quest together. Your party always has its own unique copy of the quest map, so ... Read more

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Gamespot editors' review

Guild Wars (PC)

price range: $20.35 - $29.99

Reviewed by: Greg Kasavin
Reviewed on: 05/04/2005
Released on: 04/26/2005

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While it's tempting to compare Guild Wars to any number of other fantasy-themed role-playing games, there's really never been anything quite like it before. It innovatively and successfully combines many of the best, most addictive properties of action RPGs, online RPGs, and competitive multiplayer games in one beautifully produced package, which offers a tremendous lasting value yet none of the monthly fees typically associated with online-only games. The first title from developer ArenaNet, Guild Wars threatens the entire online RPG establishment with its bold design. More importantly, it's a very impressive game that's rewarding on many different levels and can be tremendously appealing for any number of reasons.

In the world of Guild Wars, the men are men, and the women are runway models. Oh, and it's awesome.

In Guild Wars, you play as a hero from Ascalon, your typical fantasy province that's fallen on hard times, thanks to relentless assaults from fearsome creatures called the charr. Ascalon seems huge and wondrous as you begin to explore it and its outskirts. But it turns out to be literally just a tiny portion of the richly detailed and shockingly gigantic world of Tyria, which you'll explore during the course of an adventure that's truly epic. Meanwhile, the other half of the game consists of competitive battles between teams of players, set in various types of arena events. It's action packed, it's tactical, and it's sporting. It's definitely more involved than a pick-up-and-play first-person shooter, but it's relatively easy to learn and certainly difficult to master. Unlike many other online RPGs, which often take a lot of flak from their audiences for lacking a definitive endgame, Guild Wars gives the impression that it was built with the endgame competition as a primary concern. However, one of its big surprises is just how much noncompetitive content there is. Even if you have no interest in player-versus-player battling whatsoever, Guild Wars will still provide you with more than 100 hours of quality gameplay, which you can tackle either alone or together with other players pretty much every step of the way.

The core gameplay in Guild Wars is reminiscent of action RPGs like the Diablo series. It lets you navigate countless big, winding maps filled with enemies and treasure, and combat is frequent and fast. You can't climb or fall from ledges, so at times, the design of the maps feels pretty contrived. However, the generally linear layout mostly just helps to keep you focused. The game's interface is clean and intuitive, and offers a few neat perks like a minimap that you can scribble on to help you communicate with your team. You have free reign over the camera perspective, so you may choose to play from a first-person viewpoint all the way on out to a bird's-eye view. Although, a third-person behind-the-back angle seems to deliver the best of both worlds, because you'll get a close look at the game's gorgeous graphics and plenty of room to see on your character's periphery. When you see an enemy (whether it's a computer-controlled creature or an opposing player), you may target it with a hotkey or a mouse click, and then attack it with your ranged or melee weapons. Most of your combat will be focused on using your different skills, though.

You can have exactly eight skills readied at a time, which correspond to the number keys on your keyboard. Which eight skills you bring to battle and which skills you discover during your adventure is really at the heart of what makes Guild Wars such a compelling experience. It's what levels the playing field in PvP and keeps the action manageable even when things get really intense. Each of the game's six character classes has 150 unique skills, and each one has its own little icon graphic, description, and purpose. For the most part, skills are not inherently better or worse than other skills--they're just different. Depending on how you've developed your character or your role in a player team, the skills will be better or worse for your circumstances. Many skills have obvious uses, while many are much more specific to certain types of situations. Some will serve you better when exploring the role-playing portion of the game, while others will be better suited to PvP battling against real opponents. It's definitely an interesting selection process. It shares a lot in common with collectible card games, and similarly offers a very satisfying reward whenever you discover that great, new skill that makes you feel much stronger while also causing you to make significant changes to your overall strategy. Guild Wars' skill system is a resounding success.

Creating a character is a quick, straightforward process of choosing a gender, appearance, and character class. You'll quickly notice the game's striking character design right from this point. Even prior to that, though, you're asked to make an important choice: whether to build a standard role-playing character or a player-versus-player-specific character. If you choose the former, you start out as a first-level neophyte on a foreboding day in Ascalon's history. And if you choose the PvP option, you skip all the way through the 100-odd hours of questing and storyline and begin with a high-level character decked out with powerful equipment. He or she can then jump right into some competitive matches, but cannot participate in any cooperative gameplay.

An absolutely huge story-driven role-playing adventure awaits you, though you can cut straight to the player-versus-player skirmishing if you prefer.

The idea behind these two options is pretty obvious. Players who'd rather not muck around with leveling up and pretentious fantasy storytelling needn't even bother with it, and they can instead jump straight into the competitive game. Or, players who want to get their feet wet before diving into PvP combat, or who want to ignore PvP entirely, may do so during the course of the adventure. It's not quite this cut and dried, though, because Guild Wars wants you to experience both aspects of the game, regardless of whether you think you do or not. Specifically, if you cut straight to the PvP, you'll find that the vast majority of the different character classes' skills are locked away, waiting to be discovered during the course of the role-playing portion. Custom weapon parts can also be found in the campaign, which can later be used in PvP.

So, it's possible that players expecting Guild Wars to be a light and breezy experience will be disappointed, because this is a deep, enthralling, and potentially very time-consuming game. While combat in Guild Wars rewards skillful planning and coordination between players, many of the best Guild Wars players will surely be the ones who invest the largest number of hours into the game--not only honing their talents, but also seeking out the best skills and equipment in the role-playing portion. Fortunately, the role-playing portion is on equal footing with the PvP, so chances are you'll enjoy the opportunity to experience both, and appreciate the game all the more for it.

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User reviews

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Average user rating: 4.5 stars out of 17 reviews
My rating: 0 stars

Showing opinion 1 to 10 out of 17

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10 stars

A DO-NOT miss game

by jrock83 on July 7, 2005

Pros: -Online RPG without paying montly!! -Engaging storyline -Unique and plentiful skills -Expansive world -Hundreds of quests -Suitable for both PvP and solo'ing -Easy yet addictive gameplay/interface

Cons: -Once you start playing you won't ever want to stop!

Summary: It's been a while since I bought a computer game but buying guild wars was the best choice I've made in a LONG time. A friend referred me ...

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Summary: It's been a while since I bought a computer game but buying guild wars was the best choice I've made in a LONG time. A friend referred me to it giving me the gist: it's basically a MMORPG so you play online at all times along with many other players. Normally I turn these down immediately... I'm not willing to blow 50 bucks on a game and then pay 10-15 bucks a month on top of that to play the frickin game. This is where guild wars shines... NO MONTHLY FEES!! Once I heard that I changed my tune and picked it up. The game streams new content continually while you are online and you can decide to start off on the storyline missions OR hop right into PvP combat to fight other players. I chose the story and it took me around 130 hours to go through with ONE character. You can have up to four on one account and I am 50 hours into another. The gameplay is simple with keys 1-8 being the skills you assign in a town and mouse or 'WASD' used for movement. As you adventure in story mode you open new skills in the profession you have chosen (warrior/mesmer/monk/ranger/elementalist/necromancer) as well as picking up a secondary profession if you like. These skills (as well as items) are then available to you in PvP mode and allow for a stronger character in that particular mode. Anyhow: guild wars is easily the most addictive game I have ever played (even more engaging than final fantasy!) and I give it a 10 because I have no complaints. If you have the money and some free time - well, a lot of free time - go out and get guild wars and thank me later

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4 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 stars

Spectacular

by Kasuran on June 28, 2005

Pros: Giant, interesting, free online

Cons: Somewhat limited classes

Summary: Excellent game. The world is gigantic and very defined. This reminds me of the game Diablo in many ways. You get select a main profession and then get a second ...

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Summary: Excellent game. The world is gigantic and very defined. This reminds me of the game Diablo in many ways. You get select a main profession and then get a second one to compliment your main one. Many different types of weapons and armor for your character. Monsters are varied and are quite challenging when you're grouped on(most of the time). Still, WoW is king of mmorpgs and that probably won't change anytime soon. But, for those who like a good mmorpg and don't want to pay WoW's $15/month fee, then this is for you.

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2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
6 stars

Not the best game I've played, but also not the worst.

by Sub_Tonic on August 15, 2005

Pros: 6 classes to choose from, lots and lots of skills, excellent graphics.

Cons: Way too difficult, not newby friendly at all, and the fact you can only have 8 skills at a time.

Summary: Okay. I like this game, but there's just something about it that just ruins the entire experience for me. First of all, the good.
The graphics in this game
...

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Summary: Okay. I like this game, but there's just something about it that just ruins the entire experience for me. First of all, the good.
The graphics in this game are nothing short of amazing. I still can't seem to stop every now and then while I am adventuring or questing to look at the beatiful visuals. I also admire that for such great visuals, the system requirements are quite low. The game also has quite a bit of variety in it, although more enemies have the Conjure Phantasm skill than any other, and considering that is about the most annoying hex to be afflicted with in the game, needs to be balanced out or weakened to some extent. The game still has nice variety in it. So much, in fact, that you almost never know what an opponent is going to do next, for there are a whopping 75 skills for each class. Do not let that number fool you, as about a third of them are utterly useless or remakes of other skills. Which leads me to the bad things about this game.
This game has a number of bad things in it, unfortunately more than there are good things. Like I said earlier, way too many monsters are of the Mesmer class and repeatedly cast Conjure Phantasm until you're at the point of ripping the hair out of your head. Another bad thing that goes along with that is the sheer difficulty of this game. It's all fun and dandy to fight in pre-searing ascalon. It was a rare thing to be thrown into a bottle with overwhelming odds stacked against you. But all of that changes after the searing. Sure, post searing seems easy at first, but the moment you get north of the wall, its a living nightmare just to fight a mob of three or four. If that wasn't bad enough, the henchmen that are said to be there if you want to solo the game (which I highly recommend that you do NOT attempt) are completely worthless. They aggro everything you want to avoid, there are no commands to give them whatsoever, and for some reason they are only half the level recommended for the area they are in. In ascalon, they are level six. That is just plain idiotic. The healer henchmen dies in a matter of seconds, and rarely heals the right person. The AI is just horrible. If you're wanting this game for a fun and frustration-free solo experience, then go buy Diablo 2 or something. This game is meant for team work with other human players.
Another bad thing is the PvP skill system. You need a thousand faction points to unlock one skill and you get about an average of ten points each round. I thought this was going to be a game based around skill, not grinding for hundreds of hours to get everything you need. If people want the game just for PvP, then let them have all of the skills unlocked so they can enjoy the experience rather than spend their first two hundred hours doing something they don't want to.
I give this game a 6/10. The graphics are amazing, and the animation and models are very good. The bad thing is, it's a near impossible game without help from human players, and there's a ton of grinding involved if you want enjoy the PvP portion of the game. It's a good game, but definitely not the best.

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2 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 stars

Great game with great graphics

by bubbletea53 on December 15, 2007

Pros: Fun and easy to play

Cons: Sometimes takes too long

Summary: Unlike most shooting or fantsy games, Guild Wars doesn't show the blood and guts when you die. It's a wonderful game but once you've done you're ...

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Summary: Unlike most shooting or fantsy games, Guild Wars doesn't show the blood and guts when you die. It's a wonderful game but once you've done you're first character it gets tedious making another. I, personally, have only made 2 P v E characters, afterwards moving on to the powerful P v P characters. The players aren't all that nice considering you could leave at any second, leaving your team pretty much pissed. But overall, this game is fun and gets better with every step you take.

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10 stars

The game that keeps me coming back

by BlackPenguin on August 22, 2007

Pros: Everything!

Cons: I am not sure if I could find something.

Summary: I am going to give my opinion of not only Guild Wars, but also Guild Wars Factions and Guild Wars Nightfall, because really the second 2 are just expansions of ...

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Summary: I am going to give my opinion of not only Guild Wars, but also Guild Wars Factions and Guild Wars Nightfall, because really the second 2 are just expansions of the original Guild Wars.

The original Guild Wars was really nice in that it took a long time to build up your character to level 20, the intent was to give you a good in depth feel of the playing system. It had plenty of side quests to help you get into the game. and more experience points ..

I love the oriental theme of Factions.. I have a minor issue with the maps of the early part of Factions, but it is minor.. I think some of the areas are a little difficult to find you way through, but then it is good to have a challenge. .. I don't know if I really would want then to change it.. after all you get to level faster because of all the quests and things to do in that part of the game.

I love how you can get heroes in Nightfall, and add things to their armor to help them out. You can change their weapons, and their shield. You can color their weapons and shield.

My only complaint is you can't paint the heroes armor.

But you can paint your own armor. You can put on one piece or armor from this type one from that type and get creative with your looks. You can make your character with light hair or dark hair.. or light skin or dark skin or shades thereof.

You can choose from many many skills or spells.

You can play in a group or alone.

There is not a monthly fee!

This is the most important of all .. no monthly fee.

I will Never ever buy a game for 50 dollars and then pay 10+ dollars just to play it.

I will NEVER do that.

Never!

If you want to give me the game for free, then make me pay 10 dollars a month.. well that might be ok. Because after 5 months I have basically paid the 50 dollars for it. Then if I wish to contine I can pay more.. That is ok. I guess.

but pay $50 to buy the game then pay $10+ a month to play it?? Yes I know I look stupid.. and I am no Einstein. But please don't insult my intelligence.

This game .. Guild Wars .. This game I love I have over 1600 hours on it. I may now have 1700 hours on it now.

My Elementalist now has her 2nd birthday present. She has been around for 2 years. I have been playing since the preview event before the full game went retail.

I can't say enough good things about the design and playability of this game.

I Highly recommend getting all the games.. It adds so much to the game. You can start a character in any of the three areas (each game gives you an area (continent) to play on/in). And depending on where you start will gauge how your character looks.

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10 stars

Excellent game; I'm not going to play others for a while.

by soulwar on August 23, 2006

Pros: Wonderful game with beautiful graphics, gameplay, and story.

Cons: No cons, except that leveling and gaining money is hard through pure monster killing.

Summary: Power leveling is hard Monsters don't give much XP, and soloing isn't very easy. Money is also hard to get. Monsters may only give you 5-10 gold in ...

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Summary: Power leveling is hard Monsters don't give much XP, and soloing isn't very easy. Money is also hard to get. Monsters may only give you 5-10 gold in the beginning, higher level monsters dropping 5-10 more.

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9 stars

Awsome!!!!

by blue whippet on June 14, 2006

Pros: No monthly fee, great player vs player and the world is huge

Cons: until your a higher level its real hard

Summary: i was never into online gaming unitl i purchased guild wars, but now it is my favorite game. id recomend it to anybody, even people that dont like online games.

Summary: i was never into online gaming unitl i purchased guild wars, but now it is my favorite game. id recomend it to anybody, even people that dont like online games.
10 stars

A Heart Stoper

by kabaha on April 21, 2006

Pros: This game can be changed around in many different ways for each charater. (You can also get 4 different charaters) Each charater can get two professions with tons of skills.

Cons: This game only alow you to have 8 skills. Although that is the thing that makes this game so competitive. (This is an online game)

Summary: Basically: tons of combinations. A great team game... A MUST GET... BEST GAME OF MY LIFE... THIS GAME IS UPDATED ALL THE TIME

Summary: Basically: tons of combinations. A great team game... A MUST GET... BEST GAME OF MY LIFE... THIS GAME IS UPDATED ALL THE TIME
9 stars

One of the Best games ever played

by Turnoz on April 17, 2006

Pros: Excelent Graphics and NO ONLINE FEE!!!

Cons: Limited number of builds

Summary: Guild Wars is probably one of the best games ive ever played. It has the graphics and the music. THe best thing about it is by far the fact that ...

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Summary: Guild Wars is probably one of the best games ive ever played. It has the graphics and the music. THe best thing about it is by far the fact that you dont pay a subscription fee like all the other MMORPG (World of Warcraft, the Diablo series...). You can easily just jump in for 15 minutes of pure fun or spend 1 hour on a huge mission. The bad are that no subscription fee brings people that are 10 years old and have no clue what to do. The other thing is that there is a limited number of build (... the IWAY burst). You can only have a sertain number of skills with you and a certain number of persons also. THis make the best skills overused.

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9 stars

the best mmorpg ever

by chimeravp on April 8, 2006

Pros: free. long. great graphics

Cons: can be repetitive

Showing opinion 1 to 10 out of 17

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Specifications

Manufacturer:
Part number: 00057
Description: Guild Wars takes the best elements of today's massively multiplayer online games and combines them with a new mission-based design that eliminates the tedium of those games. You can meet new friends in towns or outposts, form a party, and then go tackle a quest together. Your party always has its own unique copy of the quest map, so camping, kill-stealing, and long lines to complete quests are all things of the past. Within a quest you have unprecedented freedom and power to manipulate the world around you: your magic can build bridges and open up new pathways, or it can burn down forests and tear the ground asunder. You don't have to spend countless hours on a leveling treadmill to get to the interesting parts of the game, because combat is designed to be strategically interesting and challenging right from the beginning. You don't have to spend hours running around the world to prepare for a quest, because Guild Wars allows you to instantly travel to the beginning of any quest that you've previously unlocked. You'll never spend days playing only to discover that choices you made early on have left you with a permanently uncompetitive character, because the unique skill system in Guild Wars allows infinite experimentation but doesn't allow bad decisions to ruin a character. And you'll never meet new players only to discover that you can't play with them or compete against them because their characters are on a different server than yours; in Guild Wars, all characters live in one seamless world.

Product Basic Spec
Platform PC
ESRB rating Teen - Violence,Suggestive Themes
Genre Role-Playing
Elements Adventure - mystery
Context Fantasy
Number of players 64+ Players
Connectivity Online
Difficulty Variable
Learning curve About a half hour
DirectX version v8.0
Operating system Windows 95/98/2000/ME/XP
Online modes Cooperative,Competitive,Team Oriented
Minimum
RAM 256 MB

Game
Developer ArenaNet
ESRB Teen
ESRB descriptors Violence,Suggestive Themes

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