Guild Wars 2

Honestly, I’m really disappointed. I bought the game the second pre-order was available (Gamestop was more than excited to take my money). I followed every link, read every blog, watched every video. I was, quite frankly, excited like no other game before or after. I loved Guild Wars; I loved the PvP, I loved the story (I know some considered it weak), I loved the feel, and I loved the mechanics. I have so much lore and ‘fluff’ memorized that I think I could stun a lot of arena net employees even.

Better still, Guild Wars 2 held so much promise the concept of skills changing based on weapons was amazing, a personal story where we affected the world, events that changed the map and had a lasting impact. Now, I feel really let down.

WvW feels completely pointless, it can be a lot of fun for a while but inevitably it gets boring. SPvP feels like an absolute nightmare, to me at least, and I can’t bring myself to bother. Our Personal Story feels, for the first 20 levels, amazing before it just grinds to a halt and becomes a slog. The promised events having an effect in the world seems hollow, they have an effect for maybe a few hours at best. Really, the only part that remains is the weapons, but the lack of skills pales in comparison to the original game (even if in the original game there were many sub-optimal choices). Frankly, I feel like the saving grace really are the weapons.

Now we have the ‘gear grind’, which honestly I couldn’t care less about. I’m not a terrible fan of farming dungeons, or really even fractals. The only ‘gear grind’ I really do is for my Legendary. Perhaps it’s just me, but I don’t want to sink endless hours into getting gear that will soon be outmoded and pointless, it’s an utter waste of my time. If I sink hours into something I want it to matter, if that’s not gonna happen then I just won’t bother.

Maybe I was expecting too much, honestly it’s quite likely. I feel like I’d almost have rather had another Guild Wars expansion (or more) than Guild Wars 2. The ideas are great, the vision is beautiful, the art can be stunning, but in the end the product doesn’t feel like it delivers. It just feels like we’re going back to being another MMO grind.

I’m sticking around because it’s still, doubtlessly, my favorite game. I’ve all but grown up on the franchise, Guild Wars was my first MMO, the first game I really fell into and grew to love. I don’t know if Anet can fix the issues, I don’t if they want to fix the issues honestly (they are a business and have to be rational after all) but I can’t help but be disappointed in the direction they’re going now.