Originally posted by Agent_X7

 

Originally posted by knives22

I didn't know you guys had high schoolers in your staff.

But seriously, that was probably one of the most poorly written reviews I have read in a while.

Do you consider it "poorly written" because you disagree with it, or because you actually have some point of grammatical contention?

 

 

it's poorly written because it does sound like a high schooler wrote it.  you know those posts on the forums at wow.com where everything is a comparison to some other game they just played or movie they just saw without even a modicum of knowledge or experience with the genre.

"Here's a plot ripped straight from the pages of The Lord of the Rings! The Dwarves and Asura dug too deep"

first of all that's not a "plot" Lord of the Rings isn't about dwarves digging into Moria, it's just something that happened in the course of the story.   and of course it's not as if  the idea of dwarves living in massive chambers under mountains hasn't been a stable of fantasy literature for 100 years...  "OMG THERE ripping of WOW lol.  OMG LOTR keke.  WOW lol my tank should be like 300 "

And let's just forget that in the BOOK the dwarves are not the ones who release Balrog, it's something peter jackson added for the movies... but let's just call the movie the book... if you've seen the movie it's the same thing... you can just say you read the book

His comments on the graphics are just as LOL hilarious.  Was there a new engine for this expansion no one knows about?  He's complaining the graphics look the same as prior publishes of GW... "but but but I sat here a hole year!  I want new stuffs" NM that technologically there's only so much LOGICALLY you can do with teh same engine, he's been sitting here at my computer and the graffix are meh.

"This one time I saw Hellgate, and it was cool.  And this one time I saw a video of CONAN on youtube and that looked awesome I wish this game could be like that.  this sucks"

That's about what this review read like...

Originally posted by temuchin

  

it's poorly written because it does sound like a high schooler wrote it.  you know those posts on the forums at wow.com where everything is a comparison to some other game they just played or movie they just saw without even a modicum of knowledge or experience with the genre.

"Here's a plot ripped straight from the pages of The Lord of the Rings! The Dwarves and Asura dug too deep"

first of all that's not a "plot" Lord of the Rings isn't about dwarves digging into Moria, it's just something that happened in the course of the story.   and of course it's not as if  the idea of dwarves living in massive chambers under mountains hasn't been a stable of fantasy literature for 100 years...  "OMG THERE ripping of WOW lol.  OMG LOTR keke.  WOW lol my tank should be like 300 "

And let's just forget that in the BOOK the dwarves are not the ones who release Balrog, it's something peter jackson added for the movies... but let's just call the movie the book... if you've seen the movie it's the same thing... you can just say you read the book

His comments on the graphics are just as LOL hilarious.  Was there a new engine for this expansion no one knows about?  He's complaining the graphics look the same as prior publishes of GW... "but but but I sat here a hole year!  I want new stuffs" NM that technologically there's only so much LOGICALLY you can do with teh same engine, he's been sitting here at my computer and the graffix are meh.

"This one time I saw Hellgate, and it was cool.  And this one time I saw a video of CONAN on youtube and that looked awesome I wish this game could be like that.  this sucks"

That's about what this review read like...

 

^QFT.

I didn't even touch on the graphics, that post is completely dead on.

This review sucks because I don't agree with it!

Now watch as I go do the world a favour and fucking kill myself!

---

Originally posted by temuchin 
it's poorly written because it does sound like a high schooler wrote it.  you know those posts on the forums at wow.com where everything is a comparison to some other game they just played or movie they just saw without even a modicum of knowledge or experience with the genre.

---

/agree

Art and graphic and sounds in GW:EN are awesome. Story is Ok. But gameplay :( GW:EN going like other grind games here around and that's a problem.

Looks like a lot of people disagree... But this review is full of facts. I think I paid about doubly the money its worth. GW:EN is fully based on PvE... Why try to save something, which you know is already lost? No, instead of improving their best feature, they let us play the same PvP for 2 years... The PvE got boring after 1 week. Conclusion: I need a new MMORPG, as Guild Wars is dead, no serious expansions, no updates.

After playing Guild Wars for 30 months, I hate to say this but... they screwed up. Let's hope GW2 will be better.... As they'll barely have 1 mil. players when GW2 gets released.

WTH kinda review is this?

It's a sweet little expansion that gives people tons of stuff to do. If you never played Guild Wars before you won't get it maybe.

But ugh, you guys give Legends of Norrath card games good reviews, which is a pos because you get payed by SOE or something?..but you completely TRASH this expansion?

Get a new job please.

i have to agree with the original review. After purchasing both nightfall and prophecies, i was SEVERELY disappointed with this expansion, and felt i truly did pay about 20 bucks too much for it.

Tell me, how in the world does real-world references ruin a game's role-playing aspect? Role-playing is about being whoever you want and doing whatever you want, not about pretending to be some fantasy character.

First, comparing the cost of GWEN to the campaigns without still adding that the price of admission in comparison to almost all other games is a bit biased.  And, as other posters have pointed out, this is just the beginning of bias.

Second, just to further echo, you would think a review that is oh... I dunno... only a couple months late.  Would be very thorough to the point of talking about every feature in GWEN.  This reviewer missed mini-games, dungeons, PvE skills.  I don't remember the reviewer even saying how PvE skills come about in a big way.

Finally, I do agree with the reviewer in one point.  The expansion felt just a little unpolished, and it did come off as a big GW2-things-will-be-cooler-then-advertisement.  How could they have done things different?  I don't know.  I just know what it felt like.

Anyway, reviewing the review: you think mmorpg.com would not allow a biased, incomplete review after the game has been out for months....they must have been dying for articles/content over the holiday season.

I agree with the review on most of the points.

This expansion was a huge disappointment all around. The storyline was way too short and cheezy imo. There were major gaps in the storyline that could have easily been filled to provide a better experience all around.

After the short story, this game is a huge faction grind, which is sad. If this is a taste of what we will see in Guild Wars 2, I will not be buying it.

The Hall of Monuments was also a huge disappointment. At release there were many problems with it, and even though many of them were fixed, some still remain ( ie. You can only put Destroyer Weapons on display).

This expansion wasn't even worth the money it cost. It looks like Arenanet development team put more effort in designing that Mission Bonus Pack then dealing with all the problems in the expansion.

A somewhat disappointing review that made a few good points.

Once I got to the line "The biggest addition to GWEN is the Hall of Monuments", however, I began to realize that the reviewer really had no clue. The Hall of Monuments was lame, I admit, but it was hardly the "biggest addition" in a large expansion that added new Heroes, new skills, new areas, new armors and weapons, a new story, and repeatable dungeons.

I would say that the dungeons are my favorite part of EotN: and you can always run them, any time you feel like it. Just try finding a group for any dungeon in WoW... Good luck with that. In GW you ALWAYS have a group ready to go, even if it's just henches. Few other online games offer casual gamers an option like that.

I think part of the point of EotN was to transition players over to something new (i.e., GW2) and, yes, also to give them something fun to do in meantime. What's so lame about that?

In short, I have had a great time with EotN, I have found the community to be just fine (a *mature* player in ANY online game ought to have the common sense to find other mature players and a mature guild to join -- really now, Mr. Starr, it's not that difficult), and I think this expansion is a worthwhile addition to the series.

While I enjoy grouping with other players occasionally, it is the inability to complete dungeons on my own (if I feel like it) that keeps me out of games like WoW and EQ2. GW is one of the few games that completely adapts to an individual player's preferred style of play: grouping, soloing, and everything in between.

EotN is a fine addition to the GW series.

I don't believe in such reviews as this because you can tell there is bias all over it not to mention it is 4 months late.  Sounds like someone just read the back of the box and put something together.

Most Guild Wars fans liked the game but they did have some issues with a few things as always but that is nothing new in the community. GW:EN was just too short but there are reasons for that, Guild wars 2 is priority #1 so they weren't going to turn this expansion into a full campaign.

You can't complain about the price of the expansion because everyone these days charges you the same for the expansion and not too mention if you did order GW:EN through the online store you got the Bonus Mission Pack for free which offered extra missions and really nice weapons that moslty everyone was happy about.

The graphics in GW:EN were pretty good. Anet upgraded their graphics and if you have an old pc or old video card you would never notice the difference.

There is no roleplaying in Guild Wars. If you want to act out rapunzel then join a play ? Guild Wars is mostly about competitive play.

The idea of the new races in GW:EN was to give you an idea of what they are like from a lore perspective. They weren't made to be a played class at this point. Guild Wars 2 is coming so be patient.

Did you guys even mention the dungeons ?  There are 17 of them that you and your group can do. Some of them take over an hour to do.

There are 2 ways to play this expansion. If you just follow all the quests and not do the dungeons then you can finish the main storyline in no time. If you do each area of the game such as the Norn, Asura and Ebon Vanguard including the dungeons then it will take you alot longer to do.

The Guild Wars community isn't exactly the greatest by no means but by quoting something like this " LOLZ – WTB life for u, stoopid nub rper, lol11!!!!11" in a game review is ridiculous. Try logging into WOW and you get that and 100x worse outside each major city.

I havent played the expansion, so I dont know who is right about GWEN. What I DO see however is, people who disagree start to attack the auhor. Quite a disqualifying way to comment on something you do not agree with. It's so poor to berate someone about his writing style and play expert. But apparently arrogance has become trendy. Watched the same parrents of reaction to critic in too many game forums these days, alas. Maybe the reviewer is wrong, I dunno, but even IF thats now reason to attack him/her personally as unable to write! PA THE TIC!

Originally posted by Elikal

I havent played the expansion, so I dont know who is right about GWEN. What I DO see however is, people who disagree start to attack the auhor. Quite a disqualifying way to comment on something you do not agree with. It's so poor to berate someone about his writing style and play expert. But apparently arrogance has become trendy. Watched the same parrents of reaction to critic in too many game forums these days, alas. Maybe the reviewer is wrong, I dunno, but even IF thats now reason to attack him/her personally as unable to write! PA THE TIC!

And the review wasn't attacking guild wars and even their players?? Did you read it??

-So it's OK to attack a game that took months of people to develop, months of designers, gameplay, artwork etc....and their players....

-But it's NOT ok to attack a rewiever who spend half an hour writing up a lousy review.

This review blows. It's totally unobjective, nor is it an entertaining read, it's a burn on a game instead of a review. It sux and it's unprofessional, he deserved these responses. Was a pathetic attempt at a review. End of story.

Originally posted by candygirl6

 

 

Originally posted by Elikal

I havent played the expansion, so I dont know who is right about GWEN. What I DO see however is, people who disagree start to attack the auhor. Quite a disqualifying way to comment on something you do not agree with. It's so poor to berate someone about his writing style and play expert. But apparently arrogance has become trendy. Watched the same parrents of reaction to critic in too many game forums these days, alas. Maybe the reviewer is wrong, I dunno, but even IF thats now reason to attack him/her personally as unable to write! PA THE TIC!

And the review wasn't attacking guild wars and even their players?? Did you read it??

 

-So it's OK to attack a game that took months of people to develop, months of designers, gameplay, artwork etc....and their players....

-But it's NOT ok to attack a rewiever who spend half an hour writing up a lousy review.

This review blows. It's totally unobjective, nor is it an entertaining read, it's a burn on a game instead of a review. It sux and it's unprofessional, he deserved these responses. Was a pathetic attempt at a review. End of story.

It's OK, as a writer I am used to the hysterical rantings of forum posters. (Or as Dan Fortier calls them, Forum Terrorists, I term I wish I had coined.) Regardless of what I write, there will be people that do not agree, and cannot express their disagreement without resorting to name calling or other childish outbursts. It's universal, it's age-old, and it's actually entertaining for us to read, sometimes. (Well, those of us who can keep a level head about it.)

Originally posted by candygirl6

 

 

Originally posted by Elikal

I havent played the expansion, so I dont know who is right about GWEN. What I DO see however is, people who disagree start to attack the auhor. Quite a disqualifying way to comment on something you do not agree with. It's so poor to berate someone about his writing style and play expert. But apparently arrogance has become trendy. Watched the same parrents of reaction to critic in too many game forums these days, alas. Maybe the reviewer is wrong, I dunno, but even IF thats now reason to attack him/her personally as unable to write! PA THE TIC!

And the review wasn't attacking guild wars and even their players?? Did you read it??

 

-So it's OK to attack a game that took months of people to develop, months of designers, gameplay, artwork etc....and their players....

-But it's NOT ok to attack a rewiever who spend half an hour writing up a lousy review.

This review blows. It's totally unobjective, nor is it an entertaining read, it's a burn on a game instead of a review. It sux and it's unprofessional, he deserved these responses. Was a pathetic attempt at a review. End of story.

1. An attack never justifies a counter attack as being more logcial.

2. That many GW players are jerks is a fact you can see. What is good writing style is subjective, and basically of no interest in a gaming forum, unless we were on a forum for good writing. Talking about the community of a game is a natural part of a review.

I liked the Guild Wars games, but I think the review is hitting home.

It's not bad, but it's not that great either.

EotN was the first Guild Wars game I never bothered finishing, simply because it didn't feel like it was really going anywhere I hadn't been before, apart from the whole foreshadowing GW2 bits.

Still love the franchise, but EotN felt like a wimpering end to the first series.

The whole expansion beats you over the head repeatedly with what's coming, but you never get to experience any of it.

Ah...er...d'uh!  You don't get to experience any of it 'cause it isn't out yet.

Look, I have my own reasons for hating GWEN and most of them have nothing to do with the look or the feel. 

My biggest beef is that the game teeters between being ridiculously easy and insanely difficult with virtually no middle ground.  The dungeons (which weren't reviewed) are a massive time-sink (read: waste of time) due to the difficulty of some of the bosses at the end.  You can literally spend 3+ hours in a dungeon only to get wiped out so quickly at the end, you wonder what the hell happened!  And then do it all over again, if you can stand the idea of another 3+hours wasted.  Ugh!

In the meantime, the story missions are all fairly easy to complete with all hero/henchie teams, but the end-game rewards (Droknar's greens) aren't worth the time spent playing to get them.  (They're not even on the approved list for the Hall of Monuments.  If they were, they might be worth getting.)  Not only that, but to even stock your Hall of Monuments with weapons, armors, mini-pets and achievements is such a gawd-awful grind...well, more on that in next paragraph.

And speaking of grind: ANYTHING worth doing in GWEN is going to cost you scores if not hundreds of hours!  Dungeon raids, reputation farming: everything is geared to try to keep people playing until GW2 comes out in about 2 years, but the grind to get through any of this stuff is so insane I find it to be nothing more than a huge turn-off.

In short, GWEN has virtually killed my love for this game to the point I can barely bring myself to log in anymore.  Everything you do in GWEN feels like a day at the office.  It was fun the first time through, but for players - like me -  with more than one account and more than 10 characters, it's just not fun anymore.

At all.

P.S.  They could've ended the GW1 saga with Nightfall, and I don't think most people would've cared.  There's plenty of reputation farming in Nightfall to tide over the most hardcore gamer.  As it stands now, you have to choose how much grinding you want to do: Lightbringer and Sunspear ranks in Nightfall, or Norn/Dwarf/Asuran/Vanguard reputation in EoTN.  There's simply too much of this crap all the way around to make any of it fun.

And don't bother wasting time on those LB ranks in Nightfall: they don't apply to anything in GWEN, neither do the LB skills you earn with them.  Makes me even wonder why I bothered. 

This review blows. It's totally unobjective, nor is it an entertaining read, it's a burn on a game instead of a review. It sux and it's unprofessional, he deserved these responses. Was a pathetic attempt at a review. End of story.

First of all, it's "opinion", just like the vitriolic post you made.  "Opinion" is not meant to be objective.  Get that?  By it's very definition and nature "opinion" is subjective.  Understand?

You are, of course, entitled to your opinion, but that doesn't make your position any more or less valid than the reviewer's.

I gotta say, the review in general?  Not terribly well written.  Regardless, the bullet points he lists are, essentially, what's wrong with EotN.

I'm speaking as a longtime player who has participated in various parts of GW, from the highest tiers of competitive play to managing an alliance of 1000 casual players.

PvE Content

EotN is an expansion that brings a moderate amount of content, and minimal depth, to Guild Wars.  It gives you stuff, but very little that will drive a player to replay the previous 3 chapters.  The expansion does not let you create new characters, instead having you continue the adventures of your existing characters.

EotN packs 11 'missions', as compared to the 25 in prophecies, 13 in Factions and 20 in Nightfall.  These missions are divided between the major groups that are introduced in EotN - the giant Norn, the diminutive gnome-like Asura and the Charr.  Once those three segments are completed, the player must complete the Dwarf segment, which features a vicious rise in learning curve.  Experienced players will typically walk through even the hardest of these missions, helped by the (inexplicable) fact that unlike the previous games, parties get respawn points spaced out through the majority of the missions.

EotN suffers from a lack of pacing.  The first three quarters of the game have the players rallying the Norn, Asura and Charr for the confrontation with The Destroyer and his Destroyer minions.  Ultimately, the only result the player sees from these efforts are a handful of fragile NPCs in one quest leading up to the final confrontation.  The final confrontation, again, is underwhelming, and many players agree that bosses earlier in EotN are more intimidating and memorable than the final boss.

Players who beat the game - a process that can be readily completed within 20 hours of play time, have a number of other things to fill their time.  There are several minigames that are rife with issues and minimal rewards.  Polymock is a Pokemon-esque game where players pick a selection of monsters and fight the opponents.  However, monsters in Polymock are all too similar to one another, and suffers from the fact that the player has lag while the AI does not, making Polymock more of an exercise in problem solving, luck and trial and error than actual gameplay. 

The Norn Tournament and Dwarven boxing pit players against a series of opponents.  The Norn Tournament lets players bring their own skill setup against a series of enemies with well known builds, ending in a fight with a boss.  Though interesting, most players will play enough times to unlock the two heroes and get the Cup.  Beating the tournament 5 more times will give a player a hat or ale, with no reason or motivation to continue playing beyond that.  Dwarven Boxing is similar, with players fighting a series of opponents with a set of 'boxing' skills.  While fun and hilarious at times, Boxing ends after only 4 quests, with no serious reward outside of Dwarven reputation.  Any of the minigames could have benefited from PvP implementation, as each of the games end all too quickly. 

Those seeking more content for their dollar will inevitably try the dungeons.  About eighteen dungeons exist, ranging from one to four stages riddled with traps, monsters and periodic bosses.  Those who fight past the series of challenges will gain access to a final chest, giving players a chance at some quality loot.  Dungeons are good for players that enjoy them, but generally require a group of eight people who can put together a team (generally consisting of the same skills and classes as 90% of the other groups attempting the same dungeon) and dedicate 1-5 hours to complete the dungeon.  Dungeons appeal to a niche of GW players, as casual players will find the experience too frustrating, and hardcore PvE players will find all but the elite dungeon are too easy.

In Guild Wars, there are no godly items - instead, players are rewarded with higher quality weapon and armor art, which bestow a degree of satisfaction and prestige.  EotN promised 40 sets of armor - 4 for each class.  Players who bought EotN discovered to their chagrin that there were only 31 sets of armor, with the 10 'dwarven' armors actually being made up of 4 disparate pieces and no available headwear.  When EotN was released, a large number of players were outraged at the fact that most of the 'new' armor rehashed previous sets with new skins painted over them. 

There was a greater outcry at the fact that to obtain the armor, players had to grind for 26,000 points in the respective title track (Norn, Asuran, Charr, Dwarven).  In the time since EotN's release, the game developers have increased the rewards for completing the game, allowing players to either grind the faction or complete the game for their armor.

PvP Content

Because of the dynamics of Guild Wars PvP, it is hard to define how essential EotN is to PvP.  Where previous chapters offered 30 skills to each class, the expansion offers only 10.  If a player is interested in serious, competitive play, there is no question that they need access to the EotN skills. 

Beyond the 100 skills, EotN offers nothing to PvP players.  There are no new PvP types, no new maps or PvP challenges.

Hall of Monuments

One of the selling points of EotN is the hall of monuments.  Players who access the expansion pack gain access to an area that can be personalized.  The hall is broken into five sections where players can display various accomplishments for each character, with the stated promise that these things will translate to direct rewards in Guild Wars 2.

The Hall of Monuments is great for players who have a single character they dedicate themselves to.  Players with elite pets, maxed out titles and elite armors will enjoy the chance to display these things. Casual players or players who spread their time across a number of characters will find themselves out of luck.  The hall, generally speaking, only displays things that require many hours to obtain.  For all but the most dedicated players, most parts of the hall will be very bare. 

Graphics

From the moment players begin the quest to enter the expansion, a problem becomes readily apparent.  Art is reused at every opportunity, from details both small and large.  This repeats itself across monsters, terrain, armor, weapons and even maps.

The reused artwork ranges from obvious to subtle.  A player entering the first level of the Rragar's Menangerie dungeon will find an entire stretch of the dungeon is, stone for stone, duplicated in the Heart of the Shiverpeaks dungeon.  Terrain features and tilesets in the EotN introductory mission are copied and pasted from the Catacombs in Prophecies.  Less subtle are the underground caverns in the Asuran lands,copied from the Echovald in Factions and tinted a different color.

Beyond the replicated art, Guild Wars has some beautiful terrain and well modeled monsters.  If you've liked the art in previous Guild Wars games, you will find it doesn't disappoint in EotN.  Much of the armor and weapons in EotN have been seen in previous expansions (as much as 75%) but even 'repainted' ones remain attractive for the most part.

Sound

I'm deaf, sorry.  :P

Design & Recent Updates

EotN has a number of basic design flaws.  For a game that was originally stated to be about 'skill, not grind', it has devolved into something with a large amount of grind, and not much skill.  To outfit the hall of monuments, obtain EotN armor, get destroyer weapons, make PvE skills worthwhile or gain rains in titles requires a large amount of repetitive task completion.

In recent updates and additions to the game, much of the major rewards and content have been directed at the 10% of the community that's truly competitive.  That being said and done, competitive PvE players will inevitably lose interest in repeatedly clearing the same areas, while serious PvP players are currently wallowing in a metagame that's been stale and virtually unchanged for the past eight months.  As design for GW2 is getting underway, the GW1 team is stating more often that they do not have the resources to implement game fixes and updates.

Anet has made steps forward in terms of fixing some of the most glaring flaws in EotN, such as the grind for obtaining armor.  They've also put forward a marketing promotion that distressed a wide variety of the playerbase -- shortly after EotN's release, they rewarded people who had bought things in the online store (Within a select time frame)  with a set of missions and unique weapon art.  This limited offer answers questions that were supposed to be covered in EotN, and positively radiates polish.  Odd and distressing to many, who felt that this was content that should have been offered in the expansion.

Value & Final Thoughts

EotN is not terrific value for your dollar, and in general, I've not recommended it to my guildmates or friends.  Generally speaking, it has about a third of the content of previous chapters, for about $10 less.

That being said, EotN is a good buy for the most casual players (though I might recommend these players simply exhaust the content in the games they own first).  It is also a good buy for the hardcore PvE player who just has to get everything (though most of these have bought the game already) and the hardcore PvP player who will need access to the 100 skills EotN offers in order to stay competitive.

If you're losing interest in Guild Wars, don't count on EotN reviving that interest.  Content can be exhausted over a weekend, and at it's root, EotN doesn't offer much to make you want to make a new character, return to the older games or find PvP engaging again.  Driving the point home is the fact that Anet is busy enough with GW2 that we can't expect a major or serious update to the original series.  Spare your wallet.