Guild Wars 2 PC
  • Publisher: NCSOFT
  • Release Date: Aug 28, 2012
User Score
8.0 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 2138 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,683 out of 2138
  2. Mixed: 139 out of 2138
  3. Negative: 316 out of 2138

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  1. Fuz
    Nov 22, 2012
    0
    It was a good game, lot of potential. The premises (and prOmises) were amazing: No grinding, no gating...
    Sure, it would have needed some bit of changes and fixes here and there (the greatest being the lacking of a proper LFG tool), but it was overall pretty great for a new MMO.
    But with the Lost Shores patch they trashed it all. They broke ALL their promises, they went against their own     manifesto. They went for an HEAVY grind style, a terrible gear treadmill. On top of that, the economy is ruined and prices are a real problem, especially for new players. So, if you want to buy or craft something now you pretty much have to buy money from their shop, making this a Pay to Win game.
    Really disappointed, it had potential, but now it's just another WoW clone, and WoW still does those things better.    … Expand
  2. Coeco
    Dec 3, 2012
    4
    Ah, Guild Wars 2. How the Internet have been waiting for you so long. What are they greeted with? A polished wow-clone. Channeling spells, lag, outdated graphics for it's time and an insane amount of bribes going to the critiques to cough out "Unique combat system" quotes whenever possible. As much as I like one-time fees, like with single-player games, it will only do harm to MMORPG's because they will need a steady stream of income to offer a continuous service. Otherwise, bankruptcy or P2W is inevitable. This fate can already be hinted towards on how they locked out the ability to purchase the game, being too cheap to have an adequate amount of availability on the servers while banning more users than Origin, clever NCsoft. In It's core, the game isn't by any means bad but it's just very, very, very average.… Expand
  3. Folstar
    Feb 14, 2013
    1
    This is a tacky review, sorry.
    THE GOOD: The aesthetics of this game are amazing. If you like looking at pretty pictures and running around a finely crafted world listening to good voice acting telling a better than average story then you are in luck. THE BAD: GW2 plays like a bunch of people who really liked playing pvp as dps classes on WoW got together and made a game. The laundry list     of boons/conditions that all last half a milisecond quickly becomes meaningless spam that does not lend itself well to a game you play for hours on end (pve that is, it is great for pvp). Though overall most things about the gameplay are frantic and after a short time get filtered out. Along the same lines the constant battles when you travel anywhere get tiresome. Sorry, I liked being able to run freely through newb zones in other games without constant harassment. Hey devs, if you wanted people to play together why did you put in 80 levels? Because WoW has 80 levels? Exactly. The leveling down is a cool feature, but is forced on you like so much else in GW2. Speaking of which, not being able to assign your own weapon ability hotkeys! This throwback to when games sucked for technical limitations is inexcusable in 2012/3.
    THE UGLY: Abandoning the mmo trinity makes for a chaotic cluster#### in groups. Dungeons feel like 5 individuals who happen to be doing the same thing instead of a group working together. Along those same lines the zone/group chat on GW2 is the quietest and lamest of any mmo I have played, though maybe that was just my server. Lastly, butter. This vendor will sell me milk, cheese, sour cream, and BUTTERmilk, but if I want butter I have to go kill monsters? The asari can build portals all around the world but haven't figured out butter? Why is a cave dwelling monster man able to make butter (into perfect bars that they carry in cloth bags) but nobody at the huge crafts/artisan market in the sprawling city can? What crap.
    VERDICT: A very pretty package for a game that makes huge advances for MMOs while still managing to be a WoW clone that utterly fails at finding good solutions to MMO problems. Maybe worth a playthrough for the story in a purely solo run, but overall a bad online game.    … Expand
  4. Jack91
    Oct 1, 2012
    3
    Got the game even at it's high cost because of the hype. Installed it levelled to 22 and still didn't like it. Graphically good yes but when I fight things, the moves you get just are not satisfying. I'm not sure why so many say WoW is graphically terrible, when I turn everything on Ultra with 4x AA and SSAO it's wonderful so clearly you either need to change the options or get a better card or LCD screen. The game still isn't a patch on WoW, I can see quests from explanation marks and not silly love heart icons. Joining PvP in wow is fun and easy, dungeons, raids, all because of integrated functions using the finder tool. This just doesn't have the edge at all and sorry but if your praising it just because it's free you need to open your eyes.… Expand
  5. 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.
  6. vahn
    Feb 15, 2013
    0
    This is going to be my last attempt on trying to be serious on this game...since everytime I boot it up, it gets worse and worse everytime and I'm myself impressed by how bad this game gets the more I play. I have leveled over 50 and played a lot by exploring and doing all sort of quests, all sorts of actions, and again I tried the crafting after months of its release (since I bought it on launch). I initially said it was a great game due to the classes being well detailed, which ended up to be sort of a fake statement since all classes are basically "jack of all trades" class: you only get a different set of skills and while I appreciated the fact that they tried to remove the "holy trinity" (tank, dps, healer), this lack of feature makes every class basically a boredom due to the fact that you'll never feel unique: you're one of the crowd, and I don't see that point in a mmo where you'd wish to stand up among the crowd: it's that what makes an mmo worthwhile. I also mentioned how the game gives you different ways to quest. and events that are varied and different...but after a while you'll just discover that it's still the same quests just disguised as a "different" event, without mentioning that they can be boring too since you are, again, one of the crowd and I saw myself just spamming the same skills. About the skills, I initially mentioned that I liked it, but eventually I opened my eyes and I saw just how limited it was, since you'll just be spamming 5 skills in total, plus 5 more that can be set by yourself later on...but it is just not enough to keep the game fresh and I remember being bored just after few weeks of gameplay after release. Also the combat states that they hoped to be dynamic and always on the move, by giving you also the possibility to dodge and to fight while moving...and again you'll see just as a disguise for the same old routine; the dodge works sporadically and unless you're EXTREMELY precise, you can still be hit and make your dodge completely useless. Also, you have only 2 dodges, and once you're over you can easily stand still: even if you run their hit range is bigger than yours, and unfortunely this leads into some very overpowered enemies that can take basically 1/10 of your health in one hit (worst example: as a warrior, I received a critical hit of 990 from a NON-veteran/elite enemy...and I was level 11-12, and had only 890+ hp). It is engaging at times...and at first, but then you'll see the truth in a second: it's not fun and it is repetitive. I also mentioned how the shared resources is good...and is still good! But on the other hand the crafting system, while a little improved by lowering some items (I "think"...) it still remains hard to improve and I honestly never tried to improve it due to the fact that it requires so much material grinding that it would turn off any will of trying. And while some may say "get a guild" or "use a guide" to me, I say instead if I'm forced to ask for help, what's to enjoy about the professions?". The graphics are still great and I haven't got much to say: it still remains the best graphics I've seen so far. Although, the dubbing can be mediocre at times. The story, while I liked that you could create a story for your avatar, it's the same as the rest of the game: it's just a disguise that after some quests completely disappears and reveals nothing more than a simple questline with choices to make (which changes only few things by the way). While interesting, AGAIN, the freshness disappears rapidly and becomes a boring campaign that shows nothing more, and nothing less. I also mentioned that while there are 5 races, this is the game where I basically played one, since most of the races are...ugly. This is still personal and while I enjoy that they added more races than the first game, to me the human is still the only good race to play with (or the charr: they're awesome!). And for last, the community. I play in one of the most crowded server (Aurora Glade) and everytime I play...I hardly see anybody around! What happened? Even when I started a new character the places had barely few people around: I was playing alone all the time! Nobody even talked in the general chat (except cities) and while I'm not at cap level yet I've seen more players in the starting zones in many other MMORPGs, and this game supposed to encourage team work! That alone is why I quit, and why everyone should be aware of this game: I wouldn't bother if it wasn't of it's welcoming appearence but it soon shows how fake all the premise was and how basically it has nothing fresh into it. Not the worst MMORPG, but it's very close to it. You have been warned.… Expand
  7. 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 **** Th    e 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
  8. 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. 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
  9. 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 ha    ve 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
  10. Ixnatifual
    Sep 27, 2012
    0
    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 a world, and perhaps most importantly, HAVING FUN.… Expand
  11. CravenKnight
    Dec 22, 2012
    0
    Has potential, but one major let down. I bought this game planning to finish it over the course of a week at my grandmother's house, however it turns out that this is a multi-player only game. Whose stupid idea was it to not only make it a multi-player game, but to completely omit any single-player modes?
  12. 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 g    ame. 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
  13. Katabug
    Aug 29, 2012
    3
    Try this game before you buy it! Borrow a friends account or wait for a free trial or something, but don't spend money on it until you actually know what you're buying into. There's not much more I can say that the other negative reviewers haven't already covered. But this game is simply not worth $60 ($20 maybe). Don't fall for the hype!
  14. MikeJezZ
    Apr 18, 2013
    2
    This game is average at its best. But when you ding level 80, the game start to be boring real quick with lack of content. There's no progression or any reason to do PvE or PvP.

    I had so high hopes.
  15. tazzon22
    Jan 14, 2013
    3
    GW2...really? its not even close to gw1. The story is lame, the dungons are easy pvp is dying on the vine, wvw3 and des are a zerg fest , with the additional bonus of lagging out . The classes dont even feel diffrent from one another, and its entire no-trinity system hase made it a dps fest with no skill involved. Grats anet you took a great games title and @##$ all over it. Oh yea get ready to get dinged into the cash grab trading post, pfft ..and no farming, free to play is still to expensive, it feels like SWTOR all over again with all the problems they fail to adress.… Expand
  16. kcomeby
    Aug 29, 2012
    4
    New record, i got tired of a MMO in 2 hours.

    PVE is non-existence. PVP is no better than Tera. There are some useless things like dodge, environmental weapons as feature an they are not enough.

    If you have few friends who will join tournaments with you, maybe you can enjoy it.

    I can't understand people who gives this game a 10.
  17. Tinsoul
    Sep 28, 2012
    1
    I seriously don't know what people see in GW2 I must be missing something. It's an okay game, but nothing amazing. At best it's average. A very safe vanilla amusement park like game, take you from one attraction to the other. No matter how dull and pointless that attraction is. GW2 doesn't live up to the fun GW1 was, and within 30 minutes of playing GW2 I couldn't wait to log off simply out of bordom. Check the weather was more interesting. I've played 3 hours in total, and I had to force myself to play that much. There simply isn't anything new here, and oh soooooo boring.… Expand
  18. Whookares
    Nov 30, 2012
    1
    Played this game for a couple of months and found that its just too buggy. Many dungeons to not work and the new fractals dungeons crash constantly (usually toward the end). The game is full of cheaters and its just a very bad game would not recommend it to anyone. Give it a year or so for them to work out the bugs and stop the blatant cheating.
  19. 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
  20. rubin
    Dec 28, 2012
    3
    My, my, ArenaNet surely did it's homework in researching "things that every MMO fan seems to want". Beautiful graphics, excellent music, huge open world, no subscription fees - all of that you can find in Guild Wars 2. Too bad that in their pursuit for a perfect MMO formula, ArenaNet forgot to add one critical element to this otherwise perfect equation - fun. No argument for PvP balance can overrule the fact that restricting your class to only a handful of skillsets (as opposed to hundreds in GW1) was an absolutely horrible design choice that doomed the entire experience from the start. The new questing system is also vastly overrated. It really doesn't matter if I have to walk to the NPC or have the quest activated on the go, when it's still the same kill & fetch bullsh*t every other MMO has already done to death. Biggest disappointment of the year.… Expand
  21. Midnightmare
    Feb 1, 2013
    4
    So i used to played guild wars 1 a LOT!!!! And i missed it and loved it........so i bought this and was hoping for more of the same. A game that didten focus on grinding but skill instead! A game were skill would matter more than time! But unfortunately guild wars 2 seems a bit the oppersite, only really skill based feature left fro me seems to be the dodging.......and thats only really good vs range attacks.
    The PvE seems pointless easy, click and wait more or less.

    used to be fun and challenging, picking the right skill and weapon for the right mob.
    Sure it used to suck when you got a bad team for an instance....but it also gave a rewarding feeling when you made it.
    Now i get the feeling of "what happened? Did i win? Apprently so?"
    And again the grinding...."sigh"
    In guild wars 1 a "grinder" was a noob in a fancy armor that didten do anything.

    I dont even like what they done about the grafics.......seems you get a lightshow for just for swining a sword.
    I guess thats a personal opinion but I like magic and badass creatures in a world to feel magic. and not something that comes out of my belt buckel for no particular reason.

    Didten really like the skill system in guild wars 1 but now i miss it :P


    Once this was a skill based game.
    Now its just a standard MMORPG like all the others.    … Expand
  22. ryn
    Oct 15, 2012
    4
    I'll keep this short. The graphics and sound come together to form a breathtaking world. Unfortunately, this alone isn't enough to make a compelling game. The combat is fun and engaging (perhaps more so than in competing titles) for the first couple of days. But I have yet to play an MMO that manages to keep it interesting after that and GW2 is no exception. Unfortunately this hits GW2 hard, because as the developers pointed out many times: there is no "carrot" in GW2. What's supposed to keep you playing is the fun of playing the game itself (walking around killing things, exploring, doing dynamic events, etc.) and NOT loot rewards. Well, general game-play quickly becomes sleep-inducing. Crafting is a major gold-sink and feels like a waste of time, even if the interface itself isn't bad. The economy is a complete joke, with 99% of items selling at vendor price and the other 1% climbing to insane new heights every day. Unless you've played from release and speculated your way to huge profits when various recipes were changed or discovered, you are going to be dirt-poor from 1-80 and beyond. The dungeons are boring and frustrating at the same time, but to expect differently when you put 5 classes that all do everything in a dungeon that you over-tune to hell to make it "challenging" is madness. World-vs-World PvP is a zerg-fest of epic proportions and if you think that structured PvP will appeal to you, go play Dota2 or LoL instead for a much more complete and fun experience. The personal story is decent up to level 50 or so, then it looses pretty much all it's appeal and turns into another terrible, unrewarding grind.… Expand
  23. 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!!!
  24. Tundra
    Nov 26, 2012
    3
    After playing this game since release, ArenaNet are probably one of the most inefficient developers ever to grace the MMO industry. The game is riddled with bugs only to be riddled with more bugs every update. These bugs rarely even get fixed let alone be noticed. Take note that they have a tendency to ignore genuine player complaints and they fail to keep their promises. The fact that their PvP side of the game doesn't even have a global leaderboard is certainly troubling (yeah, e-sport, right). The PvP is a huge let down (the only mode is conquest) and the PvE side is just subpar. Class balance is totally out of whack. The actual classes have bugs from the beta to this day. The developers are slow and incompetent and It's honestly inexcusable. They'll be the ones to actually kill their own game.

    I originally gave this a 10 but it looked so great at release. Now they've shown their true colors when it comes to how horrible of a slow and inefficient development team they are. I'm pretty much fed up with MMO's after this.    … Expand
  25. 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.
  26. Zaydin
    Sep 29, 2012
    0
    Guild Bores 2 would have been a more appropriate title. Bland character design, bland questing, dull, repetitive combat, no end game, bland voice acting. Couldn't play for more than two hours before getting tired of it and quitting. Story is completely forgettable, as well, and things like 'dynamic events' are little more than gimmicks. I had no fun what so ever with this over-hyped game.
  27. 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.
  28. 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 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
  29. 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 by design (due to long queries all serious guild coordinated action is usually impossible).… Expand
  30. MuhOo
    Nov 9, 2012
    3
    Y U NO AWESOME? The game tries so hard to do everything right but does a lot of things worse than any other game in this genre. The combat system was announced to be action oriented, what did we got? Wow combined with tera but its neither as accurate as WoW's nor as good as teras'. The questsystem is nice but the levelflow is too confusing and a more indepth tutorial would have been great. The jobsystem is well done but rather confusing for a beginner because you have to produce so much trash to advance in the skills. In the end 3 charakter between 18-36 and los my interest after 2 weeks :/ disappointing… Expand
  31. Corvin
    Nov 20, 2012
    3
    While I can't quite bring myself to rate this game as a zero even now, and while it is still enjoyable in many aspects, refugees from the hamster treadmill can no longer expect to find a home in Guild Wars 2. If you're a casual player or someone who enjoys large scale PvP but does not enjoy a dungeon gear grind, stay far away from this otherwise beautiful MMO.
  32. 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 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
  33. 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.
  34. Tyron_87
    Feb 1, 2013
    4
    This game requires skill, the story is fairly flat (little people who make the engineers but that something new in short, you want to spend your money do not take well GW2.
  35. 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.
  36. HelloWTF22
    Aug 29, 2012
    0
    We'll start with the dated graphics. once again an MMO designer makes a game to run in the lowest systems making a mediocre graphics experience for everyone. Then we continue with the character controls. Floaty and disconnected. You start an attack and your character takes over - you don't have real control over it.. Just like a dog you tell "attack" and "stop" and lead by a leash. Auto-attacks and tab target, once more. Not even SWTOR relied on auto-attacks and they criticized its combat as WoW clone. This is far more clonish to WoW than anything else I've played in the genre. In fact, Ranger plays the exact same as Hunter. Their in game Cash Store is ever present like any F2P title, hounding you to conveniently purchase with cash things that will take you more work to get online. People already simply purchase advantages in PvP and save themselves the time. Finally its players are very much like a cult - they'll hound anyone not sharing a perfect opinion of GW like a pariah. Death threats have been lobbed on personal emails, that's how fanatical they get. Between the mediocre gameplay, dated graphics, and mindless- aggressive cult core of players it's something to stay away from.… Expand
  37. 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.
  38. otinanai
    Sep 12, 2012
    3
    GW2 starts off very strong in the first 20 levels but most players quickly realize how poor the quest(dynamic event/heart) variety is. I can't even count how many times I had to defend a camp from X waves of enemies, or collect objects on the ground for an NPC. Entering a new zone doesn't feel new at all. Dynamic events become trivial when the players make a zerg, and most are impossible when solo/duo.

    The game makes it difficult and not fun to group with friends. If you get 20 meters away from someone in your group, they disappear both on the screen and on the map. Doing hearts pretty much forces group members to solo, and ignoring hearts doesn't feel right as you are skipping a lot of content.

    The PvE endgame is mediocre at best. The level 80 zone requires absolutely no skill, only a big enough zerg, time and patience.

    PvP combat is plagued by poor class balance and unnecessary new features like the downed state, which creates frustration whether you kill or die. sPvP is completely cut off from the rest of the game, and its progression is only cosmetic, which only a small minority of players will find interesting.

    WvW has poor performance on most computers (for example my PC gets 60+ fps in PvE but only 15 in large battles in WvW), lacks any progression which will turn off most PvPers, and only allows one and only one playstyle if you want to be effective: Zerging. Arena.net tried to imitate DAoC's brilliant RvR, but they decided not to copy important features like realm ranks/realm points, long duration crowd control and 8-man groups (to allow more playstyles like group vs group, small group, soloing) and a huge PvP dungeon like the amazing Darkness Falls.

    The positives are that the game is buy to play and doesn't require a subscription, and that the developers seem to have ambition, which gives me hope that the game might improve over the next years.    … Expand
  39. magee
    Apr 7, 2013
    0
    click the button which is not on cooldown combat is dumbed down its just stupid, the different skills are so bad designed at the beginning you will may enjoy the game but after 2-3 hours you will see how boring this game actually is i am not a fanboy of any mmo but this game was a big let down for me
  40. heech
    Aug 28, 2012
    2
    I haven't gamed much over the past decade, so I'm not "tired" of WoW-type style games like others might be. I started playing SWTOR earlier this year, and fell in love with much of it.. but with so many people checking out GW2 (and also a lot of questions about TOR's future), I decided to try it as well. But... it's just not working for me. I don't understand those who insist GW2's graphics are superior to TOR. I heartily disagree. Looking at the animations of my toon, looking at how he + other players appear.. to my eyes, it's just decades apart.. with what I see in GW2, it's literally something I might have seen 10+ years ago. The scenary on GW2 is certainly well done if you go for that artistic style, but not good enough that I really care about "vistas".

    I'm also just not that impressed with the gameplay. Someone compared to the SW:TOR style of combat to "playing a piano" (in a dismissive/critical sense). Well, I actually liked that... a lot. I have 2 quick bars = 24 keys I use in literally every single warzone on TOR. I'm constantly watching CDs + my opponents cast bar, working with LOS, and rotating through actions as appropriate. In contrast, I think the 5 + a few buttons in GW2 makes combat extremely boring. I auto-attack, occasionally evade, and hit whatever is off CD. I really found it extremely boring to play, and quit after about an hour. (Maybe console players used to smashing 1-2 keys will find it just fine?)

    I love GW2's WvWvW layout though. If there was a way to combine that with the SW:TOR's combat interface, I would be in heaven.    … Expand
  41. JeremyJo
    Jan 31, 2013
    0
    Absoluty,insanely bad, boring, repetitive, pointless game. Glad I could sell my account to another poor soul. Bleh. Arenanet is a horrible company and the whole game concept is full of fail. The cutscenes are as ugly and boring as the game.
  42. 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 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
  43. 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.
  44. 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 pla    yed 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
  45. Mandrax
    Nov 19, 2012
    0
    So now we are 3 months into the game and after I gave a very favourable review I'm going to have to take it all back. It seems Arenanet are now turning this game into WoW 2.0 insofar as there will now be a gear treadmill which goes completely against their manifesto which they set out whilst developing the game.

    This was a good game until Arenanet started lying to it's customers. Sham    e on you Anet, I thought better of you.… Expand
  46. ZteamOverlord
    Sep 3, 2012
    3
    So when I started the game, I was impressed by the voice acting and the polish of the graphics. I was also impressed with the amount of character classes i could choose between. I was also impressed with the idea of being able to customize my character's story line by choices made before the game began. Once the first 5 hours of game play was completed I was then let down by a tedious quest sytem, repetitive random events and ptiful PVP system. Im just going to get this out of the way right away, I come from the old school of everquest, Asheron's call, Ultima online ect... and am really only interested in pvp but i can apreciate a deep story driven PVE system like The Old Republic Online. In the old days you had an active choice to make at the beginning. Do I join a PVP server or a PVE server, This game gives you no option witch worried me right away. As I am going through playing multiple classes and multiple levels feeling real lonely because the quest system does not encourage teaming up, instead if you happen to be in the same area as another player,guess what, you are a team, and once the event is over you all disperse, never exchanging names or talking at all because well, what the point? Ok so I kept on going, deciding to join the pvp system at lvl 20 just so I knew what I was doing with the character before I joined. I expected a dynamic PVP experience. Instead all i got was a chaotic combat system and yet another linear experience. Go here to defend this, Run here to defend that, with no clear and defined rolls to play in the battle.The PVP was just like the rest of the game, Linear and lonely. Overall i cannot give the game the lowest score because it has pretty looking skills and spells with clean graphics that cover up a hollow role playing experience. in short, good graphics, linear and repetitive PVE experience, and pathetic and totaly seperate from the game PVP sytem. Not exactly what i was expecting, but when its free to play, how good can it be? as a side note, what the hell happened to open world PVP servers where anything goes? I miss those days.… Collapse
  47. 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. 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
  48. 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 .
  49. 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 personali    zing 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
  50. 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.
  51. 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 annonced ! Maybe F2P players like it.. I really don't understand this score...… Expand
  52. 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.
  53. 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
  54. xMountainDrewXx
    Sep 7, 2012
    2
    Guild Wars 2 looked to be a very hopeful game for me, a game I thought I would be playing for a decent 6 months or more, around the same timeframe I played WoW a few years back. The way the game was advertised was very well done, they made the game looks so clean and crisp, the graphics looked amazing. What they did was professionally iced a crummy cake. The game is very deceiving at first. The diverse character creation draws you in, and you choose what your characters going to be like, before you even experience them playing the game. I played human mostly, and made a guardian and engineer. After killing a few centaurs from some random town attack, I'm called in to help fight some massive rock hand that emerged from the ground. After joining the 10 other players that are smacking the rock with their daggers and bullets, the boss dies with like 5 minutes, and then my character passed out. I'm then told to help the town out with their daily chores, watering corn, feeding cows and destroying wasp nests. Wtf? What happend to all the centaurs, why did they even attack. To be honest, I think the storyline and moral behind all this is very generic and didn't really interest me at all. The skills are very limited, and get very tedious after a while. The skill/trait system is very dry, and didn't inspire me to go further at all. The instanced city ruined the whole 'epicness' and the teleportation system isn't a very creative way of travelling. WvW consisted of attacking a gate for 15mins before it was destroyed, and showed little potential for melee clases, as they got destroyed if they ran into a 20 man pack of players, all AoEing the ground and using their root abilities to pretty much ruin melee potential. The last stand skill ruined pvp, as it always felt I had to kill the player twice, instead of a nice clean one shot. It was way too balanced as well, giving every class ability ranged and heal abilitys, there is no special "individuality" among the classes as they could all do similar things. The biggest reason I didn't continue though was the lack of potential. What was the point of hitting level 80, when you get the same benefits at any point of the game. They wanted to make the game balanced and fair, and they did. I got my money back on the game after playing the 3-day head start and a few days after that. If you've played WoW and loved it, don't play this game. This is all my opinion guys, many of you probably like the style of the game, but I guarantee you, after 6 months, this game will barely be heard of.… Expand
  55. 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 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
  56. Macero
    Jan 26, 2013
    0
    If you want in-game money you have to convert the store gems into gold. They put diminishing returns on loot so you get literally nothing. This is not a game for casuals, this is a game for children just like diablo 3.
    All the class abilities are the same except with different animations. War's that can oneshot people "Bob deserves a promotion for that" Game is a joke, a very well executed scam.
  57. 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 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
  58. 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- li    ttle 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
  59. 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 t    he 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
  60. 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 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
  61. 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
  62. 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.
  63. 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 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
  64. 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.
  65. Sg6152620
    Sep 26, 2012
    3
    GW2 is basically a first "solo" MMORPG. ArenaNet is trying to implement this idea of not having to party with anyone to do anything, at the same time you still have to party with random player if you want to experience the full content of the game. They give you more options to how you want to level up your character, but by no means one method will be enough to take you there. They are forcing you to have to go explore the map, gathering resources, assisting NPC and completing story quest. PVE dungeons are in general not well designed. AI targeting system requires more randomization, the biggest problem is that AI tends to lock on one player till they are shoot to 'death'. This makes having no player plays a fixed role particular bad with a group of "dont know what they are doing" players. the level of communication required to participate in dungeon explore mode is the highest i've seen (Your full team have to use vent/mummble or other voice communication software for this purpose) that is if you want to have a smooth run without having to roll over your dead corpse a million times. Lastly the limited skill selection is a big negative compare with the original GW, its almost impossible to play any combo as a solo player (since there is no henchmen in GW2). Overall I was expecting GW2 to be at least somewhat similar to the original series of GW. yet This is a total different game. The only advantage for GW2 over GW is that the world is open and you have an option to see other player "JUMP" around you. After played GW2 for 2 weeks, I've decide to go back to GW1, just because i like having to be able to truly SOLO everything (w/wo hench) and can easily justify what i am doing when i am in a group.… Expand
  66. 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     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
  67. 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 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
  68. 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 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
  69. cooper76
    Sep 29, 2012
    3
    The most casual mmo ever made, with an aggressive cash shop influence. The events do not care if you are there or not. If you are there you will get xp no matter what. There is a sever lack of character and skill development. After level 40, it's all passives for the next 40 levels. It's a extremely simplistic game by nature which leads to simplistic combat and pvp. After 3 weeks of heavy play and fun, game play became extremely boring. This will be the first mmo (there is no rpg) that I've played that I will not reach level cap. There is no incentive to go on once the "new" wares off. The world is beautiful, although not cohesive, and the spell effects may be the best in the business. That beauty is only skin deep though. Fun for 3 weeks. I doesn't seem like it was made for more than that. Thus it being B2P. I'm giving the game a 3 because the lack of fundamental mmorpg elements that have contributed to me not wanting to play after 3 weeks.… Expand
  70. commonHouseDirt
    Oct 14, 2012
    3
    If you were to chart an exciting quest, it might start out slow, and then ramp up and up, until the climax at which point you would face some thrilling final challenge, after which you would feel a flood of endorphins for having accomplished something. This is not how GW2 works. Instead, you wander around, and a little message says, "Go kill those things to save the farm or whatever." So you go kill whatever for a while with a hundred other people, and then the things are all killed, and you get a letter that says, "Hey, thanks for killing those things. Here's some gold." It doesn't lead anywhere, no story is built, it's not the start of some greater mission to work towards, and you don't feel more powerful or accomplished. Frankly, Guild Wars 2 is boring. I only feel compelled to play this game because I spent money on it. The story, lore, and dialog are paper thin, which would be forgivable if the gameplay was at all interesting.

    The worst sin of this game, though? They've built a beautiful world, and given you a difficult to control, buggy, awful camera with which to view it. Super narrow FOV with no way to change it, collides with random objects and jerks around wildly (especially indoors), shows you more of the ground than the scenery, and always prefers to stick your character front and center, blocking whatever you actually want to look at. All of this makes exploring the world, which should be a fun diversion, a headache.    … Expand
  71. Anupsetzombie
    Oct 15, 2012
    3
    This game loses it's luster VERY fast. I had no reason to get to the end game (Which is 80 levels of doing "Grind Free" questing). I got a character to level 58. I started losing interest around level 50. My character has around 30 moves, all on short cool down, but they all generally do the same thing. Apply an effect, knock back, increase attack speed. Boring. Also, the whole gimmick on how there's no grinding is complete bull. The only thing end game is, is grinding to get cooler looking gear. You have to run dungeons THOUSANDS of times to get full dungeon sets, and don't get me even started on the ridiculous difficulty of dungeons. Also, Arenanet advertising heavily on a "role-less" game is a complete lie as well. You HAVE to have a tank, a designated healer, etc. in order to survive in these stupidly difficult dungeons. The story is rather lame, and the quests all start feeling the same. The world is nice looking, but I noticed repeats in designs and looks, the areas aren't varied very well and I got bored very fast of the style pretty fast as well. Also, anyone who thinks this game revolutionized questing is delusional, they just cover up the questing by making it an area where you can quest instead of having to turn it in. W v W is alright, but you can only do well if you have a solid in take of money, since the seige equipment costs lots of currency. This game was fun for about a month, which is all it needs to get a good review from most people (most people stop playing after that long anyways....) while you need to put in a LOT more time than that to get to the "end game".… Expand
  72. suneater
    Dec 13, 2012
    3
    Had a great start and tons of potential but the devs have squandered it. Storyline starts out great with your choices having impact but around halfway through it gets hijacked by a Mary Sue who saves the world for you. Graphics are marginally better than the originals and most of the music is recycled from GW. Gameplay is dull with each weapon having a locked set of skills leaving you with 1 healing skill, 3 "utility" slots, and an elite skill. Most skills are bland because the devs have killed the "trinity" (aka an actual class system) leaving everyone being tanky DPS for dungeons and glass cannons for pvp. 4 months after launch and there are still tons of gameplay bugs, elite skills are almost all garbage (so bad that you forget to use them), CC & debuffs are unbalanced and boring (stuns last 1-2 seconds but cripple can stack to over a minute easily), and class customization is non-existent with barebone traits. The world is beautiful and at first fun to explore, but if you go for map completion the hearts are very tedious and all the starting zones feel the same. Endgame consists of unevenly difficult & boring dungeons, chaotic & pointless server vs. server PvP, KOTH PvP with cosmetics-only rewards, and grinding for hundreds of hours for "legendary" weapons. Overall, this is a terrible sequel and has nothing to do with the original Guild War series apart from races and some skill names. The devs are clearly building the game for the "WoW audience" and have not only abandoned their original fans but are actively alienating them.… Expand
  73. hegyitaho
    Oct 29, 2012
    0
    not an mmo revolution, but still as wow's getting older and older, this is it's best alternative (also sub free!). i don't care about pve in general but there's very of it little even to my liking. pvp-wise it's much better, still there's no incentive in the long run (i mean spvp, which lacks ranked teams, arena ladders), also pvp feels like just burning all your skills asap and waiting on cooldowns. WvWvW is too hectic with too may people that makes the frame rate drop to single digit number (4 core cpu, 560ti, 8gig ram). i would be really interested in statistics about the active players as a function of time, i have a feeling that its a small fraction of the peak value. graphics are great, story and crafting and pve are well below swtor. level grindig is horrible, despite of or partially because of this "everything is a dynamic event" craze… Expand
  74. biscuitasylum
    Nov 11, 2012
    3
    I tried really hard to like this game, seeing how I played the first Guild Wars for 7 years. I'm mainly here to score the game because 8.1 is a farce. It was a huge let down for myself. However, i would highly recommend the game to people who may not be familiar with the first or don't want to pay subscription fees. The Graphics aren't that much of an improvement over the first... If you have a high end gaming machine like I do... you'll notice very little difference... you can tell they catered to the low to mid level gamer machine. Not that that's bad or anything but come on people... time to upgrade your computers, you're ruining it for the rest of us who do upgrade. It was said that the grind would be gone... no, the grind is still there, except now it has a dress on and its not that pretty. You're still going to grind. I was very very disappointed in the skill system, skills are now bound to weapons instead of having a choice. There are no longer dual professions and no way to create uber builds. You no longer have to use your brain to calculate a build. They've dumbed it down to make balancing the game easier for the company and the mediocre players. You now pay a fee to portal, which isn't so much a gripe if the wait time wasn't so ridiculous (and no, it's not my connection, I'm on a T3 line). There are many bugs within game play, sometimes I wonder if they didn't pay attention to the beta trials or if they even played the game themselves. The story line... is okay. Puzzles and W-v-W is okay. The dungeons are where its at... but again, here comes the grind. I give this a 3 because its a three for me... but for someone else... I would say a 5 or 6.… Expand
  75. solarbear88
    Nov 19, 2012
    0
    This game was originally a 9 or a 10, you could play as you liked and be rewarded for it. But with the addition of the new Ascended Gear, the game has suddenly become very limited: grind the new dungeon 1000 times or be left behind. This transition is a betrayal of the "no gear treadmill" philosophy and makes the game more like a lame version World of Warcraft.

    After playing for a wh    ile you start to find the classes pretty limited and kind of dull. Only a few tactics are worth taking, leaving you with like 1 or 2 builds instead of the diversity promised.

    After playing them, the dungeons are generally poorly constructed and not a lot of fun.    … Expand
  76. Undercover007
    Nov 20, 2012
    4
    Overhyped. The graphics are excellent at the time of launch, but the good features stop there. It has a disguised form of grinding that tries to fool players into thinking they are not grinding while doing exactly what grinding is: repeated kills over and over.
    The classes are a huge let down. Most have cool animations and effects but these have no impact on gameplay as the abilities are     weak and generic. All classes can do all the functions as melee damage, ranged damage, healing and support and as such excel at none which just furthers the feeling of weak classes. Furthermore you can be up-leveled (rarely) or down-leveled (more commonly) to provide a fixed challenge level. While some people like the constant challenge, this only increases the feeling of weakness since you can never enjoy the power you accrued.
    Mobs are repeated through several areas, just leveled up and with maybe a different name (not always), which contributes to the tedium after a while.
    Add to all this that it has no demo nor trial nor the possibility to sell the game you bought (as per the aggreement) nor a money-back guarantee and we have a trap where we just sank our money. All this fear of losing money on the part of the company only reflects a lack of confidence on the tittle.

    Bottom-line: not worth it.    … Expand
  77. Leguma
    Nov 21, 2012
    0
    All the promises that were made before release and all the selling points of this game have been thrown out the window with the latest patch.


    There was supposed to be no grind, no gear treadmills, no gated content. Before 15 Nov 2012 this game was 9/10, now it's a clear case of bait and switch. Don't be fooled by all the old reviews, and read up some current information about the dire    ction the game has taken.… Expand
  78. Rhydian
    Nov 22, 2012
    3
    It much like WAR started off well and much like WAR was actually better in beta, however all they builds now are condition, crit builds and the maps are so small you end up in an endless and boring zerg every time. There is very little deviation or choice in specs and weaponry and the combat feels like a badly implemented 3rd person shooter, since you are all dps anyway. These are problems they could have fixed but instead they decided to betray their manifesto and introduce a gear grind without saying anything about doing it. PVP is a broken morass and now they are concentrating on Fluff and getting WOW kids. You ex WAR players know exactly what I mean, Except WAR actually has better pvp than GW2.… Expand
  79. deathstrike75
    Dec 2, 2012
    0
    I am giving a 0 to this game cause my account was just hacked , i lost everything i had , all my money , gems , karma , guild were deleted and everythign and still arena net can't do anything , they cannot give you back your gold , your items be4 your account was hacked , they can't do any rollback on their character so if you ever try going for a legendary weapon and you are almost there and get hacked , you'll have nothing left to play with and they won't give you back any compensation at all, even if you spend real money to buy their stupid gems.… Expand
  80. pherenzi
    Dec 16, 2012
    2
    This game is nothing like Guild Wars. There is nothing to do after lvl 80. The pvp is embarrassingly bad. They just ripped off lotro and wow and called it a sequel to guild wars. Im dead serious the pvp is a joke and they dont even have guild halls.The world is way smaller and it turns into a grindfest rather quickly. the few limited skills they give you arent very imaginative and created no chance to make creative builds, you are pretty much stuck with the 4 or 5 skills that are decent. prepare to see tons of bots grinding away. good luck reporting there you will still see the same bots there day after day. lost shores was terrible and handled very poorly. please dont buy this game if you love guild wars.… Expand
  81. criticalwind
    Dec 16, 2012
    0
    A highly overrated and heavily bug infested game, it started out well with Guild Wars 2 looking like a rare real jewel in an ocean of other mediocre MMOS, with the developers keeping true to their manifestos, unfortunately that didn't last long and the game has been going down hill with the developers constantly changing the feel of the game that its hardly recognizable to its original release. Its OK if you like the same of old style MMOS, but if not then you are suddenly left with a feeling of betrayal and anger that can no longer be compensated. With the companies obvious lies and attempts to hide the truth by deleting anything negative written on their official sites, they show what a vile and selfish money grabbing company they really are.… Expand
  82. chopstick
    Dec 18, 2012
    0
    This game is horrible, the game gets interesting in the start, but it rappidly becomes boring. All of my friends quit playing after reaching about lvl 10 or so. They are hardcore mmorpg players and always get adicted to them. Many GW2 players says that the "end game" is ****
  83. gabryatfendor
    Dec 24, 2012
    4
    I buy very few games usually. The hype of some friends about this made me buy it. A waste of money, for me. I got bored in the first 20 level. I simply doesn't feel part of a world. The first thing a good rpg, online or offline, should do is to have a great history/ world (Azeroth, for example) in wich you can feel part of something. I found nothing of it here. The event are something funny... for the first 3 or 4 times. Then they are really boring. Also, the fact you can group with people basically whoever they are, is something that really is against the online experience. I want to make friends and allies in an online game. This, again, is not the case. Try the game before buy it!… Expand
  84. Zonzai
    Dec 30, 2012
    0
    Story: 4 ---------------- The great overarching plot from GW1 is replaced by hundreds of meaningless (but fun) mini-events and some often contrived personal quests.

    Visuals: 10 ----------- It doesn't get a whole lot better for an MMO and the ANet art team is great at creating visual interest.

    Sound: 9 --------------- Jeremy Soul is a genius. The only reason this isn't a 10 is because     of the headache-inducing noise of necromancer spells and deafeningly cacophonous boss fights.

    Combat: 7 ------------- It's good for an MMO but if you've ever played any action RPG you know exactly what you're missing. It's not as good as TERA's combat but it's good.

    Game Design: 8 ----- In all aspects the game is well-designed but it seems that ArenaNet is not immune to problems with class balance. Certain classes suffer from crippling class-specific design issues and poor skill synergy so much that the player must master every available skill and use them in every fight (engineer, elementalist). Others need do only know how to use a few skills to win most NPC encounters (guardian, thief, warrior). Basically, it's the same situation as with every other MMORPG.

    Fun Factor: 10 ------- Yeah, it's fun. It still gets repetitive, there isn't enough end game content yet and choosing one of the inferior classes can really be a downer but compared to any other MMORPG, it's the best there is. That means it deserves a 10 even if it isn't quite perfect.

    Overall: 8 -------------- A very good game with the potential for greatness. Here's hoping ArenaNet can tap that potential in future updates and class balance patches.    … Expand
  85. bluefunk
    Jan 1, 2013
    3
    This game is ok, totally over hyped, the game world is huge but it is unfortunate that it is mainly just a cut and paste world. It's saving grace is that it is Buy to Play meaning you can dive in and out as you please.
  86. 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 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
  87. luckyhit
    Jan 2, 2013
    0
    this game is totally wrecked. i have not even got the chance to play it yet because of the insane registering. i missed out on the $30 dollar amazon deal, still got it for a ok price, but not worth it either way. i highly encourage you to discourage your friends and family from getting this game.. unless your on the brink of suicide, or you just like being sad and depressed. i'd rather play hexen without a monitor.… Expand
  88. czarwill
    Jan 10, 2013
    4
    Nothing about this game matches the quality of the rating it has accrued. These are just SOME of my main gripes and there's a lot of them. But mostly, this game is just so !@#$ing boring.
    Questing: There's a lot of detail but the lack of quantitative reward for exploring this detail or even enjoyment you get from it is minimal. Just because you don't "pick-up" a quest doesn't make it a gr    ound breaking system. It is, in essence, the same as every other RPG on the market. This just makes you hate exploring the lore of the game even more because you're skipping it 90% of the time.
    Lack of incentive: There is almost no incentive for doing anything in this game. Everything is spoon-fed. There's no real need to prioritize doing anything. You could assign your skills at random and still make it 80 easily. And for that matter...
    Leveling:
    Why even have a leveling cap if you're just going to adjust everything to begin with. There's not real satisfaction in gaining a level. You don't measurably "improve". In fact, you get progressively worse, suffering from diminishing returns on stats until you buy a new set of gear The fact that your levels are adjusted to your zone and all PvP is at 80 level makes a leveling system almost completely redundant. Sure, you gain more skills but it doesn't really make you more "powerful". I felt just as useless at level 80 as I did at 30 because you're limited to the number of skills that fit in your tiny action bar. Advancing to higher level zones is almost redundant because you can literally reach level 80 by grinding in the first zone you hit and completing random events. The fact that diminishing returns DOESN'T apply to higher level characters reduces the number of people in the mid-level zones making it incredibly hard to complete those group events you need randoms to walk by for.
    Combat:
    is extremely limited. You're given a set number of action bar slots for each class and are restricted to it. This pigeon holes you into the same skills, the same rotations and the same strategies for combat. Even swapping weapons seems pointless because your other set of weapons probably doesn't match the playing style you chose. Social Combat: The social nature of PvE questing in Guild Wars 2 actually detracts from its purpose. Nobody wants to join your party against a common foe, just pick up whoever walks along, kill it and they'll be on their merry way. I didn't get to talk to them, I don't even know who they are because the interface is clumsy and I'll never be able to contact them again. You just can't make friends in the world because it makes people care less about what you're doing.
    BORING:
    This game is just incredibly boring. It is a chore to play and offers almost no stimulation beyond visual. The interface is a horror, gameplay isn't fluid and you can't lose yourself in the game.    … Expand
  89. Zeriel
    Feb 2, 2013
    2
    This game keeps being praised as the best thing since sliced bread and is not even up to par with current MMORPGs; you could say is only an online game and not an RPG. Over a decade ago, games like Ever Quest were able to create a sense of immersion and atmosphere, you could role play your character and every role had it's own play style and strategy. You where invaluable to your team and it felt rewarding. Now, almost 15 years later, this game is just a common button smasher, every character is the same but with a different paint coat. No "trinity" means that there is no strategy and everyone is a DPS class. Everyone looks the same, feels the same and you can reach the maximum level in 2-4 weeks. After that, all the exotic gear is the same thing for everyone. If you like exploration and discovering the maps then this game will have some temporary appeal to you, but the combat is horrible, dungeons are unrewarding and brutal, PVP is a Zerg fest and crafting is the worst I've seen. I am disappointed that this game can't compare to games 15 years old and is just some pretty graphics with no substance.… Expand
  90. ZeroGama
    Feb 15, 2013
    4
    Let me start off saying that I played the original Guild Wars for 7 years, and loved every moment of it. I even bought the two books that were released to fill the lore in between GW1 and GW2 while pre ordering my collectors edition for the day it came out. I thought GW2 would have more of the same as GW1, but sadly it doesn't. First off, Instances are gone Poof.... No longer can you explore an area with you and a couple of ur closest friends. Now there's just a pile of people that you all manage to amalgamate, collectively attacking random things chaotically. There are no strategies anymore, just annoying-ass mindless spamming of 2 or 3 skills. Second off, the skill system and combat system is dead. Gone are the days when you could hunt down specific skills stretched across the world of Tyria to collect. Now, your skills are linked with your weapon. Which you then only have 5 per weapon, and are very limited in their diversity. Honestly, every weapon and skill feel almost identical per class. It's a shame really; I remember spending hours upon hours trying to build the perfect build for PvE. And then when that build didn't cut it anymore for a new quest or mission, I'd sit around and devise a new build for specific situations. Just as Diablo III had to dumb down it's game for the masses, so did GW2.

    Next, the new and innovative event system is a clever way of deceiving players of something new. In actuality, the even system is just another grind-fest to kill X number of enemies or collect Y number of items to complete it. Like I said earlier, it's a very clever system, because thousands of people have been duped to believe they're not playing the usual MMO that requires you to grind out the same exact quests/actions over and over again, the individuals at Arena Net just covered it with a different set of clothes and a wig to make it seem new. It isn't. And it's god damned awful and disgusting that not many people realize this.

    If you're a fan of WOW and MMO's similar to it's play style, then go on ahead an check out this game, it'll probably be the "change" you've been looking for in a game. Meanwhile, if you were a fan of the first installment, stay away from this game, stay far far away.If you're looking for instanced games to play check out Path of Exile or Phantasy Star Online 2, those games you'll surely enjoy.

    -Disheartened Fan    … Expand

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
90 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 69 Critics

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
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