Some simple visual feedback makes it easy to determine if it’s appropriate for a player to attempt any particular quest, area, or encounter. Colour-coded enemy names indicate the challenge they’re likely to present in relation to the player’s current experience level, while story-based quests feature a recommended level number and set a steady pace of progression early on.

The regular smattering of optional side-quests means there’s always something going on, and players are able to gain experience more naturally. This means you’ll never have do the same side-mission over and over to grind your character up to the right level for the next story quest.

The so-called “Holy Trinity” of character roles is based on the notion that each player assumes a primary responsibility in combat, electing to form either the vanguard of an assault (colloquially known as a Tank), the self-explanatory Damage Dealer or support-based Healer. But if you didn’t know that before, you don’t need to know it now, because Guild Wars 2 is intending to remove these roles, freeing up players to play in a style shaped more by their chosen character class than having to find a place in this predefined triumvirate.

Every character class can heal itself and has a handful of defensive abilities that can be upgraded and any player, regardless of class, can revive another. This enables players to evolve more naturally over time, and choose character skills and abilities that serve their own play style rather than the one ascribed to them by party roles.

Let’s make no bones about this: Guild Wars 2 is very pretty. While we all know that sharp visuals do not a great game make, it’s equally important to consider that if you’re to spend dozens, scores or even hundreds of hours in a game world interacting with its inhabitants, it’s not going to hurt if that world and her inhabitants are attractive. This is perhaps even more important to capturing the attention of people who’ve cut their teeth on single-player, offline RPGs.

The so-called “Holy Trinity” of character roles is based on the notion that each player assumes a primary responsibility in combat, electing to form either the vanguard of an assault (colloquially known as a Tank), the self-explanatory Damage Dealer or support-based Healer. But if you didn’t know that before, you don’t need to know it now, because Guild Wars 2 is intending to remove these roles, freeing up players to play in a style shaped more by their chosen character class than having to find a place in this predefined triumvirate.

Every character class can heal itself and has a handful of defensive abilities that can be upgraded and any player, regardless of class, can revive another. This enables players to evolve more naturally over time, and choose character skills and abilities that serve their own play style rather than the one ascribed to them by party roles.

The aesthetic appeal has its roots in Guild Wars 2 stunning concept art: brush-style visuals that bleed into the world through flourishes of the user interface, skill icons and storyboard cutscenes. While fulfilling the modest minimum system specs will gain you access to its world, a mid-range graphics card is going to grant access to more detailed textures and advanced lighting effects as well as introducing a host of incidental detail to the world, from swaying foliage to petals carried on the breeze.