Geek Syndicate
Character Creation
Race Unlike the original game and it’s expansions, Guild Wars 2 gives you a choice of races; Human, Norn, Charr, Asura and Sylvari. All of the races except the Sylvari were introduced in Eye of the North as heroes which could join your party. Conveniently, the game allows you to create characters - one for each race, if you wish. From left to right on the image on the previous page: Asura, Sylvaria, Human, Norn and Charr. Each race has a different home city, starting mission and a few race specific skills. During the beta I had a go at each race and my favourite was the Norn, a human like race which are significantly larger and can have the ability to morph into a creature. Once you get away from your starting area, there isn’t much difference between what each race can do but seeing the different races is fun, my favourite game as a tall Norn is to run around and jump over all the smaller races, much to the annoyance of my friends who play as Asura chraracters. Profession The professions in Guild Wars 2 are largely similar to every other fantasy MMO RPG. There’s two heavy armoured soldier style professions, the guardian (predominately used for protection) and the warrior (your standard heavy hitter). Then there are three adventurer professions, the engineer (able to build turrets and other devices), the ranger (which is able to have a pet) and the thief (the stealthy one). Finally there are the scholar professions, the elementalist (who has spells linked with the elements), the necromancer (able to create undead creatures) and the mesmer (who deals with spells on the mind). None of the professions are restricted to any race or gender. Overall the professions are nothing new compared to other MMOs however all of them seem to work in the world. I have had a couple of heated discussions with other players about the engineer profession and the inclusion of pistols in the game, which is the weapon of choice for that profession. Even though I tried out all the professions I went with Ranger for my main character as I enjoy having a pet and using a bow. Character Customisation The customisation of the look of your character is limited with set body types, faces and hair styles, however some facial features can be tweeked to create a more unique character. My biggest bug-bear with the creation is the starting outfits; it can take a while to get enough money for a new costume and some of the female outfits aren’t really what I want to be running around in. The Human character in the previous image is in the starting costume for a necromancer and let’s face it if you were dealing with the undead you’d want as little skin on show as possible so they don’t get tempted and decide just to eat you!
Gameplay
Personal Story As a (generally) solo gamer, the personal story is important to me as it usually gives me something to do and keeps me involved in a game. I’m not a fan of the grind principle of going to a town, being told to kill X number of beasties, doing it, only to return to the town and do it again to a different sort of beast. So far after 250 hours I don’t think I’m half way through my personal story, not because it’s long but because there is so much else to do. The person [ ??K\?[?\?\?[??\?]\?\? ?X?H ?X[ \??x?&]?H?[??Y?] ??H?[??]?\?][??[ ?H H?[YH\? ???\??]Y\?[??HXZ??Y??\?[??H? \?SS???\\?Y ? H?\??\?H]?H ^YY\??? H ]Y\? ?\?H[?Y?] ?[?H??&]??[?\???? [K ^H?[? [?H H\ X\?[??? [?\? ]Y\?????