Guild Wars question....

[mrrotten]

Has anybody here played any of the Guild Wars games? How are they?

[Push R Truth]

It's a fun game. It's worth it. It's an MMO, but it's not one you can play forever like some, but it's fast action. And it's made more or less to play by yourself or with one other person.

[Psy]

Guild Wars is a fine game. No monthly fees (unless that changed since I last played) and you can step into the PvP content right off the bat. The PvE is sadly crappy for the most part.

[mrrotten]

What's PvE?

[acressl]

Jul 6, 2008 13:53:45 GMT -5 mrrotten said:

What's PvE?

I believe it stands for player versus environment. Basically, the normal game where you fight computer controlled enemies and don't have to worry about getting harassed by other players.

[mrrotten]

So then you don't have to play online if you don't want to then?

[acressl]

Jul 6, 2008 14:20:03 GMT -5 mrrotten said:

So then you don't have to play online if you don't want to then?

No. You have to play online, but you don't have to deal with people wanting to fight you 24/7 as some of the games are set up if you're on a PvP server. PvE = the game without the potential of fighting other people. (for the record, I've not played so I don't know how it's set up)

[Psy]

I'll give you a quick review, but it's been a while so don't blame me if the game has changed substantially. I never bought the expansions, just the original game when it came out.

The game consists of instances. What's an instance? An instance is a copy of an area that is accessible by everyone. There are instanced towns, instanced mission entrances, and instanced missions. There are also instanced arenas and such for PvP (short for Player versus Player combat).

Take, for example, Ascalon City. I may have gotten the name wrong, so sue me. If the instanced city is only set to hold a certain number of people, once that number of people enter the city then a new instance of Ascalon City will be made and people that attempt to go to Ascalon City will end up in Ascalon City #2 until that is full and Ascalon City #3 is created. When you are in Ascalon City you will not see the other players that are in Ascalon City #2 or #3 even though all of you have access to the same NPCs (non-player characters such as merchants). In this fashion your screen will never be as crowded with other players' avatars while you're trying to find your way around a city. You can always use the menu to hop to a particular instance of a city as well.

The instanced mission entrances are where you meet other players to form teams to do the instanced missions. When in the missions you will be playing ONLY with those players on your team. You can still chat with your guild and all, but if they're not in your team they're not going to be in your mission. In the mission entrances you can also 'hire' (for free) NPC mercenaries with specific abilities if you can not find (or do not want) enough other players to play with you. These NPC mercs will follow you and are fairly intelligent but not equal to the power potential of another player.

Once inside the missions you will discover an overarching story strung together through the use of the missions and quests. The only way to reach new areas is to do some of these missions or pay other players to quickly take you to new areas. It really is better to do the missions yourself, however.

That's basically how the PvE works. Every character has strengths and weaknesses, for every strength there are counters and for every weakness there is another character you can team with to cover it, buff it (make it stronger or enhance it somehow), or equipment you can make or purchase to get stronger.

That's it in a nutshell. My problem with the game is that it gets either repetitive or ridiculously difficult and that there are far too many counters to every freaking thing you try to do.