Guild Wars 2

I’ve been playing HoT since release and refrained from posting about my frustrations with it for this long, but now decided i’d make a post.

I really enjoyed Guild Wars 2 for it’s vistas, sprawling, open maps, and the exploration aspect of the game. But these new maps in HoT, while visually stunning, pale in comparison to the freedom to content the original maps provided.

I find myself running around for hours on empty maps, trying to find events to do or reach anything, but much of the time it ends in failure. Time limits on bosses and the like don’t make it easy.

If I’m lucky, I find a zerg train of players running the events. But that is simply boring and mind numbing after a while.. I have no issue with challenging content, which is what HoT provides. But my problem stems from just how INACCESSABLE the content is. You either cannot reach the content, cannot do it because of a mastery, or it’s simply impossible because it was designed for a group. What happened to the scaling we used to see on the original maps?

And then there are events such as the Ancient City breach event. Every time it runs there either isnt enough players around, or theres many but we just can’t beat it in time. It is frustrating for a lot of players to put so much effort into a world event but to get nothing in return. This is not challenge, it’s unrewarding just like the rest of it.

Wheres the lore? Wheres the content? I’m constantly asking myself this. I can’t find it.. where are the peaceful NPC villages of Hyleks and such? There isnt even anything here for someone interested in the lore. It’s just region after region filled with veteran mobs and clusters of mushrooms and pocket raptors. It just isn’t fun.. and I’ve lost all my motivation to try anymore.

I logged into one of my alts who’s last location was Timberline Falls. Immediately I felt a huge sense of freedom and for exploration.. the map was vast and I could go anywhere.. it was then I realized why I loved GW2 so much in the first place.

The key word for my dissappointment is inaccessability.. unlike Timberline Falls or other maps, I cannot go as far as the eye can see.. I cannot explore at my own will and out of my own curiosity. The map is as much used as a tool for navigation as it is to solve a puzzle on trying to work out how to get get on a ledge, and even then it’s so vague I’m just giving up trying now.

I really wanted to like Heart of Thorns.. and there’s still that possibility. I’m going to keep trying, and not give up. But so far it just isn’t appealing to me like I had hoped

It sound like you just ran around aimlessly and zerg with people once in a while. While ignoring all the lore and interesting things in HoT the made a post on forum.

I’m sorry for complaining, I don’t like to. My feelings are mixed I guess. I think the story is fantastic, the exalted are really awesome. The new mob designs are spectacular and a big cut above the ones we have in the base game. The music – phenomenal. I find myself humming the themes from time to time. Something about HoT does keep drawing me back in, and I’m not going to give up so easily on this game that I’ve loved the past 3+ years.

In the end, I want to get through this challenging content and look back and feel that it was worth it. I respect Anet as a developer, they have so much talent and put out some of the best work in this genre. Again, I’m sorry for complaining, and venting like this in public. But I felt I needed to say something about my frustrations with the expansion so far..

Maguuma doesn’t have as much lore in it as I’d like honestly, but it’s there. Explore, look around, check all the nooks and crannies. You’ll find bits and pieces. You do need mushroom bouncing, updrafts, and to be able to do some of the jumping puzzles.

The lore in the story is very specific, it’ll drop a couple of things on you from GW1, but not many and one was very, very obscure. But if you played the original you should catch it. I don’t want to spoil it, so I won’t give details. There was also a certain race you farmed to death in Maguuma in GW1 that you see dotted here and there in one of the zones, mostly hidden and ‘scouts’ and weren’t mentioned in the story as of yet. This leads me to wonder if we might see them soon! I’m excited for this.

I’m going to cross my fingers that when the next bit of content comes out, now that we’ve sorted out the sylvari bits we’ve been working up towards as well as the Glint stuffs, we’ll dig deeper into GW1 connections. I have hope. Maybe, I’ve given you some too.