My Impressions of GW2 vs. SWTOR

[iheartnyc]

To be perfectly honest, I hated the thought of GW2 from the start, being a SWTOR "Fanboy". However, as I heard more and more about GW2, it sounded pretty cool. The videos got me intrigued. And after testing it out, frankly, everything about GW2 somehow seems somehow..."smoother" or more "fluid." I almost wanted to say more "WoWish" but I won't use that phrase. The gameplay mechanics and features...SWTOR has a lot it can learn from it. In fact, after watching Game of Thrones, this whole "fantasy" setting which I got so sick of after games like WoW/Dragon Age/Witcher/Fable, actually started appealing to me again.

 

But here's the kicker, and the thing I can't get over no matter how hard I try, and the reason why I will not be playing GW2:

 

The characters and animations are so damn cartoonish! I find it so hard to feel any kind of bond or connection to the world or my character or other characters, when they all look like a cartoon that you'd see on the Disney Channel. Same exact reason I never really could get myself into WoW. Tera looks great, and I like the art style, but won't be doing that.

 

Really, I get the point of "fantasy," but fantasy should be rooted in reality, something that creates in our imaginations the suspension of disbelief - that such a world could exist, maybe on another planet, or some long forgotten past. Where in the real world have you ever seen the shades of green, purple, brown that are so prevalent in WoW and GW2? Nowhere. D3 at least looks like it takes place on a real world. WoW and GW2 just look like they take place in a Dr. Seuss novel, or a Johnny Depp flick.

 

So really, IMHO, the biggest advantages SWTOR has over GW2 are story, more "grown-up" art style, and the Star Wars license. I give the nod to GW2 as far as gameplay, PvP and technical fluidity of the game engine. But why, WHY do game developers continue to design games as if they are meant for children, with overly cartoonish characters? Imagine GW2 with D3 art style...now that would have been epic.

Edited May 4, 2012 by iheartnyc

[amnie]

I saw a video of a one hour (ONE HOUR) escort-quest. I laughed and that was it for me and GW2.

[Wikar]

I saw a video of a one hour (ONE HOUR) escort-quest. I laughed and that was it for me and GW2.

You don't like to spend A WHOLE GOSH DARN ONE HOUR on a quest or there was something other in this video you did't mentioned?

Edited May 4, 2012 by Wikar

[iheartnyc]

I saw a video of a one hour (ONE HOUR) escort-quest. I laughed and that was it for me and GW2.

 

To be fair, the vidoes got me more interested in the game. The smoothness with which menus opened, transitioning to PvP and WvW...all looked awesome. But once you're actually in the game, the character design and color palette is just awful. Like I said, cartoonish. Nothing looks realistic proportionately, and the colors are just so....colorful that it's painful to look at.

Edited May 4, 2012 by iheartnyc

[thomasgallant]

To be fair, the menus got me more interested in the game. The smoothness with which menus opened, transitioning to PvP and WvW...all looked awesome. But once you're actually in the game, the character design and color palette is just awful. Like I said, cartoonish. Nothing looks realistic proportionately, and the colors are just so....colorful that it's painful to look at.

 

I found wow to be to cartoonish for my liking.. though i liked boarderlands( ya not an mmo) but that too is cartoonish lol..

[Jalez]

This has to be a troll post right?

 

GW2 is not cartoony at all, its pretty obvious you havent played the Beta OR hell even watched a video of the game

 

People love to make stuff up on this forum

 

Guild Wars 2 had depth to its characters...graphics were more "Adult" then Star Wars.....and the PvP is probably onky 2nd to Dark Age of Camelot in total awesomeness...so ya GW2 is going to be VERY good and take ALOT of players from all MMO's..not just Star Wars

[Alavastre]

There are reasons why developers go with cartoonish graphics, and you can blame WoW for that. But it makes perfect sense if you think about it. Go into WoW, just take a look at the trees, or even the character models. They are very rigid polygon type of graphics, but they flow together with the cartoony art style. Who really says that WoW looks dated? Many games with much better graphics came and went, but WoW stood it's ground. The reality is, the cartoony graphics hides the polygon count, which makes it easier for more machines to run the graphics and makes the game smoother. That's why they do it.

 

The graphics also scale very well as new games come out, and this is why SWTOR went with the same type of cartoony stylized graphics.

[iheartnyc]

This has to be a troll post right?

 

GW2 is not cartoony at all, its pretty obvious you havent played the Beta OR hell even watched a video of the game

 

People love to make stuff up on this forum

 

Guild Wars 2 had depth to its characters...graphics were more "Adult" then Star Wars.....and the PvP is probably onky 2nd to Dark Age of Camelot in total awesomeness...so ya GW2 is going to be VERY good and take ALOT of players from all MMO's..not just Star Wars

 

 

Really? Watch that. PURPLE WATER? Really? Look at the castles. The wood construction...the wooden planks...everything is so oversized...bulby. No castle looks like that in real life.

 

Look at how they run. The animals are hopping like cute bunny rabits, and the people skip (look at ridiculously long their strides are). It's almost as if they're floating or skipping across water or something. Very happy-go-lucky.

 

Look at 15:20...he just sort of "hops/strolls" along while a battle rages around him. Total lack of immersion right there.

Edited May 4, 2012 by iheartnyc

[Alavastre]

 

Really? Watch that. PURPLE WATER? Really? Look at the castles. The wood construction...the wooden planks...everything is so oversized...bulby. No castle looks like that in real life.

 

Look at how they run. The animals are hopping like cute bunny rabits, and the people skip (look at ridiculously long their strides are). It's almost as if they're floating or skipping across water or something. Very happy-go-lucky.

 

You're playing a game with magic, wolves, and elves made out of plants, and then argue that it's not realistic enough. It's a laughable argument.

[Lord_Karsk]

This has to be a troll post right?

 

GW2 is not cartoony at all, its pretty obvious you havent played the Beta OR hell even watched a video of the game

 

People love to make stuff up on this forum

 

Guild Wars 2 had depth to its characters...graphics were more "Adult" then Star Wars.....and the PvP is probably onky 2nd to Dark Age of Camelot in total awesomeness...so ya GW2 is going to be VERY good and take ALOT of players from all MMO's..not just Star Wars

 

Agree, this is me as a low lvl 2 character in GW2. Try and look this good in swtor at low lvl.

In swtor it's like the clothes are painted on you

http://i.imgur.com/2L9Y3.jpg

Edited May 4, 2012 by Lord_Karsk

[iheartnyc]

You're playing a game with magic, wolves, and elves made out of plants, and then argue that it's not realistic enough. It's a laughable argument.

 

No. It's called creating the suspension of disbelief - I think they teach that in school. Great authors can make people connect with the story even if the premise itself is ludicrous. Think of any of the major fantasy/science fiction authors. It's ALL ABOUT PRESENTATION.

 

The suspension of disbelief is ruined if you take it too far. Good authors know how to toe the line and not cross in. And the presentation here is ludicrous. It just takes it too far. Too much exaggeration, too much range in color.

Edited May 4, 2012 by iheartnyc

[Alavastre]

No. It's called creating the suspension of disbelief - I think they teach that in school. Great authors can make people connect with the story even if the premise itself is ludicrous. Think of any of the major fantasy/science fiction authors. It's ALL ABOUT PRESENTATION.

 

And the presentation here is ludicrous.

 

Suspension of disbelief happens via the depth of the game and story, not how realistic the planks of wood are. It's a emotional response to the story, not making it as realistic as possible. I don't think that word means what you think it means.

Edited May 4, 2012 by Alavastre

[iheartnyc]

Agree, this is me as a low lvl 2 character in GW2. Try and look this good in swtor at low lvl.

In swtor it's like the clothes are painted on you

http://i.imgur.com/2L9Y3.jpg

 

That image looks great, I mean it. And like I said, SWTOR has a lot to learn about the gameplay. But once you're actually in combat, and have all sorts of random colors flashing everywhere and explosions everywhere...OK that's too much for me. Somehow some dude with a sword can survive in the midst of all those explosions and fire and light flashing everywhere? Right...

[amnie]

You're playing a game with magic, wolves, and elves made out of plants, and then argue that it's not realistic enough. It's a laughable argument.

 

lotro's graphics look pretty damn 'realistic'.

 

 

 

You don't like to spend A WHOLE GOSH DARN ONE HOUR on a quest or there was something other in this video you did't mentioned?

 

 

I don't remember exactly what it was, but the actual video was not about the escort quest. the first about 5 minutes showed it and the off-voice mentioned that they had been on this quest (it was a 'group' escort quest) for almost an hour, so I take it was one hour in total. the video itself was supposed to show the dynamic events, and it showed one of the classes/races (looked a bit like a fox or something and was jumping around really weird the whole time)... then the showed some pvp, which was basically that one char fighting against 5 other chars. that's when I turned off. it just didn't interest me.

 

however, the one hour escort quest did make me laugh, and while I love PVP it's not all I care about. in GW you at least only had to lvl up to 20 and after that it was 'do as you please'. that is not going to be the case in GW2 so... err... if one hour quests and 'dynamic events' is the way to level up, without the holy trinity, then... yeah... thank you, but no thank you.

 

 

 

apart from that, I tested GW2 in '10 and '11 at gamescom, both times I was far from impressed (and you were able to test for an hour. if a game can't fascinate me after an hour chances are it never will) ...

 

the graphics as a whole didn't really bother me, even. to be honest the TOR graphics really bothered me at first, but that's probably because the last game I played before this one was FFXIV - and while there is a lot to complain about in that game, the graphics are definitely not one of them. lol.

Edited May 4, 2012 by amnie

[iheartnyc]

Suspension of belief happens via the depth of the game and story, not how realistic the planks of wood are. It's a emotional response to the story, not making it as realistic as possible. I don't think that word means what you think it means.

 

"I don't think it means what you think it means" was a cool thing to say maybe a year ago. Now it's just another tired and overused phrase.

 

Also, it's suspension of "DIS"belief...I will attribute your error to a typo. And yes, game and story have a lot to do with it. But so does the IMAGERY. That's why before movies and games existed, authors took so much care in describing the setting, colors, smells, to create the imagery necessary for our minds to connect with the game and story. Without the imagery, we lack the crucial link to the story itself. And GW2 blows the imagery aspect wayyy out of proportion.

 

And I will say this - if GW2 had toned it down a bit, maybe followed the art style of D3 or even Tera, I for sure would have chosen to play that over SWTOR, at least for a while.

 

It's like you take this really great movie, say Gladiator. And instead of Russell Crowe you cast some guy who is a great actor but he has like a huge hair mole on his face - he looks like Mr. Potato Head. It would just kill the movie, despite the substance or story.

Edited May 4, 2012 by iheartnyc

[Tekkoclarky]

GW2 is actually looking very promising.

 

You're just the same as the trolls who hated on SWTOR at beta/release.

 

As with every other Vs. thread made on the internet, your opinion doesn't matter.

 

GW2 is going to be a great game, and I will play it along with SWTOR.

 

If you don't like it, that's fine, but this thread is pointless and makes you look like a fool.

Edited May 4, 2012 by Tekkoclarky

[iheartnyc]

GW2 is actually looking very promising.

 

You're just the same as the trolls who hated on SWTOR at beta/release.

 

As with every other Vs. thread made on the internet, your opinion doesn't matter.

 

GW2 is going to be a great game, and I will play it along with SWTOR.

 

Naw I'm not. I think I have over 500 posts on these forums. Check and see how many of them are "negative" or "troll" posts...hardly any.

 

And if my opinion doesn't matter, why are you and others responding to my OP?

Edited May 4, 2012 by iheartnyc

[Heley]

I will most likely play both. I didn't quit WoW for GW1 and I doubt I'll quit SWTOR for GW2. If it wasn't for the fact that GW2 is F2P I probably wouldn't even bother with it. GW for me has always been a side game rather than my main game.

[Swanea]

The PvP, while at times is a giant zergfest with just AoE going off, is just better even with the class imbalances currently in gw2.

 

The PvE is well...there. I admit, it's not hard to die a lot in certain group quest thingys. But it just seemed bland at times. And yet, 99% of the time better than ToR PvE. But I will put the stories here above what they have in gw2.

[wezzlan]

I got the feeling when i tryed it that GW2 is just a reskin of loads of features in Aion and ladscapes look alot like it in some places. THAT killed it for me.

and it looks like a kido game, Also NC is Dead to me after what they did to Aion and Lineage2.

And i think alot of players wont play it cuse of that i myself know alot of players that never even tries NCs games anymore cuse of it.

 

i will buy it and play it maybe a few times when Swtor is down but nothing more and still it will have to compete for my intressst with D3 on SWTOR downtimes.

 

Swtor is getting better whatever tards say on forums that its getting worse, and aslong as the it swtor dont go EAgame only and they start chasing in for content gear etc i will play swtor as nr game.

 

Swtor got the upperhand on other games cuse it is freaking STAR WARS too. a huge advantage.

[VegaPhone]

OP, you do realize in that you are actually saying to some that the art style is better in GW2 than in swtor. The whole point of playing a game is to have a nice fantasy away from reality.

 

I have seen some of the style of GW2 and it looks really nice, and there are some nice landscapes in swtor as well, but swtor its too realistic of what we would expect on earth and that is why it does not feel like a sci-fi fantasy. Also the aliens for NPCs mostly look humanoid.

 

So there has to be more of that sci-fi fantasy feel imo for swtor, and it can help doing that with making the landscape more extreme, adding some interesting color, strange planet effects ( a planet/area full of plants that release exploding spheres into the air, or quick sand to an underground cave that leads to the sea, or a canyon with a lot of homes on the inside with holes and caves etc )

 

Also the exploration while it does exist is hurt when the landscape is not as captivating as it could be, and I am not sure if it is due to the resources being limited for an MMO, and not allowing us to do what we want but for example on Corellia it has some nice landscape but a lot if it not accessible. I also mentioned this earlier in another post, that the ground feels a bit too flat because the 'factory workers' (lore wise) lay them on the ground to well. It might be realistic to have in swtor, but as a video gamer looking for something that feels right, seeing the flat ground everywhere feels wrong.

 

Also Corellia feels like the buildings are all business and there are no small stores on the sides of buildings. It does not feel real enough that other people would live there. So it seems that Corellia is one of the few places that should take examples of earth to make it feel more real, while still creating a fantasy. I think part of the problem as the devs mentioned was not putting enough NPCS at the time to liven the place up. So when they do add more NPCs then they can also add places of interests, and for corellia that should make the place feel a lot more lively.

 

Also im on a low populated server, so I am more focused on the landscape than others.

Edited May 4, 2012 by VegaPhone

[Destronicus]

I saw a video of a one hour (ONE HOUR) escort-quest. I laughed and that was it for me and GW2.

 

Yeah, because waiting around for a blimp for over an hour doing absolutely nothing desperately hoping that the blimp would not de-spawn so you would not have to wait around for another hour doing nothing so you can get a datacron is much, much better.

Edited May 4, 2012 by Destronicus

[Tekkoclarky]

Naw I'm not. I think I have over 500 posts on these forums. Check and see how many of them are "negative" or "troll" posts...hardly any.

 

And if my opinion doesn't matter, why are you and others responding to my OP?

 

So people know you're a troll and you are judging a game before even playing it.

[iheartnyc]

OP, you do realize in that you are actually saying to some that the art style is better in GW2 than in swtor. The whole point of playing a game is to have a nice fantasy away from reality.

 

Flying around space hunting down Jedi using my force powers is pretty fantastic enough for me. But to be fair, I much preferred the art style in Oblivion, Skyrim, Diablo, Dragon Age, over WoW and Fable.

[amnie]

Yeah, because waiting around for a blimp for over an hour doing absolutely nothing desperately hoping that the blimp would not de-spawn so you would not have to wait around for another hour doing nothing so you can get a datacron is much, much better.

 

considering it literally took me 2 seconds to reach the datacrons on the sandcrawler in the dune sea... thanks to a friendly sage.... yes, yes indeed it is much, much better.

Edited May 4, 2012 by amnie