Guild Wars 2 have turned their game free to play, stepping away from their purchase to play access, players can now access the core content free of charge, up to the release of the newest Heart of Thorns expansion which will be released soon. As we take a look at the fantasy MMORPG we’ll ask a number of questions, starting at 100% free, and removing points as we go down the list to find out whether the game is as free to play as they say!

The game has gone free to play for the core content, that is everything up to and excluding the soon to be released Heart of Thorns expansion, which will require purchasing to get access to the new areas, content and features.



Guild Wars 2 is a buy-to-play MMO, the only money players need to spend to get access to all the content is purchasing the single expansion that will exist.



All the previous expansions and DLC that were previously purchasable have been rolled into the free to play model, however the new Heart of Thorns expansion does require purchase.



The game has a built in Black Lion Trading Company shop where players spend gems, a premium currency, to buy all manner of items; players can buy gems with real world cash or trade gold for them in the Currency Exchange in game.



Whilst the vast majority of items are cosmetic, pets and items such as character renaming, there are still boosters and a few tools that will give players minor convenience advantages, but the game doesn’t sell any weapons or gear that will create imbalance between players.



There are a few UI options in the settings menu that are all available to players.



There are 9 classes currently available, but the Revenant class is currently restricted only to Heart of Thorns expansion players. All races are available to play.



Players still have access to buy and sell common goods on the Trading Post, however they can’t mail items or gold to other players, trade gems with gold and they do not have access to guild vaults.



Bag slots are limited for free to play accounts, only gaining access to three slots.



There are level restrictions in place for free to play accounts to avoid disruptions to the normal playerbase; players can’t leave the starter zones until they reach level 10, can’t use the Looking For Group function until level 30 and level 60 before using the World vs World feature. New areas with the expansion are completely restricted.



Free to play account can PVP straight away, but must reach rank 20 before they can use unranked and custom areas. The first raids in the game are coming with the Heart of Thorns expansion and players will be required to purchase it in order to access this new content.



The core of the game is completely free and the restrictions in place are more to curb gold farmers by making it a little tougher to get access to all the features, which are obviously removed by purchasing the expansion. Other than the content with the new expansion there is years’ worth of content available for free and very few limitations otherwise.


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This entry was posted on Monday, September 7th, 2015 at 11:44 am and is filed under Articles, MMO News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.