2404 - PC Gaming - Guild Wars Preview

Guild Wars Preview

Posted by Jared Branch November 08, 2004

I was able to recently play in the Guild Wars closed-beta (or is that open-beta?), and I have to say: I was very impressed. After entering my top-secret identification code and undergoing a retina scan, I was able to register a character to play on the confidential Guild Wars’ servers.

Given the option to create a male or female character, I instinctively chose male for his greater upper-body strength and increased intelligence. Players are able to choose a primary and secondary profession that affect the skills and weapons their character will wield during combat. You are also able to customize your characters hair style and color, face, skin color, and body scale, which will turn you into a giant or a hobbit (though you cannot be fat, Comic Book Guy need not apply). Characters are furthered customized by the shirts, pants, shoes, and capes they wear. To wear a cape, you must either be Superman or in a guild. In fact, it’s so customizable that you will never see the same character twice.

The first thing I noticed upon starting my game was the amazing music score (actually that was the second, the first was my striking resemblance to Legolas, I wonder if Orlando Bloom has signed on to do voice-acting?). The music seems highly influenced by John Williams, circa his Star Wars era. I half expected a Storm Trooper to pop up next to me and exclaim “Look sir, droids!” Not that this is a bad thing; the music fits perfectly with the game. Whether it’s the suspenseful yet dynamic sounds of Ascalon City, one of the last human settlements, or the fields surrounding it, the music nicely sets the mood. Which, sadly, cannot be said of the sound effects. Most sound effects, whether it be the fires the vagrants of Ascalon meander about or the shrieks of what I assume to be some poor soul being eaten by a monster, are extremely quiet, and I found myself needing to adjust the volume frequently to find a happy mix between the loud battle sequences and the times I spent looking for said battle sequences. But maybe I’m experiencing hearing loss from playing my John Williams’ tapes too loud.

As I wandered outside the city, curious of what to do, I watched as two monsters, left alone, begun fighting amongst themselves. After viewing for a moment, three non-playable characters began assaulting the monsters with arrows and magic. This attention to detail really helps make the game, such as a bolt of lightning striking a far-off tree, hearing more territorial creatures somewhere in the distance, or a human screaming. Buildings and towns are also very detailed, even ones that are in the background.

Unable to find a friend to help me slay the evil that has infested this great city, I hire a Warrior Monk mercenary, one of the friendly characters that broke up the aforementioned brawl. By clicking him I am able to issue two commands: follow and stay. We set off to explore the surrounding area, running into creatures that my newfound friend and I can easily handle. Thankfully, my character seems to be self-healing and my energy (used to issue skill commands) automatically refills.

The graphics are nice, but still comparable to graphics of other games of this genre. There is a nice range of distance, and enemies can be seen from quite a ways off. After encountering two such enemies, that were strangely self-healing (though I had a sneaking suspicion it was my damned mercenary messing with me), I began fiddling around with my controls, and discovered that I could quickly travel to other cities by clicking on them in my mini-map in the lower right hand corner. There were six cities I was able to travel to, with an additional city opening up once I joined a guild. Many of the cities seem straight out of Lord of the Rings, and I wondered if Peter Jackson would be suing for royalties and copyright infringement.

The great thing about this game is the sense of community it employs. Sure, you could easily play by (or with) yourself while traveling to various cities, or hire mercenaries, but much of the missions will be quite difficult without a party and the ensuing team-work. Though still in beta, everyone that I talked to or fought alongside of were extremely helpful and team-oriented. Upon entering a mission, you are taken to an area separate than the rest of the Guild Wars world, where it is you and your crack-team you’ve assembled versus the monsters. This works quite well, although the paths and missions are quite linear. A slightly too steep of a hill or a fence will act as a very restrictive barrier, limiting your movement and defeating the best part of an RPG (albeit Final Fantasy 10): the ability to roam. I felt as though I was being herded like cattle through most missions and fields.

You can choose to spend your time with a small group of friends, or ‘guild’, completing missions, or hang out in town, centers of commerce where everyone is trying to buy or sell special items, convincing you to join their guild, or offering penis enlargement pills. In my opinion, this is the worst part of any online game: the standard stream of people milling about in any town buying and selling, and assaulting you with other game-related issues. It would be nice if a company were to somehow remedy the situation, perhaps by employing an area for merchants, and imposing penalties for ‘flooding’ outside of this area. The way it is now, people wanting to ask a question or simply converse will find it very difficult to be noticed.

Guild Wars brings little to the table in an already overly-saturated MMO market. By not straying from the medieval fantasy world, Guild Wars takes very little risk, but it’s yet unseen how people will react to yet another game set in this locale. It will be interesting to see what changes, if any, other, well-established MMO’s will have to implement. Guild Wars has no monthly fee, which should be a welcome change to many gamers wanting to play an MMORPG but hesitant to pay a recurring charge.

Screenshots Copyright © NCSoft