Guild Wars 2 follows the same line of thought, instead focusing on small microtransactions that can make things easier without breaking the game difficulty over its knee. This isn't a game where you can pay to win, or get to max level with a wave of your magic credit card. Most purchases seem to be simply cosmetic as the only thing I've seen so far that isn't strictly your characters appearance is the ability to swap servers. Being able to swap servers seems kind of unneeded unless you've somehow managed to piss off an entire server's worth of people, and if you've managed to do that maybe multiplayer games aren't your thing. ArenaNet is intending to add functionality into a 'guesting' system allowing you to temporarily load into another server to play with your friends, and making the server swapping seem even more useless.
The controls are very tight allowing you to evade attacks with just the quick double tap of one of the WASD keys or triggering a skill simply by hitting the quick key. The only complaint I have so far is that half your skills are based on your current weapon, but you soon get the ability to swap between two sets of weapon loadouts at will.
A monstrosity from the underworld rears its ugly head.
The stories feel suitably epic, although the human stories are generally against bandits plaguing your hometown. Also, each of your characters is going to be a great hero. There are no 'evil' side quests nor any real ability to try and ruin things for fun or profit. Lack of evil options aside, the stories do their job well in bringing the world alive and the characters are well written and fleshed out.
The creation of a Necromancer.
Character creation is easy and you can create just about any character type imaginable. They do have a tendency to lean towards the 'bishonen' character types if male, but you can easily fine tune your character to your hearts desire. In the human creation alone you choose a backstory based on your station in life and what your characters biggest regret is. Unfortunately there are only three choices in both options; Noble, commoner, or street rat for your station. For your biggest regrets; Don't know your real parents, never recovered your sister's body, or turned down a chance to perform at the circus. These two set up your main story missions and continue throughout the game, giving you epic missions of bravery and skill wherever your daring do takes you.
A Sylvari Mesmer, exploring the gorgeous world around her.
Side quests are run a bit differently than most MMOs, you find an area where someone needs help and do simple jobs for them. This can be from watering crops and feeding cows, to killing giant worms that burrow through the ground. Each person in the area contributes to the quest. if one person does something to help around the area, everybody gets closer to completing the quest. One of my favorite things to do is actually just exploring as you gain XP upon finding grand sweeping vistas or places of interest. Completionists are even rewarded, as once you finish all possible quests, find all places of interest, and find and mark each vista, you recieve a bonus chest filled with special items that are not easily found.
I have not yet been able to play enough to see any endgame content so this is still just a first impressions, but I think its a very good first impression. I love the game and how it all fits together and I recommend it to anyone and everyone.
E-Tank
