Introduction

Guild Wars is a competitive online role-playing game designed by ArenaNet and developed for the PC. Possibly one of the greatest games I have ever played, this game has taken me through many adventures throughout the land’s of Tyria and created many memories.

At the time of writing this review, Guild Wars is already over 11 years old and still extremely popular.

The game has come a long way since its release in 2005 and has undergo many expansions to the game which vastly expanded its content. The game is set in the world of Tyria, in which are three playable continents that the player can explore. Each continent are by themselves a separate campaign, but one can only have the full gaming experience by owning all three.

Gameplay

The game is played in the form of a player avatar which the player creates before they start. A person may choose from 10 playable classes which include the Warrior, Ranger, Monk, Necromancer, Mesmer, Elementalist, Assassin, Ritualist, Dervish and the Paragon. Each class has their own unique set of skills and abilities, which may be mixed together to create what are known as skill "builds". Creating builds takes a lot of thinking and is one of the key elements which makes the game one of the most innovative I have played.

The game is played by following a set of storylines. Each campaign has it’s own storyline that takes it from a low level character (starting level 1) to level 20 by the time the player reaches near the end of its respective campaign. At any point a player may cross over to a different campaign regardless of where they started their character.

Much of the game is centered around end-game content which includes various high difficulty dungeons, and other elite areas which take a lot of teamwork and game skill to complete.

Overall Thoughts

All in all, my assessment of Guild Wars 1 is that it is one of the best games of its kind released in the past 2 decades. While not the only game of its kind, it is one of the most unique in that the gameplay and mechanics are completely different from most other MMO’s.

I give this game a rating of 9/10.

Reviewed by KC @ MMO Gamer’s Market