Guild Wars Review

So a friend of mine was nice enough to let me use his Guild Wars account to test the game out. My general view is that it is a very interesting game.

Graphics: 8 of 10
Sound: 6 of 10
Gameplay: 5 of 10
Lag Factor: 4 of 10
Replayability: Unrated

Graphics: The landscapes and graphics for Guild Wars are very nice, I have to say it beats World of Warcraft so far. The only reason why I didn't give it a higher score is because of the 'Toon' factor. Everything looks a bit cartoony to me and some of the movements are less-than-fluid character and spellwise.

Sound: I wasn't really impressed with the sound, the only reason it got such a low score is that it's all been done and unfortunately in the gaming world the same old same old doesn't get the high score. The sound isn't bad per se but the music is less-than-desireable compared to the full scores that are World of Warcraft tracks.

Gameplay: Okay, here's the deciding factor. The classes, whereas they are apparently well rounded are confusing. It took me a while to figure out how to reposition skills and balance my mana usage. I have yet to get used to the difference in play, when you click on something you move toward it and the same goes for using skills, when you target an enemy and use a skill you run toward the enemy. I like that. This score may change as I play along but for now it is a little difficult adjusting. That's more my fault than anything but it doesn influence my scoring. Another thing that I am still dealing with is instance-based gameplay. You are basically playing a single-player game on a massive scale with Guild Wars. This has its own ups and downs depending on the player. You won't find someone randomly out there killing mobs for loot but you also won't have anyone out there to help you ether.

Lag Factor: Well here's the thing about having huge player hubs. LAG. When in a city or non-instanced area you WILL experience Ironforge-level lag. The rest of the game is instance-based which causes NO lag at all.

Replayability: Unknown, I've only gotten to level 5, then I deleted the character and started over. The classes are the main factor in this, you can have a primary class and a secondary class. Your secondary abilities do not include the 'special ability' granted by that class. Read the website for more on that. http://www.guildwars.com

Overall: 5 of 10
I am still playing to test Guild Wars but so far it isn't bad but I don't know if I am willing to drop money into it yet.