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. Miyammoto
    Aug 31, 2021
    0
    Guild Wars 2 could be the best game in the world, but there is no Russian localization. Arena net is the most greedy company in the world. They sell the game, they sell skins in the game, but they can't find 3 cents for Russian localization. This is discrimination against the ru-community.
  2. Tenarus
    Apr 22, 2021
    2
    The phrase "never play on patch.-day" never fitted any game better then guild wars 2. Well and from patch-day I went to patch-week to patch-month, because not only are patches released incredibly buggy - they stay bugged for SEVERAL months if not years.
    Overall the storytelling is ok-ish. I've seen better, I've seen worse.
    The quality of the patches got worse and worse with every    The phrase "never play on patch.-day" never fitted any game better then guild wars 2. Well and from patch-day I went to patch-week to patch-month, because not only are patches released incredibly buggy - they stay bugged for SEVERAL months if not years.
    Overall the storytelling is ok-ish. I've seen better, I've seen worse.
    The quality of the patches got worse and worse with every release. The content feels like the same thing over and over again. Most things you do ingame are not rewarding at all. For players that spend a longer time ingame there is simply not enough to do. What do I mean by that? Let me tell you what my playtime looks like: Mondays I jump in the game, just to do the weekly raid reclears in like 2 hours (raids, that have been in the game for years. The release of the last raidwing is more than a year ago...) Some evenings I do a quick fractal run which cant keep my group entertained for more than 30 minutes. Farming at this point is pointless - you cant progress gear and I dont want to build duplicate legendaries. But Arenanet stated - against what players want - that there will be no more dungeons and as far as I know no more raids. Content draught which gets me to stop playing.

    And lastly the cashshop: What started off as some nice cosmetic rewards got a dump of putting new stuff in every other week just to earn more and more money. This isnt bad in itself, but selling CHAIRS? The shop got quite ridicculous...

    TL;DR So all in all: A game that started off good a while ago, but cant deliver any content that keeps you playing. To top all of this off the content that is currently in the game is severely bugged. Content in the game keeps you doing stuff for max ~4h/week if you clear all of it.    … Expand
  3. nemoo
    Feb 13, 2020
    0
    Dont play this game if you want a support team that cares for you, got 20000 gold taken away and when i showed them how i got the gold they just stopped responding to my emails really lazy support
  4. brightwish
    May 8, 2019
    3
    The gliders were a nice addition, but the multi height levels made the maps too difficult to navigate.
  5. ShinGlacier
    Dec 1, 2017
    0
    The game has a lot of potential, but ANet doesn't care about the players, they are more interested in their money instead.

    The game evolved since launch, that's true, but at quite a slow pace. The expansion stories were a lot shorter than the main one and a lot more convoluted. The new classes that were added with the expansions are a bit of a fresh air, but ANet doesn't know how    The game has a lot of potential, but ANet doesn't care about the players, they are more interested in their money instead.

    The game evolved since launch, that's true, but at quite a slow pace.

    The expansion stories were a lot shorter than the main one and a lot more convoluted.

    The new classes that were added with the expansions are a bit of a fresh air, but ANet doesn't know how to make them fit in the different aspects of the game (PVP, PVE, Raids).

    Spellbreaker from the last expansion doens't have a place in Raids, as an example. Scourge was so nerfed that it lost it's place in any raid for more than 3 months.

    ANet doesn't seem to test what they do and then it takes 2+ months for them to fix it.

    Classes are absurdly unbalanced in PVP, you can take an overpowered one and simply cheese you way to the top tiers.

    End game content (I include making new Legendary items, high level Fractals and Raid Wings in this category) are slow, very slow to come out. We had to wait 6 months for a new raid wing (had 4 before that), and ONE YEAR for 01 new fractal level. That is RIDICULOUS.
    The new legendary items are lackluster. As an example the new rifle and shield are simply garbage when compared to the previous ones. The medium legendary armor look absurdly crap, when compared with it's heavy and light counterparts.

    Now they decided and go heavy with the lootbox system. It was ALREADY present in the game, with Black Lion Chests, but now they decided to introduce Random Mounts for a price. When they are not random, which are 2 atm, they are extremely overpriced.

    Oh, and I forgot to mention that they slyly changed most of their servers to Amazon ones, giving most of their player base worse pings, while a minority ended up getting better pings, and they don't even acknowledge that.

    So yeah, that's it I guess. A game with potential, but huddled together with a greedy, lazy management.    … Expand
  6. alceste007
    Jul 30, 2017
    3
    I used to love GW2 until HoT came out. The maps are horrible for casual players. The maps feel like they were designed for players in ascended / legendary gear. Bottle necks that artificially restrict movement through the maps based on mastery while giving daily objectives that you cannot even reach out. For casual players I just recommend moving to different game.
  7. furyunleashed
    Jun 22, 2017
    2
    Be aware. Depending on what you look for in a mmorpg, this game does not have a lot to offer. It is also arguable NOT an P2W-mmo, but I would beg to differ. EVERYTHING remotely advantegous for your character/account, you have to pay. More space? Pay. Rent armor. Rent weapons. Rent, rent, rent. There are even passes for areas in the cities which has all the necessary vendors combined, andBe aware. Depending on what you look for in a mmorpg, this game does not have a lot to offer. It is also arguable NOT an P2W-mmo, but I would beg to differ. EVERYTHING remotely advantegous for your character/account, you have to pay. More space? Pay. Rent armor. Rent weapons. Rent, rent, rent. There are even passes for areas in the cities which has all the necessary vendors combined, and guess what? You have to RENT that space too. And if you are looking for a PvP-experience, this is not the game for you. You have 6 attacks/skills to play with, rest are buffs/self-healing. For 10 attacks, you can swap with secondary weapon.

    The only thing which has some entertainment-value is the world-events. Bosses spawn, and many player gather around to kill it, though it's mostly just dpsing, dying, getting ressed, rince and repeat.

    Gw2 has few 'moments', and is much less than it gives itself out for.
    97 hours of playtime (with lvl 80).    … Expand
  8. Bulmarth
    Apr 24, 2017
    1
    First $50 for an "expansion", to me it's something that could be added on a patch but not in an EXPANSION. Elite specialization now beat core specs, and you need them in order to compete in PvP or WvW. They added viper gear wich is mandatory for condition build and you only get the mats in HoT zones, so if you are F2P or had the core game only you are on a huge disadvantage.

    The other    First $50 for an "expansion", to me it's something that could be added on a patch but not in an EXPANSION. Elite specialization now beat core specs, and you need them in order to compete in PvP or WvW. They added viper gear wich is mandatory for condition build and you only get the mats in HoT zones, so if you are F2P or had the core game only you are on a huge disadvantage.

    The other thing is that ANet promised a lot of things and didn't deliver nothing of it, like new legendaries or even more they told that elite spec would be a "side grade" or an alternative way to play each class, but it ended up been a "power creep" and being a upgrade of the classes, just look reaper and chronomancer.    … Expand
  9. zaftgun
    Jan 23, 2017
    0
    if this game is worth a 10 in some eyes, then it is definitely a 0 in some eyes too and all those with bs marketing like language that's not worth the paper its printed on.

    1. Everything including the main story locked behind exp grind with almost no new content to back it up. You play the old content to grind exp. The new maps are small, very very few events repeat themselves at very    if this game is worth a 10 in some eyes, then it is definitely a 0 in some eyes too and all those with bs marketing like language that's not worth the paper its printed on.

    1. Everything including the main story locked behind exp grind with almost no new content to back it up. You play the old content to grind exp. The new maps are small, very very few events repeat themselves at very short intervals over and over. Merchants in each area require tokens from that specific map available only through grinding those few events.

    2. Expansion skills adds a huge damage spike and are way more effective than almost all pre-expansion skills. If you dont have the expansion then you are no where near as effective as you can be. There are also almost no non-expansion players. Essentially, if you dont have the expansion you might as well not play.

    3. The story is terrible, and very poorly made. I dont think I can recall anything worse.

    4. There are so many garbage items that serves almost no purpose or require so much grind and additional resource to make use of its just not worth the trouble unless you've got absolutely nothing to do. To top it off they make them and so many other things account bound. There's so much garbage that a 5 20 slot bags arent enough.

    5. After 5 years of guild wars 2 build template still not done. For some reason they thought they can send me an email before heart of the thorns release saying build templates is coming. As it stands its still not there. There's no weapon and armor sets switch option, so many redundant clicks to open bags, click through confirmations and so many more that is just so much pain.

    No where near any of the quality of guild wars 1 expansions. Utter garbage that is infuriating to experience. I want a refund.    … Expand
  10. ltmiroku
    Nov 13, 2016
    4
    the add on does in fact plenty of nice features. but my biggest turn off to this add on has got to be how you are playing the Exact same style of boss monster. when you start the game the first was about a Dragon that rises the dead and controls an army, the next story is about a dragon that raises plant characters that he controls. the dead were once living but controlled, thethe add on does in fact plenty of nice features. but my biggest turn off to this add on has got to be how you are playing the Exact same style of boss monster. when you start the game the first was about a Dragon that rises the dead and controls an army, the next story is about a dragon that raises plant characters that he controls. the dead were once living but controlled, the plants can be of created or a controlled race. The creativity here is Terrible to say the least!!

    Lets not forget the new zones will kill you, i just don't mean you picked a paper class death. i mean dear god you can have high defense and feel as if you are a paper class character. the damage is just to high! and the monsters use plenty of pulls, knockdowns and anything to kill you as often as they can its not creative!

    the maps themselves are very hard and is very confusing at times that you might get lost or frustrated that these high damaging monsters are making it hard to figure out where your at!

    Cash Shops seem to been on the rise with the add on as well, seems if you want another character slot it is 10$ per slot! sound fair to you? i felt ripped off! personally!

    I'm uncertain what Anet was thinking with this add on, but they certainly have created a mess :(    … Expand
  11. MasterMangoose
    Oct 11, 2016
    0
    Used to be the game you could play how you wanted to get the gear you wanted. Now caters to the WoW exodus and has lost it's way by giving in to the elitist who have segregated a formerly good community in to the "leets" and the "git guds". Raids, eSports, and whiners who forgot they were playing an MMO wanting the content to be increasingly more challenging have ruined a good thing.Used to be the game you could play how you wanted to get the gear you wanted. Now caters to the WoW exodus and has lost it's way by giving in to the elitist who have segregated a formerly good community in to the "leets" and the "git guds". Raids, eSports, and whiners who forgot they were playing an MMO wanting the content to be increasingly more challenging have ruined a good thing. The expansion was a joke and instead of fixing the problem They move forward to the promise of the next expansion. The game itself is horribly optimized, only works well on certain CPUs and GPUs, and is constantly bugged. There are serious game breaking bugs that have been left to be suffered through since the games release four years ago.

    More so to the expansion in general is that we were completely lied to as to what we would receive after we paid for it. Much of the new content was hidden behind raids which we were promised wouldn't be required to play the game. However it is if you want the top tier armor which was to come with the expansion. (which hasn't been released even a year after the expansion came out)    … Expand
  12. Ellthan
    Aug 26, 2016
    0
    I just paid 40 **** bucks for this game.

    Upon installing and logging in for the first time I was immediately banned for gold selling before I even got to play the game.

    I don't even know what gold selling is.
  13. Basedshitposter
    Aug 12, 2016
    0
    Many things advertised in the expansion delayed for over a year or didnt come out/canceled completely. Long drought of content updates. Game was better Pre HoT.
  14. RedCombLP
    Jul 8, 2016
    0
    HoT expansion turned this once fine game into a p2w gear grind. WvW now is totally unbalanced (power creep of HoT classes against old classes is unforgivable). It's clear the devs want to funnel everybody into buying HoT, so if you are an old player who prefers to play older classes, you will be left out in the cold. Worse still, many of the HoT features like the guild hall took away a lotHoT expansion turned this once fine game into a p2w gear grind. WvW now is totally unbalanced (power creep of HoT classes against old classes is unforgivable). It's clear the devs want to funnel everybody into buying HoT, so if you are an old player who prefers to play older classes, you will be left out in the cold. Worse still, many of the HoT features like the guild hall took away a lot of hard work previously completed by guilds, and if you aren't a HoT player, you have no real access to any of the stuff in the guild hall (sure, you can go there and look around, but none of the NPCs will actually let you do anything unless you buy HoT). It's clear Anet doesn't care about older players who don't like pve content and don't appreciate how OP and unbalanced all of the new classes/elite specs are. We don't make them money so they gave us the bird. Hope all the p2w people who love pve gear treadmills enjoy, because I'm done.… Expand
  15. themangoose
    Jun 14, 2016
    0
    Not worth the money. They sold us a box of promises, but when we opened it there were only likes. Half of what was promised with the expansion has been cancelled in lieu of more gemstore updates. Raids ruined the game as the only way to get top armor gear now is behind only one game mode. The game has chanced and you're going to hate the community now. They sold out to make all ofNot worth the money. They sold us a box of promises, but when we opened it there were only likes. Half of what was promised with the expansion has been cancelled in lieu of more gemstore updates. Raids ruined the game as the only way to get top armor gear now is behind only one game mode. The game has chanced and you're going to hate the community now. They sold out to make all of the WoW transfers happy. WvW is a joke and they promote match fixing.… Expand
  16. johnyboy420
    May 31, 2016
    0
    this Xpac is a waste of money plain and simple!

    only real reason i got HOT waz for the claimed PVP matchmaker that waz released late and is 100X worse then Mechwarrior:online's matchmaker......LOL thats saying alot (-_-) then WvW new cliff fall simulator that is EZ'er then hell too get lost in and has tons of broken PVE in it only now too get thrown away and bring back the old    this Xpac is a waste of money plain and simple!

    only real reason i got HOT waz for the claimed PVP matchmaker that waz released late and is 100X worse then Mechwarrior:online's matchmaker......LOL thats saying alot (-_-)

    then WvW new cliff fall simulator that is EZ'er then hell too get lost in and has tons of broken PVE in it
    only now too get thrown away and bring back the old map's.....lawl too bad this Xpac killed my server RIP

    i give this Xpac a zero for giving me **** all but making me more toxic and not giving me a descent MatchMaker, for a PVP RPG lover this game is trash now not worth the 50 bucks even if they give you a Free 80 too start your game    … Expand
  17. DanteYoda
    May 8, 2016
    2
    Guildwars 2 is no longer for casual players, you enjoy solo play this expansion is not for you..The game has completely forgotten its values of when it was released, everything they stood for is gone.

    What do you have to look forward to in Heart of Thorns Mind numbing difficult, what ever happened to fun enjoyable game play?, nope the hardcore cancer that is infecting a lot of games    Guildwars 2 is no longer for casual players, you enjoy solo play this expansion is not for you..The game has completely forgotten its values of when it was released, everything they stood for is gone.

    What do you have to look forward to in Heart of Thorns

    Mind numbing difficult, what ever happened to fun enjoyable game play?, nope the hardcore cancer that is infecting a lot of games these days has well and truly got its claws into HoT, to the point of unplayable solo, Arenanet claim they've made it easier but that is completely false.

    Grind - of multiple types, you name its its there, loot grind, exp grind, resources grind, consumables grind, as of writing this i cannot think of a part of HoT that doesn't have horrible grind attached to it.

    Rng - The randomness is mind boggling, everything you'd ever want is locked behind some ungodly rng so good luck ever seeing it.

    Half of what they promised has not even been added to this day, Legendaries nope that's all over now. sorry if you purchased this for them.

    Honestly if you value your money stay clear, the game is losing population badly.    … Expand
  18. Cosmicegg37
    Apr 7, 2016
    1
    I've been enjoying the Guild Wars franchise since the release of Guild Wars 1 and I had high hopes for Guild Wars 2 heart of thorns they advertise exciting content but failed to deliver parts of the game has been scrapped completely after failed promises after failed promises I cannot recommend this game
  19. StormageddonBK
    Apr 6, 2016
    0
    I've played since launch and love the game but HoT isn't fun, AT ALL! To play any part of the new content you NEED to grind masteries and only the new classes are competitive.

    HoT changes killed WvW. It has a new laggy PvE filled border lands and you now need to grind outside WvW in PvE to level guild halls for WvW. This is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of in game design and    I've played since launch and love the game but HoT isn't fun, AT ALL! To play any part of the new content you NEED to grind masteries and only the new classes are competitive.

    HoT changes killed WvW. It has a new laggy PvE filled border lands and you now need to grind outside WvW in PvE to level guild halls for WvW. This is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of in game design and totally ruins dedicated WvW play.

    Actually no, I stand corrected, there is something more stupid! They cancelled the new legendary weapons development 6 months after launch (which they advertised and took money for), plus the loooooong awaited WvW update has been delayed and isn't anywhere to be seen. How hard is it to deliver on these 2 sales points that you accepted money for? They now say the legendary team has been re-purposed... seriously!!! What else is going to drop in the future? Oh and they have been developing the next expansion with 70 devs while this expansion suffers!!! OMG. fool me once...never again Anet!    … Expand
  20. Exfan
    Mar 25, 2016
    1
    How to ruin decent game:
    1. New dailies less to choose from in pve content wise same areas repeating event side, usually daily fractals and certain level ones so its like 2/5 usually filled with these and always 1 world boss you could actually wait 1h to 30 mins to get daily boss done. Pve content and group pve content should be 2 separate things and for **** sake more choices.
    2. New    How to ruin decent game:
    1. New dailies less to choose from in pve content wise same areas repeating event side, usually daily fractals and certain level ones so its like 2/5 usually filled with these and always 1 world boss you could actually wait 1h to 30 mins to get daily boss done. Pve content and group pve content should be 2 separate things and for **** sake more choices.
    2. New mastery system forced content must do storyline, must own, buy and must get certain achievement while doing storyline if not your character progress just stops until you advance in storyline to get enough mastery points so you are forced play game certain way.
    3. New classes some are just lame some are just overpowered. New class revenant is just grind skill points to open each stance and open all skills in each stance. There ain't lot of customization because skills require certain stance to use perhaps most boring class to play. As for other classes game is just skillpoint grind fest need 30 open weapon for profession and of course you need to use almost empty skill three to use weapon.
    Perhaps they have started fix these things but haven't been bothered to play game is not for casuals anymore it is becoming just like wow boring and old no life grindfest. Sadly i am casual and proud of it.    … Expand
  21. Lechasseur
    Mar 8, 2016
    2
    This expansion has completely decimated the community. Entire guilds have been killed due to players no longer logging in because of how dead the content is. WvW is broken(more so tham usual) and has been broken since October. PVE is dead to those who like content other than brainlessly following a group. The new maps are pretty sure, but theu just hide the fact that all they have are theThis expansion has completely decimated the community. Entire guilds have been killed due to players no longer logging in because of how dead the content is. WvW is broken(more so tham usual) and has been broken since October. PVE is dead to those who like content other than brainlessly following a group. The new maps are pretty sure, but theu just hide the fact that all they have are the same events over and over. The tangled depths are a huge **** This expansion isnt worth $10 let alone $50.… Expand
  22. skilliard
    Mar 7, 2016
    1
    For $50 you get an expansion that has roughly 8 hours worth of content. Then it gets boring again. The game is pay2win. There are never any content updates anymore besides paid DLC. Combat is dull and uninspired.
  23. marc5477
    Feb 13, 2016
    3
    Grind GRing GRInd GRINd GRIND!!! Thats all this expansion is.

    I am a fan of GW2 despite its many flaws and was hoping for something new in this expansion but alas, it was a let down. Not only is the content just more of the same (zerg this, zerg that) but they made it grindy as hell... they created new currency for each of the new zones that forces the player to grind the same cycle of    Grind GRing GRInd GRINd GRIND!!! Thats all this expansion is.

    I am a fan of GW2 despite its many flaws and was hoping for something new in this expansion but alas, it was a let down. Not only is the content just more of the same (zerg this, zerg that) but they made it grindy as hell... they created new currency for each of the new zones that forces the player to grind the same cycle of quests more than a hundred times to get the items in each map. The quests are just like old world quests and just as boring when you have to repeat them.

    The one notable difference is the enemies are harder but not in a good way. They simply have more hit points and hit harder but they dont do anything interesting and for the most part, they do not require any strategy or anything like that to beat. Think Planes of Power in EQ (which is when that MMO fell apart as well). Its just the same enemies from the old game but hit harder and take longer to kill. The problem is that they are still trivially easy to beat so all this does is make the grind even worse. On top of all that, there is no reason to fight them... and that is the real killer. You dont get better loot for killing them because they didnt add any new loot to the game... just new skins for the same old same and thus, there is no point to any of it.

    The only cool new mechanic is the ability to glide from a fall... but its not as if you need this in the old world for anything. Other than that, no interest new items (just new looks/skins), no interest bosses (they are all just zerg fests like old bosses) and lastly, the story is clearly contrived and an afterthought and not nearly as good as the original game quest.

    I had to remember that this game is made by a Korean company and Koreans are known for their grindy MMO's like Lineage, which many western gamers (like myself) get bored of very quickly.

    There is no reason to own this expansion. Just play the original game and once you are bored move on. This brings nothing worthwhile to the table.    … Expand
  24. TMachine
    Feb 5, 2016
    4
    If you pay attention it becomes clear how A-net is running this business. I don't feel like writing another long wall of text, we've done plenty of those on official forums.
  25. Zlare
    Feb 3, 2016
    3
    The little content of this overpriced expansion cant bring the game back to life. Guild Wars 2 looks outdated and gameplay feels okay but the story is short and after that there is once again nothing. Guild Wars continues its story of having very litle to do after finishing the story. Of course you can always go into the world and spend hours collecting more hero points but they is veryThe little content of this overpriced expansion cant bring the game back to life. Guild Wars 2 looks outdated and gameplay feels okay but the story is short and after that there is once again nothing. Guild Wars continues its story of having very litle to do after finishing the story. Of course you can always go into the world and spend hours collecting more hero points but they is very little to do with those hero points. What is the point of upgrading your character if you could do all the content before those upgrades aswell?
    Sadly all new areas are made of meta events which require a lot of people to participate. That worked the first time after release but now the areas are rather empty. Also the interesting quest design from the normal GW2 is complety gone. The new areas consist only of meta events.
    Sadly this expansion doesn't change anything about the concept of GW2 of being a game where progress means very little and endgame is nonexistent.    … Expand
  26. Woahstrewth
    Jan 25, 2016
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Speaking as someone who has played nearly every game mode and has sunk over 4000 hours into the game I can say that I am pretty well versed in the game. After hearing about Heart of Thorns and the myriad of changes it would bring to the game I was understandably excited. When it launched it seemed to be everything I had hoped for and completely renewed my interest for about a month or so. But as time went on I noticed a strange and bitter taste developing every time I logged on to play, which I was doing less and less. Something was off about it, and the more I thought the more I realized just how much about this expansion I disliked.

    Art and Design: As usual it's top notch, probably the most beautiful MMO I've ever played. SOME (not all) of the new zones are really cool, my personal favorite being the golden city of Tarir and Auric Basin in general. Overall though the four new zones and two new guild halls and raid are just ok in my book. They're each about half the size of the vanilla maps or a bit more and some of them are just kind of dull (Verdant Brink and Dragon's Stand are fairly bland).

    Progression: Ah the Mastery System, where to start. It's essentially Anet's way of putting in end game progression, but I have numerous problems with their implementation. First off, and there's no way of sugar coating it, it is a total grind to get everything, and for very little reward. Everything you are grinding for has nothing to do with stats, or really anything, it just has to with being able to navigate the new zones more easily, or with getting small bonuses in already existing content such as fractals. The new "Legendary Journey" to craft a precursor is a joke, and it's still cheaper in most cases to just outright buy the thing. I was able to finish all central tyria masteries but gave up after I reached Mastery level 89 as I just couldn't be bothered, they gave me no incentive or reason to continue, I could care less about gliding marginally faster in these specific areas.

    The Story: Alot of people are giving the expansion tons of praise for how much better the story it tells is. I have to admit that through the living story Arenanet obviously learned some things about telling more interesting stories. But to be completely honest, though it is leaps and bounds better than the original story quests, I still found it completely laughable at best. The entire thing is over in about two hours barring the required mastery grinds in order to progress, and it does nothing new or interesting with the characters. Not to mention explaining how exactly Canach ended up with us? Also that Vinetooth Faolain thing is **** hilarious to look at and not menacing in the slightest. Compared to other MMOs such as WoW and FF14 the story is entirely mediocre.

    Elite Specs and PvP: Yes, PvP is a complete dumping ground atm, with elite spec metas totally dominating and imbalance rampant. WvW's new borderlands have been rethemed as Deserts, which is entirely fitting because they are almost completely and always empty. Most of the Elite Specs are cool to mess around with and take a bit to unlock but they don't really do much in redeeming the overall expansion.

    Dungeons and Raids: So if there is one thing I really can't complain that much about it's what Anet did to Fractals of the Mists, shortening and streamlining it, making it more accessable, albeit with reduced rewards, but that is symptematic of something even worse. Other than that and the new raid, there is no other new instanced content, not even a single new dungeon. The Raids are also awkward stilted affairs, far too difficult for any casual players to finish but also lacking any true sort of reward or stat upgrade. They get more of a resounding meh.

    My main problem with the game is what the expansion did to instance rewards and rewards in general since the f2p coversion. If you want any hope of keeping up with the "End Game" or really accomplishing anything, you need gold. Gold in the game has always been alot harder to come by than almost any other mmo but now since they neutered the rewards from every dungeon, it is almost mandatory to spend real money and transfer it to gold to get anything done this century in the game. It is incredibly disheartening and just makes you realize the completely shallow nature of the expansion and the game itself in the current state.

    tl;dr Don't waste your money on the game in it's current state, there are mmos out there far more deserving of your time and effort that do what this game tries to do better in almost everyway. Try Heavensward on FF14 or even Warlords of Draenor for WoW over this.    … Expand
  27. Patriarch
    Jan 16, 2016
    2
    Hated it. Four maps for full expansion price. Lots of mini-games. Content gated behind masteries. Anet is obviously moving towards "grinding". Each map has its own currency, which clutters up your inventory. Not casual-friendly like the core game. I went back to the core maps before reaching the fourth map.

    The new masteries seem cool, and Revenant is fun to play, but you have to buy a    Hated it. Four maps for full expansion price. Lots of mini-games. Content gated behind masteries. Anet is obviously moving towards "grinding". Each map has its own currency, which clutters up your inventory. Not casual-friendly like the core game. I went back to the core maps before reaching the fourth map.

    The new masteries seem cool, and Revenant is fun to play, but you have to buy a character slot for it separately unless you want to delete one of your characters. I have no idea why Anet thought it would be a good idea to charge $50 for an expansion with a new profession and not include a character slot.

    Overall, it feels like the whole expansion is geared towards gold sinks and time sinks. Any future expansions will be a hard-sell after my intense dislike for this one.

    On a side-note, Anet is already tempering expectations for the new living story (LS3). They said there will be fewer updates, but they will be "richer". they also said they will be splitting their time between LS3 and the next expansion.    … Expand
  28. Pst
    Jan 10, 2016
    0
    If you take away the bells and whistles of the "mastery system", this "expansion" brings nothing new or innovating to the game. The new maps are terribly designed, expect to spend a lot of time taxiing into an active map. WvW is still neglected, dungeons are pretty much forgotten and the story is very short. I lost interest in HoT 2 weeks into it. The raids do not feel epic whatsoever, itIf you take away the bells and whistles of the "mastery system", this "expansion" brings nothing new or innovating to the game. The new maps are terribly designed, expect to spend a lot of time taxiing into an active map. WvW is still neglected, dungeons are pretty much forgotten and the story is very short. I lost interest in HoT 2 weeks into it. The raids do not feel epic whatsoever, it doesn't feel right without the trinity. I have more negative things to say about this game and company but am feeling too salty to write anymore. I regrettably purchased the ultimate edition. I won't be supporting Anet ever again.… Expand
  29. UPRC
    Jan 10, 2016
    1
    I'd give it something higher than a 1/10, maybe even a passing grade, if I could progress past the start. I simply can't. I've died over 20 times since stepping foot into the first new zone and trying to do the first story mission. I had no problems in this game before the expansion, and I'm leveling a revenant without any problems... so why is it so hard now? I literally can't progressI'd give it something higher than a 1/10, maybe even a passing grade, if I could progress past the start. I simply can't. I've died over 20 times since stepping foot into the first new zone and trying to do the first story mission. I had no problems in this game before the expansion, and I'm leveling a revenant without any problems... so why is it so hard now? I literally can't progress past the first story mission in Dry Tops or wherever I am. I wanted an MMO to play, so I came back to GW2 and I bought the expansion despite being fairly poor, but I figured I'd get hours of enjoyment out of it and that would offset the cost of the expansion. I feel like I just threw money away instead, money that could have gone towards groceries and such. This is just stupidly difficult, and I was never a bad player previously. Way to go ArenaNet, you've probably left a bad taste in the mouths of a lot of people.… Expand
  30. Adrenalin
    Jan 3, 2016
    0
    Cash Grab Wars 2: Heart for Gems - This expansion is nothing but an insult to its playerbase. Way too less new content, dumb destroying of old content (dungeons, wvw, class balancing) and above all, the complete destruction of ingame rewards (especially liquid gold drops) in order to force players to GEMS->GOLD. The whole game is completely pointless these days because everythingCash Grab Wars 2: Heart for Gems - This expansion is nothing but an insult to its playerbase. Way too less new content, dumb destroying of old content (dungeons, wvw, class balancing) and above all, the complete destruction of ingame rewards (especially liquid gold drops) in order to force players to GEMS->GOLD. The whole game is completely pointless these days because everything meaningful gets accomplished faster with a McDonald's job rather than actually playing the game.

    If you compare this with WoW:WoD, WoD introduced stupid browser game stuff with its mission table gameplay-wise; HoT made GW2 a browser game reward-wise. And I'm talking about **** p2w browser games, no quality stuff like CoC.

    This mindless greed of Anet will be the downfall of the company and the game. And that is well justified.    … Expand
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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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