Guild Wars 2

Hello! I’ve played Gw2 since release and I decided to write a little review of the game after one year. I’ve played a few MMOs in my time. My longest spam was Gw1 and WoW. I beta tested a lot of other MMOs in my spare time. I also play a few sandbox MMOs (Darkfall, Mortal Online, etc) every once in awhile

So lets get into it.

-Gameplay -7/10.
Reasons: The game has some of the best leveling and exploration mechanics in the game. The interaction with NPCs in gameplay is great, though it has a lot of room for improvement. The biggest issue that keeps this game from being a 10 is the skill system. The game feels very spammy most of the time, and it looks that way too. With the cluster of animations, low cds, and low cast times, the game feels like a very spammy game. Is this fun? That is up to the player, though personally I find it somewhat fun, but I feel like it can be so much more.

-Graphics -10/10.
Reasons: The visuals in the game are amazing. The attention to detail in the world and in the skills is amazing. When it comes to the open world, Gw2 takes home the gold. Finding new things, exploring new lands, looking at the stunning scenery. Finding your first jumping puzzle unintentionally is great.

-PvP (structured)- 5/10.
Reasons: The games structured PvP is a great idea of allowing players to get right into PvP without having to deal with leveling up. However, this part of the game feels like the least amount of time was put into it. PvP doesn’t interact with any other part of the game except with titles. This means going into here means you’re not progressing in the other aspects in anyway. The reward system PvP is very shallow too. You rank up to a new bracket of ranks every 10 levels. As you get higher and higher it gets longer and longer. The time it takes to rank up past level 20 is very very long. This coupled with the lack of interesting gamemodes (currently only capture point) makes it start to feel “grindy”. Spammy gameplay never goes well with PvP either. The fights often become cluttered with animations and it is generally hard to see whats going on, both in game and when spectating. Skills don’t usually have big call animations, making countering something quite tedious. There are lots of AoE skills, low CD skills, and other things that really take away from the game. This of course depends on the players, but when I saw somewhere on the forums where someone calculated the amount of players in ranked solo que only reached around 4k (out of millions of copies sold), it really shows that something is alienating players from it. What it is? It could be many of things, each with support from different players (reward system, skill/spam, balance, etc).

-PvE (endgame)- 8/10.
Reasons: If it wasn’t for the living story, the endgame PvE would be a 6. While fractals and dungeons are quite cool, some of the rewards for such are lackluster. The games current progression revolves heavily around gold. As a result, not all dungeons are done a lot. This has greatly improved in the recent patch and we’re heading in the right direction, but farming champions currently reigns supreme. Though most of the dungeons are beautifully designed and very fun. Fractals offer a unique look into dungeons and offer players a more challenging atmosphere. The living story really adds to the overall endgame for players in the PvE world too. This coupled with a amazing open world experience, the game earns a solid 8/10.

-WvW- 7/10.
Reasons: This game mode is one of the more popular aspects of the game. When looking at it from a “hardcore or serious” PvP standpoint, it has many flaws that prevent it from being viewed as such. Many dub it “Zerg v Zerg”, and rightfully so. This game mode heavily relies in “stacking” and numbers to be effective. While some may find this fun, others do not. Borderland maps are easily predictable in who is winning and some overall design flaws that really take away from the experience for some. Things such as trebbing structures from other structures, nightcapping, and the overall cluster of AoEs/animations can kill the experience for some. However, it is a very fun thing to play. Being in intense battles, people dieing, trebuchet shots flying overhead, it is all a very cool sight to see. It is a great part of the endgame, but like most things it has some room for improvement.

Living Story-8/10-
Reasons: The living story is a cool concept that Anet has been pushing hard into. Releasing new content every 2 weeks is astounding accomplishment and they should be applauded for their efforts. However, the living story fails to deliver on what it was created for. Making the world seem alive. In the past year we’ve seen a new enemy created with a newly created problem. Nothing in the storyline had any sort of connection to the world before it started. The living world’s main content delivery system is drawing players in through achievements. Sadly these really take away from the story and will sometimes make it feel more like a grind rather than a story. Though with each new story arc, we are seeing Anet improve on the living story. This most recent story had a great NPC and player interaction and the instanced parts of it felt amazing. The final boss fight had some cool and innovative mechanics that haven’t been seen too often (aside from gauntlet).

Final Ruling- 7.5/10. Guild wars 2 offers an open world and NPC interaction experience that has not been seen a lot in the current market. With amazing sights, and satisfying exploration, it really sets the bar for what should be expected in the genre. Sadly the game falls short on its PvP and combat mechanics. Clustering on the screen, general spamming, and lack of rewards cause this. However, its PvE and endgame experience is top notch. The living world offers a unique experience in the game, one that is not found too often in other MMOs. No sub, newly released content every 2 weeks, and a great community, this game is defiantly a buy and a great experience.

I give your review a 2/10.

I give the game a 9.5/10.

Opinions are like feet: [most] everyone has them, and some stink.

I agree largely with the SPVP section. There needs to be some sort of rewards for it to be worth more players time.

I think that’s a pretty fair review, actually. Good job.

I agree with most of it, but giving the PvE/Endgame an 8/10 is being way too generous, in my opinion.

@AlietteFaye:
Endgame… heh, here it’s when the game ends.

I give your review 8/10. Mostly I agree. I would rate combat a bit better. And while your reasoning is comprehensible it could be a tad better written. But still a very good job.

I hope you are aware that dungeons are buggy and can be exploited, some bosses can be skipped, some bosses can be glitched, the current living story in a nutshell is a festival being interrupted by some baddies, same thing for the one before it and the one before the one before it.
Edit: forgot to mention that the gold reward for each dungeon wasn’t well though, like, almost no thinking at all, I think it’s mostly because people who run arah complained about people farming cof, so they decided to make most arah path give 3g (and the fact that arah paths have 5 bosses and really hard skipping…), they probably gave AC 1.5g because they revamped it.

Deified.7520:

-PvE (endgame)- 8/10.
Reasons: If it wasn’t for the living story, the endgame PvE would be a 6. While fractals and dungeons are quite cool, some of the rewards for such are lackluster. The games current progression revolves heavily around gold. As a result, not all dungeons are done a lot. This has greatly improved in the recent patch and we’re heading in the right direction, but farming champions currently reigns supreme. Though most of the dungeons are beautifully designed and very fun. Fractals offer a unique look into dungeons and offer players a more challenging atmosphere. The living story really adds to the overall endgame for players in the PvE world too. This coupled with a amazing open world experience, the game earns a solid 8/10.

Your not even trying to be serious…