First off, the game isn't finished. Anet has a long ways to go for this to be a finished product. The Char animations and combat are clunky, the voice overs are mostly place holders, the game needs a lot of optimizing, things like the overflow mechanic needs to be looked at and tweaked, the in game browser needs some optimization,etc. But.... it's beta, so this is all expected.

Now on to specifics.

Cash Shop

This is in no way a pay to win scenario, the cash shop has nothing on there that is even really worth mentioning when discussing pay to win. Everything on the cash shop is nothing more than fluff, service or convenience. Nothing gives you any kind of significant or meaningful advantage. The Mystic chests that have some in an uproar give you a random harvesting/gathering tool (not even a weapon), a buff, and a potion that turns you into an animal. The keys even drop in game and are given as rewards so the chests are even less meaningful to discuss.

Gems can be bought in game with in game gold and while some may say "THIS is where it becomes pay to win" that gold still doesn't buy you much of any kind of advantage. Karma is going to play a bigger factor when it comes to power and those Karma buffs you can buy on the cash shop drop in game as well so again... not worth discussing. In PvP if they have a great deal of gold for siege weapons, it matters little if your taking out there supply caravans so again, not really worth discussing.

Graphics

The game looks nice and sticks true to the GW1 style. No it's not to the level of Age
of Conans realistic and detailed style but it looks better than most other MMO's
including TERA imho. It looks good to me so that's all that really matters, others
may have different opinions.

Combat

Okay, this is an area where the game shines for me. I played TERA's beta and GW2 just
out does it by leaps and bounds. Combat feels more fluid and more meaningful. With
the abilities you have it feels more dynamic than TERA and others. Let me give an example.

Human Engineer - While solo I did fights differently based on what I was facing. Single melee for example I would jump shot into the mob, Overcharge Shot, net shot, then auto attack and kite until net shot and or overcharge was off of CD. Against a ranged target my strategy changed and I would use dually pistols, flash grenades etc. Now this doesn't stay a constant either as things have the tendency of changing on you in an instant.

In a group environment I found myself a niche in the support department while dealing damage. When the melee's went down I'd jump shot to them, overcharge to knock the enemy back, raise them and pop my healing kit and drop healing packs, I'd switch out to pistols for glue shot or w/e as needed... but again, this was hardly a constant. Situation changes, strategy must change or adapt.

Combat has you constantly on your toes in both PvP and PvE. Its up to you to find where you fit in. All in all even while it needs tweaks (Like with Pet AI for rangers ) its by far the best combat system I've had the privilege of experiencing in an MMO. TERA simply pales in comparison.

Dynamic Events

These are great in my opinion. Instead of feeling like an errand boy I feel like I'm helping out and making some kind of impact even if a limited one. I haven't done many DE's that made me feel like I've had a long lasting significant impact but that's OK to me as I at least feel like I'm doing something more than killing 10 rats for some dudes +1 sword of replacemeinalevelortwo. One of the games I enjoyed more than most other MMO's is Final Fantasy XI and this was mainly due to things like Garrison, Campaign and Besieged. These were static events in the game that happened frequently to semi frequently. You basically fought off waves of mobs to protect outposts or a city in the case of besieged. They had no real impact on the game if you failed or if you succeeded but they were fun. Here these events branch and they do have an impact even if it's a temporary one. You fail to protect that fort, you just lost a way point that you could teleport to or you lost access to vendors inside that area. You now have a DE to retake it though.

Basically for me DE's are a great replacement for traditional questing as they give me the feeling I'm actually doing something instead of making it feel like I'm simply running errands to grind out levels and the route I wish rift had taken. This mechanic is great combined with GW2 combat system.

A funny note here about something that happened to me while in town. I'm sitting in town and I see on my map the water station is under attack again. I've done this a few times on a few characters so I decided I'm not running out there this time. For an instant I felt a minor pang of guilt because the NPC's around me all had these poison icons over their heads complaining the water from the well tastes contaminated. I said to myself "Damn, I should have went to help out at the water station" then I caught myself and felt silly.

PvP in the Mists

This was epic, it didn't really feel like you were playing on a map. The place was huge. The PvP was intense. There were small skirmishes and large scale battles. I helped at first by taking down supply caravans and taking out players I found here and there. When I found where the bulk of my team was I headed off to help out there. What I came upon was a massive battle. My team was trying to take the keep but every time they went for the battering ram necro's were throwing down fear and causing everyone to flee from it. So I got in where I fit in. I was on my Human Ranger so I started shooting at the ones on the walls hindering my team. Others followed suit. Soon our team was able to get to the battering ram and siege the door. They would try and mount an offensive from the wall but our ranged attacks kept them from making much of a difference.

That's when a wave of melee and casters came charging out of the door and then it we were put on the defensive. A few stayed by the door, me and several other ranged chars kept those on the wall at bay and a large group
near the door broke off to fend off the defenders. This went on for a little while until another group came charging us from our left. It was an all out battle. We managed to breach the the gates, route the flanking army and take the keep in the end. But this was just a tiny sample of what happened in the mists. I ended up
taking my leave after a couple of hours.

Now.... with all that going on constantly here's something important to note. There simply wasn't the kind of lag you would expect. Were talking 50-60 players on screen if not more, spell animations, artillery, I mean it was chaos, yet I didn't receive a performance hit and it seems most there noted the same thing.

Performance

All in all the beta ran pretty good for me the only time I ran into FPS issues or lag or anything of that nature was when I played my Charr. The game lagged a lot for me then and performance over all was just awful. But on any other character regardless of where I was in the world I had little to no issues.

Servers did go down a few times, but all in all with the exception of the Charr, performance for me was just great. Even in the large scale battles with so much going on performance was great.

Final Notes

Like I said at the start, the game isn't finished. There is much work still needed. But, it's a game I am definitely glad I purchased. I sadly do not see myself getting into another MMO for awhile. I had grown to despise traditional questing long before GW2's BWE and it's the main reason I couldn't stick with SWTOR (If any game called for a new take on questing it was SWTOR and Rift) but thankfully GW2 provided something that feels completely different and has turned out to be extremely enjoyable.
 
 

As to why I'm not happy
It's over for now :(

Peace,
  A Fan

Originally posted by GrayGhost79

First off, the game isn't finished. Anet has a long ways to go for this to be a finished product. The Char animations and combat are clunky, the voice overs are mostly place holders, the game needs a lot of optimizing, things like the overflow mechanic needs to be looked at and tweaked, the in game browser needs some optimization,etc. But.... it's beta, so this is all expected.

Now on to specifics.

 

 

Cash Shop

This is in no way a pay to win scenario, the cash shop has nothing on there that is even really worth mentioning when discussing pay to win. Everything on the cash shop is nothing more than fluff, service or convenience. Nothing gives you any kind of significant or meaningful advantage. The Mystic chests that have some in an uproar give you a random harvesting/gathering tool (not even a weapon), a buff, and a potion that turns you into an animal. The keys even drop in game and are given as rewards so the chests are even less meaningful to discuss.

Gems can be bought in game with in game gold and while some may say "THIS is where it becomes pay to win" that gold still doesn't buy you much of any kind of advantage. Karma is going to play a bigger factor when it comes to power and those Karma buffs you can buy on the cash shop drop in game as well so again... not worth discussing. In PvP if they have a great deal of gold for siege weapons, it matters little if your taking out there supply caravans so again, not really worth discussing.

 

Graphics

The game looks nice and sticks true to the GW1 style. No it's not to the level of Age
of Conans realistic and detailed style but it looks better than most other MMO's
including TERA imho. It looks good to me so that's all that really matters, others
may have different opinions.

 

 

Combat

Okay, this is an area where the game shines for me. I played TERA's beta and GW2 just
out does it by leaps and bounds. Combat feels more fluid and more meaningful. With
the abilities you have it feels more dynamic than TERA and others. Let me give an example.

Human Engineer - While solo I did fights differently based on what I was facing. Single melee for example I would jump shot into the mob, Overcharge Shot, net shot, then auto attack and kite until net shot and or overcharge was off of CD. Against a ranged target my strategy changed and I would use dually pistols, flash grenades etc. Now this doesn't stay a constant either as things have the tendency of changing on you in an instant.

In a group environment I found myself a niche in the support department while dealing damage. When the melee's went down I'd jump shot to them, overcharge to knock the enemy back, raise them and pop my healing kit and drop healing packs, I'd switch out to pistols for glue shot or w/e as needed... but again, this was hardly a constant. Situation changes, strategy must change or adapt.

Combat has you constantly on your toes in both PvP and PvE. Its up to you to find where you fit in. All in all even while it needs tweaks (Like with Pet AI for rangers ) its by far the best combat system I've had the privilege of experiencing in an MMO. TERA simply pales in comparison.

 

 

 

Dynamic Events

These are great in my opinion. Instead of feeling like an errand boy I feel like I'm helping out and making some kind of impact even if a limited one. I haven't done many DE's that made me feel like I've had a long lasting significant impact but that's OK to me as I at least feel like I'm doing something more than killing 10 rats for some dudes +1 sword of replacemeinalevelortwo. One of the games I enjoyed more than most other MMO's is Final Fantasy XI and this was mainly due to things like Garrison, Campaign and Besieged. These were static events in the game that happened frequently to semi frequently. You basically fought off waves of mobs to protect outposts or a city in the case of besieged. They had no real impact on the game if you failed or if you succeeded but they were fun. Here these events branch and they do have an impact even if it's a temporary one. You fail to protect that fort, you just lost a way point that you could teleport to or you lost access to vendors inside that area. You now have a DE to retake it though.

Basically for me DE's are a great replacement for traditional questing as they give me the feeling I'm actually doing something instead of making it feel like I'm simply running errands to grind out levels and the route I wish rift had taken. This mechanic is great combined with GW2 combat system.

A funny note here about something that happened to me while in town. I'm sitting in town and I see on my map the water station is under attack again. I've done this a few times on a few characters so I decided I'm not running out there this time. For an instant I felt a minor pang of guilt because the NPC's around me all had these poison icons over their heads complaining the water from the well tastes contaminated. I said to myself "Damn, I should have went to help out at the water station" then I caught myself and felt silly.

 

 

PvP in the Mists

This was epic, it didn't really feel like you were playing on a map. The place was huge. The PvP was intense. There were small skirmishes and large scale battles. I helped at first by taking down supply caravans and taking out players I found here and there. When I found where the bulk of my team was I headed off to help out there. What I came upon was a massive battle. My team was trying to take the keep but every time they went for the battering ram necro's were throwing down fear and causing everyone to flee from it. So I got in where I fit in. I was on my Human Ranger so I started shooting at the ones on the walls hindering my team. Others followed suit. Soon our team was able to get to the battering ram and siege the door. They would try
and mount an offensive from the wall but our ranged attacks kept them from making much of a difference. That's when a wave of melee and casters came charging out of the door and then it we were put on the defensive. A few stayed by the door, me and several other ranged chars kept those on the wall at bay and a large group
near the door broke off to fend off the defenders. This went on for a little while until another group came charging us from our left. It was an all out battle. We managed to breach the the gates, route the flanking army and take the keep in the end. But this was just a tiny sample of what happened in the mists. I ended up
taking my leave after a couple of hours.

Now.... with all that going on constantly here's something important to note. There simply wasn't the kind of lag you would expect. Were talking 50-60 players on screen if not more, spell animations, artillery, I mean it was chaos, yet I didn't receive a performance hit and it seems most there noted the same thing.

 

 

Performance

All in all the beta ran pretty good for me the only time I ran into FPS issues or lag or anything of that nature was when I played my Charr. The game lagged a lot for me then and performance over all was just awful. But on any other character regardless of where I was in the world I had little to no issues.

Servers did go down a few times, but all in all with the exception of the Charr, performance for me was just great. Even in the large scale battles with so much going on performance was great.

 

 

Final Notes

Like I said at the start, the game isn't finished. There is much work still needed. But, it's a game I am definitely glad I purchased. I sadly do not see myself getting into another MMO for awhile. I had grown to despise traditional questing long before GW2's BWE and it's the main reason I couldn't stick with SWTOR (If any game called for a new take on questing it was SWTOR and Rift) but thankfully GW2 provided something that feels completely different and has turned out to be extremely enjoyable.
 
 

 

As to why I'm not happy
It's over for now :(

Peace,
  A Fan

Lol,i starting reading and could not figure out why you are unhappy,lol.As for the review,well i agree and think it's a fair review.

The game is not ready but ArenAnet have never said that this first BWE will have no problems.All in all i think it's pretty standard stuff that you find in any MMO that is now preparing for release.

Darn, you really fooled me with that title! :/

I agree completely.

My own impressions of the beta, still too fresh in my head need some to think.

But my biggest problem was performance, I've got a fairly beefy machine and had to run most everything at "medium" settings at 1080p and though the game looked great, I was hoping for better.

The rest... amazing. Totally and completely amazing.

My favourite review so far.

However. I'll add one semi-bad thing that even though overflow server is a great inovation, it made partying and finding friends you play with extremely difficult. That's my only concern ( I won't mention server issues and optimization since that not done yet).

Originally posted by thedarkess

My favourite review so far.

However. I'll add one semi-bad thing that even though overflow server is a great inovation, it made partying and finding friends you play with extremely diffucult. That's my only concern ( I want mention server issues and optimization since that not done yet).

This ^

I'd rather play the game alone in the overflow than sit in a queue, but was kind of confusing when one of us would be in overflow and the other the open world.

I did however love that friends are account based so even on different toons we could always see online status.

Originally posted by thedarkess

My favourite review so far.

However. I'll add one semi-bad thing that even though overflow server is a great inovation, it made partying and finding friends you play with extremely diffucult. That's my only concern ( I want mention server issues and optimization since that not done yet).

Yeah the overflow thing annoyed me a few times. Me and the wife were in party together but kept getting split up. Definitely needs some work.

Haha, made me chuckle :)

Originally posted by Sylvarii

Originally posted by GrayGhost79

 

Final Notes

Like I said at the start, the game isn't finished. There is much work still needed. But, it's a game I am definitely glad I purchased. I sadly do not see myself getting into another MMO for awhile. I had grown to despise traditional questing long before GW2's BWE and it's the main reason I couldn't stick with SWTOR (If any game called for a new take on questing it was SWTOR and Rift) but thankfully GW2 provided something that feels completely different and has turned out to be extremely enjoyable.
 
 

 

As to why I'm not happy
It's over for now :(

Peace,
  A Fan

Lol,i starting reading and could not figure out why you are unhappy,lol.As for the review,well i agree and think it's a fair review.

The game is not ready but ArenAnet have never said that this first BWE will have no problems.All in all i think it's pretty standard stuff that you find in any MMO that is now preparing for release.

Same Here : P, Took out some of the quote since i didnt wanna spam the wall

So let me get this straight. Instead of talking to a quest giver you are basicallyyyyyyyyyyy given the same quest you always did just by going near the guy.

This is called "public questing". WARHammer introduced it, Rift took it to the next level, and GW2 and using it also.

Oddly as excited I was for the game it did not impress me.  Combat did not seem fluid at all and more clunky.  The classes I tried were the Necromancer, Engineer and Ranger.  The voiced over cut scenes seemed like something out of a western style game which did not feel immersive versus how SW:TOR handled theirs.  Also from an experienced MMO vet. I could not see a new person just getting into MMO's easily getting started with the game.  There is very little direction even in the beginning to help guide players into what to do.

My rating of the game before playing 9 of out 10 (never rank anything with a 10).  After playing I give it s 5 out of 10 at best.

Originally posted by thedarkess

My favourite review so far.

However. I'll add one semi-bad thing that even though overflow server is a great inovation, it made partying and finding friends you play with extremely difficult. That's my only concern ( I won't mention server issues and optimization since that not done yet).

I think most would agree about the partying and overflow.

Originally posted by st3v3b0

Oddly as excited I was for the game it did not impress me.  Combat did not seem fluid at all and more clunky.  The classes I tried were the Necromancer, Engineer and Ranger.  The voiced over cut scenes seemed like something out of a western style game which did not feel immersive versus how SW:TOR handled theirs.  Also from an experienced MMO vet. I could not see a new person just getting into MMO's easily getting started with the game.  There is very little direction even in the beginning to help guide players into what to do.

My rating of the game before playing 9 of out 10 (never rank anything with a 10).  After playing I give it s 5 out of 10 at best.

That's fair enough,not everyone is going to give the game glowing reviews,hopefully your main concerns will be worked out before release.

I would actually give the game a 6/10 as it stands now,that leaves a good 3 points(no MMO is perfect)to give it between now and release.

Originally posted by Puremallace

So let me get this straight. Instead of talking to a quest giver you are basicallyyyyyyyyyyy given the same quest you always did just by going near the guy.

 

This is called "public questing". WARHammer introduced it, Rift took it to the next level, and GW2 and using it also.

No not exactly, but yes think of Warhammers public questing as an example then add in branches that have an effect on other areas/people/places/things in the game.

Some areas "Heart Hubs" are there where you walk up and have things you can do to help them out. Other dynamic events are out in the world and happen kind of randomly. We were clearing out a cave of grubs when a Troll Champion showed up and an event began, swimming in the water looking for pets I ended up running into a friggin massive fish and an event started there, events of all types branching and not so apparently branching are going on all over the place.

The "heart hubs" are there to kind of ease people into it. It's mainly for those that aren't going to adapt to the DE system easily. I mainly avoided them, well not intentionally I simply wanted to explore and kept getting side tracked by events going on nearby.

Glad you tested it out and can be more objective.

The combat is always a big 'depending on person'. Personally I view the combat in GW2 to be lack luster to Tera due to the fact it doesn't really over 'penalizing' so spamming isn't all that detracting and costly for attempting to do. That being said, it doesn't nessisarily mean its not hard either, just it has a less stratigic flow involving penalties for your actions. Then again I do enjoy fighting games so i'm one that feels controls should PURPOSELY be limited to a degree your actions can't just be dropped without some good reason or some 'penalty' to it. Those "Delays" people complain about are to what what makes combat feel smoother and more dynamic. 

That being said, its always good to note products aren't complete when you beta test. While a lot of betas do tend to be close to release (much of what is there won't be fixed or adjusted) this game has the benefit of release dates that a lot can be adjusted.

Originally posted by GrayGhost79

First off, the game isn't finished. Anet has a long ways to go for this to be a finished product. The Char animations and combat are clunky, the voice overs are mostly place holders, the game needs a lot of optimizing, things like the overflow mechanic needs to be looked at and tweaked, the in game browser needs some optimization,etc. But.... it's beta, so this is all expected.

Now on to specifics.

 

 

Cash Shop

This is in no way a pay to win scenario, the cash shop has nothing on there that is even really worth mentioning when discussing pay to win. Everything on the cash shop is nothing more than fluff, service or convenience. Nothing gives you any kind of significant or meaningful advantage. The Mystic chests that have some in an uproar give you a random harvesting/gathering tool (not even a weapon), a buff, and a potion that turns you into an animal. The keys even drop in game and are given as rewards so the chests are even less meaningful to discuss.

Gems can be bought in game with in game gold and while some may say "THIS is where it becomes pay to win" that gold still doesn't buy you much of any kind of advantage. Karma is going to play a bigger factor when it comes to power and those Karma buffs you can buy on the cash shop drop in game as well so again... not worth discussing. In PvP if they have a great deal of gold for siege weapons, it matters little if your taking out there supply caravans so again, not really worth discussing.

 

Graphics

The game looks nice and sticks true to the GW1 style. No it's not to the level of Age
of Conans realistic and detailed style but it looks better than most other MMO's
including TERA imho. It looks good to me so that's all that really matters, others
may have different opinions.

 

 

Combat

Okay, this is an area where the game shines for me. I played TERA's beta and GW2 just
out does it by leaps and bounds. Combat feels more fluid and more meaningful. With
the abilities you have it feels more dynamic than TERA and others. Let me give an example.

Human Engineer - While solo I did fights differently based on what I was facing. Single melee for example I would jump shot into the mob, Overcharge Shot, net shot, then auto attack and kite until net shot and or overcharge was off of CD. Against a ranged target my strategy changed and I would use dually pistols, flash grenades etc. Now this doesn't stay a constant either as things have the tendency of changing on you in an instant.

In a group environment I found myself a niche in the support department while dealing damage. When the melee's went down I'd jump shot to them, overcharge to knock the enemy back, raise them and pop my healing kit and drop healing packs, I'd switch out to pistols for glue shot or w/e as needed... but again, this was hardly a constant. Situation changes, strategy must change or adapt.

Combat has you constantly on your toes in both PvP and PvE. Its up to you to find where you fit in. All in all even while it needs tweaks (Like with Pet AI for rangers ) its by far the best combat system I've had the privilege of experiencing in an MMO. TERA simply pales in comparison.

 

 

 

Dynamic Events

These are great in my opinion. Instead of feeling like an errand boy I feel like I'm helping out and making some kind of impact even if a limited one. I haven't done many DE's that made me feel like I've had a long lasting significant impact but that's OK to me as I at least feel like I'm doing something more than killing 10 rats for some dudes +1 sword of replacemeinalevelortwo. One of the games I enjoyed more than most other MMO's is Final Fantasy XI and this was mainly due to things like Garrison, Campaign and Besieged. These were static events in the game that happened frequently to semi frequently. You basically fought off waves of mobs to protect outposts or a city in the case of besieged. They had no real impact on the game if you failed or if you succeeded but they were fun. Here these events branch and they do have an impact even if it's a temporary one. You fail to protect that fort, you just lost a way point that you could teleport to or you lost access to vendors inside that area. You now have a DE to retake it though.

Basically for me DE's are a great replacement for traditional questing as they give me the feeling I'm actually doing something instead of making it feel like I'm simply running errands to grind out levels and the route I wish rift had taken. This mechanic is great combined with GW2 combat system.

A funny note here about something that happened to me while in town. I'm sitting in town and I see on my map the water station is under attack again. I've done this a few times on a few characters so I decided I'm not running out there this time. For an instant I felt a minor pang of guilt because the NPC's around me all had these poison icons over their heads complaining the water from the well tastes contaminated. I said to myself "Damn, I should have went to help out at the water station" then I caught myself and felt silly.

 

 

PvP in the Mists

This was epic, it didn't really feel like you were playing on a map. The place was huge. The PvP was intense. There were small skirmishes and large scale battles. I helped at first by taking down supply caravans and taking out players I found here and there. When I found where the bulk of my team was I headed off to help out there. What I came upon was a massive battle. My team was trying to take the keep but every time they went for the battering ram necro's were throwing down fear and causing everyone to flee from it. So I got in where I fit in. I was on my Human Ranger so I started shooting at the ones on the walls hindering my team. Others followed suit. Soon our team was able to get to the battering ram and siege the door. They would try and mount an offensive from the wall but our ranged attacks kept them from making much of a difference.

That's when a wave of melee and casters came charging out of the door and then it we were put on the defensive. A few stayed by the door, me and several other ranged chars kept those on the wall at bay and a large group
near the door broke off to fend off the defenders. This went on for a little while until another group came charging us from our left. It was an all out battle. We managed to breach the the gates, route the flanking army and take the keep in the end. But this was just a tiny sample of what happened in the mists. I ended up
taking my leave after a couple of hours.

Now.... with all that going on constantly here's something important to note. There simply wasn't the kind of lag you would expect. Were talking 50-60 players on screen if not more, spell animations, artillery, I mean it was chaos, yet I didn't receive a performance hit and it seems most there noted the same thing.

 

 

Performance

All in all the beta ran pretty good for me the only time I ran into FPS issues or lag or anything of that nature was when I played my Charr. The game lagged a lot for me then and performance over all was just awful. But on any other character regardless of where I was in the world I had little to no issues.

Servers did go down a few times, but all in all with the exception of the Charr, performance for me was just great. Even in the large scale battles with so much going on performance was great.

 

 

Final Notes

Like I said at the start, the game isn't finished. There is much work still needed. But, it's a game I am definitely glad I purchased. I sadly do not see myself getting into another MMO for awhile. I had grown to despise traditional questing long before GW2's BWE and it's the main reason I couldn't stick with SWTOR (If any game called for a new take on questing it was SWTOR and Rift) but thankfully GW2 provided something that feels completely different and has turned out to be extremely enjoyable.
 
 

 

As to why I'm not happy
It's over for now :(

Peace,
  A Fan

You fooled me too. Nice read mate :).

I also thought they need to up the frequency of the DE's because often I would be doing heart quests for an extended period of time, with no events popping up, or the opposite the exact same event would pop up again and again.

I hope they are working on/testing/tweaking the pace/flow/frequency of events.

---

Originally posted by Nevulus
Wait I'm confused, is this a review, or just a Tera bashing piece?

---

"Would you like some cheese with that w(h)ine?"

Seriously, he mentioned TERA three times and yet you instantly feel the need to go hyperbole?