The first time I tried out Guild Wars, I thought it was amazing. An ultra-thin client that downloads the game’s content on demand, the simple hack and slash gameplay and the absolutely stunning graphics made up an experience I would not soon forget. In my mind, ArenaNet has essentially created Diablo III – for anyone that misses the point-click-kill-loot formula, Guild Wars will be your ticket to paradise. But after two preview event weekends, for me this is where most of the game’s shortcomings lie.

I played during the World Preview Event on the 29th, and then took advantage of a 7-day trial of Gamespot Complete to play another Preview offered for members the following weekend. Conveniently, any characters created during the WPE were carried over to this Gamespot preview. There had also been a significant increase in monster toughness between the two events, and as a result the weapons and armour I collected were almost useless in some of the later quests. To balance this out, I noticed the item drops were a lot more numerous to give every party member something nice to take away.

Guilds seem to have been implemented since the E3 event, although I never did figure out how to start my own. Guild members are identifiable by the tabards they wear emblazoned with their Guild logo, and at this point I can’t really see how Guilds will make a difference in the co-operative quests. Because the world is essentially made up of discrete locations, Guilds seem like more of a status symbol than anything else, because you have to be invited to be a part of one.

Although ArenaNet likes to make the distinction of Guild Wars not being a MMORPG in the traditional sense, there isn’t a very “massive” quality to the game. I had a great time doing the quests and exploring the new mission areas, but things really start to break down when you actually think about what’s involved. Each quest is instanced on the group leader’s computer. You will never see other players wandering the wilderness of the quest areas outside of the members of your party – you will only encounter AI controlled NPC characters. The only time you will ever encounter other players are the Tournament or Competitive missions areas, like the Gladiator arena. I’ll admit it was fun to just throw down with my character in a cleverly designed arena, and the random team matching makes sure things are balanced, but there isn’t much substance to it beyond the standard deathmatching.

The game world is extremely disjointed, as well: after each successful quest is completed, you gain a new point on the world map. To go back to town, all you have to do is click on the town’s location and you’re there. Returning to a mission area works the same way. The enormous world map implies that there is great potential for adventure settings, but in reality you’re just visiting portions of a pre-ordained path. The location for each mission is basically a staging area for groups to get together, optimize their ranks (a party made up of mostly warriors and healing spell-wielding monks is a good start) and then start the mission. And it’s at this point that you realize there isn’t anything different beyond your run of the mill action RPG.

Going back to town is much like Diablo II, but the worst parts. People selling items, people looking for items, power-gamers looking for a group, etc. It quickly becomes tedious and leaves zero room for any roleplayers. I may not have been fair to World of Warcraft in this respect, because there are taverns and locations you can go to sit and relax after a hard day’s adventuring. The potential for roleplaying was there, I just didn’t see it amongst all the powergaming. As an aside, for the recent open beta I have joined one of the roleplaying servers – but so far my attempts at maintaining a roleplaying encounter have been pretty dodgy.

Guild Wars is a different kind of massively multiplayer game, and because of that it’s really hard to fault it for expecting things the development team never said would be part of the package. I guess that after playing a few MMORPGs, I begin to expect a few conventions that make it seem like an entire world to explore, instead of a container for a set of missions connected by a static storyline. During the preview events, Guild Wars was once again in an extremely playable state, and the only thing I could really complain about technically was the amount of lag experienced in town. When you’re in missions, it’s entirely dependent on your party’s internet connections. In the end, anyone who hasn’t grown tired of Diablo II’s successful formula will absolutely love this game. And despite the game’s shortcomings, the free service should overcome the hesitation of prospective players who are reluctant to commit to a monthly subscription. Unfortunately, after playing Star Wars Galaxies, and then experiencing the action of World of Warcraft first hand, I think my imagination may have unfairly assigned qualities to Guild Wars it never had.

the gazing eye won’t lie