10 Years On, Guild Wars 2 Is Still One Of The Best MMOs Around

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It’s taken an entire decade, but Guild Wars 2 is now available as a free-to-play game on Steam. To still be relevant after so many years is a remarkable achievement, few games get to celebrate a decade of continuous success. So many MMOs fade into obscurity so quickly and are forgotten forever, but Guild Wars 2 still has a staggering 12 million+ monthly players. Those numbers don’t lie, and there’s good reason why the legendary MMO has proven so resilient. It shows what an MMO could be if a developer thinks outside the box, even just a little.

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A major stumbling block to my engagement with MMOs was the fact that the genre was for a long time split between games that had subscription fees, and games that had exploitative free-to-play features. Guild Wars 2 does things much better. First, there’s a huge amount of content on offer even for those who don’t pay a single cent, and secondly, the game doesn’t rely on predatory microtransactions or require you to start spending money immediately. If you want the extra content, you buy the relevant expansion, and it’s yours. No subscription and no buying make-believe bucks to spend on loot boxes and XP boosts.

The free version isn’t perfect – you won’t be able to use the auction house or participate in raids or strikes, and your inventory space is limited (which feels like a step too far in limiting the player – a classic case of inventing a problem and then selling a solution) – but despite the minor niggles it’s the best MMO free-to-play approach I’ve seen.

The fact that all the extra content is mid-to-end game focused is the true masterstroke. You can play for dozens, if not hundreds, of hours before you start feeling the need to purchase anything, and once you reach that point you’re much more likely to want to. I bought the expansions because I enjoyed the core game and wanted more. It never felt like I would be having more fun with the vanilla offering if I was willing to throw cash at it every so often. It feels fair, which is a tricky thing to pull off.

Then there’s the actual meat and potatoes of Guild War 2. You can streamline the finances all you like, but you need still need a satisfying gameplay loop. I think some systems might throw off some of those new players we’re seeing with the Steam release, but once you understand what’s going on, it’s difficult to go back to other MMOs.

Related: It’s Been Six Years Since Guild Wars 2 Came Out, Here’s A Video To Prove It

The quest system is unusual in that it does away with quest givers almost entirely. In, say, World of Warcraft, you seek out the Elf or Goblin who wants you to kill ten rabbits or gather twelve sticks, carry out the activity, then go back to where you started and hand the quest in. It doesn’t take long before it starts to feel like busywork. In Guild Wars 2, quests are tied to each map. You will encounter them as you travel the world (they’re marked on the map as hearts), and while you can talk to an NPC for some flavour text, you don’t have to specifically “begin” questing or hand anything in once you’re finished. It feels a lot more organic to stumble upon injured soldiers who need a medic, or start clearing up a rat-infested town than it does to go through the contrivance of quest-givers.

It’s amazing what difference such a small change can make. You don’t end up with a journal full of half-finished quests, and you don’t have to waste time tracking down whoever it was that asked you to do their shopping for them. Story quests work a little differently in that you do have to “activate” them at a particular place or by talking to an NPC. They also have much higher production values and feel hand-crafted. One memorable mission involves rescuing children from a swamp overrun with the undead and having to defend them as they make their way to safety. If you’re lucky, you might even get a cutscene or two. As far as I’m concerned the “Renown Hearts” quest system is a straight improvement on having to manually take on and hand in quests. It makes the grind less irritating, and in an MMO that’s so important.

Related: WoW Classic Receiving Features To Encourage New Players

On an even more fundamental level, the combat is great. The fact that you can dodge-roll means it isn’t purely a numbers game, and you can take on enemies of a much higher level if you’re skilled enough. Your five primary skills are tied to weapons as opposed to your character, which might feel limiting initially, but I found it much more manageable. In other MMOs, your skill bar can grow to frankly ludicrous proportions and keeping track of it all becomes a real nuisance. I prefer the Guild Wars 2 approach.

The real customisation lies in the set of other skills and buffs tied to your class, which you can swap around to your heart’s content. I had great fun designing a tank DPS hybrid who could place banners which buffed my guildmates, and make them temporarily invulnerable, but could also transform into a raging juggernaut capable of punching with the force of a pneumatic hammer, throwing boulders, and performing an earth-shattering stomp attack.

There is no designated healer class – every character has a healing ability and all can perform revives. There are also no out-and-out tanks or damage dealers. Some classes tend towards one of the three but in theory, everyone can do everything. You’ll still need to focus on party composition for dungeons, each of which poses a unique challenge. The Ascalonian Catacombs for example are much easier if you use ranged attacks against the powerful melee-focused bosses, and watch for those Ascalonian Rangers, which can apply crippled and bleed. A Mesmer who can use Magic Bullet to stun enemies from afar would be a great choice. Getting to experiment is another of the many reasons I keep coming back to this game.

Guild Wars 2 is great at fostering a sense of community, even among players who aren’t in direct communication with one another. The most spectacular way the game does this is through its “world events”. These happen periodically and consist of a sequence of smaller challenges that culminate in a boss fight (against a boss that can be the size of a building). As you and all the other players on the map go about your business, you’ll suddenly receive word that a portal has opened somewhere, or that some dark ritual is nearing completion. You can then charge over there and begin the event.

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There are no queues, no restrictions on who can join in, and the entire server will often come together to take down whatever titanic beast appears. Strategy tends to go out the window once the end boss appears, but the sheer spectacle of it more than compensates. There can be dozens of other players involved and working together feels completely natural. There are also cooperative elements built into the smaller quests, where players can help each other just by turning up and fighting side by side, or even by scaring rabbits away from another player who is carrying a big sack of rabbit food. I’m normally deeply suspicious of other players in an MMO, but in Guild Wars 2 working together is totally seamless and feels great.

The fact that Guild Wars 2 is still alive and kicking is remarkable. It’s testament to how much it was willing to go against the grain, and how fresh many of its systems and ideas remain. I’m still very much onboard, and while it’s been a bumpy ride at times, the game has a lot left to offer. The Steam release has injected new life into it too, so if you’re in the market for an MMO that does things differently, then look no further. You won’t regret it.

Next: 10 Best Free-To-Play MMORPGs, Ranked

 

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