Yes, Guild Wars returns! This article will have the twenty screenshots I took in 2008. As I mentioned in the last two articles, I wasn’t playing GW much anymore but did launch the game once in a while to appreciate the graphics on the much more powerful computer I had gotten and maybe get a bit farther. I’ll just post all of them even though some are quite similar. That definitely won’t happen next time, maybe I’ll just have to skip that batch, it’s a mess… but this one has some really nice scenery in it. It’s just amazing how beautiful Guild Wars’ graphics are and how well they hold up.
I wonder why I took this screenshot, by accident? It’s my only screenshot from January and it’s literally empty, either nobody is there or there was a graphical glitch that has caused the characters and skills to vanish — note how the skillbar icons are also missing. Huh. Yes I’m posting it anyway. Why not?
This is the first of three shots of this area. This underground area has some seriously impressive art design, with the lighting and giant tapestries, as well as the rest of the environment! It looks like I’m fighting with the Henchmen and Heroes. This is a Hero here in the foreground, and a bunch of enemies in the distance.
This is the same scene, but it’s a few moments later in the fight now. Cynn, Gwen, and Mhenlo are on screen now as Cynn casts a spell. Gwen’s a Hero and the other two are Henchies (and main story characters).
And now it’s the Assassin hero on screen, while those enemies in the background are now all dead. The battle has been won.
This ceiling is ridiculously good looking, with those V-shaped openings revealing the sky above. Guild Wars is still a somewhat amazing-looking game even all these years later. You can’t say that about most 3d games released back in the mid ’00s.
What a nice, if absurdly giant, fireplace…
And now we have a foggy cavern. How nice, if ominous, what could be lurking here?
Ah, it’s Sorrow’s Furnace! It’s embarrassing that I have never managed to beat the boss of this super cool dungeon that they added to the game in later ’05 post-release, but I’m sure I will go back to trying.
This is the next bit of the Sorrow’s Furnace cutscene from the last shot. The art design here is just so interesting, with that metal thing from the last shot attached through that high hole in the ceiling by this long chain.
And now this piece of the furnace is resetting back up into the fiery ceiling area.
Is this the Sorrow’s Furnace boss? If so I’m about to lose again, it’s so hard without a human party with those different spots you need to go to during the fight! It’s possible solo with Heroes and the separate control of them you have, but it’s quite tough to multitask well enough and I’ve never managed it. Also, yeah, the contrast here between the dark environment and bright red lava is great, good design style.
More dark cavern with bright lava. Sorrow’s Furnace is a pretty great looking area, even though it released only a few months after the base game it really stepped up the art design over a lot of what the original game had.
And now I’m in an area with giant spider webs. I admit I forget where exactly this is in Sorrow’s Furnace, but I think this terrain was on the edges of the zone, outside of the main area. Regardless, it sure does look impressive, with the green tint to the area and whatever that is on the wall in the background!
The ‘interiors only’ trend continues with this, another interior in Sorrow’s Furnace. This time it’s not only some amazing scenery, though, but we’ve also got a battle going on between me and my Hero/Henchie party taking on some Charr.
By the way, my party is 3 Heroes and 4 Henchmen because at this point that was the limit. At some point you were allowed to purchase, for real money, the ability to use up to a full party’s worth of Heroes instead of having to use Henchmen. I’m not sure if that option was available for purchase in 2008 or not but if it was I hadn’t bought it yet, so I was limited to three. Heroes are much better than Henchies with how you can customize their skillbars and give them direct movement commands, so going for an all-Heroes party is the best approach for anyone who has enough skills unlocked on their account to be able to fill out a whole party of Heroes’ skillbars with good skills. You have to have the skill unlocked on your account for your Heroes to use it, you see, unlike Henchmen which each come with a preset skillbar they will always use.
Creepy…
No, no, these two screenshots are different, it’s totally worth posting both… :/ Still looks really cool, though!
It’s dark out, maybe too dark to see. Heh.
And now I’m back in the snowy lands, looking at a wall of ice. Nice. Winter is the best!
Ah yes, this area. It’s such a great looking zone, I love it. Any real person would need clothing though, that scarpattern ‘armor’ of my characters’ wouldn’t get you far… heh.
