• Publisher: NCSOFT
  • Release Date: Aug 22, 2023
Guild Wars 2 : Secrets of the Obscure Image
Metascore
  1. First Review
  2. Second Review
  3. Third Review
  4. Fourth Review

No score yet - based on 0 Critic Reviews Awaiting 4 more reviews What's this?

User Score
6.8

Mixed or average reviews- based on 26 Ratings

Your Score
0 out of 10
Rate this:
  • 10
  • 9
  • 8
  • 7
  • 6
  • 5
  • 4
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1
  • 0
  • 0
  • Summary: A new chapter in Tyria's story begins August 22 with the launch of Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure, our newest expansion. Soon, you'll be soaring through new maps high in the skies above Tyria, testing your mettle against invaders from the Mists, and mastering new combat options.

    The
    A new chapter in Tyria's story begins August 22 with the launch of Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure, our newest expansion. Soon, you'll be soaring through new maps high in the skies above Tyria, testing your mettle against invaders from the Mists, and mastering new combat options.

    The adventure continues after launch, with major releases planned every few months that introduce new locations and rewards as they expand the features and continue the story of Secrets of the Obscure.
    Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of
  2. Mixed: 0 out of
  3. Negative: 0 out of
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 17
  2. Negative: 6 out of 17
  1. Aug 24, 2023
    10
    Guild Wars 2, with the latest expansion, proves that it remains the best MMORPG. Fun and innovative, the game offers more complexities whileGuild Wars 2, with the latest expansion, proves that it remains the best MMORPG. Fun and innovative, the game offers more complexities while offering content accessible to all players.

    SOTO is an extension with quality, unique and diverse content. Despite the years, the game always knows how to renew itself.

    For knowledge of the game as for newcomers, the game is entering in a new era and still promises long and beautiful years to come, especially with a fifth expansion planned for next year. Promising.
    Expand
  2. Aug 25, 2023
    10
    The Expansion very good. Refreshing and kind to new players and casual players. You get all what was announced. New daily system is better andThe Expansion very good. Refreshing and kind to new players and casual players. You get all what was announced. New daily system is better and you can do it for rewards or not at all. Only thing you are forced to do is story, if you want to visit new maps, but story is good as always.

    Very good game and very good expansion.
    Expand
  3. Aug 26, 2023
    10
    It is a solid foundation for bright future of gw2. Expanding of skyscale, new maps and we know there will be more. that feel we never had.
  4. Aug 25, 2023
    10
    Although rating expansion just at the start of the cycle is a little unfair, I am so far very happy with it.
    The biggest highlight is the
    Although rating expansion just at the start of the cycle is a little unfair, I am so far very happy with it.
    The biggest highlight is the story. New characters feel fresh and well developed through environmental story telling, notes, and events they take part in. Maps are filled with collections to do, high number of various events. We will see how it goes but so far it's better than end of dragons in many ways.
    Expand
  5. Aug 26, 2023
    5
    Impression after one day revealing 50% of the new map:
    Anet was very clever with the expansion: for the veteran players there are necessary
    Impression after one day revealing 50% of the new map:
    Anet was very clever with the expansion: for the veteran players there are necessary changes like unlocking all weapons and useful ones like expanding their skyscale.
    Unfortunately, the expansion picks up where the "What Lies Within" release (so far the worst content in my opinion) left off: A bit unfinished with bad/missing dialogues (non-English version) and a boring story.

    Maybe the biggest change is the changed dailies system which will give you a new currency as reward. You can accumulate this currency up to a certain limit. To make it short: It seems that the cheap items you can buy will give you less than the old dailies but the expensive ones will give you more. For sure the rewards are more flexible now.
    Also the chances of failing to fulfill a task and therefore not getting the daily reward can be higher now depending on your choice you want the tasks to be from (PvE, PvP, WvW)

    Pros:
    - didn't encounter any bug so far
    - you will listen to music from all previous expansions on the map, not only one theme
    - more flexible rewards from dailies
    - as a new player you can do this expansion first since the story is not connected to the previous GW2 content
    - Zojja (a key NPC in this expansion) is less toxic so far

    Cons:
    - the rewards of the new dailies can be worth less than the rewards of the old dailies
    -- dialogue of the new story is not good and audio partly missing (non-English version)
    - the story is boring so far but this may be individually per player
    - a communicator is necessary for the story. It's rarely used and otherwise totally useless and takes up one inventory space of each character
    - the map reuses a lot of existing assets which likely adds to the content being boring for GW2 veterans but also reconnects the veteran player a bit to the previous content
    - I could reach all locations on the new map (I already own all mounts) so far which renders some of the new masteries almost useless. I don't have them yet and obviously don't need them but you still have to do them to advance the mastery track, of course. Basically they are a waste of mastery points.
    - Compared to the previous expansions this one offers less for the money.

    On one hand it may be good for players new to Guild Wars 2 to do this expansion first since you unlock the best mount in the game (with way less grinding, I think) and can use all kinds of weapons which will enable you to use a lot of builds published by other players. On the other hand this will somewhat spoil the experience. E.g. the positive effects when unlocking gliding in Heart of Thorns or unlocking your first mount in Path of Fire may be vastly diminished.
    Expand
  6. Sep 5, 2023
    0
    The latest expansion to Guild Wars 2 has once again made the masses go "why am I still playing this?" and "I heard FFXIV is doing kinda goodThe latest expansion to Guild Wars 2 has once again made the masses go "why am I still playing this?" and "I heard FFXIV is doing kinda good right now, maybe I should check in on that"

    Guild Wars 2 is a western developed game owned by a korean company & with that comes with the usual array of psychological shenanigans & loot boxes. If this is not something you enjoy, don't bother with the rest of the review & just look for another game.

    The expansion itself brought us a 3 hour story which is some of the better writing arenanet has done. It also gave us 1 asset reuse excuse & 1 new map with the latter running very poorly due to an increasingly outdated engine.

    The company has decided to nickel & dime its playerbase & for the current pricetag Secrets of the Obscure does not offer nearly enough content. It may potentially be less bad once the developers have pushed all of their content out one year from the date of me writing this review.

    tl;dr game is on a major decline, only pick up if you enjoy loot boxes & have already tried the other MMOs
    Expand
  7. Aug 24, 2023
    0
    Guild Wars 2 with its latest expansion is the nail in the coffin for its future.
    After more than a decade, this game still offers the same
    Guild Wars 2 with its latest expansion is the nail in the coffin for its future.
    After more than a decade, this game still offers the same button smashing, not enough skill complexity, a bad UI without supported Addons, and a predatory monetized game model, where content lives from buying it instead of farming it, so the actual farm is for currency as a trade-in, comparable to the lately added WoW-Token. Normal QoL things, with a character bound preference, are also part of this system.

    SotO is a mediocre content patch, that is marketed as expansion, to monetize it. Every Raid Patch in WoW adds equal amount of content or even more - enjoyable content. Their discounts of previous, up to 10 year old expansions are almost nonexistent.

    For game connoisseurs like me, this game died already after release and never increased the most important stat: FUN. People who can compare to other MMORPGS will understand. Just, in this game, the community is very toxic and prejudicing biased. It is sad, but at least the game and its remaining community of people, that complain about taxes for their whole life, is on the same level.

    Guild Wars 2 identifies as a Shop with an inshop game and fashion outlet.
    Expand

See all 17 User Reviews