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
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. 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
  2. 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
  3. petunius
    Sep 1, 2014
    8
    this is the best mmorpg game i have ever played and it does not make it worse that you just have to pay for it once and never again. if you like mmorpg games you will probably like this one! it's by no means perfect but way better than anything else!
  4. funchrist
    Apr 22, 2015
    10
    Amazing game! very smooth detailed graphics. plenty of thngs to do for thext 2 years. no fees. 1 price and you are ready to go. incredible vast maps. always something to do.

    cons: it might take a while to get used to. some things are a bit complex. crafting, teams lays. some interface should be simpler.
    i recommend 100% if you are a fan of Dungon Siege (x100 better)
  5. CalScott
    Nov 6, 2014
    4
    Amazing game. Outstanding game. Just a shame that PvP is trash and WvW gets boring after about a month. Dungeons are no challenge and too easy to farm. Gear is way too easy to obtain (yes including legendary). After level 80 the game slows down and creating another character is the most boring thing on the face of the earth. Not to mention the story is a big big let down towards the endAmazing game. Outstanding game. Just a shame that PvP is trash and WvW gets boring after about a month. Dungeons are no challenge and too easy to farm. Gear is way too easy to obtain (yes including legendary). After level 80 the game slows down and creating another character is the most boring thing on the face of the earth. Not to mention the story is a big big let down towards the end with small rewards and underwhelming plot. The living story was supposed to bring it back to life but that failed too and just felt like an extremely dragging way to coax players back which didn't work as I know my old guild has gone from 300 members to around 190 mid living story and gone to Archeage or a different MMO. It really is a let down and I expected to play it for more than I did.800-900 hours so not just a newbie with no experience. In comparison I have played Archeage for 375 hours since head start, so that is nearly half the game play in a quarter of the time and I haven't even started to craft, farm or gear up correctly. 110% a good game for the first character and first 500-600 hours but after that you're best of setting it down in a corner to let it gather dust.

    P.s. The boss fights are **** terrible and the only good part about this game that I couldn't fault it the art style and the fact that it isn't pay to play.    … Expand
  6. meatwagon
    Sep 27, 2012
    3
    While the world is pretty and full of detail, unfortunately the beauty was only skin deep, for me. The game is severely repetitive, kill centaurs, water flowers, feed chicken, collect tree branches... over and over and over and over. The WvW pvp was just a zergfest, you either roll or you're getting rolled.Dynamic events, which are supposed to change the world around you as you participateWhile the world is pretty and full of detail, unfortunately the beauty was only skin deep, for me. The game is severely repetitive, kill centaurs, water flowers, feed chicken, collect tree branches... over and over and over and over. The WvW pvp was just a zergfest, you either roll or you're getting rolled.Dynamic events, which are supposed to change the world around you as you participate and finish is no different than finishing an event in WOW. You succeed until the event you just finished re spawns... and it starts all over again.… Expand
  7. ItaJohnson
    Sep 27, 2012
    0
    Ok, time to finally let this drop. i tried to give them time and it was (fortunately for them) a busy month, but it wasnt enough.

    Guild Wars 2 is the latest in a growing line of mmorpgs (IT IS NOT AN ACTION GAME!) that are severely over hyped and under developed. Despite all their nonsense about not releasing it "until its done" what we have is bugs across every possible system in the    Ok, time to finally let this drop. i tried to give them time and it was (fortunately for them) a busy month, but it wasnt enough.

    Guild Wars 2 is the latest in a growing line of mmorpgs (IT IS NOT AN ACTION GAME!) that are severely over hyped and under developed. Despite all their nonsense about not releasing it "until its done" what we have is bugs across every possible system in the game. Almost asif NC Soft said "finish it up or we are not paying you" and they did. From account security (always fun having 200+ emails fill your inbox to tell you that ip addys from china are attempting to log into your account) to quests in general (there is nothing "dynamic" about scripted events sorry kids) bugs bugs bugs. Perhaps if they had done a proper beta test instead of a bunch of B/S hype generating weekends they could have fixed them before launch... but no, the AH still goes down daily, the guilds bug daily... there is nothing that isnt broken on this game!

    Visually it falls short of the mark too, while they assured us it would "support dx10" LIES! the closest thing to this game is honestly AOC, both in the amount of hype concerning it, and the dismal product that got released.

    Gameplay... [tab]1-2-3-4 ever heard that one? well thats all you are getting here too.

    Sound- the sound is really good actually, too bad it is the LEAST important thing about a game! But hey, they atleast got something right... although its kind of stupid to be told you have been poisoned 3 min after it wears off... but again BUGS!

    Over all i would give it a solid 5, meaning that this game is average in EVERY POSSIBLE WAY. It is not above average on ANY level! But seeing all the BULLS HIT 10's i am going to do the right thing and drop it. if anyone actually reads this theyll know the truth, otherwise metacritic is kind of a crap metric since it LETS B/S scores through.. even on such a MASSIVE turd such as guild wars 2.

    i cant express enough what a totally disappointing turd this game is.    … Expand
  8. 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
  9. 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
  10. iiro
    Sep 12, 2012
    5
    My character r was engineer, and it was ridiciusly underpowered!
    I leveled till 35 and entered first dungeon, and my skills SUCKED in there.
    All i could do is practically auto attack from further away on bosses, becouse i dont have any other ranged skill, Seriosly? Im **** engineer, i got a rifle and bullets, Why does it sucks and doesnt have any skills? Was disappointed in that.    My character r was engineer, and it was ridiciusly underpowered!
    I leveled till 35 and entered first dungeon, and my skills SUCKED in there.
    All i could do is practically auto attack from further away on bosses, becouse i dont have any other ranged skill, Seriosly? Im **** engineer, i got a rifle and bullets, Why does it sucks and doesnt have any skills?

    Was disappointed in that. Otherwise its good solid game, Just skills on engineer sucks, thats why im not playing it.    … Expand
  11. JaxsonP
    Jan 2, 2013
    0
    From a PvP perspective this game is 100% fail. No comment on PvE as it's limited (no raiding) and dungeons are bugged and extremely limited w/out holy trinity. GW1 was an amazing game and we all had high hopes for the PvP in the sequel. There are only a few PvP maps and they are all capture the point. Balancing is unbelievably bad and the developers make idiotic, boneheaded classFrom a PvP perspective this game is 100% fail. No comment on PvE as it's limited (no raiding) and dungeons are bugged and extremely limited w/out holy trinity. GW1 was an amazing game and we all had high hopes for the PvP in the sequel. There are only a few PvP maps and they are all capture the point. Balancing is unbelievably bad and the developers make idiotic, boneheaded class balance tweaks every month or so that satisfy nobody. No public test servers! Only TWO (yes two) developers working on class balance for the entire game, and they seem to be completely clueless about the game. This game may be more suited for casual players, but for people serious about PvP, it is a major, massive step back from GW1 and a very big disappointment.… Expand
  12. sa0ldax
    Sep 26, 2012
    1
    GW2 is loose MMO RPG and it is likely that you will get tired of it at some point.

    GW2 fails to deliver a good story - in both content and form

    No flight paths. Just teleporting.what a disappointment.
  13. wordy_actions
    Dec 5, 2012
    8
    A fantastic and fresh take on MMO's, most notably due to the unique combat system and PVP activities. The game, however, lacks engaging end-game content. Musically and graphically the game is fantastic. The story is generic though, and not very memorable. I had a blast playing this game for about a month, well worth the price, and hey, ITS FREE TO PLAY!
  14. Reaper70
    Oct 5, 2012
    9
    Like many of you I have been disappointed by so many games over the years but I decided to get Guildwars 2 yesterday and it is awesome!
    I am a MMO fan and have enjoyed playing such games as WOW, SW:TOR, Everquest 2, Rift and Tera but I have to say Guildwars 2 blows them away. There is so much to do and see. Believe the hype!
  15. yesterdayatnoon
    Oct 6, 2012
    9
    It's pretty exciting to have an MMORPG that doesn't kick you out of immersion in the fantasy on a regular basis. The story is nice, it isn't over the top epic quite yet, and while your personal stake in the story takes place in instanced zone, it still happens in the game world not some other place. A large portion of the story occurs in the open world as well, allowing for freeIt's pretty exciting to have an MMORPG that doesn't kick you out of immersion in the fantasy on a regular basis. The story is nice, it isn't over the top epic quite yet, and while your personal stake in the story takes place in instanced zone, it still happens in the game world not some other place. A large portion of the story occurs in the open world as well, allowing for free participation and rewarding all who do participate.

    When you find a new area, rather than looking for a quest hub, you just explore and things will pop up on the side of the screen letting you know what's happening and how you can help. There are still quests out there that aren't like this, but for the most part you are adventuring to adventure.

    Loot is useful in some way, either by salvaging or actually using for long spreads of game play making any reward at least partially valuable.

    Even if you don't like the game play, or if you are a dedicated adherent to some other MMO, I recommend looking at GW2 and checking out the various tools for making playing with alts and crafting much less cumbersome. Crafting materials all go in to a shared character inventory with a limit I have yet to reach on how many of what can be stored. Banking is also shared. This allows a player to back up their main with crafting alts, allowing them to never leave the field, putting materials into their crafting inventory and then accessing their crafted goods from the bank later. This also gives your alts a way to levelup from crafting xp to help them along their way.

    Equipment looks amazing also. While some items do suffer from the floating pauldrons effect seen in other titles, you can turn these items off visually. The armor slots are also far more interesting than the skin tight armor textured pajamas from DDO, WoW and others. A coat looks like a coat, skirts can go anywhere from just covering your bum to knee length or the floor. Using the whole body to add multiple shapes makes the world look a lot more reasonable than most other item designs we see in MMOs.
    Without getting to endgame, I'm already very satisfied with this purchase. The only major short comings are the pay walls around keys to randomly dropped chests, you get way more chests than keys. and the pay wall around the amount of alts you can have (5 for free) and inventory space.    … Expand
  16. drobik
    Oct 5, 2012
    10
    In my life i've played a lot og MMO's, and i thought than Guild Wars 2 would be an average MMO. But when I saw some trailers and read a bit more about this game, i found it very interesting and i was right. After playing on the closed beta test i understood that it was the most amazing game I've ever played. There is a lot of features and describing all of them can take a lot of time.In my life i've played a lot og MMO's, and i thought than Guild Wars 2 would be an average MMO. But when I saw some trailers and read a bit more about this game, i found it very interesting and i was right. After playing on the closed beta test i understood that it was the most amazing game I've ever played. There is a lot of features and describing all of them can take a lot of time. Usually, as it often happens with games which are having too many "cool things", these games looks like cut piece of cake and when you begin playing for the first time you will say:"Yes, it's amazing, but after some hours you will understand that this game can't provide you everything it was told about in the beginning. But not in Guild Wars 2, each elements of the game looks like the hole piece of one cake.
    In my opinion it is the best MMO game of last five years    … Expand
  17. Ectogamut
    Sep 11, 2012
    2
    Unfortunately, I fell for the overwhelming amount of great reviews for this game. After seeing that the game had "sold out" of digital download copies, I thought, "maybe this is the mmo to end all mmos." So I rush down to a brick and mortar store to pick up a hard copy, install, create an account. Within 8 hours I get an email telling me that some clown in China is trying to access myUnfortunately, I fell for the overwhelming amount of great reviews for this game. After seeing that the game had "sold out" of digital download copies, I thought, "maybe this is the mmo to end all mmos." So I rush down to a brick and mortar store to pick up a hard copy, install, create an account. Within 8 hours I get an email telling me that some clown in China is trying to access my account....great! Anyhow, I launch the game expecting pure awesomeness. What I see is a graphical amalgamation of Wow and Aion, which works out pretty well, because if you average out the years in which those engines were put into play, then you come up with graphics circa 2007...that's generous. Everything else is completely predictable - kill this, collect that, don't worry about the story. This is what killed SWTOR in my opinion; you can't try to polish up the things you like about various MMOs, slap them together and expect a miracle. And that's what you see here - a little bit of WoW, Aion, Rift, SWTOR, and a few of the legacy items that made the first GW successful, but ultimately the game is devoid of any revolutionary mechanics. On the other hand, I've been playing The Secret World for a little over 2 months now, and besides the very few bugs remaining, it has captivated me from day one! Fantastic gfx, engrossing storyline, challenging skill system, the ability to be absolutely anything with the mere swapping of skills that are available to everyone. While it may not be for everyone, at least it advanced the genre so that people can see where we could and should be with these games. How fans tolerate the same mediocre fodder is beyond me.… Expand
  18. alecient
    Sep 3, 2012
    0
    For me this game looks quite unattractive because of high fantasy setting that is so popular in MMO genre in our days. Visuals are also not so great, world design is quite childish and of course tons of too colorful SFX in more or less large combat. CPvP is the only thing that can save this MMO since there is no other end-game content because mass PvP seems to be random zerg based byFor me this game looks quite unattractive because of high fantasy setting that is so popular in MMO genre in our days. Visuals are also not so great, world design is quite childish and of course tons of too colorful SFX in more or less large combat. CPvP is the only thing that can save this MMO since there is no other end-game content because mass PvP seems to be random zerg based by design (due to long queries all serious guild coordinated action is usually impossible).… Expand
  19. Dretch
    Sep 4, 2012
    5
    The low level zones are polished the higher level zones are buggy at best. Some of the dynamic events don't work at all. The Dungeons on story mode Leave a lot to be desired unless you like to corpse-run your dungeons. AC is ludicrous. Our guild ran CM on explorable last night way over leveled and side-kicked to level, and we only managed to get 2 bosses downed. At the staggering cost ofThe low level zones are polished the higher level zones are buggy at best. Some of the dynamic events don't work at all. The Dungeons on story mode Leave a lot to be desired unless you like to corpse-run your dungeons. AC is ludicrous. Our guild ran CM on explorable last night way over leveled and side-kicked to level, and we only managed to get 2 bosses downed. At the staggering cost of about 30-50 silver makes them not worth your time at the moment. And not fun at all! For 5 tokens a boss towards gear that is under level. Arenanet what are you thinking here? I realize there are pressing issues Ie. trading post and hacking. You better rethink balance in this game fairly soon. Especially for those of us that want to pve as well as wvw. Overall the potential for a fantastic game remains high. I am skeptical that it will be addressed in a timely manner though. Apparently Arenanet does not want much feedback either. No forums. Posting daily updates to the wiki.? No in game option for feedback.
    Now crafting: What a joke! (not a funny joke) This is one of the worst crafting systems I have seen in an mmo. It's so convoluted. I typically enjoy crafting too. So between the lack of balance for pve a poor crafting system and Arenanets total lack of Input/feedback the best I can do is a 5, and I think thats optimistic at the moment. I'm also tired of seeing you fanboys fawning over clearly broken un-balanced systems. Have you kids made it out of the starter zones yet?    … Expand
  20. 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
  21. 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
  22. noisnam
    Aug 28, 2012
    5
    Fisrt, i am no fanboy and no hater, i am here to give my honest opinion, hope to help you design if this is your game or not.

    gameplay~ i was told by a friend this is an action based mmo, but it is not. it is another wow kind of point and clikcer. you hold your left mouse button to perform autoattack. the action feels very limited when i am spoiled by true action mmo like DCUO and Tera,    Fisrt, i am no fanboy and no hater, i am here to give my honest opinion, hope to help you design if this is your game or not.

    gameplay~ i was told by a friend this is an action based mmo, but it is not. it is another wow kind of point and clikcer. you hold your left mouse button to perform autoattack. the action feels very limited when i am spoiled by true action mmo like DCUO and Tera, it makes me feel going back in time, playing wow holding my right mouse button to get a better angle,so i can stand there and hold tight to my left mouse button. plus, i cant even lock my camera to make the game feels better.
    QUESTING~ questing is a big plus for me, it is not like other mmo that u pick up a quest from npc then returning. they have pop up live event, so suddenly everyone on the map goes to the area and do quest togethor, which is interesting as i remember when i was playing other mmo i always feel like a lone wolf when my friend is not online questing by myself.
    pvp~ still didnt get to that part but i seriously doubt it when i dont like the combat system at all.
    graphic ~ not the best but surely live upto todays standard. and detail of the world is very rich, which creates an enjoyable enviorment. sound ~ wonderful
    charactor customization~ very very limited for mmo released in 2012
    other thoughts, this game is hyped up too much and i just make another other mistake buying a game before doing enough research. and my friend has never played either dcuo or tera so he doesnt know what action mmo means. i wont play alot of it until they improve the gameply. one more thing, this game has the worst community i have ever seen. i was just asking in the map chat that if there is a way i can lock my camera. response are " omg another console gamer" " go back to your xbox" "the camera is design for having better position yourselve, u should play that way...... i am like wtf...... i was expect answer like "yes you can, go to...... or "no you can not" , but hue hue .. guess too many fanboy in game u shouldnt even ask question    … Expand
  23. Ixnatifual
    Apr 13, 2015
    5
    Yet another overhyped MMO that turned out mediocre. Basic gameplay feels really clunky here, perhaps even worse than Warhammer Online. It's missing that MMO feel of games like World of WarCraft and EvE and feels more like a kindergarden. Somewhere in the construction of this game ArenaNet missed many of the important things of the genre. Building your character, the feel of being in aYet another overhyped MMO that turned out mediocre. Basic gameplay feels really clunky here, perhaps even worse than Warhammer Online. It's missing that MMO feel of games like World of WarCraft and EvE and feels more like a kindergarden. Somewhere in the construction of this game ArenaNet missed many of the important things of the genre. Building your character, the feel of being in a world, and perhaps most importantly, HAVING FUN.… Expand
  24. 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
  25. Surrealis
    Sep 2, 2012
    2
    I rather dislike a lot in this game. For all the hype, I expected a lot. However, the graphics are nothing to write home about, the story is not that enjoyable, and the combat system simply isn't engaging. I cannot recommend it enough that you try this game for 6-8 hours before buying it. Be sure to play it for a while, you'll notice many people are adjusting their reviews as time goes on.
  26. 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
  27. natix
    Aug 16, 2015
    0
    it was a waist if my money every time i go to log in it thinks i'm trying to hack my own account even tho i know my username and password then to make it worse their tech support is of no help at all they just ask for the same info over and over again
  28. Thunderballs
    Oct 26, 2013
    4
    Guild Wars 2 is a bad game Let me spell it out for you.

    The whole game can be defined by one coin phrase that is used over and over by the GW2 community. The phrase I am reffering to is, "ZERG!" Yeah, you know The Zerg... zombi-esque space aliens that infest victims they overrun with their sheer numerical advantage. The ironic part of this is that the origin of the zerg comes from a    Guild Wars 2 is a bad game Let me spell it out for you.

    The whole game can be defined by one coin phrase that is used over and over by the GW2 community. The phrase I am reffering to is, "ZERG!" Yeah, you know The Zerg... zombi-esque space aliens that infest victims they overrun with their sheer numerical advantage. The ironic part of this is that the origin of the zerg comes from a game that's not a total steaming pile of dog crap. This must be why people can relate to the zerg so well, because most people know what game they are from. Even more ironically, the same people that developed the zerg... also developed another little fantastic game that goes by the name of World of Warcraft The single biggest and ruthless MMORPG out there that caters to PvE and PvP players alike.

    This one single term (ZEEEEEEEEEEEERG) pretty much sums up the entirety of PvP and PvE in GW2.

    For instance early level gameplay revolves around farming... Now if that doesn't sound boring already let me extrapolate on that even more. In the low level zones, people form a "zerg" (a large group of people who skip around the map without a care for zone content). The sole purpose of the group is to farm a few specific bosses on a spawn rotation over and over until they either get bored, give up, get trolled by other people farming the same bosses, or are satisfied to move on to other content.

    Further continuing on the explanation of PvE, are instances (dungeons). These group based zones consist of simply overwhelming enemies, running through them, or beating them by exploiting clearly broken mechanics that have not been fixed by ArenaNet since the games launch. Example being something along the lines of killing a group of enemies through a wall, while they cannot fight back and would normally be a challenge if the exploit did not exist.

    Now the game rewards high level players for playing low level content. I like this because it encourages group play, but when this aspect of the game BECOMES the endgame, it gets pretty boring pretty fast.

    So, what about PvP? The original Guild Wars had a fantastic PvP setup, so surely GW2 would expand upon that system right? No... Not at all. The game adopts an identical model to World of Warcraft.
    There are 2 different types of PvP.
    There are small arenas consisting of around 5 players. These PvP instances require you to obtain PvP specific gear. Before joining one of these instances you enter a lobby where you have access to vendors, all skills you would have at level 80, and all usable item types. Just another grind earn currency and spend it on PvP gear, which is only usable in the instanced pvp arenas.

    World vs World is pretty much the most disappointing thing I have seen in the game. This “crowning” development of PvP has been prasied by GW2 fans since pre-release. The sad fact is that it isn't anything we haven't already seen in World of Warcraft. Several realms (servers) compete over control of instanced zones for +benifits to things like crafting and experience gains. The zones have large keeps and trade routes making it seem very expansive. However, in order to get to these zones you have to queue for them through the interface. Yes they are instanced and yes their is a limit as to how many people can be in them. The only difference from WoW is that these zones are an ongoing conflict. In WoW a battleground lasts 30 minutes. In GW2 these WvW zones are essentially perpetual, resetting weekly to match the highest rated realms against one another. In WoW you can expect to wait about 30-40 seconds before your PvP queue pops and you can queue for ALL battlegrounds available to you. In GW2 you are limited to queuing for one WvW zone at a time and expect to wait anywhere from 30min to 4hours in queue. Once inside WvW we move back to that word again... A commander plays follow the leader by creating a zerg. People follow the commander and attempt to take out objectives along the way.

    However, TRUE WORLD PVP does exist in WoW, where it does not exist in GW2. In WoW a player can go to any zone (aside from the newbie zones) and slaughter people mercilessly. There are also world PvP objectives (that start around level 50) that players must take to secure PvE benefits for their faction.

    I am honestly surprised that no system like this was implemented into GW2. Why is that? Well the answer comes to us in the solo quest storyline. (I am level 68/80 and it’s fair to say that I gave an honest effort at attempting to enjoy this game.) The storyline pointed out that the races of Tyria (GW2) are banding together and setting aside their differences to play nicely together and live in harmony after they defeat the evil dragons. So, it's possible ArenaNet didn't want to make this type of hostile PvP enviorment simply due to the nature of the story.    … Expand
  29. Pecheckler
    Oct 7, 2012
    10
    I followed Guild Wars 2 religiously for years. I played every single available minute during the beta tests and stress tests. The PvE is better than any MMORPG overall, especially because it is fun, never frustrating or tedious. Exploration is especially enjoyable. My only dislikes are the lack of public group options, and World versus World PvP. WvW PvP is an unbalanced frustratingI followed Guild Wars 2 religiously for years. I played every single available minute during the beta tests and stress tests. The PvE is better than any MMORPG overall, especially because it is fun, never frustrating or tedious. Exploration is especially enjoyable. My only dislikes are the lack of public group options, and World versus World PvP. WvW PvP is an unbalanced frustrating mess. I spent over 100 hours over few weeks in WvW, and have since written it off. I have no plans of touching it until it is severely overhauled. However sPvP and PvE is very fun still. There is also a serious problem with hackers... something I've not seen hurt an MMO in nearly 8 years.… Expand
  30. 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
  31. 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.
  32. 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
  33. 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
  34. 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
  35. 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.
  36. Mistforged
    Apr 8, 2016
    3
    Had this game since release, never been a big fan of pve yet this game offered a good mode in which open world pvp was possible accross 2 main maps, with the new expansion the better map was replaced by an unplayable one in the new expansion serverely limiting the fun i had with the game.
    Bad customer service (in my experiences)
    Also with their new expansion they promised a multitude of    Had this game since release, never been a big fan of pve yet this game offered a good mode in which open world pvp was possible accross 2 main maps, with the new expansion the better map was replaced by an unplayable one in the new expansion serverely limiting the fun i had with the game.
    Bad customer service (in my experiences)
    Also with their new expansion they promised a multitude of new features which were never implemented and subsequently cancelled, so for their lies and false advertsing i am giving this game a 1.
    However you can play for free! which i do reccomend, for the base game and experience pre-expansion i'd have given it a 7.
    do not waste your money on the expansion however!!!!!!    … Expand
  37. webtiger
    Mar 10, 2013
    0
    after months the game still has some of the initial bugs and the improvements made to the game are not really improvements but stepback´s so anet has to do better if they want to sell games because the game has stagnated and is slowly dying. and check once and for all the lag problems that are the worst of the game.
  38. 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
  39. gameplayer
    Sep 17, 2012
    4
    buy if you like semi free to play pve and uncomplicated pvp with awkward, counter intuitive controls, avoid if you like games a little more challenging
  40. 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.
  41. MaidenEXP
    Nov 19, 2012
    9
    This game has EVERYTHING for be, in 1 year, in the MMORPG most played in the world. More played than World of Warcraft also. You only have to pay the two discs, and then you can forget the money and enjoy this huge world of Tyria. A world bigger than Azeroth, I think. So much hours of playing, but not as "drug" as is World of Warcraft I think. I don´t play this game a lot, because ofThis game has EVERYTHING for be, in 1 year, in the MMORPG most played in the world. More played than World of Warcraft also. You only have to pay the two discs, and then you can forget the money and enjoy this huge world of Tyria. A world bigger than Azeroth, I think. So much hours of playing, but not as "drug" as is World of Warcraft I think. I don´t play this game a lot, because of the class, because of the new PS3 games... But when I get bored, I know I have an amazing game in my computer which enjoys me for hours!
    The best in this game, in my opinion, are the graphics ( Best visual desings in the MMORPG history), an amazing Soundtrack, the huge PvP *World vs World, thousands of players against thousands of players), and the different localitations of Tyria, like beaches, forrests or freezing mountains.
    The worst for me is the small characters you can have, only 5. Sometimes, the dungeons gets too long and too difficult. The level decreasing in some areas is absurd.    … Expand
  42. UnclearImage
    Aug 31, 2012
    4
    I preordered the game, and although they did have some start up issues and a few very unfortunate people got hacked- it had a fairly good start. So I will stick to the game itself.

    The graphics are great, the chara customization is lacking- there's very little you can do to REALLY set yourself apart. The pre-sets range from good looking to not so good looking, and it seems you cannot    I preordered the game, and although they did have some start up issues and a few very unfortunate people got hacked- it had a fairly good start. So I will stick to the game itself.

    The graphics are great, the chara customization is lacking- there's very little you can do to REALLY set yourself apart. The pre-sets range from good looking to not so good looking, and it seems you cannot have a chara with red hair which is weird. Crafting -The crafting system is the real grind of this game, in order to craft you need to gather the mats from nodes AND npcs. In the form of farming mobs for a chance to drop a specific crafting component. You then craft the separate parts and combine with the npc dropped item to craft a weapon/piece of armor. Without those npc dropped 'tokens' or whatever they're called- you cannot craft. So you either farm, or buy that mat very disappointing when you're crafting and you hit a wall because you haven't been farming mobs lately.

    Leveling- Quests will only get you so far, i.e. a 1-15 area doing 100% completion according to the game, will leave you at level 12-13. The common solution from the player base is farm 'dynamic' events, pvp, craft, or do something else to level. If you just wanted to Quest, or Craft, PvP to level, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. It is possible to level doing 1 specific thing but it will require grinding, except questing since there are only so many quests available. Dynamic Events - Pre-scripted events that repeat on a random time scale, they attack you while you're crafting, and remove your waypoints so you can't warp. They never go off when you're around and need XP but seem to go off 2-3 at a time when you're busy. Mounts- They don't exist get used to running around taking 4-15 minutes of your life during WvW hoofing it.

    WvW - Great idea, good balance, great atmosphere, boring as heck to run around in, siege equipment seems to cost too much (at a low level) to make it worthwhile, would love to see more siege equipment.

    PvP - Fast paced chaos, I personally didn't like it. Everyone has a heal and when they're 'downed' they have a lot of stupid moves that delay the inevitable and WASTE your time. Irritating to have someone dead, surrounded by 4 of your teammates right about to be 'finished' magically teleport away, making us move to them, and restart the 3-4 second cast. Boring as crap, I joined PvP to PvP not play chase the guy that lost already.

    Weapons - If you roll a class, and get a weapon you get 5 skills- don't like em? Tough, that's what you get for the next couple of years you'll play GW2.

    Overall- Honestly I waited for GW2 to come out, it FINALLY get- I logged in, played for 3-4 days for a couple hours a day then logged off. I have no real desire to play it, even free. I have no enjoyment, farming for xp because the quests don't get me leveled, wandering into areas that are 3-4 levels above me and doubling back to find a event that's my level. Trying to craft but realizing I didn't farm mobs enough and having to go back and grind to get mats to craft to get gear so I can do more dps. It may appeal to some people, but right now- I'm writing this review instead of playing the game, because it seemed more enjoyable to me at the time.    … Expand
  43. 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
  44. 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
  45. 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.
  46. graphite
    Sep 3, 2012
    2
    This is one broken piece of software. So many events and dungeons are broken, preventing you from completing areas ... but you will throw away a couple of hours before you realies you have waisted your time. No AUCTION house, well there is one but it's broken too. SHUT forums wtf? Bots, hackers and the list goes on. Worst of all, it's the same wolf just in different clothing
  47. nsignific
    Sep 3, 2012
    0
    I hated it before I played it (wasn't pleased by vocal fans touting it's many "new" features, none of which were actually new). Having had a go at release, I liked it at first, felt better than most, graphics were OK but not great (really low poly counts), but with some impressive layouts (PVP) and some really dull ones (PVE).

    After a couple of hours playing I realized it's just ****    I hated it before I played it (wasn't pleased by vocal fans touting it's many "new" features, none of which were actually new). Having had a go at release, I liked it at first, felt better than most, graphics were OK but not great (really low poly counts), but with some impressive layouts (PVP) and some really dull ones (PVE).

    After a couple of hours playing I realized it's just **** The floaty animations, disconnected feel of the controls, boringly simplistic skills (mesmer may be an exception) and a pointless dodge function. I went from "hey this combat feels ok" to "i want my WoW back" in the time it takes to finish the battleground tutorial. Hated the questing system, auto-grouping is OK but it just makes everything so mindless and repetitive - which is what they hoped to avoid with dynamic events.

    Character progressions is nonexistant in the true MMO fashion - even as far as themeparks go. You activate skills by using the appropriate ones before hand - something which has no point other thant to keep your interest the first couple of levels (which is how long it takes to unlock them ALL). You're insta max level in BGs, which can be useful if you don't like to level (and therefore don't like MMOs), but I don't have to explain what an oxymoron that is, do I? They could've easily done tournament servers ala WoW, where you can create max level characters, if that's your game.

    tl;dr, don't belive the hype.    … Expand
  48. 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.
  49. Ezekeel
    Sep 24, 2012
    0
    I only bought this game for the PvP which was advertised as the most balanced without forcing classes into certain play styles. However as it turns out the balancing is actually worse than in any other MMO I played before. Also the PvP content with 2 decent, 1 meh and 1 terrible map which all are of the same 'conquer and hold points' type gets boring very fast. There is not even a functionI only bought this game for the PvP which was advertised as the most balanced without forcing classes into certain play styles. However as it turns out the balancing is actually worse than in any other MMO I played before. Also the PvP content with 2 decent, 1 meh and 1 terrible map which all are of the same 'conquer and hold points' type gets boring very fast. There is not even a function which allows player to duel.

    The game was released in a premature state and suggestions as well as critic are answered by the devs with silence mostly and if one of them actually decides to answer it is some snooty l2p comment.

    Most disappointing game of the year with false adverisement that border on customer fraud.    … Expand
  50. 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
  51. jmh05n
    Sep 27, 2012
    4
    Not a bad launch for an MMO but it had several issues like the trading post. They trying something innovative with classes being a jack of all trades. No specific tank, control, healer, dps classes. Each class is a little of each all rolled into one, its just they each do it a little different. This makes teamwork more difficult later on when people team up for dungeons causing severalNot a bad launch for an MMO but it had several issues like the trading post. They trying something innovative with classes being a jack of all trades. No specific tank, control, healer, dps classes. Each class is a little of each all rolled into one, its just they each do it a little different. This makes teamwork more difficult later on when people team up for dungeons causing several frustrating wipes. There are alot of pluses here but the class system is innovative but your either a like or hate it. I'm just too ingrained from other MMO's I have played like FF XI, DCUO, and SWTOR. If your willing to take a walk out of the MMO comfort zone, I suggest trying it. You may like it. I unfortunately did not.… Expand
  52. 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
  53. 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
  54. GamePlayTalk
    Nov 3, 2012
    8
    • There is a long standing a gap between the action present in modern RPGs and MMORPGs, Guild Wars 2 is the next step in bridging that gap.
    • The dodge mechanic present in the game helps to add to that "action" feel, requiring the player to keep moving while concentrating on their positioning in the combat at all times.
    • Though the combat system is a great improvement    • There is a long standing a gap between the action present in modern RPGs and MMORPGs, Guild Wars 2 is the next step in bridging that gap.
    • The dodge mechanic present in the game helps to add to that "action" feel, requiring the player to keep moving while concentrating on their positioning in the combat at all times.
    • Though the combat system is a great improvement over more traditional MMORPGs, the game still bears many of the trappings that are a given part of any MMORPG.
    • Containing both a traditional arena based PVP and more open area mass battle grounds offers a wide range of PVP options where though not always competing on equal grounds, even new players are given a chance by being boosted to max level.
    • Though grinding is not required, population levels in certain parts of the game may cause certain dynamic events to either not trigger or be impossible for an individual to complete thus throwing off the expected leveling path. Otherwise the quest system is great.    … Expand
  55. rawbamatic
    Apr 29, 2013
    9
    One of the most fun games I have ever played. I greatly disliked WoW and am very happy with how this game has turned out. The storyline is amazing and you definitely feel for the NPCs involved. The writing is fantastic and the replayability is great.
  56. KillaRiku
    Sep 10, 2013
    9
    I don't like MMORPG's. But I do like RPG's. And I see Guild Wars 2 more as a RPG than a MMORPG. The gameplay is perfect. No Quests that go like this: "Kill X and bring Y to Z". They all just Pop up and if you dont do them, some other guys do.
    The graphics are awesome, too. The music is made by Jeremy Soule, who also made the music for Skyrim. The sound-effects are really good, too!
    I    I don't like MMORPG's. But I do like RPG's. And I see Guild Wars 2 more as a RPG than a MMORPG. The gameplay is perfect. No Quests that go like this: "Kill X and bring Y to Z". They all just Pop up and if you dont do them, some other guys do.
    The graphics are awesome, too. The music is made by Jeremy Soule, who also made the music for Skyrim. The sound-effects are really good, too!
    I highly recommend this game! Buy it!    … Expand
  57. BobbyM747
    Sep 7, 2015
    4
    Was one of my favorite games, until it was updated a while ago, and it started going down hill. I got this game a few days after launch, I can easily tell you, many hours of gameplay. But the update that made me hate Guild Wars 2 and made me switch to World of Warcraft. There is no more freely doing your storyline quests. You have to do it EVERY TEN levels. Used to be every 2-5 levels.Was one of my favorite games, until it was updated a while ago, and it started going down hill. I got this game a few days after launch, I can easily tell you, many hours of gameplay. But the update that made me hate Guild Wars 2 and made me switch to World of Warcraft. There is no more freely doing your storyline quests. You have to do it EVERY TEN levels. Used to be every 2-5 levels. Now, this game is a grind/farm simulator. Now that you have to wait every ten levels to do a quest, better get busy farming XP from enemies for a few days. This game is also going F2P, which is actually good, because the game is going bad anyways. Can't really find any players, microtransaction for jewels. This was in the game after launch day as well, when I paid over $60 for it. Save your money, and do not buy the expansion, don't even buy the game, unless you have so much time on your hands, and you are into killing the same enemies for hours on end.… Expand
  58. Drensis
    Sep 6, 2012
    1
    This is a game for kids. Quests are so stupid, and your character seems like a body with a doolish head. No interaction needed with other players... everybody rush on "dynamics" events, you don't see anything and you do not need any skills to win the event... absolutly deplorable. World vs World is unplayable, and battlegrounds are boring. This is ver yfar from the revolution they annoncedThis is a game for kids. Quests are so stupid, and your character seems like a body with a doolish head. No interaction needed with other players... everybody rush on "dynamics" events, you don't see anything and you do not need any skills to win the event... absolutly deplorable. World vs World is unplayable, and battlegrounds are boring. This is ver yfar from the revolution they annonced ! Maybe F2P players like it.. I really don't understand this score...… Expand
  59. TheBrutal
    Sep 13, 2012
    2
    Game play is boring and feels very disconnected. When you die it sends you to the ground like your having a last stand which i found to be very frustrating and frankly just not needed. As for questing it was a bit different which was nice but if you wanted to play alone and quest you can just count that out because its based on there being many people there to help you. The games notGame play is boring and feels very disconnected. When you die it sends you to the ground like your having a last stand which i found to be very frustrating and frankly just not needed. As for questing it was a bit different which was nice but if you wanted to play alone and quest you can just count that out because its based on there being many people there to help you. The games not bad if you've never played an mmo before but if you are a veteran it going to be the same thing you've seen everywhere else. I give it a 2 because the graphics were good but it had nothing else going for it.… Expand
  60. Necromus
    Sep 6, 2012
    0
    I highly recommend that you try this game out on a friend's account or wait until there is a free trial available before you buy this game because it is very different than other MMOs and also very different than what all the hype says about it. Many of the ones who rated this game 10 seem to be "yes men" drinking the Guild Wars 2 "kool-aid" without critical thinking. I get the impressionI highly recommend that you try this game out on a friend's account or wait until there is a free trial available before you buy this game because it is very different than other MMOs and also very different than what all the hype says about it. Many of the ones who rated this game 10 seem to be "yes men" drinking the Guild Wars 2 "kool-aid" without critical thinking. I get the impression that many of them have played only the original Guild Wars but have never played another MMO, or have only played World of Warcraft around 2004-2005 before all the major improvements that improved WoW over the years such as phasing, etc. After reading an aritcle where ArenaNet Founder Mike O'Brien said "We were number two to World of Warcraft with Guild Wars, now we want to beat them" and over-hype such as how the Guild Wars 2 web site currently says "Join the MMO Revolution..." I got suckered into thinking this game was going to be something great and pre-purchased it. I soon learned after 60 minutes of gameplay that I had been duped. I kept playing it to see if it would grow on me, but after every two hours of trying to get myself to enjoy the game I just would have to log off out of sheer boredom. This is the first time I have bought a game and been so dissapointed that I regretted the purchase. The reasons I don't like the game are: 1) The combat system is horrible. When you press one of your action bar keys, it does not feel like your character is responding, It is hard to see what you are hitting with your abilitie what hitting you. The combat is very similar to WoW vehicle fights where you just spam buttons 1-5 on cooldown. Add running in a circle to dodge stuff and you've pretty much mastered the game.. Due to lack of mob tagging all of the dynamic events involving bosses or waves of NPC foes seem to be zergfests where a dozen or so players are attacking the same boss/foes and really you feel like your part is so minimal that you are insignificant. 2) Poor story telling: The personal story NPC cut-scenes where you see two badly voice-acted NPCs standing at the left and the right of the screen in front of a painted backdrop are lame.What was extremely annoying for me for the personal story was the way that every time you completed one or two simple steps in the personal story you would have to leave the personal story and go and grind your level up doing other things because your weren't high enough level for the next personal story step. They need to either make the personal story scale with your level or just get rid of the personal story all together imo, the personal story does not seem to be connected to the outside world anyway.3) World Questing: WoW-clone quests just without the middle-man: If you've played WoW or any WoW-clone you've done these types of quests before, fetch a number of these things, kill a number of these things, place a number of these things over there, etc. Guild Wars 2 presents them a little differently however. Instead of list of fetch 0/10 things, kill 0/10 things, put 0/10 things there, you get a bar that says something equivalent to "Help Bob by fetching things, killing things and putting things there" and you can do any or all of the things repeatedly until the bar fills up at which point you get mail from "Bob" saying something like "Thanks for the help! here's some coins and a piece of armor!", you don't even have to go to a mailbox. For me personally, it feels like I am just doing a bunch of random tasks. I prefer the old way where you talk to an NPC and listen to him speak and/or read his test giving you a back story to why you are doing what you are doing and return to him when you are done because it gives you a sense of purpose for doing stuff, without that it really just feels like just a grind, when according to the hype, Guild Wars 2 was supposed to be less grindy than other MMOs.I originally gave Guild Wars 2 a 3/10 I've lowered it to 0/10 for a few reasons. a) Someone seems to be gaming the metacritic system to remove negative reviews (including b) there are way to many guild wars fans just giving the game a 10/10 without any critical thinking c) a large number of accounts have been hacked, d) Guild Wars 2 policies to ban players for 72 hours for swearing when they have a profanity filter build into the game makes no sense, e) Banning players for 72 hours for minor naming offenses when it is a first offense is extreme. I think some cases such as names that contain swear words or making racist remarks are indeed worthy of a 72-hour ban, but being banned for 72 hours for naming yourself something "Adolf Critler" is a little excessive for a first offense, a forced name change and a warning would've sufficed. I'm also not clear if a parodied name like "Spruce Willis" for a Sylvari would get me a 72 hour ban or not. I also had a few nice things to say but had to remove them due to 5000 char limit, but they cannot make up for the bad things.… Expand
  61. Ocelot113
    Sep 5, 2012
    2
    This quote from the Manifesto video doomed this game IMO:

    "... in Guild Wars 2, it's your world. It's your story. You affect things around you in a very permanent way." "You are rescuing a village, that will stay rescued." I'll come right out and say it... Naaah. Not a chance, it's the same old, same old, never ending loop of quests. They have not come up with any solution for    This quote from the Manifesto video doomed this game IMO:

    "... in Guild Wars 2, it's your world. It's your story. You affect things around you in a very permanent way." "You are rescuing a village, that will stay rescued." I'll come right out and say it... Naaah. Not a chance, it's the same old, same old, never ending loop of quests. They have not come up with any solution for personalizing an entire MMO world to the player. Their main claim to revolutionary game design was a complete fabrication. That alone heavily drops the score for me. Secondly, the event system is very, very repetitive. Just as repetitive as any other MMO to date. They change who you are fighting, what you are fetching, what you are wiping off walls, and where you are, but you are still defending, fetching, and wiping just to move on and do it all over. Lastly, the personal story is level based so you must, MUST grind out on things that have no story, or a very weak on if any, in order to get to the meat of the story in the game. Bad design, personal story must level with the character so they can always progress. That right there made me stop playing because I was not going to WOW grind to get to play and enjoyable single player experience. Oh and don't try grouping with too many people because the overload servers can't keep parties on the same servers. Overall, Guild Wars 2 Is like a bargain bin CD of a bunch of niche MMO's. 50 classic games for $60, but really nothing in it to separate it from the competition and the lack of a goal makes it hard to press on.    … Expand
  62. 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
  63. visioak
    Sep 27, 2012
    3
    I had been waiting a longtime for GW 2, and I have been pleased with the game until this week when the developers introduced code limiting the amount of time you can spend farming for materials, loot - whatever. They claim this diminishing return code that they have injected into the game is to help stem off botters, however it negatively affects the regular player.

    On my server events    I had been waiting a longtime for GW 2, and I have been pleased with the game until this week when the developers introduced code limiting the amount of time you can spend farming for materials, loot - whatever. They claim this diminishing return code that they have injected into the game is to help stem off botters, however it negatively affects the regular player.

    On my server events are now dead, bots still run rampant and overall quality of the game has already degraded. The entire economy is an out of whack mess.

    Visually the game is beautiful, combat is okay and I do enjoy the puzzle aspects of the game...but those things alone are not enough to keep me interested.

    Anets communication is poor at best. Threads and topics on their official forums are moderated heavily to diminish the negativity that is floating around, or threads are disappearing alltogether without reason or explanation.    … Expand
  64. zfile
    Sep 1, 2012
    1
    Why are people so hyped for Guild Wars 2? This game is So medicore.Dated graphics & Repetitive and boring combat. also have Limited character developement and customization.Don't waste your time playing this game.
  65. Amadus
    Sep 1, 2012
    4
    I won't spoil anything here, but the game is no super marvel. This is just another cog in the great MMO wheel migration. Another game churned out, another spin taken by a huge nomad gaming community. The perk being that you only pay once is a huge draw, and yes you can assume I am a player who is hardly pleased by the MMO spectrum. To break it down, the controls are a 2.5 for me. TheI won't spoil anything here, but the game is no super marvel. This is just another cog in the great MMO wheel migration. Another game churned out, another spin taken by a huge nomad gaming community. The perk being that you only pay once is a huge draw, and yes you can assume I am a player who is hardly pleased by the MMO spectrum. To break it down, the controls are a 2.5 for me. The characters reactions to my inputs are a 2.5, this goes for movement animation gliding and the such. Yes, I am nit picky. (Not a latency issue unless it's server side, my ISP services are Broadband 250Mbps DL and 15 Mbps upload with no network interference.) The Graphics are amazing, absolutely and I won't touch that because lets face it, that's not what makes a game fun.

    The narrative and story is flat out suck, I won't bore you with this because I am comparing it to TOR and while that game is not the epitome of story, in the standards of MMO, it's the highest there is. The pvp system is interesting and plays similar to Warhammer online, albeit improved and it has it's own level of excitement. Combat mechanics are your standard fare but with some interesting twists on how things are utilized... Like the great sword for a certain stealthy caster class. It still comes down to being the exact same thing as any other game. Push this, cast that, move this way, avoid the fire, kite kite kite kite. Sadly, you can't escape this kind of mechanical build for the MMO genre, it's just what works best.

    Still, I feel this game will go the way of all current MMO types. The main base will work hard at it, play hard and at the 3 month mark, you will see the servers start to dwindle in population size. The 6 month mark we are going to see free server transfers and server merges. It will go the way of the Old Republic and settle into it's normal numbers and have a nice base of players. I will not likely be one of them but I will give the game 6 months of my time and post another review then. It's not awful, it's just another mmo that doesn't push or change anything in any extreme manner. Weapon swapping isn't new, it's just given a bit more range and utility other than stat dancing. The one thing I do like is how the Thief plays out and I will be looking to push this class as far as I can. In comparison to other MMO games of the current few years, TOR and GW2 are the only ones I will be bouncing between because the rest really can't touch either of them. TOR has a long ways to go and I hope GW2 is the motivation to make that game grow into a great f2p game to bounce to when I get sick of GW2 and vice-versa. My only other problem is that I feel coddled in this game. It does good for a large player base with a wide range of tastes but I feel there is nothing that will keep me tied to the game in the end of all my time spent. This is of course, my personal opinion and I don't expect to have anyone see it as I do.    … Expand
  66. ilpanda
    Sep 6, 2012
    1
    The so-called dynamic events just repeats over and over, with no real difference in winning or failing the event, usually you are surrounded by lot of other players so you can simply press auto-attack key and go afk. Perhaps the game is good in pvp, but for the pve part it's nothing a real pve fan will play.
  67. Sayanshaka
    Sep 6, 2012
    1
    And by the way, there is an end to the storyline in guild wars2, a mmorpg. It's like Arthas is the last boss in UBRS or something, thanks for playing now go pvp xD. seriously ?

    welcome to the MMOPG genre, role it out yourself kid.
  68. dotnka
    Aug 30, 2012
    1
    I would love to be able to review the game. However I find myself in impossible situation to do it although I pre-purchased it. I was able to play for two days during the Headstart during which I have encountered all possible errors and aberrant behavior. The client kept telling me it can't log-in in my account because of my firewall while my friend's account worked just fine on the sameI would love to be able to review the game. However I find myself in impossible situation to do it although I pre-purchased it. I was able to play for two days during the Headstart during which I have encountered all possible errors and aberrant behavior. The client kept telling me it can't log-in in my account because of my firewall while my friend's account worked just fine on the same machine. Nothing unexpected till third day when I am informed by the log-in error that my account has been banned. I did not receive any kind of notification from NCSoft/ArenaNet or any other kind of messages but welcoming emails. I filed a support ticket, I got an automated copy-paste of the Support FAQ. I wait three days without knowing what is going on. After that my temporary ban is turned into a permanent ban and it seems GW2 staff does this when it believes an account has been compromised. I update my support ticket, the only reaction is that the log-in screen is now telling me the account is permanently terminated for selling gold and in-game items for real-world money. Apparently I did all that during the ban.

    Even during the short game time I had, a poor experience doesn't even begin to cover it. The all so praised dynamic events are nothing more then scripted events that trigger themselves over and over again. You end up performing the same invasion 10 times in a row if you don't like wandering around. There is no world reacting to what you do, quests are as tedious and boring as in other MMOS, they just don't show you the numbers any more: you don't even know when you will be done with killing X number of critters. The combat system is nothing they advertised, it's a combat system very similar to all other MMOs where you need to select a target and perform an ability.
    The only good and innovative part, for which I give it a 1, is that groups are not needed to share the progress of a quest or the kill of a mob and all resources and loot is client-side so you don't need to fight with other players for a resource node.
    They've spent 5 years working on this game: It's design is 5 years old with a quick patch of recent ideas and the worst customer support and automated hacking detection system yet.    … Expand
  69. 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
  70. 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
  71. 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
  72. Kruos
    Sep 4, 2012
    0
    Do not buy this game if you are looking for a deep MMO to play long term, that certainly is not what this game is. This game is a decent game for about a month of PvE play. The dynamic events are not dynamic at all, there is absolutely no end game content at all. You can get all the best gear in about a day or two of level 80 play, and after that there is nothing more the strive for. ThereDo not buy this game if you are looking for a deep MMO to play long term, that certainly is not what this game is. This game is a decent game for about a month of PvE play. The dynamic events are not dynamic at all, there is absolutely no end game content at all. You can get all the best gear in about a day or two of level 80 play, and after that there is nothing more the strive for. There is no carrot and nothing to progress. The game play is shallow at best. In PvP all your abilities feel like they are lagged, however this is by design as Arenanet wants you to be able to Dodge roll away from attacks so they put a delay on nearly every ability, which ends up making the combat feel slow and laggy. If you are looking for a quality long term MMO, then definitely stick with World of Warcraft, your money is far better spent there.… Expand
  73. 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 ?
  74. Misjah
    Sep 2, 2012
    4
    Huge disappointment, completely over-hyped...
    World graphics are only slightly better then WoW and the quest system is a complete ripoff from Warhammer, just like Rift. WvW also reminds me much of warhammer open world PvP, the pvp could be great but has a big chance of ending up completely **** like warhammer did.
    The jumping puzzles were difficult and fun but nothing new having just    Huge disappointment, completely over-hyped...
    World graphics are only slightly better then WoW and the quest system is a complete ripoff from Warhammer, just like Rift. WvW also reminds me much of warhammer open world PvP, the pvp could be great but has a big chance of ending up completely **** like warhammer did.
    The jumping puzzles were difficult and fun but nothing new having just played SWToR.
    The engine was a HUGE disappointment, the game has a far view distance and lot's of character polys, NONE of which makes the game run very well, the input delays completely killed the experience for me, without without v-sync it was horrible!
    The most exciting part of GW2 was the weapon/ability system and i had completely discovered all my weapons and abilities by level 8, taking a quick glance of the unlockable abilities and traits did not boost my excitement one single bit!
    WoWHammer2 was just another theme park clone with slightly exciting pvp, the ONLY great thing about it is the little polished lore there was, a chance for some fun WvW PvP and the fact that's it's F2P.
    For that, I give it a 4/10.    … Expand
  75. 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
  76. 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
  77. 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
  78. kakada93
    Jun 18, 2014
    2
    The game is amazing, everything thats been said abot how it is different and fresh is true. There is but one major disadvantage. Two years after the release and there are still tons of bugs. And they keep piling up with every patch. The more I play it the more bugs I find and people seem to be used to them. Honestly the amound is kinda ridiculous. As for fixing them that just takes ages...
  79. lelpleblol
    May 20, 2016
    2
    dis gaem is nut gud.
    I enjoy pressing 1 and also 2 o9ver and over agin howeever, i dunt no wat the point is. I like da littel alien thi8ng it is cut but udder dan dat eets bad. 2/10 would unistall agin :(
  80. Chewacone
    Sep 23, 2012
    3
    Another overhyped MMORPG that doesn't have nothing especial. Not better than TOR, The Secret World, and TERA, all things considered. The same "kill X and Y" with another face. Lack of progression. No endgame.
  81. Arthack
    Sep 2, 2012
    0
    -Combat in general is slow and there's even input delay. This is a big issue when this is pretty much what you'd be doing most of the time.

    -Server load issues. Overflow is a big one when trying to party.

    -Bad voice overs and dialogue lines.

    -PvE questing areas, open quests, dungeons, finding vistas and whatnot are just in extreme boring.

    Not my game at least.
  82. Reaktorblue
    Aug 30, 2012
    3
    The game has been a complete disappointment. Graphically I'm not impressed. You would think in 2012 the graphics would be better. In addition I find the movement to feel very unnatural. While the game started fun, it quickly became a chore.

    Worse came when on the second day a plethora of accounts getting hacked. Just a complete disappointment altogether.
  83. 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
  84. 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...
  85. ElizLestrad
    Sep 11, 2012
    1
    As a Guild Wars fan, it truly breaks my heart to be forced to give such an amazing MMO's sequel such a poor overall score, but Guild Wars 2 might have well been made by a completely different developer as it totally missed the mark on what made its predecessor a great game.

    While Guild Wars 2 brags about its "player unique stories" (or however they phrased it), the plot totally misses    As a Guild Wars fan, it truly breaks my heart to be forced to give such an amazing MMO's sequel such a poor overall score, but Guild Wars 2 might have well been made by a completely different developer as it totally missed the mark on what made its predecessor a great game.

    While Guild Wars 2 brags about its "player unique stories" (or however they phrased it), the plot totally misses the mark cinematically and writing wise. In Guild Wars, the story was paced quite well with only one or two minor side quests that needed completing before you got to the next mission area. Missions also contained bonus side quests that if completed could bring in oodles of xp, which is always a good thing. Unfortunately, Guild Wars 2 breaks one of writings biggest no-nos in that it butchers the pacing of the story with so much filler (grinding) that by the time you level up the three or four required levels to do the next mission, the momentum of the story has already been lost. At the same time, the story fails to deliver a memorable villain in the likes of Shiro Tagachi or Varesh Ossa. With my character at level 30 and well into the "story", I have yet to come across a villain I either cared about or thought of as memorable. At the same time, the horrible cinematics pale in comparison to their Guild Wars predecessors, going from an actual cutscene to nothing but "talking heads".

    Then you have the lack of instancing and henchmen/heros. Two of the best things that ever happened to an MMO. Gone now are the days that you can enjoy the world and the story in solitude without having to worry about fifty other people doing the same quest. Henchmen/Heroes were also an awesome part of Guild Wars, albeit slightly flawed intellectually. As one who was looking forward to improved AI and a removal of gold/item stealing, I was greatly dismayed when they announced their horrific new "Dynamic Level Adjustment", one of the worst features of an MMO since pay to win stores and player driven economies (I'm looking at you Final Fantasy).

    Another huge caveat is the lack of questing. Sure this game has "events" and "group quests" that will appear at "random" around the different zones, but with so few per area, and with them and story missions offering little xp, not only will you find yourself stuck in the same area till you are ready to blow your brains out, but that you'll be grinding the same quests over and over and OVER before you can enjoy the actual point of Guild Wars, the story.

    Finally we get to the terrible skill system and lack of armor. If Guild Wars suffered from anything, it was a massive lack in armor variants. Guild Wars 2 compounds this by having even fewer armors. And while Guild Wars offered the great benefits of dual classing and more skills than one could possibly fathom, Guild Wars 2's system is like the difference between pre and post searing Ascalon. There's no comparison.

    In the end, Guild Wars 2's biggest flaw was to sell out on everything that made it great trying to cater to 'main stream MMOers' and in doing so, completely failed to hit the target in almost every way.

    End Score 1/10

    PROS:
    +1 Graphics

    CONS:
    -3 points for lack of instancing
    -2 points for removal of henchmen/heroes
    -2 points for dynamic level adjustment
    -2 point for lack of normal quests and poor story implementation
    -1 for story missions not being repeatable, lack of armor variants    … Expand
  86. orctown-troll
    Sep 30, 2013
    0
    There are big risks associated with buying this game in terms of account security. If you buy the game you may never be able to play it. if you play there are few guarantees your account won't be hacked or the game won't become unplayable if you had an old Guild Wars account and you forgot that password after a few years of doing other things. In short this fails the vital test of safetyThere are big risks associated with buying this game in terms of account security. If you buy the game you may never be able to play it. if you play there are few guarantees your account won't be hacked or the game won't become unplayable if you had an old Guild Wars account and you forgot that password after a few years of doing other things. In short this fails the vital test of safety and security in a modern internet environment. Buy at your own risk. You have been warned.

    Orctowngrot    … Expand
  87. 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
  88. Rockmen
    Sep 7, 2012
    0
    the game is decent but... their security and user support are HORRIBLE. my friend got hacked... they have a serious flawed system where a hacker could just simply go to your account and with your password just change the email where every notification arrives without you need to accept or confirm a notification to your email, then if u try to recovery your account u cant because everythingthe game is decent but... their security and user support are HORRIBLE. my friend got hacked... they have a serious flawed system where a hacker could just simply go to your account and with your password just change the email where every notification arrives without you need to accept or confirm a notification to your email, then if u try to recovery your account u cant because everything will go to the HACKERS EMAIL, how retarded they were to make that system, also the automatic recovery system is disabled so everyone including users who forgot their password have to summit tickets to account support... I'm really disapointed, they only hacked his GW2 account he has lots of games and other valuable accounts.… Expand
  89. Machineman87
    Sep 6, 2012
    1
    Security is absolutely the most glaring issue with the game.

    After years of learning security best practices from other game
  90. Darxide
    Sep 12, 2012
    1
    Boring enough to not care to write an entire review on.

    Do yourself a favor and pass it up for something more interesting and engaging like The Secret World.
  91. 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
  92. ShadowRavenAMP
    Jul 4, 2014
    0
    Good Game Unless you consider the Poor customer support you will receive if you quit playing for more than two months and forget things. I've just lost my account because customer support refused to help me even though i provided them with my receipt, my serial, and other useful information i could remember. Their response was: "After researching the provided information, we will not beGood Game Unless you consider the Poor customer support you will receive if you quit playing for more than two months and forget things. I've just lost my account because customer support refused to help me even though i provided them with my receipt, my serial, and other useful information i could remember. Their response was: "After researching the provided information, we will not be able to assist you with accessing this account." They even claimed the email I was using wasn't listed in the account when I had an old email as proof that it was They just auto replied that they won't help. Yep, Play at your own risk. You'll probably waste all your money. Don't expect their support to help you do anything when you have log in trouble.… Expand
  93. CutLunch
    Apr 25, 2014
    1
    I bought GW2 on a friend's recommendation. After playing for a few hours I got used to certain controls - mostly for skills 1 to 5 (pressing 1 to 5). So I log in again tonight and it has swapped around the order of my skills & it's impossible to customise (I've searched on the web). For no logical reason that I can think of. I now have to re-learn all of the controls for no reasonI bought GW2 on a friend's recommendation. After playing for a few hours I got used to certain controls - mostly for skills 1 to 5 (pressing 1 to 5). So I log in again tonight and it has swapped around the order of my skills & it's impossible to customise (I've searched on the web). For no logical reason that I can think of. I now have to re-learn all of the controls for no reason because it has swapped around the skill order randomly. Anyway - if you are new and considering giving this a go - avoid.… Expand
  94. Demonio
    Aug 30, 2012
    1
    It is a zerg fest, fun in the first hour of play but then really boring ... loading everywhere ... queue for open rvr LOL
    This game really suck a lot!!!
  95. Mcwalco
    Sep 5, 2012
    4
    Disney on steroids or PCP great graphics ,crafting looks well done but some what tedious.Characters are great stories weak least thief was .I found it little better than WOW or most the other fantasy MMOs out there. I have been playing MMos since before Ultima Online .Its good but not up to the hype .
  96. Picklepaws
    Sep 10, 2012
    2
    Why is this game getting such high reviews? It takes a few hours but under the shiney wrapper tha flaws come quick and they are huge.
    -Abilities are bland.
    -Character development is non-existent. -Combat invovles mashing same 4 to 5 buttons - you unlock a few more but I already mention the abilities are terrible - so you'll just mash 4 of the available 8. -Gear is bland and generic-    Why is this game getting such high reviews? It takes a few hours but under the shiney wrapper tha flaws come quick and they are huge.
    -Abilities are bland.
    -Character development is non-existent.
    -Combat invovles mashing same 4 to 5 buttons - you unlock a few more but I already mention the abilities are terrible - so you'll just mash 4 of the available 8.
    -Gear is bland and generic- little variety - if you see someone of the same class odds are pretty high he's rocking same stuff you have. Lots of dyes but the underlying gear all looks the same.
    -Crafting is pointless - you'll find the same gear - so nothing you craft is of any value on the auction.
    -Local events are pointless Zerg fests mashin gthose 4 butons and wondering what if anything you did.
    -NPC voices are poorly done and repetative.
    -About as much depth as an episode of iCarly.

    -SO I paid my $60 - leveled to 30 - uninstalled the game and took a long shower to wash off the dirty feeling from playing it. You have been warned.    … Expand
  97. alittlelost
    Sep 29, 2013
    0
    This is the first review i have ever written for a game having read many to help me decide upon whether a game is worth purchasing. GW2 offers fun game play has a great payment model and offers great value for money. However after not playing for several months I have returned to find that my account has been deleted due to accusations of altering game files. I have no way now ofThis is the first review i have ever written for a game having read many to help me decide upon whether a game is worth purchasing. GW2 offers fun game play has a great payment model and offers great value for money. However after not playing for several months I have returned to find that my account has been deleted due to accusations of altering game files. I have no way now of contacting support regarding this and find that I am unable to even find out when this apparently took place. I will not be purchasing any future games by Arena Net.

    Use caution when purchasing any of their products as they will not inform you of the ban or reasons for it.    … Expand
  98. mrw5555
    Sep 10, 2012
    3
    Someone please explain to me the purpose of this game. I have waited 4 years for this game to come out and it really might be the worst game I have ever played. I love MMOs but Guild Wars makes no sense, the combat is awful , the open world combat everyone talks about is just pure chaos, you just dont feel like yor actually doing anything, just one of the horde. I just run around andSomeone please explain to me the purpose of this game. I have waited 4 years for this game to come out and it really might be the worst game I have ever played. I love MMOs but Guild Wars makes no sense, the combat is awful , the open world combat everyone talks about is just pure chaos, you just dont feel like yor actually doing anything, just one of the horde. I just run around and really dont even want to kill any mobs as the xp is awful. I really wanted to like this game but really am so confused of how this is fun at all.… Expand
  99. controlpt
    Mar 28, 2019
    0
    More fame than actually talent in here. The world looks great, the combat system is nice, everything else is a grind wall and a cash grab. Developers constantly change direction, and the team doesnt seem fully focused, not enough to make consistent updates. Worst mmorpg I've spent money on, it's almost as immoral as Black Desert Online is.
  100. Bahska28
    Sep 7, 2012
    4
    PVP is the only part i care abut and it was ok but needs some work, specifically WvW play. Over half the time is spent running back to the fight that got boring fast. The other half was spent getting one shot by ranged and arrows from siege weapons.

    The game may be good in a few month to a year when they iron out some of its flaws but for now as a pvp it just didn't hold up to my expectations.
Page:

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.
    Read full review
  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
See all critic reviews »