((NOTICE. HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD.))
Living World Season 3….well, it started on a high note. Out of The Shadows was engaging, interesting, and promised us a season full of intrigue and fun. Then it promptly went downhill. Rising Flames wasn’t too bad, but it lacked direction. The story suddenly changed tracks dramatically to focus on the Elder Dragons again. This isn’t a bad change, per say, but absolutely an odd change of pacing and tone. Then…Lazarus shows up again. So we’ve already got a story that’s unfocused and meandering, two episodes in.
Next is A Crack In The Ice. Braham is back and getting mad at you purely for the sake of tension. He gets angry that you don’t want to suicide into Jormag uselessly when you have 1. Alternate solutions and 2. Issues to deal with in central Tyria. He gets mad that you don’t abandon everything on his suicide quest. Again, tension for the sake of tension. After that is Head of the Snake, where a sharp decline is seen. The chapter is salvaged by finally killing Cadecus, which is nice. But it makes several assumptions about you and how you’d react to certain things. The story is also suffering from yet another change in what enemy you are facing. It’s also the start of a story focused mostly on the Humans of Tyria, instead of all races.
Flashpoint is also a confused mess. Lazarus is actually…Balthazar. A human god. What? What is with that huge change in direction? Of all things it could have been, it was Balthazar using an illusion. This is another total change in direction, another loss of focus, for no reason. Then suddenly you’re fighting dragons again. It can’t seem to pick a single direction or enemy. Instead of seeming tense, like everything was coming after you and reaching a boiling point at once, it just seems like a confused mess.
And finally One Path Ends. One Path Ends was, hands down, the worst thing I have experienced in Guild Wars 2. First, you decide to chase after some relic instead of using any number of resources the Commander would have access to. But no, you help a random Human organization deal with its problem. Then, the worst part. It forces you to join the Shining Blade. No matter what race or alligence, No matter what previous choices. It doesn’t ask, it assumes you’d want to. It is the most offensive thing to a game that used to be built on choices. Characters would live and die on decisions by you. Now, it just assumes what you want.
It forces you to form this new guild. It forces you to react to Caithe and Braham in certain ways. It forces you to spare Wi, and it Forces you to join yet another organization. It lost flow and direction, changes villains 4 times, and expects you to be impressed by the grand new things. This game used to be about branching stories that made sense coming to the same conclusion. Now, it’s a mess of a story you have no control over.
The Shining Blade was the last straw for me. The game has become too human-centric and too presumptuous about what you want. It made zero sense and forced you into the single most annoying story instance in the game, joining the Shining Blade.
That’s my honest review of LWS3. It started so strong, and ended with the worst story the game has seen yet. It was muddled and confused, unfocused and directionless, and forced huge changes upon you. All in all, the worst thing gw2 has ever made.
(edited by Okdes.4136)