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Final Guild Wars Beta Weekend
The folks over at ArenaNet are throwing the Final Pre-Release Beta Weekend Event. It's specifically aimed at folks who have preordered the game. If you're in, you can download the client and get into the game world early. From the article: "This BWE might be called our polishing event. Aside from the brand new maps that are being presented in their newer form, and which we know might need a bit more refinement, we're moving in on release (just 14 days and counting!) and we'd really like things to be just perfect on April 28th."
I've been with GW since the forst E3 event, and was offered an alpha position. This weekend, I started a new character to get a feel for the game as a new player.
Visually the game is stunning. I love the enviroments, and the character design is quite good. Combat is fast-paced and tactical, and feels tight.
I'm concerned about how the game starts out. You see a short cinematic showing the Charr attacking Old Ascalon, and the guards call for all the fighters the city can muster. First gripe: characters conversing don't talk. There is no facial animation at all. They don't even gesture. If you didn't have the sound on, you would think it's just two guys standing there. Given how good the visuals are to this point, I don't know why they skimped on that.
But let us continue inside the city walls, where everything is peaceful. Huh? Theres a war raging outside and there is NO indication of it inside. Everyone is just kind of standing around. Talk to a guard, and he directs you to your class trainer. The trainer gives you some low level quests before giving you your first skills. What was my quest? Find a little girl who wandered off. Oh wait, she lost her flute too. Again, I get NO feeling that any kind of conflict is going on. The attacking Charr seemed pretty important to the guys outside, but we get no sense of that. Basically, nothing has 'hooked' me yet.
From here it loses direction. There are quests to do, but there is no real direction. Kill this, take this here, etc. Normal MMO fare, but it starts in the first 10 minutes of the game. Theres no logical progression at a time when the player is least familiar with the game. There is a story happening here, but it feels like your character has nothing to do with it. This is the time that the game should be filling you in on where you are, whats going on, and giving you a reason to give a crap about it. But it doesn't.
Eventually, after some random questing I got back to where I started and talked to that same guard. I got the option to join the fighting force and leave behind "Old Ascalon". Essentially, leaving the noob area. The problem is, I had no indication if I was the proper level for this, or if I had missed anything important before leaving. I almost left before picking my secondary profession, which would have been bad. Again, a new player needs more guidance than this.
So I'm finally ready to defend the city! (Remember that invading force?) So I go to the guard and agree to leave behind noob-ville, and it throws me into a PvP match! Even though there is an imminent threat, the military decides it needs to test it's volunteers by having them kill each other. Sounds like fun right? Well, the groups are random, and the group balance sucked. It was me and a Necro, versus 3 Warriors and a Monk. 2 vs 4. Needless to me and my necro ally got schooled. So, since we're not worthy the guards send us on the awesome task of killing some stuff in a cave. We proceed to kill stuff, and upon clearing the cave we get our second cut scene. Basically, Old Ascalon gets the crap kicked out of it by the Charr.
Once you get to this point, the game picks up steam again. The mission zones are much more interesting and follow a plot. Basically, now it starts to get fun. The problem is, it's too late at this point. Why didn't it start out this entertaining? The first impression is not nearly as good as it could be. It starts confused and aimless, with our heroes involved in nothing epic at all.
Again, the gameplay, mechanics, and art are all very good. Once you develop your character, PvP is solid, and looks to be the shining aspect of the game. PvE starts out weak, but ramps up to be fairly entertaining. Overall, the game is very good, but it falls just short of being GREAT. I didn't feel drawn into the world, and I wasn't given a reason to care about what happens in it. I could tell it was a good game, but I didn't get hooked by it. It does a lot of things right, but lacks that 'something' that makes it really stick out in my mind.
I'll try and get in game some more tonight...