Guild Wars 2

I think the ending is horrible so I’ll leave it at that, however I think that there were a lot of interesting moments throughout the story. I did Human Commoner and Order of Whispers.

When I found out that the Order of Whispers was one of the primary factions, I was really excited to actually join it since I was always curious about them in Nightfall. I don’t really think they’re portrayed well here though mainly because the factions are so tied into their roles of either Stealth, War, or Research that they align themselves too. Whereas I would say Order of Whispers in GW 1 weren’t as strongly tied to covert ops.

Even so, I think the characters are really what made the story interesting to me.

Tybalt Leftpaw – I haven’t done the other two stories but I do know of the Vigil Mentor, I think Tybalt is more interesting because he’s not really a mentor at all. He also says a line that’s really similar to the Sunspear Motto which was almost like a “stand up and cheer” moment. I was kind of disappointed to find out that both mentors die on Claw Island so I pretty much can just assume the Durmand Priory one also dies the same way, but oh well. I can understand that making the storylines vastly different would take a lot more time.

Trahearne – Apparently there’s hate for Trahearne, I don’t mind him so much but it might be because I’ve played the Slyvari intro storylines multiple times. Each time he appears out of nowhere and I don’t really like him for it. I actually really like his transformation into a Marshal though because before that, he’s fairly boring.

Another reason I think I like him is because he and Vizier Khilbron are both Necromancers, that happen to be in the first game of a “series” you could say. They are also key main characters, and are both mysterious. I was very much expecting him to become the main antagonist of the game but I got to a point where I doubted that and wondered if he would actually turn or not, I think making me question that is by itself pretty awesome.

Everyone else was kind of boring or didn’t have significant parts. The only other two that come to mind as interesting are the two Charr who’s names I forget that appear when you’re attacking the Mouth of Zhaitan.

In any case, I generally think the story is sort of boring and lackluster but it does have some interesting characters and moments.

I do however almost wish the player character didn’t speak at times because of the way we’re written.

Part of me really enjoyed the story just before Cleansing mission, where you had your friend from Orr with you, the racial sympathy friends (my quaggans), and some others if I remember. It just made it nice to see the amount of impact you had on the individuals in the game, and I wish more might have been possible. And honestly, probably because I absolutely love Fear Not This Night, I found the final part of the story to be a very strong conclusion.

For me, the story starts of good (played Norn, Charr and human so far, from which I liked Charr the most), the only problem I have is that the first 2 quests arcs seem to have no connection at all. They feel more like glorified sidequests than anything.
When the order storylines start, the story get’s really good (played OoW and Priory so far), the quest to choose one was well done and really gives a good idea of what the orders are like. Of the order storylines themselves I prefered OoW over the Priory, mostly because I disliked Sieran (she just has no idea about history, what she tells me, a 4th grader should know), while I really enjoyed doing stuff with Tybalt. That’s how you make a character. He is 3 dimensional, has an interesting backstory, is funny but not silly and kicks kitten while not stealing your spotlight.
The racial sympathies so far were also good storylines, I played Grawl and Skritt, prefering the first since Gara was such a likeable and surprisingly smart Grawl. The Skritt storyline is bynature more wacky but still good, they just lack someone as likeable as Gara.
With the introduction of Trahearne it all goes downhill, since it all starts to become his story, about his wyld hunt and his Pact that he leads. And of course he pretty much replaces your order mentor. However, with the battle of Fort Trinity the starts to get better again, the attack on Orr was interesting and for the most part I was hanging out with strike teams and not Trahearne. I actually liked all those couples I met, the constantly betting Charr, the argueing Asura and the Human coxswains.
The very end about Trahearnes wyld hunt was…. actually pretty good. Especially meeting King Reza was a great nod to GW1. The final battle was better than I expected (as all my guildmates told me how awful it is, however they did when it was bugged, with Zhaitan not doing anything after being hit by the lasers), still not a triumphant finale. It didn’t really feel like I killed him, it was more the group effort, which would be fine if atleast the story before that was about me and not some other characters goals. This is my biggest issue with the “personal” storyline, after the second battle for Claw Island it stops being personal and starts being the “Trahearne and Friends show”.
Final verdict: 6/10 slow start, good in the middle, rather bad third act, okay finale.
In comparison with other GW storylines:
Prophecies: 6/10
Factions: 6.5/10
Nightfall: 9/10
EotN: 7/10
War in Kryta: 8/10
Hearts of the North: 6.5/10
Winds of Change: 7/10

Wow, I would absolutely disagree with you in the storyline favorites, lol. But that’s a matter of taste. I disliked Elona, it was my least favorite soundtrack, least favorite landscape, and my least favorite storyline. I don’t know why, but that’s just the way it is for me. Cantha was my most favorite soundtrack and continent, and Prophecies my favorite campaign.

As for what you would say, I really agree. It was kind of inspirational to help someone fulfill their purpose, and I honestly didn’t mind being the man who did everything. In the end, the story of the world was that we needed to get everyone together to even hope to fight these things, so it would make little sense in my mind that we, individually, would be the one to do in the dragon. I’m just glad I was able to play my part.

Most people liked the campaign the best, they started with. Mind you, I was only talking about the storylines, not the setting or music.
I did start with Prophecies, and I liked the lore behind it, but the storyline seemed more like random things I got dragged into than a connected story. Especially the ending sucked, we take all this time to fight the Mursaat and the at the 11th. hour they are replaced by that Lich and his titan friends. There are good twist endings and there are, well this kind of crap.
Cantha had huge potential, making it almost a Shakespearian story of revenge and hybris, but Shiro had such a ridiculous voice (at least in the german dub, the english version was slightly better, but to balance it out, our Danika sounded better) and whenever he appeared on screen he acted more like a dumb muscle than a threating villian, which together just didn’t make it work for me. When I played it, I hoped the fortune teller would replace him as the real villian. Besides that, I’m also no fan of Mhenlo.
For Nightfall it helped that I’m a huge fan of middle eastern and persian culture and I actually like desert landscapes. The storyline was the best written of all, imo. Varesh and Abaddon were great villians and I liked all of the supporting cast. It also gave us Palawa Joko (<3). My only complain is that we actually fought Abaddon. I just think the idea of a few men attacking that poor guys mouth was a little absurd. I expected to fight Varesh in an avatar of Abaddon form (she was a dervish after all) while we see the other gods battle Abaddon in the background. I guess the engine was to limited for something like that though.
What I liked about EotN was the shift from human problems to over races, mainly the dwarves. While the story also gave us Gwen… urgh… it had many likeable characters too. The ending was a bit lame though.
War in Kryta was a great conclusion of the Mursaat arc (one which we did not get before due to Mr. Khilbron) and a good set up for GW2.
Hearts of the North, well I give it credit for making me like Kieran. Before, I saw him as Gwen’s wannabe boyfriend, but in this he showed some character development. Big minus points for being very cheesy and involving Gwen.
Winds of Change, well I saw what they were trying to do, making the PC question his fighting for the greater good and how it can lead into fanatism, but at the time, isn’t it a little late for that? Why didn’t you think about that after the White Mantle used you? Also of course the whole first act was boring, but it got better with the last 2, overall it wasn’t bad.

While the whole first act of Winds of Change was repetitive, I do think that it was a much better scenario than coming back to Cantha and having the Afflicted wiped out and the Ministry running things into the ground. At least it give a chance to meet the characters involved, be a part of the action, and feel a little bit of the sting of betrayal in the end. I think it was the lesser of two evils.

I will agree, prophecies was everywhere, and a little bit scatterbrained at times, but I still loved it, and the variety that the continent offered. And I personally am a very much a lover of Eastern Culture, though by that I mean closer to China and Japan, rather than Persia/Middle East. I understood the need of keeping the map as it was, and I very much loved the architecture within Vabbi, but something about the area grinded me down very fast, and the very good story wasn’t enough in my opinion to bring it up to par with the rest.