MANILA, Philippines – Those new to gaming may not know about Guild Wars 2, the sequel to the hugely popular Guild Wars.

Developed by ArenaNet and published by NCSoft in August 2012, this PC and Mac-based massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) was released to much fanfare and a large influx of players, selling over 3 million copies in a year.

Why is Guild Wars 2 a contender for Gaming Freedom’s recommendations, despite having an upfront cost to playing the game? The game’s usual selling price is reasonable for hundreds of hours of play, and until 11:59 pm Pacific Time on June 29, this game’s is being at an even lower rate thanks to a sale.

Let’s explore the game for a bit, shall we?

A world in peril

The world of Tyria needs new heroes. It has been 250 years since the events of the first Guild Wars. The Elder Dragons sleeping beneath the earth have reawoken, ripping the gentle fabric of the world as the races of Tyria know it.

Your story is a strange tapestry of its own, as your life is now filled with struggle. Your story is one of hardships bested of alliances made and numerous battles fought, and hopefully, in the end, of great enemies vanquished.

Your story, however, never ends. New threads are being woven into it as more threats to the world become known.

Your story

Despite the dramatic preamble, the ambiguity of the above is accurate for every character you make and every story you undertake in Guild Wars 2.

You start off as one of 5 races: the diminutive Asura, the plant-like Sylvari, the ferocious Charr, the Nordic-inspired Norn, and the regal Humans. Taking on one of 8 character classes – Elementalist, Engineer, Guardian, Mesmer, Necromancer, Ranger, Thief, or Warrior – you actually get to experience a different story for each race-class combination you go through, with different choices to make along the way.

The end result of this is that every character you fashion gets his own story and his own life, which you have the privilege of playing through.

The game doesn’t have standard quests to accept and undertake. Instead, each major zone is dotted with people you can help, places to explore, jumping puzzles to master, and enemies to vanquish. By engaging in these various activities, as well as gathering materials and crafting items with them, you eventually gain levels and power to go along with the main storyline you follow for your character.

Action combat and achievements galore

One important thing to note about Guild Wars 2 is that it isn’t a traditional MMORPG when it comes to combat.

The game’s combat system is designed in such a way that moving around while fighting, either to dodge enemies’ attacks or get better positioning to fire off your own maneuvers, is necessary. That means that attacks can be fired off while moving, and indicators are there to inform you about enemy attacks and where they might hit, so you can dodge them.

As such, part of the fun of being skilled in Guild Wars 2 is in being able to win fights without taking damage or in besting your opponents in player-versus-player battles without getting trounced by their attacks.

The game is also fond of providing players with positive experiences for play. It provides players with achievements that function as incentives for play, with treasure chests being doled out to players for reaching certain milestones in their achievements.

As such, fighting well, exploring the world, and enjoying what you love doing in-game are rewarded heftily with loot. It’s a great incentive to continue playing, though you have to remember not to get too into the achievement system that you forget the real world.

Guild Wars 2 and the buy to play model

Guild Wars 2 features a different payment model from the free-to-play model most people have heard about Gaming Freedom features. Whereas free-to-play games require no upfront payment to joining in the fun, this game requires you to buy a copy of the game before you can join the game world.

Aside from this, however, Guild Wars 2 does not require any sort of other purchase to continue to enjoy the game. It also has an in-game shop, much like other free-to-play titles, where users who’ve purchased a special currency called gems can trade the gems for additional goods and services, but those aren’t actually needed.

Guild Wars 2 is also intriguing in the sense that users can actually trade in their in-game gold for some of these gems according to the whims of a regulated market, meaning players with more gold than gems can use their purchasing power to buy additional gem-based luxuries they normally wouldn’t have available to them just by trading in their earned gold into the gems market.

The sale

The game’s still quite popular, and is in fact seeing a new update to its storyline, called The Gates of Maguuma, on July 1.

Guild Wars 2 has been out for a while, but if you’re new to the franchise, today may be the best time to jump into the fray.

With a price online that normally goes for US$50, Guild Wars 2’s Digital Heroic Edition is currently on sale for US$24.99, and with that price come some extra perks for your characters to help you on the road to becoming a living legend. – Rappler.com