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. 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.
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. 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.
  7. 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
  8. 91metalhead
    Sep 24, 2012
    5
    i bought this game because of the great review it had gotten, but i found the gameplay to be so slow and sluggish. I didn't feel compelled at all to play it, so now it is just collecting dust on my harddrive (so to speak). I regret buying it, since i feel Star Wars TOR is a better overall experience.
  9. Toohonest
    Sep 10, 2012
    5
    The good:

    -Environments look great. So do characters (except for humans). While graphic engine is not state of the art or anything, it is good and artists did good job with it. -Leveling proces is smooth, with no need to run to NPCs to take quests. You just get in area, have several options how to fill bar. Additionally game rewards exploring with hidden caves and bosses everywhere.    The good:

    -Environments look great. So do characters (except for humans). While graphic engine is not state of the art or anything, it is good and artists did good job with it. -Leveling proces is smooth, with no need to run to NPCs to take quests. You just get in area, have several options how to fill bar. Additionally game rewards exploring with hidden caves and bosses everywhere. All that adds to the feeling that you can just go into the world and explore while your character progresses automatically.

    -Removal of alot of timesinks. Instant travel to specific points spread out around maps is a great time saver unless you actually did enjoy 15 minut flights to your destination. Also little things that really help saving time. Like "sell junk" option at vendors or automaticly sending gathered materials to bank which btw. also has special slots ther for such items. I believe they now even alowed crafting without need to manualy go to bank. All of that saves you alot of headaches.

    The bad:

    -Controls lag, delay or unresponsiveness. Whatever you want to call it. You tap a key, and there seems to be 200ms delay before your character starts moving. Either there is some crappy animation acceleration system or your character literally waits for server response when moving. Either way in 2012 something like that is absolutely ridiculous and that alone kills gameplay in this game for me.
    Sometimes stuff does not work. I press button, there are no cooldowns, yet it does not register. So you naturally end up spamming keys like crazy in order for attacks to actually work.
    Additionally tons of melee skills are really castable with short half second casts or so. Now I understand that most likely why this got implemented is so you can dodge hits. But end effect of controls lantency + randomly not working key press + castable skills that should be instant + some skills that make you stand in place before you finish animation + weapon switches = most unresponsive, laggy and frustrating control scheme I have seen in the last decade.

    -I hope you like to use 3 attacks over and over. Combat is nothing more than regular action bar skills based one + manual dodge even though screaming fanboys try to tell you otherwise. Nothing wrong with such system in itself if you get proper ammount of varried skills. Well I got bad news.
    For most classes you get 2 weapon sets. That is 2x5 buttons for weapons, 5 buttons for utility skills and 4 for class skills. First slot in weapons is autoatack (yes I am not kidding) so that leaves you at best with 17 buttons out of which you will have access only to 13 at one time without weapon switching. Utility and profession (class) skills are often on long cooldowns (30-90 seconds), some are buffs,heals or passive.No big deal right, afterall you can switch to second set of weapons anytime right? Joke, 10 second cooldown on weapon switch, have fun.
    End effect of it is that you end up spamming 3 attacks and presing few other buttons once a minute because not only second set of weapon has CD but depending on class actually might suck and not be worth using. Talk about boring. There are rare classes where you do get to use a bit more buttons but that brings into the question balance of difficulty of playing a proffesion (class) and in the end, still is not enough. Fun factor of combat varries from "id rather watch paint dry" to "meh, whats for dinner".

    Additionally because there is such small ammount of buttons available you end up with laughable buff/debuff system. You don't get skills that counter specific type of debuff out of lets say 10 types. No, instead you get skills like "remove random debuff","apply random debuff","convert random debuff into random buff". You even have passive skills removing debuffs.
    On a possitive side there is combo system where passing or shooting through various aoe speels you can get some effects, which nicely add another layer to combat. Still doesn't counter the feeling of boredom though.

    -Dungeons are just abomination. You would think that in game that has no problems dealing with dynamic event where you have 30 players vs 50 mobs, dungeons should be epic with 20 weaker mobs + several stronger at once in awesomelly design halls. Well here is epic for you. You get tiny claustrophobic corridors where camera gets constantly stucked, usually 2-4 trash mobs with obscene ammount of health and you stand there hitting them forever and ever and... I fell asleep. Then you get to boss who like to spam ability or two over and over which you have to dodge.

    -Lack of trade button. Awful auction house interface. The meh:
    Music, voice acting, goofy animations depending on race, poor choice if you like "ugly" races. Cliched story and dialog. Spell sounds are meh, I don't like casters in this game at all. I don't feel the destrucrive power behind them. Dynamic events are faceroll zerg, PvP is lame.    … Expand
  10. Baroic
    Sep 10, 2012
    5
    I have to say when i first downloaded this game i had such high hopes because i was a big fan of guild wars 1 but after a week of playing its let me down bad .. first i have to say i dislike the weapon skill bar it gets soooo boring fast and i feel like rerolling another class just to change the skills, you can change weapons around for different skills but god 80 levels of the same fewI have to say when i first downloaded this game i had such high hopes because i was a big fan of guild wars 1 but after a week of playing its let me down bad .. first i have to say i dislike the weapon skill bar it gets soooo boring fast and i feel like rerolling another class just to change the skills, you can change weapons around for different skills but god 80 levels of the same few weapons is just not fun.
    The pve is fun at the start but is more or less the same till end game gets a little harder but you can go from level 1 - 80 without talking to another person...
    The lac of skills is just silly you find yourself running around waiting for cd's on 5 skills while spamming the same 5 weapon skills. sorry but give me 30 keybinds any day.
    Pvp is fun and i do like the battle ground system as you can just jump on in at any level ,also the WvWvW is fun but needs work all in all pvp is whats best about GW2.    … Expand
  11. Gwendle
    Sep 10, 2012
    5
    The game has very little variety. There's nothing about the PvE system that is different than any other MMO, except maybe GW2's system is rather bland. I have yet to try PvP, but from what I am hearing from others who have, it's just as boring as PvE. Anyone who gives this game a 10 or even a 9 hasn't played the game enough to discover the monotony in store for them.
  12. 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.
  13. astralphoenix77
    Sep 11, 2012
    5
    Guild Wars 2 was hyped as a revolutionary breath of fresh air in the MMO genre, so what did we get? Let's take a look.

    Gameplay mechanics: combat was a big disappointment, with fixed weapon skills creating some of the most shallow combat mechanics I've ever seen. My Guardian deals with every enemy in the game in the same way: 4, 2, 3, 1-1-1. It gets dull after 3,000th enemy. Events and    Guild Wars 2 was hyped as a revolutionary breath of fresh air in the MMO genre, so what did we get? Let's take a look.

    Gameplay mechanics: combat was a big disappointment, with fixed weapon skills creating some of the most shallow combat mechanics I've ever seen. My Guardian deals with every enemy in the game in the same way: 4, 2, 3, 1-1-1. It gets dull after 3,000th enemy. Events and champion fights turn into a huge zergfest where the much-vaunted inter-player combo system gets lost amidst a hail of skill FX and isn't required anyway. +Power/+Precision/+Critical Damage (PPCD) items are the only thing of any importance, since you take so much damage from enemies (sometimes up to 75% of your max HP in a single hit from some standard enemies) that any pretense of boosting your defence is a joke. As a result, PPCD equipment costs 10x as much as other equipment on the trading system (which is thankfully now up). However, balance issues are to be expected on a new MMO release and so I'll give ArenaNet some leeway on this.

    Crafting is done better than in most MMOs, with little things like speeding up crafting of large numbers of items and the deposit all collectibles being welcome additions to a feature that can be a painful experience in other MMOs. The amount of EXP that can be gleaned from crafting, however, is in my opinion far too high and I reckon I got at least 1/3 of my levels from crafting (Lv.80 max, so 25-ish levels).

    Story: since this game is a true persistent-world MMO, the story takes a back seat, unlike the original Guild Wars where instancing (whatever you thought about it) did allow for an unusually good story-driven experience in PvE. Guild Wars 2 lacks the suspense and intrigue of the original story, since you know who the big bad is right from the start, and plays out largely forgettably and predictably. Discussion and cutscenes have been relegated to little conversations on a background, which is disappointing, lacking the cinematic story-driven experience of Guild Wars. My advice: do not play GW2 for the story.

    World PvE: The Renown Heart system and Dynamic Events were pedalled as the best thing since sliced bread by both ArenaNet's marketing division and various professional reviewers. Obviously these people had not done their research, as Warhammer Online had done this sort of public quest system back in 2008, to quite considerable success. GW2 lifted it, divided it, and gave us Renown Hearts, which are fetch/kill quests under any other name, but they work okay; and dynamic events, which can be fun but often suffer through having either too many players (zerg) or too few (impossible to complete). The Vistas and Skill Point Challenges are a nice touch, but the whole game feels very meta as a result and it ruins immersion somewhat.

    PvP: I have personally found PvP to be a mixed bag in this game. sPvP with teams of randomly assigned players going up against each other is quite fun and requires some degree of tactical skill. Lobbing trebuchets at your guildmates (who happened to be assigned to other team) is great fun. The WvW unfortunately is not so good at the moment as, like the major PvE events, it degenerates into a monstrous zergfest where the server with the most players (usually the French in my case) online always controls everything and everyone else gets diddly-squat. ANet needs to balance this, perhaps by limiting the number of players on each battlefield to an amount equal to that of the smallest actively represented server, but we shall see.

    Graphics: this game is beautiful, boasting the highest graphical fidelity I have ever seen in an MMO, and it is impressive. On the other hand, the game's engine optimisation and netcode are poor at the moment to say the least, but hopefully there will be some patches that address my 3 frames per second in a zerg against a champion boss. With regards to the art style, some people will like the new, more vibrant art style, while others (especially some fans of the original Guild Wars) will lament the move to a world that is more like WoW in both colour and feel, including the cheesiness of the NPCs.

    Music/SFX: The music is almost entirely ripped from the first Guild Wars, so it's a bit of a cop-out frankly. Otherwise sound effects are solid, but unspectacular. There really is not much more to say about it.

    Verdict: ArenaNet took everything that was great about Guild Wars...and threw it into a fire. Instead, they made a WoW clone and stole WAR's public quest/event system as its driver. In fairness, the aspects that have been borrowed are well implemented. But there is nothing innovative about Guild Wars 2. Shallow combat and lack of high-end content mean you will probably drop this game after a couple of months. If ANet can get balance updates and new content in my opinion may improve, but right now this game is a rough diamond at best.    … Expand
  14. 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
  15. 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
  16. Grenzor
    Sep 8, 2012
    5
    Gameplay: 4/10 Why so? Because It's always fun to do some stuff with people around. But harvesting eggs and washing cows is no fun after 80+ hours of playing is no fun at all. Maybe some people enjoy it. Not me. And I also take X and bring it to Y kind of stuff is annoying (90% of quests I've done). There are many games around which makes you to do so.

    Graphics: 5/10. (Textures) Well    Gameplay: 4/10 Why so? Because It's always fun to do some stuff with people around. But harvesting eggs and washing cows is no fun after 80+ hours of playing is no fun at all. Maybe some people enjoy it. Not me. And I also take X and bring it to Y kind of stuff is annoying (90% of quests I've done). There are many games around which makes you to do so.

    Graphics: 5/10. (Textures) Well it's 2012. And if you ask full price for a game, you must at least try to be good at everything.

    Locations: 9/10 Fact is a fact. Locations are beautiful. They did a good job on this one.

    PvP/PvE: 3/10
    PvP require skill. Because in MOST cases you will be able to take down 1 or 2 enemies and die immediately after. Because of skill system, which is terrible. It just forces you to spam everything what's out of cooldown. If you are not doing so, you're doing it wrong.
    PvE is another weak point of this game. Let's start with "events". In most cases you see a mob, random spells flying everywhere. You don't even feel like you're doing everything. Not a challenge at all. Just be there, make sure to press 1, 2, 1, 3, 1 ,4. And your work is done.

    Audio: 4/10
    Well I don't feel the music. Voice actors are TERRIBLE(!). Spell sounds are fine.

    Also ingame shop? Really? After paying 60    … Expand
  17. Innocente
    Aug 30, 2012
    5
    There is much to like in GW2, and much to dislike as well. I had high hopes for great gameplay and a long lasting home in GW2, but I fear that is not to be the case. My review is of the game AS IT IS NOW, not of some 'future' GW2 after it has had months and months of refinement. That sort of refinement should have been done before launching. *Player Market is broken. * WvWvW is broken.There is much to like in GW2, and much to dislike as well. I had high hopes for great gameplay and a long lasting home in GW2, but I fear that is not to be the case. My review is of the game AS IT IS NOW, not of some 'future' GW2 after it has had months and months of refinement. That sort of refinement should have been done before launching. *Player Market is broken. * WvWvW is broken. * Cross-Server Guesting is Broken. * Dungeon group management is broken. * Many World Bosses are broken. * Game Stability (crashes & lockups) is broken. * Game Balance scaling is broken (Solo challenges are to hard, and Group challenges are to easy). * Overflow Server mechanics are broken. * Crafting scaling and balance is broken. **** Overall, GW2 needed another 6 months to 12 months 'in the oven', so to speak. I do not know why it was rushed out in this condition, but there were indications of known issues at the Beta Weekend Event 2. At that time, they had 100 servers online. That must have led to empty worlds, as they very quickly cut that down to 15ish for the next beta. That led to a host of stability and overflow issues that persist to this day; not fun. GW2 is worth a look, but one needs to play a character to Lvl 30ish or so to get a real feal as to how the game plays, and what to look forward to. Or not, as the case may be.… Expand
  18. 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
  19. 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
  20. 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 ?
  21. Wofwof
    Aug 30, 2012
    5
    1..Creating character:
    At start you chose your Home -server.
    There is a decent amount of options for character customization. You can chose from 5 races and 8 professions. That's all nice but you can create only 5 characters in game (not on server, but in whole game). You can unlock more slots buying it for real money. So you can't even try all professions. 2.PvE Personal story- you    1..Creating character:
    At start you chose your Home -server.
    There is a decent amount of options for character customization. You can chose from 5 races and 8 professions. That's all nice but you can create only 5 characters in game (not on server, but in whole game). You can unlock more slots buying it for real money. So you can't even try all professions. 2.PvE
    Personal story- you have this personal story which are linear story's in instanced part 's of world. Story is in my opinion generic fantasy and not so good and it's badly voice over-ed and narrated. It can+t go even in same sentence with SWOTOR story's and story quests.
    Questing- there is no actual questing but you still go to NPC with black heart mark over head and take quest. Than everybody doing that quest (event) until it's over. There is also those "you entered this area help legion and kill 10 ghosts" quests (but hey game don't have quests!). It's so sad because they said there will never be those "mobs just standing near road and you have to kill 10 or 5 of them" quests but there are. Other event-ing (questing) is basically you have this text what to do and a progress bar. Everybody is killing something or collecting something and when bar is full you get your XP, karma and money based on your contribution. Nice idea. You also have this big event's who are basically escort this guy, than kill those, than fight boss or defend/attack outpost. Problem is when there is not enough players events are smaller, often not doable or even frustrating. The same is for those heart/quests where you see like 50 enemies spawning and just standing or fighting. If you don't engage them you don't care what is happening. They just keep standing still or fighting. If you engage you can change that part of world (for example black polluted lake becomes clean blue). But we saw all that in wow. In Litch King you take quest, game fazes, enemies are rushing on the hill, you kill them all and you get new flight point and new base. So it's all old news but now on every step. And that is the main concerns for PvE . When you clean one area it all starts again in other so it's quickly becomes all seen - all boring but with less seans of progression because there is not that i compleated quests feeling. The second concern is that if you only do hearts and some events you can't level fast enough to follow zone difficulty. You need to explore,do story quest and go in pvp or do vistas to keep your level high enough to continue. The final concern for me is that there is no reason to level to level 80 or even do those few dungeons while questing. You got nothing at that level. There are no raids and all equipment have the same stats but just looks different.

    3.Combat
    What weapon you equip that 5 skills you get. Why is only one unlocked at start and 4 you need to unlock i don't know when unlocking those is 5 minute job. Combat is mouse clicking like in wow but here you can move all the time and you can manually dodge. Rest 5 skills are basically your class buffs, heals, and one epic ability. That and traits are only things you unlock. So sad for RPG.

    4. PvP
    You have WvWvW which is nice in idea but it's almost unplayable and not so fun, at least for me. You have this ever ongoing 3 server battles on special map(4 big maps). Playing is now really lagy, unplayable when there is like 30 players on same place and half a day i spent destroying doors spamming my ability's. And you have classic PvP in which you can enter from start and play like a level 80 character. That's why i say there is no sens to do PvE leveling because it quickly get boring and it don't have any sense or reward. So this is basically a game for PvP-ers which will enjoy WvWvW and same gear pvp maps all over again... 5. Graphics:
    Graphic is a little out of my taste but very pretty on max settings. Problem is that on average PC you will look at very ugly textures and you will have a real hassle with a FPS which gave me a headache. 6. Social
    Current problems are -you can't play with your friends. Finding in world your 4 friends in 5 man group is a 30 minute job. You are on same server in same area but who knows in what instance. Constant overflowing and phasing get you lost. Guild's are very buggy and often GM can't see any players. Auction house is down. Adding friends had some issues but now is ok. 7. Conclusion
    A nice game especially for PvP players. It's trying to be different and in some way it succeeds. It don't have subscription because it couldn't sustain it, it miss so much (raids, PvE daily's, heroics, mounts, flying...) and imo it don't have really long - life time. It put some nice things from other MMO's and try to sell it for revolutionary. It's not but it's nice done. It's ok game but missing so much to compete with other AAA MMO's and lacks optimization    … Expand
  22. 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
  23. 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
  24. 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
  25. MysticSham
    Sep 10, 2012
    5
    Game play is enjoyable, security isn't up to par though which can ruin any good game... numerous people getting hacked and account name can be changed is easier than password changes makes one question why release a game with such a huge flaw...
  26. 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
  27. Nipatran
    Aug 30, 2012
    5
    soo, for starters i pre-ordered the game waiting to see something awsome...

    this is not the case on this game, feels kinda like when i bought Diablo 3. It has the nice name GW2 and really nice artwork and music is stunning, even that´s huge part of the game it cant hide the fact that the gameplay is inferior and feels like im playing free and unfinished MMO. control feels sluggish    soo, for starters i pre-ordered the game waiting to see something awsome...

    this is not the case on this game, feels kinda like when i bought Diablo 3. It has the nice name GW2 and really nice artwork and music is stunning, even that´s huge part of the game it cant hide the fact that the gameplay is inferior and feels like im playing free and unfinished MMO. control feels sluggish and akward. another thing i dont like is that if you aggro more than 2 enemies alone you can only run away or fight and hope you survive. im not lying when i say that i feel like scammed when i payed 60bucks from this

    its really sad that this gem is covered with turd    … Expand
  28. 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
  29. 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
  30. 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
  31. iseeall
    Jul 29, 2013
    5
    My story with this game was probably typical. I gave into the marketing hype and bought it as soon as the Mac version came out. Then 2 weeks of fun. I loved this game. It was just better than WoW in many respects. So many nice features which fixed mistakes in WoW. This "constant end-game" mode is great. And you don't have to run to the auction house. And the interesting weapons-dependingMy story with this game was probably typical. I gave into the marketing hype and bought it as soon as the Mac version came out. Then 2 weeks of fun. I loved this game. It was just better than WoW in many respects. So many nice features which fixed mistakes in WoW. This "constant end-game" mode is great. And you don't have to run to the auction house. And the interesting weapons-depending abilities system. Etc etc. Until I went into the first instance. It was like a bad Dead Mines run in WoW (i mean, during the vanilla WoW). The boss kept running at me (I was the mage and surely specced as a glass cannon, WoW-style). Everyone was dying. The tank couldn't keep the aggro. Some guys were telling me there is no aggro. I have to kite the boss. Ok, I went to the forums and found out, that the PvE is different here. Namely, it's like a bad noobish run in WoW. I was so frustrated I quit that very day. 4 months later I came back for 2 days to give this game another chance (since I paid for the CD anyway and there is no subscribtion) but alas, the fun was gone. I just didn't remember the spells anymore and didn't care about the zone progression etc. So, I still have it on my laptop, installed, with a shortcut on the desktop, but i never play it. I suppose, just like everybody else.
    A few other things I didn't like from the start were: the Asura characters (which I naturally took as a mage) are so ugly that I forced myself into playing them, yet there was emotional detachment compared to what I had to the gnome mage in WoW. Artists, you did really a bad job there! Whoever drew those Asura models deserves to be fired. Also, the storyline of the game was not fun. Was your goal to annoy all the mage players? What's the point of introducing an ugly class (but not a funny ugly, like undead in WoW)? In WoW, I had this immersion, the attachment to the world. Even though I didn't read every quest, it still was a very personal world to me. In GW 2 the world is very mechanical. I only read the quests in the first 1-2 zones, but after that it was just grinding.
    Since I don't play this game, I regret buying it. Also, a good lesson to NEVER buy a game without trying a demo (but those guys didn't offer a demo, how clever of them). They give a refund now, but just too much time has passed and I don't qualify.
    All in all, I feel like I was cheated by their marketing campaign. 2 weeks of playing are not worth 60 dollars. And surely I won't every buy anything from this developer.    … Expand
  32. 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.
  33. 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
  34. 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
  35. 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
  36. Pohch
    Feb 21, 2022
    5
    Игра из детства, помню как играли в локальном мультиплеере с братом. По части геймплея - в одночасье игра становится обычной фармилкой денег.
  37. 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
  38. 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
  39. 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
  40. 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
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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.
    Read full review
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