90

Pay onces and Play free

wolferatus | May 7, 2013 | See all wolferatus's reviews »

I played the Beta and bought GW2, if you like MMOGs or RPGs you will like this game, but its not so good like GW1 and the AddOns. But the publisher are still trying to add new thinks and new challenges, so you have always somethink to do! If ou dont like MMOG`s with monthly Paymant, buy this game, you will enjoy it and its not like F2P games that you have to buy thinks on the item store, you can do this game easy without purchasing! You can play when ever you like and the servers run very well, you finde always peoples to play and you can enjoy this game s PVP or PVE.

95

Great MMO

redlady360 | May 1, 2013 | See all redlady360's reviews »

Now I've played a few MMO's and got bored of them quickly because in general they are all pretty much the same just with different names and settings. However for me Guild Wars 2 is a lot better than other MMO's as it is different in my opinion.

You can get far on your own in the game but its fun to team with others helping each other on your main story quests or any other quests. Another bonus is if you're doing the same story quests you can either repeat them or accept that you've done the mission, which helps if you don't really want to repeat the same mission again.

If you're the sort who likes exploring every corner of a map then you'll enjoy doing so on Guild wars 2 (I myself have enjoyed it) as the areas are detailed and nice places to discover.

I have yet to play PvP but plan to do so later on as at the moment I am quite content exploring, defeating monsters and generally levelling up. But if you have friends who like playing MMO's then it (as it was for me) hopefully should be fun to play with each other.

89

One of the best MMOs lately

Razzon | Jan. 27, 2013 | See all Razzon's reviews »

Guild Wars 2 takes place 250 years after the first one, but you don't need to play the first one to understand the story in GW2.

The art style of this game is amazing, you will find everything from snowy mountains to tropical beaches. The combat system is refreshing you can move while casting, every character is unique in something (Thief has no cooldowns, elementalists can switch between stances etc.).

The dynamic events are fun, but they will get repetitive after some time. The good thing is that ArenaNet constantly keeps adding new events.

PvP is fun, although it's best played with a group of friends, communication is key in arena pvp and world versus world, too.

The things I was disappointed in is after completing every zone, doing every dungeon there is not much else to do. Sure, you can grind dungeons for gear, but that's not what I was looking for when I got this game. Also the voice acting is horrible for the majority of the characters.

All in all, you can get out of this game 200 hours at least, so it's definitely worth the money.

100

The best MMO

Stebsis | Jan. 26, 2013 | See all Stebsis's reviews »

Oh man, where do I start with this one? There's so much to do in the game. I've never been that interested in MMO's. I've tried Star Wars The Old Republic, World of Warcraft, Maple Story, even the original Guild Wars and tons of others subscription and f2p titles, but none of them clicked. I didn't really care about Guild Wars 2 either until I saw a review explaining all the things about it, and I was hooked. Bought this and been playing it for some 4-5 months now and my god is it good on so many levels.

There are no your basic healer or tank class, you can specialize in something like that, but you're never given like a specific role to play in battle, everyone tries support each other and beat the enemy as a team, which I like. Everyone gets their own loot too, which is really nice, but too often you get really good stuff that you just cannot use because of class restriction. There should be a focus in the loot that gives mostly stuff that your class can use, it's frustrating when beating down this monstrous giant dragon - and they are big, Skyrim dragons seem like babies compared to them - and then you rush to the big chest where everyone gets their share... and everything's crap or you cannot use the best stuff.

Graphically the game is really beautiful, there are many wow moments in the design, huge mountains, big cities brimming with life, beautiful riversides etc. they're pleasure to the eyes and it's fun to just stay there a while, listening the awesome soundtrack, looking around, and just take it all in.

Combat is really fun, I've played as Mesmer and Ranger, and they're really fun characters to play both with melee and ranged attacks that I like to switch between. Classes have distinct looks and all gear you make look different depending on the class.

Crafting is also a big part of the game if you want the best gear and especially if you want to survive and go solo. You chop down trees and mine ore to get necessary stuff to create all kinds of stuff, you can even cook which early on is a great way to stack up some quick exp.

I really urge you to join a guild, it's fun and they can really help you with ingredients and if you're not that skilled in some crafting skill, someone from guild might be and you don't have to raise your crafting skills all the way up if you don't have the time and/or resources.

Questing is one of the best parts what really got me hooked. There're no typical unimaginative kill/fetch quests where you go kill something and come back to get the reward. You just wander around in the area of the quest, look up what you have to do, go do one of many, many different things, maybe kill, maybe gather, maybe mix some ingredients together to create some kind of potion you have to use to something, and when you've done it enough you get rewarded automatically, you don't need to go back and talk to people before doing almost anything. And talking about rewards, the game rewards you from everything you do, go to a new area, find points of interest, find vistas, do a jumping puzzle, kill enemies, find hidden area, just everything gives you reason to do them.

There's just so much to do, there's PvP which I haven't touched, I prefer PvE. There's also World vs World where 3 servers battle against each other in huge map. There's a gigantic world to explore, 3 massive dragons to kill, hundreds of quests, a bit dull main story and a lot more. If you're like me and don't really like MMO's, give GW2 a try if you're a least bit interested, it just might turn your head around.

90

Good MMO

Lirks | Jan. 18, 2013 | See all Lirks's reviews »

Personal Story 2.5/5:

This is probably the most disappointing aspect of Guild Wars 2. The story, at first, seems fun and somewhat engaging (appropriate for the early levels), but later changes for the worst as it devolves into a disastrous journey to kill Zhaitan, the undead Elder Dragon. Not only are characters wooden and dialogue cheesy, but for some reasons the writers thought killing off random characters left and right would evoke some sort of emotion -- instead, it ends up seemingly a pointless death, and rather unnecessary. There aren't many characters that will grab your attention, and the narrative needs some work. Cutscenes are lazy, and character facing character conversation scenes, while novel at first, eventually makes you realize how immersion breaking they really are. The choices you make... really don't matter too much in the end either.

Graphics and Sound 5/5

The atmosphere of the game is beautiful. Everything in the game feels like a piece of art. There is rarely a dull moment when it comes to the art direction of Guild Wars 2. The attention to detail is absolutely grand. The soundtrack is also equally stunning, composed by famous Jeremy Soule, known for his previous work in the Elder Scrolls Franchise and Guild Wars 1. The sound effects in the game are also grand and plentiful. The most notable track: Fear Not This Night.

Gameplay 5/5

The leveling experience is probably one of the best I've played in any MMO. Dynamic Events pop up left and right, each with their own unique context and story. The only problem is that dynamic events truly do not serve 100% as a placeholder for quests. This is where hearts come in. Hearts are basically quests without the text or the need to walk back and forth between NPC to accept the quest and turn it in. Exploration is one of the strongest points of the game. Jumping puzzles, and unique little discoveries are everywhere.

Instances 3/5

A mixed bag. Some of the dungeons are a lot of fun, while plenty of others are extremely mundane. Fractals of the Mists was also introduced as a new form of gear progression. Fear not, GW2 is still mainly about cosmetics. Ascended items aren't worth all the controversy. It provides a new goal to work for, and I believe Arenanet will continue to balance time and reward.

World v World v World 4/5

A lot of fun, but needs a better reward system (which is coming in February). You fight massive siege battles against 2 other servers. What is there not to like?

Structured PvP 3/5

Great fun, but only has a single mode. Capture points. Hot-join games may get stale over time, but they're great for trying out new builds before foraying into Tournament PvP. Right now this mode needs a lot of work, but once Arenanet implements the much needed infrastructure later this year, I have no doubt sPvP will continue to grow.

Overall:

4.5/5

Well worth the 60 dollar admission. You can get hundreds and hundreds of hours for no monthly fee. Regular monthly content updates continue to improve the game and add new ways for players to enjoy the game. Arenanet will continue to learn from their mistakes and further improve their game.

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