Guild Wars 2

Hey, I check in here every few days, I post rarely on game forums.

With all the bad reviews and complaints I see here I can’t even believe we are playing the same game. GW2 has been the only MMO by a long shot worth mentioning in the last 5 years. It is amazing, unique and fresh, has a range of content from faceroll to very technically challenging, beautiful visuals and completely free of a monthly sub.

I’ve played since beta, leveled 2 classes to 80, and have various alts. One I leveled primarily by myself (and some wow guildies sometimes) and had to reroll a couple times for appearance reasons the other I leveled with my GF. Solo was fun and fluid but team play was a lot more fun and my experience wasn’t hindered. The ability to meet up regardless of level difference was incredible and made playing with my people easy.

Gameplay
The game play follows modern mmo philosophy of not a lot of moves equipable at once (I’m usually frustrated with the dumbing down of the MMO and action rpg genre.). Respecing partially is easy and can be done on the fly to give flexibility and lets knowledge and experience of certain fights empower you. GW2 handles this system very well. Combat is fun and active. The classes handle remarkably different. Each class is very flexible and certain fights demand that flexibility on the fly or in your rotation.

The World
The world is beautiful with amazing landmarks and structures. There are unique and intricate cave systems tunnels bridges and buildings, colossal structures amazing mountain and ruined city sky lines. The detail is truly amazing for an MMO. The cities are also the most visually impressive of any MMO I’ve played. The characters and animations are much more tolerable especially on the females then any other MMO I’ve played to date also.

There’s enough map to explore that it would take 3+ characters just from leveling to experience them all. You can farm in any zone for a change of scenery that you’re in the mood for. Most farm in Orr and for an end game zone it feels more end game then most MMOs have the balls to do. It’s tight packed with monsters very stressful and intense especially when first starting there. It’s visually amazing in a bleak and depressing apocalyptic kind of way. It’s more effective farming to stand at a few events all day but not by much, it does get repetitive but other zones are close to equally farmable and being mobile doesn’t slow your farm down to much.

Dungeons
I’ve completed all explorable dungeon paths minus one wing of Arah. The wings have enough variety that I feel like they can legit boast at least 25 unique 30 minute – 1+ hour dungeon experiences (there’s 34+ I know but considering the overlap I’ve come up with the number 25). Some of the fights are forgiving and tank and spank and others are very exciting technical and demanding on par with the more difficult heroic fights of wow, and can be a rush to complete correctly. (The ability to res people mid fight and run back from the waypoint makes them all very forgiving but it terms of perfection in player execution they can be immense challenges.)

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page 2:

PvP
WvWvW is an interesting pvp experience with a focus on siege and big picture strategy. I’m not in an established guild so I have to run around with random squads that I find. I do find it hard to participate in a more large scale way and that everything is outside of my control, I think that’s my own fault however due to personal initiative, it seems like something that could really develop as the player base makes friends and creates social networks. I think lowbies scaled up are a little too squishy though and it would be more fun if they scaled better so it could be a nice leveling alternative without feeling like to big a leech on your team.

sPvP is perfect, matches are fast, and not demoralizing. Removing the gear grind changes the focus and puts it on purely playing and practicing and enjoying. Knowing I’m always on equal footing in terms of gear is a nice change, and if I feel underpowered on a class having the ability to roll a level 1 and pvp on it with equal footing helps learn the other classes and see why something that seemed overpowered was generally just my lack of knowledge of the class.

In terms of the common complaints I’ve seen:

Outside of the first week I’ve experienced 0 issue with the trading post. I’ve encountered a handful of broken skill points and events which have all been fixed by a restart the next time I visited them (generally in a few days). I’ve encountered a few bot trains and I use to recieve gold seller spam (1~ a day) but that stopped a little over a week ago. Gear for aesthetic and not for stats worried me at first, but I’ve come to enjoy it. I feel it’s a huge stress relief and it shifts my mentality just to having fun with friends and makes the game less of a chore and more of an escape.

The one and ONLY problem that has ever made me worry is that some of the later zones feel very underpopulated and certain events are more fun with an appropriate amount of people.

My Bio:

I am in no way a fanboy, I rarely post and have no allegiance to any company product or franchise outside of if I enjoy playing their product.

I played online D1 D2 UO AO FFXI WOW VINDICTUS AOC Warhammer (short time) rift (short) FFXIV D3. Highlights of my gaming career would be D2, FFXI sky <> sea era. WOW (vanilla > ulduar). And Anarchy Online pre expansion (although i did enjoy Shadowlands.) I’m a competitive gamer, far from casual. I’ve achieved almost all server first raiding achievement and gladiator and over 200k honorable kills in wow, I’m the world first Final Fantasy 11 Blue Mage 75 and a proud holder of the w. abj legs Matts hat and 1 Kraken Club farmed. I’m 29, live in my apartment, hold a degree from RISD, I’m the graphic/web designer for a gallery. I have a hot naughty girlfriend, and a high metabolism.

Nothing is ever improved by only listening to praise. You should know that at least.

Very nice post.

Btw, I wouldn’t necessarily call them bad reviews and complaints. 99% of the “complainants” agree that GW2 is a good game at its basis. They would simply like Anet to change the game more to their liking (ie., trilogy, raids, gear treadmills, hardcore gaming elements, etc.) and protest quite loudly while doing so.

It happens in every game. Of course, this type of push and pull only ends up taking the devs away from their vision of the game leaving the game in a twisted mess. Anet developers are a very savvy group though. They know their vision is one that will bring success to the game and will not allow the vocal minority to ruin their game.

I will say one thing OP the game was one heck of a ride to level 80, after that not so much. It gets boring quick!

Sorry if my title offended some, surely it’s a review which is opinion and you can spare having to come and troll me? I would possibly rethink the title if I could go back in time.

Thanks for the replies that were not borg internet trend jargon. I see the benefit of criticism but I think that belongs in a suggestion format and not a review. Most of the reviews did seem so foreign I couldn’t relate in the slightest bit to them. To me it seems like slander and hurtful to what is most likely the most exciting MMO in the last five years. Especially taking into account how vast and polished it is at it’s initial release. Support can lead to improvements along with criticism I believe neither extreme is the best.

I been 80 a while have a big to do list still, between a few different alts. Getting a lot more sPvP and WvW in. Farming some different sets of gear for transmute or for stats, possibly letting my gold total get close to a precursor ( seems unlikely with the inflation going on but not to worried about it). 2 Months around today I think and still got a lot of stuff on my list. I understand that others experience may vary in terms of entertainment longevity, I’m into PvE, PvP, I’m a completionist, I’m into alts, I got a lot of internet friends to roll with for fun, I know this isn’t the case for everyone and mileage would be a lot lower.

Fiddlestyx.9714:

See what I did there?

wow did you learn to speak like that on the internet?

Stego.3148:

Fiddlestyx.9714:

See what I did there?

wow did you learn to speak like that on the internet?

Yes.

What is it with everyone posting their reviews in the the general discussion forum like a personal blog? :P

someone please close this topic, it is useless

There are no negative reviews around, all sites give this game 9/10.
As for forum people saying the game sucks because it’s not the umpteenth WoW clone, oh well, who cares?

Red Falcon.8257:

There are no negative reviews around, all sites give this game 9/10.
As for forum people saying the game sucks because it’s not the umpteenth WoW clone, oh well, who cares?

That so funny that you mention that… I remember when many MMO came out after WoW and people shot them down as being a WoW clone. Now we get an MMO that is not like WoW and people shoot it down because it is not like it. Silly humans!

Pradton.8576:

Red Falcon.8257:

There are no negative reviews around, all sites give this game 9/10.
As for forum people saying the game sucks because it’s not the umpteenth WoW clone, oh well, who cares?

That so funny that you mention that… I remember when many MMO came out after WoW and people shot them down as being a WoW clone. Now we get an MMO that is not like WoW and people shoot it down because it is not like it. Silly humans!

It’s kind of like getting divorced, if you can’t have her you don’t want anybody else to have her most especially your FRIENDS and usually it’s one of them that go right after her and enjoying her at your expense cause you have to pay her alimony and child support. lol She’s still a success and you’re left out in the cold wondering why everybody didn’t leave her alone and follow you. lol

Red Falcon.8257:

There are no negative reviews around, all sites give this game 9/10.
As for forum people saying the game sucks because it’s not the umpteenth WoW clone, oh well, who cares?

There were no negative reviews because the reviewers spent only about a week on the game. If they played for a month, like normal players, before writing, not all reviews would be as rosy. I was in love with the game for the first couple of weeks too.

This game is great fun.
This game is a great annoyance.

Both statements are currently true.

Time will see which one wins out.

The game is fun till a point then becomes used up in pve. I disagree on dungeons they are pretty bad. The “mechanics” are not fun and the lack of intrusting fights is annoying. As well has huge hp pools. I think the pve side of this game after lelveling is BAD.

wookie slayer.4259:

I think the pve side of this game after lelveling is BAD.

Crap… PvE is what I am here for. And, I just hit lvl 80 last night. sigh

I enjoyed the game up until the final zones. Orr is just horrible for me. Way to many mobs to deal with. Still feel I got my moneys worth.

I agree, games great. There’s plenty to do and I have fun doing it. I also like that ANet respects my time enough to let me pull myself away and not leave me feeling I’ve fallen behind by doing so.

What negative reviews? All I see is positive critical feedback, plenty of positive player feedback and a bit of negative feedback from those who prove that old habits die hard.

Curlybaby.6258:

Very nice post.

Btw, I wouldn’t necessarily call them bad reviews and complaints. 99% of the “complainants” agree that GW2 is a good game at its basis. They would simply like Anet to change the game more to their liking (ie., trilogy, raids, gear treadmills, hardcore gaming elements, etc.) and protest quite loudly while doing so.

It happens in every game. Of course, this type of push and pull only ends up taking the devs away from their vision of the game leaving the game in a twisted mess. Anet developers are a very savvy group though. They know their vision is one that will bring success to the game and will not allow the vocal minority to ruin their game.

Yes, the pitchfork crowd. They do make for some fun forum PvP though. I agree. Anet has an incredible foundation for GW2, but has a lot (and I mean a lot) of work to do to increase the game’s longevity. I think it’s important to point out things you’d like to see in GW2. For example, I love WvW, but hate that week after week the score is settled by Sunday at the latest. I haven’t had the joy of being in a WvW match where the scores ebbed and flowed over 7 days. Even though Anet has a plan for their game, these types of things need to be posted.

@Stego

Ignore the responses of the disenters. Responses like:

Soothsayer.9476:

“Ignore the opinions of those who dislike it, listen to me because I’m right”

and

Fiddlestyx.9714:

Ignore the positive reviews, this game sucks.

See what I did there?

These people are self-entitled enough call out those who disagree with their whine-juggernaut threads, and then name-call and ridcule those who are positive without contributing any rational argument as to why you might be in error.

WHAT negative reviews??

You mean the reviews of those who don’t matter at all and are just complaining because they lack skill?

Almost every review given by credited sources have been fantastic. This game hasn’t gotten any bad reviews lol Not sure what people are complaining about..

Ignoring the negative reviews worked out so well for SWToR didn’t it? and that game had more to do at max level.

Katostrophe.3274:

WHAT negative reviews??

You mean the reviews of those who don’t matter at all and are just complaining because they lack skill?

Almost every review given by credited sources have been fantastic. This game hasn’t gotten any bad reviews lol Not sure what people are complaining about..

LOL lack skill? this game is targeted to those that lack skill, and hate the idea of having to do any real work for gear upgrades.

There are negative GW2 reviews? Lowest score I can find is an 80; did I miss one? I hear the word “review” and I immediately think of editors who review games for a living.

If you’re talking about the posts players make on game forum, those are called “opinions”. And everyone has a different one. Some people, for example, are actually of the opinion that smoking is a smart idea. So, that’s what you can count on with opinions.

GW2 has a few problems which really need to be solved yesterday, and we can certainly come here and complain about that, but I would hardly call that a review of the game.

flyinpoons.6481:

LOL lack skill? this game is targeted to those that lack skill, and hate the idea of having to do any real work for gear upgrades.

You need to look up the word ‘skill’ in the dictionary, no where does it mention farming or being equated with the amount of time something takes. GW2 takes more skill than any MMO I’ve ever seen or played merely by merit of eliminating the trinity, the system most lacking in skill requirement that has ever graced the gaming world.

What skill? dungeon bosses have no unique mechanics at all, just tons of hit points and one shot attack that you dodge or die, wow that sure takes skill. DE’s? when have you ever lost one? they are zergfests even more so than the dungeons, in short this game is a haven for people who were flat out bad at other MMO’s It is the island of misfit toys.

Conncept i think you read what i said wrong, because you’re arguing against me when im saying the same thing as you lol

Also like I said before, WHAT bad reviews?? There are none! Literally, there are NO bad reviews for this game.

This game is skilled based in sPVP. PVE is for fun and being casual.

flyinpoons.6481:

What skill? dungeon bosses have no unique mechanics at all, just tons of hit points and one shot attack that you dodge or die, wow that sure takes skill. DE’s? when have you ever lost one? they are zergfests even more so than the dungeons, in short this game is a haven for people who were flat out bad at other MMO’s It is the island of misfit toys.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SH1j1luFOw

Everything you just listed is, for one, false. Lets look at a single dungeon, the first one; you have a boss that switches between isolated ranged attacks and meleeing you; another which requires that you race to kill her own minions before she does; and of course the Lovers, which no boss fight in WoW even compares to, and it’s only one of the first.

And secondly, all of the things you have mentioned are not only inexistent in GW2, but things that any game which uses the trinity is guilty of. Why do you think WoW fully integrated the trinity system into their game? They couldn’t think creatively enough to make bosses with anything more but more damage and more HP, which pushed players to the point that one person had to take all the damage while the others dealt all the damage. One pathetic and unimaginative tank and spank strategy for every boss fight in the game.

It’s kinda sad ~ though this topic was created out of the idea to “encourage” the devs ta “keep on truck’n”.

Which I support!

At the same time, all you’re really doing is providing fodder for the trolls and telling anyone with an opinion on “fixing” the game, that they have no place to speak and should be ignored.

Basically, you’re hurting the community and building walls of bias. (though unintentionally)

Threads like this, should be closed and deleted IMO ~ due to the above mentioned reasons alone.

IE: If you want to encourage ANet, goto the suggestions area and write up what could help the game improve and what “content/mechanics” you REALLY would like to stay the same.

This gives a much better rep than posting this here in GD in the hopes to “drive off the blasphemers”.

Again, not saying that to belittle you ~ just that threads like this simple don’t help as much as you’d think they would.

Conncept.7638:

flyinpoons.6481:

What skill? dungeon bosses have no unique mechanics at all, just tons of hit points and one shot attack that you dodge or die, wow that sure takes skill. DE’s? when have you ever lost one? they are zergfests even more so than the dungeons, in short this game is a haven for people who were flat out bad at other MMO’s It is the island of misfit toys.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SH1j1luFOw

Everything you just listed is, for one, false. Lets look at a single dungeon, the first one; you have a boss that switches between isolated ranged attacks and meleeing you; another which requires that you race to kill her own minions before she does; and of course the Lovers, which no boss fight in WoW even compares to, and it’s only one of the first.

And secondly, all of the things you have mentioned are not only inexistent in GW2, but things that any game which uses the trinity is guilty of. Why do you think WoW fully integrated the trinity system into their game? They couldn’t think creatively enough to make bosses with anything more but more damage and more HP, which pushed players to the point that one person had to take all the damage while the others dealt all the damage. One pathetic and unimaginative tank and spank strategy for every boss fight in the game.

Everything you just posted is, for one false, see I can do it too.

You know what they say about opinions, and hundreds of others have posted exactly the same complaint I did about dungeons, so I’ll stick to my opinion, and you can stick to yours.

AlexanderFaust.4518:

It’s kinda sad ~ though this topic was created out of the idea to “encourage” the devs ta “keep on truck’n”.

Which I support!

At the same time, all you’re really doing is providing fodder for the trolls and telling anyone with an opinion on “fixing” the game, that they have no place to speak and should be ignored.

Basically, you’re hurting the community and building walls of bias. (though unintentionally)

Threads like this, should be closed and deleted IMO ~ due to the above mentioned reasons alone.

IE: If you want to encourage ANet, goto the suggestions area and write up what could help the game improve and what “content/mechanics” you REALLY would like to stay the same.

This gives a much better rep than posting this here in GD in the hopes to “drive off the blasphemers”.

Again, not saying that to belittle you ~ just that threads like this simple don’t help as much as you’d think they would.

I agree with this surprisingly, which is why I have not made my own topic saying why I think the game is failing, but I feel no issue with replying to one either in agreement or disagreement once it is made.

flyinpoons.6481:

Conncept.7638:

flyinpoons.6481:

What skill? dungeon bosses have no unique mechanics at all, just tons of hit points and one shot attack that you dodge or die, wow that sure takes skill. DE’s? when have you ever lost one? they are zergfests even more so than the dungeons, in short this game is a haven for people who were flat out bad at other MMO’s It is the island of misfit toys.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SH1j1luFOw

Everything you just listed is, for one, false. Lets look at a single dungeon, the first one; you have a boss that switches between isolated ranged attacks and meleeing you; another which requires that you race to kill her own minions before she does; and of course the Lovers, which no boss fight in WoW even compares to, and it’s only one of the first.

And secondly, all of the things you have mentioned are not only inexistent in GW2, but things that any game which uses the trinity is guilty of. Why do you think WoW fully integrated the trinity system into their game? They couldn’t think creatively enough to make bosses with anything more but more damage and more HP, which pushed players to the point that one person had to take all the damage while the others dealt all the damage. One pathetic and unimaginative tank and spank strategy for every boss fight in the game.

Everything you just posted is, for one false, see I can do it too.

You know what they say about opinions, and hundreds of others have posted exactly the same complaint I did about dungeons, so I’ll stick to my opinion, and you can stick to yours.

The difference is, my opinion has supporting evidence, I can list names, mechanics, and scenarios which refute your claim.

You on the other hand, can hardly form an opinion at all, but rely instead on pithy remarks to counter knowledgeable arguments rather than providing any evidence of your own.

Agree with the thread title, final nail in the coffin for the last breed of MMO, RIP, bring on the next generation of dynamic worlds.

Thanks to those that were able to discuss things in any way without digressing on a condescending tangent. I didn’t realize that 90% of the GW forum community was consultants on exactly what MMOs need to thrive, the main ingredient: a huge dose of complaining and over reaching whining, anything else is not allowed. I would go so far as to blame this mentality on the dumbing down and decay of the MMO genre which started basically when WoW opened the Genre up to many people that had never played it before.

What do you want me to suggest exactly? I like their vision I have no qualms with the polish and quality of their release product and I’m looking forward to what will come next, the sky is the limit. The bots, lack of content, bugs, pvp inbalance, difficulty to make money, difficulty to get a precursor, gear not being vertical, (someone in this thread said they “hate” that WvW ends on Sunday? ;p ) dungeon bosses have to much HP (really?) ,are non issues and are not close to being broken to warrant so much negativity, it’s actually refreshingly polished for anything that has been released in a long long time. If you have a problem with this game as an initial launch product you will never enjoy anything released in the MMO genre forever, as even the most subscribed and acclaimed MMOs today I’d say are at a much lower level of polish and quality then GW2 was for it’s first day on the shelves.

The dungeons do have lots of mechanics, the lowest level ones are pretty light but the higher level one’s are as complicated and more demanding then most MMO encounters in any game. To the person that claims one person has to tank, this isn’t the case in any way whatsoever and i can say you haven’t done many dungeons , the same goes for claims that there are no mechanics. A few fights are tank and spank but lots are not. I can list 10 at least right now on par with the complexity and challenge of wow heroic raids which is well on it’s way to only being playable by sub 5% of the MMO playerbase. Anything more complicated with mechanics and a much bigger majority would start getting very upset.

I like positive reviews. And for those who say people posting that everything is great aren’t helping the game, um…. Actually, positive feedback is just as constructive as negative. It’s equal no matter how you look at it.
I post a lot of positive things, because I really like the game, admire how things are done, and I feel that feedback is vital to help keep the game at least close to what it is now, since I for one enjoy it. If the ONLY thing on these forums was complaints and negativity, the game more than likely would be drastically different in a year. I think it’s important that ANet knows there are many who want to keep as is the same things others want to see changed, so that the big picture of the playerbase is well represented.
Make sense?

They really should move these reviews to user created content. Thats where most people would read it.

I’m always surprised that people never seem to consider that ‘bad’ game’ posts could be ‘AstroTurf-ing’ posts by competitors of GW2.

flyinpoons.6481:

Katostrophe.3274:

WHAT negative reviews??

You mean the reviews of those who don’t matter at all and are just complaining because they lack skill?

Almost every review given by credited sources have been fantastic. This game hasn’t gotten any bad reviews lol Not sure what people are complaining about..

LOL lack skill? this game is targeted to those that lack skill, and hate the idea of having to do any real work for gear upgrades.

I like the part where you backed up your claims with facts.

Oh wait…

LOCO.1785:

flyinpoons.6481:

Katostrophe.3274:

WHAT negative reviews??

You mean the reviews of those who don’t matter at all and are just complaining because they lack skill?

Almost every review given by credited sources have been fantastic. This game hasn’t gotten any bad reviews lol Not sure what people are complaining about..

LOL lack skill? this game is targeted to those that lack skill, and hate the idea of having to do any real work for gear upgrades.

I like the part where you backed up your claims with facts.

Oh wait…

I don’t agree with “flyinpoons” about this game being targeted to those that lack skill and I don’t want to “flame” you since you only asked a question but…
When I started playing GW2 I had an impression that his game requires more skill for a good combat. Now I know it doesn’t. It takes more skill in regards to positioning and especially in quick responses. The latter is even more important. This does add some new and exciting dimensions to the fight but (again)…
It takes huge amount of skill requirement out of the game when it comes to auto-targetting and auto attack. Both of those activities are automatic and this is so anti-skill.
So in a way, there is certain “lack of skill” feeling in GW2. It just doesn’t apply to whole game.

“Nothing is ever improved by only listening to praise. You should know that at least.”

Well said.