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. Hepaista
    Nov 11, 2015
    0
    so much hype all year long for this? cant even finish the storyline without grinding for hours I loved gw2, but they lied to us. they said no grind we have never had to grind more...
  2. CalScott
    Nov 11, 2015
    0
    Visually this expansion is amazing but practically it is one of the worst things I have ever had the displeasure of playing. The enemies are powered to the point that if you walk ANYWHERE alone you will die. Skill points often takes team of 4+ people to do now. Missions are just constantly the same "go here and speak to him" or "defend this". The meta events have NO explanation and theVisually this expansion is amazing but practically it is one of the worst things I have ever had the displeasure of playing. The enemies are powered to the point that if you walk ANYWHERE alone you will die. Skill points often takes team of 4+ people to do now. Missions are just constantly the same "go here and speak to him" or "defend this". The meta events have NO explanation and the game gives you no grasp on what you should be doing. World bosses are no longer proper world bosses and are just regular events. I was hoping for an epic Tequatl like boss and I am very disappointed

    The ONLY good addition to the game is the Revenant which is the most fun class I have played in any MMO. Period. WoWs classes pale in comparison. However the Revenant class isn't good enough to warrant the £39 price tag as I have found myself resenting Guild Wars and Anet for providing me with such **** I have played HoT for around 15 hours and I hate it. Everything about it, is without a doubt, the worst part of Guild Wars 2.

    Also, with the addition of HoT they changed the WvW maps to be overly complicated, janky and buggy. HoT has ruined Guild Wars single handed. Thanks ANet for absolutely **** nothing!    … Expand
  3. 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
  4. TNFox
    Nov 11, 2015
    10
    The greatest tragedy of these 'reviews' is the abuse of the word grind. If you are actually here for information that'll tip you to buy or abstain, go elsewhere. We got subreddits openly admitting in their submissions that they are part of a troll/hate group to affect the result of the metacritic scale just because.

    If you have not played gw2, try it out. It's free. If you're returning    The greatest tragedy of these 'reviews' is the abuse of the word grind. If you are actually here for information that'll tip you to buy or abstain, go elsewhere. We got subreddits openly admitting in their submissions that they are part of a troll/hate group to affect the result of the metacritic scale just because.

    If you have not played gw2, try it out. It's free. If you're returning and wondering if you should invest in the expac, get info from players in the game. Its one of the most helpful and mature communities so ask their experiences and if their values align with yours. Base your decision on who says what, not just what is being said.    … Expand
  5. olia_bn
    Nov 11, 2015
    4
    What may seem like new content is just content stretched out by more grind in-between, which actually seems to be ANets new methodology: artificial content by grind. Sad and quite frankly, not really worth the money.
  6. lostinstereo
    Nov 6, 2015
    10
    I've played Guild Wars 2 since release and the game has never failed to keep me captivated and immersed. The story, the characters, the combat system, the crafting system, everything. HoT only expands on all of these and enhances many of the core games strengths while introducing new systems like the mastery system. Mastery is in my opinion one of the best post level cap progressionI've played Guild Wars 2 since release and the game has never failed to keep me captivated and immersed. The story, the characters, the combat system, the crafting system, everything. HoT only expands on all of these and enhances many of the core games strengths while introducing new systems like the mastery system. Mastery is in my opinion one of the best post level cap progression systems in an MMO to date and it can be expanded indefinitely. The Revenant is an extremely interesting class and as far as balance issues go, it is to be expected but is otherwise minimal compared to other MMO expansion launches. I think GW2 can only go up from here, HoT has captured my heart like Guild Wars Prophecies did in 2005 and GW2 in 2012.… Expand
  7. Ozimandeus
    Nov 6, 2015
    10
    The best MMORPG created, has just got a whole lot bigger and a whole lot better!! The elegant mastery system provides a new outlet for experience in PVE. The introduction of Guild Halls gives a focal point for guilds to work together on. PvP has been overhauled and made into an eSport. WvWvW is still unparalleled in this genre. Very simply put, this is as good as MMORPGs get.
  8. RanmaKei
    Nov 6, 2015
    1
    Great game, lots of fun. Expansion seems to push for more micro transactions in game. Not really a big deal since technically you don't need to purchase any of that stuff. Guild improvements were made, but progress from before the expansion is lost and some of the guild stuff isn't working or disabled. You can no longer progress your guilds on guild members individual participation. YouGreat game, lots of fun. Expansion seems to push for more micro transactions in game. Not really a big deal since technically you don't need to purchase any of that stuff. Guild improvements were made, but progress from before the expansion is lost and some of the guild stuff isn't working or disabled. You can no longer progress your guilds on guild members individual participation. You must have decent sized guild parties to complete guilds missions in order to level up guilds. Requiring everyone in the guild to be online and working at the same time. Discourages small guilds that don't have lots of members. I lost some progress after the expansion and influence since the expansion rolled out. Not sure what happened there.

    From what I hear there is still a few other things not finished yet in the game. Release was premature.

    Expansion needs to be finished. I would wait until they get things worked out.    … Expand
  9. 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
  10. Gothic90
    Nov 4, 2015
    8
    It's a good expansion. The world stays relevant, people who do not buy it can still play (they arguably get a somewhat short end of the stick due to dungeon reward nerf, but definitely not hit as hard as players of many other MMOs, who can only play irrelevant content after an expansion hits). Mastery may be a bit grindy but opens up layer by layer and I kinda like this design. I neverIt's a good expansion. The world stays relevant, people who do not buy it can still play (they arguably get a somewhat short end of the stick due to dungeon reward nerf, but definitely not hit as hard as players of many other MMOs, who can only play irrelevant content after an expansion hits). Mastery may be a bit grindy but opens up layer by layer and I kinda like this design. I never expected much story from MMOs, but HoT's story is not a bad one, certainly much better than Kormir or Trahearne's story.

    Overall, a lot of good content and good designs. It's not perfect but still a good one.

    Still, a bit unhappy that WvW gets a pretty short end of the stick.    … Expand
  11. wyrmbud
    Nov 4, 2015
    1
    I am giving Heart of Thorns an unfavorable review for quite a few reasons. The first is that the game is miscalculating your progress in the expansion. Players are documented as randomly losing all progress in the expansion. This makes the game unplayable. The second is that I was promised raid content when I paid for the expansion. There are no raids now, the beta is an utterI am giving Heart of Thorns an unfavorable review for quite a few reasons. The first is that the game is miscalculating your progress in the expansion. Players are documented as randomly losing all progress in the expansion. This makes the game unplayable. The second is that I was promised raid content when I paid for the expansion. There are no raids now, the beta is an utter disaster and there will not be raids any time soon. This sort of outright stupidity on the part of Anet deserves legal action. I paid for a service I was promised and it was absolutely not delivered. WvW is broken and has been forever. Pvp is broken. (I used to very much enjoy both). Anet very clearly pushed way too hard to get this product out by deadline. Total garbage.… Expand
  12. Krombopulos
    Nov 3, 2015
    0
    All these new features that you have UNLOCK in order to play with, even though you already bought the game and some (even a minimum) of them have to be farmed for, in order to be able to use. But let's not be negative Nellies and try to farm instead. Oh wait! All events now take a ridiculous amount of time in order to be completed, requiring you to have no life whatsoever, in order toAll these new features that you have UNLOCK in order to play with, even though you already bought the game and some (even a minimum) of them have to be farmed for, in order to be able to use. But let's not be negative Nellies and try to farm instead. Oh wait! All events now take a ridiculous amount of time in order to be completed, requiring you to have no life whatsoever, in order to complete them. Oh, also 9 out of 10 events require you to have a party and a certain mastery (for which you have to farm in order to get - with a party lets not forget, which makes the whole thing a ridiculous paradox). You can now, no longer enjoy the game casually at your own pace and pleasure, but have to unavoidably rely on at least 2-3 other people in order to enjoy something that you paid 50$ for. I sincerely hope Anet dispatches these horrible gamewrecking additions to a once great game ! Till then I'm finding something else to play !… Expand
  13. maiker
    Nov 3, 2015
    10
    I created an account just to give this expansion a score of 10. I'm a staunch supporter of this game and this expansion for a long time, and it's become abundantly clear that this expansion (and the update to the base game that came with it) is well coded, and the developers don't need to fix it. The game is incredibly stable and never crashes often enough to make getting anythingI created an account just to give this expansion a score of 10. I'm a staunch supporter of this game and this expansion for a long time, and it's become abundantly clear that this expansion (and the update to the base game that came with it) is well coded, and the developers don't need to fix it. The game is incredibly stable and never crashes often enough to make getting anything meaningful done impossible. The entire mid-to-end game revolves around competing map-wide events and long instances, both of which you will never lose all progress within when you never crash. This. Game. Will. Not. Never. Crash. It is widespread and is not a hardware issue; I'm running with an i7 4790k, 16GB RAM and GTX 970 SLI. It is a user issue and the user is broken. It's been almost a month now, and progress has been made or hinted towards with this massive game. This game can be played. It deserves a ten.… Expand
  14. brokendust
    Nov 3, 2015
    0
    I created an account just to give this expansion a score of 0. I was a staunch supporter of this game and this expansion for a long time, but it's become abundantly clear that this expansion (and the update to the base game that came with it) is poorly coded, and the developers have no clue how to fix it. The game is incredibly unstable and crashes often enough to make getting anythingI created an account just to give this expansion a score of 0. I was a staunch supporter of this game and this expansion for a long time, but it's become abundantly clear that this expansion (and the update to the base game that came with it) is poorly coded, and the developers have no clue how to fix it. The game is incredibly unstable and crashes often enough to make getting anything meaningful done impossible. The entire mid-to-end game revolves around competing map-wide events and long instances, both of which you will lose all progress within when you inevitably crash. This. Game. Will. Not. Stop. Crashing. It is widespread and is not a hardware issue; I'm running with an i7 4790k, 16GB RAM and GTX 970 SLI. It is a client issue and the client is broken. It's been almost a month now, and no progress has been made or hinted towards with this massive flaw. This game cannot be played. It deserves a zero.… Expand
  15. please
    Nov 2, 2015
    10
    Finally a good excuse to return. Story started off strong but ended kinda weak but not enough to take away from all the improvements made. Having a blast and have put in around 30+ hours so far,
  16. Gamergonemad2
    Nov 2, 2015
    10
    Exceeded my expectations!! Launch was near perfect and exploring the new content is fun, engaging and a challenge!! I even like the mastery system although at first I did find it all overwhelming. Once I got the hang of it even the verticality is a hoot! Even dying can be fun when your glider ends before you reach land. LOL. I especially like knowing there are places, events etc that IExceeded my expectations!! Launch was near perfect and exploring the new content is fun, engaging and a challenge!! I even like the mastery system although at first I did find it all overwhelming. Once I got the hang of it even the verticality is a hoot! Even dying can be fun when your glider ends before you reach land. LOL. I especially like knowing there are places, events etc that I can return to once I have the specific mastery. .Guess I like knowing there is a future instead of done and forgotten. Looking forward to years of game-play!… Expand
  17. Grathorius
    Nov 2, 2015
    8
    I'd give it an 8.5 if I could

    A lot of things were done right in the expansion. Many systems were overhauled for the better, and the amount of content is great for the price. Yes, servers have had some instabilities lately, but its been smoother than almost every other MMO expansion launch ever. There is a fair amount of "grind" despite being advertised as "Grind-less" and I won't    I'd give it an 8.5 if I could

    A lot of things were done right in the expansion. Many systems were overhauled for the better, and the amount of content is great for the price.

    Yes, servers have had some instabilities lately, but its been smoother than almost every other MMO expansion launch ever.

    There is a fair amount of "grind" despite being advertised as "Grind-less" and I won't sugarcoat it. You will do a lot of things over and over again. What is important is that the combat is fun and engaging, the events are dynamic, and the rewards (although this is debatable) feel enticing.

    If you play 24/7 and min/max the gains, you WILL run out of things to do, but for the average player, things are in a good place.

    Some systems, such as squad UI, Raids, PvP leagues and new legendary weapons are still to come (For Free!) and will only add to what has been a very pleasant expansion    … Expand
  18. Giusyone
    Nov 2, 2015
    10
    No subcripiton fee, great graphic, animation and sound, WvsW, awesome story improved even more in this expansion.. make this game and expansion a real jewe !
  19. gugliam
    Nov 2, 2015
    10
    Anet did it again, wonderfull place to play in a beautifull environment.
    The best mmo get one of the best expansion you may ever desire.
    The revenant is simple a perfect class for who want to play diffferent role.
    Great value for a mmo without a subscription.
  20. 83November
    Nov 2, 2015
    10
    Solid expansion, And still more to come! Shame about the trolls.... If you are new to GW2 HoT is amazing value! Anet is doing a great job of offering content for free and will hopefully balance in the right places. Remember it is still early days, we don't even have raids yet.
  21. maximillian1
    Nov 1, 2015
    10
    A perfect expansion for one of the best mmo atm, if not the best.
    The jungle is full of life and dangers, mastery are long term achievements to complete that help to have always something to do in game.
    Graphics and sound are beautifull and immersive. elite specs are nice addition to help player play in a different role. I would give 9 ,but since most haters, and other mmo players (who    A perfect expansion for one of the best mmo atm, if not the best.
    The jungle is full of life and dangers, mastery are long term achievements to complete that help to have always something to do in game.
    Graphics and sound are beautifull and immersive.
    elite specs are nice addition to help player play in a different role.
    I would give 9 ,but since most haters, and other mmo players (who rosik) gave 0 ...
    I'll give it 10 !    … Expand
  22. Kylonas
    Nov 1, 2015
    10
    New Maps, a lot of new content, gliding, Guild Halls etc. It's huge!
    I finished the story yesterday and now I have still at least 90% new things to explore.
    The Masteries bring in a rewarding and challenging new playstyle.
    And NO it's not grinding when you don't do the same things over an over again. And in HoT you can be in one map for hours not doing one thing twice.
  23. 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
  24. Okasama3
    Nov 1, 2015
    8
    It's a nice touch to the original, they surley refined what did wrong in the past but thgere ar estill some issues, at least ANet looks forward to solving them and with our help this might be yet another MMO of the Year for Guild Wars 2
  25. Neuxe
    Oct 31, 2015
    8
    Heart of Thorns adds a whole lot of new End Game content, a completely new storyline, and a whole lot of more features. The content is mostly recommended for players who already have a max level character, and it can be hard for new players to understand the story, as it is recommended to play the Living World Season 2 first. While the expansion has a lot of great content, there are someHeart of Thorns adds a whole lot of new End Game content, a completely new storyline, and a whole lot of more features. The content is mostly recommended for players who already have a max level character, and it can be hard for new players to understand the story, as it is recommended to play the Living World Season 2 first. While the expansion has a lot of great content, there are some flaws, and the story could have been done better.… Expand
  26. SoulstitchMMO
    Oct 31, 2015
    1
    Grind. Absolute grind. Very limited story given the illusion of meat, by having to grind between story. Because they didn't give you levels you had to go through, they invented Mastery systems which they use to gate content until you develop certain masteries. Then they added Elite Specializations to every class, that force you to do 10 times the work for .01 times the reward. Each traitGrind. Absolute grind. Very limited story given the illusion of meat, by having to grind between story. Because they didn't give you levels you had to go through, they invented Mastery systems which they use to gate content until you develop certain masteries. Then they added Elite Specializations to every class, that force you to do 10 times the work for .01 times the reward. Each trait cost 10 hero points (and it's been lowered to that, used to cost significantly more).

    Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns is the biggest waste of money I've ever spent on an expansion. The only reason I didn't give it a 0, is because I love the Revenant Elite, and if I ever unlock it I'm sure I'll enjoy the game more, but do not buy this expansion until they reverse their ridiculous Elite System.    … Expand
  27. PlasmaPunch
    Oct 31, 2015
    9
    Heart of Thorns is easily one of the best expansions I've played for an MMO, perhaps the best. Even as a pretty tough critic it's hard to find problems in Guild Wars 2's first expansion. The joy of: gliding around, completing fun events, exploring a wonderfully crafted world or being apart of an organized meta event. I've not even experienced all of the content available to me yet, there'sHeart of Thorns is easily one of the best expansions I've played for an MMO, perhaps the best. Even as a pretty tough critic it's hard to find problems in Guild Wars 2's first expansion. The joy of: gliding around, completing fun events, exploring a wonderfully crafted world or being apart of an organized meta event. I've not even experienced all of the content available to me yet, there's simply too much to have experienced it so early after release. I've thoroughly enjoyed the story this time around as well, a lot less poorly crafted dialogue and what felt like generic questing for tidbits of story this time around, instead the story focuses more on exploring the jungle for the first time, looking for your potentially dead friends in the wilderness as the army you built up from the first game slowly catches up behind you. Fractals, a revamped high-level dungeon alternative was also made much better this expansion, for those looking for that experience - it's very difficult, requires some solid play and is overall very fun.

    That said on release this expansion was unstable, the only bad part about the expansion in my opinion. The game is crashing after about 2-3 hours of gameplay, which obviously is a problem when the setup time for a meta event usually crosses over into that time, and you lose all of your progress. I've wasted at least 8-10 hours of gameplay due to this and it's a huge influence on my rating.

    Though the crashing has been frustrating, and it's confirmed to be a widespread problem - I'd still suggest this expansion to anybody who's played the original Guild Wars 2 and enjoyed it, and anyone that's been interested into Guild Wars 2 should try out the F2P and think about buying this later. It's been a mostly great experience so far, and honestly the best MMO experience I've had.    … Expand
  28. jamesday5
    Oct 31, 2015
    10
    My god - this expansion is addictive. It took the innovative vent system (an answer to boring questions) and made it 100x more epic. Crazy events with lots of other people. The music is STUNNING, the visuals and environment design, breathtaking - i'm hooked.
  29. gamer99
    Oct 30, 2015
    10
    This is a really great game for people who want to have fun in mmorpg and an expansion that tries to lvl up the efforts the first game were put in. The Guild halls are great, once again people are logging on and talking in guild chat and donating goods to the guild. The maps are great with fun events such as the funny Lord Faren event. The story is alright, nice twits or one of the racesThis is a really great game for people who want to have fun in mmorpg and an expansion that tries to lvl up the efforts the first game were put in. The Guild halls are great, once again people are logging on and talking in guild chat and donating goods to the guild. The maps are great with fun events such as the funny Lord Faren event. The story is alright, nice twits or one of the races and the hero challenges are well challenging which themselves fell like a mini game that sucks you in for hours.… Expand
  30. kyochievo
    Oct 30, 2015
    0
    I'd played 3500 hours of gameplay and here is my short review.
    This expansion killed off gw2 core pve endgame game-play like dungeons,fractals ect , dot believe me ? check lfg system.
    No new dungeons and fractal maps. Want to play the new exp story mode? than you have to level up yours mastery to progress oh wait there diminishing returns. Want to get Hero points ? good luck soloing    I'd played 3500 hours of gameplay and here is my short review.
    This expansion killed off gw2 core pve endgame game-play like dungeons,fractals ect , dot believe me ? check lfg system.
    No new dungeons and fractal maps.
    Want to play the new exp story mode? than you have to level up yours mastery to progress oh wait there
    diminishing returns.
    Want to get Hero points ? good luck soloing champs to earn it after 3 months when less player doing maps.
    Unnecessarily nerfs class like rev , ranger , nercro ect .
    So much more to say about this expansion so just read others reviews.    … 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

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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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