tldr; Guild Wars 2 is an MMO that is the most MM of all MMOs out there. Instead of geargating content, the focus is on providing content for everyone, everywhere, and bringing players together in the open world. Players crowd every zone from level 1 to the latest expansion, and you can interact with each and everyone in meaningful content from the second you log in, until your 5,000th hour of playtime.
How is Guild Wars 2 different than other MMOs?
My most played MMO is Final Fantasy XIV, I have about 3,000 hours played across PS4, PS5, and PC, since 2014. Many of you are familiar with FFXIV since it has been battling WoW for the most played AAA MMO for the past 5 or so years.
Guild Wars 2 and FFXIV are pretty much polar opposites as far as game design, so it helps to compare the two in order to gain a better understanding of how GW2 differs from traditional MMOs.
In FFXIV, leveling is done almost completely solo. Everything is narrative focused, and zones (especially older zones that aren't the current expansion) seem mostly empty. That's because they serve more as a backdrop to run or fly through on your way to the next narrative marker, where you can enjoy another cutscene, and instanced solo fight, etc, before flying off or fast traveling to the next. Every now and then, there is a dungeon mixed in where you can o/ to people at the beginning and "gg" them 15 minutes later. FFXIV is very backloaded with its multiplayer content, which includes different tiers of 10 player raids (8 player raids. I must have been thinking about GW2 raids as those are 10 man, woops!!), a more casual 24 man raid every expac, and some trials (instanced boss fights). The "MM" doesn't come until hundreds of hours after you begin the game.
In Guild Wars 2, as soon as you create your character, you do a short tutorial that already includes other newly created characters. After that's done, you step out into the world for the first time, and there's no main quest (yet), no compass or arrow or cutscene to tell you what you must do in order to progress. Instead, you are presented with the first of many dozens of open, content rich zones where you can go and explore as events pop up, world bosses spawn, etc. You can discover vistas, collect crafting materials, or gain renown with local NPCs, settlements, or towns, by assisting them in a huge variety of ways. And all the while, there are other players around you doing the same things, in every single zone. While there are a few solo instances, these are almost entirely delegated to the "Personal Story" that acts as a main quest for you to follow, and you get a short series of them every 10 levels until you hit max level.
Incentive to explore the world
The thing about Personal Story though, is that it's not meant to be what drives you to the next zone, nor is it meant to be the main catalyst for introducing you to the vast lore of Tyria. You get to the next zone by simply choosing to go (once you're at the appropriate level) and explore, which the game does a great job of making you want to do. Every zone, even the ones first introduced back in 2012, are absolutely gorgeous, colorful, full of players and npcs, and things to do. They are also quite varied, even at the start. No matter what race you choose, nothing is keeping you from leaving the sunny green grasses of the human starting zone Queensdale, and instead going to level up in the snow mountains of the Norn starting zone, or the dense jungles of the Asura or Sylvari.
As far as lore, rather than splooging it all on you in 10 minute cutscenes, what GW2 does is inject the lore into the world itself. Various NPCs have stories to tell you about their lives, their struggles, or their hopes and dreams. Many random little nicknacks you can click on throughout zones offer insight into the area and it's past or present. And none of this is mandatory, or marked in any way. You are simply rewarded for stumbling upon it.
Fast paced combat with a lot of build diversity
At its most basic level, Guild Wars 2 has 9 classes, or "professions." Each class has four unique "skill types" that you can train as you level. Everyone that plays your class will have access to these. For example, on my main, the Engineer, I can train skills related to Elixirs, Turrets, Engineer Kits, or Engineer Gadgets. In each of these categories, there are around 6-8 different skills that I can choose to put on my hotbar, including different healing spells, utility spells, and elite spells (think Ultimate abilities).
But that's not all. Guild Wars 2 also has 19 different types of weapons (although not every class can use every weapon type). Some weapons are two handed (hammers, greatswords, spears, staves, bows) while others are one-handed (swords, maces, scepters, axes) while others are offhand only (foci, torches) (I may have missed some). Each weapon you equip has skills attached to it. If I equip a pistol and a shield on my Engineer, I will have different abilities to use in combat than if I equipped a rifle or a hammer. Plus, you can equip two sets of weapons and swap to them in combat with a short cooldown, giving you access to both of those weapon sets' skills to use. And each class acquires different abilities from the same weapon, so while both an Engineer and a Warrior can use Rifles, they both get different abilities from wielding one.
As you can imagine, with just the above, there's quite a bit of variety. But wait!
Once you hit around level 20, you get access to Specializations and Builds. This is more like your traditional talent tree. By the time you hit around level 70, you will be able to combine three different talent trees to make a build unique to you. For example, on my Engineer, my available Specializations or "talent trees" are:
Explosives
Firearms
Alchemy
Inventions
Tools
Each talent tree has 12 talents to invest in, and three tiers of three choices so you can further diversify your build to your liking.
But wait!!
Once you hit level 80, the max level in Guild Wars 2, you can choose an additional ELITE Specialization if you have purchased its respective expansion. Elite Specializations are functionally entirely new classes that you can morph your core class into. As an Engineer, I can become a fireblade wielding melee DPS, smack shit around with a giant hammer while providing buffs to myself and allies, or roll around with a giant mech that beats stuff up for me.
But how is the combat REALLY?
None of the above would really matter if the combat was bad or stale, right? Well I'm happy to say that compared to traditional tab-target games like Classic WoW or FFXIV, the combat in Guild Wars 2 is fast paced, snappy, and has a high potential for skill expression. On my Engineer, I can focus on swapping out different Engineering Kits, making sure my ground-target AoEs actually hit enemies (or allies, depending) all while dodging a-la Dark Souls out of mechanics. There's tons of movement utility as well (I get a handy pair of Rocket Boots and a ground targeted jump boost on my Rifle) to help with avoiding mechanics, which there are plenty of. Overall, combat feels extremely fluid to the point that it's genuinely impressive, and you can feel like a total badass zipping all around packs of enemies and avoiding their AoEs and hard hitting attacks.
What about Endgame?
This is something I can't speak on from personal experience, as I've only just reached the first expansion and this is meant to be a "First Impressions" type of review for other new players or people who want to get in on Guild Wars 2 (free, btw). But Guild Wars 2's philosophy has always been about horizontal "progression." Although there are Raids, Fractals (think mini dungeons like Destiny 2 vanguard ops) that increase in difficulty, and Strikes (think FFXIV Trials), none of it is gear-gated in any way. As soon as you hit level 80, you can easily obtain a full set of Exotic gear which is enough to complete all the content currently in the game. Most of what is available to you comes in the form of simple, fun, group oriented content. Whether it's World Bosses, Meta Events, Map Completion, crafting Legendary Weapons, obtaining Ascended Armor (or Legendary Armor), World vs World (mass scale siege-like PvP), structured PvP (traditional Arena style/battleground PvP), or any of the higher end PvE stuff I mentioned before, it's all available to you.
Although I'm quite the noob at Guild Wars 2 and am still learning quite a lot (I only have 130 hours played so far!), I hope that I've been able to present enough of a first impression to at least make you curious about giving it a shot. The entire base game is Free to Play up to level 80, so we're talking hundreds of hours of potential content. If you want an MMO that is more casual and focused on FUN content rather than cutting edge elitist content, I don't think anyone does it better than Guild Wars 2.
And if you ever want to play together, my in game tag is clericfighter.3502
Thanks for reading!!
Edit: Wow thanks for all the replies! I corrected some errors I made in my original post. Also please note that this isn't a knock at FFXIV, I absolutely love that game to death!
Hope to see you all in Tyria!
