Guild Wars 2

 PC
  • Publisher: NCSOFT
  • Release Date: Aug 28, 2012
User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 3192 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,380 out of 3192
  2. Mixed: 386 out of 3192
  3. Negative: 426 out of 3192
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  1. ReggiWatson
    Mar 31, 2013
    7
    As a great fan of Guild Wars i set myself to purchase this game as soon as it was released. I was not (too much) disappointed, its a great game, and a must have in for any MMO players. Go ahead, buy it, its worth it.

    Why an 7 then? Well, despite being a great game, its not perfect. And its definitely not the experience i was expecting since i played for like almost 7 year of Guild Wars.    As a great fan of Guild Wars i set myself to purchase this game as soon as it was released. I was not (too much) disappointed, its a great game, and a must have in for any MMO players. Go ahead, buy it, its worth it.

    Why an 7 then? Well, despite being a great game, its not perfect. And its definitely not the experience i was expecting since i played for like almost 7 year of Guild Wars. Let me do this in topics of Pos and Cons.

    Pos:
    - Gorgeous Graphics. Certainly a very good upgrade.
    - Free group questing, If you are in the are with more random players, everyone contributes for that same quest.
    - 5 distinct and interesting races. (personally i never had any issue of having a full human race on GW)
    - Weapon and skills mechanic. Each weapon gives you a set of skill based on which hand its equipped. 3 skills for main hand, 2 for off hand. All 5 for a 2H weapon.
    - Dedicated skill slots. 1 for healing skill, 3 for support skills, 1 for an elite skill.
    - The removal of the "healer stress". Since everyone must have a healing skill, its up to you to make your own survival.
    - The last stand mechanic. Which allow you to get back into the battle after you have been defeated if you kill 1 enemy before the timer goes down.
    - The still rich lore.

    Cons:
    - Lost its originality, compared to the original GW. Its just your regular MMO now.
    - Old mechanics. Dungeons. Elite Mobs. Auction House. Regular "collect X", "kill Y" and such quests.
    - Instant travel now costs gold, compared to the free travel of the original GW.
    - Skill limitation. I loved to mess around with the enormous quantity of skills of GW, now classes like Engineer are limited to like 3-4 weapon sets.
    - Dual class system was removed.
    - Special class traits where removed. No more get energy with each dead enemy for necromancer, and such.
    - Some classes where removed. Hope they get back on an expansion or so.
    - Loss of tactical action. Since Monk was removed and everyone can heal themselves, you consider each class as a DPS. Just spam attack skills.

    There are some other things that where added that in my opinion bring nothing to the game:
    - Pseudo durability system. Pointless
    - Jumping key. Sorry, i think this was a huge fan service, i think its pointless to have it compared to GW, i liked the fact i could use the space bar to do focused actions and not jump.
    - The complete loss of character customization, where you had a complete different set of faces and hairs for each class (and campaign) in GW, now its just same sets for each race, leaving you probably recycling the same face/hair for many characters.
    - No more skill hunting. You get a weapon, you use it to train the skills, that's done.
    - Amped up level cap. Why? I loved the fact level cap was only 20 in GW, and the real game started from there on, where enemies got stronger and above that level cap. (lvl 31 Dragon Glint anyone?)

    Bottom line, Guild Wars 2 is a great game, but lost the Guild Wars originality and became mainstream. If you like WoW or SW TOR you will like this game, if you loved Guild Wars, you might get a bit disappointed with this new installment. Let's hope new expansion will make things different.    … Expand
  2. johann1978
    Sep 9, 2012
    7
    Its a good Casual Game, with great PvP. But it is NOT the best MMORP of the last Years. The story is lame and presents acts thrown together, Events seem to have nothing like quests ( kill XY 90% of the Events) still to often as a Hack & Slay ( more then 3 Players at a Event)
    There are many other examples where you realize that it's just standard, only the PvP is great! But it is Guild    Its a good Casual Game, with great PvP. But it is NOT the best MMORP of the last Years. The story is lame and presents acts thrown together, Events seem to have nothing like quests ( kill XY 90% of the Events) still to often as a Hack & Slay ( more then 3 Players at a Event)
    There are many other examples where you realize that it's just standard, only the PvP is great! But it is Guild Wars, I expected this.
    My Score ist 8.5 /10    … Expand
  3. hfffoman
    Nov 25, 2012
    7
    I am downgrading my score from when it first came out because of some annoying bugs. On two occasions I suffered a rollback which meant I went back to an earlier version of my character, losing all progress. Each time it cost me a day's play. I believe they are aware of the problem but chose to do nothing about it. The rest of my review still stands - the game is fantastic fun to playI am downgrading my score from when it first came out because of some annoying bugs. On two occasions I suffered a rollback which meant I went back to an earlier version of my character, losing all progress. Each time it cost me a day's play. I believe they are aware of the problem but chose to do nothing about it. The rest of my review still stands - the game is fantastic fun to play though I found the story a bit weak.… Expand
  4. GolovA
    Oct 20, 2012
    7
    I failed to see what all the hype was about. This game is by no means special.
    HOWEVER: having said that, it is a very good Online RPG. Many characters to play, tons of items, skills, spells, etc. But for me - what's important in an online RPG is to play with someone i know. Otherwise - it's just no fun - even less fun if there was a single player campaign.
  5. MRGamer
    Feb 3, 2013
    7
    I bought the game during the holiday sales and leveled a warrior to level 80. I completed the personal story, and did a bit of everything else- sPvP, Fractals, WvW. There are many casual/ solo friendly features of the game that make it a great "B2P" game to pick up and play through. The production value is high, and the game looks good and runs well. However, as I continued to log in andI bought the game during the holiday sales and leveled a warrior to level 80. I completed the personal story, and did a bit of everything else- sPvP, Fractals, WvW. There are many casual/ solo friendly features of the game that make it a great "B2P" game to pick up and play through. The production value is high, and the game looks good and runs well. However, as I continued to log in and play with my level 80 character, I started to feel the impact of the design decisions Anet continues to make that are aimed at herding players toward the TP/ Gem Store. In spite of the famous "no grind" manifesto policy, each of the areas of the game presented me with some sort of time/ gold sink, including the infamous "DR" that prompts so much conspiracy discussion. For every inconvenience the game presents, there is a solution that can be purchased in the gem store. It is a delicate balancing act, and GW2 will continue to run the risk of losing players when the obvious F2P greed drives away customers- like myself. I decided I got my money's worth out of my one play through. The fun of playing the game was not worth the time and effort for me, and I personally will not start buying gems/ gold in order to enjoy the game. I would rather pay a sub or full price for expansions than get continually nickel and dimed to ride all the rides. Still a good game, but I am not going to keep throwing money at it.… Expand
  6. Jesperbro
    Oct 20, 2012
    7
    Haven't played the game in a little while, but will write a few thoughts about it anyways.

    First of all it has a gigantic, beautiful world to explore, something I appreciate a lot. Exploring the world in full is rewarded in forms of xp and gear. The quest system is great, as well as the occasional event system. The trading system is very good, although getting materials for making    Haven't played the game in a little while, but will write a few thoughts about it anyways.

    First of all it has a gigantic, beautiful world to explore, something I appreciate a lot. Exploring the world in full is rewarded in forms of xp and gear. The quest system is great, as well as the occasional event system. The trading system is very good, although getting materials for making something can take some grinding. The combat system is good, and I like how they implement a few action elements to it, so you don't feel like you're just clicking on something, and engaging you more into the fight. That if you participate in killing something, all the loot and experience is shared, so there isn't some manical battle for the item drops like in for example Runescape. The only PvP mode I played reminded me a bit of League of Legends, something that I find good. Overall - the game is very good. I liked it a lot the first three weeks I played it. Then...

    I realized how redundant and repetitive the game became. While you get different areas to explore, you're just doing the same quests over and over and over again. Either it's kill this, or fetch a lot of this, and this goes on for EVERY area in the game. I've never really been a gigantic fan of MMORPG's, and this shows why. After a while you'll just get so bored with the game that you won't play it again for a long time. Maybe after a while I'll go back to playing it, but after a while I'll grow bored of doing the same things over and over. This pulls down my score of the game a lot, something that could've been a perfect ten. When I play games I need a bit of variety, and Guild Wars 2 sadly doesn't provide that.    … Expand
  7. kirkkh
    Oct 3, 2012
    7
    This isn't an mmo. It's smash brothers with a F2P "world explore" mode tacked on. You can level straight to 80 and play the real game at any time. Items and "builds" (they're a joke) don't really effect much. Pve is a gank-fest, pvp is a gank-fest. You just find a group of madness to join and blaze through. Don't go here looking for strategy, community or depth. You'd be surprised howThis isn't an mmo. It's smash brothers with a F2P "world explore" mode tacked on. You can level straight to 80 and play the real game at any time. Items and "builds" (they're a joke) don't really effect much. Pve is a gank-fest, pvp is a gank-fest. You just find a group of madness to join and blaze through. Don't go here looking for strategy, community or depth. You'd be surprised how quickly it gets old (for god sake their are jumping puzzles). It's completely different than the original Guild Wars. I give six months.… Expand
  8. Kamikazenz
    Sep 10, 2012
    7
    I agree with alot of the mid-range user reviews posted so far. After purchasing the game, i can see where all the hard work and development time went, the game looks great stylistically, and i like how they have attempted at every turn to make the game different from the mass produced MMORPG norm. Breaking the holy trintiy of Tank Heals and DPS and making it work is no easy feat in anI agree with alot of the mid-range user reviews posted so far. After purchasing the game, i can see where all the hard work and development time went, the game looks great stylistically, and i like how they have attempted at every turn to make the game different from the mass produced MMORPG norm. Breaking the holy trintiy of Tank Heals and DPS and making it work is no easy feat in an MMORPG. but for me it doesnt work. im enjoying the game immensely dont get me wrong, and can see why people will love it. but for me its a filler game i will play out untill i get bored, it hasnt quite grabbed my attention in the same way other games in the genre have. which is no fault of the game itself, maybe thats me as a player?. in summary, the game is excellent for what it is. worth the purchase. but for me personally, i will probably put it aside when the WoW expac or similar comes out.… Expand
  9. RetRap
    Oct 14, 2012
    7
    This game is well worth the box price, I've put about 60 hours into GW2 and while they have been enjoyable; I will not likely be going back to it any time soon. Although it is a fantastically crafted world with wonderful new perks to the tried any trusted MMO formula; this game still has the basic hot-key combat and repetitive actions. While giving lots of different tasks to try such asThis game is well worth the box price, I've put about 60 hours into GW2 and while they have been enjoyable; I will not likely be going back to it any time soon. Although it is a fantastically crafted world with wonderful new perks to the tried any trusted MMO formula; this game still has the basic hot-key combat and repetitive actions. While giving lots of different tasks to try such as exploring for Vistas, taking part in dynamic events and more formulaic 'heart' quests; after the 50th time of doing a slight variation it does, unfortunately; get boring (at least for me). As a great piece of escapism and for those happy with the existing MMO foundations; buy it without hesitation. If you've grown bored of the likes of WoW, ToR, Rift, Tera et al. this will provide a welcome refresh but will eventually get stale.… Expand
  10. edjiang
    Oct 9, 2012
    7
    Great artwork, clean combat, and a VERY nice PvP system. However, the game simply couldn't hold my attention for more than a month. Definitely worth trying out though.
  11. BeoMauz
    Nov 19, 2012
    7
    Why Hello thar,

    first of all Guild Wars 2 isnt a bad Game at all, the Leveling is quite nice but htere could be more Models for the NPC enemies. The Problem with the Game is the Endgame once u hit Max Level the Game just falls a bit off, due to lack of Content. The PvP is a split Thing the WvW-PvP is quite nice and offers you options on how to play, for example you dont need to zerg    Why Hello thar,

    first of all Guild Wars 2 isnt a bad Game at all, the Leveling is quite nice but htere could be more Models for the NPC enemies.
    The Problem with the Game is the Endgame once u hit Max Level the Game just falls a bit off, due to lack of Content.

    The PvP is a split Thing the WvW-PvP is quite nice and offers you options on how to play, for example you dont need to zerg around you can push the Logistics and make your team win.

    All in all the Game is solid but the Motivation after you hit Max Level is just fallin off a bit too quickly.    … Expand
  12. Quorina
    Aug 28, 2012
    7
    This game can definitely stand on its own against behemoths like World of Warcraft and Star Wars: The Old Republic (if that even counts anymore since it is going free to play). It's a good game that doesn't even need to go against its competitors simply because it has no momthly fee (a huge plus in my book) and doesn't really clone any games (think Rift and SWTOR cloning WoW). In that wayThis game can definitely stand on its own against behemoths like World of Warcraft and Star Wars: The Old Republic (if that even counts anymore since it is going free to play). It's a good game that doesn't even need to go against its competitors simply because it has no momthly fee (a huge plus in my book) and doesn't really clone any games (think Rift and SWTOR cloning WoW). In that way it is truly innovative as it is its own game in its own right. Now, I do think this game is NOT the second coming of Jesus, nor does it live up to all the hype. Why? First of all, I think one of the most hyped up aspects of the game, World vs World (realm vs realm) is probably one of the more boring aspects of the game. You'll spend at least 5 minutes simply running around trying to find the action and when you die, and you will, you'll spend another 5-10 minutes running around looking for action. It's almost as if Anet designed it to be a time sink, but why they would I don't know, again there's no monthly fee. If you don't mind it the fights are really fun (always make sure to carry supplies around with you!!!) and the charm of it all is simply inescapable. My biggest pet peeve of the game, which is a good game mind you, is leveling in PvE. I'm a level 14 elementalist as I write this and I've had to grind on dynamic events several times just to catch up to my story quest, which can jump from level 10 to 15 easily. There aren't enough heart missions (area quests) and unique dynamic events to get you through, so you either have to repeat dynamic events or gain levels through World vs World. Not a favourable aspect of the game for me. I will end this review on one note though...the exploration in this game is simply amazing, fantastic, wonderful. If you like to explore you'll love this game. I didn't like exploring before but now I'm getting addicted to it. Anyways, it's a 7.5 to 8 game out of 10 in my humble opinion, I don't think this game deserves a 10 or anything less than 6.… Expand
  13. Mutica
    Aug 29, 2012
    7
    The problem with metacrtic... well there are many... but one big thing is the inflation/deflation by all the fanboys and haters. Not to mention that the critic reviews are almost always worthless, critics pretty much love any AAA or AA title. Ok this is not a 10/10 game... and it is not a 0/10 game either. If you are thinking about buying this game, the most honest thing I can say isThe problem with metacrtic... well there are many... but one big thing is the inflation/deflation by all the fanboys and haters. Not to mention that the critic reviews are almost always worthless, critics pretty much love any AAA or AA title. Ok this is not a 10/10 game... and it is not a 0/10 game either. If you are thinking about buying this game, the most honest thing I can say is WAIT. Wait till the dust has settled, remember SWTOR, started out with a metacritic score of around 8.5... its now in the 5.6 - 5.8 range. This game is still an mmo, it does a few thing different, but if you've played mmo's, it will still feel like an mmo. Questing does feel a little less grindy and seems to be an improvement from the standard quest chain; its implemented differently in GW2 so it is more fluid, but essentially the same. The world/graphics are well made, however there are limited FOV options and camera pull in and pull back it too limited atm. They say its by design, but in the end limited FOV makes certain dungeons and small area fights more annoying than fun. The lack of a true trinity system makes 1 v 1 skirmishes feel more dependent on skill... however most pvp encounters will not be 1 v 1. The lack of a trinity is an interesting and bold attempt to do something different... I found however, that it creates more of a zerg mentality, whether in pve or pvp. Attacks are well coordinated with a tank or dps initiating, and a healer for support. People don't seem to target assist during multiple mob encouters in GW2. In the end World Events and PvP feels a bit zergy and more chaotic than truly requiring skill and strategy. But this is a new system, so it could be that in a month people will find ways to be strategic without a trinity system. However, I'm not that optimistic, I do like the dodge mechanic, but still feel that battlegrounds or large scale pvp in other mmo that employed the trinity resulted in more tactical thinking and more natural coordination. Also there is no dueling system atm, which is sort of a pity, especially when there is no open world pvp. You have to zone into a pvp area in order to pvp.

    Limited options in some of the keybindings... for instance now the "F" seems to do everything, from interact with objects/players to looting/ to rezzing other players... this gets really annoying at times when you are trying to loot but can't since there is an npc or other items there. Trading post is still not in, but probably will be soon; Also, there is no system for personal trading or C.O.D. in the game, which seems bizarre, particularly for a modern mmo with a large crafting system. The crafting system seems good, although I didn't really get into it; There is an annoying thing about not being able to auto use crafting items stored in your bank. In the end it makes crafting a bit annoying at times. The Game still has psuedo-ques to get into your server, you log in right away but into an overflow server, probably in a few weeks or less this will remedied as server populations and login times stabilize. That said, zoning while in group can sometimes still be problematic and annoying, sometimes you will go to a new area, but members of you party will be in another instance of that area.

    The questing and story telling are a step up from WoW for sure, not as immersive as SWTOR with everything fully voiced, but an improvement from the standard mmo fare, albeit a small one. There are definitely plenty of moments of weak voice acting or just poor writing that snap your immersion. If you are an mmo player used to complete free speech in your game, also be warned. GW2 devs are not shy about using the ban hammer if you choose an inappropriate name or choose to say something offensive to another player. In some ways this does sort of force a respectful environment, but it does treat you like a kid. I don't know, if people want to curse and insult each other in pvp or pve I doesn't bother me. In some ways it adds a little flavor to the community... yes it can get excessive. But it does seem they've drawn the line a bit too close; although I wasn't banned... the internet seems rife with the complaints of several banned players (note banns are usually only for a day or 2). If people are offended with another player, they should just add them to the ignore list. It also seems at the moment that there are security issues with accounts getting hacked/stolen etc. I'm sure that this a high, maybe the highest priority issue for Arenanet atm. But it is a little disconcerting that they really seemed to have missed the boat here on account security. Pick a strong password if you play and make sure it is different from the email password for your email account tied to the game. In this day and age I think a AAA/AA mmo should probably always ship with an authenticator or have authentication software available.    … Expand
  14. iozay
    Feb 2, 2013
    7
    Guildwars 2 is a decent game, is supported well but the game is pretty overhyped. The game is also arguable "pay2win"(Even though people might disagree with it).
  15. Heatsink
    Oct 1, 2012
    7
    Arenanet made a number of improvements to MMO design with Guild Wars 2, but also made a significant number of questionable design decisions, effectively repeating the mistakes of the products they should have learned from. Positives: mob tapping is gone, grouping works automatically in the open world, the trinity is gone, graphics are very good, events help the world seem not-so-static.Arenanet made a number of improvements to MMO design with Guild Wars 2, but also made a significant number of questionable design decisions, effectively repeating the mistakes of the products they should have learned from. Positives: mob tapping is gone, grouping works automatically in the open world, the trinity is gone, graphics are very good, events help the world seem not-so-static.

    There are some heavy negatives to consider though. The boosting system in WvW doesn't do much as level 80 characters can drop lower level players in literally 1 second flat. Crafting is yet again something of an afterthought, but does bring significant XP gains, without many sellable products. Some drops required to craft seem broken, as the rarity makes them non-viable for production. Not much of an endgame is available. The game still has significant bugs as of 10/1/2012, such as trait point NPCs disappearing. Character classes are wildly unbalanced, with some being orders of magnitude more powerful than others. Personal story quest difficulty is largely broken, with mobs wiping out players pretty quickly, leading to repair bills.

    One last item to consider is the combat design. It is a bit..odd. Players have an active dodge, which can be used twice and then wait for recharge. Mobs tend to hit extremely hard, even on their plain vanilla attacks, and even from trash mobs. Mobs also are spawned on top of players already in combat quite frequently. Overall, the combat seems somewhat clunky. Defensive abilities tend to be weak, healing abilities almost not worth using, and both are usually on very long cooldowns. There are a number of other abilities than don't seem to have much to offer, and yet again, on long cooldowns. Range attacks are usually more advantageous then melee, mostly due to the damage mobs toss out to melee characters.    … Expand
  16. aazru
    Sep 1, 2012
    7
    Short version: Nice, but nothing(literally nothing) special. Sound fx are hit and miss, at the worst annoying as hell. Some of them forced me to turn off sound. Too much particle effects kill any enjoyment from combat. Graphics go from good characters to bad textures. World is pleasant too look at only from a distance. Did I mention overblown particle effects? The world is big but theShort version: Nice, but nothing(literally nothing) special. Sound fx are hit and miss, at the worst annoying as hell. Some of them forced me to turn off sound. Too much particle effects kill any enjoyment from combat. Graphics go from good characters to bad textures. World is pleasant too look at only from a distance. Did I mention overblown particle effects? The world is big but the size feels like forced. Story can described in one word: filler. It has good parts, mind you. But too far apart to call it good as a whole. Whole dynamic event thing is glorified filler. Only thing that makes this game is combat. It is too "spam the same button" for my taste but still good. In summary: It is worth the box price but doesn't ask for a sub fee because it isn't worth a sub fee.… Expand
  17. Nataraja
    Sep 17, 2012
    7
    I will preface this with a caveat - I tried very hard to like the original GW and just never got into it. I am also very picky about my games right now and fantasy games are a bit stale to say least.

    I much prefer a more recent game that I will not go into but it lacks any sort of decent end game. To me that is where GW2 shines with the open world events, sidekick level system (so you    I will preface this with a caveat - I tried very hard to like the original GW and just never got into it. I am also very picky about my games right now and fantasy games are a bit stale to say least.

    I much prefer a more recent game that I will not go into but it lacks any sort of decent end game. To me that is where GW2 shines with the open world events, sidekick level system (so you can't face roll content lower than you) and the dynamic events that alter the world - but what really shines is the PvP, both structured and WvWvW - Especially the WvWvW. I can lose days in that setting.

    The instances are decent and the lack of a trinity is AWESOME. However there are things that drive me nuts:

    - the game gets repetitious and leveling an alt is tedious at best
    - the dynamic events follow about 3 or maybe 4 templates and get old
    - there are some unresolved bugs that seem to continue to evade the devs
    - Its another -ANOTHER - fantasy game
    - Asura are annoyingly cutesy and should be exterminated like the rats that they are
    - The setup for the cash shop makes it seem like ArenaNet constantly has its hand out
    - There are parts of the game that should just be totally reworked (the abysmal writing and voice acting in places - especially the Norn area)

    So its a decent game and for $60, assuming you don't go CE or use the cash shop, is better than most single player games - and it has no sub fee so you can come and go guilt free.

    So its a decent game - but is it revolutionary? Not really. Its a very VERY safe game compared to other recent games and in the end will be a nice diversion from things that are truly revolutionary that I consume like a rabid animal.    … Expand
  18. BrosefStalin
    Aug 28, 2012
    7
    Being a fan of the original Guild Wars I decided to buy the second one. I was very pleased, the gameplay is smooth, has a lot of customization and the story (in my experience) was entertaining. Also the graphical quality is very nice for an MMO. The game was however streamlined to be more like other MMO's which might turn off a few of the original Guild Wars fans. However it is wellBeing a fan of the original Guild Wars I decided to buy the second one. I was very pleased, the gameplay is smooth, has a lot of customization and the story (in my experience) was entertaining. Also the graphical quality is very nice for an MMO. The game was however streamlined to be more like other MMO's which might turn off a few of the original Guild Wars fans. However it is well executed and well done.… Expand
  19. ActiBlizzCancer
    Aug 28, 2012
    7
    Without the game's problems, it would be a 10/10. Anyone that has rated this game as a 10 is a **** brand loyal marketing drone who can't see past his own hype and post purchase rationalization that they are unable to think for themselves. Here lies the problem, Guild Wars 2 starts out with a 10/10 but then loses points for various things. The major problem with GW2 is its community. NotWithout the game's problems, it would be a 10/10. Anyone that has rated this game as a 10 is a **** brand loyal marketing drone who can't see past his own hype and post purchase rationalization that they are unable to think for themselves. Here lies the problem, Guild Wars 2 starts out with a 10/10 but then loses points for various things. The major problem with GW2 is its community. Not only is it the worse community online that you will ever find, including Biodrones and Furries and Bronies, but they are unable to actually comprehend any form of criticism against GW2. For example, if you say how there is no such feature in the design of GW2 such as dueling (which lets be honest, people expect in a 2012 AAA MMO), they don't actually read your criticism properly, they skip read it and assume that you're "a troll". Or if you mention how you'd like something to be different you are met with a torrent of filth, logical fallacies and attacks on your character from people that want you to stop "saying bad things" about GW2. As for the actual features that are missing from GW2, they include; dueling, gear inspection, capes (they are too lazy to fix armor clipping), guild halls, skill customization (you are limited to 2 weapon sets and skills that you can't choose simply because they are too lazy to implement class balance or dual professions), interesting achievements and skill hunting like GW1, larger amounts of skills available for support slots, no account tied dye system (it was removed thanks to the Nexon employee removing them and making you more likely to use the Korean F2P cash shop). It also has 8 professions and only 5 character slots. The cash shop is strange, like they didn't think it through properly - i.e. there are craftable boosts that do the same things as the cash shop boosts except cost 10 copper coins where as the cash shop ones cost like $1.50. Why? Oh and there is too much grind required (if I'm not mistaken) for cosmetic sets of dungeon gear, requiring around 60 runs to collect a full set - which is clearly stupid. If these features were patched in, it would be an 9/10 game. It's brought down 1 point so far by the stupidity of its community who would be happy enough to send you death threats for negative reviews of their christ savior MMO. But to end on a happy note, this game is so much better than World of Warcraft or its clones, and is very beautiful to look at. It's just missing some of the things that made GW1 beautiful, which they dumped.… Expand
  20. shinta42
    Aug 29, 2012
    7
    The character model is too 2d sprite-like and does not have a feeling of solidness. The graphic engine of DAOC which released so many years ago feel more right than this game. Otherwise I would give it a higher score.
  21. Homergdog
    Aug 29, 2012
    7
    Well, the game itself has more hype than I've seen out of any MMORPG, which is saying something, but its a good game. Will I be playing it months from now? probably not. Is it worth the price of admission? yes. A couple issues I have with the game, its pretty simplified, which is a good and bad thing. The login issues are a HUGE problem. I can't verify my email and my home PC can't loginWell, the game itself has more hype than I've seen out of any MMORPG, which is saying something, but its a good game. Will I be playing it months from now? probably not. Is it worth the price of admission? yes. A couple issues I have with the game, its pretty simplified, which is a good and bad thing. The login issues are a HUGE problem. I can't verify my email and my home PC can't login to GW2 at all. These are all initial problems with any MMO, but the login issues can be pretty severe. I figure it might be as late as next week before this gets worked out (Error 42, firewall issue. Even though my PC is a DMZ, UAC off, Run as Admin, with no firewalls.) Funny enough my work pc logins in just fine LOL. Other than the above issues, GW2 seems to have taken the best of all MMOs, and I really like how they have redone the typical quest leveling. No more Quest hubs with ! above peoples heads, its still kinda there, but is dressed up and forces you to engage in the quest story and only do 1 at a time. Don't expect the hype you are seeing from the reviews, but expect a good MMO, with some growing pains. If MMOs aren't your thing, stay away from this game, but if you are a WoW player looking for something different, go buy it NOW! Me, I'm an old school EQ player that will probably play it for a couple months as a casual. Now if your from ArenaNet reading this review, fix your LOGIN Issues!… Expand
  22. hitthegoat
    Sep 7, 2012
    7
    I like this game. Is it perfect? No. But I dare you to name a perfect game. Sure, the dynamic events was done in Rift, and sure the combat system is similar to Tera, and the quest system is similar to Warhammer, but who really cares? IMO they were done better in GW2 and that's more important. I find the graphics to be good, not the best ever, but then again, I'm not a graphics fanaticI like this game. Is it perfect? No. But I dare you to name a perfect game. Sure, the dynamic events was done in Rift, and sure the combat system is similar to Tera, and the quest system is similar to Warhammer, but who really cares? IMO they were done better in GW2 and that's more important. I find the graphics to be good, not the best ever, but then again, I'm not a graphics fanatic and I certainly can't believe anyone finds them to be "bad." I haven't experienced any of this "floaty" or "disconnected" game play/controls, I honestly don't get it, I find the controls and the combat to be fun. And personally, I find the smaller amount of available skills to be fun, the one thing that I came to dislike about WoW (and saw that SWTOR has done) is the insane amount of skills on action bars you would have on your interface, which just caused annoying clutter to me, almost half of your screen is buttons and menus. To me that seems less like I'm playing a game, and more like I'm monitoring equipment of some kind, almost like working. One complaint that I do have is the lame selection of Elite skills, at least on my Norn. 3 of the first available 5 are shape shifting, and 1 of the 2nd tier is shape shifting, they might be fun, but that's not really my style. And whilst perusing through the numerous negatives, I see a lot of comparison to SWTOR, and that just irritates me to no end. Quit comparing games to other games. There's a reason this game is called "Guild Wars 2" and not "Star Wars: The Old Republic," they're different games made by different people with different features, the only similarity is that they're MMOs.… Expand
  23. Opulet
    Sep 10, 2012
    7
    PROS: $60 flat, WvW, sPvP 5v5 Tournaments, Latter parts of PvE without Heart-Quests, Dungeons, Puzzles, Top Tier Boss fights in both instanced and open world situations, Non-invasive money shop. CONS: Weak Personal Storyline during early-mid game, Early Heart-Quests, Random 16 player sPvP, Lack of more game-modes in sPvP, OVERALL: Top quality content at $60, no monthly fee. Better thanPROS: $60 flat, WvW, sPvP 5v5 Tournaments, Latter parts of PvE without Heart-Quests, Dungeons, Puzzles, Top Tier Boss fights in both instanced and open world situations, Non-invasive money shop. CONS: Weak Personal Storyline during early-mid game, Early Heart-Quests, Random 16 player sPvP, Lack of more game-modes in sPvP, OVERALL: Top quality content at $60, no monthly fee. Better than anything else on the market at the moment.… Expand
  24. MistahYebba
    Sep 10, 2012
    7
    There are too many characters in my review to post it here, so please check out my review at CURSE forums. http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/63286-guild-wars-1-vs-guild-wars-2/

    Thank you!
  25. Tykune
    Sep 14, 2012
    7
    This game is better than the other moderately entertaining games out there, such as TERA and some of the other F2P games out there, but while the graphics are stunning and the story play is stellar, there are some flaws that this game acquired. I am not at all saying that this game is bad, but has a lot of potential, and has a long way to go to fix itself up to from that cracked crystalThis game is better than the other moderately entertaining games out there, such as TERA and some of the other F2P games out there, but while the graphics are stunning and the story play is stellar, there are some flaws that this game acquired. I am not at all saying that this game is bad, but has a lot of potential, and has a long way to go to fix itself up to from that cracked crystal gem to a flawless diamond gem.

    Pros: Great Graphics - It is rare to find awesome, cutting edge graphics in any other game. This one in particular, takes the cake in being unique and note-worthy.

    Excellent Story - The fact you can pick your own background and progress through the story on a global scale, yet blend together with other players in the world around you, is a very rare thing to find in an MMORPG. This is what makes the game in itself unique and fun to play.

    Cons: Buggy and Unfulfilling Events - The events themselves are quite buggy and they leave a feeling of unfulfillment. You could litrally kill 3 things, and go take a dump while they event wears out, and you will get a gold medal and max rewards. This is something in my opinion should get fixed right away.

    Unbalanced Classes - Some of the classes are boring and unpolished, and as NCsoft stated 'unfinished', except for warrior of course. Some of the classes are useless in PvP and in some cases, nearly useless when soloing.. or at least makes it extremely difficult.

    Summary - In general, this game is not too bad at all.. in fact, it is great and holds a lot of potential, but it needs some sprucing up and fixes here and there, and a bit of changes before it can really be worth its money. I'd honestly say let the game mature a bit, then maybe NCsoft can clean it up.    … Expand
  26. suzakuii
    Sep 25, 2012
    7
    Overall not too bad of a game. The best thing about this game is still the PvP. The pvp became better with the WvWvW system implanted that could affect your PvE. Many times people resort to just clicking everything they can when it is off cd. Not a particular effective way of going about PvP. Theres a certain element of anticipation and knowing your enemy before engaging recklessly.Overall not too bad of a game. The best thing about this game is still the PvP. The pvp became better with the WvWvW system implanted that could affect your PvE. Many times people resort to just clicking everything they can when it is off cd. Not a particular effective way of going about PvP. Theres a certain element of anticipation and knowing your enemy before engaging recklessly. Everyone will start off reckless, myself included, but as you play your character class more, you realize theres more than just spam can save your tail. Perhaps waiting for them to start channeling then stun them would be wiser than just stunning them upon seeing them. dodge roll back as you see them charging toward you. Stealth the moment you enter a fray (people don't even know you are there) and start reviving downed allies. Many more possibilities can be explored. Unfortunately PvE of this game is kind of lack luster. Daily achievements helps you level up your character, but always the smae thing. Dynamics events attracts your attention for the early game, then after a while it all became the same. Defend spot/character/building for x waves of enemies, kill the leader of y group to disband, collect z items and deliver. However theres a few very interesting dynamic events. Early dynamic events has almost no consequence for failing. However some would actually have a town wiped out and events will follow to try and restore the town back to normal. Other really interesting events includes bosses that rarely spawns, like a dragon that will be almost 100x bigger than you. These although fun to try and kill, there will be too many people around, it lags the crap out of you. Story for the characters seems rather generic. Each choices in the character creation affects your story line for like the first 30 levels. After that all the stories are just the same. There are some choices in paths of the story like using brute force, sneak and assassinate, or like gather info. Ultimately it just makes you fight in a different setting and still merge back to main story afterwards. Fighting in PvE is purely spamming. auto set your first skill to auto cast. This just means that is your normal attack. everything else have a cool down you will probably use the moment it is off cd. PvE has auto adjust to level of surrounding if surrounding is weaker than your total level. This way you will still feel like doing something in the beginning areas (esp areas of other races) don't feel like you were simply overpowered. There are some rather intricate mazes/jump quests layed out in just about every map. Can try to find the secluded entrence by your self and everything afterwards is pretty straight forward with the jump quest. Each level up is not too difficult. It feels nearly the same as going from lvl 8 to 9 as lvl 79 to 80, there really isn't your typical grind fest of like 10 days to get 1 level. Aside from the few set backs, I think this is a game that deserves and good look at… Expand
  27. Xiny
    Sep 27, 2012
    7
    I Loved the game, excellent quests, unique combat and even has a separate story quest line. However, the love for this game quickly died when i started doing dungeons. The fun, reward, and sense of purpose for GW2's dungeons is one of the biggest fails I've experienced in any MMO and by far the worst mechanics. However due to not having a holy trinity i don't think they would be able toI Loved the game, excellent quests, unique combat and even has a separate story quest line. However, the love for this game quickly died when i started doing dungeons. The fun, reward, and sense of purpose for GW2's dungeons is one of the biggest fails I've experienced in any MMO and by far the worst mechanics. However due to not having a holy trinity i don't think they would be able to properly recover from this fiasco, so i got a refund. If you want this game i would avoid dungeons till they are patched.… Expand
  28. Its_Nice_In_RW
    Sep 29, 2012
    7
    I played GW1 it was a decent game not great but decent. I played WOW it was a very poor game graphically and had the worst player base in any game I played but it had something that drew you back to it (gameplay). I now play GW2 (and others) graphically very nice not as spectacular as Tera but nice. Like Tera does not offer much at end game level. If you want to experience some differentI played GW1 it was a decent game not great but decent. I played WOW it was a very poor game graphically and had the worst player base in any game I played but it had something that drew you back to it (gameplay). I now play GW2 (and others) graphically very nice not as spectacular as Tera but nice. Like Tera does not offer much at end game level. If you want to experience some different aspects of MMO I would suggest GW2 is a good place to start. Be aware though (WOW rips a monthy sub from your hands) GW2 is one off payment for game though the aggressive shop influence make it less attractive from a costing level. Its a mix mash of different good things taken mostly from Korean MMO's nothing particularly new but all in one game rather than spread over many MMO's. If you play MMO's it will be interesting for about a month then probably you will move on to next one (like me). The game plays like a cash shop mico payment game which is very sad but people seem to like this genre at the moment. People thinking free to play is actually that which in fact it is much more expensive than a sub game IMO and IME. The famous problem of bagsize is here in all its glory. Lastly the game whats new hmmmm well I have seen everything in this game in other MMO's I have played so nothing I could say the events as in other games they tend to be GM initiated but happen on a timer in this game so that :) Enough to keep me playing ? Not at the moment. I will give it an 7/10. I can return to the game at any time for no fee so that is a big plus but the rabid cash shop element makes it in the minus for me. On the whole the community is very nice so that is a big bonus.… Expand
  29. Ghostte
    Oct 12, 2012
    7
    I liked GW2 but i was disappointed that I did not LOVE GW2. While not a huge fan of MMO's i thought this would be the game that brought me into this genre. However, i was bored by the time i reached level 60 with my necromancer and i couldn't take how slow my character moved and how the camera had a little sway to it.. I alo hated how immersion breaking the story was. As a necromancer II liked GW2 but i was disappointed that I did not LOVE GW2. While not a huge fan of MMO's i thought this would be the game that brought me into this genre. However, i was bored by the time i reached level 60 with my necromancer and i couldn't take how slow my character moved and how the camera had a little sway to it.. I alo hated how immersion breaking the story was. As a necromancer I would have not made the decisions my character was making. I wish there were more voice choices and speech options. Overall well polished game with fun PVP.....but just not for me.… Expand
  30. Jalfred
    Nov 2, 2012
    7
    I'm an avid fan of MMORPG and this game fall short of my expectations and many others by the looks of it. Yet I still recommend fans of this genre pick up this game as unlike most, it's none subscription based and will be a game I will come back to every now and again for years to come.
    The games PvP, from what I've seen is pretty unbalanced but it's not a game breaker. The PvE is very    I'm an avid fan of MMORPG and this game fall short of my expectations and many others by the looks of it. Yet I still recommend fans of this genre pick up this game as unlike most, it's none subscription based and will be a game I will come back to every now and again for years to come.
    The games PvP, from what I've seen is pretty unbalanced but it's not a game breaker. The PvE is very different to any other MMORPG I've played. Each instance has a limit of 5 players which I found slightly disappointing yet they are very challenging and requires a lot more cooperation than any other multi player PvE experience, like World Of Warcraft for instance. What I found very interesting is the fact ArenaNet based the game on giving the player a choice of how to level. For example, one could level to 80 with just World PvP (A new feature which involves a server VS server VS server system. Which takes place in a huge battleground). Or Structured PvP (A smaller PVP environment). Or even just questing. The game hasn't got a compelling storyline but this can easily be avoided.
    The game play varies greatly from profession to profession, depending on what type of profession you're playing. The thief and most melee classes consist of more button mashing then skillful play with ranged classes mostly bound to a powerful rotation.
    Personally I recommend picking this up even if you don't plan on playing for a considerable amount of time. The soul fact that this game isn't a subscription is a must buy for me.    … Expand
  31. GrouchoMarx
    Nov 3, 2012
    7
    This game is worth the money, if only to go through the content once. I was a hard core WoW player for 4 years before giving it up. Guild Wars 2 makes it clear it is going head-to-head with WoW as evidenced by this "encrypted" saying that was on one of the tombstones outside of Divinity's Reach: "I played WoW and look at me now. If only I had been like you and stuck to playing GW2". ItThis game is worth the money, if only to go through the content once. I was a hard core WoW player for 4 years before giving it up. Guild Wars 2 makes it clear it is going head-to-head with WoW as evidenced by this "encrypted" saying that was on one of the tombstones outside of Divinity's Reach: "I played WoW and look at me now. If only I had been like you and stuck to playing GW2". It has since been removed, but it makes it clear what audience ArenaNet is going after. + Better than WoW
    = Equal to WoW
    - Worse than WoW

    + Dynamic quests keeps things fresh and exciting and making grouping up with people in the same area painless
    + Every class gets a self heal
    + Every class can rez another player
    + Access to trading post from anywhere in the world
    + Shared resource nodes (unlike WoW's every man for himself model)
    + No monthly subscription fee = Graphics: Pretty equal to WoW, although the text in GW2 is a bit weird/dated.
    = Environment: World is alive and detailed with leaves flying around and visually stunning landscapes
    = Sound/Music: Music is good; the sounds come from real life recordings for realism
    = Holiday events and rewards on par with WoW's

    - Different areas are instanced leading to "breaks" between traveling between them
    - No LFG tool. Every modern MMO has this. This game needs a serious LFG tool like WoW
    - No addon support
    - Lack of content. I found myself trying to hunt all over for quests to level up with. WoW doesn't have this problem
    - Dungeons can be frustrating
    - Lack of a decent tutorial or guide system for crafting, travel and gameplay (Blizzard now gives you a PDF manual with everything you ever wanted to know and more about WoW)
    - Lack of mounts

    Overall, this game seems like WoW in a simpler time, like 2004/2005. Sit in a map or a city and spam the chat channels LFG. That's what I did years ago and don't feel like doing that anymore.    … Expand
  32. InternetWarrior
    Nov 19, 2012
    7
    Guild Wars 2 was said by many to be the game to usher in the next generation of MMOs. In my view, it hasn't lived up to that distinction. Nevertheless, I would still commend ArenaNet on attempting to innovate rather than re-hashing same old tired generic MMO concepts.

    The PvE (Player versus Environment, i.e. player versus computer) is probably the best part of GW2. The combat system,    Guild Wars 2 was said by many to be the game to usher in the next generation of MMOs. In my view, it hasn't lived up to that distinction. Nevertheless, I would still commend ArenaNet on attempting to innovate rather than re-hashing same old tired generic MMO concepts.

    The PvE (Player versus Environment, i.e. player versus computer) is probably the best part of GW2. The combat system, scaling and dynamic events breathe new life in to open world PvE. As someone who has done questing to death in other MMOs, I actually found I was perfectly happy to run around and do a few zones without getting bored. The two big criticisms I had of open world PvE was unoriginal/boring story-lines and hearts (very close to traditional quests).

    Regarding the hearts. This was a feature announced basically at the 11th hour. Most zones were given X amount of heart quests to complete, each appearing on the world map. This encouraged people to run around doing them and move on to the next zone, hence, detracting from dynamic events (which were the real innovation with GW2). Furthermore, the hearts caused many people to wander in to the next zone under-leveled because they did not grant sufficient experience.

    To elaborate on the "unoriginal/boring story-lines", I felt the stories had pretty generic MMO/DnD fantasy type plots. I can't remember any use of writing devices such as red herrings and plot twists to mix things up a bit and make them interesting. Additionally, I wasn't impressed with the setting outside of dynamic events/hearts either. Although the races are not standard fantasy Human, Elf and Dwarf (etc.) they do use the same old stereotypes we have seem time and time again. Lastly, I found the voice acting to range from acceptable, to downright bad to completely immersion breaking. Having multiple races (sometimes in the same zone) with "funny" Jar Jar Binks-like voices really irritated me.

    The two major parts of PvE I have not mentioned are dungeons and the personal story. I would say much the same thing about personal story that I did in the last paragraph. Dungeons on the other hand were well done. However, I would liked there to have been more of them.

    WvW (World v World v World) offers good large group siege warfare style PvP (Player versus Player) if you like that sort of thing. Nevertheless, be prepared to deal with technical problems (i.e. lag). I have a monster PC and average internet connection and I was still experiencing lag (most likely some kind of server-side bug). Furthermore, you should also be prepared to deal with a system where whoever has the greatest numbers generally wins and a rather arbitrary scoring mechanism. In other words, winning is not really about playing well, winning is about getting as many people as possible to play at silly 'o' clock in the morning.

    WvW also fails to cater very well to the solo player, small group and guild. Solo players and small groups are very likely to encounter larger groups of people in their travels due to the relatively small size of the map (considering the amount of people in it). When solo players and small groups do manage to take appropriately sized objectives they will often find it is steamrolled by a larger group and taken back 5 minutes later. WvW could have potentially been a great environment for guilds, however, that was defeated by small population limits on maps and long queues; it takes a long time to get the whole guild in.

    Structured PvP is the last big part of GW2 I haven't mentioned. Teams of 1-8 compete to take and hold 3 objectives within a small map. It is intended as the more competitive PvP option. As great as the combat system is for PvE, it doesn't really seem to compliment PvP at all. The dodge system, removal of energy and abilities in general seem to make for a very frustrating style of play. Remember those extremely irritating gimmicky builds from other MMOs (e.g. early WoTLK Retri Pala, early RIFT Saboteur and SW:TOR tracer spammer)? Well, it's not the occasional person running this type of build in GW2, it's everyone.

    The dodge system is frustrating because it can add a huge element of luck in to winning and justifies the inclusion of insanely powerful dodge or die abilities. These dodge or die abilities have a disproportionately powerful considering how hard it is to dodge them. In addition, be prepare for limited field of view, excessive spell effects, lack of cast bars and an excessive amount of characters (e.g. pets/clones) on screen to make dodging these abilities even harder. The number of dodges does not scale with the number of attackers, so you can potentially get nuked down in a second, if focused by a large group.

    If you enjoy doing solo and small group PvE I would recommend GW2 wholeheartedly. The fresh take on things is well worth experiencing. However, there is a limited amount of PvE content available so don't expect it to last months and months if you play a lot.    … Expand
  33. Jangle
    Dec 1, 2012
    7
    I played this game for around 3 weeks from release and sold the account for $140 with a lvl 80 warrior alone. The game is fun and interesting with new mechanics for the first few weeks. The story is somewhat decent. The action is pretty linear and easy for anyone to use, so it appeals to more new players in the GW series. For the more experienced players, there is little customizationI played this game for around 3 weeks from release and sold the account for $140 with a lvl 80 warrior alone. The game is fun and interesting with new mechanics for the first few weeks. The story is somewhat decent. The action is pretty linear and easy for anyone to use, so it appeals to more new players in the GW series. For the more experienced players, there is little customization of skills and weapons, so basically, everyone does the same thing. Compared to GW1, there is only single class so no adding a second, there are a small limited pool of skills for every class, there's a lot less strategy and skill involved since you can attack and use skills while moving and you can see your enemies' AOE landings before they hit the spot, and there are numerous game-breaking bugs. The PVP is very repetitive and doesn't give me any incentive to play it. Aside from these downs, the achievements systems is probably one of the best I've seen in any MMO. The graphics are pretty good even though they aren't optimized well for higher end systems yet. The quests are pretty average and mundane so yes you will do a lot of gathering wood for farmers and such. So for those of you considering the game, if you are new to MMOs and haven't played GW1, you will like this game. From the more experienced players, you will notice a lot of what made GW1 so great, has been removed and made it more geared towards new players. Interesting strategy considering it's much easier to keep your loyal customer base than trying to get new ones. They should have kept their strengths and simply tweaked and updated them. All around, some decent mechanics, but essentially, not much different from any other MMO out there.… Expand
  34. colnaghi
    Feb 4, 2020
    7
    Great graphics, nice character customization (not as good as Tera in this aspect), gigantic worlds and plenty of quests to perform and mobs to fight.
    Swimming and diving are amazing adds to the game possibilities that cannot be seen that often on other mmo's.
    It may take a while until you grasp the inner works of the complex crafting system.
  35. cc742
    Jan 21, 2013
    7
    I find it hard to review GW2 since the only other mmo's i've played are aq worlds(aka the worst mmo there is) and runescape which has graphic worse than an n64. That being said, i coudnt find a ton of enjoyment in guild wars 2. The classes were interesting and alot of the game is simply beautiful, but rip it down to its core its still an MMo. I found the system of just telling youI find it hard to review GW2 since the only other mmo's i've played are aq worlds(aka the worst mmo there is) and runescape which has graphic worse than an n64. That being said, i coudnt find a ton of enjoyment in guild wars 2. The classes were interesting and alot of the game is simply beautiful, but rip it down to its core its still an MMo. I found the system of just telling you everything u need to do at the beggining of the area nice, but still i've never like fetch quests as doing the same thing 200000 times has never interested me. I cant recomend the PVP though. Dear god i played it for 10 mins where we wated and decided to breach a walll. we finaly do and what happens? ANOTHER WALL. Ugh it got so boring i just decided to stay on the PVE and work with that. After a week i was about to log on and i ask myself am i have fun? the answer was no. No, this is not fun and there are better games to play, even if there off line. In conclusion if u like mmo's you will enjoy this, but if not it most likly wont be the big converter or "wow killer" people thought it could be… Expand
  36. Rajal
    Feb 17, 2013
    7
    Overall, its not a bad game... However it does feel like it was rushed. The biggest issue may be that people feel a little confused with where to go. In a way I like the heart system, but then you don't have to talk to anyone and that alone can make the world feel kind of hollow. This can be solved by just going up to the Heart giver and asking him whats up, but you don't have to toOverall, its not a bad game... However it does feel like it was rushed. The biggest issue may be that people feel a little confused with where to go. In a way I like the heart system, but then you don't have to talk to anyone and that alone can make the world feel kind of hollow. This can be solved by just going up to the Heart giver and asking him whats up, but you don't have to to activate the tasks and what not. Some people really hate the new weapon skill system, but I'm fine with it. I understand that balancing all those skills in GW1 must of been a nightmare but one part of me still misses all those build possibilities... ESPECIALLY with Mesmers. I feel the game kind of favors soloing a bit too much, but its not entirely a bad thing either.

    My main concern is with NCSoft however. I feel like its been rushed out by them, and apparently they have been involved in nearly eradicating all Asian related things (Tengus not included... kinda). Rumors about how they wanted Anet to remove the Canthan District and a possibility of never having a return trip to Cantha is... odd. I really hope NCSoft does not block Anet from doing this as a possible expansion set, and that Anet can start pumping more life into this game. It's not bad really, but it feels... Well, incomplete. My hope is that this goes the way of the old GW and that an expansion will breathe more life into it.    … Expand
  37. Capzero007
    Mar 31, 2013
    7
    Guild Wars 2 manages to bring some new elements to a genre which is quickly becoming boring and repetitive (meaning the fantasy MMO). The elimination of the need to find quest givers and the need to hand them back in really streamlines play. The excellent rewards for completely exploring a map and finishing all the content really promotes exploration. The final great addition is theGuild Wars 2 manages to bring some new elements to a genre which is quickly becoming boring and repetitive (meaning the fantasy MMO). The elimination of the need to find quest givers and the need to hand them back in really streamlines play. The excellent rewards for completely exploring a map and finishing all the content really promotes exploration. The final great addition is the support for random cooperation between players. No issues over loot rights, kill rights, or even crafting material nodes. Everyone gets credit.

    These items alone forced me to give GW2 a 7. The rest of the MMO problems remain. Repetitive content, tiresome combat, loot grinds, and forced grouping at the end game. I recommend GW2. Enjoy the trip to the level cap but logout once you get there     … Expand
  38. Horcos
    Aug 7, 2013
    7
    I really wanted to play this game, i found some new friends and i really tried to play this game, but i found a lack of spells, i just wanted lots of useless spells with cool animations, all so the quests, or the yellow hearts was repetitive
  39. bassgirl90
    Sep 27, 2013
    7
    I have played Guild Wars 2 since the day after it was released. I played the original as well. Pros are fast leveling, craftable items (weapons, armor, food) interesting dungeons, lots of metaevents, lots of dynamic events particularly with regard to the "living world".

    For me, Guild Wars 2 falls short due to the silliness of gated crafting materials (i.e. even if you have the materials    I have played Guild Wars 2 since the day after it was released. I played the original as well. Pros are fast leveling, craftable items (weapons, armor, food) interesting dungeons, lots of metaevents, lots of dynamic events particularly with regard to the "living world".

    For me, Guild Wars 2 falls short due to the silliness of gated crafting materials (i.e. even if you have the materials and the skill you can only craft/harvest one of these every 24 hours), gear treadmill seems to be the way that the game is keeping people playing, the daily "to do list" of things that are worthless and eat up your time to get a reward that you can only get through doing our little daily and monthly "to do lists" (i.e. kill x number of champions, harvest 30 items, kill 5 veterans, participate in 2 group events, and 25 underwater kills for a daily chore list example). By the time you get all of your daily crafting, rotate through the metaevents to get your bonus chest for each, and then finish your daily chores its already been 3 hours that you could have been in a dungeon, doing guild missions, or just about anything else. I had to quit the time sink to live in RL with my SO and RL Friends.

    TLDR: GW2 is a modified to do list.    … Expand
  40. DominikCZE
    Nov 9, 2013
    7
    I've never been into MMOs but this one compelled me because it had a very appealing pay once, play forever model, which any game should have. It didn't turn out to be as great as I thought it would be though, it's still fun and entertaining to play once in a while with a bunch of friends, but there are a couple problems that I'm going to explain.
    First of all, the world is absolutely    I've never been into MMOs but this one compelled me because it had a very appealing pay once, play forever model, which any game should have. It didn't turn out to be as great as I thought it would be though, it's still fun and entertaining to play once in a while with a bunch of friends, but there are a couple problems that I'm going to explain.
    First of all, the world is absolutely MASSIVE, it's just that, there isn't that much to do in it, pretty much every quest is the same generic "kill 5 rats and feed my cows!", the skill challenges are the same thing, fight this one guy, get a skill point and you're done. Another problem which I find huge is how utterly annoying the wildlife is. Say you want just relax and take in the scenery, while peacefully walking through the mountains, no can do sir. There are literally tens of mobs on your screen at ANY given moment and EVERYWHERE, even some towns are infested with mobs. The worst thing is that these mobs are extremely aggressive and attack on sight, which makes getting anywhere a real pain. I'm trying to walk to a quest objective, not fight a thousand wolves for two hours for god's sake!

    One last thing that I'd like to criticize is the lore of the game, I'm just not feeling it, it's pretty shallow and with all the barbie dolls and Halloween pumpkins frankly quite unbelievable. And the last thing I almost forgot to mention, daily events. What's the point of these? Kill thirty bunnies? Twenty-five underwater creatures? Collect twenty pieces of wood? Why would I wanna do that? Why force people to grind? Well whatever, it's not a mandatory thing to do, just completely pointless in my opinion.

    Other than that the game is fairly solid and can provide countless hours of fun if you have friends to play with, for solo action I would recommend a classic single-player RPG backed by a strong story and quality lore. I'm not going to review the PvP element, it's solid, don't really care about it, look elsewhere for that.    … Expand
  41. Spango
    Dec 5, 2013
    7
    This is by far the most fun MMORPG I've played to date. I kept myself busy and entertained for months, and since there is no subscription fee, I'll be back to play again when I get the MMO bug again. Dungeon Crawlers are my favorite genre, so maybe I'm just expecting too much out of an item system and the overall story presentation, but I feel like there was more to be expected from theThis is by far the most fun MMORPG I've played to date. I kept myself busy and entertained for months, and since there is no subscription fee, I'll be back to play again when I get the MMO bug again. Dungeon Crawlers are my favorite genre, so maybe I'm just expecting too much out of an item system and the overall story presentation, but I feel like there was more to be expected from the game on these aspects. Don't get me wrong, the lore for the world and the various weapon and armor skins were amazing, but the voice acting counterbalanced the interesting lore, and the lack of interesting items left the item hunt feeling a bit lackluster. Those problems being taken into consideration, and I still give it a 7/10.… Expand
  42. marc5477
    Dec 31, 2014
    7
    Probably the best MMO available and fits a wide range of audience. Anyone can pick it up and be successful at the casual level yet there is enough intricacy that the hardcore crowd can do their customary min/maxing. They nice thing about this MMO is it receives a lot of love from its developer. World events are frequent and the stories are always moving along to keep people interested inProbably the best MMO available and fits a wide range of audience. Anyone can pick it up and be successful at the casual level yet there is enough intricacy that the hardcore crowd can do their customary min/maxing. They nice thing about this MMO is it receives a lot of love from its developer. World events are frequent and the stories are always moving along to keep people interested in raids and bosses. The bad news is that the game is easy... then again, all MMO's have devolve to this problem since WoW became successful and I cannot fault the developers for wanting to make enough money to keep their jobs. There are some nice features in this game that others lack, most notably, exploration is rewarded and it really is fun to run into random puzzles in the world and try to figure them out. Some of those jumping puzzles are very memorable and well placed. In fact, if you are not alert or reading a guide, you can miss them altogether which is really cool when you find them on your own. The game has your standard crafting professions as well as class trees that are fairly well balanced allowing for many viable builds. PvP is ok and world PvP is somewhat fun but I was never a PvP guy so I didnt play as much of it. I personally enjoy exploring new areas and getting the best gear within reason (kind of like trophies for me). The nice thing about Guild Wars 2 is that everyone has means to get some of the best weapons in the game. You can do it the old fashion way of raiding or your can earn it in other ways such as PvP or crafting or just through in game wealth. I like the mini-instances in the game but the one thing that I dont like is itemization. Loot in the game just feels useless and most items only have value because they are torn down via crafting. I suppose there is no way around this in an MMO (or even 1 player games) and it has been a gripe of mine since my early gaming days. Anyway, its a great MMO. No subscription fees to worry about and most anything can be bought with in game currency and time. You can buy some cosmetic upgrades or more storage slots but honestly, there is no reason to do so. I would recommend playing the game normally and saving up for the upgrades since there is nothing else worth spending in-game money on anyway.… Expand
  43. TimTeamTebow
    Nov 15, 2014
    7
    I have a little over 1000 hours into GW2 and I really enjoy it.
    The only real complaint I have is with the devs.
    The game just isn't growing the way it really should. They've added 2, maybe 3, new PvE areas and a new World vs World vs World area since release. They've added a lot of cosmetic items and items to craft, but I wouldn't call that something that all players could enjoy.    I have a little over 1000 hours into GW2 and I really enjoy it.
    The only real complaint I have is with the devs.
    The game just isn't growing the way it really should.
    They've added 2, maybe 3, new PvE areas and a new World vs World vs World area since release.
    They've added a lot of cosmetic items and items to craft, but I wouldn't call that something that all players could enjoy.
    Wheres the new dungeons, the new classes, the new PvP maps??
    The combat for PvP is great, its mostly based on your timing so its fairly rewarding and doesn't stale too easily...Except you play the same handful of maps.
    PvE combat isn't too good, the first few hundred hours are exciting, but then the flare goes away and it becomes a bit boring. You run dungeons for gold, but there is little to no challenge anymore. Open world content is equally easy. There are ways to challenge yourself, like soloing a dungeon , but its not really supported. No achievements from it, no loot bonus, much slower than a full group which is easy to find.

    Given the cost, I would encourage everyone to atleast try GW2. The cheaper heroic version is good enough. the extra $20 for the deluxe edition has very little impact on your gameplay.    … Expand
  44. nugerium
    Dec 9, 2014
    7
    Good graphics, but scenic places have little purposes.
    Good game play, since you get to control the attacks.
    Bosses and interactions with players are good. Most quests are boring, despite their idea of a dynamic world where your contribution affects the game. Storyline is horrible, and the main quests is extremely boring. Many pets, but most are disinteresting. Big, beautiful world,    Good graphics, but scenic places have little purposes.
    Good game play, since you get to control the attacks.
    Bosses and interactions with players are good.
    Most quests are boring, despite their idea of a dynamic world where your contribution affects the game.
    Storyline is horrible, and the main quests is extremely boring.
    Many pets, but most are disinteresting.
    Big, beautiful world, but you'll spend too much time wasted exploring.
    Extremely difficult to navigate, travel. I've never seen anything like this, not even in the first Warcraft.
    Difficult to get creative in crafting.    … Expand
  45. Livskis
    Dec 9, 2014
    7
    I'm a 2+ year veteran of this game and have been playing since launch. I have 3000+ hours logged on all my characters combined. This is hands down the best MMO out there. The graphics are fantastic. The character models and animations are amazing. The combat is the best combat out of any MMO that I've ever played, and I've never had as much fun leveling a character in other games as I haveI'm a 2+ year veteran of this game and have been playing since launch. I have 3000+ hours logged on all my characters combined. This is hands down the best MMO out there. The graphics are fantastic. The character models and animations are amazing. The combat is the best combat out of any MMO that I've ever played, and I've never had as much fun leveling a character in other games as I have in this one

    On the other hand, the game hasn't changed much since launch. The developers are SLOW at releasing patches. In the PvE department, Arenanet is experimenting with their Living Story which is about 30-60 minutes of new content released every 2 weeks followed by an endless grind for cosmetic gear. There is no end game. The hardest dungeon in the game is called Fractals, and it's incredibly easy even on the hardest difficulty. To reach to the hardest difficulty you need to run this dungeon 50 times, each time advancing in a difficulty tier. Furthermore, during the later levels you receive an irremovable debuff that will just kill you until you have the right gear. To obtain the right gear you complete Fractals over and over and over again for an item that will drop once per run per day in addition to crafting armors and weapons with dozens of materials that, again, you can only create once per day. It's a long and tedious grind that becomes stale very quickly.

    The world bosses, while impressive looking, are stationary structures (yes they are actually classified as structures and not creatures) that occasionally fling attacks at you. For the majority of the world bosses, players gather at its feet and attack its toes until it dies and don't even get me started on the game's primary antagonist. Everything is just disappointing.

    World vs World vs World (or WvW) is a mode that pits 3 different servers together for control of various structures in 5 different and huge maps. At first it was amazing. The giant battles that were waged at launch were simply spectacular, if not rough on my PC. However there are glaring balance issues in this mode from the different types of food you can eat which grant you obscene buffs that would just break the game. Furthermore as a competitive PvP player, I did not find much competition. There were instances where I would face off against 10+ people by myself and would end up victorious. Of course I can't completely fault Arenanet for the prowess, or lack thereof, of the players of its game. But quite frankly the game mode doesn't promote skill progression as much as it does reliance on gear and food.

    PvP is the game mode which I enjoy and play the most. One of GW2 PvP's biggest strengths is the even playing field. There is no gear or level advantage. When you enter the PvP area you are immediately boosted to max level and have all your abilities unlocked. You are also given the same equipment as everyone else. Then it's all a matter of entering an arena and brawling. However like I said earlier, Arenanet is incredibly slow at releasing patches. This is very problematic when it comes to balance. For example, at a certain point in time Arenanet overbuffed the Warrior class and did not tone it down for over a year. Warriors dominated the entire PvP scene and simply put it was not fun to play (I do not play a Warrior). Balance patches come every 6 months and often aren't great though the current metagame is quite good.

    There is only one game mode and quite frankly it's extremely stale 2+ years in. The devs have promised new things and, once again, are extremely slow at delivering. New content is being worked on they said over a year ago. A big problem with this single game mode is that Arenanet has balanced the classes in accordance to this game mode. That means if and when new game modes are released, there will be glaring balance issues. For example the current and only game mode is conquest which focuses on capturing and holding points. The Thief, which is an assassin type class, have a build that's focused on stealth. It's nearly unkillable and deals a lot of damage but isn't commonly used because while in stealth you cannot capture or prevent the capture of a point. If something like deathmatch is introduced, these once useless builds will now be dominating and further toss balance into disarray. And we do not want this because of the speed in which Arenanet releases patches.

    The PvP population is extremely tiny relative to other competitive games. There are a few community organized tournaments every week/month and the same teams win every time simply because there is no competition. Part of that I attribute to the toxicity of the community. While nothing compared to other communities like DotA or LoL, players in this game just can't seem to get along much less form a team with one another.

    I've run out of room so I'll just say that despite my disappointment for the potential of the game and the ineptitude of the devs, I still think it's the best MMO out there. Buy it now    … Expand
  46. Svoby42
    Dec 19, 2016
    7
    I used to play it lot. I used to. But they wreck everything up. Like the dungeon. They nerfed dungeons. The best part of the game. That is why i wont ever come back to this game.
  47. Shimmeywill
    Mar 3, 2020
    7
    While this MMO has some decent mechanics, the overall gameplay and mission experience isn't something I want to return to. Combat is stale.
  48. Rhacal
    Nov 2, 2020
    7
    Guild Wars 2 is still a great Game without any Question, but with a few "but.."Moments!
    You have Acces to:
    - Open World which is gigantic and after years you can still find secret Eastereggs, but....(few Maps are lagging very hard and most of them you need to pay for like Path of Fire Expansion Maps or Living Storry 4 Maps, all other Maps are fine so far) - Fractals which are the    Guild Wars 2 is still a great Game without any Question, but with a few "but.."Moments!
    You have Acces to:
    - Open World which is gigantic and after years you can still find secret Eastereggs, but....(few Maps are lagging very hard and most of them you need to pay for like Path of Fire Expansion Maps or Living Storry 4 Maps, all other Maps are fine so far)
    - Fractals which are the deleveloped Options to Dungeons
    - Dungeons which are nice for the first time but ArenaNet never upgrade it in the whole time...so the Final Loot is...and you can more or less easy Solo the Dungeon with a Hearth of Thrones / Path of Fire Expansion Build
    - Raids which are not too hard in all, but you still need alot of "know how"
    - World vs. World where you can fight against other Servers in a big Map to Control Sectors
    - PvP, like..hey: PvP :)
    ____________________
    Templates for Gear and Skills
    - Before ArenaNet take over there was a Free way to save Builds+Gear by a Programm called ArcDPS, now ArenaNet have there own System and its....
    You start with 2 Gearslot, 3 Skillslots, but each Class has a Condition Build, Phsysical Damage, Heal, Tank, Support Builds and for Raids you need different Gear and Skills as in Fractals or for Open World, also World vs World is different...so if you want to play it little bit more as a Weekendend Hobby you need to spend ~7€ for EACH Slot on EACH Character to a max of 5 Slots. Otherwise you need to spend alot of time to switch the Gear all the time one by one. This was a great idea, but more or less its behind a paywall to get a good comfort for your Character.
    - Also a point that is good and bad at once: The Gear, if you are Level 80 you cant get better Gear after the Ancient Gear which is pretty easy to craft after 2-3 Month Playtime. So its very nice if you want to take a break, come back later and you dont need to upgrade the whole Gear again, but that also means that you need your own goals for the Game to set, without it can get boring very fast!
    So keep this in Mind.
    ____________________
    Positive:
    + Many different Characters to play
    + Huge Map, many ways to do something like Meta-Maps, Fractals etc
    + Good solid Story
    + Content for a Year if you want to explore the Maps, Story's, see any Content and find all the little Secrets in the World etc
    + No pay to win, just many COMFORT Items like Unlimited Harvest Tools etc

    Negative
    - Map-Lags for Paid Content, but instead of fix this issues they are more interested to bring new Content (what means they dont care realy about !!!in my Opinion!!!)
    - You need to set up your own goals to still have fun after round about a half year when you finished the Story, get your Gear etc
    - Dungeons are realy fine and nice, but are no challenge after reach Level 80
    - Few Maps are realy hard to explore until you get a Mount!
    ____________________
    All in All: Its a great game that is defently worth it to explore, but with a bad taste after around a half year! If you dont want to upgrade your gear each few Month and able to set your own goals in a Game and more a "Story, Explore, Find out" Dude instead of a "I need always something to do by the Game, Dailys, Items Grind, hard Challenges" its a DEFENTLY YES in my Opinion!
    ____________________
    Personal Hint: If you want to explore the Game without big frustation Moments play until Level 20-30 and if you still like it, look for a Guild which can support you with great Informations "how to..." and how to explore the big World!    … Expand
  49. gromit
    Aug 29, 2012
    6
    maybe my expectations were just too high. It isn't a bad game, nice graphics and smooth gameplay, but everything in the game is just a rehash of every other MMO, nothing innovative, nothing to really get you excited that this is something new and different, also nothing really to get you hooked early on.
  50. prinnylaharl
    Oct 3, 2012
    6
    Pre-ordered months in advance in anticipation, but sadly the game just does not live up to expectations. For the first few days I'd have gladly given the game a 10/10 however, when you make it into the 70-80 range the PVE content immediately falls off and becomes boring due to poorly tuned events and somehow even more repetitive combat than the "Cookie cutter" MMOs such as WoW. There isPre-ordered months in advance in anticipation, but sadly the game just does not live up to expectations. For the first few days I'd have gladly given the game a 10/10 however, when you make it into the 70-80 range the PVE content immediately falls off and becomes boring due to poorly tuned events and somehow even more repetitive combat than the "Cookie cutter" MMOs such as WoW. There is no true difficulty in the game since you will almost never really die and fighting PVE bosses is as simple as learning their one threatening move that is hidden in around 4-5 weak but flashy hits and then using your invulnerability dodge to get through it. A.Net had such potential with the open world bosses and they really could have made some interesting open raids such as they did with the earlier bosses, but the late game ones really don't even come close to that quality. Most will say the focus on GW has always been PVP, which is true so let's go to that. Currently PVP is entirely imbalanced which is alright I suppose due to it being new, but even then the PVP is for the most part slow and repetitive with very little reaction based combat for most of the classes and is in many ways worse than GW1 and honestly right now not even WvWvW is fun enough to make up for the core gameplay mistakes. Overall it's fun enough that I got my moneys worth and will still make alts for the fun low level content, but most players will want to look elsewhere for a good MMO. Both PVE and PVP players have much better options to choose from.… Expand
  51. Flash_Over
    Feb 20, 2013
    6
    Guild Wars 2... I have such mixed feelings about his game. I will start with the PROs I will say it is a good game. It is high quality and it very detailed and adventurous. I love the world, the artwork and most of all the character creator. The character creator is possibly one of the best I have used and I had a lot of fun (In the beginning) playing this game. I waited a good long fewGuild Wars 2... I have such mixed feelings about his game. I will start with the PROs I will say it is a good game. It is high quality and it very detailed and adventurous. I love the world, the artwork and most of all the character creator. The character creator is possibly one of the best I have used and I had a lot of fun (In the beginning) playing this game. I waited a good long few months so i soak up what this game is all about from the gameplay and 'is it fun?' perspective. But, after the things I have encountered... though high quality, the game seems to be unfinished. I will explain. CONs First thing that annoyed me unlike other MMOs, is there are certain things that must come as standard in every MMO. By these I mean, trading with other players, mounts and a well designed and easy to use Auction House. This game lacks all of those. No trading option still puzzles me, but the auction house feels unpolished since it was first created, the text is choppy and the filters are terrible, ontop of that, the way the auction house is set up makes is EASY for other players and gold farmers/seller to exploit and drive up the currency market. Mounts, I understand Arenanets solution to no mount is to create instant teleport points. Yea, that is convenient, but personally I like buying/earning mounts in a game. I also love galloping through the environments. But, (I may be speculating) That taking the mounts out of the game frees up time and money creating the animations, skins, programming ect, making this a cooperate decision and not a game one. Next is the combat system and skill system. No trainers, no weapon learning, no nothing. Around level 30 you will unlock all you skill slots and spell you will use for the rest of the game exspereince. You will only have 5 weapon spells (5 more for underwater) and 6 buffs/cooldowns. That is it. i personally could not bare with using the same 5 or so spells over and over till lvl 80. The combat is just not fun. The weapon skills and spells are so limited. I feel brain dead though right now. This maybe the worst review I have written, but I feel I touched on the things that greatly disappointed me about this game. So to sum things up. PROS: No monthly fee, Excellent Character creator, Amazing world and environments, refreshing questing and story concept, good graphics and animations, and finally fun exploration and puzzle mechanics. CONS: NO mounts, NO player to player trading, Poor (But tolerable) Auction House and currency system, Limited spells and abilities, no tank/dps/healer concept (Which makes boss fights nothing but freelancing spell spamming chaos with no team work.), and a boring and repetitive combat system.… Expand
  52. OliverGrau
    Dec 3, 2012
    6
    Guild Wars 2 was my last MMORPG. The meaning of a MMORPG is progession, progression gets you too keep playing. I can now say, as I've had a lvl 80 for just about as long as the game has been released that progressions ends when you reach lvl 80. The Graphics: They are decent for an MMORPG, but it's very bad optimized. I've changed my old gaming desktop out for a completly new one and I seeGuild Wars 2 was my last MMORPG. The meaning of a MMORPG is progession, progression gets you too keep playing. I can now say, as I've had a lvl 80 for just about as long as the game has been released that progressions ends when you reach lvl 80. The Graphics: They are decent for an MMORPG, but it's very bad optimized. I've changed my old gaming desktop out for a completly new one and I see no increase of FPS. The gameplay: I love how you actually need some skill to be good in this game, it's not just about the gear, but about your skill of playing. This falls apart though, because the PVP system is not very good I'd say. SPVP is a nice addition for those WHO wants completely fairplay, but where does that leave the progression? You can't get stronger, faster or better by this. In WvWvW all your progression Means nothing, because 1 man can't make any difference. The Dungeons: Not rewarding at all, I hate how it's all bout those emblems and not about what bosses actually could be dropping. I loved in WOW how I always was so excited when we were in raids. Oh yeah, raids those doesn't exist in GW2. There is also a lack of dungeons. It's all just the same, there really isn't such big difference about them. I'm giving this a 6 because of the great idea and there is no monthly subscription. It lacks of content though. As said before, reach lvl 80 and feel the pain of nothing to do.… Expand
  53. tyler_james
    Dec 2, 2012
    6
    I played Guild Wars 1 for 5 years. I was a huge fan and some of the memories I made there will stay with me for a long time. Conversely, Guild Wars 2 is not a game that I can really recommend. I hate to say that, but it's true. The good aspects of the game include the no-monthly-fee system Arena Net has continued, and some genuinely ambitious game-play changes. Unfortunately, even 3-monthsI played Guild Wars 1 for 5 years. I was a huge fan and some of the memories I made there will stay with me for a long time. Conversely, Guild Wars 2 is not a game that I can really recommend. I hate to say that, but it's true. The good aspects of the game include the no-monthly-fee system Arena Net has continued, and some genuinely ambitious game-play changes. Unfortunately, even 3-months into launch, the game is incredibly buggy, the market sell/purchase system makes productive enterprise almost impossible (you're taxed 20% just to sell an item), and the controls are disappointingly clunky. On top of that, game-play gets incredibly repetitive and boring. Also, GW2 is a grind-heavy game. I appreciate the extension of the level-cap, however you spend the first 60 levels looking stupid aesthetically, with rewards in the form of items and gold only really coming from intense dungeon runs. There are ups and downs to the game, but in my opinion, and only comparing it to GW1, this game has taken a lot of the fun and a lot of the magic right out of the series. GW2 might compare more favorably to other contemporary MMO's, but I feel that Arena Net took a big step backwards in some critical areas with disappointingly executed new-content that generally detracts from the single most important question of any game: is it fun?… Expand
  54. DaChunK
    Jan 11, 2013
    6
    I cant get into it. I really have tried and like the first Guild wars I've only got a character to around lvl 25 and have completely lost interest. I find it a very unsocial game, still to much of a rush to get to the end game or lvl 80. Which is my first big gripe - it takes to damn long to finish the game or reach maximum level. True it's not about the end game, it's the journey. yet II cant get into it. I really have tried and like the first Guild wars I've only got a character to around lvl 25 and have completely lost interest. I find it a very unsocial game, still to much of a rush to get to the end game or lvl 80. Which is my first big gripe - it takes to damn long to finish the game or reach maximum level. True it's not about the end game, it's the journey. yet I should not have to spend 100 hours or so to bloody well get there, it's ridiculous! Around 30 or so hours is more than enough time to dedicate to one character and a player should be rewarded more appropriately for their time invested.

    As for being in a guild - it's a sense of belonging to something, yet it aside from that, the game does indeed feel like a single player game with other people jumping in and out of it at times. As an older gamer (37) I play for perhaps different reasons than others. One of my main reason for playing while I'm distanced from more interesting things to do (my girlfriend for one), is the social aspect of a multiplayer game. And for me this game has very little meaningful interaction. People jump in, kill, jump out of your area. For all it was promised to be, guild wars is STILL and end level game. That for me makes it rather disappointing as I'll most likely never get there.

    Another BIG mistake they did was make the level's to high - to big of a spread. 40 levels would have been more than sufficient and make it take longer to achieve them. That way more people could have played together, with there being more characters of a similar level. Instead you have a situation where you are pretty well ALWAYS playing without your fellow guild members and by yourself to level. Hence little reason to be a part of a guild until you reach end game... my opinion. :-)

    It was fresh in many ways and combat is fun. Looks pretty and great with no monthly subscription, yet it's far from enough to get me to give in any more of my time until MAJOR changes take place... which they shall not.    … Expand
  55. ABNMP
    Oct 7, 2012
    6
    This game is basically an evolution to a higher standard of what has been done before. If you have played an MMO in the last 12 years you will see the similarities. The major areas of failure include open world player versus player and endgame progression. I guess I can summarize the game saying it is like RIFT without the raid element, and with massive unbalanced world PvP. DAOC andThis game is basically an evolution to a higher standard of what has been done before. If you have played an MMO in the last 12 years you will see the similarities. The major areas of failure include open world player versus player and endgame progression. I guess I can summarize the game saying it is like RIFT without the raid element, and with massive unbalanced world PvP. DAOC and Warhammer Online had a better PvP system. If you enjoy a VERY casual game then this is your pick. I was hoping for a REVOLUTION in MMO gaming, but sadly this is more of a "been there done that" experience.… Expand
  56. Augustus75
    Sep 2, 2015
    6
    Definitely a game for younger gamers. From cartoony Pokemon type graphics, to childish voice emotes when leveling up or performing certain skills, this is a large departure from the original guild wars games.

    That said, the game is extremely polished, and very well made. As an adult, I can't possibly become interested in this type of game. However, I absolutely appreciate the    Definitely a game for younger gamers. From cartoony Pokemon type graphics, to childish voice emotes when leveling up or performing certain skills, this is a large departure from the original guild wars games.

    That said, the game is extremely polished, and very well made. As an adult, I can't possibly become interested in this type of game. However, I absolutely appreciate the excellent job they did in creating a fast paced, all encompassing game for younger and casual players. Would not recommend it as a serious game however for veterans of mmorpgs, or those seeking a mature game.    … Expand
  57. elcritico
    Sep 12, 2012
    6
    After about level 15 you will have every weapon skill learned, and after a few levels the rest of the 4 offensive skills you can use, at which point is when the weapon/skill system starts showing its limiting and suffocating side - play like the game tells you or GTFO. The game is great for the first week, and after that you start noticing that it really has nothing to keep you playing.After about level 15 you will have every weapon skill learned, and after a few levels the rest of the 4 offensive skills you can use, at which point is when the weapon/skill system starts showing its limiting and suffocating side - play like the game tells you or GTFO. The game is great for the first week, and after that you start noticing that it really has nothing to keep you playing. Structured PvP part of the game is disconnected from the rest, and really feels and plays like a separate game with the same engine - it sports its separate level treadmill, items and crafting. The only redeeming quality this game brings to the table is - no subscription.… Expand
  58. Amargosa
    Apr 7, 2013
    6
    While the visuals are beautiful and the world is big the forcibly attempt of trying to revolutionize the RPG genre is not fun. Taking away the holy trinity is a good idea but brings other problems. The most important issue however is the enforced auto-scaling of your level depending on the area you are. The game takes away any sense of power in the bigger style and the dungeons feel illWhile the visuals are beautiful and the world is big the forcibly attempt of trying to revolutionize the RPG genre is not fun. Taking away the holy trinity is a good idea but brings other problems. The most important issue however is the enforced auto-scaling of your level depending on the area you are. The game takes away any sense of power in the bigger style and the dungeons feel ill balanced until you are maximum level. before that they are a stressful annoying chore.… Expand
  59. MrBuckie
    Nov 13, 2012
    6
    I used to love this game, I was in all the public betas. But after a while, this game gets really boring. There's not enough content for sure. There are things I like and things I don't. I really like some of the innovative things with this game. I liked how crafting system worked and lvling up. And some of the dungeons werereally good since you had to do teamwork to do them, (but stillI used to love this game, I was in all the public betas. But after a while, this game gets really boring. There's not enough content for sure. There are things I like and things I don't. I really like some of the innovative things with this game. I liked how crafting system worked and lvling up. And some of the dungeons werereally good since you had to do teamwork to do them, (but still most of the dungeons were bad). Didn't Arenanet say that there wasn't much grind in this game? The end game is actually all about grind. It's too damn repetitive and boring. Also GW2 has problem with bots. The personal story is loads of crap too, your choices doesn't really affect to the story AT ALL. All and all, it's a good game, since there isn't subscription fee. I wouldn't really recommend to buy it if you're planning to rush to max lvl.… Expand
  60. superbau
    Oct 26, 2012
    6
    Mmmm game are beautiful, but need to refix and expand more.. i cant play more than 2hours, it come boring anywhere,,, pve: it have a very nice place, but have to do always the same think, annoying a lot... and havent the desert place!!!! ... pvp are Very annoying, well its good to play but... 30 minuts its my best before CLOSE computer... WvW it mu prefer but... need more interaction,Mmmm game are beautiful, but need to refix and expand more.. i cant play more than 2hours, it come boring anywhere,,, pve: it have a very nice place, but have to do always the same think, annoying a lot... and havent the desert place!!!! ... pvp are Very annoying, well its good to play but... 30 minuts its my best before CLOSE computer... WvW it mu prefer but... need more interaction, more think, mount... need more object usable, more place, some WvW dungeon.. ecc... Game need to expand more and more and insert more and more feature for come to a best game ever, now.. it just a Beautifull Work in progress… Expand
  61. Indrigis
    Feb 23, 2013
    6
    The game tries hard and gets a lot right. And it gets a lot wrong. On the bright side there's the distinct lack of quest NPCs, but rather quest areas marked on the map that you just need to reach in order to be on the quest. Then again all these are the same. Kill waves of attackers, gather stuff off the ground, maybe even... do something else (no, not even remotely often enough).The game tries hard and gets a lot right. And it gets a lot wrong. On the bright side there's the distinct lack of quest NPCs, but rather quest areas marked on the map that you just need to reach in order to be on the quest. Then again all these are the same. Kill waves of attackers, gather stuff off the ground, maybe even... do something else (no, not even remotely often enough). There's no reason to really care about that. Wander around the map hoping for events to pop up until you have gained enough experience to progress to the next map. Sure, there are VISTAS! Which serve no purpose, as they did in Assassin's Creed. Geez, there's a whole world around this point! Nope, no reason to care. There are a lot of fun things too, like the whole cattle launcher affair, but they're fun once only. Otherwise it's a grind and then some more grind. And tedious exploration for the sake of map completion achievements. As for the Multiplayer and Role-Playing parts... This is pretty much an anti-social MMORPG. You can resurrect others and you can work for a common goal if you are at the same event, but you don't even remotely care about others' classes or builds or whatever. This is especially bad in dungeons. You literally have no reason to bother with tactics just mash everything you have and maybe some combos will happen maybe, or maybe not, or whatever and you know, being a tank is not a good thing it's actually not a thing at all and rogues make the best tanks due to jumping around and I'm not even motivated to find flaws in this because it's BORING AND STUPID. Also you have 30-40 skills to unlock, out of which a whopping 5 (yes, FIVE) are available for use at any time and you pretty much don't even need anything beyond the five you actually like because if you want situational skill A you can't just use it anytime unless you unequip the always useful skill B beforehand. The personal story is good, somewhat personal and influenced by your character creation choices, but... After you're done with the first arc of it you are forcefully sent on an amazingly stupid and overwhelmingly boring and hugely pointless task of getting to know more of one of the lesser races of the world. WHY? WHY ON EARTH WOULD THE DESIGNERS THINK YOU WOULD EVER WANT TO DO THAT?! Oh, and as for the 8.0 user score can't help but notice the amazing amount of 10 points reviews published on 28/8/12 (the day after launch, no less).… Expand
  62. nightfyre
    Sep 30, 2012
    6
    Well I've been playing Guild Wars 2 since release,
    It just wasn't the game they made it out to be, and it quickly loses it's magic after a month. First it's just another game that has no real social value. Can't say i didn't love the challenge of the puzzles and the events, it's just the game hasn't captured my attention like it should have I don't feel anything when playing it anymore.    Well I've been playing Guild Wars 2 since release,
    It just wasn't the game they made it out to be, and it quickly loses it's magic after a month. First it's just another game that has no real social value. Can't say i didn't love the challenge of the puzzles and the events, it's just the game hasn't captured my attention like it should have I don't feel anything when playing it anymore. It's just another of those games run to this spot and do this, run to the next spot and do it over again. Then after hit 80 should I expect to do grinds for gear or what is there for me to do other then go and gather all the map locations and point of interests that I haven't found yet? Just another leveling game that slows down to a crawl once you hit 80 with no hope other then doing PvP if you're a person that likes that sort of thing.    … Expand
  63. jonesen
    Oct 15, 2015
    6
    Okay decent mmorpg but nothing in the game that keep me interested for long. The weapon and spell mechanic combination were a very nice touch. Great graphics but beyond those two things nothing else felt interesting.
  64. unlimitednk
    Nov 7, 2014
    6
    Stealth implementation in this game is bad. It’s not about thief, or mesmer or any class, but about stealth. I played all classes, you can try and see for yourself too. We won’t agree ever on everything, some people just like it as it is, and unless you played other games too, and have somehting to compare, can really understand how fun can be, when your opponent can counter whatever youStealth implementation in this game is bad. It’s not about thief, or mesmer or any class, but about stealth. I played all classes, you can try and see for yourself too. We won’t agree ever on everything, some people just like it as it is, and unless you played other games too, and have somehting to compare, can really understand how fun can be, when your opponent can counter whatever you do.
    Can someone who uses stealth be killed, defeated? Sure. You need to learn what to do and what not, but that’s true always.
    Can any class and build defeat any class and build? Certainly will be more difficult to do it on some or next to impossible on other (even if network latency, lag, player skill and so on is ignored).
    Then what’s wrong with stealth? “Learn and adapt, and stop crying” – true… just do that, but some will end with a bitter taste after these fights, and no fun at all. That’s the problem – games meant to be fun. For some, it is, no matter what, they like it. Let those who don’t like to tell you why we lose players…
    I despise stealth and I feel shame, guilt and I know I almost cheated, whenever on my thief I decide to use stealth, to get away from a fight that vent badly, or just recover and try again. Since that can be done endlessly, most of the time, unless you are not skilled enough. I know that rarely, if ever, my opponent enjoyed that fight. It all comes down to your personality: if you can be proud and taunt after such fights, then stealth is for you. That’s you, have fun. Play with those who feel like this.
    The others will post things like the OP, will play other games, or like me, will prefer to play on other class, and ignore thieves – I fight back if attacked, but don’t care to chase them and don’t care to kill them – they are just like other negatives in this game, such as lag when occurs – you have to endure these and find something else to do. Can stealth be changed, so it’s use or playing against won’t “kill” the fun in some of us? Can everything be improved? Can we listen to each other and try to find solutions together? I hope so. Very much.    … Expand
  65. Koala5
    Aug 28, 2012
    6
    Is it a good game? Well, it's not a bad one... however you should know that the hype has painted an unrealistic picture of how good the game really is. On the surface its a solid, well crafted game with few technical flaws and a good eye for details that shines through in things like the crafting. It's certainly among the better MMO's to have been released in recent years. But... at theIs it a good game? Well, it's not a bad one... however you should know that the hype has painted an unrealistic picture of how good the game really is. On the surface its a solid, well crafted game with few technical flaws and a good eye for details that shines through in things like the crafting. It's certainly among the better MMO's to have been released in recent years. But... at the end of the day it's really not much more fun than it's fantasy MMO contemporaries. At least where PvE is concerned.

    Sure it mixes things up somewhat, and the dynamic events that temporarily changes the "lay of the land" are interesting. However it is still very much like the questing in all the other MMO's you have played. Same old, different wrapping. Grind X or collect Y, often longer and with less variety than other games due to the open nature of the events. I guess my main gripe is that GW2 is almost to streamlined, most of the time there is little challenge to be had, all while moving at a really fast pace. And that may be one reason why I found it difficult to get attached to several aspects of the game. While the graphical design is good and certainly doesn't bother me, it does however look dated in places if that should be a concern.

    Many will find pleasure in GW2, but I'm afraid I'm not one of them. GW2 simply doesn't bring anything profound to the table. So if like me, you are tired of the same old easy cookie cutter fantasy MMO's, chances are your time in Tyria would be short lived as well.

    It's simple, mindless fun, no more, no less.    … Expand
  66. Elfminster
    Aug 30, 2012
    6
    I did not attend any beta events for Guild Wars 2, but after all the hype surrounding this game I took the chance and purchased it. I was really disappointed I did. The animations are horrible, and the controls/combat feel very clunky. As do quest mechanics, and interface. I am not too keen on the character models either. Performance wise, I have an Intel i5 3570k and nVidia GTX 680 butI did not attend any beta events for Guild Wars 2, but after all the hype surrounding this game I took the chance and purchased it. I was really disappointed I did. The animations are horrible, and the controls/combat feel very clunky. As do quest mechanics, and interface. I am not too keen on the character models either. Performance wise, I have an Intel i5 3570k and nVidia GTX 680 but my FPS still dips to 30 FPS regularly. The environments and ambient music are both nice, but that is about all. I paid 75 Euro for this and I expected much more from ArenaNET.… Expand
  67. Lolbbqcabbage
    Aug 28, 2012
    6
    I'm quite unsure with my feelings on Guildwars 2. First of graphically it's not a terrible game, how ever it feels a bit dated in terms of it. Textures for anything other than armour and weapons is rather "meh" nothing special about them, they all appear somewhat blurry and lacking in detail. Water reflections are beautiful as well as shadows, but the water does lack allot of tessellation.I'm quite unsure with my feelings on Guildwars 2. First of graphically it's not a terrible game, how ever it feels a bit dated in terms of it. Textures for anything other than armour and weapons is rather "meh" nothing special about them, they all appear somewhat blurry and lacking in detail. Water reflections are beautiful as well as shadows, but the water does lack allot of tessellation. Its just seems to be an animated texture. They need more options for those with higher end systems, I understand this is an MMO and they target a broad market of people and systems, but it's quite disappointing to have system that could do so much more.

    In terms of gameplay, it feels lackluster. Yes it's a completely new system to Guildwars 1, but I feel the new improvements have no place. Even though you can roll to try get away from opponents, it does nothing they still with out fail deal damage to you. So the rolling system is just pointless to have. When It comes to questing its all the things we are familiar to. They do throw in a few quests where you get to control a giant cannon etc etc they still feeling kinda boring.

    The way point and point of interests are just repetitive and will drain hours of time trying to reach all of them in areas. You will find the majority of the game is just doing these anyway, they "Help quests" (The gold heart ones) Are pretty much all the same "Clear an area of X monster and fix X or collect X"

    PVP is a large chunk of the game (as was Guildwars 1) But Guildwars 2 pvp is pretty much the same as Guildwars 2 except Guildwars 2 introduces the concept of World vs World. Which is quite addictive, but the large amount of players on causes a fair amount of lag. If you loved PVP in the first you will love it in the second.

    I personally am not attached to the game as I was with the first. The first Guildwars I could play for 6 hours+ straight easily. Everything I did had a charm to it, which made the game more enjoyable. I fail to have this connection with Guildwars 2, It's NOT a bad game by all means. I'm sure there are plenty who will love it. I just believe it lacks something to it, I can't play for more than 2 hours with being bored or over it, everything I do seems all the same and quite bland.

    How ever this is all JUST my opinion. Which I am sharing to you all.    … Expand
  68. ComplexConf
    Sep 4, 2012
    6
    This game is by far the one of the most boring MMO's I have ever played. It is a over-hyped game with loads of people riding the bandwagon claiming it is awesome and cool with an ingenious quest system and dynamic off the **** events. Some will even say that the next big MMO's to come out will take pointers from GW2.

    Let me just say I hope not, 'cus I have never been more disappointed    This game is by far the one of the most boring MMO's I have ever played. It is a over-hyped game with loads of people riding the bandwagon claiming it is awesome and cool with an ingenious quest system and dynamic off the **** events. Some will even say that the next big MMO's to come out will take pointers from GW2.

    Let me just say I hope not, 'cus I have never been more disappointed and bored playing an MMO. I liked SWTOR, TSW, TERA much more than this drivel. The combat is boring and repetitive, you have an extremely limited number of skills that you can have active. It is said that they designed the combat to be more action-oriented and more skill-oriented. Well that is nonsense. There is nothing that is more skill-oriented about gw2's combat and it doesn't really feel action-oriented (I can recommend TERA for action oriented/skill combat tho'). It falls flat along with it's questing which boasts itself on a boring story quest set in an uninteresting world with lore you don't give a halflings hat about, and with a multitude of sidequests (Heart icon-shaped NPCs that will appear on your map) that are triggered by being near the NPC's, then you will have multiple objectives in the area close to the NPC, which are all, "click some stuff on the ground and such" or "kill some mobs". It is not very exciting. Yes you don't have to click the NPC to get the quest, yes you don't have to use your brain to go somewhere and do something for him. No no. You just trigger the quest by being in his general area and then you click things on the ground and kill mobs to complete the quest. Yay.. fun? no. No not really.
    Questing for kids with no attention span sry. Surely a step back in making questing engaging and exciting, instead it is just a nonsense uninteresting grind.

    I have said enough about this game. I bought it thinking it would be good, everyone seems excited about it and praising it. All the articles I read pre release was positive and happy about the game.

    Mega Huge Disappointment. Everyone are mass delusional thinking this is the best thing since sliced bread. *facepalm*    … Expand
  69. MrUnpredictable
    Aug 29, 2012
    6
    Very unoriginal game, it steals a lot from Warhammer Online. Dynamic Events are no better than regular quests not to mention a lot of events never fail because events are way too easy. The overflow servers were a horrible idea. They prevent players from actually playing together. There is no room for error in Guild Wars 2. The game was made so players can succeed with ease. GW2 is only theVery unoriginal game, it steals a lot from Warhammer Online. Dynamic Events are no better than regular quests not to mention a lot of events never fail because events are way too easy. The overflow servers were a horrible idea. They prevent players from actually playing together. There is no room for error in Guild Wars 2. The game was made so players can succeed with ease. GW2 is only the flavor of the month. As soon as people reach max level there isn't much replayability left because dynamic events are boring, easy and too repetitive.… Expand
  70. Leijona
    Aug 31, 2012
    6
    So, this is my first critic.
    GW2 is nice. Not more, not less. I have never seen so many problems at a mmo start. From account security over hackers to guild chat / menu problems. I have never seen such a horrible communication as Arenanet is having it. No patch notes, no forums, only twitter and reddit.
    Group play is more like a lottery right now, overflow server system not working as it    So, this is my first critic.
    GW2 is nice. Not more, not less. I have never seen so many problems at a mmo start. From account security over hackers to guild chat / menu problems. I have never seen such a horrible communication as Arenanet is having it. No patch notes, no forums, only twitter and reddit.
    Group play is more like a lottery right now, overflow server system not working as it should. And all you hear is "We are working on it".
    Dynamic events aren't as dynamic, as they seem to be. They are more like static-events-that-appear-at-random-times.
    XP balancing is not working right now.
    All the lore, that can be found in the wiki and the books is not really in the game. Even TOR had better a story. They could have put lore in the vistas, some text with information about the place. Something. But no, there's nothing.
    Over all, the game is nice. I play it, I will go on playing, but only because it is F2P. Otherwise, I wouldn't.    … Expand
  71. pasmelman
    Aug 31, 2012
    6
    why some many 10 ?i got screwed buying that game for the wrong review.....i stoped playing wow 2 years ago and wow is still way better than gw2......the pve questing is soo boring ,i tried wvw my server is dominating like 80%.... the only thing i did in wvw is exploring ,isn't supose to be pvp ?
  72. Namtar
    Oct 9, 2013
    6
    A year ago i rated it 9.
    It was willing to bring some fresh air in the mmorpg panorama, no trinity, no gear grind, do whatever you like and obtain whatever you want.
    Well now this is only a fable that someone used to tell. They took their own manifesto and how-different-is-our-mmorpg-from-the-others and flush it into the wc. The ascended tier and living story brought more and more farm    A year ago i rated it 9.
    It was willing to bring some fresh air in the mmorpg panorama, no trinity, no gear grind, do whatever you like and obtain whatever you want.
    Well now this is only a fable that someone used to tell. They took their own manifesto and how-different-is-our-mmorpg-from-the-others and flush it into the wc.
    The ascended tier and living story brought more and more farm and grind every 2 weeks. This is not the game it was supposed to be.    … Expand
  73. VendettaDFA
    Oct 29, 2012
    6
    I reviewed this game previously a 10 after playing since headstart. After this time I am rereviewing and have come to the conclusion this prince of a game has more warts than a frog in a swamp. The main game is fine except for 2 core mechanics that have been exploited. Instanced nodes and a game wide Trading Post. Goldsellers have hacked into the game and botted in the form of what I referI reviewed this game previously a 10 after playing since headstart. After this time I am rereviewing and have come to the conclusion this prince of a game has more warts than a frog in a swamp. The main game is fine except for 2 core mechanics that have been exploited. Instanced nodes and a game wide Trading Post. Goldsellers have hacked into the game and botted in the form of what I refer to as the Naked Ranger Conga Line. All nodes can be harvested by each player or bot with impunity. A line of 5 ormore bots hits all the best areas before legit players can have a shot. They tag mobs and take drops and then all these basic mats glut the Trading Post. You would think this would bottom the price to nothing, but the forums cried for and got a barrier keeping the price from dropping below a sell price to an NPC vendor. They said that would keep new players from getting cheated on the Post. Instead it allows a set ROI for all the goldsellers and the armchair Economy experts in the forums never noticed. They are more bent on calling anyone expressing the desire for a free market chance a power mad moneygrubber. So this version of Trading post keeps the goldsellers in business while choking the playablity out of the TP. After spending time trying to handle this within the forums and being accused of
    trying to gain an unfair advantage by players and having mods and John Smith "you guys got this thread handled" of ANET shout me down as trying to make a ton of money i give up handling this on the inside. The top tier items cost 400g .... who is trying to make a ton of money? almost RMAH-like. The goldsellers illegal influx of money generated from a stable ROI on basic mats has sent gems values up and gold from gems down. Example - I bought one character slot with in-game gold for under 3g shortly after the game got the TP up. Fair and nice...... that same slot would take over 8g now. Crafting is worhtless and a money sink ... like its needed.. with only xp having any value. I can farm mats and gain equal exp and more money. anyone who is looking for an enjoyable market experience with free enterprise and the ability to succeed or fail on your own... run fast and far the other direction. This is not your game. The game environment is good. The dyanmic events, POI, heart quests etc ... are wonderful. thats the 6 ... the rest is a zero. sorry to say any who thought GUILD WARS 2 was the no sub solution and successorto WoW will be disappointed. It's only slightly better in the quest and loses by a landslide in the rest... damn shame too. I had high hopes.    … Expand
  74. MisterF
    Sep 1, 2012
    6
    Game feels fairly uninspired. Not the revaluation in gameplay I was lead to believe from vocal fans and game promotions. Controls feel sluggish and you're still pressing your number keys on cool down. Just like World of Warcraft and Everquest did before it. Astheticly pleasing, but dialogue feels clunky and the voice acting can be cringe inducing. Lastly, lots of trouble even logging inGame feels fairly uninspired. Not the revaluation in gameplay I was lead to believe from vocal fans and game promotions. Controls feel sluggish and you're still pressing your number keys on cool down. Just like World of Warcraft and Everquest did before it. Astheticly pleasing, but dialogue feels clunky and the voice acting can be cringe inducing. Lastly, lots of trouble even logging in also. 4 days out from release as well. That's something that I think even the maligned Diablo 3 launch fixed fairly quickly by comparison.… Expand
  75. chronoT
    Apr 5, 2014
    6
    When I initially played Guild Wars 2 I enjoyed the graphics and game play because it was something new. Sadly though I quickly got bored and stopped playing when I hit level 50. The world itself is massive and there are many quests, but it gets repetitive after a while and kind of stale in general. I know though that opinions on MMO's don't mean much because some people like them and someWhen I initially played Guild Wars 2 I enjoyed the graphics and game play because it was something new. Sadly though I quickly got bored and stopped playing when I hit level 50. The world itself is massive and there are many quests, but it gets repetitive after a while and kind of stale in general. I know though that opinions on MMO's don't mean much because some people like them and some people don't. I am starting to get the feeling that MMO's aren't for me, or maybe they need to release something innovative instead of the same thing over and over.… Expand
  76. ilovemmos
    Sep 2, 2012
    6
    Dynamic events
    Dynamic events are an in game realization of In Media Res (see Wikipedia). They are events (tied to a local) whose initiation and progression triggers automatically. The player can shape the outcome, but the event will progress whether players participate or not. This helps establishes the context of what you are doing through action rather than cut scenes or quest text.    Dynamic events
    Dynamic events are an in game realization of In Media Res (see Wikipedia). They are events (tied to a local) whose initiation and progression triggers automatically. The player can shape the outcome, but the event will progress whether players participate or not. This helps establishes the context of what you are doing through action rather than cut scenes or quest text. I say helps because you still get quest text telling you what the objectives are and there is still a progress bar that advances as you complete quest objectives.
    This has some plusses and minuses. On the plus side the world feels more alive and active, there are several possible outcomes for each stage of an event, and at least until the event recycles (anywhere from 10 min to perhaps a couple of weeks for rare triggers), it gives a sense of having impacted the world (although this feeling is pretty dang ephemeral for the events with short re-trigger timers (which understandably is most of them). On the negative, until you acclimate to the system, players used to quest hub mechanics are going to feel a bit lost. You also lose a sense of connection to the characters in the world. Yes they send you a happy e-mail and you can buy karma gear from them, but the mechanic honestly doesn    … Expand
  77. Eleutherius
    Sep 5, 2012
    6
    Hi all. I'm writing this review because i feel like there are too many "personal" reviews (you know, the 10 or 0 score ones...) and i'd like to write the most objectively i can. I also know that one should play for some months before talking about a game, but i feel like this review can help those wondering whether to buy the game or not. There have been a lot of hype (not from me) aroundHi all. I'm writing this review because i feel like there are too many "personal" reviews (you know, the 10 or 0 score ones...) and i'd like to write the most objectively i can. I also know that one should play for some months before talking about a game, but i feel like this review can help those wondering whether to buy the game or not. There have been a lot of hype (not from me) around this game, mainly because of its "revolutionary" features. I honestly admit that there are some innovations, but the question is: are those innovations good? Let's talk about the combat system. You have 5 attack skills based on your equipped weapon/s, 1 healing skill chosen from a pool of 3, 3 so called "utility" skills and an elite one. You just can't customize your weapon skills: this means that every ranger wielding a greatsword will have the same 5 skills. Quite a constrain, in my opinion. The fact that almost no skill uses a resource (i.e. mana) makes the fights usually boring, since you will spam your skills when off from cooldown. The roll lets you evade an attack, but it is rare that a couple of rolls actually make the difference between a won and a lost fight; moreover, rolling is pretty much useless against both weaker enemies (you can take all of their hits) and champion-like foes (evade a couple of attacks, but when out endurance bar you're doomed). The "dynamic events" are just server-open quests, spawning every now and then and always requesting you to collect stuff - kill things. When a lot of fighting is involved it is common to have swarms of players overwhelming enemies just by numbers, not by skill. Even boss fights may become pretty boring, and you may feel useless since your efforts can be like a drop of water in an ocean. It should be mentioned that you will likely be unable to challenge yourself by trying and completing an event with only your 4 or 5 friends because everyone in the area will come and fight. Environments are well made and fascinating, with highly different locations and architectures. The graphics are acceptable although character customization is not so high (i.e. male human faces look pretty much the same). I was expecting a highly addictive and well made pve, but i'm sorry to say that my expectations were a little too high. If you don't play your personal story, the pve gets boring really fast. I'm sure that the devs expected this to happen, in fact they have added the gathering system, the point of interest / vistas "completion run", the daily / monthly achievements, etc. to break from the fight-move on-fight-move on-event-move on scheme. I'm not talking about pvp since i think it is too early on and still there are people not actually knowing what to do to play at a good level. All in all, pve wise (and please note that this is not like gw1, where pvp was predominant), Guild Wars 2 should be given a 7 or 7.5 but i'm lowering my score to 6 - 6.5 because i feel that all the innovations we should have seen in the game were either fake or simply unnecessary. Too much hype for a game that is actually good, but absolutely not a revolutionary one nor a mmorpg champion like WoW is.… Expand
  78. woNd3R
    Sep 9, 2012
    6
    Beware my friends, this game is not what they told us it would be

    I would like to take a moment and say that i ve been playing MMO's since Ultima Online, then tried Final Fantasy which i found terrible and then some friends made me play Daoc , Dark Age of Camelot was a hell of a game for it's time. Yes Pve was pretty much non existant and even with the expansion Raids felt kinda boring    Beware my friends, this game is not what they told us it would be

    I would like to take a moment and say that i ve been playing MMO's since Ultima Online, then tried Final Fantasy which i found terrible and then some friends made me play Daoc , Dark Age of Camelot was a hell of a game for it's time. Yes Pve was pretty much non existant and even with the expansion Raids felt kinda boring since there wasn't any artificial intelligence with the bosses. But hey, that game was all about Pvp and yes Pvp was awsome , there were keep raids , siege situations and much more. In certain ways that game felt epic. Then wow came around and Wow was a hell of a game. Coming from a game where questing was non existant and you had to grind all your way to the max lvl and going to a game where you had a tons of quests to lvl up was a big step ahead. Yes Wow's Pvp sucked hard, Wow never delivered hero classes, siege weapons, raid honor from Thrall or other Town bosses. But it had the best Pve experience one could ever hard. Vanilla wow was an epic game and encounters like Onyxia or Ragnaros can confirm that.

    Why am i speaking of past games? Because those games were REVOLUTIONARY. One for it's pvp , the other for it's pve. Obviously both of the games after a couple of years became boring and repetitive but when they were launched they were AWESOME.

    I reached Naxxramas with my own guild on Wow and on Daoc i reached rank 6.

    Afterwards i played many mediocre games like Aion and Rift. Tbh i stopped playing Aion around 25 lvl since the game didn't have enough quests and it was all about grinding something that i actually hate nowadays. I managed to get much higher on Rift but Rift was like Wow with portals spawning everywhere, something that was also boring after a while.

    Then i tried Diablo 3 , which is not an mmorpg , but it's something time consuming much like an mmo. Diablo 3 is probably the biggest letdown in gaming history and so i was looking for something to move forward.(yes i ve played also Diablo 2 ) And then i started reading about Guild Wars 2 and how the game was unconventional and how questing was not boring and how Pvp was awsome and bla bla bla. Yes i don't expect that the producers tell me that the game sucks or that they didn't actually add anything but hey the game seemed to be something totally new and fresh. I tried to like the game but it was all in vain. Game doesn't offer anything new, graphics aren't great tbh, might be if you compare them with Wow but it's 4 years i don't play that game, Pvp seems Daoc WvW only that you have to button mash all the time useless skills that actually don't make the difference. And yes lvling up is still boring. There were a couple of quests that were kinda cool, one with the ogre transactions but the rest was always the same thing. Crafting was copy paste from all the other mmos, gathering resources same thing and the whole thing was not rewarding. The combat system is boring , it's boring since lvl 5, pressing 5 buttons without consequences is boring. Don't get me wrong running around , evading attacks is awesome but this combat system is extremely flawed. My personal opinion is that either there is a combat system like Demons/Dark Souls either the combat system has to be more elaborated. You can't have something in the middle. Either something very simple but yet difficult to master , either something very complex that needs to be executed perfectly.

    How about the world? Well since i ve not been stuck in wow for the last 4 years and since i ve tried Age of Conan, Aion and Rift i have to say that the world isn't anything fresh. It's the usual mmo world , exploring and puzzles were on Rift also but i found out that jumping games were a good idea, poorly implemented. I think that the next serious MMO in the industry will be a game which will actually allow you to move and jump in the same ways as Mario does. Otherwise it becomes boring after a while since there isn't any REAL difficult in the jumping process but the obstacles are crows or ravens or stuff like that.

    WvW pvp is bad , Zerging has ALWAYS BEEN BAD since 2003 ! And it is still bad in 2012, there is no skill in zerging and with 5 buttons and no group play Pvp is bad. Also slow movement in the pvp map is one of the worst things ever seen. 9 years ago you had Minstrels with movement buffs ...

    The worst part of the game is that thanks to their dynamic events there is no reason to socialize and meet new people through the game in order to party up and get things done. You just attack a mob with other 20 people and that's it. For all i care they can all die i ll just keep hitting.

    My conclusion is that the game is super Hyped, many people got the usual 5$ for each post and the game in a couple of months is gonna be kinda dead, not from the lack of pve but because Pvp is bad and doesn't reward players.    … Expand
  79. dtater
    Sep 10, 2012
    6
    I have never written a metacritic review before, but I needed to make an account to review this game. I was incredibly excited for this game, but it simply has some issues that cannot be ignored. It IS well polished, and the team is constantly patching any bugs. Trading post glitches are pretty much gone. The problem with the game is not serves or bugs for me, but in the fundamentalI have never written a metacritic review before, but I needed to make an account to review this game. I was incredibly excited for this game, but it simply has some issues that cannot be ignored. It IS well polished, and the team is constantly patching any bugs. Trading post glitches are pretty much gone. The problem with the game is not serves or bugs for me, but in the fundamental game play.

    It was a novel idea to get rid of defined roles like tanks and healers, but ultimately, I feel it was a poor decision. The professions play far too similarly to one another. The destruction of "roles" means that everyone has a heal, everyone does some damage, everyone has some debuffs. And even ignoring the similarities between professions, the skill choices WITHIN a profession are lackluster with the weapons you pick defining over half of your skills that DO NOT CHANGE THE WHOLE GAME! So most of the skills you enjoy at level 1 or 2 are probably the same 5 you'll be using up until level 80. At least in games like WoW you can look forward to gaining new cool skills all the way as you level up. Because your skills are the same, combat becomes quite repetitive VERY quickly. The talent tree is a nice addition, but it simply isn't very deep. Just very small benefits, nothing substantial that you really can't wait for.

    Also the loot drops are not as quite as enjoyable or rewarding as they are in WoW. There ARE more useable types of loot and more magic item drops; HOWEVER, they are all very, very generic. There is a Greatsword of Precision, a Greatsword of Might, a Greatsword of "such-and-such-a-stat". There are very few weapon and armor models, the weapons/armor are all generically named, and the only difference are a few points in what attribute is affected. There need to be more "boss-type" special loots. Not like dungeons, but just elite type named mobs that drop some nice named, custom, non-generic weapons and armor. These are very very few and far between in this game. Therefore getting loot is just not exciting or pleasurable.

    I have played this game quite a bit. I've really really TRIED to like it, because, after all, I spent $60 on it. But each time I play, I find myself getting bored and forcing myself to keep playing just because I don't want to feel like I wasted my money. But I can honestly say that I wish I would have had my $60 right now, and wouldn't really the miss the game.    … Expand
  80. exceeder616
    Jun 3, 2013
    6
    Played the game for about 2 months. The graphics are good but cared little for the gameplay. Did not like any of the races and the lore was meh. The one time purchase fee is a plus. Not much PvE and I am not a pvp oriented person.
  81. Bovinus
    Sep 21, 2012
    6
    Guild wars 2 is the most bizarre MMO of all times, it is a MMO made for people who doesn't like MMOs, it's pve is horrible, monsters doesn't give xp so you can't grind, you're forced to keep running around the world searching for boring events that, at first sight, looks awesome, unltil you note that there is no difference between the other players and a bunch of bots, there are noGuild wars 2 is the most bizarre MMO of all times, it is a MMO made for people who doesn't like MMOs, it's pve is horrible, monsters doesn't give xp so you can't grind, you're forced to keep running around the world searching for boring events that, at first sight, looks awesome, unltil you note that there is no difference between the other players and a bunch of bots, there are no interactions between players, the event starts, they come, the event ends, they disappear, there is no talking, no grouping, you really think that you're just playing a single player RPG with a ridiculous story line and a bunch of NPCs.

    The SPvP is good, thanks to the simplified gameplay, the problem is the lack of many support systems like "Look for group", more statistics and a better glory distribution, today playing on pubs is really annoying because most players just want to duel and farm glory, playing on tournaments solve this problem but is too hard to find a group.

    So i do not recommend this game, the PVE is not a MMO and paying 60 dollars for a PVP is not worth, there are better options.    … Expand
  82. Paulo-Maciel
    Dec 25, 2012
    6
    This game may have a lot of positive things, but for people adicted to MMORPG. My experience from this game it´s just fight the same enemys in the same place, in the same way, over and over again until I level up to go to a new place and repeat it all.
    Think before buy this game, it´s not for everyone.
  83. Dreyfus
    Oct 3, 2012
    6
    First of all: Sorry about my english

    Deception. That's how I define this game. I simply can't understand why big-official-reviews could give this a 10 out of 10. I loved Guild Wars. I have all 4 games and had a great time. So... If the production team is the same (which I don't think so) how could they turn a wonderful game franchise into this? Graphics and environements are fancy,    First of all: Sorry about my english

    Deception. That's how I define this game. I simply can't understand why big-official-reviews could give this a 10 out of 10. I loved Guild Wars. I have all 4 games and had a great time. So... If the production team is the same (which I don't think so) how could they turn a wonderful game franchise into this?

    Graphics and environements are fancy, beautiful and epic. You really feel like you're in Tyria. Guild and crafting systems are the best I've ever seen in all MMO's or RPG's. Character customization, existent items and dungeons are cool too.

    But that's it. Questing system is incredibly boring.. And not only the secondary quests are repetitive and boring. Primary quests too. Dialogues are sooo simple... They doesn't give you any explanations. It's just: 'This happened. Do this' You can easlily predict what they're going to say. Feels like NPC's were put for stetic and environement purposes only. That's what the game feels like: 60% stetic, 40% game. The game doesn't care if you played GW or not: No explanations about history or environement are given. Combat system might be cool at first, but then gets repetitive and boring. Mobs are few. You can walk from side to side without engaging a single foe. And if you engage anything, it should be a 1v1 fight. Even if there are a lot of types of weapons, the weapon-attached skill system it's a joke. You just spam what it's not cooldown. You don't need to think, just act. And that premise works for everything. You don't need to think about the stuff in your inventory, since you have a button that, no matter where you are, makes that you can put your crafting items in storage. Also, there are a lot of merchants en each map. And speaking about maps... Exploration is a joke too. Death doesn't feel like a burden. You can die over and over and you feel like: "Whatever man. I'll just keep going." Death penalty is almost non-existent and broken armors doesn't suppose much trouble, since there are a TON of waypoints. You don't even need to walk in this game. Looks like they made it for lazy players. Every single map consists in doing the same thing over and over. Around 11 quests per map (auto asigned. You don't even need to talk to a NPC to activate or finish it). Those 11 quest are exactly the same: Go to an area, interact with 3 or 4 things and kill some foes. Even if the purpose is different, it is exactly the same. After that, there are 6 or 7 challenges, wich consist on pressing F on a place and waiting 4 or 5 seconds or killing a strong foe. Then you got the views (get to a point, press F and admire the views) and the exploration thing (discover waypoints and places). And that's all you'll do from map to map. Doesn't matter if it's a 1-17 lvl map or a 50-60 lvl map) The only thing worth to enjoy on each map are those dynamic events. You can win them or lose them. But... Almost always victory is guaranteed because there are like 10 or 15 other players completing it. So you just need to watch.

    Underwater playthrough feels like stated above but worse. That part it's boring, anoying, with awful control... I'll just state 'Oh my god'.

    I could go on, and on, and on but I don't have more time and my english is not that great.

    Conclusion: Comparing MMO's, this doesn't even get the 6 out of 10 I gave it... But... It depends on what kind of gamer you are. If you're a casual gamer, you might enjoy Guild Wars 2 and think about this as a 8 out of 10. You might enjoy it. If you're an experienced MMO player, I don't recommend this to you FOR NOW. (It might get better in the future). If you're an average gamer, I don't recommend this to you either.    … Expand
  84. saidor
    Nov 11, 2012
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. GW2 is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. Visually it's good, but not fantastic, and the game play animation has a strange feel to it. Some call it floaty, some call it bloaty. The game play itself is also average. Some interesting combat mechancis in that different weapon combinations open up different skills, and the crafting mechanics shared across all your characters, are welcome features i've not seem on the other mmo's, but as will all mmo's its go here kill that go here collect this. Not quite on red snapper levels but it's still there. The game heavily promotes the 'personal story' making out that its all about you creating your own legend. In this Anet has completely failed. Sorry Anet. It's a linear story line with poor voice acting. It doesnt even have real world animation, just odd cut scenes that detach you from the game. Most of the story isnt about what you do, its about you following instructions like a good little peon. The game lacks depth to a newcomer unfamiliar with the GW world and background. Very little draws you in to the world. For a one of price its a reasonable game with some interesting new touches but nothing to really get excited over. However, zones feel empty, servers are already struggling to attract new players, and there are the usual requests to merge servers or transfer to better ones. If this was pay to play it would be worrying.… Expand
  85. MayhemMike83
    Mar 23, 2013
    6
    First of all let me state this: It is one of the best MMOs out there and you can find lots of reviews that will tell you all the reasons why it deserves a high rating, but here are the reasons why I didn't really like it.

    1. There is no traditional leveling: Each weapons uses another skill set but you can unlock all of them really quickly in under 30 mins. What's left to unlock are just    First of all let me state this: It is one of the best MMOs out there and you can find lots of reviews that will tell you all the reasons why it deserves a high rating, but here are the reasons why I didn't really like it.

    1. There is no traditional leveling: Each weapons uses another skill set but you can unlock all of them really quickly in under 30 mins. What's left to unlock are just skills that I would consider minor and mostly not worth playing for. Leveling up is one of the biggest motivational points for me in such a game and GW2 doesn't offer enough for me to keep me interested

    2. If there is no real leveling system the game needs something else to keep you involved like the story and here lays the next problem. The emotional arc of your character concludes after the second arc is finished. From that point onward you are, just a tag-along. The story is affecting other people, and you're just along for the ride. A good part of this is due to the segmented nature of the quests 3. Crafting: You need to level up your crafting skills in order to be able to craft valuable gear and that's when crafting becomes an exercise because creating one level 10 recipe does not increase your level to 11 as it would appear. No, you get experience toward level 11, meaning that the problem of leveling up by making useless items is exacerbated.    … Expand
  86. WhiteTalpa
    Jan 10, 2013
    6
    Guild Wars 2 does a lot of things right and is an enjoyable game However, there are already other big games like RuneScape which has got it 99% right, so in conclusion forget Guild Wars 2 and play RuneScape.
  87. Landiien
    Dec 27, 2012
    6
    I really wanted to like GW2, and I tried. Different classes, different races. I kept asking myself, "So many people like this game, and the reviews are great; what am I not getting, here?" The story is weak, and the voice acting is often laughably bad. The questing system is a hot mess, and it just seems as though the world is constantly throwing these objectives at you without anyI really wanted to like GW2, and I tried. Different classes, different races. I kept asking myself, "So many people like this game, and the reviews are great; what am I not getting, here?" The story is weak, and the voice acting is often laughably bad. The questing system is a hot mess, and it just seems as though the world is constantly throwing these objectives at you without any back-story or sense of purpose (unless you go looking for the NPC with the heart over their head, but even then, the story is usually not worth reading). The combat is extremely dull and simple. I could engage in combat, walk away from my computer for a minute or two, and return to find I'd won.

    Even when playing with friends, I could never stomach more than an hour before things got boring. In other MMOs, when I needed to break-up the monotony, I'd jump into PvP. But this is the same effect-spamming, insta-cast, running in circles and jumping all over the place crap that has become the MMO norm.

    Nothing about it felt revolutionary. In fact, some much was streamlined in the U/I and party systems that the experience felt cheapened. Coupled with the mediocre production values and lackluster visuals, I was extremely aware at all times that I was playing a free game. In the end, I decided that I'm not actually "missing" anything. GW2 is insanely overhyped and completely overrated because it's free-to-play. Would the reviews be so high if you had to pay monthly to play?    … Expand
  88. morroblivion
    Jan 3, 2013
    6
    In all honesty, I regret buying the game. It was now for me, and quite possibly not for some people who gave negative reviews. I saw that the good things were "Dynamic events" "Revolutionary" and I really thought that these things would make me love the game, but instead it felt very repetitive and I was unable to cling to it. I must admit though that I enjoyed it at the start, but IIn all honesty, I regret buying the game. It was now for me, and quite possibly not for some people who gave negative reviews. I saw that the good things were "Dynamic events" "Revolutionary" and I really thought that these things would make me love the game, but instead it felt very repetitive and I was unable to cling to it. I must admit though that I enjoyed it at the start, but I slowly lost it. The only quest rewards are only coins, ranging from a few copper(4 copper) to some silver(3 silver and some copper). They didn't offer anything new to the kill x collect y thing, it's essentially the same except they put a progress bar instead of say 0/10 kills. The dynamic events were good at the start but I felt that they were just self activated quests with a timer. Also the events lack in variety, its all the same. It's usually killing a champion/veteran monster, kill hordes/waves of monsters while capturing this area, collecting a certain number of plants, escorting a dolyak/person and killing of some monsters. It's all the same. The armors too lack in variety and have to be either crafter, bought(karma,AH) or looted(looted ones are generally poorer in qyuiality compared to crafted or bought. The story is nice but could've been presented MUCH better. One good this about the game is Tyria. The world looks amazing and Tyria is beautifully crafted. The sound is also amazing. WvW is fun and PvP is statistically balanced. It's not a good game in my eyes, it's not a bad one either. It's just another game in the MMO cycle. Either to be remembered or forgotten.… Expand
  89. Nathonas
    Feb 19, 2013
    6
    As a long time disillusioned WoW player I was looking forward to Guild Wars 2 as a new MMO to play. I prepurchased the game and began playing immediately in August. I enjoyed the game at first and liked that it tried to do a lot of things differently, although my friends didn't share my opinion. However I quickly became bored and within a month I was no longer logging on at all. The gameAs a long time disillusioned WoW player I was looking forward to Guild Wars 2 as a new MMO to play. I prepurchased the game and began playing immediately in August. I enjoyed the game at first and liked that it tried to do a lot of things differently, although my friends didn't share my opinion. However I quickly became bored and within a month I was no longer logging on at all. The game is not terrible by any means, but I can now safely say it is a rather lackluster MMO:

    Successful Mechanics:

    - Everything is rewarded with experience really simple and great idea to reduce the grind and give people motivation to try everything

    - Very nice sense of exploration with beautiful Zones and vistas

    - A social approach to quests dynamic events leveling in GW2 is not nearly as boring as standard MMOs and it can be fun to group up with other people constantly Skills being tied to weapons is an interesting and innovative idea

    - Gorgeous Graphics Poor Mechanics:

    - PvP is a horribly-designed, horribly balanced zerg fast. This is by far my biggest gripe with the game, as I was a hardcore PvP/arena player in WoW. WvW is just a huge zerg fest with little to no strategy, and the "battlegrounds" are boring and stale.

    - The combat and controls in the game just don't feel smooth. WoW players will know what I mean.

    - The "downed" mechanic is silly in PvP and adds a tedious element to killing enemies.

    - Every class has basically the same set of skills with slight differences (for example, damage, heal, escape, CC, etc). At first the classes look different but really the differences are quite small as everyone can do a little bit of everything and you can see how similar a 99% of the skills are. The story side of the game is very cheesy and boring    … Expand
  90. Friendzie
    Mar 21, 2013
    6
    What I want in a MMORPG is incredibly designed bosses requiring great teamwork to kill. By abandoning the staple roles of RPGs in favor of some sort of a weapon-based skill system and self-healing, the game pushes itself way backward in that department. I appreciate Guild War's answer to the dead world instance-play of games like Warcraft, but what we need more is a game with Warcraft'sWhat I want in a MMORPG is incredibly designed bosses requiring great teamwork to kill. By abandoning the staple roles of RPGs in favor of some sort of a weapon-based skill system and self-healing, the game pushes itself way backward in that department. I appreciate Guild War's answer to the dead world instance-play of games like Warcraft, but what we need more is a game with Warcraft's raid bosses and Guild War's leveling and vibrant world. We don't need a game to be 100% different in every way from the competition. I'm not just looking for the next WoW when I play a MMORPG I can deal with games diverging from WoW in a variety of ways but can we please have any other game which features PVE raid bosses as well designed as WoW? Warhammer Online nailed its coffin by specifically ignoring PVE raiding in an attempt to be different. Now Guild Wars 2, a beautiful game with so much to do, manages to do something similar, preventing itself from well-designed content by abolishing the tried-and-true staples of RPG gameplay that have worked so well. I'd maybe recommend this game for people who want PVP over PVE in a MMORPG.… Expand
  91. kabilaking
    Apr 30, 2013
    6
    I will keep this short and snappy for you guys. This game is good fast paced, beautiful environment, characters look amazing and so do weapons and armor, Dungeons amazing, PVP & PVE are my fav in a game absolutely amazing. However there is a couple of things for me which are important in a game which for me guild wars 2 ruined for me. First and most important the skills system is awfulI will keep this short and snappy for you guys. This game is good fast paced, beautiful environment, characters look amazing and so do weapons and armor, Dungeons amazing, PVP & PVE are my fav in a game absolutely amazing. However there is a couple of things for me which are important in a game which for me guild wars 2 ruined for me. First and most important the skills system is awful basically when you get a weapon you level it up and only 5 skills are available thats it thats your skill system right there basically kill 4 monsters and you hit max level for your weapon which for me sucks what happend to choosing skills. This is extremely important in this type of game and if it aint right it ruins gameplay. Also lastly the crafting system is not very good in my opinion but thats just me others do enjoy the crafting and others do enjoy the gameplay however the end game content sucks at the moment which I know everybody gets pissed off about so because of the skill system and crafting and end game only a 6 for me as they are really important in a MMO… Expand
  92. Mudgee
    Nov 24, 2014
    6
    Quick, fast-paced and semi-fun. GW2 was a slight change of pace for the MMO scene. In honesty however, it couldn't manage to find myself spending much time with this game. Despite its relevant fun and semi interest, it quickly dried up and just became another MMO incapable of maintaining a flailing interest. Playable, not replayable.
  93. MarcTryon
    Jul 16, 2014
    6
    This is a game a really wanted to like and I did give it a good six months. It has beautiful character models, an fun combat system, a non-gear based pvp system, and dynamic content (DC). The latter, DC, is what really got my attention, and is, in fact, what the publisher hyped about the game.

    Other things are interesting too, from the little (account wide banks and currency) to the    This is a game a really wanted to like and I did give it a good six months. It has beautiful character models, an fun combat system, a non-gear based pvp system, and dynamic content (DC). The latter, DC, is what really got my attention, and is, in fact, what the publisher hyped about the game.

    Other things are interesting too, from the little (account wide banks and currency) to the big, especially the hub-free questing.

    Yet, somehow, for me, the whole is much less than the sum of its parts. I did enjoy maxing out a few characters and exploring the world. But after all, it just seemed a bit stale. The DC is quite weak in the end, much less interesting to me than RIFT's DC. The questing gets tedious and, quest-granting method aside, is still the same old kill-this/fetch that.

    Maybe they fixed this in the last few months but when I left, many folks were doing a very dull zone boss spawn loop in the starting zones collecting goodies. It was quick, it was efficient, and it was terribly boring. It's also a travesty of dynamic content: yes you had to wait for a boss to spawn but they spawned in the exact same order. No variation in timing or bosses.

    Pre-launch they promised that your actions would affect the world. If those in zone don't stop the bandits poisoning the water supply, it remains poisoned. Trouble is, while sometimes it does get poisoned, it doesn't really have any effect and more typically, if an event fails, you just immediately go to the next "fix it" step in the chain, essentially getting a slightly longer version of the quest.

    PVP was fun for a while and I think the cosmetic gear only rewards is interesting but A) why couldn't I wear this gear as town-wear so I could show it off outside of PVP and B) after level 30 or so, there was 50 or more levels of grind before there was any more gear I was interested in.

    In the end, I just got bored with it. I do sometimes pine for those gorgeous character models and sexy gear but when I pop on again after the publisher sends me their latest hook, I feel the same distaste for the game that I felt for WoW after playing it for three years solid. I just can't face the tedium. There's too little to hold my attention.

    Most of the gamers I know are the same way- fun for a while but easy to move on to something else. So if you can get it cheap, I think you can expect a few months of play out of it but don't be surprised if it does not hold your long term interest.    … Expand
  94. SpaceRaptor
    Jun 21, 2015
    6
    It's not awful, but it's not all that great either. While I don't hate this game, since people give it so much praise I'm going to focus on where it falls short. GW2 advertises itself as a lot of things that are only really quarter truths. I think the most outlandish false advertising was the "dynamic event system". To quote:

    "The living world of Guild Wars 2 is filled with thousands of    It's not awful, but it's not all that great either. While I don't hate this game, since people give it so much praise I'm going to focus on where it falls short. GW2 advertises itself as a lot of things that are only really quarter truths. I think the most outlandish false advertising was the "dynamic event system". To quote:

    "The living world of Guild Wars 2 is filled with thousands of dynamic events that constantly change based on the actions of players like you. You never know what you’ll discover when you log in!"

    This is true, until you log in the second time. The "events" are inherently no different than your standard "My dog **** on my neighbour's lawn so I need you to to deliver this apology cake 3 meters due south." generic MMO quest. The only thing GW2 changed is that now they walk and talk, and you have to repeat them over and over and over and over. And no they don't impact the world in any meaningful way because just as there are no permanent consequences, there are no permanent solutions.

    Some other half truths from their video on their combat page: "If a big attack comes your way, you can dodge roll out of the way" - Yes, if your endurance is full. And you can only dodge roll twice before you have to wait for it to recharge, making it feel entirely pointless. "It has the action of a shooter, the strategy of an RTS and the depth of an mmo". Haha, no. The action is entirely third person and repetitive. The "strategy" is practically non existent given the ridiculous limitations on evasion, cool downs, heals, skills, blocks and what have you. A common cause of death is not lack of skill, but lack of skills.

    The story is at points questionable, laughable or boring. The writers start by trying to prop you up as an unbelievable speshul snowflake which is most evident in the human starting story, where despite the military evacuating the entire town allow you, random civilian #4832, to stay and fight for no apparent reason. Or perhaps the Norn, where at level 1 you slay an ice wurm people widely praise and give you a title for and they continue to praise you for it even when you get to a level that you could've one shot it at.

    I should also mention both story and game mechanic wise, NPCs are inherently useless unless they're Trahearne. In which case, he is a paradox of being the most uselessly important person in the entire world. By this point the writers are really trying to make you feel like you're just another John Smith in a world populated by characters no inherently more important or special than the other. While commendable in theory, it's entirely awful in execution given Trahearne just takes credit for everything you do.

    In one of their promotional videos before the release of the core game, one Anet spokesperson said something along the lines of “If you're a FPS gamer you'll like playing Guild Wars 2”. Hilarious, because my boyfriend who exclusively plays only FPS and RTS games absolutely reviled this game. I could never get him to play it with me for more than an hour. His major gripes being the combat system which I already semi elaborated on (and it hits harder for FPS/ RTS gamers) and the levelling system (linearity).

    You're very much locked into an area of what you can do via arbitrary numbers. And you're not rewarded for seeking out challenges (I mean real challenges, not the “but it's your level” kind of challenge), in fact you're outright punished for it. And if we keep in mind how relatively fast it is to level, the entire system just makes itself redundant. You could have maps and characters where everything is just “a challenge” instead of a level, but instead you're punished every time you make a new character by being restricted to repeating the same content over and over. “Oh god, not this event/ map again”. And then there's dead maps problem caused by this.

    And speaking of end game, there isn't one. Yes, by all technical means there are things to do at level 80. The problem is, these are the same things you've already being doing in your treadmill climb to end level. Anet did at one point say "The whole game is the end game". That is the one whole truth they've said. So you kind of end up with a game that is marginally more enjoyable than your average MMO by a couple inches, but after a couple level 80's and tiring of the lack of features you find yourself logging in maybe once a month to play one new content release, get bored of it and then let it collect dust on your desktop till the next time you get bored of your other games.

    The one good thing I can say about GW2 is you don't feel like you have to spend a year to catch up to other players when you do return. Given this, I wouldn't call it a waste of money.

    In summary, meh. It's kind of OK.    … Expand
  95. Crackfarmer
    Nov 9, 2015
    6
    The most annoying thing in this Game is to explore the whole Map, i mean who gives a flying **** about some useless Houses inside of Caves or Camp with enemy Npc's inside? I don't. Cpu utilization is terrible, 80% cpu usage on 4,5 ghz cpu is a joke. This Game is an awful example of how coding can end if you smoke too much kush.
  96. spice9
    Jul 18, 2023
    6
    It's great for the first 100-200 hours or so. You're out in a massive well-crafted world exploring, helping people, and slaying various creatures. The maps are large and detailed and they feel alive due to the living world system.
    Then, suddenly you reach max level, and it simply starts to get old - and not for a good reason. The tasks simply become far too repetitive and formulaic.    It's great for the first 100-200 hours or so. You're out in a massive well-crafted world exploring, helping people, and slaying various creatures. The maps are large and detailed and they feel alive due to the living world system.
    Then, suddenly you reach max level, and it simply starts to get old - and not for a good reason. The tasks simply become far too repetitive and formulaic. Endless thinly-veiled fetch quests, move from point A to point B, click this button here, talk to this guy there. In addition to that, there is artificial difficulty in the form of things simply taking TOO DAMN LONG! What should be a regular mid-boss ends up having a health bar that takes 7 whole minutes to slowly whittle down using the repetitive button-mashy combat wherein you simply cycle through all your abilities without much thought. And yes, I am using the meta DPS build and rotations. It feels like ****
    I understand its an MMO, but it feels like an absolute slog to play at times. Other games keep longer harder boss fights engaging by having good mechanics and satisfying combat. Multiple phases, skill checks, etc.
    With GW2? Yeah let's just make this boss "harder" by giving him 5x the health he should have. Forget good mechanics, forget satisfying gameplay.    … Expand
  97. Zophibee
    Sep 8, 2020
    6
    As a player of 3 consecutive years I have seen a lot from this game, and unfortunately a lot of disappointment. The story updates in Living World S4 were incredible and something I looked forward to. However now the storylines are dull, hardly much thought put into them, and all they do is give us meaningless rewards we don't need, plus a giant map with a meta that gets nerfed almostAs a player of 3 consecutive years I have seen a lot from this game, and unfortunately a lot of disappointment. The story updates in Living World S4 were incredible and something I looked forward to. However now the storylines are dull, hardly much thought put into them, and all they do is give us meaningless rewards we don't need, plus a giant map with a meta that gets nerfed almost immediately. It's incredibly hard to earn decent gold in this game unless you know every trick and devote all your time to doing everything. They make expensive gem store items as the focus of their monetization. Premium skins are 1,600 to 2,000 gems while normal skins are worth about 400 gems each. 800 gems costs 10$ USD so a skin priced at 2,000 gems is worth about 30$ to them. That's expensive! 30$ for a game skin or food? Everything is paywalled to some extent. Need a previous episode? 200 gems please! Want to switch servers? 500+ gems please! Not to mention the developers have ignored WvW so much that it's nearly unplayable. They gave us a mount to draw people in, only to have them leave once they obtained the mount. Waste of time, waste of materials, and waste of effort. WvW is dying as a result of the neglect, and I think this game only has 3 years left before it ultimately succumbs and shuts down. I've been playing MMOs for over 10 years, I've seen the signs before and GW2 is a sinking ship because of the developers neglecting the players and the changes we truly need to see. Their response? Working on 3rd expansion instead of what we wanted. That's their answer to everything. So, play the game now while you can, because I'll be shocked if it lasts more than 3-5 years from now.… Expand
  98. VectorManuel
    Aug 13, 2023
    6
    The game is dying, it used to be great but not now.
    Pros:
    * It's casual and "poor" friendly - If you want to play an mmorpg while working full time, this is the best, and if you can't afford a monthly sub, this is it! * Till Living World Season 4 - It has best features and story is alright. * New player friendly - New players can get to high levels easily now, plus free to play players    The game is dying, it used to be great but not now.
    Pros:
    * It's casual and "poor" friendly - If you want to play an mmorpg while working full time, this is the best, and if you can't afford a monthly sub, this is it!
    * Till Living World Season 4 - It has best features and story is alright.
    * New player friendly - New players can get to high levels easily now, plus free to play players could also experience a lot of good contents.

    Cons:
    * Story - It went real bad after lws4, I don't understand how another country's political problems are a concern for a foreigner(Us), We discover a new land and somehow got involved into their politics (EoD). Apart from story, the scripts have gone bad too, it felt like written by teenagers, the story plots weren't as immersing as it was for PoF.
    * Content - Not being a monthly sub game, it finally took a toll on them, since there aren't much (or any) new content to put out, they can't sell their expansions like before. EoD is an example of how they tried to sell what little they had. Now they changed to mini expansions (5 bucks less).
    * Politics - I don't want to get into details, but like any other American entertainment industry, they went political. Funny thing, they sold a "political inclusion" and didn't make it look like one, but lately it's changed.

    Is it worth to buy/play it?
    Short term - Yes! Go for it. It's worth every penny (till lws4).
    Long term - Probably not, unless they bring good story later on then go for it (maybe new features too).    … Expand
  99. Kassdhal
    Sep 22, 2012
    5
    Very mixed in multiple respects... the first view of the game is that it is fantastic. At least a refreshing view on the MMO world, really well done and finished, with innovative quest system and fantastic innovative levelling mechanism.

    And after a while you're logging in and you don;t really know why you're accepting silly limitations like the stupidly think inventory system, the    Very mixed in multiple respects... the first view of the game is that it is fantastic. At least a refreshing view on the MMO world, really well done and finished, with innovative quest system and fantastic innovative levelling mechanism.

    And after a while you're logging in and you don;t really know why you're accepting silly limitations like the stupidly think inventory system, the lacklustre crafting mechanism, the stupid "personnal story" system that for some quests is just so close to impossible that it is frustrating beyond relief (with no hope of overpowering the quest... my engineer has been stuck on a lvl 28 quest since the beginning...)

    It could have been fantastic but it is barely passable due to these limitations. It is not a hazard if blizzard has simplified the silly things in wow... guild wars should have thought about it too...

    WvW is very well thought but individual contributions are pretty much close to zero so the strategy is either zerg grouping or smaller "pro" groups which is boring after a while

    I see this game performing very well over time but will require a LOT of refining to keep players in. NC Soft does not care because there are no subscription.

    In some respect this game gave me the same feeling as TOR: an initial "Waouw" and then "but..... why did they... why didn't they....?"

    Sad...    … Expand
  100. Dethstar
    Dec 2, 2012
    5
    This is never going to be your primary MMO unless your a student maybe. The lack of a subscription is nice meaning that you can keep it on a back burner just in case you want to play it one day. The launch went well with less bugs than normal and the graphics are pretty enough. However, boy does this get tedious fast. For once, its not the quests that make it dull but the combat. I haveThis is never going to be your primary MMO unless your a student maybe. The lack of a subscription is nice meaning that you can keep it on a back burner just in case you want to play it one day. The launch went well with less bugs than normal and the graphics are pretty enough. However, boy does this get tedious fast. For once, its not the quests that make it dull but the combat. I have tried a couple of different classes so far but they share one thing. Click target hit attack then repetetively hit one button (maybe 2 if you can be arsed) over and over. So many characters all the same as you wander around that it should be renamed clone world. This really kills the game for me. The skill tree just doesn't have diversity and the drip feeding of rewards is not satisfying enough. Compare this a game with much more diverse character development like Rift for an example of what is better. This is a new MMO. Massive Mediocrity Online. Nothing to detest here, but may as well move along because there is nothing to see here either.… Expand
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Awards & Rankings

3
#3 Best PC Game of 2012
5
#5 Most Discussed PC Game of 2012
4
#4 Most Shared PC Game of 2012

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
90

Universal acclaim - based on 69 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 68 out of 69
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 69
  3. Negative: 0 out of 69
  1. PC Master (Greece)
    Feb 6, 2013
    90
    GW2 has made a powerful impact on the MMO scene, confirming years of expectations. Stunning presentation and revolutionary design guarantee a thoroughly enjoyable experience. However, it’s not flawless, nor complete. The beautiful vistas, the massive PvP element, the rich leveling experience- those can offer hours of gameplay, but the endgame is desperately seeking for enrichment. [November 2012]
  2. Gaming Nexus
    Jan 2, 2013
    95
    Guild Wars 2 surpasses the original in every aspect, from its massive and atmospheric world to its addictive and engrossing gameplay.
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  3. RPG Fan
    Nov 28, 2012
    80
    After spending fifty hours with GW2, I have a lot of praise for ArenaNet's work and the way it changes up some of the typical trappings of the MMO. And yet, I find myself thinking less and less about it each day. It's not a declaration against the product, mind you, but simply a fact that this game still is very much an MMO, and your enjoyment will directly relate to how much you enjoy the genre. For many who were hoping for a clean break from MMO design philosophy, Guild Wars 2 will probably come across as a slight disappointment. It pushes the genre slightly forward, however, and could lead to even further development in the future.
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