One thing I certainly didn’t expect to do with the blog was writing about the original Guild Wars from 2005. But on December 3rd, there was an update, called Guild Wars Reforged, which is on Steam and available for everyone who already has a Guild Wars account. It adds controller and Steam Deck support alongside HD textures, high DPI support, some visual and audio upgrades, as well as a few bug fixes and a promise of more to come.

It gets better, though: Everyone who owns any campaign, Prophecies, Factions, or Nightfall, now has access to all the other ones – no additional purchase required. I am a little disappointed that Eye of the North, the final paid story expansion, is neither unlocked for existing players, nor part of the $20 Reforged bundle – it will set you back another $10.

In total, $30 for both Reforged and EotN is still cheaper than the previous pricing of the Complete Collection ($40) and it doesn’t force you to pay for endgame content when you just want to try the game. But then again it’s significantly more expensive than the $10 the Complete Collection would regularly go on sale for on the Guild Wars store (archive.org: store.guildwars.com). It remains to be seen how prices will look once it’s included in a Steam sale.

Of course, we live in a world where Switch 2 games are being priced at $80, and considering the amount of content this classic MMO has – even for mostly solo players like me – it’s worth the price either way. Even more so if you can get some friends together!

Enough Talk, Let’s Play!

Any half-modern device will run Guild Wars Reforged like a charm. The official System Requirements feel like some sort of joke for even being listed: Minimum specs include a 1 GHz Pentium CPU, 2GB of RAM, and a 16bit Sound Card. But what it means is that even laptops or handhelds like the Steam Deck will offer a solid experience running the game. I’ve played for several hours on the Steam Deck and as you’d expect, this 20 year old game runs at a locked 60fps.

Classic Guild Wars gameplay on PC is unchanged. While mechanics are not as engaging as most modern games, you’re still challenged with managing your targets, interrupting deadly spells, or healing that one Warrior who accidentally aggroed a second group. The 2000’s MMORPG charm with it’s roles like frontline damage dealer, tank, healer, etc. is still there, and I’m here for it.

What I love the most about Guild Wars, and what I’ve been sorely missing in other games ever since, is the skill system. You have hundreds of skills available, both from your primary class and your changeable secondary class, but you have to choose a combination of just eight, and then split up your attribute points to improve them accordingly.

It’s deceptively simple on the surface, and anyone can dump everything into the Axe Mastery and Strength attributes to make a decently effective Axe Warrior build. But playing around with different builds and trying out new ones has always been my favorite part of the game.

They Added Controller Support to my MMORPG?

It is kind of wild for a classic MMO to have controller support and I honestly didn’t expect an update to add that of all possible things. But it’s a comfortable experience, at least for casual gameplay. The left and right triggers map the face buttons to either half of your skill bar, which is surprisingly intuitive. Pulling the triggers also changes what actions the D-Pad and other buttons perform. Helpfully, Reforged added an on-screen controller button guide to ease you into the controls.

Where the controller inputs fall flat is mostly in the menus. It’s decent enough for managing your inventory, but moving your cursor with the stick gets old fast, and snapping to buttons is a bit hit and miss. Guild Wars was simply not made with controllers in mind, and the UI is where it shows the most. On the Steam Deck, I mapped the right touchpad to the mouse, which is much easier to use for most things.

Additionally, keeping any windows open is a bit annoying. You can pin the window so it won’t close, but the controller will be going back into cursor mode occasionally, especially on every map change. Not a complete deal breaker, but I was thrown off by it; I like to keep the mission map and inventory visible. I’ve also been looking for a button to swap weapon sets, which is all but necessary for lategame gameplay, like pulling groups with a bow. The input guide doesn’t tell you how, but it kept happening to me accidentally and now I know. You have to pull the left trigger and use the bumpers. Wait, nevermind! Just as I am proofreading this, I noticed that it’s been swapped with “Select previous/next loot” with the last patch – so it’s now left trigger + D-Pad left/right.

Again, it’s definitely good enough for casual gameplay, and I suppose people playing endgame content aren’t necessarily the target group here. Not to mention that I expect controller mappings to be configurable in the future. It’s very much evolving.

Graphics Upgrade!?

Well – don’t get too excited. There’s not that much to say about it, other than it being nice. The graphics changes are subtle, but certainly noticeable in comparison. Bloom is less aggressive, SSAO adds visual depth, and the improved draw distance makes the game less foggy and improves the distant Level of Detail. Devil’s in the details, so see for yourself:

Also quite nice: Skill icons have been re-done, especially noticeable on higher DPI screens. Some have been upscaled and re-painted, others have been rendered from original source. (See: Guild Wars Wiki Update Notes)

In Other News…

Reforged also fixes positional audio, which has been broken since – ah, yes – ever since Windows XP reached end of life. There was a player-made fix available for this, but it’s much nicer to simply have it in the game, 11 years after XP reached end of life.

There’s also a Task Tracker now – instead of pressing L to open and close your quest log over and over, the current quest objective is now simply visible on screen.

Like every other UI element, this can be hidden using the options menu. In general, Guild Wars’ UI is fully customizable in regards to size and position of each element, so try setting it up the way you like.

Bottom Line: Why You Should Play Guild Wars in 2025

I’m super happy to see Guild Wars getting some love. It feels like there was genuine care put into the update, even if it’s not groundbreaking. Earlier this year I was thinking how much longer the game will stay online, and here we are, getting actual updates!

While the current price is a little steep for it’s age, I hope we see a sale soon, and with it an influx of curious new players. Offering horizontal progression instead of a long level grind, Guild Wars is great for both new and returning players. Although the mechanics are a little dated, the unique class and skill system offers lots of room for experimentation, from perfecting DPS to absolute meme builds. It plays surprisingly well on the Steam Deck and has already provided me with several hours of casual fun doing daily quests on my couch.

It’s a piece of history and an untainted look into MMORPGs as they were 20 years ago. It’s less hectic than it’s successor Guild Wars 2, which is great for an “old” gamer like myself. I hope I’ll see you ingame, let’s keep that Favor of the Gods going!