Originally posted by grimal

Longevity 9?   How in the world did you come up with this number?

Edit:  I guess since "hundreds and hundreds of hours" equals a 9, the expectation is for an MMO to satiate our appetites for a month?  If so, what's the big deal if it's B2P or P2P since all the content is done within that first month and there is never a need to pay past the inital box price?

I've put in almost 300 hours in the last month and ... theres still a ton of stuff for me to do. Contents there and will last you a good while.

Game is very good and deserves a real good review, but there is actually not a single critical point in this one o.O

Innovation 10? With those mindless hearts and dynamic events, which are not really dynamic at all? A nicely done crafting system, that unfortunately repeats itself after 75 points everytime?

Gameplay 10? With a difficulty throughout the game where you just faceroll through hordes of monsters. Also the dungeons are not very well done, have no story and are far away from polished imho. Not to speak of the weapons, which are not very well balanced at this moment?

and longevity 9? No PvE endgame at 80? No housing? SPvP on actually 1 (one!) type of map? WvW which is either waiting in queue or running in zergs mostly?

Social of 8? In a game where no one groups and noone talks to each other? Goddamn where are the old times of playing together and not just play to tap every mob to get the most loot?

Oh come on. This is just a little bit too shiny. Not a single critical point?

Pandaria gets 80-90% scores for a piece of software which is another copy of the last copy of their copy, Diablo3 gets scores which can only be written in drunk condition, Max Payne3 which is a shame to its predecessors gets 90 scores.... Its a mess. More paychecks from Rockstar, Blizzard, Arenanet and Bioware please!

Great review.  Agree with pretty much everything.  I don't agree about post level 80.  I still have quite a few things to work on - there's definitely a gear grind, crafting, exploration, dungeons, etc.  Same stuff as most other MMO's.  I will agree it's a little light, but it seems average for a new MMO.  My biggest gripe is the lack of different forms of sPvP.  Also broken events.  These don't seem to be getting fixed soon enough.  In fact in leveling my second character to 80 there were more broken events then leveling my first 80 at launch.

Originally posted by gwei1984

Innovation 10? With those mindless hearts and dynamic events, which are not really dynamic at all? A nicely done crafting system, that unfortunately repeats itself after 75 points everytime?

so i guess you missed the ones all over the map that actually change whole towns structures and supplies in the area when they are taken over. Yeah, not dynamic at all.

Gameplay 10? With a difficulty throughout the game where you just faceroll through hordes of monsters. Also the dungeons are not very well done, have no story and are far away from polished imho. Not to speak of the weapons, which are not very well balanced at this moment?

large groups faceroll through monsters but try running the level 80 stuff alone, yeah. wink.

and longevity 9? No PvE endgame at 80? No housing? SPvP on actually 1 (one!) type of map? WvW which is either waiting in queue or running in zergs mostly?

there's pleanty of OVE endgame, and they even made sure there was pleanty to do throughout the game. I'm at level 60 and 36% map. It's not a small game nor is it lacking in content, that's a myth.

Oh come on. This is just a little bit to shiny. Not a single critical point?

That would be a valid argument if the points they did make weren't valid ones already.

I didn't like how they gave SWTOR a 9/10 overall when you couldn't even see the mob you were fighting but that doesn't mean they haven't learned from their mistake.

And before you ask, yes i have negative things to say about the game. DR's should be abolished and they need to turn on Guesting right away!

Granted, reviews are just opinions, but I think 9.3 is way too generous. The story, imo, is less than average and the presentation of the stories is sub par, especially the wierd cut scenes. The whole story element seems like an afterthought shoehorned into the game.

I agree no quest hubs are great, but GW2 really does have quest hubs - they're just more like quest areas: i.e. players go from one heart zone to the next and complete the open group quests. Same thing, different delivery. TSW does questing better, imo. Explore and find side quests, rather than just going to a zone and have them automatically pop up. Boils down to preferences, really, but to say GW2 doesn't have quest hubs is just incorrect.

GW2 also gets very repetitive very quickly. Go from one quest area to the next and kill things. Endlessly killing things. A true MMO staple to be sure, but beyond killing things, there really isn't muh to do. Exploration leads to killing more things to satisfy a counter on a quest area. Yay?

And let's face it, the combat boils down to hotbar cooldown watching, exactly like every other outdated MMO out (and what killed TSW for me, ultimately). Where's the innovation here? I'm so sick of hotbar cooldown watching. If a game is going to revolve around killing everything that moves in the game world, at least make combat interesting and action-packed. Take a cue from DCUO or Tera and innovate off that. I'm not saying either of those two games are the ultimate awesome, but at least their combat mechanics are fun, different and require a degree of skill.

For me, GW2 is a solid 7.5. It's fun in short bursts, but I don't see a lot of long lasting, engaging game play to keep me interested for the long haul. It's just too limited in its overall scope - limited combat mechanics, limited variety in quest hubs/areas, crafting is a bore (to be fair, I hate crafting in every game), and other than grinding for better gear, there's nothing to do (where's the player generated content, like housing, or bounties, etc.?).

Fair review, on par with metacritic's.

The game still have some bugs, and it's not for everyone but certainly it's a well done game, beautiful, fun and rewarding experience. So many choices and so much to do.

I agree 100% with the score.

Yeah, I'm not sure about the Innovation score myself.  Not that I care that much, since the gameplay is more important to me, and the reason I'd give it a 10... GW2 was just more fun weeks in than most new MMOs have been days in.  TSW and Tera bored me almost straight away, and going by their sales figures, I wasn't the only one.  I could see myself playing GW2 for a long time.  Innovation seems to be an 8 to me.  Unless they devised some new way to level or fight, I'm not sure any game deserves a 10 in Innovation.  GW2 certainly brought some new things to the table though, thus an 8.

The doom and gloomers need to back off though, honestly.  You had to know the game would score above a 9, I don't know why you're acting shocked.

Once again another MMO launches without the end game sorted out I have taken the Pros and Cons and just made it Pre end game and Post:

Pre End Game

Fantastic story & dungeons
Goodbye quest hubs
Goodbye subscriptions

Stunning visuals

Worthwhile crafting
WvW is often amazing

Post end game

Not much to work towards post-80
PvP needs more reward
The dungeon armor grind

I am not saying there is a 100% solution to end game issues, I am saying gaming companies long ago gave up trying to find it. Make sure the launch is good, rake the money in and when end game fails, well we made our ROI.

Also I don’t know about you, but when was the last time you heard this is public chat. “This quest hub man, it is really getting me down!”

Making a positive out of something that has once again decreased the need for players to be even near each other when they play a MMO is rather strange. To paraphrase, “it is all about the multiplayer stupid.”

Stunning Visuals, oK to be fair SWTOR did not have them, but a NEW MMO having stunning visuals compaired to older MMO's, not exactly one to write home about. You don't exactly see posters on this site, old school or new talking about the declining quality of MMO graphics over the years. :)

Longevity 9 -"Still, the sheer amount of content to be consumed in GW2 at launch is enough to keep most players busy for months." - the baulk of a MMO's players go after two to three months, I dont wish that on GW2 or any MMO but thats what happens. That is the reality of todays player base. You can put any figure you like here, come three months and they are gone.

9 for Longevity when it clearly states there there isn't much to do post 80 is laughable.  How many recent games has this killed or doomed to fail?

Originally posted by itgrowls

Originally posted by gwei1984

Innovation 10? With those mindless hearts and dynamic events, which are not really dynamic at all? A nicely done crafting system, that unfortunately repeats itself after 75 points everytime?

so i guess you missed the ones all over the map that actually change whole towns structures and supplies in the area when they are taken over. Yeah, not dynamic at all.  Oh, i did them and in my opinion, it just does not matter. They repeat itself in a 5min cycle, so my actions are just not important and dynamic, because 5 mins later they get washed away again.

Gameplay 10? With a difficulty throughout the game where you just faceroll through hordes of monsters. Also the dungeons are not very well done, have no story and are far away from polished imho. Not to speak of the weapons, which are not very well balanced at this moment?

large groups faceroll through monsters but try running the level 80 stuff alone, yeah. wink. Of course a raging mob of 50 critters can run me over. But i mean the overall difficulty in dungeons and quests. And this difficulty is just too low in my eyes.

and longevity 9? No PvE endgame at 80? No housing? SPvP on actually 1 (one!) type of map? WvW which is either waiting in queue or running in zergs mostly?

there's pleanty of OVE endgame, and they even made sure there was pleanty to do throughout the game. I'm at level 60 and 36% map. It's not a small game nor is it lacking in content, that's a myth. Its not lacking content. But if you ever fought a dragon, you dont want to go back and feed the cows or kill the 10.000th centaur of your career. It lacks some big fights to me.

Oh come on. This is just a little bit to shiny. Not a single critical point?

That would be a valid argument if the points they did make weren't valid ones already.

I didn't like how they gave SWTOR a 9/10 overall when you couldn't even see the mob you were fighting but that doesn't mean they haven't learned from their mistake. Yeah, i dont like it either. Big companies get their scores polished upwards every single time.

And before you ask, yes i have negative things to say about the game. DR's should be abolished and they need to turn on Guesting right away! I have to agree with that also.

 

 

Originally posted by gwei1984

Game is very good and deserves a real good review, but there is actually not a single critical point in this one o.O

Innovation 10? With those mindless hearts and dynamic events, which are not really dynamic at all? A nicely done crafting system, that unfortunately repeats itself after 75 points everytime?

Gameplay 10? With a difficulty throughout the game where you just faceroll through hordes of monsters. Also the dungeons are not very well done, have no story and are far away from polished imho. Not to speak of the weapons, which are not very well balanced at this moment?

and longevity 9? No PvE endgame at 80? No housing? SPvP on actually 1 (one!) type of map? WvW which is either waiting in queue or running in zergs mostly?

Social of 8? In a game where no one groups and noone talks to each other? Goddamn where are the old times of playing together and not just play to tap every mob to get the most loot?

Oh come on. This is just a little bit too shiny. Not a single critical point?

Pandaria gets 80-90% scores for a piece of software which is another copy of the last copy of their copy, Diablo3 gets scores which can only be written in drunk condition, Max Payne3 which is a shame to its predecessors gets 90 scores.... Its a mess. More paychecks from Rockstar, Blizzard, Arenanet and Bioware please!

 

Ive always find it so interesting that folks complain about there not beign more "types" of maps(or maps themselves) in pvp.  The spvp in this game is actually fun and structuraly sound, which is VERY hard to do. Yes, there could be more maps or types of maps but if I had to choose I would go for just better pvp. Its easier to add new maps than it is to fix broken pvp.

Originally posted by modus

9 for Longevity when it clearly states there there isn't much to do post 80 is laughable.  How many recent games has this killed or doomed to fail?

 

PvP, is were most of the longetivity is at right now. And it is very much extending the life of the game for the many pvpers that exist.

Originally posted by rush1984

well im glad the reviewer enjoys it so much but i dont feel  like it deserves such a high rating.

 

i dont believe the reviewer got lvl 80 because he would know how little stuff there is to do, unless you call map completion and grinding buggy dungeons fun.

theres probaly thousands of posts of people on forums complaining about how boring the game is .

i however just quit entirely i got 4 weeks of fun out of the game so i guess it could have been worst

im a long time mmo player over 10 years now and gw2 was the quickest i become bored of any mmo, i even played aion and aoc even swtor for longer .

gw2 just doesnt have any longevity unless you are super casual and play only an hour a night, which im told is their target audience anyway.

 

i give it 7/10 which is still a good rating if only because they atleast tried to think outside the box

I agree with your score but you didn't QUIT the game, it doesn't have a sub so there is no need to quit. When I completed Uncharted 3 I put it on the shelf and stopped playing, a few months later I played it again, then last month I played it again. At no point did I feel the need to anounce I had QUIT Uncharted 3. You have bought the game and enjoyed it for 4 weeks, now you have stopped playing, you may get the urge to play in a couple of months and you can do that and not pay a penny.

[mod edit]

"...and I will gladly give them money in the Gem store if it means I’m supporting further growth of an already fantastic game."

Bill, I totally agree. I spent real $$ on Gems to get keys for 3 chests I acquired and it was worth it to open them as they gave me some cool items, like rare salvage kits, etc.

Originally posted by Kuppa

Originally posted by grimal

Longevity 9?   How in the world did you come up with this number?

Edit:  I guess since "hundreds and hundreds of hours" equals a 9, the expectation is for an MMO to satiate our appetites for a month?  If so, what's the big deal if it's B2P or P2P since all the content is done within that first month and there is never a need to pay past the inital box price?

There is tons of longetivity in this game simply with the pvp. Best in the industry, IMO.

But if one is not interested in the PVP, then what?  How is there longevity for the PVE players?

Originally posted by Scot

Post end game

Not much to work towards post-80
PvP needs more reward
The dungeon armor grind

I was on board for the idea of cosmetic only PVP gear.  Rewarding players with titles and better looking gear seemed to be the right choice.  I haven't particpated in sPVP but it sounds like it needs work.  Coloring your armor Red/Blue is a mistake in my opinion.  And not being able to use the pvp armor look outside of PVP is a mistake as well.

I won't bother doing ANY dungeons unless there is a reward good enough to justify the pain of doing them.  I just don't like dungeons overall and really didn't like my experience in them in GW2.  For me personally, I'd like gear upgrades that justify the time and have some sort of progression of explorable dungeons.  I guess if I really liked GW2 dungeons, I'd pick the one dungeon withthe set I liked the look of most and just grind that out.

Originally posted by GrayGhost79

Originally posted by grimal

Longevity 9?   How in the world did you come up with this number?

Edit:  I guess since "hundreds and hundreds of hours" equals a 9, the expectation is for an MMO to satiate our appetites for a month?  If so, what's the big deal if it's B2P or P2P since all the content is done within that first month and there is never a need to pay past the inital box price?

I've put in almost 300 hours in the last month and ... theres still a ton of stuff for me to do. Contents there and will last you a good while.

That's one month.  Compared to every other MMO (including Vanguard, EQ and everything else), a 9 is basically saying the longevity of this game is the length of playtime all MMOs should strive for.   Have we gotten to the point where 1-2 months of play is a 9????