Umming and arring about getting this, very expensive for a digital copy! Wish there was a trial that could be used.
What's the playbility/lastability like? (Especially with the WoW expansion coming out). I've always played WOW but often felt I'm playing a single player game the worlds are so quiet (Medium servers I was on). Is GW2 any better?
Well, once you're done leveling there's mostly just PvP/farming at the moment. The dungeons aren't great, leveling doesn't take that long.
I think it's more one to pick up in future, most people I know who have come from WoW are a bit bored/disappointed now, despite being initially impressed.
Its focus is on PvP and the entire game engine needs some work, certain things are just too complicated to make the game work efficiently, at the moment it's generally a zergfest.
It's not really that expensive considering it doesn't have a subscription though.
Overall I'm not that impressed, it has been ridiculously over-hyped by many people but they'll need time to expand the game and work out the issues. If this is the best they can do for a real 'next gen' MMO then I'm quite disappointed - there isn't all that much that's new once you get past the initial quirks.
I disagree on most main points
I found the dungeons great, I have always been in trinity games but I find the change away great. I only ran my first dungeon last night and off all the complaints I was dreading it. But hada guild group and worked as a team, sharing threat, healing and using boons we got through with no wipes and I think only 2 or 3 people got downed before getting quickly revived mid fight. Was a challenge and a nice change from the norm. That and the fact you need to travel to dungeons and meet up was a nice old school feeling
Levelling, IMO, is in no way too fast. If you play like mad with the sole intention of levelling then yes you will get through it fast (nowhere near as fast as most other MMO's) Personally I have been questing, enjoying events, exploring and generally enjoying the world (as well as WvW) and after 2 hours per night with the odd long session I am only 41.
Re PvP yes it is a lot of zerging at the mo but even that is a huge step up from the battlegrounds set up of other MMO's. It is getting toward DAOC pvp and whilst it still has some issues to iron to reach that level it is great fun. Add to that they have balanced the game very well, you hear the odd person whine about balance but they have balanced for large scale battles rather than one to ones and thats how you balance a real pvp game. Attempting to balance everyone one to one will end up with the **** pvp that WoW is now.
There are annoying quirks in the game and some issues that are irritating but its a few weeks into release and the level of polish for such a new game is insane.
One thing I will agree with Robbo about though is that you won't find much to do if you are a pve'er at end game. It's an unashamed PvP game and doesn't pretend to be anything else so if you want PvE the best on the market is still WoW. I think GW2 take on PvE is good but it needs work and will never be a full time offering as it is a PvP game.
Best thing about it being a PvP game is that a lot of the wowtards have stayed with/gone back to WoW and even in the last week or two I have seen the community go from gutter trash, moronic WoW barrens spam to a genuinely helpful and nice community already (with the odd exceptions.) Just to clarify (I know people are touchy on this sometimes) I am an ex wow player from the start and loved the game but hated what the community become, they are the wowtards, not everyone who played wow
I couldn't recomend the game enough to anyone, is it perfect? No. Is it everyone cup of tea? Certainly not. Is it a massive step in the right direction for the genre? Undoubtedly.
