Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons

 PC
  • Publisher: NCSOFT
  • Release Date: Feb 28, 2022
User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 111 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 75 out of 111
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 111
  3. Negative: 24 out of 111

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  1. Eonagon
    Jun 21, 2022
    2
    Each story mission is filled with UNSKIPPABLE chatter, waiting around, or riding elevators. Arenanet refuses to let your progress carry across characters- meaning you have to repeat hours upon hours of following slow NPCs just for all your characters to be caught up.

    The DEV team consistently ignores the cries of its player base. While they have done an amazing job balancing classes and    Each story mission is filled with UNSKIPPABLE chatter, waiting around, or riding elevators. Arenanet refuses to let your progress carry across characters- meaning you have to repeat hours upon hours of following slow NPCs just for all your characters to be caught up.

    The DEV team consistently ignores the cries of its player base. While they have done an amazing job balancing classes and building beautiful scenery, I can't ignore the fact that they don't care about what the player base has wanted for 5+ years.    … Expand
  2. Junanelle
    Oct 7, 2022
    3
    The story was somewhat enjoyable, but we are waiting for something new for so long now. Pretty much sure to say the game is dead. Even though they announced a new living world series and next addon right with the launch of this expansion, there is nothing to be seen of this promise. But well if the quality of ingame content keeps spiralling downwards - as it did since launch of theThe story was somewhat enjoyable, but we are waiting for something new for so long now. Pretty much sure to say the game is dead. Even though they announced a new living world series and next addon right with the launch of this expansion, there is nothing to be seen of this promise. But well if the quality of ingame content keeps spiralling downwards - as it did since launch of the basegame - its for the better to let the game die out in peace.
    Want to love the game and cherish the roughly 15.000 hours I put into it but sadly cant anymore. Even as a long year veteran I need to say "stay away from Guildwars 2" at this point....    … Expand
  3. AleksanderSubur
    Apr 9, 2022
    0
    Guild wars 2 was always out of the classic medieval fantasy with it's story (steam copter, steam submarines, roboter, laser guns, holographs), but in this expansion averything come together in green shining nightmare. The story is less predictable, but as unlogical as the stories of the other parts. But the most impertinent are the new, unfinished elite specializations (i.e. untamed).Guild wars 2 was always out of the classic medieval fantasy with it's story (steam copter, steam submarines, roboter, laser guns, holographs), but in this expansion averything come together in green shining nightmare. The story is less predictable, but as unlogical as the stories of the other parts. But the most impertinent are the new, unfinished elite specializations (i.e. untamed). Searching for a new game, or i'm moving back to guild wars 1… Expand
  4. Shinyu
    Mar 11, 2022
    2
    It isn't great. I got baited by the reviews, and boy, do I want my 30€ back.
    The story is unskippable and is some of the least interesting things I have to witness for a while. It is really bad. Villain bad because villain bad, hero good because hero good. Sketchy people sketchy because a plot-twist no one could foresee will happen. Annoying cutscene simulator with bits of *very*    It isn't great. I got baited by the reviews, and boy, do I want my 30€ back.
    The story is unskippable and is some of the least interesting things I have to witness for a while. It is really bad. Villain bad because villain bad, hero good because hero good. Sketchy people sketchy because a plot-twist no one could foresee will happen. Annoying cutscene simulator with bits of *very* unbalanced gameplay, as usual. You get swarmmed by enemies, and unless you play a tankier build, you will get deleted over and over. Not that prevents you from clearing, it is beyond frustrating.

    The performance is still EXTREMELY bad even in 2022. With the DX12 wrapper, which is a *must* to play this game, it oftens crashes into the low 20 fps. Not only that, but it looks bad. Really bad. Looks like a PS3 game, and runs like a PS1 game.

    The map design took a turn for the worst. It feels like heart of thorns again : frustrating to navigate. Unless you explore secret areas and stuff like that, navigation should be easy to figure out. I should be able to look at my map and say "yes, I wanna go there, I can reach it by going there". I'm only in the 2nd map and getting HoT vibes from a confusing, vertical based, level design. I guess that's why people use navigation add-ons on that game. And it seems they didn't learned anything from Path of Fire. They did simple maps, that are huge, but somewhat easy to navigate. You read your map, you know where to go.

    The gameplay is still the same, for the better or for the worse. Glass cannon is only viable in raid/fractal/strike environment, and they keep making the mobs stronger and stronger to enforce a tank-meta. It gets really frustrating after a while to fight enemies able to one shot me because I refused to wear knight gear. Other than that, it plays well and feels good, just poor mob tunning from arena.

    I'd not advise anyone not madly in love with GW2 to play end of dragons.

    (Unrelated side-note : arena net support is among THE WORST supports out there. I bought a physical copy, used the code on the wrong account, got called a thief by their CS operative when I showed them all proofs needed (photo of the box + code, account next to it with the same code visible, even some documents of my bank info) and still they wanted me to buy ANOTHER copy instead of helping me. They also asked me to get a refund from the shop I bought it... You can't refund a PC game if the box was opened, due to the possibility of the code being used. 11/10 best support.)    … Expand
  5. hjikqfbiuqdbiqw
    May 29, 2023
    0
    really bad, doesnt come with a graphics update like competitors ff or wow do. Doesnt have a lot of new content. Still comes with the GW2 core gameplay: farm gold, gold for shop is everything. Doesnt give a lot of content which is without the shop grindable. Doesnt give any new gameplay, still all classes are button smashing, button smashing and more button smash. Strikes are solo bossreally bad, doesnt come with a graphics update like competitors ff or wow do. Doesnt have a lot of new content. Still comes with the GW2 core gameplay: farm gold, gold for shop is everything. Doesnt give a lot of content which is without the shop grindable. Doesnt give any new gameplay, still all classes are button smashing, button smashing and more button smash. Strikes are solo boss raids now, which is great, but not in this game where the fight is nothing but stand melee and button smash. There is no sense into playing this game, it is only about grind gold, get some glowing skins and then be honored by your other gold farmers. It is basically a idle gold farm expansion, in a mainly ingame-shop-game with some minigames attached where you just idle and press 1-10… Expand
  6. andrecastelo
    Mar 14, 2022
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This is a beautifully rushed expansion pack.

    The new areas look good, difficulty is up there, and while I did not enjoy initially the new specs, they are growing on me. Guild Wars 2 art style is its strongest point, it's a very unique and holy **** it's breath taking at times. The environment design is amazing as well, though attention to detail has been lacking a lot in some areas.

    However I believe this expansion pack lacks substance and attention to detail. There are new elite profession specializations, but they're nothing to write home about - existing specs are either better or they're simply uninspired. I feel some of the specs intentions were to allow some classes to have access to a certain roles, but in a way they all sort of fall short.

    End of Dragons added one new mount, and while the concept of two people riding it is cool, it's still one mount and the novelty wears off fairly quickly. The acquisition process is hard, but I don't think that's really a problem.

    The expansion also added fishing as a new mechanic, which while interesting, I don't really want to fish in a mmorpg. It has appealed to some people, but it's a niche addition that isn't embraced by the whole community.

    Another addition were skiffs - you can now get a boat and travel around in a boat. But you could already do that with Skimmers. I guess you can use the skiff to go to a fishing spot and fish, but again, niche addition.

    They also added jade bots, a companion that will boost some stats and help you in some areas of the open world, but they managed to botch that by requiring characters to go through the story to get a jade bot power core. And though the story is well written, it's full of unskippable dialog and parts where you are required to walk around and talk to people - it's a complete slog to go through it, it's so mind bogglingly boring. On top of that, there are weapon collections that require you to go through the story with a character of a specific class - so to get the new elite spec weapons, you have to go through the story NINE **** TIMES.

    Overall, this expansion pack lacks attention to detail, feels rushed in some areas and lacking substance. For comparison, Path of Fire added 9 new elite specs, 6 mounts, raids and awesome areas for us to explore. EoD brings 9 new uninspired elite specs, 1 mount, fishing and a boat for some reason.

    My suggestion for anyone considering this is to wait until there's a discount and then get it.    … Expand
  7. awesinine
    Mar 2, 2022
    1
    As a long time GW2 player, I'm disappointed to say this expansion feels incredibly unpolished and rough. The actual story content is decent (as always) but lasts only 8-10 hours. They want you to do the story on every character to unlock the ascended weapons this time around, so you can stretch that 10 hours to each of your characters! I hope you enjoy watching the same cutscenes andAs a long time GW2 player, I'm disappointed to say this expansion feels incredibly unpolished and rough. The actual story content is decent (as always) but lasts only 8-10 hours. They want you to do the story on every character to unlock the ascended weapons this time around, so you can stretch that 10 hours to each of your characters! I hope you enjoy watching the same cutscenes and listening to the same dialogue multiple times.

    The new elite specs are clunky, balanced poorly without any real niches to fill, and generally look out of place (see mechanist with their giant jade robot. I hope you like green). The additional features for this xpac are fishing, which is insanely boring (see genshin
    impact for the same implementation), more strikes (which were all cleared day 1 and don't really add challenging content to the game), and of course: new buggy and laggy metas. The endgame still lives largely in the cash shop or grinding out 1000+ hrs for infusions/legendaries, which are better off just purchased with gold (which you can conveniently buy using gems). There's nothing new or innovate in this xpac.

    In 2022 the game runs poorly on even the best hardware. You can expect framerates between 30-50 in open world / populated areas using a 3090 and top tier processor using dx11 (beta). You can also expect the game to crash regularly when using dx11 (beta). The alternative dx9 is more stable but suffers from worse framerates and severe micro-stuttering. Make no mistake, the dx11 beta is an impressive addition to the game and the engineering team should be applauded for the work they've put it, but this poor of performance in 2022 shouldn't be acceptable for any live service game, even if you've been playing the guild wars franchise since GW1.

    There are so many great games out right now that do everything GW2 does, but better. The one area where it stays a leader in uniqueness is in it's WWW system. As of right now that system is being reworked in an ongoing series of beta rollouts independent of the xpac. If you like large scale battles, id say that its worth checking out. Otherwise for 2022 GW gets a 1/10.    … Expand
  8. Tenarus
    Mar 18, 2022
    1
    A good game ruined by the incompetence of the developer.

    The addon itself just has a mediocre story, meaningless masteries, unbalanced metas (which could have been prevented - i know from a friend playtesting from the side of anet means journalists play the events with dmg buffs and invuln - thats not playtesting, thats stupid), no challenges, no real rewards for veteran players. The    A good game ruined by the incompetence of the developer.

    The addon itself just has a mediocre story, meaningless masteries, unbalanced metas (which could have been prevented - i know from a friend playtesting from the side of anet means journalists play the events with dmg buffs and invuln - thats not playtesting, thats stupid), no challenges, no real rewards for veteran players. The expansion is bland, boring and meaningless.

    To top it all off arenanet slaps in the faces of veterans again and again. All the kinds of content veterans wish for (eg new raids) get canceled. Bugs that have been reported on release of the base game are still not fixed to this very date. Arenanets incompetence in technical aspects as well as their ignorance to their playerbase ruined this game.

    Bye, commander out    … Expand
  9. spike_sprf
    Mar 2, 2022
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Shing jea and Kaineng introduce some new textures to the game. But most of the textures and models are recycled. The main story is not that great :(
    Also there a no side stories besides the main story. The majority of the additional content is just farming and not to exciting...    … Expand
  10. itsawn
    Mar 8, 2022
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This expansion started off incredibly solid and had me really excited early in the playthrough.

    However, it really takes an incredibly sharp turn downwards in quality in the last quarter of the story or so, where they really hurried to put a cork on an almost 10-year ongoing story.

    The ending felt very rushed and kind of baffling due to how they introduce this supposed dark threat to the universe that was behind all of the world's problems all along, despite never even being hinted at before this, then to you heroically vanquishing this ancient evil... in the span of an hour or two, maybe three? Where most of this is spent dealing with idiotic story characters who believe this is all your fault, all while the world is supposedly in the process of ending, but you don't even really see this happening either. Then you go to the zone where the end of the universe is just kinda chillin', slap it in the face, roll credits.

    While the explorable zones are certainly good looking, exploring them felt more bland than usual because the hero and mastery points just seem tacked on. Instead of the occasional puzzle element or unique mechanic, it's all either "kill this generic enemy" or "interact with this thing and here you go". They're also pretty much all out in the open, whereas in other expansions quite a few made you think on how to get to them. Quite a few areas also have some performance issues going on with steep framerate drops, regardless of hardware and their new DX11 setting.    … Expand
  11. CanthanWarrior
    Mar 3, 2022
    2
    This is a review from a veterans player perspective, if you're a new player, please do not read this. I was looking forward to this expansion since IBS, the story bit of EOD is decent, definitely not the worst story they came up with, but nothing mindblowing either. One thing that is AMAZING though is the presentation, Anet really upped the ante with the camera shots, beautiful scenery andThis is a review from a veterans player perspective, if you're a new player, please do not read this. I was looking forward to this expansion since IBS, the story bit of EOD is decent, definitely not the worst story they came up with, but nothing mindblowing either. One thing that is AMAZING though is the presentation, Anet really upped the ante with the camera shots, beautiful scenery and voice-acting, there's no arguing that, it's very well polished.

    However ... that's about it, the world feels very very empty even in launch day, barely saw anyone around for the metas, the "green" color is overall way too vivid/saturated and pushed in every bit of the new maps, and in terms of story content, well its quite short given this is the 3rd expansion after 4 years of waiting. That's where I'm disappointed, this honestly feels just like a better polished patch, not expansion. The elite specs are very disappointing, besides harbinger and bladesworn that actually feel different and great to play. And only two days after release, I'm already wondering what else did they develop besides the new maps and strikes, because really, that's it, besides the very short story bit, the expansion is quite bland, especially in context.

    For me this is not a huge surprise although I am disappointed, Anet has shown us countless times how good they can be at polishing things and getting to near perfection, but one thing they always lacked and still do is consistency and content pace, this expansion would have been really good if every type of content was very well maintained through the years. But to my disappointment, things didnt change, and I'll be looking forward to see the direction they take the game in the next year, I really really hope they prove me wrong.    … Expand
  12. 5hg54h45h4h45h
    Mar 2, 2022
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The Starting Location Looks appealing, but they cant reproduce the Aura of factions. Most of the content is mindless grinding. I really wished they come up with a great story, but this Aurene Arc is mostly boring. Athough, I liked Mai as a Character, this is the only appealing Character to me.

    Also disconnects are really annoying. IF you disconnect during a mission and reconnect like 1 second later all mission progess is lost. This is a problem since the original gw2 came out...    … Expand
  13. Jaunty
    Mar 14, 2022
    0
    Worst GW content to date, in 17 years. Unrecognizable development team, focusing more on inserting woke politics than creating an entertaining product. It is a failure on every level. This is the Last Jedi of Guild Wars. Let's just forget it ever existed.
  14. Zenriwk0
    Mar 30, 2022
    0
    Nice expansion if you are looking for story which will make you sleep and sick
  15. Generalgameman
    Apr 24, 2022
    2
    Fun, well made, half decent story.... but still no respec, if you are new and you mess up your build, enjoy hours of grinding!
  16. ThereIsNoSpoon
    Mar 3, 2022
    3
    Yikes! This expansion is a MESS. Where to begin? Artistically it looks and performs WAY worse than the 10-year-old base content. The graphics are hideous at times. CONSTANT crashes during missions that force you to have to replay them from the beginning. Shard issue that makes the world feel dead. New features that are either pointless or uninspired. The WORST elite specs yet.Yikes! This expansion is a MESS. Where to begin? Artistically it looks and performs WAY worse than the 10-year-old base content. The graphics are hideous at times. CONSTANT crashes during missions that force you to have to replay them from the beginning. Shard issue that makes the world feel dead. New features that are either pointless or uninspired. The WORST elite specs yet. Story is a joke, recycling old enemy ideas. I could go on and on. It's very clear the original devs are long gone, and whoever's in charge now has no idea what the original vision of GW2 was, or can even make a competent product. Do not support this low effort cash grab!… Expand
  17. Antorin
    Mar 3, 2022
    0
    I've been with this company since GW1 and I'm here to tell you not to give them any money, ever again. I certainly won't. EoD deserves a negative score, and I mean below 0.

    STORY - Unenjoyable woke dumpsterfire that completely goes against the spirit of the original Let's address the elephant in the room first. The writers just can't keep their political views to themselves and feel    I've been with this company since GW1 and I'm here to tell you not to give them any money, ever again. I certainly won't. EoD deserves a negative score, and I mean below 0.

    STORY - Unenjoyable woke dumpsterfire that completely goes against the spirit of the original

    Let's address the elephant in the room first. The writers just can't keep their political views to themselves and feel the need to indoctrinate the playerbase every chance they get. I used to care about the lore deeply, but by now I'm alt tabbing when people are talking or cutscenes are playing because all the woke pandering and virtue signalling they are shoving down our throats has reached an unbearable level. End of Dragons makes Santa Inc. and Captain Marvel look well written and thought provoking.

    It's written by people who don't care about GW, don't care about the playerbase, only themselves. A bunch of narcissists who will use GW2 to springboard into bigger titles by showing that they're woke enough and oh, they sure are. They let us know every 2 seconds.

    It was an unenjoybale grind I would not wish upon my worst enemy. 0/10 is generous. There is no real story, only a juvenile socjus narrative you're being spoonfed. And you're forced to sit through it to unlock major expansion featues.

    There are even events and hearts (quests) you can't progress unless you answer ideological questions the ways the devs see fit. It's THAT shameless.

    GAMEPLAY: even EoD defenders would admit the new specializataions for most classes are clunky, unfun, and undertuned. Next to nothing has changed since the Beta events. Feedback was ignored. No fun to be had. On release day they nerfed old builds to force people to buy EoD but even that wasn't enough, they just suck that much.

    FEATURES: skiffs are just worse skimmers. Fishing is a frustrating minigame, not relaxing or fun. Siege Turtle is only fun for 2 minutes, and only for the player manning the turret. The turtle is useless but hey, gotta sell you some store skins! Other features are not even worth penning down.

    CONTENT: so you've slogged through the preachy, woke, sanctimonious virtue sgnalling chore of a "story". What is there to do? 1 meta event on the last map and 4 strikes that were cleared on the first day. Maps are empty, game is already having population issues. It's an AFK simulator.

    And there is absolutely NOTHING to do outside open world and 4 repurposed story bosses. PvP, WvW, every bit of instanced endgame content is gone and forgotten now.

    ZONES: they butchered all of the GW1 zones. It was depressing not nostalgic to be back in "Cantha". As if we needed more reasons to feel alienated by a company that hates its audience and only cares about patting themselves on the back for being progressive. I guess doing justice to what came before is not progressive, destroying it is.

    It's not the 30$ I want to get a refund on, I want my time back. All the years i invested into caring about this, because ArenaNet sure doesn't care about anything but their political views. Soulless corporate cashgrab

    Just another company that strives to alienate its own fanbase. I can say from the bottom of my heart, they at least did a good job of that. RIP GW, rot in hell ANet.    … Expand
  18. OhLawdHeComin
    Mar 10, 2022
    0
    I love Guild Wars!

    .......................................

    What's this?
  19. Arkevorkhat
    Jul 13, 2023
    1
    Story: 2/10. Generally uninspired and formulaic. This section only earns points because the community isn't full of mouthbreathers who will scream at you if you skip the cutscenes (looking at you, FF14.)
    Gameplay: 1/10. Some of the new elite specs are fine, most of them are useless, or pidgeonhole you into a specific build that doesn't synergize with the rest of your profession's kit.    Story: 2/10. Generally uninspired and formulaic. This section only earns points because the community isn't full of mouthbreathers who will scream at you if you skip the cutscenes (looking at you, FF14.)
    Gameplay: 1/10. Some of the new elite specs are fine, most of them are useless, or pidgeonhole you into a specific build that doesn't synergize with the rest of your profession's kit.
    Maps: 0/10 They've somehow made maps that are difficult to navigate *and* boring to look at. At least Heart of Thorns' maps were interesting to try and work around.
    Difficulty: 10/10 (lower is better). It's super fun getting deleted in the overworld, with a completed elite spec and head to toe exotic gear. I'm super happy with the fact that the equipment I spent 50+ gold on isn't even enough to let me survive 4 basic enemies at once.    … Expand
  20. VectorManuel
    Aug 14, 2023
    3
    This is bad, real bad.
    **Cons:
    * Story - It became so bad, why does the commander (saviour of the world) who is an foreigner in a new land has to deal with their politics? Why is there even an emphasis on it? Especially when their dragon (which their tech is based on) is in the brink of dying? It wasn't as immersive as it was before. * Script - Worse, felt like a teenager has written    This is bad, real bad.
    **Cons:
    * Story - It became so bad, why does the commander (saviour of the world) who is an foreigner in a new land has to deal with their politics? Why is there even an emphasis on it? Especially when their dragon (which their tech is based on) is in the brink of dying? It wasn't as immersive as it was before.
    * Script - Worse, felt like a teenager has written it. It seems they forgot who the commander is and what they stand for.
    * Plot - I want to mention this separately, they could've done a better job in showing the end of dragons, Zhaitan had a better end than the water dragon.
    * Features - It was fairly obvious that there isn't much new features that can be implemented, the new expansion didn't bring any QoL features, just a glorified revive orb.
    1. - Fishing - Another source of resources, great for first few reels, then it just seems like an achievement driven task.
    2. - Skiff - Slower than skimmer, good when paired with fishing.
    3. - Turtle - Combat mount, good if you have a friend, bad if you play solo.
    4. - Jade Bots - Not a great addition, would be useful if it has drone features in future.
    * Politics - Why? Just why?

    Pros:
    * Maps - I liked it, except for the colour saturation
    * Music - Good
    * Elite Specs - broken, but enjoyable.
    * Foes - I finally have foes who are not weak anymore, annoying as it maybe, it was a nice touch.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

66
#66 Best PC Game of 2022
49
#49 Most Discussed PC Game of 2022

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
81

Generally favorable reviews - based on 12 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 12
  3. Negative: 0 out of 12
  1. RPG Fan
    May 16, 2022
    80
    Unlike other Guild Wars 2 expansions, End of Dragons doesn’t have one big feature to hang its hat on. Instead, it offers several smaller features and the game’s most enjoyable campaign yet. Factor in beautiful new maps and challenging but engaging late-game bosses, and there’s plenty of content for Guild Wars 2 fans to come back to.
    Read full review
  2. Meristation
    Apr 14, 2022
    75
    An expansion with lights and shadows but interesting for Guild Wars 2 players nonetheless. Too much time waiting for a content that looks hurried at some points.
    Read full review
  3. PC Gamer
    Apr 4, 2022
    81
    A worthy send-off to Guild Wars 2's Elder Dragon saga, and a reason to be optimistic about the future of the game.
    Read full review
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