It's an MMO where you can decide to take a break for five years with the certain knowledge that everything will still be there when you come back, and you can catch up with whatever part of the game you feel like, with no monthly subs or vertical progression treadmill to worry about.
It's great. When you reach level 80 and get access to the expansion content, it's basically just a huge bundle of things you can just arbitrarily do in your own time, at your own pace, and make granular progress on various account-wide upgrades and benefits
The game also does a good job at keeping basically all content relevant, unlike something like XIV in which you just go through those areas once when doing the story and never have a reason to go back again
Dungeon currency is also the only way to get certain pieces of armor and in a game in which stat scaling is not infinite, playing for glamour is very much valid
it has gotten a little too easy. champion mobs used to actually give me a hard time on certain classes back in the day but everything's so breezy now. it's still fun though
there's a reason why I tend to describe it as "the last bastion of what an MMO used to be"
That being a social club with a primary gameplay loop that is so casual that any dad coming home from work or grandpa can just do it while watching a kid or cooking.
The only exception to this is the heart of thorns maps because they were testing out a bunch of new ideas for a first xpac so they are needlessly and excessively harder than anything else in the whole game.
The plan was to have hard content that players would need to band together to complete and I feel like that worked really well. It really encompasses the jungle wants you dead.
Oh absolutely but its waaayy overtuned and even to this day is miserable to do. I forget where I saw this, but I remember reading that ArenaNet figured you'd be going in with some high end gear from dungeons or fractals and not karma or some fresh level 80 stuff
I tried to come back years ago and got checked at the gate by everything I needed to learn and absorb for that expac, is that not the case with the other content they've added since?
peak low pressure MMO shit for me back in the day was those no name browser based one like whatever the moon base one was or sherwood .etc It'll never be like it was tho
My issues stand but it’s impressive how it still holds up in its core underlying structure. Yeah it could be more consistent with its content update approach but it’s a small issue compared to the game actually being fun and minimally dark patterned
I meant the structure. When I left GW2, they were just starting to stop making new elite specs and even the mastery stuff had changed a few times in intent. But they seem to have found their cadence now
I didnt take in a combative way, don’t worry. I’m just in a weird feeling about GW2 because, a little like war frame, you see futures they introduced but rarely or stopped updating. Like the MOBS-style PvP mode
Wish it had a console port. Always feels wild that a game with controller support never makes it to consoles. Surely there's enough people there to recoup the porting costs.
I always loved the gw2 just decided to be its own thing in so many ways. Yeah, it has a lot of traditional mmo elements, but it has so much of What If It Was This Instead?!
Comments
I agree and love the gameplay after years of 14 but older MMO bag space limits reminded me of why i didnt stick with it compared to 14
That being a social club with a primary gameplay loop that is so casual that any dad coming home from work or grandpa can just do it while watching a kid or cooking.