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. Itsausername
    Apr 8, 2023
    7
    Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns. I will keep this review short and to the point.
    I would like to rate this higher than I am, Guild Wars 2 overall is a fantastic game with lots of dungeon systems, however I have to put this from my first experience of the expansion. And that is that... It felt somewhat lacking. Maybe, had I played it at release, I would feel differently. But when comparing    Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns. I will keep this review short and to the point.
    I would like to rate this higher than I am, Guild Wars 2 overall is a fantastic game with lots of dungeon systems, however I have to put this from my first experience of the expansion. And that is that... It felt somewhat lacking. Maybe, had I played it at release, I would feel differently. But when comparing it to what came before and what came after, there is a lack of unique feeling gameplay or systems here outside of the glider.
    There are also issues in the difficulty jump between the base game and this expansion and even compared to the newer expansions. And while I enjoyed the increase in challenge after a time, I will admit it was frustrating at the start. And I have had multiple friends quit over this difficulty ramping.
    This expansion is just not friendly for people trying to get into the game.    … Expand
  2. LiveSpartan235
    Oct 21, 2020
    7
    Nice expansion pack after some updates and the devs committing to finding it footing
  3. TIZ
    May 30, 2018
    7
    HoT at release was an infuriating and agonizing experience. It takes some getting use to as it is very different from the base game, which I had gotten use to by the time the expansion came out. Once HoT came out I wasn't a big fan of the new maps (even if they did look amazing and much prettier than the base game). I struggled, like many veteran and new players to really get stuck intoHoT at release was an infuriating and agonizing experience. It takes some getting use to as it is very different from the base game, which I had gotten use to by the time the expansion came out. Once HoT came out I wasn't a big fan of the new maps (even if they did look amazing and much prettier than the base game). I struggled, like many veteran and new players to really get stuck into HoT content. Eventually I managed to 'learn' to like it and even love it. My god I loved gliding!!!
    It is important to note that I only started loving it after I had almost all the masteries unlocked for HoT. I'm not sure this is what the devs wanted when they made HoT...
    I would rate this expansion a 7/10. If I had to be biased I would give it an 8/10 but I'm trying to be realistic.    … Expand
  4. em4o0
    Mar 5, 2018
    5
    A, Heart of Thorns, so aptly named. It has quite become a thorn in my sight and a genuine heartache.

    I became a fan of the franchise way back when 1 came out and since then I have played all expansions (with Nightfall being my favourite). Alas, HoT cannot claim such greatness. The game introduces 4 new maps to a rather large plethora of pre-existing territories, however, the new    A, Heart of Thorns, so aptly named. It has quite become a thorn in my sight and a genuine heartache.

    I became a fan of the franchise way back when 1 came out and since then I have played all expansions (with Nightfall being my favourite). Alas, HoT cannot claim such greatness.

    The game introduces 4 new maps to a rather large plethora of pre-existing territories, however, the new additions are noticeably larger in scale. Even better, there is now comprehensive exploration to be had on the vertical axis and, unlike some other games, it is not limited to flying mounts, but is instead full-fledged exploration. The map is no help as it does a poor job of denoting heights, yet, I found this pretty exciting and the explorer in me actually got some (admittedly, masochistic) pleasure. I would also be remiss not to compliment the design of the maps, as they are visually stunning.

    Populating the new maps are a set of new creatures, which are noticeably more challenging to deal with that the ones in core-game territories. Sadly their difficulty stems from buffed health and damage (in fact, some can oneshot characters). There are no enemies with interesting or unique mechanics, not even bosses. The overall creature design is thematic - from raptors to pumas to various cretins covered in tendrils, if predictable and uninspired. The elite enemies are, once again, just larger versions of regular ones, which is a bit disappointing (especially considering the overall low number of introduced monsters).

    Main centrepiece of the remains the typical "saviour" trope - you are the one and only hero (which glaringly contrast with the almost exclusively group content of the maps). Of course, this does nothing for immersion... or suspension of disbelief. Admittedly this is a problem that trickles down from the original game. Although clichés are abound, it is in general better that the core game. Voice acting is decent enough, but it is a MMO - don't expect miracles.

    The core gameplay mechanic in the new expansion are the so-called metaevents - essentially a tier type event comprised several smaller events that must be completed in order to reach an end boss. These are not only map-wide, but are spread out around the entire mar, and require the cooperation of a large number of players to be successfully completed... in a game with no effective or efficient method of communication between random players. It is fair to say these require all the stars to align perfectly. That is if you have enough players to begin with. Admittedly there does seem to be a level of adjustment for the number of characters currently on the map, but anything under 11-12 is simply not feasible (and even that's a stretch). Additionally, if certain conditions are met new smaller events will become available. They are nothing new though, being similiar in nature to the events from the core game maps.

    But that is, if you can even get to these in the first place... That's right the new "horizontal progression system," aka masteries. In essence those function in a similar way to regular levelling - collect (a lot of) XP to unlock skills. These skills are unique to each separate area (HoT and Central Tyria, the core territories). These are quite important as they literally limit your ability to explore the maps and participate in events, making it all the more annoying that they are "locked" behind a grind wall. And if that's not enough, they are required for story progression and raids. And remember - the only way to get HoT relevant XP is through the endlessly repeatable metaevents. Which leads to the next required skill, which costs even more XP. Which leads to playing even more metaevents. A magic circle, or rather - trap. Who thought this is a good idea?

    And last, but certainly not least - the new elite specialisations. Right of the bat, they are also safely put away behind a rather considerable hero point barrier. Hero points are now obtained in chunks of 10 (mostly) by beating an elite mob, which always requires a group of players (or a talented pro, I suppose). In reality, this is likely to be a long and arduous process, probably not completed before you have already finished the vast majority of the story. The new specialisations are a lot of fun though and definitely worth it. They also add more variety to class playstyles, granted that was not terribly necessary, as plenty options were already available. Still, as Dolly Parton said - "...more is more." and I do so find it to be wise remark.

    Overall, the expansion takes a very sharp turn from an (in my opinion) already winning formula... and fails. The new areas are beautiful and big, but ironically devoid of content - you will be stuck repeating the same chain of events ad nauseum. Allowing the developers to pad the content by introducing, what amounts to, "time gates" is a dangerous precedent (and has honestly shaken what belief I had in ArenaNet).    … Expand
  5. Foxtina
    Jan 8, 2018
    7
    Fun expansion but I have found news maps to be very confusing and messy. Other than that it's great.
  6. bthomas
    Oct 8, 2017
    6
    The only significantly positive change brought by HoT is the specialization system for each class, which can make your playstyle vary drastically.

    The masteries systems are good on principle, but tying them to what I believe to be an exaggerated amount of experience can lead to a frustratingly tiresome grind-fest. Although the meta event chains can be entertaining, maps like Tangled    The only significantly positive change brought by HoT is the specialization system for each class, which can make your playstyle vary drastically.

    The masteries systems are good on principle, but tying them to what I believe to be an exaggerated amount of experience can lead to a frustratingly tiresome grind-fest.

    Although the meta event chains can be entertaining, maps like Tangled Depths are a a plain nightmare to navigate. Get in and get out.    … Expand
  7. TicTacTaco
    Sep 24, 2017
    7
    When I first heard that Heart of Thorns would only have four maps, I was pretty skeptical of how much content there would be. Having played a good amount of each map, I can honestly say that there's a ton to do. These maps are huge, beautiful, and probably the most fun to travel in the entire game. People will say that you need to grin to unlock certain things, but this is simply notWhen I first heard that Heart of Thorns would only have four maps, I was pretty skeptical of how much content there would be. Having played a good amount of each map, I can honestly say that there's a ton to do. These maps are huge, beautiful, and probably the most fun to travel in the entire game. People will say that you need to grin to unlock certain things, but this is simply not accurate. Sure, you CAN grind the same events over and over, but that's on you. There's so much to do that you really only have yourself to blame if you're just sticking to on area.

    I will say, I can understand people's frustration with not being able to play their Elite Specialization for quite some time. However, this is part of the endgame progression. It's just a shame that some of the specs are much worse without their traits than others.

    The story is a vast improvement over the base game's though still pretty bad.    … Expand
  8. Blanel
    Aug 11, 2017
    7
    A Meh expansion to a solid game.

    The new zones are very big and artistically beautiful. The story is good, not great, but good. The new monsters and challenges you face will actually put up a fight sometimes, but at other times its the same old steam roll. Gliding is pretty cool.

    If you like Guild Wars 2 (which is Free to Play, so just check it out), you might want to buy this expansion.
  9. Cell1e
    Apr 4, 2017
    7
    Much improved since I last reviewed this expansion, there are a lot more players in the four new maps, all except for Dragons stand, which is pretty ridiculous in how it works.

    I am now enjoying my visits to the new maps. So well done to GW2 team for the great improvements,
  10. buranya
    Mar 24, 2017
    7
    HoT is in some ways a rebuild of Guild Wars 2. It adds a lot of content to the main game, new areas, new bosses and dungeons. It contains all that we expect from an expansion. But, and there's always one but, it is too expensive for what it gives. If you had already bought Guild Wars 2, HoT will cost you exactly the same as a completely new player, as it gives you the main game with theHoT is in some ways a rebuild of Guild Wars 2. It adds a lot of content to the main game, new areas, new bosses and dungeons. It contains all that we expect from an expansion. But, and there's always one but, it is too expensive for what it gives. If you had already bought Guild Wars 2, HoT will cost you exactly the same as a completely new player, as it gives you the main game with the buy.

    But, trying to focus on the expansion itself, it adds a lot of hours of fun. Also improves the living world, and the new dungeons can be a big deal to treat with. Graphically it keeps the same aspect as the original game. The new areas are full of quests, every area contains it's own coin, that lets you buy some materials, armors and weapons. The new dungeons gives you the chance to face probably some of the hardest bosses in the game.

    And, ANet kept the expansion going further on the storyline. It doesn't finish with the fight against Mordremoth, but there are new living world quests. There are also new Legendary weapons coming out.

    One of the bad aspects of it is that it doesn't keep the community playing commonly. GW2 had that issue: you can play it during 4 months but, given the time, you stop playing it, because you lost the intention to obtain things, you already got all you wished, etc. And HoT has exactly the same problem.

    Given those aspects this is why i decide to score it with a 7. HoT adds content, new story, dungeons, weapons and maps. It also adds some classes making the game more open to customization of characters. But, it isn't worth 50€ if you aren't a new player or you intent to give it a lot of hours (old player). If you know that you will, don't doubt buying it; it is made for you. But, if you're closer to a casual gamer, forget about this buy.    … Expand
  11. OldGamer99
    Jul 4, 2016
    5
    GW2 and HoT have a lot going for it- a fairly action-y combat system (though not as quick as more recent games), great visuals. But with HoT, many of the things that made GW2 great were broken. I used to be able to move between PVE, WvW, sPVP, achievement hunting, and the occasional instance as my mood struck.

    With current rewards (which are still nerfed for all but the new content),    GW2 and HoT have a lot going for it- a fairly action-y combat system (though not as quick as more recent games), great visuals. But with HoT, many of the things that made GW2 great were broken. I used to be able to move between PVE, WvW, sPVP, achievement hunting, and the occasional instance as my mood struck.

    With current rewards (which are still nerfed for all but the new content), and so much of the new content requiring masteries and time gates, the game has losts its appeal. Login went from "what seems fun today" to "I'm only really enjoying sPvP but I need a break even from that".

    I'm a 'steady casual' player: spend a lot of time in-game, spend money in my current games of choice, have moments of decent pvp play but not a great pvp-er, am helpful to other players, like exploring and getting new skins and titles as much as anything else.

    HoT fails on most of the things I like. The mini-games are annoying and seemed designed only to distract me from the fact that there is not that much new content. There are almost no new skins, and what there is ugly (like the gear made out of wreckage- interesting concept if it was part of a much larger offering, kind of weak as one of 3-4 new sets).

    Anet also seems to have made the decision to only spend its dev effort on outfits and black lion weapons, rather than the old armor skins that could be mixed and matched. I much prefer the latter but would tolerate the skins if they weren't cash shop only (technically the blacklion skins aren't cash shop but grinding keys is not practical so you need to buy keys for tickets for skins.)

    It's all rather disappointing. The best analogy I can think of is they had a nicely running jeweled mechanical watch and they threw sand in the gears. They can completely rebuild the watch or pick out the grains of sand one by one but either path is slow.

    The old lead dev responsible for the mess has moved on (great job earlier but I think he lost his way with most recent release) and the company says they are trying to fix things. I have fond memories of the game and will keep an eye on it in hopes that they do but my expectations are low.    … Expand
  12. LordHawks
    Jan 9, 2016
    6
    I've played Guild Wars 2 for a few years now, along with the expansion Heart of Thorns. Decided to take a break from GW2 because the expansion felt like more of a job than a game. I wasn't having fun. Wiping every event, boss, story, and even exploring became really tiresome. Still a okay expansion for a certain type of player, but I'm burnt out on GW2. Disinterested in the story, newI've played Guild Wars 2 for a few years now, along with the expansion Heart of Thorns. Decided to take a break from GW2 because the expansion felt like more of a job than a game. I wasn't having fun. Wiping every event, boss, story, and even exploring became really tiresome. Still a okay expansion for a certain type of player, but I'm burnt out on GW2. Disinterested in the story, new builds behind a wall, and you're essentially just soloing around a lot of people. PVP was always enjoyable but not enough to keep me around. This is where I part ways with Guild Wars 2.

    Moved onto Star Wars: Old Republic as a subscriber. Tank, DPS, healer is a breath of fresh air, and I like the teamwork aspect. Story is excellent. Environment is excellent. Dungeons are way fun, and raids are insanely fun.    … Expand
  13. Manwithtwohands
    Dec 30, 2015
    5
    Beautiful environments, animations and voice acting.
    Horrible game-play design.
    Seems the company has no ideas for longevity besides endless grind. Earn 1 million xp to talk to this frog vendor. Then talk to the frog vendor and see all his stuff is locked until you earn 3 million xp or some nonsense like that. You definitely get the impression the company making this game either hates    Beautiful environments, animations and voice acting.
    Horrible game-play design.
    Seems the company has no ideas for longevity besides endless grind.
    Earn 1 million xp to talk to this frog vendor. Then talk to the frog vendor and see all his stuff is locked until you earn 3 million xp or some nonsense like that. You definitely get the impression the company making this game either hates players or just doesn't care anymore.    … Expand
  14. mega_karaoke
    Dec 9, 2015
    7
    Heart of Thorns represents a worthy effort by ArenaNet, but ultimately the content available within the first couple months of launch feels shallow.

    Great: the first raid, Spirit Vale. The music. The art, especially Auric Basin. The new class, Revenant (once you fully unlock its elite specialization, Herald). Gliding! Good: guild halls are incredible if incredibly overpriced. The    Heart of Thorns represents a worthy effort by ArenaNet, but ultimately the content available within the first couple months of launch feels shallow.

    Great: the first raid, Spirit Vale. The music. The art, especially Auric Basin. The new class, Revenant (once you fully unlock its elite specialization, Herald). Gliding!

    Good: guild halls are incredible if incredibly overpriced. The Mastery system is a good idea though it needs more impactful unlocks, especially later in the system. Elite Specializations are mostly upgrades to the class.

    Bad: by "disincentivizing" dungeons, instanced content feels lacking, especially rewards. WvW players are mostly avoiding the new borderlands map. PvP balance issues and matchmaking still poor. Many rewards are locked behind Mastery system gates. The new maps are all on strict timers, often requiring an hour or more of time investment to receive rewards. The last act of the Story felt horribly rushed with an incredibly unsatisfying ending.

    Overall: if you intend to keep playing Guild Wars 2, you should absolutely buy Heart of Thorns. For players who have never tried the game, start with the free-to-play version and, if you still like it a couple hundred hours in, feel safe buying the game.    … Expand
  15. MarcTryon
    Nov 23, 2015
    5
    At first blush, HoT has a lot going for it. The specialization are fun, the glider is a hoot, the new zones are lush and the critters unique and challenging.

    But as the hardcore players have pushed deeper into the new zones, the more accessible zones are left underpopulated. This isn't too bad in the first zone but, since it's hard to even solo the trash on the paths, and impossible to    At first blush, HoT has a lot going for it. The specialization are fun, the glider is a hoot, the new zones are lush and the critters unique and challenging.

    But as the hardcore players have pushed deeper into the new zones, the more accessible zones are left underpopulated. This isn't too bad in the first zone but, since it's hard to even solo the trash on the paths, and impossible to do most hero points or events without a decent number of people, it means for second and later zone, there is little worth doing unless you can get to a commander's pin and those are hard to come by, at least when I play.

    The mastery system is a long haul, which is not necessarily bad- it's good to have some goals. But it is frustrating to repeatedly find content that you can't access without some mastery since, unless you spend a crazy amount of time playing, it will be weeks or months before you've unlocked the necessary mastery. Plus the mastery "gate" seems frankly just arbitrary- like the hero point that poisons you over time and the only way to last long enough to earn the hero point is to have one of the end masteries, something that takes a very long time. Arbitrary content gates remind me of the old adventure games that put in obscure puzzles just so you didn't blow through the content too quickly.

    The legendary precursor collections proved to be another long grind without even the benefit of saving you money on your precursor since you still need to craft and/or buy quite a lot.

    It feels like the only option is to join a guild (which is hard to find at my late play time) and spend lots of time repeating the same content.

    GW2 went from quite enjoyable to starting to get painful to log in. For me, it's time to give it a six month break and see if they fix anything after a few patches. Definitely a disappointing xpac.    … Expand
  16. WallOfTextPlz
    Nov 18, 2015
    7
    Pros: Guild Wars 2 before the expansion was a shadow of their former self.

    Cons: Anet tried to please everyone. They made HoT grindy. WoW players would love that. They added trinity to raids. Now where is your target market?
  17. 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
  18. Northstrider
    Nov 5, 2015
    6
    The first addon for Guild Wars 2 is something that I personally dont see as an actual expansion more like a DLC. There are some points that I would like the mentoin that are make me feel like the addon is a half hearted project.

    1. The Environment The Maguuma jungle is a pretty nice view. The first map cleary shows that the pact assault has failed for obvious reasons. The landscape    The first addon for Guild Wars 2 is something that I personally dont see as an actual expansion more like a DLC. There are some points that I would like the mentoin that are make me feel like the addon is a half hearted project.

    1. The Environment
    The Maguuma jungle is a pretty nice view. The first map cleary shows that the pact assault has failed for obvious reasons. The landscape itself is also designed like the rest of the game: if you wouldn't have your world map you probably would never find your way through it. In this case it's just perfect for a jungle. even though you have your world map you still have to experiment arround to find your way to the multiple layered maps accessable by several masteries. The following maps were also pretty much alike you are in a rampant grown jungle covered in vines everywhere.

    2. The Revenant
    One of the more intresting additions is the new class: the Revenant. This class is a great example how to break the typical berserker meta build style because if you are gonna play him like that you will probably learn pretty fast that other classes can do it better so the class was designed to match into other builds like condition damage or being tanky as hell. The abilities are pretty much fun but the effects are for my taste ways over the top compared to the other classes probably for marketing purposes.

    3. The new class specializations
    The new specializations are a refreshing experience to the entire game yet are they confusing as well. The new class icons displayed at the group members portrait doesn't rly explain what the character is playing. Anyways, the new abilities for all classes bring in some new opportunities to play more classes on pure berserker builds such as the Guardian Dragon Hunter spec which is kinda sad because of that the berserker is still being the superior build for beating each kind of content. I don't wanna review this point any further because it's about your own experience how you like to play the game so i leave this point to you.

    4. The mastery system
    Mike O'brien's words about Guild Wars 2 were against the typical MMO grind wall. But the new mastery system did the exact opposite of it. Days after days of pointless event grinding is your daily routine in this addon to unlock new mastery perks to get deeper into the content. For me it feels like a massive artifical stretching feature to hide the lack of overall content in this addon. The Tyria mastery does the same thing except the current existing farming methods to skip this grind to get into the masteries such as the pre-cursor collections within a acceptable time window. Overall I personally wish that the Maguuma mastery should be also avaiable in the vanilla game to make it more fun to grind them. Else I actually don't like that system because it does nothing better than farming in Orr does.

    5. The Pre-Cursor Collections
    In Guild Wars 2 it's called "A legendary journey". For me it plays like "A legendary waste of time for a part of something bigger". I started heading to unlock the collections to finish my first legendary item, the Sunrise. But after I saw the first tier of requirements I was thinking already "Nope. Take my gold, I'm out of this". Participating in tons of events that doesn't even make sense for the theme of the weapons I ways seeing a giant grindwall behind this "journey". I mean I am doing this to obtain a simple exoctic item which is only 1 / 4 of the actual legendary weapon and still you have to deal with it longer than gathering the other 3 components. Again this feature is a massive time killer to stretch the game's lack of content.

    6. The Story
    I don't want to spoiler anything so I leave this point with saying: I've never waited that long for one of the biggest disappointments I've ever had. The entire Story is devided into 16 missions which sometimes are just "WTF". So many artifical emotions and bad designed mechanics are showing that the developers were running out of money or the game was partially made in China's mass production on cost of the quality. The final battle against Mordremoth was kinda fun on it's own but honestly, the designer team failed once again. The explaination of the boss design in the story is a bad excuse to the actual statement "We lack time and money so you have to deal with that."

    As conclusion I cannot say that this game is gonna be the Game of the Year at all. The addons seems to me to be a simple money-grabbing low-budged addon because there are so many unused opportunities in the game: Why not creating actual big trees that can be climbed step by step by unlocking mastery, where are the true dragons? I just saw vines and wyverns but no single dragon. Also the meta event boss in Dragon's Stand is not a dragon, it's a giant ugly worm. Why did you enter the jungle through a small door in the silver wastes? Why didnt you be a part of the assault and had a live experience how your ship was just getting destroyed? Not satisfied.    … Expand
  19. SacredJefe
    Nov 1, 2015
    7
    Heart of Thorns is a welcome addition to an MMO which has only received minor permanent content updates in its three years since release. There's a lot of new content to discover and beat including four new maps, world events, WvW updates, character specializations and more. While it's been enjoyable to explore all of this new content for the first time, the mechanics by which one mustHeart of Thorns is a welcome addition to an MMO which has only received minor permanent content updates in its three years since release. There's a lot of new content to discover and beat including four new maps, world events, WvW updates, character specializations and more. While it's been enjoyable to explore all of this new content for the first time, the mechanics by which one must get through the expansion (and the new story mode) is a bit convoluted and arbitrarily gated to slow people down from finishing it all.

    For example, you cannot complete the new story missions in HoT without first grinding out a few of the new Masteries, essentially a new way to level certain abilities for players already at the highest level in the game (80). This may seem trivial to those who play the game daily and for hours on length, but it is much more frustrating for gamers who cannot dedicate daily time to Guild Wars 2. I've been slowly enjoying the story since the expansion released but, after getting through the first eight or so missions, I've been stuck from completing the next one until I grind two masteries in the Nuhoch branch. For me, the story was a bigger seller than the new PvE zones so I was disappointed the developers are forcing me to play content I don't particularly enjoy in order to progress with content that I DO enjoy.

    Again, this will bother some people not at all and others much more. Also, it should be understood that a lot of the content in HoT is geared towards players being in groups, sometimes very large ones at that. Solitary and "lone-wolf" type players might find themselves struggling with the new content due to its difficulty and design for group-play rather than solo. I wish ANet had explained this a little better pre-release, but it is what it is. Just know that if you like going about the game mostly on your own, you may find scarce enjoyment in the expansion but plenty of frustration. If you're a group player, you'll like have a good time.    … Expand
  20. amavash88
    Oct 30, 2015
    5
    I have always loved GW2. and the old GW games too. However, recently, I am getting sick and tired of their nonstop crashes, "Send error report" crashes, etc.

    I am being told it is my PC. I am running an octa-core PC 2.6GhZ processor, 2x 3GB VRAM Graphics card (GTX 780), and 32GB RAM. I do not understand how I am out of memory and crashing? This has been happening since the release of    I have always loved GW2. and the old GW games too. However, recently, I am getting sick and tired of their nonstop crashes, "Send error report" crashes, etc.

    I am being told it is my PC. I am running an octa-core PC 2.6GhZ processor, 2x 3GB VRAM Graphics card (GTX 780), and 32GB RAM. I do not understand how I am out of memory and crashing?

    This has been happening since the release of the expansion. I have never had any crash since beta of the core game. I am very much disappointed that Arena Net has not worked on this. It should have been worked on during their various stress tests they had. Every patch they release, every fix they release, seems to be making this more and more often, rather than reducing the crashes or removing them completely.

    I hope to see Arena Net address these issues. It is annoying to keep crashing on major events.    … Expand
  21. eien_kiseki
    Oct 28, 2015
    6
    1st day impression: 8 - the new maps were interesting to explore if a little frustrating due to the height, flying, and jumping puzzle-like parts that made it hard to navigate.
    2nd - 3rd day: 7 - i realized how much of a grind the mastery system is, i can't get enough points to max my elite spec and the new maps were frustrating and not rewarding.
    4th day: 6 - new fractal merchant was    1st day impression: 8 - the new maps were interesting to explore if a little frustrating due to the height, flying, and jumping puzzle-like parts that made it hard to navigate.
    2nd - 3rd day: 7 - i realized how much of a grind the mastery system is, i can't get enough points to max my elite spec and the new maps were frustrating and not rewarding.
    4th day: 6 - new fractal merchant was disabled so i couldn't work on increasing my AR to do higher scale fractal. On top of that every time i found a organized map for doing events, there would be a patch requiring me to restart and lose my map. *sigh*

    Overall my progressively worsening experience with HoT launch. Fascination turned into annoyance and frustration.    … Expand
  22. Slivyr
    Oct 28, 2015
    6
    Despite my lengthy initial review posting a 1/10 score, I have come back to change it with the recent changes made to the Hero Points required to unlock the elite specializations.

    The story is improved with much better VA, and some of the combat is very interesting, but I still find this release a bit of a mixed bag. I would still argue that the Hero Point costs are still too high at    Despite my lengthy initial review posting a 1/10 score, I have come back to change it with the recent changes made to the Hero Points required to unlock the elite specializations.

    The story is improved with much better VA, and some of the combat is very interesting, but I still find this release a bit of a mixed bag.

    I would still argue that the Hero Point costs are still too high at 240, but it's not completely unbearable. The difficulty of the champions/challenges themselves may need to be toned down when less people are playing the map, as already in less than a week it's tough to find groups to do them with. Masteries are a logical grind, which is fine, but I feel the map is not rewarding enough to keep people playing it, especially with the gold reduction for dungeons; more players will be pushed back into the SW. It's not bad combat, but it's very build-specific and not particularly rewarding.

    The map design is both incredible and terrible at the same time. The art is always beautiful, which is a plus.

    The WvW BL's are relatively poor. They're too large and too gimmicky with the newly-introduced mechanics, and posing an attack on small structures or camps is extremely difficult for small groups or solo players.

    Guild mechanics changes almost destroyed small guilds. Not a fan.

    The lack of new skins is also a bit irritating. The release of so many outfits and Colin's announcements at PAX stating that he wanted to release skins as part of the core game and not the gem store is a bit upsetting in that there really were not many available. Lots of missing features on release is also worth docking points.

    So, it's okay. I feel like this is just a conglomeration of LS content all released at once with little of the content truly scrutinized for perfection. It's decent, but I don't know if I got $60 worth of content.    … Expand
  23. Archon_Wing
    Oct 27, 2015
    7
    Guild Wars 2 was a fairly standout MMO, as I have never gotten into MMOs in the past.-- I've never been fond of excessive treadmills and progression that would trivialize previous progress. The expansion keeps a lot of this, as in the past, most of the content is by and large, optional and most of one's previous progress is still left intact.

    The new zones introduced are visually    Guild Wars 2 was a fairly standout MMO, as I have never gotten into MMOs in the past.-- I've never been fond of excessive treadmills and progression that would trivialize previous progress. The expansion keeps a lot of this, as in the past, most of the content is by and large, optional and most of one's previous progress is still left intact.

    The new zones introduced are visually stunning, accompanied by a story that is far superior and involving than the one found in the original. It may not be a literary masterpiece, but I see in-game stories as ways to get into the action, so it doesn't have to be. As always, Guild Wars 2's strongest strength is providing the atmosphere both in visual and auditory details that really makes brings forward the scope of the aftermath of events that have transpired. The zones aren't just larger-- they feel larger as well. In addition the enemies here are generally stronger than those found in the open world and also seem to have decent AI which is a nice contrast to the game pre-expansion. The new gliding mastery also drastically changes how movement works and is suited to the larger map size.

    Unfortunately, despite having the larger sense of scope, in terms of exploration, it feels oddly linear. This is because you must gather certain masteries in order to progress. The passageways tend to be rather narrow and meandering and going off the beaten path often just leads you into either certain death or realizing you need something else to progress. Oh, and whatever class you were using will get an elite specialization, but it will require you to do most of the content anyways, so don't count on it for help.

    But that's not the worst problem. The maps are so huge that you can go for a while without seeing a single person which was never a problem in the past. It can be mitigated with the "Looking for Group" tool, but I find it quite an annoyance especially when some of the hero points are intended for multiple players to do. Yea I understand this is an MMO. So it's not really good for the solo player if you were in the original game.

    Contrast this to the base game, where you could journey to any of the first 5 starter zones and explore the map in any number of ways. HoT exploration feels like it's on rails by contrast.

    But by any means, this is not a bad addition to Guild Wars 2. So why the low rating?

    Well, I primarily play World vs World and the new maps introduced are also interesting but are generally too large and complex when centered a mode where one expects to face players, not the environment as much. And much like the PvE maps, finding players, enemy or allied tends to be a issue. There are some interesting concepts at play here, such as structures being harder to attack and more interesting structure mechanics, but they seem a bit overtuned and meant for larger groups. Finally, there's the issue of World vs World progression being tied down the gated specialization mechanics-- World vs World can access them via a randomized item drop which is far more tedious than its pve counterpart. However, as of this writing, Arenanet has addressed some of these concerns and has lessened some of the requirements.

    In the end, I appreciate the designer's will to expand on concepts that already existed and also to cater to a more hardcore fanbase. However, it's very clear that a lot of these things are not suited for me, and the game seemingly lacking in polish in a number of places such as the rather unintuitive PvP Guild missions and other minor things like having daily achievements for content that no longer exists in addition to the empty feel that seems present in a lot of locations just makes me feel the game was rushed to some degree. Given that this is merely a first impression and I expect changes for the better in the future, this may mean HoT has the potential to be an excellent addition. In fact, since this initial writing, some steps were already being taken to addressed, so at the very least you have a company that's willing to listen to player. As for now though, I would say don't rush for it.    … Expand
  24. oyesur2
    Oct 27, 2015
    7
    The zones are packed, but the areas feel so small compared to the original release. Explorers will feel a bit underwhelmed, but it is fun to play. The new world vs world maps feel deserted, but that may be because so many people are in the new content and aren't back to the open world pvp style warfare.
  25. shagworth
    Oct 27, 2015
    6
    At this point after release of the base game, if you're still playing Guild Wars 2 then Heart of Thorns will most likely be a breath of fresh air.

    If you're looking to try out Guild Wars 2 for the first time, this is a good time to join in seeing that Heart of Thorns comes with the core game included. For the price, I have no doubt you will be able to get your money's worth out of the    At this point after release of the base game, if you're still playing Guild Wars 2 then Heart of Thorns will most likely be a breath of fresh air.

    If you're looking to try out Guild Wars 2 for the first time, this is a good time to join in seeing that Heart of Thorns comes with the core game included. For the price, I have no doubt you will be able to get your money's worth out of the purchase.

    If you played Guild Wars 2 in the past, dropped it for whatever reason and are thinking about coming back with the Heart of Thorns expansion, I would say that it's more of the same and not to expect anything that you're not used to.

    Pros: New maps are well designed
    Specializations add a lot of depth to classes
    The writing in their new story isn't as terrible as in the past

    Cons: Unlocking the nice new specializations is pretty grindy and you have to do it for each character.
    Killed WvW as an actual PvP focused game mode.
    Less actual content than I would have expected. No new dungeons? No new fractals?    … Expand
  26. SpagettiUpsetti
    Oct 27, 2015
    7
    Ok the main reason I play GW2 was for the WvWvW. I pre purchased HOT with the idea that it would be getting better. IMO they have made really bad changes to it making it not fun. The maps are too big, the mechanics take away from the WvWvW feel and it's generally a bad change. I tried to get a refund but....

    * Update - The anet staff got intouch and gave me a full refund for HOT.    Ok the main reason I play GW2 was for the WvWvW. I pre purchased HOT with the idea that it would be getting better. IMO they have made really bad changes to it making it not fun. The maps are too big, the mechanics take away from the WvWvW feel and it's generally a bad change. I tried to get a refund but....

    * Update - The anet staff got intouch and gave me a full refund for HOT. Pleased with the service provided by them. I may purchase HOT in the future if certain changes are made. Will continue to check up on any updates.    … Expand
  27. anext
    Oct 27, 2015
    6
    Some beautifully, lovingly crafted maps - but gated by 'future fun' progression. In order to create a sense of character progression, ANet has decided to coin a different type of leveling in the form of mastery. This may make you feel you're working towards something, at the cost of the resulting grind. Make no mistake, in order to gain full access to your elite specialization (on mostSome beautifully, lovingly crafted maps - but gated by 'future fun' progression. In order to create a sense of character progression, ANet has decided to coin a different type of leveling in the form of mastery. This may make you feel you're working towards something, at the cost of the resulting grind. Make no mistake, in order to gain full access to your elite specialization (on most characters without 100% world completion) you will have to grind, whether it be PvE mastery lines or WvW ranks. As a community built around casual friendly design, this has resulted in appropriate out-roar. The introduction of this progression, and a 'soft trinity' have made for a somewhat confusing experience when compared to the initial design decisions of vanilla GW2. Events are poorly balanced, as are certain hero challenges, resulting in a distinct feeling of artificial difficulty (many mobs will instantly kill you).Exploration is a blast (if you're into that) and gliding adds a new dimension to traversing the jungle. Do you want more of the same? You'll probably dig this expansion. Were you hoping for something new and refreshing? You're likely to feel conflicted.… Expand
  28. skilledspell
    Oct 26, 2015
    7
    Maps are really beautiful and some of the changes in place are really good for the game, ie. addition of raids and more focus on fractals. I just finished the story and found it slightly lacking, but those who aren't very into the lore shouldn't mind as much. I think both these 10/10 and 1/10 ratings are dumb, it has obvious flaws, but its not a terrible xpac because you can't get yourMaps are really beautiful and some of the changes in place are really good for the game, ie. addition of raids and more focus on fractals. I just finished the story and found it slightly lacking, but those who aren't very into the lore shouldn't mind as much. I think both these 10/10 and 1/10 ratings are dumb, it has obvious flaws, but its not a terrible xpac because you can't get your elite spec in 3 days.

    All in all, if you've played gw2 before and enjoyed it, give this a try. If you didn't like gw2 before, this won't change that. If you've never played gw2, the base game is free, so try it and choose from there.    … Expand
  29. Kuma
    Oct 26, 2015
    6
    The expansion is great for most pve lovers. I prefer WvW in GW2. I actually enjoy the new maps and enjoy some of the pve that the expansion has brought. The expansion added beautiful maps, story line but also added a more time consuming (yes im dropping the grind word) that is unfamiliar with most of GW2 customer base. Not a perfect expansion but not an terrible one either.

    Im a casual    The expansion is great for most pve lovers. I prefer WvW in GW2. I actually enjoy the new maps and enjoy some of the pve that the expansion has brought. The expansion added beautiful maps, story line but also added a more time consuming (yes im dropping the grind word) that is unfamiliar with most of GW2 customer base. Not a perfect expansion but not an terrible one either.

    Im a casual gamer with other priorities and I dont have time to accommodate what the expansion requires.

    On a side note Its weird though that some of the people calling it a perfect game 10/10 are just ripping the people that gave it a low score. (its a different opinion. get over it.)    … Expand
  30. bluesnacks
    Oct 26, 2015
    5
    5/10

    Positive: Story, New zones

    Negative: The stupidest grinding system ever, in a game where the makers have actually said "we don't like grinding."

    This is not worth a 10. Anyone trying to convince you that it's a perfect 10 is lying to you knowingly.
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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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