[Saka]

I was wondering whether anyone here is playing it… or perhaps someone would like to try it out? In my opinion this is a very underappreciated game, it deserves a lot more attention than it gets. It’s a MMO with a buy-to-play model, there is a bit limited free-to-play mode (without the expansion content, there are some limitations to the character slot amount and bag slot amount, but it is definitely playable and one can use it to decide whether they like the game). The in-game shop is offering mostly cosmetics, there are some account upgrades available in it, such as character, bank or bag slots, but just through normal gameplay one can get enough gold to exchange it for the store currency and buy those. No grind is required to get there. My wallet has been feeling very safe in this game.

At this moment Guild Wars 2 is celebrating its tenth anniversary of the release. There are special streams on twitch going on and there has been a new update directed towards new players. It introduces tutorial achievements that guide the players through the basic steps in the game. I think it’s a good step, once there was no tutorial at all, then later they introduced a very lacking version of it. This is a bit more organized and goes beyond just exploring the first map in the game.

Asura is some sort of superintelligent humanoid rats with very advanced civilization, Charr are felines with horns, Human I don’t think I need to explain, Norn are some sort of big humans who can commune with wild animal spirits and take on their forms, Sylvari are something like tree nymphs. There are different professions: Elementalist, Engineer, Guardian, Warrior, Mesmer, Revenant, Thief, Necromancer and Ranger. Each of it offers unique gameplay and there are choices of building the professions into subprofessions that alter the gameplay.

There are three expansions in Guild Wars 2 which extend the world and its story: The first expansion is the Heart of Thorns – it leads us to the depths of the Maguuma Jungle. In Path of Fire, the second expansion, we chase after a maddened god of war through the sands of the Crystal Desert. The latest expansion, End of Dragons, rediscovers the Cantha region, an Asian-styled land that the fans knew from the original Guild Wars game and have requested bringing it back for years. Besides the expansions there are live updates that offer new maps, so the area of the game is a lot larger than it was at its release a decade ago. Despite that, the old maps are not devoid of life – there are still people with max level characters doing some casual content.
I attached some of my screenshots below.

[Liue]

Hey!

Nice topic. I tried it a while ago with Free Trial account. Gotta say it looked good, reminding me a bit of games such as Lineage 2 or Final Fantasy: XIV. Maybe as someone whom has got use to for retail World of Warcraft graphics, Guild Wars 2 looked a bit out-of-date, but I gotta say that I truly did like all the events happening around the world. You did have a quest line to follow, yes, but then again sudden World Quests could pop up anywhere, any time - and be anything. That truly gave a feeling you are exploring ever living world!



I only do have this small, tiny screenshot on my PC which I found from my Guild Wars 2 folder. I was this tiny starter, running to his / her first ever mission in Tyria. I think I was Asura, at least someone whom is capable to heal. Must be Asura, for sure!

I could give it another shot as free trial. If I do like it, I could even buy it. Anyone else interested to try and play together? @MoriMoonpaw?

[Saka]

Hey @Liue! In the screenshot you are in Queensdale, that's the plainest of the starting zones - just meadows, fields and tiny towns! The game has a very different style than WoW - more of a realistic style than cartoonish - which doesn't age that well when it comes to the older zones. The graphics quality did improve a lot in the new zones, especially the last expansion is really gorgeous. Just unfortunately can't visit those zones with a trial account... maybe one day I could whip up a stream to show.

There are many classes that can potentially heal!

[kittsam]

I like playing Guild Wars 2, it has inclusive content on the open world, where everyone can join in large map events that determine the next few events, generally leading up to a meta map event.