A beautiful, immersive, well presented and overall, great game.
Guild Wars is a great way to start off if youve never played this genre before. There is NO monthly fee, and it is rather simple to pick up and play, although later you will need to think a bit more to accomplish certain things.
The graphics in the game are very impressive. The whole game just looks so bright. They really do add to the whole experience.
The music is outstanding for some, but really it depends what you like listening to.
As far as customizing your characters goes, there isnt really too much. You can dye your equipment..get different armour sets and weapons. Other MMO's definately have alot more character customizing options. You wont feel quite so unique in Guild Wars.
The gameplay is rather fast, especially in pvp. Luckilly the gameplay is simple, but if you wish to prevail in some of the end-game missions, and the competitive pvp, you will need to use your knoledge and tactics.
Some of the missions in the game are quite hard. In fact i know some of them have stopped people from playing the game. Including me.
A bit about guilds.. the game does work quite nicely for the casual gamer that doesnt have much time to spend..but if you intend to be in a competitive guild or a good one you will need to be active. Especially if you are the leader. I dont encourage anyone to make a guild if they are not active players. It just doesnt work very well. If you do however have lots of time. The great! go ahead make a guild, buy a hall, get lots of members do lots of great things together. Guilds really make up alot of the experience in Guild Wars. You will make new friends and such. You will have a very different experience in this game. And it is a great one.
Overall, unfortunately, it usually..does come down to "Is this game better than World of Warcraft". Well...for some, the reason your playing Guild Wars is becuase there is no monthly fee, but if WoW had no monthly fee, youd be playing that instead. Infact i sometimes feel that way myself. But Guild Wars truly is a great game for what it tries to achieve, and is one of the BEST experiences ive ever had, and will still have.
If your just starting to get into MMOS this is THE place to start.
-Gam