I had signed up for the "closed" beta in February because a friend of mine on DeviantArt had mentioned it and I sort of had just completely forgotten about it. Till I met the people I play with on Empire side, who introduced themselves as a GW2 guild.
And after having played with them for some time now and really enjoying that, I did pre-buy GW2 on April 10th. And one of the features you get with the pre-purchase is, that you get invited for Beta events (weekends).
I woke up at 5am on Saturday and tried my luck with the login... tadaa... worked! I was in, and then my journey began.
The first thing I noticed and was really really relieved about it, I can play GW2 with my 4 year old computer. It runs just fine on medium settings. I didn't try anything higher because I was completely satisfied with those settings. Though I would have loved to see a screenshot of someone who used a higher resolution and all that.
However what annoyed me straight away was the default key settings. For example, when I first logged into SW:ToR everything was nearly the same compared to my WoW key bindings. R=autorun, B=bag, C=character sheet etc. So I growled at GW2, and changed everything to the way I'm used to. :D
I played my intro quest, ran around in Divinity's Reach... and surprise surprise from all the people on the server who do I run into (or rather who ran past by me in a blur)? My imp guildleader. Which confronted me with another problem straight away. How the hell am I supposed to whisper to someone in game? It took me 10 minutes to figure that one out. I didn't really think I would meet anyone in game with the whole overflow server system so that was a lovely surprise and I was glad to hear that I wasn't the only one who felt completely overwhelmed by the game.So I played and played and played... till at level 10 I ran into another problem that really bugged me. I couldn't find a quest that I could do. Everything was too high for me. And while I don't usually mind that I have to run around for 2 hours to find something... in a beta it annoys the hell out of me. You don't have that much time to play so I basically wasted a lot of time just running around.
But after grinding my teeth and kicking myself in the butt I finished all the quests in Queensdale, gathered all the skill points (should I mention that "hey, this skill sounds great. I'm gonna buy it" is not the best way to spent your skill points!") and points of interest and then called it a day and went to bed.
I was really really frustrated at that point, I was still feeling entirely lost in the game, and overwhelmed so when I got asked on how I liked it I was on the brink of saying "It sucks!". Which it didn't but I was just too tired and frustrated. ^^
After 5 hours of sleep I decided it was time to try out the Elementalist, that was actually the class I thought would suit me best but I wanted to give the Necro a try. Turns out I was right, Elementalist suits me just fine, though I'm not giving up on the Necro just yet. But my main char is definitely going to be an Ele. ;)Reasons for that, I just have way too much fun playing the Ele and it has this flow, I can't really describe it but I had that with the Sage/Sorc or Resto/Balance druid too. It's like you pick something up and you know "That's it!".
Although the Ele was different from what I thought it would be. I thought it would be more heal/support heavy (I know there are no real healers in GW2). Turns out, yes you can heal a tiny bit and you do have support skills but it's not really the main focus. Earth and fire really do quite a lot of damage and if I can dodge melee classes, then I have no trouble taking on 2 enemies in PvP. But yes, the Ele wears light armor and you can feel that. I got ripped to shreds by a thief. ;D
And the Elementalist is really a ranged class, unlike the Necromancer who also has a type of melee play. Not fond of that, I mean I'm sure some people love that combo... but I don't. I want to play a pure range or pure melee class.
I did not give up on my Necro though and I wanted to see the next area, so I switched characters and ran straight into a certain engineer again. Got invited into the guild because "apparently you seem to follow me around".... ha, you wish, mister! ;D
We did some quests in Kessex Hills together and I do enjoy how different classes profit from playing together. I could play with my 2h staff equipped all the time, doing practically nothing but placing AoE effects on the ground which I can't do when I play alone. I do love that style of playing with the Necro. Of course I need to use more skills than just AoE but most of the time it's AoE and that rocks.
On Saturday I also did some WvWvW, alone and with the guild. You do have to realize that if you head there alone, it's a different experience. You might not get that much XP if you are on your own and just run with the zerg pack. Because if they don't capture or defend something you basically get no reward. However if you run with an organized group it's quite easy to level rather quick. I gained three levels in WvWvW on Saturday evening. Just watch on how much you die, unlike PvP you need to repair your gear in WvWvW.
The good thing really is that you can participate in both PvP and WvWvW from level 1 on. You get scaled up to 80 and for PvP you get all the skills, while in WvWvW you can only use the skills you already mastered or bought with your skill points.
So yeah, PvP is quite confusing if you are suddenly faced with a tons of skills you haven't used yet. I basically facerolled my way in PvP with the Necro and the Ele because I need more time to adapt. And let's not get into the whole thing that I always have problems finding my way around PvP maps. ;D
It's too bad that at this point you couldn't group queue for PvP. So you have to hope you land in the same battleground as your mates and then also pray that you don't have to play against them. I had that with my guild leader, we did end up in the same bg but every couple of matches we faced each other. Not that I really minded, had a deja vu of playing SW:Tor when I had to play against him. So we made the best of it and just had fun killing each other. ;)
What I really really liked in PvP was, that all your team mates have the same coloring, all red or all blue. It really helps a lot that you have something else than just the name plates for identification. Clever idea, much better than the flag thing Blizzard came up with for the arenas.
Also how cool is it, that you aren't limited to fight on the ground, you can get up everywhere in the battlegrounds, like wall and roofs. And I love how you can smash in windows to look through them (clocktower windows e.g) and have a better view if someone's capturing another point (I could see the mansion in this case).
Another thing I did really like was the PvP tutorial quests you had to do before you could proceed to play against others. Really basic things, like on how to deal the death blow, how to capture a point and how to revive a team mate. Too bad the other tutorial quests didn't work, like how to dodge, underwater fight and so on. Will be looking forward to those for sure.
And hopefully there will some different kind of battlegrounds because all the one's that we could play during beta were basically "capture the point" and that kind of thing get's boring really quick.
So by the time I went to bed and said good-bye to a great beta experience, my Necromancer was level 22. Had done Queensdale and Kessex Hills, we could not go on as apparently you only get 2 areas for each race and I honestly couldn't be bothered to go to the Norn and Charr starting places. I had also finished the story (class?) quest, which already gave you an indication that you could not go further in the beta. Since it ended for my humans in Kessex Hills.I did like the whole story questsline for my character a lot, it wasn't so easy in some cases but like most of the quests, it was quite some fun.
On the whole, GW2 really feels like you play a MMORPG from 2012, you don't have to gather quests and clutter up your quest log. No, you come to a certain area and the quest just shows up, including its progress and how much you have to do to finish it. And if you leave the area the quest progress isn't lost, no, you can come back a different time and finish it.
If you are worried that your level might be too high at a later point, fear not, you get scaled down so you can always enjoy the quest and the events in an area as if you are level the zone was made for (even though you might be way higher levelwise). I really really liked that, because I'm that type of player who usually wants to see all the quests and it's so frustrating to do a quest which doesn't give you any experience or you can't get a feel for it because your are way too high for a particular area.
I also did play a Norn and a Charr character to check out their starting areas, but I just didn't like them. They felt, sort of boring, and couldn't really keep me interested, unlike the human area which was amazing to me. But then different people have different tastes, it's the same in WoW, I never really like the human or draenei starting areas, but I always loved the nightelven territory. :)There is also something about the Norn that completely puts me off. It's probably the height thing, they look like giants, compared to humans. And yes, I know that's intended but it just feels weird. If you for example compare WoW races, some are incredibly tall (Tauren) and yet they still fit perfectly, even next to a tiny gnome they don't seem out of place. But the Norn just look like overscaled humans... it's hard to explain but that fact alone rules them out for me as a race I will be playing. I'm not saying I hate the way they look, no, I don't, I like the theme but I hate the size that's all.
And while I'm talking about races, I wasn't really happy when I created my character and came to the head selection of the human females, most of them looked like kids and it took me over 30 minutes to tweak my human Necro and Ele to give them a somewhat decent look. Honestly my first thought upon seeing those childlike features was "a pedophiles heaven", I know it's harsh but I was really taken aback for a second.
It also didn't really help that as a Necro and Ele your look like SailorMoon in your starting gear. It's not that I found the attire ugly, it just looked weird. But I guess as the masses of players are male they need to stuff female chars in tiny skirts and show as much skin as possible. *rolls eyes*
However for every bad thing there is a good one. I adore that I can dye my outfit in a color or color set of my own choice. Love that!
There is also something quite wrong with the female human body models.. I do like it that you don't have to play a skinny character. However if you choose a body model that's a bit curvier... it had no breasts.. you had one hell of a fat ass but no breasts? Must be a bug, that's the only way I can come up with an explanation for that.
But that won't bug me on release as I'm certain I will play a Sylvari Elementalist, if the playable character models look anything like the npc's I saw in the beta. Instantly fell in love. :)
I also tried out both the English and the German client, and oh boy, it's definitely going to be the English client for me all the way. I don't like the name of the places in German, it reminds me an awful lot of WoW and some voices or translated sentences make me shudder (like when my Necro is calling one of her pets).
The good thing is, I can easily switch to the German client, just a quick restart of the client and hitting German in the language selection and I'm good to go. I love how fast the client reacts upon restart or switching onto the desktop.And now onto the things I wasn't really fond of, like going afk for a moment leads to your death in most cases. So I need to spend copper just to port myself to a save location, because whenever I thought I had found a safe spot... once I came back I was dead. Picture me not amused!
I don't like that all characters share one bank, I mean yes it sounds handy but I definitely need more space than what was provided. Same goes for your inventory, god, we are back to bags, ugh, hate that. I loved the SW:ToR approach to that.
And let's not get into the thing about me finding the bank first. If someone hadn't shown me where it was in Divinity's Reach I would never have found it. Or maybe I would but it would have taken me hours.Also, I had trouble figuring out the whole crafting system, and I honestly didn't want to waste precious beta time. I knew you'd get XP for crafting and I did find a trainer to train a craft but other than that, I didn't really realize on how to approach the whole thing.
There need to be more tutorials on stuff like that, same goes for the karma points you get. I had no clue that you could buy stuff with them. Or that they even were a currency. True could be my fault because I didn't read up before hand but I think you should be able to discover that while playing. And I didn't... I only found out because I read something on a website about it. So I was running around with a staff from level 8 when I was 18.
The whole mailing system is a joke to me, if it stays the way it is. So you can't trade with other people, why? I don't get it. But sending out only one mail and having to wait till it arrives before you can send another one? Come on isn't that a bit over the top? *shakes head*
And you can't even send stuff from one of your own chars to another. So I need to put stuff in my already cluttered up bank that another character of mine can take it out? I don't have enough space in my bags to keep all the things I want to keep for a different character. :(I do like that you get quite some good loot from mobs, but what's the point if I can't keep it? Or need to wait ages before I can give it to someone I level with?
Then there is the issue of targeting, maybe I'm just too stupid but why I can't I choose an option on not to lose my target if I click on the terrain? Did I just not see that? It was really annoying, especially in PvP and WvWvW, I just can't dodge, run around casting stuff and avoid clicking somewhere. I'm not sure I will get used to the way of losing my target all the f.....g time!And the last minor or not so minor issue I have, you can give your character a name that is 19 characters long, space being one too. Now count: Khalindora Fireheart
Mhmm, it's 20 so I can pretty much forget about Khalindora as a first name or go on like I did in the beta on not giving her a surname. And I'm not going to lose the H in Khalindora, most of my characters have an H in their names (Khalina, Shytra, Khirelle etc.). Meh, tough luck for me. :(
But I'm not going to close this review with stuff that annoyed me, then overall I did enjoy the game immensely. I loved that you could run around and cast, that you could dodge attacks. Say good-bye to the static play of staying in one place and casting. It's a new challenge and it will take some time to master the class you picked.It's great on how you need to unlock your skills by using the earlier ones, for some classes it will be hell because there are just so many skills to unlock. And it's fun on how you can gather your skill points to buy other abilities. It really will take ages before this game get's boring.
And to those who complained about having trouble with the beta, I do understand you but you surely never played the WotLK beta, in which you got thrown out every 20 minutes and then have a full reset on the quests you just did. So it could have been worse that's for sure.
I'm quite certain I forgot to write about stuff but this post already took me over 6 hours to write so forgive me but I'm not the most patient person, and I really just want to be over and done with this review. ;D
