I always felt the first Guild Wars was the MMO that shot itself in the foot. It was the first MMO to have better reviews and feedback than World of Warcraft, but the game was too much about it's pvp content. It even allowed players to skip leveling a character in order to go straight to the pvp. Had the game actually had some great content for hardcore pve'ers I'm sure it could have been bigger competition for World of Warcraft. It would seem like I'm not the only one to realize it's potential, as the Guild Wars developers are taking the sequel to Guild Wars in a much more grander scale. After getting a chance to play an early build of Guild Wars 2, I'm happy to report that this game could be the next big MMO property.

The demo gives us a level 29 character to play. We can choose between three of the five races, and seven out of the eight classes. I chose a human thief, since I'm a melee dps junkie in these MMOs. What's interesting is the game asks the player a variety of questions about their character's backstory, such as how they like to kill their enemies, as well as their upbringing. My guess is that this will effect your character's fighting traits, as well as a possible main storyline, but neither could be confirmed during the demonstration.

The quest I was able to play wasn't anything special, but it at least served as a good way to learn the mechanics of the character. The quest involved helping a farmer that was entirely too hot and too sexy to be a farmer get her lazy subordinates back to work. What's interesting is that there wasn't a set number of farmers you had to help, or creatures you had to kill, just a bar that needed to be filled up. The bar fills up every time you kick a lazy farmer off his butt, or kill a creature that plagues the farm. It seems like a cheap way to psyche players into believing they aren't grinding, but it is still a nice change of pace than the usual set number.

The graphics are utterly breathtaking. They are the best I have seen for an MMO. It isn't too realistic, but enough to feel different from other styles. The animation is also equally amazing. There is a great variety, and a good amount that took me by surprise. The animation kept fights feeling refreshing, interesting to look at, and I love the “last stand” that gives you the chance to kill your foe before you die; Call of Duty style.

The thief class has a great variety of skills. My character had a good set of range moves, and an equally good set of melee moves, as well as moves that make it easy to switch between the two playing styles. Although, I'm sure this had something to do with my character's level since I'm confident players will be able to pick their own specialization. You'll probably end up with either the choice to be more range, more melee, or equally both. Either way, the class felt like it had enough variety to allow players to come up with some great strategies in pvp, and make the pve more interesting.

There were a few usual MMO suspects missing from the demo. The obvious one was red dots displaying where aggro creatures were on the map, but I'm sure that this could have been a result of the demo being an early build.

Finding quests can be a hassle. I'm use to there at least being a dot showing where we can find the next location for the quest, but the only dots were for quest givers. I will also admit at level 29 I would expect more exciting quest then helping farmers. If you're helping farmers at level 29, then what the hell are you doing at level 1? Cleaning toilets?

I dabbled a little bit with in-game “events,” which is similar to the public quests system of many other MMO games, such as Warhammer Online. It's nothing too new in the MMO genre, but it's still a nice addition to have in the game.

While I'm sure there is much more exciting content that is waiting to be explored in Guild Wars 2, the game still had me very excited with what they were able to show at the convention. Star Wars: The Old Republic may be the most anticipated MMO in the market, but Guild Wars 2 may sneak up to be the true gem waiting to be released.