Ok, when I got involved this game was not free-to-play (FTP) I had to pay for it. What made this MMORPG so different and special is because it was one of the first to not have a monthly subscription fee. If you paid the $50 it cost (back then) you got the full game for an unlimited amount of time.
I had played many different MMO's that had a monthly subscription fee and I was relatively addicted to them. I started with Anarchy Online (which was barely playable because of connection issues at the start) and later moved on to my true addiction which was Dark Age of Camelot. I don't think either one of these games are still live. I honestly don't know, it was a long time ago.
Guild Wars 2 introduced new elements into the MMO world by not having the trifecta (some people call it the holy trinity but that offends some people.) Basically, in the past most or all of these games consisted of three types of classes
Tank - a unit that can take a lot of damage and it used to gather "aggro" or make the enemy units focus on you because you can take the damage a lot better than other classes
Healer - the name kind of says it all
Damage Dealer - normally these classes would be "glass cannons" in that they do tons of outward damage but can take almost none from the enemy.
Guild Wars two got rid of all of this, any class can be any of the above things and to be honest, I am not really sure I like it that way. It doesn't matter though because the game is very well done and since it is free, there is no reason to not give it a try. I have been playing it on and off for about 4 years and in that time I have never paid a subscription fee.
Now, you CAN spend real-world money in-game and a lot of people do inside the game's Gem Store. However, you can not directly purchase items that would give you an advantage in combat - most of the items are aesthetic and I can't really understand why someone would pay $20 for a new outfit for their toons but they do.
if it makes you happy and you have $20 to burn, go for it!
The game world is absolutely massive and there are even more of them but I am only including the ones that are in the free version of the game
image credit is in the image itself
In the free game there are 9 classes and 3 races to pick from and the game has a pretty easy to understand live action tutorial that makes it very easy to pick up the game basics right from the start. You gain new skills relatively quickly and there are a ton of skills.
The character customization is a game in itself, as the amount of modifications that can be made to the look of your toons are nearly endless. Don't worry if you do it "wrong" as you can reset your look at any point in the game - however you can not do this an unlimited amount of times without needing to pay for it. Leveling up takes place quickly as the game has never increased its max level (that I am aware of.)
This is a very easy game to pick up and play although you can expect the initial download to take a very long time as it is a massive game. The stories are interesting but if you just want to get in there and play you are able to skip most of them.
This trailer doesn't show any game-play and is more of a cinematic thing. however, the in-game graphics are of the same quality.... well, i suppose it depends somewhat on the power of your machine.
I wont get into the criticism of the game as far as long-term play is concerned just yet. From a cost-benefit analysis well, you can't get much cheaper than free to download, free to play, and never any monthly subscription fees. Therefore, if you kill a bunch of time sitting at your computer like I do, this one is worth a look. I'm in there at least every couple of days.