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. Shadamehr
    May 22, 2022
    6
    The downsides:
    *The game is showing signs of budget and dev cutbacks.
    *4 maps compared to the previous expansion's 5 *No sign of Living World 6 in sight, with the previous expansion Living World 4 dropped in just two months after the expansion's release (Sep 22nd 2017 - Nov 28th 2017). Instead we have repeat content for new players and those who have never played Living World 1. And    The downsides:
    *The game is showing signs of budget and dev cutbacks.
    *4 maps compared to the previous expansion's 5
    *No sign of Living World 6 in sight, with the previous expansion Living World 4 dropped in just two months after the expansion's release (Sep 22nd 2017 - Nov 28th 2017). Instead we have repeat content for new players and those who have never played Living World 1. And challenge modes for the 10 man strikes.
    *Almost all drops are geared towards making legendary weapons, if thats not your thing ...
    *The 2nd map which is meant to be a bustling, busy city (think Bladerunner) seems deserted and empty with cut and paste mobs and repeatable quests, nothing at all like the loading screens. Where are all the citizens ?
    *One of the downsides to Guild Wars 2 is that if you've never played vanilla Guild Wars there will be a lot of names and lore that are totally lost on you (some of them mind blowing). The expansion is based in Cantha, an area from vanilla Guild Wars, the amount of hype before release was similar to that when Blizzard announced Warlods of Draenor: We're returning to Burning Crusade get excited !!!
    *The game went through a 10 month new content drought along with a truncated ending to Living World 5 just so they could all work on the expansion (with the latter they pulled devs off it and ordered the story to end).
    *Once you've obtained the item needed for your turtle mount there's zero incentive to do the meta on the last map. The meta is tough (which as a non raider I don't mind at all), but can fail, you can waste a full 2 hours for no reward. They've added a very rare infusion drop to encourage players to get involved however I've been playing for 6 years and have played map meta events hundreds of times without once ever seeing an infusion drop, let alone transformation potions, or since the start of 2021 the infusion from Khan-Ur. We're talking about a 1 in 10,000 drop rate. Playing the meta for a chance of a very rare infusion would be soul destroying. They need to add more drops, mount skins, pets, skiff and rod skins, transformation potions etc. Or have the map wide meta start from the actual boss fight.
    *There should be more gear collections.

    *On the plus side, its ***new content*** with some challenging story instanced boss fights if you're going for achievements.
    *It was a fun, enjoyable play through though again seemed short compared to the previous expansion.
    *I added an extra point for the epilogue, very well done.
    *There is no endless gear grind treadmill where all your gear becomes obsolete once every 3 months when new content drops. Your gear stays current, always. Which also means all previous expansion and Living World maps are current, there's absolutely no need or urgent hurry to jump into the latest expansion, if you're into story I would really advise against doing this.
    *Fishing is fun once you get into it, and insane if you go for the Cod Swimming Among Mere Minnows achievement (a pun title based on a vanilla Guild Wars title).    … Expand
  2. MoofiaBossVal
    Nov 5, 2022
    5
    EoD brings the least amount of new content and features of any GW2 expansion thus far. No new SPvP or WvW maps. No new raids or fractals. No new transformative PvE features like gliding or mounts. You're pretty much getting a glorified living world story pack with new elite specializations, and that's it.

    There are only 4 new PvE maps. Seitung Province looks okay. New Kaineng is a    EoD brings the least amount of new content and features of any GW2 expansion thus far. No new SPvP or WvW maps. No new raids or fractals. No new transformative PvE features like gliding or mounts. You're pretty much getting a glorified living world story pack with new elite specializations, and that's it.

    There are only 4 new PvE maps. Seitung Province looks okay. New Kaineng is a little cool but the futuristic cyberpunk aesthetic doesn't fit the franchise. Echovald Forest looks like a prototype HoT map. Dragon's End looks overall meh, and centers around a poorly designed meta event, though it does have a cool boss fight at the end. The level design isn't on the same level as HoT's map design. There are no adventures (minigames) packed into these maps like in HoT, or even races like in PoF's maps. There is no incentive to keep playing these maps once you get the hero points and mastery points.

    The music is unmemorable. There are a couple of nice ambient tracks that play in Seitung and New Kaineng, but I struggle to recall the rest of the soundtrack.

    The new elite specializations are a mixed bag. Many of them are thematically cool, but a lot of them are just mechanically broken. It has been 8 months since release and the Untamed still hasn't been fixed yet. Another problem is that the new EoD elite specializations are overtuned and have powercrept older elite specializations (let alone just playing a vanilla class with no elite spec). The EoD elite specializations are also underwhelming visually. The Untamed for instance has no animation on its new teleport ability, Unnatural Traversal, and has no new animations when equipping an Aurene Legendary (unlike every other class). The new Thief spec, Specter, wields a scepter but reuses axe animations, which looks odd. And so on.

    There are a few other miscellaneous issues. EoD maps are capped at 60 players. EoD maps are constantly closing, causing all progress on an event chain to be lost and you lose all of your built up fishing or bloodlust or Dragon's End stacks when switching instances. The ascended weapons for EoD elite specializations are gated behind fishing up rare fish that have incredibly low droprates. Spending two hours fishing for a stingray for your Untamed hammer only to never get it is very demoralizing.

    The story is very bad. It is 11 hours long but there is only 2 hours of cool adventuring: the setpiece with the airship fleet at the beginning, and then the final battle at the end. The 9 hours in between is spent standing around listening to the pathetic melodrama of unlikeable, narcissistic characters. Much of the dialogue is horrendously awful and not even the voice actors can salvage it. There is also a lot of swearing all of the sudden, not just in the story but also in outdoor events in EoD maps. Don't play EoD with your window or door open. It is hard to believe that the same people who wrote the vanilla game or HoT or even season 4 wrote the story and dialogue for this expansion. Narratively, End of Dragons is an unsatisfying conclusion to the game's storyline.

    I overall enjoyed EoD, but only just. I would only recommend it if you are playing GW2 and one of the elite specializations appeals to you, or if you really like GW2 and have played through all of the content up to EoD and just want a little bit more GW2 to play.    … Expand
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. vickykoi
    May 9, 2022
    5
    I've been playing since release. Taken many breaks in-between. I'll be honest, this expansion is pretty mediocre. The contrast is very high in the colors of the maps. I mean the maps are beautiful, but the colors are super bright. The story seemed great in theory with the Icebrood saga buildup. BUT then they brought back some enemies that were already resolved several years ago as the mainI've been playing since release. Taken many breaks in-between. I'll be honest, this expansion is pretty mediocre. The contrast is very high in the colors of the maps. I mean the maps are beautiful, but the colors are super bright. The story seemed great in theory with the Icebrood saga buildup. BUT then they brought back some enemies that were already resolved several years ago as the main antagonists of this expansion. "Ankka" was just thrown into the dialogue out of nowhere to be the main antagonist because "she's so empty inside and wants to kill the gods and all higher powers".

    The "selling" features of this expansion were some iffy elite specs, a boat, and fishing. And you could already use the stingray to ride over water. So honestly i feel like this was 6 months of free release maps labeled as an expansion. Not worth 30$, infact i might even ask for a refund and wait till it goes on sale.    … Expand
  7. dabran
    Mar 2, 2022
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I've been playing this game for a long time (since launch, basically), and my feelings about this expansion are mixed at best.

    Story writing improved, though still has this trademark New Era GW2 Writing - villains are stupid and pretty one-dimensional, with Ankka being positively someone's deviantArt OC who feels "hollow inside", and that's supposed to be taken seriously. Unfortunately, I'm not 12 anymore to find something like that compelling. Yet again they do dispose of a character with interesting potential shortly after their redemption/progression or high note that could be a turning point - this time, literally killing her off instantly. Would've been fine if they haven't done it several times with Demmi, Blish, etc. Dragonvoid is both basic and lazy in execution as a main threat - recolors of previously-encountered enemies, all in all. Still, it must be noted that character writing has improved tremendously, especially since such shining stars as Braham aren't nowhere to be seen. Yes, this fact alone would sell this DLC to somebody, I know. Stakes of the threat are so overblown I'm not sure we'll ever top them anymore, which just makes it seem like a checkbox thing by now. Overall, mixed opinion on it - usual Anet writing shortcoming are there, but I did find myself not hating characters this time, and we did get a lot of Canthan cast being actually relevant, which did not happen with Elona.

    Map design is a hit or miss, but mostly miss. Color palettes are bad, shader work is underpolished, you can clock a TON of overused assets (they made a bunch of window blocks and built a huge, inconvenient city out of them - you can't really unsee the repetition in designs once you catch it), and generally a look more in line with amateurish maps in Second Life. Trees glow in the dark in neon pink still, and I play with maxed everything, and yes, my drivers are up to date, and no, it's not a DX11 bug (by the way, maps are prone to those more than usual, because they're oversized for no real reason and game chugs chugs chugs trying to keep up). What's original - separate architecture and seldom attention to detail - is good, but I honestly find myself disappointed by how... cheap the big city feels. Like something you'd build in Minecraft with Worldedit on, if you're catching my drift, and wouldn't know when to either stop or add something else. Final map should be considered visual terrorism.

    New skins are pretty good, and include some casual clothing options for all armor classes, so art department isn't really slacking off - I fully expect to find out that this was the result of time constraints. Overall, let's just call visual design subjective - I tried to supply my points with some reason, but there's plenty of people who find overly loud colors everywhere appealing and enchanting.

    Gameplay - New strikes are okay, but not /great/. Distinct lack of rewards tied to them is felt right off the bat with just a new set of ascended weapons boasting unique skins. Nothing impressive. These strikes also could use a little bit more prelude with some running up to the boss, but nope - they just dump you into the middle of the arena and you walk into a circle to start the fight.

    Metas - no idea, map matchmaking was broken and seems to not be good still, which I found quite bumming for an expac launch and thus I'm noting it. From what I've seen, final meta involves some raid boss mechanics, and general open world crowd happily failed them repeatedly while not dealing enough DPS. Probably a scaling issue, but also a bit mean to throw raid mechs such as Largos bubbles at poor openworlders, but they probably need it.

    Elite specs (aka subclasses)

    This time around, these mostly suck. Most of them lack anything creative about them, are either overly simplistic or just shallow. They're obviously underdeveloped, judging by how not all trait interactions with core get explained in tooltips on multiple classes, how little have changed since last beta (and we had quite enough time to get them into something better), how they introduce little to none new character animations and reuse the rest heavily (new FX is there, but actual animations are very lacking), and most of player feedback regarding all of them got discarded as per usual. On top of that, balance team also did some strange balancing decisions to "make space for new elite specs", which includes heavy-handed bandaid nerfs to things that either weren't at all a problem, or were just... in the way?.. for new niches for those elite specs, which to me personally is quite tiring by now. I really want the balance team to do/try/perform better, yet it'd seem they're doing balancing decisions based on Reddit complaints, some mysterious private discords, and a roll of dice. They did promise a bigger balance update later on.

    Grain of salt as usual, but ultimately it's a good thing expac happened at all.    … Expand
  8. 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
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. 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
  12. 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
  13. 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
  14. 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
  15. 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
  16. 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
  17. Ormster
    Mar 2, 2022
    9
    I think this is the best expansion pack Anet released for Gw2:

    1) The story is well written and is able to connect most of the past plot points in an elegant way, leading to a satisfyng conclusion for the dragon journey gw2 started 9 years ago. It introduces many new characters along the way that get likable very fast, thank also to the amazing voice acting that is able to give them a    I think this is the best expansion pack Anet released for Gw2:

    1) The story is well written and is able to connect most of the past plot points in an elegant way, leading to a satisfyng conclusion for the dragon journey gw2 started 9 years ago. It introduces many new characters along the way that get likable very fast, thank also to the amazing voice acting that is able to give them a distinct personality (both for good and evil characters).

    2) The maps aesthetic is just breathtaking. The art developers already demonstrated their ability in creating amazing maps with the previous 2 expansions, but this one takes the level one step further. Compared to the previous expacs where HoT was all jungle and PoF was all desert, EoD maps offer and unprecedented ambient variety, from a peaceful rural island, to a technological modern city, from a dark deep forest to an open frozen sea. Every view you take, everywhere you go is just eye candy that leaves you in awe.

    3) The meta events are fantastic. Similar to HoT meta events, most of them require coordination between players, and the bosses aren't just dps sponges but are able to fight back very significantly. Bosses mechanics are either completely new or take a page from the raids bosses book, meaning that even in open world players can have a taste of the challenges instanced endgame content is going to provide, allowing new players to learn in a more relaxed environment and making at the same time the open world bosses more engaging. Special mention to the final meta event (no spoilers) in the final map. I genuinely think that not only is the best meta event in all gw2, but one of the best gaming experiences i ever had in an MMO.

    4) EoD strike missions are an amazing addition to instanced content. These 4 new strike missions, check every box that make instanced content fun. They introduce a lot of mechanics that can't be cheesed with healer stacking, the fights are very clear in their telegraphs and very engaging, keeping the players always on their toes to perform mechanics correctly. Despite this, these strikes are also surprisingly approachable for new players because there aren't hard enrage timers if the dps is slow and the difficulty is tuned just right to not make them frustrating for inexperienced groups. At the time of this review a challenge mode version of these strikes is in program to be released shortly that should bump up the difficulty even further, and i can't wait to experience it myself after how good of an impression the normal mode left me with.

    5) The music is incredible. I'm no musician so i can't talk about it in a technical way, but i can tell you the feeling it leaves you with is just amazing. It's able to get you fully immersed to what is happening on screen, always, and i genuinely think is one of the best work the Anet music team ever did, putting to shame music from other MMOs and single player games.

    I'm non giving a 10/10 only because, at the moment of this review, the elite specializations from EoD, while very original in their ideas, are in my opinion a bit chaotic in their theme and functionality, making some of them not very satisfyng to play compared to their counterparts of the previous expansions.

    Overall End of Dragons is well worth it's price, and will give you a gaming experience you won't regret, i promise.    … Expand
  18. 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.
  19. JonJonz
    Mar 9, 2022
    5
    Of all the expansions for this game, EOD is mediocre.

    The good to excellent: * A few really fun new class specializations like the Engineer Mechanist * Lots of Hero Points with only a few protected by Champions * If you complete the story you get a teleport scroll to the new zones so you don't have to do the story for all your characters The bad: * Previously to access    Of all the expansions for this game, EOD is mediocre.

    The good to excellent:

    * A few really fun new class specializations like the Engineer Mechanist

    * Lots of Hero Points with only a few protected by Champions

    * If you complete the story you get a teleport scroll to the new zones so you don't have to do the story for all your characters

    The bad:

    * Previously to access new expansion zones the player only had to complete 1 or 2 solo story missions. This expansion require completing the entire long story chain, we are talking 10s of hours to go through. Do you want to play a MMORPG or single player RPG?

    * It's not the old scrub friendly GW2, Open world metas are tuned like raids now. If you don't have a Raid capable toon, your screwed.

    * The turtle mount that was heavily marketed as a reason to buy the expansion requires completing the Raid level difficult final map meta.

    * The previous two issues have divided the comminity and turned it toxic, the try-hards vs the casuals. The game has flipped from starting out as casual friendly buy with game modes on the side for try hards, to putting try hard first and abandoning casuals.

    * The new zones are mediocre.

    So if you are a try hard pro and you love story missions its a definite buy. If your the average scrub, unless you really can't live without one of the new specializations, wait till it's on sale or just stick to what you have now. If your new to the game, it's still a good value if you are a try hard buy, if not pass and stick with the base game including POF and HOT expansions.    … Expand
  20. Zenriwk0
    Mar 30, 2022
    0
    Nice expansion if you are looking for story which will make you sleep and sick
  21. 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!
  22. apotheotic
    Mar 2, 2022
    9
    End of dragons has delivered in a lot of ways, and failed in a few. The main takeaway is that they have set the foundations for more robust content releases in future, and some really stellar room for feature expansion.

    The story, soundtrack, and gameplay of the expansion is wonderful.
  23. bisshmal
    Mar 2, 2022
    5
    After being a huge GW fanboy over the past 2 decades and recently delving into other MMOs my expectations were really high for GW2EOD and after my playthrough my thoughts are quite mixed.

    Story ArenaNet have done a good job at providing a decent storytelling experience with this expansion. One of the games biggest strengths in my opinion is the amount and quality of voice acting...    After being a huge GW fanboy over the past 2 decades and recently delving into other MMOs my expectations were really high for GW2EOD and after my playthrough my thoughts are quite mixed.

    Story
    ArenaNet have done a good job at providing a decent storytelling experience with this expansion. One of the games biggest strengths in my opinion is the amount and quality of voice acting... although you will hear many NPC's having the same voice of key main characters (which is quite off putting). The story in EoD was quite short but overall good, it did feel somewhat rushed towards the end however. It's nothing stellar or comparable to FFXIV's writing but somewhat enjoyable none the less.

    Gameplay
    At release open world gameplay felt empty and events felt were over scaled. Most fetch/collect quests required me to run back and forth 10 times, taking over 10+mins, not sure who thought that was a fun idea but 10 times for a solo player?!
    Story encounters were definitely improved from their past content. They're definitely going more for a cinematic experience which is a lot more enjoyable imo.
    The Meta event's seem fun however the game runs terrible when many players are in the same area (which is most meta events). I played the last maps Meta and there were so many people my frame rate dropped below 20 and the amount of visual noise from other players just made what was supposed to be a cinematic experience just a cluster *** of ability spam. This is nothing new to the expansion though since Guild Wars 2 Meta event's have always been plagued by this. I think it would be awesome to experience this content through 10-man instances. I'm just not a fan of most meta events because of the zergy gameplay by nature, playing through that content doesn't make my effort feel valuable at all.

    Fishing
    It's been over 9 years since Guild Wars 2 added any new form of gathering system and fishing is definitely a nice addition which takes inspiration from the fishing mini-game in Stardew valley. It's not the best MMO fishing experience but it's a lot more interactive than most other titles. My biggest gripe however are is that it is tied to the mastery system meaning you level up fishing by killing things/partaking in events. I haven't really dived into much fishing in GW2 because never felt the need to. I'm sure there are some achievements associated with but I completed the fishing mastery track with less than 15 mins of actual fishing time.

    Skiffs
    A nice addition however at launch there was no keybind option for this?! Because of this I rarely used the thing and instead always used the skimmer. The only time I really needed to use it was for story missions where you're are required to do a bit of Ubering (which was quite enjoyable along taking in the environment and the dialogue).

    Siege turtles
    I was expecting a story mission or something where you use siege turtles however no siege turtles were used in the entire story of the expansion. The closest I got was an event where I could order adolescent turtles to fire their cannons.

    Jadebots
    They add a nice new mechanic to level design where you can essentially fly around as a drone and get into places you wouldn't be able to. I had two major problems: There were many instances where my character would keep running while I take control of the Jadebot, making some tasks quite annoying having to switch back and make my character stop. And the other issue was inconsistent key binds. My descend button was to the same as Dodge key although on my Skyscale and swimming to descend it's CTRL. And the game doesn't give you an option to change it without effecting your characters dodge as well.

    Environments
    The new maps are some of the best looking maps in Guild Wars 2 to date. However it is definitely showing it's age with the small and fog heavy view distance. The amount of pop-in of objects in the distance has never been so prominent. I can't imagine how it beautiful the game would look with an extended view distance comparable to FFXIV which has recently announced graphical/engine improvements.

    Music
    The music in EoD was good. Wasn't a huge fan of the normal combat music though, however the boss themes were definitely epic sounding. I've been spoilt by Masayoshi Soken's music in FFXIV to which is the only MMO I've played where I've been in parties where ppl will tell you in chat to crank music volume to max.

    Overall End of Dragons was a nice expansion leaving me wanting a lot more considering it's small package. It will be interesting to see how Arenanet continues with it's live service updates and hopefully with a clear vision and engine improvements they've promised the future of GW2 will be bright.    … Expand
  24. Vymlon
    Mar 3, 2022
    10
    Excellent map design, interesting events and meta events, putting the massively in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game with all possible multiplayer focused content. Better story beats than previous expansions.

    It's great and I am looking forward to what's coming next!
  25. beeforbacon
    Mar 2, 2022
    10
    Long time GW2 player, just finished the core EOD story, playing virtuoso and I have done some of the 10 man strikes last night. Overall 10/10 for me. Very interesting masteries to play with, fun zones to explore. The third zone in particular is jaw dropping. Lots of fun little easter eggs for old GW1 factions players, and a ton of stuff to do, collections, titles, etc. Great job, arena net!
  26. Discordant
    Mar 2, 2022
    10
    I've been playing since 2016, and this may be my favorite expansion yet in terms of story, aesthetic, and map design. The magic is back. While HoT gave us the mastery system and PoF gave us mounts, and while I admit the masteries in this expansion aren't as impactful as the previous two, it's just plain fun. Fishing on a skiff with my friends is awesome, the new elite specs are coolI've been playing since 2016, and this may be my favorite expansion yet in terms of story, aesthetic, and map design. The magic is back. While HoT gave us the mastery system and PoF gave us mounts, and while I admit the masteries in this expansion aren't as impactful as the previous two, it's just plain fun. Fishing on a skiff with my friends is awesome, the new elite specs are cool (though not standout), and the new maps are genuinely the best we've ever seen. New Kaineng is my favorite map in the entire game, now, and it feels alive in a way no other city in the game's history has.… Expand
  27. Gulfak
    Mar 3, 2022
    10
    Arenanet delivered what they promised. Nothing more nothing less. Game is now running considerably faster even on older graphic cards like AMD 7850 HD in 4K and on high/medium settings. The new content is yet to be fully discovered by me, but I'm looking into it. Specialization looks great and the feel of the game is better then ever. Lastly, as a working man I'm seriously thankful, thatArenanet delivered what they promised. Nothing more nothing less. Game is now running considerably faster even on older graphic cards like AMD 7850 HD in 4K and on high/medium settings. The new content is yet to be fully discovered by me, but I'm looking into it. Specialization looks great and the feel of the game is better then ever. Lastly, as a working man I'm seriously thankful, that this game does not evoke the FOMO feeling like other MMOs, where you need to farm hardly to be relevant. Thanks Anet for respecting my time.… Expand
  28. Endosk
    Mar 2, 2022
    10
    I've been playing GW2 on and off since 2018. Played through the whole content, including EoD already. It seems to me that ArenaNet finally got their sh*t together and have a clear idea of how to handle GW2 from now on. Exporting story missions to Strike Missions enables ArenaNet to streamline content drops and hopefully in a faster cadence. Also, the clear investment in GW2 with theI've been playing GW2 on and off since 2018. Played through the whole content, including EoD already. It seems to me that ArenaNet finally got their sh*t together and have a clear idea of how to handle GW2 from now on. Exporting story missions to Strike Missions enables ArenaNet to streamline content drops and hopefully in a faster cadence. Also, the clear investment in GW2 with the engine upgrade to DX11 and the implementation of Alliances in WvW shows that ArenaNet are betting on the longevity of this MMO.

    As for EoD, it is so f*cking good. Everything from story, soundtrack, voice acting, maps, new features (Jade bot, skiffs, fishing and turtle mount), PvE content (map events and Strike Missions) is on pair with the best in the MMO market.

    This expansion cements GW2 as one of the the best MMOs in the market, unfortunately a hidden underrated gem that has yet to find its place in the spotlight. Hopefully this game starts getting the attention it deserves.    … Expand
  29. 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
  30. tormentor19191
    Mar 2, 2022
    9
    High quality story presentation, brilliant voice acting. The Strike Missions are engaging and fun. The new maps are beautiful. End of dragons is a great expansion and worth the price!
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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.
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  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.
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  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.
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