Looking at getting into Guild Wars

[nefariouscaine]

I'm new to the Guild Wars thing and thought I might try my hand at a new RPG of a different style for me. But there are 3 "versions" and the expansion - honestly I'm not sure which to get.

I'm looking for a balance of the best graphically (unless they are all the same...) and best game play

any thoughts or suggestions would be great

 

[Miklebud]

Well, they're all going to look very similar and play the same. The "versions" just have different areas to explore and different classes available. I'm unsure if you buy the most recent one, if you'll have access to the other classes from the previous versions. All the versions are continuations of the same storyline, I believe.

 

[msi1337]

I play this game, and I can definetly say..get the first one

Guild Wars: Prophecies

You need to complete the original story to understand some of the other content. And honestly, I prefer that one to all of the others.

The new Eye of The North is great too, but is designed for level 20 players.

It is an amazing game, I like it much better than WoW in my opinion

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

I'd get Prophecies and Eye of the North first. Then Nightfall and Factions if so inclined. Eye of the North is an expansion, you'll need one of the other chapters to play it. It's pretty much a direct continuation of Prophecies, and you really will have had to play a Prophecies character from the beginning to get the whole story.

 

[nefariouscaine]

I tried out WoW a little bit but honestly it just didn't do it for me at all

I picked up the GW trial disc from Gamestop and will give them a go this week end if I get the time (I need to game!)

Sounds like I really should be getting the first one if anything as its a story line -- there are some games that need to be started from the beginning of the series to get the full scope

 

[MarcVenice]

TBH, for new players nightfall might be the best. Because of the heroes that is. Or propehcy's + eye of the north like mentioned.

 

[duragezic]

Agree with MarcVenice and some of the other posters. Prophencies will be the cheapest, though it is still $36 at Walmart... ridiculous as it is over two years old! Factions and Nightfall have held their price too high as well. I don't know why they have kept GW priced so high. It's been too long and I think they are turning off buyers by not dropping the price. They finally broke the four million copies sold recently, and but that includes all three games (before EotN), and you know a lot of them aren't active players anymore. Drop the damn first game to $20, Factions to $30, Nightfall to $40 or something!

Prophencies is quite good all around and you'll want to start with it if you care about the story. I don't think the graphics engine received any big changes between the three games; only the art style is really different. If you like the trial and think you'll play a lot, I'd find Prophencies for as cheap as possible, or consider Nightfall, and hold off on the expansion since it's for level 20s and you might as well let it drop in price while you see if you like the game enough and get characters to 20.


nefariouscaine: I'm curious how that trial disc works out for you. My roommate recently bought trial discs for GW, WoW, and FF Online as they were only a couple of bucks each and he was finally getting a computer to play PC games with. However, the GW trial disc seemed the most gimped, and it was the most expensive even! The WoW trial is for 14 days, and they've been offering free keys at times for that trial for a while now. GW is not even an MMO yet the trial is only like a 10 day/10 hour trial, whatever comes first! The disc does come with all three games, but I'm not sure if you get 10 hours for each game. 10 hours isn't much at all for one game, and certainly wouldn't be worth it to split 10 hours trying all three games! Plus there is restrictions out the ass.

 

[sthaznpride17]

I think you should go Prophecies > Eye of the North > Nightfall > Factions. Or you could start with Nightfall for the Heroes, but if you care about storyline and getting into the setting, Prophecies is the way to go.

 

[fivetiger]

A similar question:

I'm looking to pick up GW as well. I found a good deal online, but the game is imported from the UK (I'm in the US). Will it work on my DVD player? Is the whole "region" thing applicable to games or just movies? (You'll have to excuse my great ignorance in this matter).

On topic: When I was looking into which one to buy, I finally decided on Nightfall because it has "heroes" that can fill out your party if you just want to play alone or with another friend.

 

[nefariouscaine]

Originally posted by: duragezic
Agree with MarcVenice and some of the other posters. Prophencies will be the cheapest, though it is still $36 at Walmart... ridiculous as it is over two years old! Factions and Nightfall have held their price too high as well. I don't know why they have kept GW priced so high. It's been too long and I think they are turning off buyers by not dropping the price. They finally broke the four million copies sold recently, and but that includes all three games (before EotN), and you know a lot of them aren't active players anymore. Drop the damn first game to $20, Factions to $30, Nightfall to $40 or something!

Prophencies is quite good all around and you'll want to start with it if you care about the story. I don't think the graphics engine received any big changes between the three games; only the art style is really different. If you like the trial and think you'll play a lot, I'd find Prophencies for as cheap as possible, or consider Nightfall, and hold off on the expansion since it's for level 20s and you might as well let it drop in price while you see if you like the game enough and get characters to 20.


nefariouscaine: I'm curious how that trial disc works out for you. My roommate recently bought trial discs for GW, WoW, and FF Online as they were only a couple of bucks each and he was finally getting a computer to play PC games with. However, the GW trial disc seemed the most gimped, and it was the most expensive even! The WoW trial is for 14 days, and they've been offering free keys at times for that trial for a while now. GW is not even an MMO yet the trial is only like a 10 day/10 hour trial, whatever comes first! The disc does come with all three games, but I'm not sure if you get 10 hours for each game. 10 hours isn't much at all for one game, and certainly wouldn't be worth it to split 10 hours trying all three games! Plus there is restrictions out the ass.

well I'm at a loss right now -- damned disc doesn't seem to be any good

I'm gonna reboot and see if that happens but I don't think its the drive as its recognizing my Ubuntu CD just fine in the drive (I'm in XP right now) but doesn't show anything for that GW DVD

 

[CloE]

just watch out for hardware issues... i got prophencies on Vista + 8800gtx + x-fi... the result is terrible, sound cut off and i see my characters' movement have a 2 second lag, even with fast cable and play midnight when bandwidth traffic is good... not sure it's vista problem or other hardware driver problem, i just can't enjoy this game yet.

 

[CaptainJackSwallows]

get prophecies. it has the best skills imo. many builds will have 3-4 skills from prophecies and maybe 1-2 from the other ones. it is also the most fun imo. I would get the eye of the north expansion too, so you can get heroes (which are basically really good NPC henchmen). heroes are also in nightfall, but nightfall doesn't give you the full GW experience that prphecies does.

and btw cloe, no problems here (w/ my rig in sig)

 

[nefariouscaine]

turns out my DVD drive I just bought a month ago is dead (for dvd's...)

**edit**

gotta love kicked around USB DVD burners that keep on ticking

 

[msi1337]

pm to nc

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Get Nightfall for the heroes. Factions is great for leveling up those heroes. But Nightfall is wonderful for them.

Honestly, you can't really go wrong with getting any of them though.

 

[nefariouscaine]

got prophecies and factions -- thanks msi1337 -- go into playing prophecies on that demo (7 hours straight) and prolly will go back to it for the time being then look into Nightfall

tried my hand at factions but it didn't catch me like prophecies did right off the bat

 

[I4AT]

I played GW way back when prophecies was the only one. It was ok for a while, until I got near the end of the game. I typically like to play games alone or with 1 to 2 close friends, and GW is putrid crap when it comes to solo/small party play. I can imagine it being fun for people that join an active guild though and play with a stacked party, but if you're like me you'll eventually hate it. They provide those hirelings but they're completely useless, and it's impossible to solo anymore than a handful of areas with any one build.

The game is built from the ground up to be PvP and all the skills are designed to balance each other out at the level 20 cap. Trying to take on mobs of level 26 monsters by yourself or with a few friends and those crappy mercenaries is just frustrating. They might have fixed that problem with one of the add ons though, I've not tried any and don't plan to due to the bad experience with the first one.

 

[Hacp]

I seriously couldn't stand GW. You can't jump, and there are always obstacles blocking your path.

 

[destrekor]

why not get the first one? As prophecies is not the first one as someone else claimed.

i still have my copy of the first, however it has gone unplayed for a very long time, and will continue to do so since I will likely be playing Tabula Rasa when it comes out.

 

[Ichigo]

Originally posted by: I4AT
I played GW way back when prophecies was the only one. It was ok for a while, until I got near the end of the game. I typically like to play games alone or with 1 to 2 close friends, and GW is putrid crap when it comes to solo/small party play. I can imagine it being fun for people that join an active guild though and play with a stacked party, but if you're like me you'll eventually hate it. They provide those hirelings but they're completely useless, and it's impossible to solo anymore than a handful of areas with any one build.

The game is built from the ground up to be PvP and all the skills are designed to balance each other out at the level 20 cap. Trying to take on mobs of level 26 monsters by yourself or with a few friends and those crappy mercenaries is just frustrating. They might have fixed that problem with one of the add ons though, I've not tried any and don't plan to due to the bad experience with the first one.

The whole point of Heroes was customizable henchmen with better AI. They make soloing easier, along with the better henchmen. A lot of PvE content has been added since the beginning.

I think it's kind of unfair to be judging the game with a two year old opinion. Most of the issues you're presenting aren't, anymore.

 

[zerocool84]

Originally posted by: Hacp
I seriously couldn't stand GW. You can't jump, and there are always obstacles blocking your path.

:laugh:

 

[msi1337]

Originally posted by: destrekor
why not get the first one? As prophecies is not the first one as someone else claimed.

The first campaign, Guild Wars Prophecies (originally named Guild Wars), was released on April 28, 2005. The Prophecies storyline is situated on the supercontinent of Tyria and revolves around the Flameseeker Prophecy, a prophecy made by an ancient dragon.

From Wikipedia

good thing you know what you are talking about :roll:

 

[CalvinHobbes]

I just started playing WoW recently and I like it a lot but GW is starting to interest me as well. Is it safe to buy a used copy from someone as long as I get their account info? Is this against the TOS?

 

[m1ldslide1]

Originally posted by: I4AT
I played GW way back when prophecies was the only one. It was ok for a while, until I got near the end of the game. I typically like to play games alone or with 1 to 2 close friends, and GW is putrid crap when it comes to solo/small party play. I can imagine it being fun for people that join an active guild though and play with a stacked party, but if you're like me you'll eventually hate it. They provide those hirelings but they're completely useless, and it's impossible to solo anymore than a handful of areas with any one build.

The game is built from the ground up to be PvP and all the skills are designed to balance each other out at the level 20 cap. Trying to take on mobs of level 26 monsters by yourself or with a few friends and those crappy mercenaries is just frustrating. They might have fixed that problem with one of the add ons though, I've not tried any and don't plan to due to the bad experience with the first one.

I agree - it's especially frustrating when you need to do a mission (especially in prophesies) and there's nobody around to join a group with. Usership seems to have dropped way way down, as if everybody's playing the newer content.