Guild Wars: Updatings

[Now Experiencing] [Computer Gaming]

On a whim, I decided to fire up my Guild Wars account, inactive since last November. I thought I'd see what the GW world is like post-expansion, and maybe even see if it's worth getting Factions and jumping back into the craziness again.

I'll let you know how it works out. Sjolvir Arkensson stalks Lion's Arch again!

UPDATE: Spent some quality time with GW on Sunday. The last time I logged on was shortly after Sorrow's Furnace and Halloween last year (in fact, my main PvE character was still wearing his pumpkin crown).

Good things: I love the minor interface improvements. Even just as simple as the letter "T" being added to the called target tab is great. Resizable toons is cool, and the new PvP tutorial and testing island is a welcome addition. Never again will I wonder about the exact range of my area of effect skills. The game is still one of the best-looking MMOGs around, and the eight-skill "deck" style of character building is still tactically intriguing. I like the look of the new Titles system and the added PvP gear, but I don't have Factions so I haven't been able to try them out at length.

Bad things: The PvE play still feels shallow, with an item list that's virtually irrelevant and a remarkably small amount of armour and weapon styles. Quest text seems to actively discourage you from reading it with a tiny font that requires you to scroll down to accept. In-battle information about what you and your opponents are doing is relatively scarce, skill mouseovers are not as informative as they could be, and out of the way locations are still as underpopulated as ever. There's still a dysfunctional relationship between PvE and PvP and the learning curve in relation to maximising the effectiveness of your skill usage is still very steep.

Hmmm... six months' holiday from the game, and it's still only halfway to fixing the things that were wrong with it when I left (and they're things I was fairly vocal about when I left). It's a nice breath of fresh air from WoW, and it's great to be able to jump into meaningful skill-based small-scale PvP at the drop of a hat. But I don't see myself getting heavily invested in the game again.