![]() ![]() Even though I was around for launch, I ultimately drifted away from the game well before Heart of Thorns came out I killed my share of dragons, explored some fragments, and then moved on to other things. One thing to keep in mind, however, is that I’m coming at GW2:PoF more as a visitor than as a fully invested player. ![]() Getting knocked around by some of the local pains-in-the-neck. But when both the graphics and the content seem “solid, but expected”, the result is a slight feeling of being let down. A sense of overfamiliarity with the game’s graphics, on its own, is no big deal. It’s probably enhanced in part by at least some of that all-too-familiar experience with some of the exploration and questing parts of the game, but it’s something which started to nag at me. But once you start to get nice and close to the enemies – once you develop an eye for detail – a bit of the graphical age of the game starts to become apparent. ![]() Purely on an environmental level, the varied architecture and outdoor sights throughout the new areas can be breathtaking to behold, as can the sheer presence of some of the larger enemies. This is a tough one to really complain about, because the fact is that the game still looks gorgeous at times. Speaking of sameness, there’s another issue I had with this expansion: the graphics. This is a problem which has long plagued MMOs – the “being level 80 and killing a purple version of what you killed at level 1” experience – and even though it’s somewhat different in GW2:PoF, the end result feels the same. For me, after having faced down massive dragons and world-threatening calamities, having to run around and help out with glorified farm chores seems like a bit of a drag. Guild Wars 2 has always been a game with an emphasis on completionist tasks: exploring every single nook and cranny of the world, finding every vista, and so on. But before long, certain things were familiar to me: the areas with ‘heart quests’ that required running around and performing some fairly repetitive tasks in order to ‘complete’ the area. When I picked up GW2:PoF, it had been a long time since I last left, during the Heart of Thorns expansion. One thing I noticed with the new content, however, is the feeling of a certain amount of ‘same’-ness compared to the previous Guild Wars 2 experiences I’ve had. It’s like a trick Jenga puzzle but with more horrific godforsaken creatures. #Gamepad companion guild wars 2 how toI can’t testify as to whether these are all appropriately balanced against each other, but I had fun learning how to play the same character in a ‘new’ way, which is exactly what I was hoping for. These elites require learning a new style of play, complete with picking up a weapon that generally feels alien for the profession in question (axe for mesmer, torch for necromancer, and so on). With GW2:PoF, the Elite Specializations I tried out (particularly the Necromancer Scourge) felt truly fresh compared to how the profession normally performed, as well as compared to the already released elite professions. When it comes to games, I’m a mechanics junkie: I love trying out a new profession and finding out how it compares to the rest, and what individual contributions it can make to any conflict or raid. The Elite Specializations are a great touch as well, and my personal favorite addition to the game. It’s not only a nice addition to the game, but it’s good to see that the developers decided to put their own spin on the system, rather than just blandly introducing ‘beasts you can ride places’ that were otherwise identical to mounts in other MMOs. The mounts not only offer new ways to explore the world, but they actually are necessary to explore certain sections of the new areas in the expansion. Of all of this, the mount system is the freshest introduction: five distinct mounts that are tied in with the mastery system (which was broadly introduced with Heart of Thorns), and which offer distinctly different types of mobility to get around in the world. On paper, the new additions are considerable: a brand new mount system, a new elite specialization for each of the nine professions in the game, five new open world maps to explore and quest in, new quest chains and equipment sets, and a whole lot more. With all this world-threatening calamity, however, comes a whole lot of fresh content for players to enjoy. Not quite as far a drop as previously seen, but I’m still not jumping. ![]()
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