Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

 PC
  • Publisher: NCSOFT
  • Release Date: Oct 23, 2015
User Score
7.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 981 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 670 out of 981
  2. Mixed: 72 out of 981
  3. Negative: 239 out of 981
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  1. Flimsa
    Nov 19, 2015
    0
    HoT is not worth the money. The expansion is focused around events that you as player have to repeat over and over in order to gain progress for your character. All events in all maps follow the same pattern, pre event leads to final boss event. HoT does not offer any options to gain character progress besides events. This make HoT linear with directed way to play the game. AdventuresHoT is not worth the money. The expansion is focused around events that you as player have to repeat over and over in order to gain progress for your character. All events in all maps follow the same pattern, pre event leads to final boss event. HoT does not offer any options to gain character progress besides events. This make HoT linear with directed way to play the game. Adventures turned out to be mini games that are unavailable most of the time. I guess that with challenging content developers are referring to players performance for pre event and final boss event to success.… Expand
  2. madmax21st
    Oct 27, 2015
    3
    Not worth $50 at all. Just a collection of Living Story contents that supposed to be free and got released all at the same time, became not free just so ANet can say it's an expansion.
  3. eval
    Nov 20, 2015
    3
    Heart of Thorns summed up in a sentence : "A torn in my side".

    Really a majority of content that was available prior to the expansion was either gutted, taken away or put behind a grind wall. You will spend countless hours in HoT grinding masteries to get the loot that should just be given out for your time anyways. Oh and the majority of the advertised content for the expansion that    Heart of Thorns summed up in a sentence : "A torn in my side".

    Really a majority of content that was available prior to the expansion was either gutted, taken away or put behind a grind wall. You will spend countless hours in HoT grinding masteries to get the loot that should just be given out for your time anyways. Oh and the majority of the advertised content for the expansion that we were lead on to believe it would be there release is still being added into the game and a lot of it we don't even know when, it will just be "soon".

    With that said I'll got over each mode briefly:

    PVP: Has an absolute imbalence right now. The new class reverant is just straight up overpowered and outright does every thing better than 2-3 classes. We all seen it coming with 400-500% buffs before launch. A few other classes got the same treatment. While others got straight up nerfs balancing them to the old bar. Also, without a doubt almost every single elite spec is straight up power creep compared to the base classes. There is almost no reason with exception of druid to not take your elite spec as it will bring more damage and utility. I honestly feel sorry for people that did not buy HoT and are playing base classes. On top of that we still don't have leagues. Ranked que is disabled and match making is still an absolute mess. Current balance is just kneejerk nerf into the ground what ever were complaining about today. I mean seriously, there could be nothing wrong with thief, someone will post thief is op on the fourms give no valid reasons and you could log in tomorrow to see nerfs no one asked for. PvP is really hard to enjoy right now.

    WvW: got a new borderlands map. Which is great except it was built as if you were supposed to be gliding everywhere and then they went oh that would be P2W so we wont include those. Generally on the new maps you'll spend countless hours walking around from place to place seeing no one as the maps are so vast. They also did nothing to sort out many of the issues of wvw. It's still a gold sink despite taking out upgrade costs, it still has night/workday time capping issues, it still has no meaningful rewards. If you play WvW it is solely for the enjoyment.

    PvE: HoT brough intresting new maps. The main issue with them is finding one that actually has people in it. A large majority of the time you will be waiting on these timed events and looking in the LFG tool to find other people. Most of the events go on for a long time! minimal 40mins-2 hours depending on the map. Classes are suffering here in being allowed into groups because of pvp kneejerk balance and a large majority of players refuse to play with certain classes. Lastly, anet have started to make changes that reward unskillful play and punish playing well. An example of this is the new adjustment to druid; which made building healing power to heal your allies less effective at healing than not taking any healing power.    … Expand
  4. Zulke
    Oct 26, 2015
    2
    You ask for end-game?You got it ! Grindfest and time sink awaits you! Gated traits/waypoints,paywall fractals and more.Dont forget mass crashes. Arenanet way, nothing more,nothing less.
    P.S From reddit with love
  5. TheGameQuotient
    Oct 25, 2015
    5
    It's become increasingly clear that ANet have lost touch with the original philosophy behind GW2. Heart of Thorns offers none of the heart and soul present in the base game, instead replacing it with grindy mechanics and gimmicks to sink players' time into rather shallow content.

    This isn't to say GW2: HoT is all bad, however. The level design is, as always, gorgeous, and they've    It's become increasingly clear that ANet have lost touch with the original philosophy behind GW2. Heart of Thorns offers none of the heart and soul present in the base game, instead replacing it with grindy mechanics and gimmicks to sink players' time into rather shallow content.

    This isn't to say GW2: HoT is all bad, however. The level design is, as always, gorgeous, and they've continued the painterly art style from the original game. The result are some very compelling visuals in the new game zones. However, the layout can make zones feel smaller than they are. There are no more wide-open spaces to roam, and zones sometimes feel claustrophic as a result.

    The visuals have been coupled with absolutely solid sound design. New skills and enemies look and sound fantastic, and the voice acting through the story is great as well. The score is absolutely wonderful. For this I'll give them credit: they certainly know how to make the game look appealing.

    The combat as well feels great. Enemies are more difficult, without lazily just upleveling and reskinning mobs as you'll find in most other MMOs. This requires greater skill on the part of the player to take down mobs, especially veteran and champion enemies. No more mindlessly pressing "1" until everything is dead. Heart of Thorns demands you understand your class and your build, and for this I commend the game designers.

    However, no amount of visuals or even smart mob design can hide the fact that core gameplay mechanics that made the base came so refreshing have been critically altered. Make no mistake: HoT feels nothing like vanilla GW2. The first instance you'll run into this new design choice is when you begin to experiment with your class's new elite specialization. You'll find that to fully unluck the spec line, you'll have to accrue a total of 400 "hero points" spread throughout the new zones. Hero points throughout Tyria work as well, but its the expansion points that you'll be scratching your head over. To unluck most hero challenges, in other words, to even approach the challenge, you'll need a corresponding "Mastery" skill. Mastery skills are the new way ArenaNet seems to have chosen to gate content, and its a rabbit hole I hope we don't go any further down.

    Mastery points essentially work to gate content via "hard gating" mechanics like walls, death traps, and otherwise locking areas of each zone in otherwise inaccessible locations. Mastery points work like old skill points, ie they appear on the map to be interacted with to acquire. However, many of these points are also gated behind other Mastery skills. The end result is that you'll be running around every map trying to pick up whichever mastery and hero points you are able, then grinding exp to level up new masteries. There are Mastery points in the beginning expansion zone, ones that you'll encounter almost immediately after stepping through the portal from Silverwastes that you'll initially have no idea what to do with. The whole experience feels rather poorly designed, and nowhere on the map is it explained what skills you need to reach which point. Ultimately it makes for an incredibly confusing and frustrating experience.

    These gating mechanics wouldn't even be so bad, had they been properly explained in-game, if it weren't for the massive exp grind involved. The Mastery system are essentially new levels, and you'll gain new mastery levels in order to allocate mastery points after leveling up in the traditional manner. However, the entire Maguuma Mastery tree requires a very large amount of exp which can't be gained anywhere else than in the expansion zones. With only four zones available you're going to find yourself repeating the same point defense or escort events over and over again. This is especially troublesome for story advancement, requiring long breaks of repetitive grinding between story instances. Ultimately it kills immersion and I can't help but feel the arbitrarily high exp requirement was simply ArenaNet's way of stretching out content.

    You'll also find that content is no longer fully soloable. Certain hero point challenges involve killing champion mobs with a time limit. Grouping does occur naturally in GW2, but its still frustrating to wait for a PUG to show up. Its also troubling thinking about leveling alts after the zones begin to empty of players. Full solo-ability was a great feature of the base game, so why remove it?

    All-in-all, GW2: HoT feels like a classic case of "if its not broken, don't fix it" where ArenaNet seems to have tried reinventing the wheel in an already successful game. The content gating feels out of place in a game that pioneered open world exploration and a "do whatever you want" gameplay style. It's not that Heart of Thorns is bad, its just that many of the design decisions they implemented don't seem to fit the base game, leaving a feeling that this expansion hasn't been an effective extension of the Guild Wars franchise.    … Expand
  6. digSerenity
    Oct 28, 2015
    0
    Not even a week before the nerf hammer hits and they cater to the people complaining about hard content after asking for it. Excellent job. Definitely better this way than to allow things to settle and for people to get used to playing with and against everything new.
  7. lIttle_shroomy
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    I'm giving HoT a preliminary 10 based on what I've seen so far, and will update the review in a few weeks once I have actually experienced more of the things included in this expansion.

    As someone who has played a lot of gw2 but had more or less stopped playing barring the living story updates I was looking forward to check out what was new in the expansion. I think anyone who    I'm giving HoT a preliminary 10 based on what I've seen so far, and will update the review in a few weeks once I have actually experienced more of the things included in this expansion.

    As someone who has played a lot of gw2 but had more or less stopped playing barring the living story updates I was looking forward to check out what was new in the expansion. I think anyone who enjoyed/enjoys the original guild wars 2 should enjoy this expansion.

    The new maps and aesthetics are beautiful and the overall feel/design seems very well thought out. There have been complaints regarding the new mastery system being used to increase the grind/gate the content, but it doesn't feel that way to me, it seems more that the mastery and elite spec systems just finally give me as a player something to aim towards in the game that has been missing since reaching lvl 80.

    With previous updates I would generally just burn through the content in a few hours and then that was it. I would put the game back on the shelf and wait until the next update. With this expansion I can choose to work towards specific mastery skills that will enable me to further explore/unlock different areas of the pve maps, and I'm happy about not being able to experience everything all at once. The maps actually feel as if they require exploring and contain secrets to be discovered which I am looking forward to doing!

    Anyway aside from the pve maps/story missions (very nice story missions so far) I still need to check out the new wvw borderlands, guild halls (seems like fun + gives our guild more of a purpose), raids and at some point level up a new revenant character! + loads more stuff I'm sure.

    So to sum it up, it seems this expansion contains a ridiculous amount of content/hours of entertainment for your money, and for now that's clearly worth 10/10!    … Expand
  8. emomartian
    Oct 25, 2015
    10
    Lots of new content, thrilling story - this is exactly what I was waiting for. I don't know why people are complaining about the gated content - all of the most important content is immediately available, and progression is account-wide.
  9. LandorGonlow
    Oct 26, 2015
    9
    Tons of new content, spectacular meta events!! Graphics and Sound are amazing. There is a low to like about the new expansion. The new specializations still need a bit of balancing but I am sure that will be worked out over the next few weeks. Leveling mastery seems a bit slow but also not horrible as many people are saying. I am actually glad that some content is "gated behind masteries"Tons of new content, spectacular meta events!! Graphics and Sound are amazing. There is a low to like about the new expansion. The new specializations still need a bit of balancing but I am sure that will be worked out over the next few weeks. Leveling mastery seems a bit slow but also not horrible as many people are saying. I am actually glad that some content is "gated behind masteries" otherwise unlocking these new abilities wouldn't seem very rewarding. The story is awesome tons of guild wars 1 throw backs and lots of exciting progression on the newest elder dragon. I highly recommend this game for new players as well as for existing. A few tweaks that need to be worked out but overall , an awesome job!… Expand
  10. Huddi
    Oct 29, 2015
    9
    Story: 10/10 - Great story that beats the one of the core game by far, especially in cutscenes.

    Open World: 10/10 - Beautiful and layered maps, including PvE, WvW and sPvP. New Profession Abilities: 9/10 - Main issue here is balancing, especially for Revenant (op to make people like). Accessibility: 9/10 - This score was reevaluated after ArenaNet listened to the voice of the    Story: 10/10 - Great story that beats the one of the core game by far, especially in cutscenes.

    Open World: 10/10 - Beautiful and layered maps, including PvE, WvW and sPvP.

    New Profession Abilities: 9/10 - Main issue here is balancing, especially for Revenant (op to make people like).

    Accessibility: 9/10 - This score was reevaluated after ArenaNet listened to the voice of the community, including my own one. Thank you. (Before the adaptations, it would have taken ages to unlock new specs for all professions)

    Repeatability of Content: 9/10 - This score was reevaluated. While I previously felt forced to repeat content, after ArenaNet's decision to make the story more accessible, it feels more like a free choice. I am strongly in favor of the changes.

    Server and bug management: 9/10 - There have been close to no downtimes. There were some bugs, but this is to be expected. One point was deducted for bugs in instances of the main story line, which led me to spend quite some hours achieving absolutely nothing.

    > My current evaluation: 9.3/10

    > All in all, this has been a great experience so far. The launch was very smooth from a technical perspective. In terms of philosophy, the expectations of the community and of the developers were not aligned. ArenaNet decided to listen to the feedback of the playerbase, for which I am very thankful. Whether you are a fan of large-scale or small-scale PvP, organized group content in PvE or simply a farmer or explorer - Heart of Thorns provides it.

    > Still to determine: New skins, raids, cash shop.    … Expand
  11. SpugNation
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    A brilliantly meaty expansion that sets the stage for Guild Wars 2 for years to come. Many of these "bad reviews" base things on the fact that there is a progression. People want rewards now without any gameplay, which would be poor design. Heart of Thorns has layers and layers of rewards and goals, and it can be played and enjoyed by everybody from solo casuals to hardcore achievement hunters.
  12. RayHawk
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    I've been absolutely blown away by this expansion in a wonderful way! My wife and I have been playing it together as much as possible since launch a few days ago and it's been some of the most fun I've ever had. So many new things and ways to progress without invalidating any of your existing progression is just awesome. Tons of new achievements, collections, and story -- it's everything II've been absolutely blown away by this expansion in a wonderful way! My wife and I have been playing it together as much as possible since launch a few days ago and it's been some of the most fun I've ever had. So many new things and ways to progress without invalidating any of your existing progression is just awesome. Tons of new achievements, collections, and story -- it's everything I was hoping for and more! Absolutely loving this game!… Expand
  13. Fharfanin
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    This expansion blew my mind! It is gorgeous! Maps are so beautiful and very fun to traverse, especially when you learn gliding, mushroom jumping etc I haven't had that much fun to just explore in ages :) Story is amazing and absolutely shocking, filled with fun challenges. I love the new difficulty of mobs, while they don't have huge amount of HP, they do hit hard! and new mechanics isThis expansion blew my mind! It is gorgeous! Maps are so beautiful and very fun to traverse, especially when you learn gliding, mushroom jumping etc I haven't had that much fun to just explore in ages :) Story is amazing and absolutely shocking, filled with fun challenges. I love the new difficulty of mobs, while they don't have huge amount of HP, they do hit hard! and new mechanics is very nice! Camera action mode proved to be th one thing i wished they added from the start, can't play without it!

    New specializations are so much fun as well, great animations, great feel to them. Some people expected to get them straight at the start, but it is unreasonable to expect to unlock elite spec on day one, however that was still possible for some vets. If you just play the game, then unlocking masteries and getting Hero Points comes naturally without feeling any repetition as there are a lot of different ways to get those.    … Expand
  14. Boterkoekje
    Oct 26, 2015
    9
    This expansion is the smoothest to launch, and extremely high in content. It's got a bit of grind yes.. BUT THATS FOR 1 CHARACTER. After that it's on all your characters. If you spread it there is nothing wrong with it. The map is huge, and a tad confusing. But that makes it new and not the same lineair maps we are used to.

    Hero Points are hard to get IF you make a total new char, but    This expansion is the smoothest to launch, and extremely high in content. It's got a bit of grind yes.. BUT THATS FOR 1 CHARACTER. After that it's on all your characters. If you spread it there is nothing wrong with it. The map is huge, and a tad confusing. But that makes it new and not the same lineair maps we are used to.

    Hero Points are hard to get IF you make a total new char, but should you have it all on day 1? If you just play this game for 24 hours you will most likely have unlocked 80%+ of your character and enough masteries to keep you happy.

    ooh and did I mention, YOU CAN GLIDE. But not in Tyria sadly :(

    Finally this game is a bit more difficult, No more brainless zombies who attack but stay still.    … Expand
  15. Eric_tries
    Oct 26, 2015
    9
    Heart of Thorns is the first expansion for Guild Wars 2 and adds alot of new content in bulk with more to come over the next move.

    But is the new content any good? Yes , most certainly! The new maps, are beautifully crafted and engaging to run around in and to explore. And i am talking about jawdroppingly beautifull. The first time i entered "Auric Basin" at nightfall i was greeted by    Heart of Thorns is the first expansion for Guild Wars 2 and adds alot of new content in bulk with more to come over the next move.

    But is the new content any good? Yes , most certainly!
    The new maps, are beautifully crafted and engaging to run around in and to explore. And i am talking about jawdroppingly beautifull. The first time i entered "Auric Basin" at nightfall i was greeted by a swarm of fireflies floating between long vines and treebranches, which was truly enchanting and brought the need to explore up in me, just to find more of those locations.

    The new mastery system adds a new mentroidvania feel to it. Which give the player new goals and something to achieved after 80.

    The new Story Missions, while still having some issues at the point of this review, are enjoyable and deepen the bond to your character and his "posse". But roaming around in the jungle doesnt just make your fellow NPC posse more interesting, the jungle is full with new races and interesting creatures which makes the stay worthwhile and brings alot of enjoyment. Storywise i dont want to say too much, but the new overarching Story is intense and great, being rather grim at some places and showing you the despair of your troops makes you want to save this world from the new rising evil!

    And the new "Elite Specializations" and the new Class add alot to the Gameplay. New skillshots and buffs/debuffs combined with the new enemies in the jungle makes the combat so much more exciting and enjoying than it was before. If you are a fan of Guild Wars 2 or action MMOs in generell you will surly enjoy this.

    But whats bad?
    Some of the contet (such as skill challenges) is "hidden" behind masteries which take longer to acquire, while this wouldnt be to bad it is nowhere communicated when hovering over a skillpoint. So it sometimes happens that you embark on a journey to get to a skillpoint only to realise that there is nothing to earn. Which renders travelling there pretty much useless (werent it for the beautiful surroundings).

    Also the Elite Specializations require alot of Skillpoints to unlock (400). While i agree that its a little to much, i like the experience traveling through the jungle and slowly learning my new abilities and traits. Which makes finally earning your new Spec and Skin so much more of an achievement.

    So in conclusion, is it worth a try, is it a game for me? Yes it is, and well, i dont know. If you want to do everything as fast as possible and crawl through the content you might be wrong here, because getting the masteries and skill challenges might fell like a drag to you if you dont enjoy the surrounding world and gameplay. Guild Wars 2 is a game to sit down, relax and just to hop into a fantasy world and enjoy yourself while feeling that your journey is worth something. And that is truly wonderful.    … Expand
  16. VeyVey
    Oct 26, 2015
    5
    Positive:
    The new zones are beautiful. We are getting raids. Guild halls are already in the game as of right now. PvP will be expanded with more competitive leagues and prestige items that are PvP exclusive. Action combat mode is great.
    Negative: ANET officially abandonded dungeons a while ago, but now they finished them off completely, by nerfing rewards into the ground. No new    Positive:
    The new zones are beautiful. We are getting raids. Guild halls are already in the game as of right now. PvP will be expanded with more competitive leagues and prestige items that are PvP exclusive. Action combat mode is great.

    Negative:
    ANET officially abandonded dungeons a while ago, but now they finished them off completely, by nerfing rewards into the ground. No new fractals, just a couple of new instabilities for 51-100. Fractal rewards are even worse than before. Golden fractal skins (again) rely on RNG one way or the other. Ascended gear is more expensive, even though raids are adjusted to this gear tier, which makes playing different classes in high-end PvE a lot harder. Especially since gold income was nerfed across the board for anything except farming SW/DT and "playing the TP". Elite specializations require a siginificant amount of time to unlock and the journey is (subjective opinion) very tedious and underwhelming. It is just open world PvE, with the usual mindless zerging. Parts of the personal story are also locked behind certain mastery levels. For players like me, who hate anything that's not challenging and revolves around zerging, this makes both elite specializations and the personal story line very frustrating.

    Neutral:
    Story. It's an MMO so there's only so much you can expect in terms of storytelling. Legendary precursor quest lines are only marignally cheaper than buying the pre (at least right now).

    Bottom line:
    For players who usually avoid open world PvE and would like to spend most of their time in either dungeons/fractals or personal story instances and who enjoy playing several characters in high-end PvE this expansion is a slap in the face.    … Expand
  17. Mister_Loki
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    For me is it the absolute best designed MMO experience I ever had, in over 10 years of playing several Online Games. Arena Net has taken Guild Wars 2 to the next level and with HoT you have so much to do. You can explore the beautiful Maguuma-jungle in (for now) 4 new Maps with hundreds of events, you can go for the Elite Spec of your class, can start the legendary journey for yourFor me is it the absolute best designed MMO experience I ever had, in over 10 years of playing several Online Games. Arena Net has taken Guild Wars 2 to the next level and with HoT you have so much to do. You can explore the beautiful Maguuma-jungle in (for now) 4 new Maps with hundreds of events, you can go for the Elite Spec of your class, can start the legendary journey for your Precursor and so on, and so on.
    BUT you have to enjoy gaming and exploring - If you are a person who (why ever) want have all the content seen in one day, want have all new items on the first day, then you maybe should not play HoT (And not downvote it!)    … Expand
  18. procyonpaw
    Oct 26, 2015
    9
    I personally think this is a well-done expansion with a few blips. While the environments are pretty, the story is nice, and the enemies quite challenging (in a fun way), the elite specializations and skills needed to progress through the jungle are a bit too grindy to get. That being said, I highly recommend this to anybody wishing for a genuine challenge in the traditional MMO genre.
  19. quip7
    Oct 25, 2015
    10
    This expansion addresses so many issues that the game. The story is much improved over vanilla and the mobs in the open world actually have a pulse(ie they have a decent amount of challenge) which is a really good thing. The world is beautifully designed and the platforming elements are top notch and some of the best I've ever seen in video games.
  20. JellyFishcat
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    What can I say?.. This game is absolutely fantastic and it's first expansion just proved that again! Thank you Arena net for this great addition to Tyria. New maps really are something special, a work of art. Gliding through jungle is just .. something else, it feels so natural, they really nailed it here. I love the story and cut scenes are just out of this world - intricate, stunning,What can I say?.. This game is absolutely fantastic and it's first expansion just proved that again! Thank you Arena net for this great addition to Tyria. New maps really are something special, a work of art. Gliding through jungle is just .. something else, it feels so natural, they really nailed it here. I love the story and cut scenes are just out of this world - intricate, stunning, gorgeous!

    Love love love new dynamic events, a bit confusing at the start, but once you figured out what is what and what to do, then it is just exciting to do them, fills up my masteries pretty good, rarely even notice that i need to change to a new mastery :D

    Special thanks to Macleine Diemer and Lena Chappelle and everyone who worked on the sound team - music just adds that atmosphere of each zone fabulously!    … Expand
  21. BlueDraco
    Oct 25, 2015
    5
    Heart of Thorns is an antithesis of the core Guild Wars 2 experience.

    What you receive here is a hardcore package made for people who are on board with the concept of excessive grinding. A concept that was fed to the whole MMO community for years and was very successfully ignored by ArenaNet when they first released Guild Wars 2 vanilla. Instead of open, living, breathing spaces that    Heart of Thorns is an antithesis of the core Guild Wars 2 experience.

    What you receive here is a hardcore package made for people who are on board with the concept of excessive grinding. A concept that was fed to the whole MMO community for years and was very successfully ignored by ArenaNet when they first released Guild Wars 2 vanilla.

    Instead of open, living, breathing spaces that could be explored from any angle you wanted and missions you could do in any order but accessible to you at any time you desired - you receive a narrow grindfest that holds your hand and limits your options. Maybe even worse, it limits your imagination by constantly placing in front of you signs that tell you what you cannot do, instead of what you are able to. Gone are the days of being rewarded generously for any activity you chose to participate in and showering you with options of activities. Now you have a set list of tasks that will lead you to another set of tasks.

    Locking new subclasses (elite specialisations) behind any kind of grind is a tip of the iceberg that foretells what the rest of the content looks like. Even when you agree to spend your time on unlocking such a base functionality of the game, by the time you will gain access to those subclasses, you will clear the new zones. A couple of times.

    Looking at the whole package from a distance makes me wonder how many new and fresh things do players actually gain access to by purchasing the expansion. Some features were specifically created for players able to invest huge amounts of time into them (raids). Some were designed to be unlocked over time as a sort of longterm account progression (mastery system). With only the new class (Revenant) accessible without any additional hooks, most of the content looks like an excessive time sink created to hide an overall lack of original or engaging features.    … Expand
  22. Havanahbana
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    Gorgeous. Really just gorgeous. So different from the 'pick up quest, hand in' linear style. And what a world. Such detail. I could take screenshots and hang them up all over my house. Just wow. And polished. Streamline, professional and without hick ups after launch. Amazing.
  23. Artarion
    Oct 26, 2015
    9
    A fantastic expansion to Guild Wars 2. I've been playing it for hours and honestly cant find many faults, the story is engaging, the combat has been given a much needed bump (along with mob AI), and adding new ways to transverse the maps has added a new breath of fresh air to the game (screw mounts).

    I cant help but partly agree which some of the lower scoring reviews concerning the    A fantastic expansion to Guild Wars 2. I've been playing it for hours and honestly cant find many faults, the story is engaging, the combat has been given a much needed bump (along with mob AI), and adding new ways to transverse the maps has added a new breath of fresh air to the game (screw mounts).

    I cant help but partly agree which some of the lower scoring reviews concerning the gated access to the new Elite Spec and some parts of the expansion, as a casual player who has very little time to play the game I can see how this could be off-putting. However as the Mastery system is account bound which means it affects all your characters, also whats the problem with challenging group content?

    I don't think I've had this much fun with my friend (yes only two in a party and we're managing the content fine) during a release of an MMO to date.    … Expand
  24. Cjcrew
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    This is fairly simple,They give us new content we pay for it.,Just because you could get the Elite specializations from start in the beta weekends doesn't mean you won't have to "work" for them now that the expansion is out people need to stop whining about that and also for the people that thought 4 maps where too little i can say that atleast verdant brink alone is the size of 2This is fairly simple,They give us new content we pay for it.,Just because you could get the Elite specializations from start in the beta weekends doesn't mean you won't have to "work" for them now that the expansion is out people need to stop whining about that and also for the people that thought 4 maps where too little i can say that atleast verdant brink alone is the size of 2 queensdale with 3x times of content to go through.Nothing else i have to say the expansion is great and of course it has some flaws but it's anet's first expansion ... please people get your **** together and help make it better don't conspire to make bad reviews to get anet's attention on something very specific you personally don't like jesus christ.. just go and play the game enjoy it.Forget the "i need to get everything unlocked asap" mentality and just go and have fun! cya in the Maguuma Jungle.… Expand
  25. Lacus
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    Great smooth launch, new content has lots of things to do. Huge maps and fun enemies. This is new level 80 content and the difficulty scales accordingly. There is finally some real sense of danger when exploring the jungle with contested waypoints and stronger mobs. There is a solid sense of character progression with the elite specialization and overall progression with Mastery levels.Great smooth launch, new content has lots of things to do. Huge maps and fun enemies. This is new level 80 content and the difficulty scales accordingly. There is finally some real sense of danger when exploring the jungle with contested waypoints and stronger mobs. There is a solid sense of character progression with the elite specialization and overall progression with Mastery levels. Leveling your mastery does not feel like a grind at all, instead you get immersed by all the events and story going on in the new areas.
    The gliding mechanic is a real joy.
    The maps feel much denser and look gorgeous. The new quality of life features should not have come any later. The new class introduced in this expansion, the Revenant, plays smoothly and nice animations, full elite spec unlocked after 2 days of launch.
    Music playing in the new maps is done amazingly.

    For the complainers who find it too hard, Queensdale is still accessible using waypoints (may cost up to a few silver to teleport though).    … Expand
  26. Caleca
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    Lots of new content, huge new maps, a really nice new profession and finally a sense of progress over time. Mmos are all about character progress and as long the work to make my character better and better is fun, I wouldn't call it grind. From what I've seen until now, it seems it will be a lot of fun. Kids nowadays just wan everything instantly. I guess they would be happy if they couldLots of new content, huge new maps, a really nice new profession and finally a sense of progress over time. Mmos are all about character progress and as long the work to make my character better and better is fun, I wouldn't call it grind. From what I've seen until now, it seems it will be a lot of fun. Kids nowadays just wan everything instantly. I guess they would be happy if they could max every character in their account in one week. Another week after that they would be complaining they are bored because there is nothing else for them to do. Whiners gonna whine.… Expand
  27. Kyten
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    The content is amazing and beautiful. People tend to complain about a so called grind but it's really sad to see how people are unwilling to do little effort to get anything out of the game there are people who already unlocked 3 full specs withing days of release. For someone that plays gw2 for more than 2 years I have to say well done ANET you outdid yourselves.
  28. wapsky
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    The new zone are really beautiful and despite what everyone is saying the game has a good progression. The game itself is well optimized and have yet to see a major bug or non functionality of game mechanic.

    over all a good expansion and much needed content to an ever impressive game.
  29. Sharkfarts
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    Beautiful new content all around. Lots to do right off the bat and plenty to look forward to. Growing pains, yes, but those are inevitable with so much new and changed content.
  30. MaesterBest
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    Everything is exactly as good, or even better than i expected. People are complaining it is a grind, but that is becouse they don't know masteries are account bound. All the Hero Points locked behind masteries aren't locked for your alts.
  31. halycon
    Oct 25, 2015
    9
    Huge amounts of content added to every aspect of the game, the maps are huge and gliding around them just feels right. The new map metas have been tons of fun so far, this expansion has definitely breathed life into GW2.
  32. DanCan
    Oct 25, 2015
    10
    Im quite worried about what people consider to be grindy actually is.

    I play PvP in GW2, the PVE content so far Ive enjoyed, I have to work to get my specialisation and I feel rewarded in doing so. The mentality here is based on a hope that down voting with a real small minority will change things, which I find pretty sad. Theres free thinking and then theirs scare tactics. Be    Im quite worried about what people consider to be grindy actually is.

    I play PvP in GW2, the PVE content so far Ive enjoyed, I have to work to get my specialisation and I feel rewarded in doing so. The mentality here is based on a hope that down voting with a real small minority will change things, which I find pretty sad. Theres free thinking and then theirs scare tactics. Be constructive in feedback rather than down voting an expac that clearly doesn't deserve it. My reasons it doesnt? The elite specs are amazing thus far and balance patches to come thick and fast. The new class is great fun and viable already in the pvp scene. The pve maps are well designed and offer a lot for different players, the guild hall system is pretty dam awesome as well. Thanks. Jeb    … Expand
  33. BlazzBolt
    Oct 25, 2015
    10
    This expansion is amazing! There's so much to do, and it feels like I'll be able to keep enjoying the content for quite a while. The new zones feel great and have very interesting stories. The new masteries are fun to level up and it's really nice to see myself become more powerful over time as I complete the masteries.
  34. NathanRav
    Oct 25, 2015
    10
    This is an example of an expansion done right. A business model that is pleasing to the customers and provides the players with the type of content that we want. It would have been nice if it included build templates but they said that will come soon.
  35. turin
    Oct 28, 2015
    9
    People seem to keep confusing grind with time consuming. A grind is boring not because it takes time but because its repetitive.

    Heart of Thrones is not repetitive. It just time consuming and is challenging. Half of the progression is account wide thus you only have to do it once and its unlocked for all characters. This is the opposite of grinding. This is horizontal progression. Many    People seem to keep confusing grind with time consuming. A grind is boring not because it takes time but because its repetitive.

    Heart of Thrones is not repetitive. It just time consuming and is challenging. Half of the progression is account wide thus you only have to do it once and its unlocked for all characters. This is the opposite of grinding. This is horizontal progression. Many seem to have the mentality that because they paid for the expansion They also must have everything unlocked immediately. No guys you are actually supposed to play the game. That is the point in the first place.

    Other than that the maps, the story and event are brilliant. The only valid concern is the WvW part. The progression there does seem a bit slower than it should.

    EDIT even though the review stands Anet just nerfed a good deal of content. For me this is very disappointing and feels that the expansion loses a lot if its challenge and metroidvania feeling. Thus I have to lower my score to 7. Its still a great expansion and if you did not care about the challenge you will like it a lot. For me the enthusiasm plummeted but i an the minority it seems.    … Expand
  36. Dasor
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    The perfect expansion for Guild Wars 2. I was afraid at star for the lack of maps, but when i saw them and i started playing them i was blown away, the maps are awesome, big and they don't lack content.
    Also, there's an enormous amount of new features and a very large number of quality of life changes.
    The story so far is awesome, and listening to the player voice again, answeing on the    The perfect expansion for Guild Wars 2. I was afraid at star for the lack of maps, but when i saw them and i started playing them i was blown away, the maps are awesome, big and they don't lack content.
    Also, there's an enormous amount of new features and a very large number of quality of life changes.
    The story so far is awesome, and listening to the player voice again, answeing on the field is a very nice addition.
    This expansion is a must buy.    … Expand
  37. Sodapoppin
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    Amazing xpac.

    My friend bought it to me. I was kinda meh at firtst but damn i had the best fun in a while in a MMO.

    I xp'ed my first character to 80 and there is still so much to do. Combat is hella fun.
  38. Verthiss
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    This expansion feels amazing. I would never thought it will be that good, it dramatically changed my experience of the game. I didn't have much trust for ANet after the first season of living story, I had a little more after the second season, but expac exceeded all my expectations.
    Elite specs are great. New weapon, skills, traits and mechanic are more than enough to make me feel like    This expansion feels amazing. I would never thought it will be that good, it dramatically changed my experience of the game. I didn't have much trust for ANet after the first season of living story, I had a little more after the second season, but expac exceeded all my expectations.
    Elite specs are great. New weapon, skills, traits and mechanic are more than enough to make me feel like I'm playing something more than my regular profession. Earning new skill points is finally useful again, feels great too.

    Mastery system is freaking smart. It makes me feel like my characters become better and better, even if their level is still the same. I'm just a little bit afraid that Masteries are to easy to get, after 3 days of playing the game I earned most important Masteries already and I was just casually exploring maps and doing events, without trying to be efficent at all.

    New profession - Revenant is excellent. Since the day GW2 launched I wanted it to have Ritualist from GW1. Revenant is playing to the Rit idea, but better and even more ritualist-like than the original ritualist was :D

    New story is AMAZING. My largest disappoinment from the core game was personal story, which was boooooring, even for a lore junkie I am. On the other hand, story I've done in HoT so far was just brilliant - fast-paced, engaging, sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometimes just epic. I absolutely love it.

    I could complain about the quantity of content because we have only 4 maps, 2 guild halls and 1 large raid map (still locked for us as of today), but I it would be just unfair for several reasons:
    a) New maps are huge. Maybe we don't have a lot of new maps, but those are just vast, with multiple layers and a lot of stuff going on.
    b) New maps are DENSE. In the core game, sometimes you could run for 20 minutes, looking for any activity without a succes. Here, you don't have to look even for a minute, because they are events going on non stop, anywhere, anytime.
    c) For me, this expac isn't even about the content, it's about features. It's not more of the same GW2, it's entirely new experience. ANet developed new systems that made the game more fun, more exciting and EASILY EXPANDABLE. They created Mastery System, Elite Specs System, Guild System and so on - systems that they can easily build new things on from now on, faster and better than ever before.    … Expand
  39. HyruleanHyroe
    Oct 26, 2015
    9
    Very much enjoying the new content provided in this expansion. It's fun, it's immersive, there's loads to do, and it is gorgeous! High point is flying around on the new glider. It's truly a pleasure moving around so freely in such a breathtaking environment. New story and events are challenging and intriguing. Overall I'm more than happy with my purchase, and look forward to living storyVery much enjoying the new content provided in this expansion. It's fun, it's immersive, there's loads to do, and it is gorgeous! High point is flying around on the new glider. It's truly a pleasure moving around so freely in such a breathtaking environment. New story and events are challenging and intriguing. Overall I'm more than happy with my purchase, and look forward to living story content to come!… Expand
  40. Leahkell
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    The expansion took risks by making changes to game play, and I am truly enjoying the challenge. The new zones, including the WvW borderlands, are gorgeous and an explorer's paradise. The story drew me in more than ever before and I am honestly looking forward to the journey.
  41. Ikoh
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    The expansion most people were waiting for : story most interesting and engaging, challenging content, feeling of progression, lots of things to do, new version of classes, gorgeous maps, awsome music,... I've doubted ANet in the past mais they managed to impress me far beyond my expectations. Congratulations and have fun everyone!
  42. rezaiga
    Oct 27, 2015
    3
    This expansion isn't casual friendly so if you consider yourself to be one, better wait till they change things.

    The new world is so huge and amazingly beautiful but it stops there. 4th day after expansion and maps feels empty, it's a big problem because the difficulty in the new map is sooo much higher than old content and without other ppl around to help with events, it's almost    This expansion isn't casual friendly so if you consider yourself to be one, better wait till they change things.

    The new world is so huge and amazingly beautiful but it stops there. 4th day after expansion and maps feels empty, it's a big problem because the difficulty in the new map is sooo much higher than old content and without other ppl around to help with events, it's almost likely that you're gonna fail the event.

    Anet decision to upped difficulty with no downscale on events is like a middle finger to casual players.    … Expand
  43. Cneertse
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    An expansion with no downtime? Is this even real?! Yes! Guild Wars 2 Heart of Thorns launched at Midnight Pacific on October 23rd with suave. As the countdown ticked to the buzzer where ArenaNet employees awaited the respose of adoring fans and a show of all thier hardwork. I instantly patched and got in game to experience the magnificence that is the jungle and the art teams beautifulAn expansion with no downtime? Is this even real?! Yes! Guild Wars 2 Heart of Thorns launched at Midnight Pacific on October 23rd with suave. As the countdown ticked to the buzzer where ArenaNet employees awaited the respose of adoring fans and a show of all thier hardwork. I instantly patched and got in game to experience the magnificence that is the jungle and the art teams beautiful masterpiece. No lag, and virtually no bugs accompanied my playtime. Over the weekend, I must have spent 20 hours with my eyeballs glued to my computer monitor. The feeling you got at vanilla launch when there was a world to be explored and nothing to stand in your way, that is exactly the feeling many players had. Speaking of obstacles standing in players way, there was a hinderance and one that I can understand many PvP and WvW players will understand is the necessity to accumulate a little progression called Hero Points to unlock Class Elite Specializations. Due to the masteries gating content, non-pve players found this to be grindy and frankly boring. However, from a PvE player perspective, I can tell you this was an amazing experience to be had collecting achievements, masteries, and jungle secrets alike! I can't wait to jump back in!… Expand
  44. rockerchu
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    A lot of the gripes I've been hearing have been that the new mastery/specialization/levelling content is too grindy/too difficult. I think those people have forgotten how much they were clambering for "challenging content." In an MMO, making challenging content either requires a ton of group work, puzzles that are difficult enough to stump people, or creating a certain type of grind. ItA lot of the gripes I've been hearing have been that the new mastery/specialization/levelling content is too grindy/too difficult. I think those people have forgotten how much they were clambering for "challenging content." In an MMO, making challenging content either requires a ton of group work, puzzles that are difficult enough to stump people, or creating a certain type of grind. It honestly doesn't take me a lot to have fun with a game like Guild Wars 2, and this expansion delivers. A lot of what ArenaNet has shown in the xpac I haven't seen in other MMOs, so I applaud the innovation and care they've put into the game. There has been some criticism Anet doesn't care what the players want, and I think this expansion fully contradicts that.… Expand
  45. Heimlich
    Nov 11, 2015
    7
    Update concerning WvW in GW2:Heart of Thorns

    My original review of GW2:HoT was mostly about the new features that were included. A few more weeks experience have revealed some severe flaws in the form of what is not included. 1. WvW is now an unholy mess. Existing features have been made far less accessible than they were. New features for WvW players are effectively unavailable due    Update concerning WvW in GW2:Heart of Thorns

    My original review of GW2:HoT was mostly about the new features that were included. A few more weeks experience have revealed some severe flaws in the form of what is not included.

    1. WvW is now an unholy mess. Existing features have been made far less accessible than they were. New features for WvW players are effectively unavailable due to cost and bugs. The game developer does not seem to understand how bad WvW is. It is very bad. If you used to WvW and took a break, do not come back right now.

    2. Legendary Armor is not in the game yet and will not be accessible until at least after ArenaNet introduces the first 3 wings of their first raid.

    Open-world PvE is still pretty good, but major problems in WvW and an uncertain timeline for the availability of new Legendary equipment detract from the experience.

    Original review (score 9) below:
    Heart of Thorns adds a good amount of area to explore, a new class, new specializations on each of the 9 classes.

    Many of the changes revitalize existing content (Fractals are radically improved and WvW finally has a new map). Guild Halls and improved missions are a worthy addition to focus a group on playing together.

    The new content has launched with relatively few bugs and I'm overall impressed. New options for armor and weapons (both in appearance and in attributes) are a welcome addition.

    Much of the new content does require some playtime to access, either from experience levels, in-game-wealth, or prerequisite activities, but the cost is not excessive.

    In a month players will have discovered optimal routes to access content and veteran players will be able to guide new players who need some extra help. I didn't expect to be able to complete the entire expansion on the first day. I don't know why people seem to have expected that.    … Expand
  46. Slaneth
    Oct 26, 2015
    9
    Honest review, wish i could give it a 10 to further balance all these blatant lies being told by people but i do not want to lie like they do.

    The zone art and design is amazing, the progression is new and never done before in MMOs. There are countless of new events added to the zones, and this is from someone who has not touched the 3rd of 4th zone. Everyone who is complaining about    Honest review, wish i could give it a 10 to further balance all these blatant lies being told by people but i do not want to lie like they do.

    The zone art and design is amazing, the progression is new and never done before in MMOs. There are countless of new events added to the zones, and this is from someone who has not touched the 3rd of 4th zone.

    Everyone who is complaining about grind would be the same people who would complain about lack of content if there was nothing to make them stick around and do the events, such as mastery points and hero points. Since when is grind playing the game, you are not repeating the same thing over and over, you have PLENTY of choice on how to spend your time and advance.

    Do different events, stop repeating the same ones over and over, hero points give good xp too(and you do not need masteries to unlock your elite spec, follow one of the newly released guides if you cant do it yourself, more than plenty of hero points to go around)
    Participate and compete in adventures, they are a LOT of fun and give you plenty of xp.

    To make matters even funnier is that all you need to unlock 90% of the hero points is gliding, updraft gliding and scroom jumping. Those take about an hour or two of playing, that is it.

    So how is this grindy? How is this expansion getting 1/10 for being grindy when it damn well is not?!

    The expansion also has an amazing storyline, new pvp content and new abilities for all classes(that contrary to the forum and this review site, is quite easy to unlock. Especially if you follow duflys guides now..)    … Expand
  47. Lunar101
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    Fantastic game. I see the '1' there from Rotondoman and read the comments and it's just worth a giggle. These are the people that go to the Grand Canyon with plasters over their eyes and complain that there's nothing to see. One doesn't even need imagination as the world is so breathtakingly beautiful. Extracts like 'boring' and 'unimaginative' make me think this person was paid to putFantastic game. I see the '1' there from Rotondoman and read the comments and it's just worth a giggle. These are the people that go to the Grand Canyon with plasters over their eyes and complain that there's nothing to see. One doesn't even need imagination as the world is so breathtakingly beautiful. Extracts like 'boring' and 'unimaginative' make me think this person was paid to put a review, as not even autism or Aspergers can account for this type of cognitive dysfunction. Events and such are amazing fun. It's not the usual structure...so ask people or do some research. The play style and event system may not be your thing, but anyone with eyes in their head and of sound mind can see this game just really is stunning.… Expand
  48. rehpc
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    Really amazing expansion to the open world content. The new events are fun and encourage map-wide cooperation. Wandering the world searching for mastery/hero points is really fun, especially in the maps with lots over overlap and verticality. The new elite specs are loads of fun, and the horizontal progression system (gliding, bouncing, etc) makes movement its own enjoyable piece of theReally amazing expansion to the open world content. The new events are fun and encourage map-wide cooperation. Wandering the world searching for mastery/hero points is really fun, especially in the maps with lots over overlap and verticality. The new elite specs are loads of fun, and the horizontal progression system (gliding, bouncing, etc) makes movement its own enjoyable piece of the content.… Expand
  49. Morbidlight
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    It is amazing how fickle people can be. One of the biggest 'gripes' about Guild Wars 2 was the lack of end game content. Heart of Thorns makes that statement even more of a fallacy as it is loaded with so much content. I have played the Guild Wars franchise since Prophecies and all I can say is this expansion is another welcome addition, in terms of challenging content. I want a game thatIt is amazing how fickle people can be. One of the biggest 'gripes' about Guild Wars 2 was the lack of end game content. Heart of Thorns makes that statement even more of a fallacy as it is loaded with so much content. I have played the Guild Wars franchise since Prophecies and all I can say is this expansion is another welcome addition, in terms of challenging content. I want a game that can reward me for my the amount of time and energy I put into it, all the while having an enjoyable and memorable experience. So far this is exactly what I am getting and am loving every minute of it. Immersive new environments, compelling story, believable characters and long term character progression are just a few of the things that stand out and I have only just scratched the surface and I cannot wait to get home today to continue this epic journey.

    The people writing negative reviews are just casualties of a society where instant gratification has become the norm. What they don't even realize is that Guild Wars 2 had plenty grinding, it is just that Anet were smart enough to reinvent the wheel per se and implement it slightly differently and market it correctly. Heart of Thorns works off the same formula, except it is slightly more obvious now that to achieve, you need to put in the effort. Its a give and take relationship, but a loving and rewarding one at that.    … Expand
  50. Blucky87
    Oct 25, 2015
    10
    I recently restarted playing after about 2 years and the exp pack areas provide a lot of fun but I wish the way you get hero points and mastery levels in the new expansion were reversed,
  51. Swoo
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    The hew zone design is amazing. If you are an explorer you will love it. It starts a bit slow for the first couple of hours as you unlock gliding and mushroom mastery, but then it is a blast.
  52. SonicShadow
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    Excellent expansion. ANet shows how it should be done. Free yourselves of the gear treadmill and round robin loot rolls! Horizontal progression takes a little adapting to for those used to a tradtional grindfest, but it works.
  53. monzese
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    It's a fantastic expansion with tons of hard and large new areas to explore each with many interesting new event,quests, collectibles, puzzles, story... ecc
    Graphic and sound are simply awesome, so great that sometimes I forget it's an MMO.
    Adventuring through the jungle is a truly memorable endeavor. Almost all of the negative review are for Hero points . Yes they're quite hard to    It's a fantastic expansion with tons of hard and large new areas to explore each with many interesting new event,quests, collectibles, puzzles, story... ecc
    Graphic and sound are simply awesome, so great that sometimes I forget it's an MMO.
    Adventuring through the jungle is a truly memorable endeavor.
    Almost all of the negative review are for Hero points .
    Yes they're quite hard to get, but ask yourself : do you really like a game where you get all in 2-3 days ?
    No thanks.
    GW2 still remains the best mmo atm.    … Expand
  54. keirion
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    Absolutely amazing. Pretty much the most polished expansion I've ever seen for a game. Almost no bugs, very well put together, and lots to do! I highly recommend for anyone who enjoys GW2. The new maps are absolutely huge and after 10 hours I've barely scratched the surface of the new content. This will definitely keep me busy for weeks.
  55. Bagie
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    Even if ithink it need improving, not-so-smart ppl using score to get theyr way needs to stop. And this 10/10 is to help that at leats in a small way. Go ANET
  56. nanananana
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    While there's some things to work out for Anet, the game is literally the most fun I've had with an mmo in so many years. In a game with no subscription fee. That I got for 33 euro. I mean, come on man. What is up with these negative reviews. Sure, whenever there's a problem you need time to work it out. It's like that with all expansions and game releases. The expansion is tons of fun.While there's some things to work out for Anet, the game is literally the most fun I've had with an mmo in so many years. In a game with no subscription fee. That I got for 33 euro. I mean, come on man. What is up with these negative reviews. Sure, whenever there's a problem you need time to work it out. It's like that with all expansions and game releases. The expansion is tons of fun. Can't emphasize enough on that.… Expand
  57. lordklod
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    great exp with good content. Not done in a day and a lot of fun things to do. The story is amazing and the music in the game is lovely. The mastery system is good.
  58. harveyaddams
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    This is quite possibly the best MMO expansion I have played. The game encounters can get quite difficult, getting mobbed by monsters is as devastating as it should be, and the progression feels earned for once. The storyline and cinematics are magnificent, dwarfed only by the amazing soundtrack. I am normally very anti-grind, but this feels far more productive than simply smashing "X" mobsThis is quite possibly the best MMO expansion I have played. The game encounters can get quite difficult, getting mobbed by monsters is as devastating as it should be, and the progression feels earned for once. The storyline and cinematics are magnificent, dwarfed only by the amazing soundtrack. I am normally very anti-grind, but this feels far more productive than simply smashing "X" mobs for gold. The difficulty is reminiscent of classic EverQuest, with the mastery system feeling earned, rather than just given. I have been thrilled so far, and expect the thrills to continue as the living story unfolds in the future.… Expand
  59. ToodleNoodles
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    Huge amount of content added, things that will keep me busy for years to come. Anet has kept its vision of the game pure while being as transparent as possible in the design process giving the player base huge amounts of power over the state and direction it goes. They deal with problems as they come up and while some decisions are not always popular, they make them for good reasons thatHuge amount of content added, things that will keep me busy for years to come. Anet has kept its vision of the game pure while being as transparent as possible in the design process giving the player base huge amounts of power over the state and direction it goes. They deal with problems as they come up and while some decisions are not always popular, they make them for good reasons that can be plainly seen if one steps back and looks at it.

    The game itself is gorgeous, maps have a huge amount of love put into each one. The collections and achievements added will keep me engaged for long after the release hype has died down, and the elite specializations make me interested in trying out professions i don't usually play.    … Expand
  60. Alagos
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    Ok I must say: I am a huge fan of the core game, so I might not be able to give a 100% objective view, but: Even when I try to look objective at this: I still love it. The new maps are awesome. Some of the best they have ever made. Yes they are hard. Yes you die often. But: This is what many people in the community asked for.

    I really can't see really bad things with the addon. No huge    Ok I must say: I am a huge fan of the core game, so I might not be able to give a 100% objective view, but: Even when I try to look objective at this: I still love it. The new maps are awesome. Some of the best they have ever made. Yes they are hard. Yes you die often. But: This is what many people in the community asked for.

    I really can't see really bad things with the addon. No huge bugs, no unfinished stuff that was just pushed into the game. So yeah... it's 10/10 for me.    … Expand
  61. Gaaroth
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    *CONTENT*
    This expansion introduces a LOT of new stuff both in content and systems.
    Masteries - new horizontal way to unlock powers and capacities to improve you gameplay, like gliding and further improvements, lore masteries to unlock merchants, challenges or allow furter exploration in the new region, or bonuses and better rewards in core game dungeons. This allows progression with    *CONTENT*
    This expansion introduces a LOT of new stuff both in content and systems.

    Masteries - new horizontal way to unlock powers and capacities to improve you gameplay, like gliding and further improvements, lore masteries to unlock merchants, challenges or allow furter exploration in the new region, or bonuses and better rewards in core game dungeons. This allows progression with invalidation of previous progression both in gear and levels acquired.

    Elite specialization - a new traitline for each class with new gameplay possibilities.

    New Class - Revenant, tha cover the last heavy armor slot allowing for even more combination in the group setups.

    New story - that keeps where the last chapter of living story left us, moving us to fight against the elder dragon Mordremoth

    All those new systems blends togheter perfectly and despite people opinion they are not grindy to get. You are expected to play the content to unlock that and if you let that flow naturally is very enjoyable and fun. Masteries are even account bound so you have them ready for your alts.
    The new story is glorious and a huge step up from the previous content

    Art & Music
    I want to make this mention of honor because the new maps' design and the soundtrack are both astonishing. I can stare for hours at the beautiful sights and be thrilled everytime by the amazing musics.

    This expansion is what the community asked for and Arenanet delivered with flying (pun intended) colors.    … Expand
  62. MasterCyria
    Oct 25, 2015
    10
    Great game. Ignore the people who think that actually playing the game is grind. I don't even. So you have to go to the maps and do events to earn ACCOUNT WIDE experience. Then you need to go get hero points for your skills as your elite specialization? That's playing the game. Seriously people.

    The only justified concern is the WvW people.
  63. richardjcompton
    Oct 26, 2015
    9
    Tons of new content, awesome story, MASSIVE MAPS AAAH, elite specs, and the mastery system. This is an expansion done compelly correctly. All of these people criticizing the "grind" are delusional, and extrmely entitled. They are expecting to complete a bit of horizontal character progression AND account progession in less than two days. That is unrealistic, and unfun. To gain theseTons of new content, awesome story, MASSIVE MAPS AAAH, elite specs, and the mastery system. This is an expansion done compelly correctly. All of these people criticizing the "grind" are delusional, and extrmely entitled. They are expecting to complete a bit of horizontal character progression AND account progession in less than two days. That is unrealistic, and unfun. To gain these masteries, all you must do is play the game; I have my elite specilization and level 17 mastery, and have not repeated a single event chain.

    It's amazing, ignore the entitled, negative reviews. Buy it, play it, you will have a blast.    … Expand
  64. Syngig
    Oct 26, 2015
    9
    Had the best launch out of any MMO on the current market, no stingy crashes no weird errors while logging in, just boot up the client and log in after installation. The xpac introduces new mechanics for late game progression. The new maps are very well done, layered with so much to explore. Guilds can now claim guild halls where they can hangout and chat and eventually upgrade their guildHad the best launch out of any MMO on the current market, no stingy crashes no weird errors while logging in, just boot up the client and log in after installation. The xpac introduces new mechanics for late game progression. The new maps are very well done, layered with so much to explore. Guilds can now claim guild halls where they can hangout and chat and eventually upgrade their guild halls to have scribes and decorations. Gliding is a blast, and although the mastery system will take time to get used to and having to unlock your elite specilization, it shouldnt take more than a few days or even less if you're committed. New map for pvp, updated fractals, a new action camera that makes the combat feel a lot like tera in someways. Within a few weeks the first raid will be released and as Anet always does will be pumping out more awesome content with the months to come as they did with the core game.

    A con I would like to point out is that you immediately feel lost, which can be taken as either good or bad. Im somewhere in the middle, and although I enjoyed getting lost in the jungle it can be hard to tell what to do next regarding mastery leveling.
    Im fine with the hero point requirements for the elite specs, I only have 3 characters that I usually play on and I took advantage of the weekend launch to get 2 of them maxed out in the elite spec. While its fine for me, I can see why a lot of people arent okay with it.

    Another issue thats come up is there seems to be something wrong with the mega servers, I found myself in the new maps with no idea where everyone was, only to hear the same problem in the forums. This is an issue because a lot of the content being introduced in Heart Of Thorns is very challenging within the context of PvE, monsters are usually in groups and dish out a lot of damage which requires you to be well aware of your surroundings and cooldowns. Also to achieve Hero Points there are alot of elite monsters, somewhat like mini bosses scattered around the map that can't be soloed so having a group is crucial to moving along.

    I suggest partying up with your guildmates or using the LFG tool and join a group of people trying to progress through the content like you.
    Im looking forward to everything else this xpac has to offer and I hope to see the GW2 team excel even further at what they do best, I wish them luck!    … Expand
  65. Keorl
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    Engaging story and veyr well designed story missions. Lots of beautiful landscapes. 4 huge nd very different map-wide meta events. Tons of features, including a few details that were asked for a long time. Lots of progression added for your characters and account. Good amounts of new stuff to do, from story to exploration to events to progression to fractals to lots of nice journeysEngaging story and veyr well designed story missions. Lots of beautiful landscapes. 4 huge nd very different map-wide meta events. Tons of features, including a few details that were asked for a long time. Lots of progression added for your characters and account. Good amounts of new stuff to do, from story to exploration to events to progression to fractals to lots of nice journeys (collections) ...

    This expansion is really great.

    Ignore the amount of negative reviews : they are the result of a call for bombing, from a few people who dislike a detail, didn't understand the non-linear for of exploration in HoT (can't do something in 1st map ? Come back later when you have naturally learned the mastery, you don't have to grind for it) and/or want everything served to them immediately (insta-unlock of masteries and elite specs, which in fact build the mid term progression for the game ... it's an MMO; you have to work a bit to progress, you can't have all that on DAY1. There is no grind needed for those things unless you decide to make them a grind by yourself)    … Expand
  66. Moinaldo
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    Expansion is great. Lots of stuff added with new zones, class, specializations, items, raids, etc... Almost no bugs compared to any other mmo expansion release.

    People whining here and there are the ones that wanted to finish all the content in one week, so they could cry next week about not having any new content. Time gated stuff is needed and gives the sense of progression.    Expansion is great. Lots of stuff added with new zones, class, specializations, items, raids, etc... Almost no bugs compared to any other mmo expansion release.

    People whining here and there are the ones that wanted to finish all the content in one week, so they could cry next week about not having any new content.

    Time gated stuff is needed and gives the sense of progression. Definitely a great expasion with superb quality.    … Expand
  67. trams
    Oct 26, 2015
    7
    It's *ok*, however, It's by no means worth a 1 or 10 score.

    If you rate it 1, suck it up kiddo and tell mommy it's too difficult for you. It's challenging content and requires grinding. Fine.

    If you rate it 10, get off your high horse and find some real life friends.

    Considering you get the whole game if you buy only expansion it's hard to not recommend it.
  68. k005
    Oct 25, 2015
    10
    Take this from someone who has played this game since closed beta, and has seen many popular MMOs go through their first expansions. (WoW, TERA, FFXIV, ect.) The launch for the expansion itself has been incredibly smooth. There has been absolutely NO server downtime whatsoever. The developers have listened to player feedback and have made changes to certain requirements to the game as soonTake this from someone who has played this game since closed beta, and has seen many popular MMOs go through their first expansions. (WoW, TERA, FFXIV, ect.) The launch for the expansion itself has been incredibly smooth. There has been absolutely NO server downtime whatsoever. The developers have listened to player feedback and have made changes to certain requirements to the game as soon as 2 days post-launch. They didn't introduce a new level cap, or a higher tier of gear, so if you're thinking about coming back to the game from a long sabbatical you don't have to worry about having to "catch up."

    Now for the polarizing element - the "grind." You obviously won't have to dig deep to see complaints of a fabled "grind" that is supposedly plaguing the new content. This is due to a progression mechanic put in place to emulate a post-level-80 progression in the form of a mastery system. Please take the words of those who whine about this with a grain of salt. Heart of Thorns released with the promise of more challenging and progression-oriented content, and that was delivered. Unfortunately, the previous game's state didn't cater to such casual play, leading to many entitled feelings about what people "deserve" to have unlocked just by buying the expansion.

    It's currently two days post launch and I am at Mastery "level" 8. I've seen people as high as level 70. Two days in. Level 70 Mastery Points. Let that sink in. To put this in perspective, a Mastery level of 6 is all that is required to traverse the new multi-layered maps efficiently. And a Mastery level of 142 will bless you with ALL of the masteries. Yes, all of them. Two days in and people are about halfway done. Yet the "Grind" is too much.

    Hence, why I am imploring you to PLEASE take the comments you see here with a grain of salt. (Yes, even mine.) If you're actually interested in figuring out what Heart of Thorns is REALLY like.: Go to Twitch and watch some streams, or download GW2 (the base game is free now) and ask around for honest opinions.    … Expand
  69. ambgri
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    This expansion so far is better then I imagined. Since it was released, I've been playing a lot and there is just so much to do that it felt overwhelming at first. I enjoy the new mastery system a lot, and specialization may take some time to unlock all of it, but i'm okay with that, it gives everyone something to do that isn't complete in a couple days. The only bad experience that IThis expansion so far is better then I imagined. Since it was released, I've been playing a lot and there is just so much to do that it felt overwhelming at first. I enjoy the new mastery system a lot, and specialization may take some time to unlock all of it, but i'm okay with that, it gives everyone something to do that isn't complete in a couple days. The only bad experience that I had so far, was having the game crash on me.… Expand
  70. CirdanValen
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    Excellent content, great story, the art & environments in the new areas are TOP NOTCH. Lots of new content and things to work towards. If you are a GW2 fan, you will love this game.
  71. Mkkoll
    Oct 26, 2015
    9
    A fantastically smooth launch for the games first meaty expansion! The game has launched with only the most minimal of bugs and stuff is being fixed and tweaked daily to tune all the new systems to perfection. Arenanet has the players backs and is kicking ass!

    The new zones are beautiful, and showcase Anets fantastic Art team talents once more. The sound and music too perfectly    A fantastically smooth launch for the games first meaty expansion! The game has launched with only the most minimal of bugs and stuff is being fixed and tweaked daily to tune all the new systems to perfection. Arenanet has the players backs and is kicking ass!

    The new zones are beautiful, and showcase Anets fantastic Art team talents once more. The sound and music too perfectly complement the expansion. As good as Jeremey Soule's OST for GW2 was, Maclaine Deimer and his team have surpassed it in quality and i feel the new tracks are MORE Guildwars 2 in feel and sound than even the originals!

    The highlight so far for me has been the Auric Basin metaevent. A map-wide quest that involves every player on the map, each having to fulfil a certain mechanic to push a big 'burn phase' or damage spike on a 'structure' blocking a gate. These are similar to the Triple Trouble and Tequatl fights of the vanilla game, but incorporate all the feedback and learnings of those events to make the best iteration yet of this kind of content. The events are intuitive to learn for a fresh player to them, are easily taught and communicated and seed a huge amount of teamwork and camaraderie amongst large groups of players that esentially have never met before ingame. That feeling when you complete the event and every player on the map rushes into Tarir in Auric Basin is unparalleled.

    NOTE: On the complaints of progression, i haven't really had an issue with this. I was not particularly attached to getting my elite specialization as soon as i started the new content, but I have now fully unlocked 2 classes elite specs 3 days after release with maybe 6 hours average per day. It really isn't that demanding to unlock them and complaints of 'grind' are completely unfounded. Players are forcing themselves to 'grind' because they want their masteries and elite specs asap. Slowing down and allowing the game to unfold itself infront of you has been what the community has recommended to every new player starting the game since release, and the moment we get a meaty chunk of new content, we cant take our own advice.

    The expansion is everything i hoped it would be and more.    … Expand
  72. TopBeef
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    Great expansion, lots of content, pretty areas, smooth launch with very few bugs. A bunch of minor QoL fixes and a handful of features set up to prepare for future changes. New areas are pleasantly enough not a complete faceroll like previous open world areas. Story has much improved since they started on the Living World seasons. The grind is minuscule, thought noticeably there it's notGreat expansion, lots of content, pretty areas, smooth launch with very few bugs. A bunch of minor QoL fixes and a handful of features set up to prepare for future changes. New areas are pleasantly enough not a complete faceroll like previous open world areas. Story has much improved since they started on the Living World seasons. The grind is minuscule, thought noticeably there it's not all that bad compared to most MMOs. Guild Halls are amazing.… Expand
  73. Opt1mysyq
    Oct 25, 2015
    10
    Arenanet have knocked the ball out of the park again really fun Expansion. New zones have been added that really change how exploration works and new skills to assist in your exploration like gliding and mushroom jumping are hella fun. Have not finished the main story line yet but i have a feeling it will be great going on what i have played so far (first chapter). If you enjoyed the baseArenanet have knocked the ball out of the park again really fun Expansion. New zones have been added that really change how exploration works and new skills to assist in your exploration like gliding and mushroom jumping are hella fun. Have not finished the main story line yet but i have a feeling it will be great going on what i have played so far (first chapter). If you enjoyed the base game at launch you'll love this new addition and don't hesitate to recommend to anyone.… Expand
  74. matchsticks
    Oct 26, 2015
    9
    Fantastic game, awesome story and account-wide progression. People just want things handed to them on a shiny plate without any gameplay now. Yes, things are probably tuned a little bit too high, but there's plenty of content to make up for it. People just need to sit back and enjoy the content - don't rush it, explore and try to understand what they're complaining about before they getFantastic game, awesome story and account-wide progression. People just want things handed to them on a shiny plate without any gameplay now. Yes, things are probably tuned a little bit too high, but there's plenty of content to make up for it. People just need to sit back and enjoy the content - don't rush it, explore and try to understand what they're complaining about before they get all up in arms about it.… Expand
  75. FayEverdunes
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    As a veteran player, I've been thoroughly enjoying the new more challenging approach, the maps are fantastic, and I love the variety of events. It's a breath of fresh air and exactly what GW2 needed.

    As for anyone reading the negative reviews, I would strongly suggest taking them with a grain of salt because they focus on one or two issues, ignoring the other 98% of content which has    As a veteran player, I've been thoroughly enjoying the new more challenging approach, the maps are fantastic, and I love the variety of events. It's a breath of fresh air and exactly what GW2 needed.

    As for anyone reading the negative reviews, I would strongly suggest taking them with a grain of salt because they focus on one or two issues, ignoring the other 98% of content which has honestly been really great. Everyone knows there are bugs and balance issues when expansions or games launch and Anet has largely always done a lot to improve those over time. The people voting so negatively are largely just hoping it will force Anet to do what they want rather than appreciate all the amazing work they have accomplished with HoT.

    For a better mix of viewpoints on how HoT is being received, check Reddit and the Official Forums. Then wait a few weeks and see how people feel after they are more familiar with the content.    … Expand
  76. Graith
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    The fact that this expansion is getting even a single negative review is appalling to me. This expansion is everything that Guild Wars 2 was in desperate need of. Most of these negative reviews are people complaining about having to play content in order to get mastery points. You’re actually complaining about having new content to play? Is this even a real complaint? Mastery Points areThe fact that this expansion is getting even a single negative review is appalling to me. This expansion is everything that Guild Wars 2 was in desperate need of. Most of these negative reviews are people complaining about having to play content in order to get mastery points. You’re actually complaining about having new content to play? Is this even a real complaint? Mastery Points are something you earn from doing that thing in games we all love to do which is have fun in new content. The fact that people are complaining about it is disgusting. Go back to WoW you can buy yourself a character there and do nothing, it will be more fun for you scrubs.
    Next let’s talk about elite specs. People are complaining that they need hero points to get them. Once again.. play the content. More importantly what have you been doing over the last 3 years? I was able to get my elite spec on two of my characters day one upon log in.. because I play the content. The elite specs are all extremely fun and it’s clear that a good amount of time and balance effort has been put into making them feel right. They are a joy to play and I am looking forward to leveling my 3rd.
    This expansion is fantastic… so much new content to explore and new things to work towards in the coming years. I hope Anet does not even waste time reading these negative unfounded reviews. There is nothing but awesome things to explore and discover in this expansion. Each new event is met with new challenges that take tactics to bring down instead of zerging a boss to death. Sorry kids this means again you will have to play the content, which seems like a challenging notion.
    There is no pay gate to fractals or any other content in the game. There does seem to be a competence gate, based on players who want to actually work for things and those that just want them handed to them. Keep up the fantastic work Anet, I’m not someone that has endless hours to play and I can’t wait to spend even more time in your new world.    … Expand
  77. Luckygecko
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    I love the expansion, the jungle is challenging, but it's doable solo. the new specialisation are great, the jungle maps feels epic. The new guild system look great. the musics are good. I am enjoying it a lot and so does all my guild members
  78. tirithi
    Oct 25, 2015
    10
    Smooth launch. lots to do, and gives players an endgame to work for, like they have been asking for. New areas are gorgeous and nothing has been taken away from the core game. Specializations are super fun and effects are top notch, honestly in love with the game again! (P.s. precursor crafting is awesome, honestly surprised by the quality that they put into it!)
  79. cougmerrik
    Oct 26, 2015
    9
    This is a solid expansion for GW2. Unlike the initial expansions in the original Guild Wars, Heart of Thorns is really directed from the group up at end game players. From the difficulty of the zones, to a new level 80 only story, to the horizontal progression system with masteries, guild halls, scribe profession, elite specializations for each class, to raids and fractal expansion --This is a solid expansion for GW2. Unlike the initial expansions in the original Guild Wars, Heart of Thorns is really directed from the group up at end game players. From the difficulty of the zones, to a new level 80 only story, to the horizontal progression system with masteries, guild halls, scribe profession, elite specializations for each class, to raids and fractal expansion -- everything is geared towards characters at level 80. The one thing maybe not geared toward level 80 characters is the new revanent class, which is a heavy armor hybrid class (think something like almost like a druid from WoW).

    Anet used this opportunity to take a lot of systems in the game and improve them. Everything from guilds, to pvp, to wvw, to the trait system, the camera, etc. There are huge systems advances, many of which also are available without purchasing the game as part of the Heart of Thorns feature pack. These global features from the expansion alone add hundreds of hours of gameplay.

    The story so far in Heart of Thorns is orders of magnitude beyond the original Guild Wars 2 storyline -- if you have been paying attention to the story threads throughout Living Season 1 and 2. Like any good TV show made into a big budget movie, the stakes just get higher, the effects and production values get better, and the explosions get explodier.

    Technically, the launch was excellent and there was almost no downtime to speak of. Some instability in the first few days has evened out as new patches come daily it seems.

    The downsides for this expansion often turn out to be upsides in the long run. This expansion, being directed at the experienced player, has a high learning curve and a lot of new mechanics, some of which can be confusing at first. The expansion's mastery system also leaves the the player eyeing some great mastery benefits, but first requiring many levels of "mastery training" to get them -- this requires playing content in Heart of Thorns or "Central Tyria" (as the vanilla zones are now called). You could call this "grindy", but the masteries are account bound and you get experience for doing just about anything in terms of playing the game.

    Some of the balance is currently off for PvP (in favor of elite specializations being head and shoulders above certain other PvP builds for the same class), leading some to wonder if buying Heart of Thorns is a pay to win gambit for PvP players. A reduced cost, PvP-only unlock of specializations with gems or ranks would be a great way to fix this problem.

    I would love to give this a 10/10, but I'm giving it a 9. I originally had it as an 8, but in writing this review I couldn't come up with enough to complain about to warrant an 8. The few things I'd like to see more of that weren't included in this expansion are a more diverse set of single group, instanced content, and changes to revitalize WvW. Everything else has been handled with wonderful adeptness.    … Expand
  80. staticx27
    Oct 26, 2015
    8
    Freaking awesome expac. Few issues with crashes on launch, but those are pretty par for the course with a new expac launch. Masteries are definitely not a grind (most people use the term incorrectly), as there is lots of content to complete the masteries with. Revenant had a lot of work put into it, made many things easier (fractals for example are now easier to get into for newerFreaking awesome expac. Few issues with crashes on launch, but those are pretty par for the course with a new expac launch. Masteries are definitely not a grind (most people use the term incorrectly), as there is lots of content to complete the masteries with. Revenant had a lot of work put into it, made many things easier (fractals for example are now easier to get into for newer players!), the new maps are really dynamic and add a whole new level of movement through the map.

    The elite specs requiring 400 hero points to unlock is a little excessive, but given that each hero point in HoT gives 10 points, its not terrible. All in all, awesome happiness. Only gave it an 8 because the community is really killing the experience for me (its non-stop complaining over some pretty menial things). Hopefully the community will improve their attitude a little more.    … Expand
  81. rotondoman
    Oct 26, 2015
    1
    I honestly struggle to find anything positive to say about the new content. First of all I find it boring. Unimaginative. I find myself running through it hoping against hope that I can get finished with whatever mundane task I'm doing and move on to the next one and then the one after that just so I can be done with it. Which makes me think the replay value of HOT is near zero. I don'tI honestly struggle to find anything positive to say about the new content. First of all I find it boring. Unimaginative. I find myself running through it hoping against hope that I can get finished with whatever mundane task I'm doing and move on to the next one and then the one after that just so I can be done with it. Which makes me think the replay value of HOT is near zero. I don't see $50+ worth of new content. Maybe $25. For $50 I'd expect enough content to rival the original release.

    To be fair I'm in a couple of guilds and except for myself my pve centric guild loves it the new areas, the content, the masteries, and all the rest. Especially the hang gliding. My wvw guild hates everything about the new wvw map and changes to that aspect of the game.

    If I had to do it all over again I would not buy this expansion. At least not until it had been out for a while and I could see how things were going to play out.    … Expand
  82. Amiron
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    This was probably the smoothest expansion launch I've ever been a part of. Little to no lag at all, very few bugs (none of them have been game breaking for me), and little to no downtime.

    I've really enjoyed the story, the voice acting is phenomenal. Masteries are a brilliant way of adding progression without invalidating your hard earned gear from before the expansion. The new elite    This was probably the smoothest expansion launch I've ever been a part of. Little to no lag at all, very few bugs (none of them have been game breaking for me), and little to no downtime.

    I've really enjoyed the story, the voice acting is phenomenal. Masteries are a brilliant way of adding progression without invalidating your hard earned gear from before the expansion. The new elite specializations take a while to earn, but I enjoy the journey, as it feels like I'm leveling my character again and learning new traits & abilities. The music and art is superb; I love how they managed to make the four jungle zones feel completely different from each other.

    You're going to see a lot of people complain about Masteries being too hard to get or Elite Specializations being too hard to unlock, which is just plain wrong. I'm eight hours in with half of my elite specialization unlocked and over 16 masteries in. It's been a blast!    … Expand
  83. KYH
    Oct 25, 2015
    9
    Masteries are fun once you have them, New area is pretty big and has a good-deal to do though it takes a lot of getting-used-to to navigate since its more vertical.
    New enemy design and AI pumps a lot of life back into PvE and the general mechanical changes make gameplay a little more varied and involved in different roles.
    PvP is fun as per usual (question of 'good' falls to people with    Masteries are fun once you have them, New area is pretty big and has a good-deal to do though it takes a lot of getting-used-to to navigate since its more vertical.
    New enemy design and AI pumps a lot of life back into PvE and the general mechanical changes make gameplay a little more varied and involved in different roles.
    PvP is fun as per usual (question of 'good' falls to people with a more varied experience with MMO PvP than mine).
    As far as expanding the base game in a meaningful way, this expansion gets the job done    … Expand
  84. Sonoris
    Oct 25, 2015
    9
    I'm sorry most of the other reviews here seem to think "playing the game" is "grinding", but really. In any other expansion, would you expect to be handed over a maxed out character for nothing? No. You have to work to get things. I, personally, enjoy it very much. The new maps are amazing, the specs great... I'm not sure what everyone else wanted - immediate gratification? End gameI'm sorry most of the other reviews here seem to think "playing the game" is "grinding", but really. In any other expansion, would you expect to be handed over a maxed out character for nothing? No. You have to work to get things. I, personally, enjoy it very much. The new maps are amazing, the specs great... I'm not sure what everyone else wanted - immediate gratification? End game content on a golden platter?… Expand
  85. bearbowbaggins
    Oct 25, 2015
    10
    Do I think that the jungle region is challenging? Yes.
    Do I think that the jungle region is impossible? Heck, no.
    What I love most about the expansion is that it offers you a compelling new region that encourages you to push your limits to become a better player, and rewards you for doing so. Sure, it might seem daunting at first, but when you modify your builds and strategies, develop    Do I think that the jungle region is challenging? Yes.
    Do I think that the jungle region is impossible? Heck, no.

    What I love most about the expansion is that it offers you a compelling new region that encourages you to push your limits to become a better player, and rewards you for doing so. Sure, it might seem daunting at first, but when you modify your builds and strategies, develop more masteries, and learn more about each region it becomes a truly exciting experience. Add to this a wonderful soundtrack, personal story arc, rich characters, exciting events and lore, raids, adventures, world bosses and you have a wonderful experience. Honestly, it's just nice to be able to see and explore things for the first time and feel so amazed again. This expansion reminded me why I decided to call guild wars 2 my home in the first place.    … Expand
  86. Evaara
    Oct 25, 2015
    10
    Unique events, expansive maps, a GREAT new story, HoT is well worth the $50 spent. All these complaints regarding grind are superfluous and extremely entitled. People who have been playing GW2 are taking for granted that core content was easily maxed out because they've had years put into it and can level an alt to max using previously acquired Tomes of Knowledge. The mastery system itselfUnique events, expansive maps, a GREAT new story, HoT is well worth the $50 spent. All these complaints regarding grind are superfluous and extremely entitled. People who have been playing GW2 are taking for granted that core content was easily maxed out because they've had years put into it and can level an alt to max using previously acquired Tomes of Knowledge. The mastery system itself is ACCOUNT WIDE and once you finish the initial acquisition of necessary masteries it's extremely alt-a-holic friendly.

    People expect to get everything from day 1 and a lot of these ungrateful reviews stem from the entitlement not realizing that they are already playing a MAX LEVEL character and are just unlocking stuff (e.g. explorable areas, alternate job classes [calles elite specializations], story, etc.] BY PLAYING THE GAME. It's not even gated behind a paywall (aside from buying the expansion of course) and the exp required to unlock the minimum requirement of masteries to complete the story mode and a lot of the areas isn't even that high.

    I'm not a "hardcore" gamer that can waste 12-16 hours of my time in a game, I work and have a life. At max I can play 2 hours on weekdays and 8 hours on weekends and EVERYTHING is attainable even at my snail's pace. The people who complain about "grind" and leave extremely negative reviews are uninformed, entitled, and spoiled players who've never actually experienced a true grind like those who have played other MMOs such as World of Warcraft, Ragnarok Online, TERA, etc.

    For a first expansion Heart of Thorns offers three important things:

    1. Extremely creative and challenging new content.
    2. Very good replayability.
    3. Beautiful gameplay which encompasses all the new mechanics, story, areas, and experience.

    Heart of Thorns is a beautiful, well thought out, and extremely passionate expansion with a lot of HEART and SOUL put into it. Everything provided was beyond expectations and the people who complain about a SINGLE aspect of the game that are LARGELY BASED ON ENTITLED OPINION (thinking that HoT content is gated behind grind oriented mechanics) and give unfair review scores like 1 or lower are extremely biased and obviously lacks credibility. Game content exists to be COMPLETED after all. If everything is provided at the get go then there is no point to a game at all.

    TL;DR: - PROS: Great and a LARGE amount of content, great story, great gameplay, great delivery, by far the SMOOTHEST first day of expansion launch for ANY game that I've ever played, extremely well balanced challenging content, beautiful maps and areas, creative alternate job classes.

    CONS: Shattering the expectations of ENTITLED and SPOILED PROFESSIONAL CASUALS (a derogatory term for people who expect to get everything from day 1 without actually playing the game) due to being put into a state of laziness due to the nature of core content alternate character leveling (Tomes of Knowlege) and the easiness of acquiring content in the base game due to cumulative and collective wisdom and knowledge of the community from playing the base game for 3 years.    … Expand
  87. thenoobiniser
    Oct 25, 2015
    9
    The new expansion is a treat to all of us. Every map has a metaevent that makes it much more involving than the normal maps (these also has more backstory to them then the silverwastes). The many reviews stating that it is grindy haven't realised they wouldn't be pleased if they finished the expansion in these 2 days. The story is really nice, and a great step up from even living story 2.The new expansion is a treat to all of us. Every map has a metaevent that makes it much more involving than the normal maps (these also has more backstory to them then the silverwastes). The many reviews stating that it is grindy haven't realised they wouldn't be pleased if they finished the expansion in these 2 days. The story is really nice, and a great step up from even living story 2. Yes, that story is gated behind the masteries. But that is just the more reason to do those masteries. Let the haters play for 2 more weeks, they'll be all the more happy doing masteries took just a little longer… Expand
  88. Dreddi1
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    First of all let me say how amazingly stable this launch was. Hats off to Anet on that one.

    Just finished the story and I must say Anet really outdid themselves this time. The zones are much more alive, events require you to participate instead of just tag-and-run and each map has its own unique meta event (Haven't done the Dragon's Stand zone yet but I've heard it's amazing). each map    First of all let me say how amazingly stable this launch was. Hats off to Anet on that one.

    Just finished the story and I must say Anet really outdid themselves this time. The zones are much more alive, events require you to participate instead of just tag-and-run and each map has its own unique meta event (Haven't done the Dragon's Stand zone yet but I've heard it's amazing). each map is filled with secrets, jumping puzzles, adventures, challenges, masteries etc.

    The dialogue between the player character and the npcs in both story and in the zones have gotten vocal which is amazing
    The story is also a major improvement from the original PS.

    The new masteries are also a welcome sight and makes your leveling meaningful again. Plus there are a lot of new ways to earn XP now so you'll have no trouble leveling them in the new zones.
    Not to mention all the new collections, achievements, skins, minis, the amazing glider and much much more. I really can't believe how good of an expansion this has been so far and I'm far far from done!    … Expand
  89. Rayzer
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    Love this expansion the story is definitely way better than the old one and the new maps and the music that accompanies these maps are just superb the composers and map designers did an freaking amazing job especially with the meta events. The mastery system is really good been especially the gilding that one is really fun to use.I still progressing through my elite spec at a steady paceLove this expansion the story is definitely way better than the old one and the new maps and the music that accompanies these maps are just superb the composers and map designers did an freaking amazing job especially with the meta events. The mastery system is really good been especially the gilding that one is really fun to use.I still progressing through my elite spec at a steady pace so far its been fun playing my druid. I don't get what people are saying about being grind I mean you gotta do it once then the masteries are your for all your characters I didn't expect them to be handed to me in the first few days same goes for the elites specs they may not be account unlocked but getting the masteries the first really brings down the amount time for you spend unlocking them. I can pretty much assure you that the people complaining about grinding would be the same people who would have complained if they were to easy to get and then leave the game saying that it was to easy and "lol no endgame"

    I strongly recommend getting expac if your level 80 atleast if not try the game out using the Play 4 Free option    … Expand
  90. Thaelan
    Oct 26, 2015
    9
    The Heart of Thorns expansion is an expansion that adds alot of new and exciting features to Guild Wars 2, giving it a new endgame and a bunch of new activities. The game also adds to one of Guild Wars 2 "problems", namely the unclear definition of what people can / want to do after they hit lvl 80.

    These extra features include working towards Mastery's , which allow your account to    The Heart of Thorns expansion is an expansion that adds alot of new and exciting features to Guild Wars 2, giving it a new endgame and a bunch of new activities. The game also adds to one of Guild Wars 2 "problems", namely the unclear definition of what people can / want to do after they hit lvl 80.

    These extra features include working towards Mastery's , which allow your account to reach new areas or get new bonuses, Guild Halls, a place to build your own safe spot with your Guild Mates and Raids, a more difficult challenge then current dungeons and more. I don't know what else to write here, but needless to say, I feel that if you enjoyed Guild Wars 2, you can only enjoy it more with the expansion seeing as it gives you new goals, new activities, new opportunities for fun!    … Expand
  91. Keridos
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    The expansion is awesome, a lot of new content, old content was balanced. The new maps are gorgeous, hard enough to be a challenge and still feel rewarding and are a lot of fun to play for me. The new Mastery system also is pretty well designed except for a few minor things like the mentor badge.
    Gliding is super awesome in the new maps!
    Did not check out the elite specs yet but they    The expansion is awesome, a lot of new content, old content was balanced. The new maps are gorgeous, hard enough to be a challenge and still feel rewarding and are a lot of fun to play for me. The new Mastery system also is pretty well designed except for a few minor things like the mentor badge.
    Gliding is super awesome in the new maps!
    Did not check out the elite specs yet but they were pretty cool in the BWE. Cost quite much Hero Points to unlock them, but it feels good to not rush through the content as is was before the expansion. Most of the stuff does not really feel that grindy for me, at least compared to other MMO's, if you think GW2 is grindy, go play Ragnarok Online (on Vanilla EXP rates) for a few months and then come back. Some of the new content is rather hard to get, but it was pretty much the same in the original GW2 and GW1. Fancy Armor/Weapons often means farming materials for a prolonged time. The new "grindy" content however is very versatile in what you have to do, so in my opinion it does not really feel that much like a grind.

    The launch was one of the smoothest launches for Expansions/MMO's I have ever seen. Almost no lag, just a few minor bugs, almost no crashes and none other inconveniences.

    They have pretty much delivered what the promised us, so the pure negative reviews of HoT are mostly extremely one sided and ignore the fact that they did a damn good job on at least 90% of the content.
    Honestly, it was mentioned that Legendaries will still be not that easy to get, it also was mentioned that the new system was not fast to play through and that the high end content would need skill and good equip to get through. What do you think that means? People WANTED a more end game focused expansion and they exactly delivered that. Endgame focused means: Hard to master, you have to learn the content before you actually can do something effectively in there and it should provide fun and new things to see for the next year or longer. Now people are downvoting this after 3 DAYS(!) and complaining about how you have to grind for some of the new stuff. Just my 2 cents to the (kiddies giving) bad reviews here with no logical structure behind them and no real arguments.    … Expand
  92. Vissarion
    Oct 25, 2015
    10
    Really thrilling story, much content, best expansion best mmorpg ever played.

    Don't listen to the guys saying its a grind, they want to complete whole content in a day, thats not possible for mmos.

    If you haven't played gw2:HoT really try it, and then you will see for yourself, this game deserves a try for everyone that claims to be a gamer.
  93. Eurydae
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    This expansion is an amazing, gorgeous, and intricate display of Arenanet's artistic team's talents. Like, holy crap the maps are beyond beautiful. The expansion is easily worth $50 with the massive amount of content you get (guild halls, basically entirely new versions of each class, raids, amazing and huge zones to explore, hours of story content, etc etc etc).

    A lot of the negative    This expansion is an amazing, gorgeous, and intricate display of Arenanet's artistic team's talents. Like, holy crap the maps are beyond beautiful. The expansion is easily worth $50 with the massive amount of content you get (guild halls, basically entirely new versions of each class, raids, amazing and huge zones to explore, hours of story content, etc etc etc).

    A lot of the negative reviews are people brigading due to disliking the fact that the elite specializations for each class are hard to get, which may have felt like a shock since it was so easy during beta. However, I personally like that it is challenging to fully unlock the new specialization, it has actually gotten me excited about the game again it's fun to run around exploring the new areas and working towards the specialization. The mastery system also feels the same. It isn't easy. Nor should it be, this is end game content, not beginner content. If you want the rewards you have to put in the work. I really appreciate the fact that I now have things to work towards for many hours and weeks to come, it has really invigorated the game for me, to the point where I was really shocked that so many people were upset over it.

    In short, buy the game yourself and try it out, that's the only way to actually see past people's knee-jerk anger to the awesome expansion that this really is. $50 for even just 10 hours of enjoyable content would be worthwhile, but you get way more than that when you buy Heart of Thorns.    … Expand
  94. Kurfu
    Oct 26, 2015
    0
    What used to be a huge *open* world that was fun and exciting to explore, has devolved into a game that keeps the players "on rails" via obnoxious terrain obstacles. If you enjoy running through canyons and over bridges, this is the game for you.
  95. Derrian
    Oct 25, 2015
    10
    Example of expansion done right. Level cap wasn't increased and youc an easily level up ALL your masteries while exploring. Play this if you don't have the classic millenial "must have ALL the shinies now" complex
  96. CheriWonderland
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    This game is fantastic, and what you see here is the trend of entitlement that people figure they should get everything instantly, with no effort. When ArenaNET handed out free episodes every 2 weeks, people complained that there wasn't enough and it was forcing them to keep coming back. So, ArenaNET bows to the angry unwashed and creates an expansion, designed so that people don't finishThis game is fantastic, and what you see here is the trend of entitlement that people figure they should get everything instantly, with no effort. When ArenaNET handed out free episodes every 2 weeks, people complained that there wasn't enough and it was forcing them to keep coming back. So, ArenaNET bows to the angry unwashed and creates an expansion, designed so that people don't finish it in one weekend.

    Sure enough, rage ensues with cheap shots of "gates" and "paywalls," when any adventure game player should know that the point is to progress over time and get better. Otherwise, what's the point?

    I have over 7,000 hours into the original game, and even people whom I played with previously and left the game have returned and are extremely enthusiastic about the new content.

    The maps are beautiful. The events scale to work with a few people or a hundred, better than ever - and many of the old boss mechanics have been updated to keep things fresh and challenging.

    Finally, ArenaNET outdid themselves by released not only the expansion, but the Halloween temporary games for the Play for Free people to get something new.

    Play for free, stay for the best community .. these idiots aren't a fair example of what's in game.    … Expand
  97. topcheffer
    Oct 25, 2015
    9
    I'm really surprised at all the negative reviews so far. They seem to focus around the game feeling like a grind and the content being gated. I would describe the content as challenging and offering progression. The pace is definitely slower than levels 1-50 in the core game, but that's not a bad thing. You may need coordinate groups to achieve the best rewards in some areas, but that'sI'm really surprised at all the negative reviews so far. They seem to focus around the game feeling like a grind and the content being gated. I would describe the content as challenging and offering progression. The pace is definitely slower than levels 1-50 in the core game, but that's not a bad thing. You may need coordinate groups to achieve the best rewards in some areas, but that's not a bad thing either. You will die, and you will have to learn from your mistakes. Great!
    I've been having a great time with the PvE content, the new WvW map, the new class, and the reworking of some of the core experience. The new maps are massive with their verticality (hang gliding is lots of fun), and I for one like the requirement of certain skills to access new areas (Zelda-esque, with hints to "come back with some bombs!").
    I'm happy they introduced some challenging and different experiences to the game and not more of the same that other reviews seemed to want. If you are a fan of endless dungeon running (skipping difficult content in favor of the quick and easy) and zerging world bosses as your end game PvE, then this expansion is not for you. If you want something new and rewarding, something with room for the game to grow on top of, buy this expansion right now. I look forward to many more years in this direction.    … Expand
  98. BBahamut
    Oct 26, 2015
    10
    É impossível agradar a todos. Mas a Heart of Thorns conseguiu agradar a muuuuuuuuitos. O conteúdo novo é eletrizante e muito lindo. Os mapas novos são espetacularmente diferentes de tudo que existe por aí. Explorá-los e conhecer a história de cada área é uma aventura belíssima. Aqueles que querem só grindar, farmar, bater em qlq coisa sem saber loucamente estão perdendo uma parteÉ impossível agradar a todos. Mas a Heart of Thorns conseguiu agradar a muuuuuuuuitos. O conteúdo novo é eletrizante e muito lindo. Os mapas novos são espetacularmente diferentes de tudo que existe por aí. Explorá-los e conhecer a história de cada área é uma aventura belíssima. Aqueles que querem só grindar, farmar, bater em qlq coisa sem saber loucamente estão perdendo uma parte importante do conteúdo. Mas nem só de mapa PvE é feita a nova expansão. Ao contrário, logo nos primeiros dias já dá pra perceber que várias novas mecânicas vieram pra prender os jogadores em objetivos de longo prazo.
    O trem tá bão de mais!    … Expand
  99. enaspe
    Oct 25, 2015
    9
    A great expansion of a great game. It'll take quite a lot of time to get through all the content they've added. The map designs are amazing with events sprawling across and effecting the whole area. It's so much fun stumbling across large groups of players fighting bosses and defending camps as you explore. The elite specializations add a lot to the existing classes and offer moreA great expansion of a great game. It'll take quite a lot of time to get through all the content they've added. The map designs are amazing with events sprawling across and effecting the whole area. It's so much fun stumbling across large groups of players fighting bosses and defending camps as you explore. The elite specializations add a lot to the existing classes and offer more interesting progression than a level cap raise and a few new skills. Gliding is great and the way the mastery system expands zones you've already passed through as you progress is really interesting. Overall it has been a lot of fun so far and after the first weekend I still feel like there is so much left to get into.

    gg anet    … Expand
  100. Sagath
    Oct 25, 2015
    10
    Don't believe all the haters about this game. Getting an elite spec is time taking but worth it, it's like a training sequence for your character. Jungle is tough place to be but Anet wants to bring players together to fight Mordremoth, just find nearby friends to play with. Be social.

    This expansion is what core game should have been all about.
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Awards & Rankings

51
#51 Best PC Game of 2015
10
#10 Most Discussed PC Game of 2015
15
#15 Most Shared PC Game of 2015

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
81

Generally favorable reviews - based on 22 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 22
  3. Negative: 0 out of 22
  1. CD-Action
    Jan 12, 2016
    85
    Heart of Thorns is so good I forgot the flaws that made me lose interest in the original game after my initial delight with it. [13/2015, p.64]
  2. Games Master UK
    Jan 3, 2016
    85
    Not the biggest expansion, but it enhances the best parts of an already magnificent MMO. [Christmas 2015, p.75]
  3. Edge Magazine
    Jan 3, 2016
    80
    In spite of the odd stumble, it's a wonderful journey. [Jan 2016, p.120]
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