Last week (Review in Progress Part 1) I spent the first of several “Review in Progress” articles talking mainly about Guild Wars 2’s exploration, dynamic event questing, and the overall feeling I have when playing the game.  I also looked at some of the bad bits so far, and the good bits as well. Let’s keep up with this format as we dive into the 2^nd edition of the series, which ultimately will culminate in our official review later in September.  It’s now been almost two weeks since the Head Start began, and there are definitely some kinks to iron out, but one has to admit that ArenaNet has definitely increased its communication via social channels and their official site’s Wiki even as the players are being hounded by email phishing scams and the company has had to turn off first-party digital sales because the demand is too great. I guess that “being too popular” is a good problem to have when you’re trying to make a living.

Read the Full Article Here.  

i agree completely on your review!

personal story feel challenging at times(most of the time!). and theres a little disconnect going to other zones- BUT, that didnt happen to me until i joined the 'Vigil', and they started assigning me on 'special' missions throughout Tyria to gain trust etc. so it made sense.-to me and my character on its choices.

and so far I honestly can say i havent found any flaws within  this game -its hard to find if any at all!!!voices are dead on -dialogue is mature not child like. you dont get spoon fed you NEED to figure things out closer to Skyrim than WoW imo.

and pvp is just a WHOLE new game exp. to explore. - and for me to say all this when iam very vocal on bad game development on forums etc, says alot for me not to be critical on this game-iam no GW fanboy, iam just enjoying playing this mmo!!!

I have only tried to queue for Mists twice, both times I ended up leaving the queue once it popped because I was running low on play time that session. Kind of annoying, but I always planned on WvW to be more of an end-game activity for me.

The whole "leaving your leveling track" to another zone thing does miff me a bit too, not because it's hard to do or whatever I just feel you shouldn't have to, but I actually like exploring in this game and finding new skill challenges and PoI's/Warp points.

I've had the most fun ignoring my map and mini-map and just setting off for something I can see in the distance.

Trading post issues haven't effected me too much, I'm kind of a coin horder so I'd rather grind a bit to get mats I need for crafting.

I don't really worry about my gear being up to snuff while leveling unless I can craft it myself - and am having no problem keeping both my Armorsmith and Weaponsmith up to my level in terms of what equipment I can/can't use (experimentation is key!)

My only REAL gripe is that I just get such "grass is greener" when it comes to Professions/characters.

Started a Asura Gaurdian, got to late teens, made a Human Warrior, got to early 30's, now on to a Norn Guardian and loving it, level 18 or so.

At this rate it's going to take me forever to get max level, let alone in my 40's-50's.

Oh, and I always hate in MMO's that if you have long hair and put on a helmet nothing sticks out. Umm hello I've got a 3 foot poneytail on my Norn, but when I put on a chainmail skull cap nothing is coming out?

I wish they'd address that, most MMO's never do, but here's to hoping.. they have more concerns right now.

Agree with all you say.

WvW queues are a problem. Instead of raising the cap, maybe there's need of more worlds with the possibility of consolidating them later. The game's WvW was one of the big selling points, it's no surprise that most people want to participate in it.

Personal story is exceptional AND difficult enough, but so are renown hearts and overall general difficulty. The game is challenging, as someone in a review said, and that's good, good, good.

Experience? Ok that personal story has gaps in level, but with renown hearts, events, gathering and crafting I've always had enough to do to be over the required level for a step of the story.

And tbh, ANet idea probably wasn't all tied to the story, but more of "enjoy the view and sometimes remeber about your legend".

Until now I find this game really good.

I’ve been doing the Asura story arc also and find it well written and interesting, I’m level  55 currently so have done a fair chunk of it. Like you, I was also concerned that TSW and SWTOR would outshine the GW2 story presentation but I can safely say I find myself more invested in the GW2 story than any of the above.

I’ve still not done any PvP so the WvWvW queue times haven’t affected me although I’m starting to think it may be a major issue once everyone is at cap and ready to focus on PvP, hopefully by the time I get there they will have raised the cap or implemented some other measures to improve things.

Now the trading post is up and running I’m finding it quite possibly the best trading/AH system in any MMO, it pretty much has everything you need and then you have buy orders on top which are great, searching is fast considering the economy is game wide and there are many hundreds of thousands of items.

Overall I’m still delighted with the game, there’s nothing that makes me want to stop playing and Anet are doing an ok job of managing the issues considering the launch numbers involved.

great second part of the review.

WvW times can suck, and even on some of the less hardcore WvW servers, there is still that queue almost all the time. granted on Sanctum of Rall (my server), the queue times during the day are non existant, the queue times on weekends, and evenings can suck pretty bad.

i also was a bit upset about the story line disconnects at first, but now as i've gotten a character to higher level i tend to look at it as a form of progression. like if i just get that one more level i can see the next part of my story! there are 8 different characters i'm working on and each story is great so far, and each one is different. i'm really happy i payed attention during the questions in character creation. i really like that the "personality" system also adds to my story as i do normal PvE content outside of the personal story quests. i'm a little curious, and even worried, that the stories may all merge into one at later levels though. my highest character is still only level 57, and lowest is level 10. i can kind of see them all merging into the same story line mid game, but my fingers are crossed i'll be very wrong.

looking forward to the part 3 review.

Originally posted by Rockniss
I think you grabbed a lot of what I'm seeing. Que times in the evening forget about it. I thought ok well I will transfer home worlds so I went from Jade Quarry to Fort Aspenwood which at the time was not bad, but a week later we are loaded too. There is some nice leadership going on so I'm going to stay, but still I have just accepted at this point that I'm not going to get any wvw in during the peak hours. Im not that upset because there is lots to do, but I'm sure at some point I'm going to go off if I always can't get in. So hopefully that gets fixed somehow.
I have been playing a warrior and I have to say I'm kind of suprised at how much I'm enjoying being melee in wvw as a warrior. I have some nice cds that keep me alive and I can regularly be seen getting ripped off a keep or just jumping off, diving right into a mob of invaders, dropping some damage and still making it back to safety. This is definately my cup of tea. I love how strategy changes from keep to keep not because of invaders, but just because of the nature of the various terrains. Been a lot of fun so far and I think we got a keeper thus far.

Wait till the 25th, people will leave, servers will be desolute, que times will be obsolete

Originally posted by Grakulen
They need to find a way to increase the player cap in WvWvW.

 or something else cause its pretty ridiculous.

Well I made a thread about having to go to other zones, in my case every single one between 25 and 75.  The complaint isn't because it's a pain or unenjoyable.  It's because running alts will be much less unique.

I certainly wasn't hoping for unique paths per race either.  I was simply hoping for two unique paths after level 25.  It's possible, but you have to play a certain way.

I find the artwork and world design to be absolutley phenominal, the absolutle only negative in this category for me is the loading screens between zones, how I wish they could have made this seamless but it's a small price to pay for such a beautifully crafted world.

I was worried while leveling up that the combat was a quite a bit on the easy side, but now as I'm working my way through the 30's, I can notice the combat requiring more thought and skill which is making me more of a happy camper.

From all the complaint's about que's with WvW I havnt even bothered to try it yet and it hasnt really bothered me because the pve is so entertaining.I'm ready to try my first dungeon and I am so much looking forward to it, hopefully some mmorpg guildies will be willing to show me the ropes. Going to have to buy myself a new headset first.

Any one know if a blue tooth ear piece works well with mumble? I would really like buy one to use and keep my game sound seperate on my pc sound system.

So far I find that the more time I put into this game the more that I am impressed by it and that dosnt happen very often for me.

Originally posted by Betaguy

 

Wait till the 25th, people will leave, servers will be desolute, que times will be obsolete

lol...i hope so! ...oh u 'cute' pandarians.

...doubful!  <.<

Originally posted by xpiher
I haven't had the problem of leaving my race's area to keep up with the level of my personal story and I think the main reason that is is due to the fact that I do daily religiously and I complete a map before moving on. I've repeated some content as well (The Swamp Slumbers) a couple of times just because I really love that DE (I want to know what happens if we lose!). But I know I'm in the minority in this. 

Generaly when you lose an event either nothing happens or a different chain spawns.  For example in the bloodtide coast if you fail to escort treasure to the camp then you dont get the next event where pirates attack the camp.  And if you get to the camp but fail to defend it, instead of getting the event to kill the captain you get one to go collect more treasure from the ghosts.

The only events ive seen that actualy matter are the ones like the centaur attacks.  In some places the centaur actualy take over the waypoint if you fail the event and you cant use it until you suceed in the event to take it back.

Originally posted by FrodoFragins

Well I made a thread about having to go to other zones, in my case every single one between 25 and 75.  The complaint isn't because it's a pain or unenjoyable.  It's because running alts will be much less unique.

 

I certainly wasn't hoping for unique paths per race either.  I was simply hoping for two unique paths after level 25.  It's possible, but you have to play a certain way.

 

I really am not sure how you guys are playing i left my area for one other area early for fun but i have found since then that my personals take me to a new area well well before i complete the old one.  I was told to leave the kessex hills when i was still have done with it same with the lornar pass.  I think this is because i do every DE i see and ive played a fair bit of WvW but those both give experience for a reason their meant to be played all along.