I really looked forward to HoT, so much so i pre-ordered the $100 v as soon as it became available and couldn’t wait for the release. For the past month, i really, really tried to like it and refrain from expressing my frustrations, as i’ve seen too many complaints already and thinking if i give it time, i may get to like it more. But sadly, the more i play it the more i hate it. I don’t hate everything, but those parts that i do, outweigh the things i do like.
Things i do like:
- The jungle environment, atmosphere and music is fantastic
- The first 2 maps especially are great for most part
- The gliding is great when it works for me (sadly with average ping of 400 +, usually much higher, it often fails to open in time, if at all)
- The mushroom jumping is also great and it fails less than gliding. But on odd occasion, it sends me to my death
- The story in Verdant Brink is pretty good but after that…
- Love that our characters can talk as they do now, but it would be nice if they sometimes spoke nicely instead of always barking orders.
Things i don’t like:
- Although some story parts dealing with exalted is good, it is ruined by gimmicky mechanics, such as forcing you to use strange skills without warning and no guidance on how to use them, all the while, being chased by a 1 shot monster on your heels. Or doing some silly trials in a rabbit form, or having to fight 5 monsters in a row, where last one constantly spams KD’s with massive dmg, while throughout the fight, you’re being denied healing.
- The story pacing past Verdant Brink is terrible and only gets worse at the end. Some segments had 3-4 if not more parts and if u fail, or had to stop playing, it forces u to redo the whole thing.
- The cinematics were good but it bothered me that characters who scream or open their mouth during it, had this weird looking lips with white bits in the corner of their mouth, making them look strangely contorted and unfinished. Perfect example, the scene of Eir’s demise. Not sure if this is tech limitation, but it looked terrible to me and it spoiled a otherwise very dramatic scene. I’ve seen that effect on Cathie b4, for eg during impersonating her in LWS2 where her lips seem to be sticking when talking and her mouth had these white hollows, but had hoped that would be addressed in HoT. Sadly, it was not and that’s a shame, coz it made the whole thing look unpolished. Also both Eir’s and Faolin’s eyes during that cinematic looked really weird too.
- Navigating the jungle is horrible, especially Tangled Depths and Dragon Stand. I’ll have more to say on that.
- Just about every HP is difficult to get to and almost always guarded by a champion that seem to have millions of HP’s + many of them have adds that respawn very fast. Today in TD, I tried to get this very difficult HP and i spent almost an hour asking ppl to help me and no one responded even though there seem to be a few ppl in the map.
My fear is, if the situation is so bad now, what will happen several months down the road? I already feel sorry for any new players or people bringing alts through.
- Some of the vistas, POI’s and mastery points are extremely difficult to get to as well. There’s one mastery point in VB up in the canopy, inside a hull of a wrecked ship. As if it wasn’t enough that it’s very difficult to get to the wreckage in the first place, you’re then forced to do a hideous jumping puzzle, hopping across tiny beams all the way to the top. I got up there 2 times and only had couple of more jumps b4 i fell down each time and got stuck in the hull. I hate beams in a JP’s b/c they require extreme precision jumping and with my high ping rate i often miss them. I still haven’t got that mastery point and its the last thing i need in VB. But frankly, i can’t be bothered any more. The frustration i have experienced in HoT is totally unreasonable and beyond fun and i really don’t understand developers why they would want to frustrate their players to that extent who paid them good money for their game. And i know, I’m not the only one who feels this way either.
- The are too many mobs and too many of them OP throughout HoT. Many of the groups have veterans and elites, even champs among them, forcing u to constantly run for ur life. These mobs are not only HP sponges but many of them use shadow-stepping skills like the frogs and moderem snipers, making u constantly lose ur target, which is extremely annoying. Not only do they shadowstep, but they seem to be able to travel some distance during it and often end up in bushes where u can’t even see them or way off in a different locations then their origianal position. I’ve often been killed by them while fighting other mobs and i couldn’t even see where they were. I’ve lost count how many groups i’ve come across that had 3-4 snipers and at least 1 veteran among them, creating massive cris/cross AoE’s where often when u dodge, u dodge into another AoE. That’s if they don’t 1 shot u to begin with.
- It often happens where big group of mobs will insta spawn on top of you as you’re going along, killing you instantly b4 u can even react. This sometimes occurs in other parts of the game and i’ve always hated it, but in HoT, it’s inexcusable, b/c you don’t stand a chance against these mobs spawning in that way when ur traveling alone. I’ve never liked enemies suddenly appearing atop of you out of thin air, it just looks bad and i’ve only ever seen this happen in gw2.
- I love exploring, one of the main reasons why i pre-purchased Hot. But the last 2 maps, Tangled Depths and Dragon Stand, take the difficulty of navigation to another level of frustration. Not only are these maps almost impossible to get through without a big zerg, but it’s also reliant on successful map wide meta completion just to get around and to even get access to some of the things required for map competions, such as vistas, HP etc. I’ve yet to see a successful completion TD’s meta and only a couple in DS, which has made exploring these maps most unpleasant experience i’ve ever had in any game.
- Modrem Mouth boss event is awesome, but the mechanics of that map is shocking. As if what i’ve already said wasn’t bad enough, to have all the waypoints contested at all times, makes the navigation even more horrible. But wait, there’s more. Every 2 hours (if you’re lucky to get in there at the reset of the map) you’re unceremoniously killed off and sent right back to the beginning of the map. I’ve lost count how often it took me those 2 hours just to get to the bottom of the map and b4 i could get to that HP, or vista i’ve been trying to get for days, only to be killed off and sent back to the beginning. I’ve never seen anything so ludicrous in my life. I eventually got into a habit of just logging out prior to being killed off and when i return, i’m usually in an empty map, at which point i quit the game in frustration.
Why? Why do this? Well frankly i don’t care the reasons, none of them are good enough and tbh, i’m now regretting my HoT purchase, not to mention all the extra monies i’ve spent on gem store since then.
- The story ending was terrible in as much, i hated having to fight Eir and the other members of our group. That was simply terrible imo, not the least, the number of mobs in various segments leading up to it was ridiculous. My group was completely ignored by mobs and all the enemies constantly focused just on me, killing me often and forcing me to restart the whole thing. I’ve done the story once and i don’t for the life of me know why i even bother trying it again on my 2nd character. As it stands I ended up rage quitting (which i rarely do, but lately been doing that a lot in HoT) and i don’t think i care for any of it any more. I do value my sanity after all, but at the same time, i feel i did not get my money’s worth here.
And don’t even start me on guild halls, relating to small guilds and how i feel duped, where 3+ years of my hard work was wiped over night. Not to mention the amount of gold i put into upgrading my guild in good faith based on what u said leading up to HoT release….all for nothing. Thanks Anet, you’ve lost my business and much of my trust, no more cash for you moving forward, not until u restore our dignity. But guild halls is for another topic, i know much has already been said about it, don’t want to go into it here.
In conclusion, I wholeheartedly wanted to give a positive review on HoT and i’m bitterly disappointed that i cannot.
Perhaps if some drastic changes are made, i may feel differently, but in all honesty, the amount of headaches i’ve experienced….well nothing is worth that. Games should be fun to play, not be an exercise in frustration. It’s a big telling point how much gw2 has changed and not necessarily for the better, where after 3+ years, i still enjoy running around the core game, yet with HoT, barely 1 month in, i don’t even want to go there any more, despite its beauty.
Some suggestions:
- Create ‘safe roads’ through the maps, where u have mobs just out of aggro range off the road. if some 1 wants to fight them let them if not let them pass, except when events are on. But even then, events should never be held on roads anyway. I know we have lots of escort type events and i guess that cannot be changed, but at least when they’re not going on, we could have some more peaceful traveling through the world? We all know we have to kill things and do events to gain our masteries, but sometimes we just want to get from A to B and have a bit of a look around on an odd occasion. No need to shove endless mobs in our faces every step to of the way.
- Demote the champs guarding HP’s and Masteries, so a solo person can do it, i think this is a must. The zergs are gone, they got their stuff in the first week, now let us explorers be able to explore and appreciate what you have created, not curse u every step to the way.
- Make some stories where u don’t have to constantly fight the big group of mobs and a mandatory boss in the end. U did this in LWS2, why did u stop? It gets rather boring and tedious, having the same pattern occur in every little story instance. It starts with what sounds like a nice plot, oh but wait, we have to fight zillion mobs b4 we can continue. Boring! I fight enough mobs in PVE, way too many if u ask me, no need to have that in the story all the time as well.
- Create content taking into account that no everyone has the top notch internet and PC. Although i have a good PC, my ping rate is bad and I’ve always felt with jumping puzzles and such, especially the more recent ones, no consideration is given to people like me and trust me, there are many of us. In fact i’d go as far to say, we’re the majority. Allow some leeway. I realise this may make that type of content easier for people who do have good internet, but i think everything is easier for them anyway and i bet they’re in minority not us, so why only cater to them?
Well I’m sure i’ve missed some things, but this is getting way longer than i planned so I’ll end it here. I really do want to enjoy Hot but as it stands, i just can’t any more. At least the last 2 maps anyway. I hope this is taken as a constructive criticism as that is my intention, but i’m not always best at emphasizing those points and i hope it won’t be held against me.
If you’ve read this far, thank you for doing so and feel free to add your own comments if you like, anything but telling me this post is too long lol. I already know that.
