Guild Wars 2
The long gap in any kind of reviews here is because I've been sucked into Guild Wars 2. I've been playing Melvor Idle for the last few years, and eventually decided to try Runescape. much as I love the idea of it, that game is just too old and ugly to hold my interest, but it did make me want to try an MMO again. Given the complete lack of MMO activity in recent years (minus the Ashes of Creation scam), GW2 seemed like a great place to try again, and it stuck with me immediately. It still looks good enough for me, it has 13 years of content to play through, and it has a thriving, kind community.
Pros
- 9 Professions (What we would normally call a class in other MMOs is a profession here)
- At level 80, each profession can gain and switch between 4 Elite Specializations, which drastically change how the profession works
- There are mostly no roles like tanks and dedicated healers. Everyone can DPS, and there are classes that can also buff and heal their groups. This makes it easy to find group content
- I've always loved the interface and graphical style, a sort of "painterly" look featuring a hand-painted, watercolour aesthetic that resembles brush strokes
- You can cast spells and abilities while moving
- Abilities are tied to the weapon you're using, not just your profession
- The mounts are incredibly well animated and feel very fluid
- 13 years of content
- Instead of the more standard quests format, there basically aren't any - there are large maps filled with events and "Renown Hearts" - points on the map where you can do a number of different things to progress a local goal. For example, helping a kennel owner by finding lost dogs, playing with pups, and killing pests. Doing any of those things fills the bar. When the bar is full, you gain reputation and a chunk of bonus XP.
- Waypoints all over the place that you can teleport to from anywhere
- Waypoints can become contested by enemy NPC factions and you need to liberate them to use them again
- No matter which race you pick, you can teleport to any starting zone, for variety or to play with friends
- World events & bosses happen regularly (like, every 15 minutes) even for lower levels
- World bosses look awesome
- For gaining gear, you can do literally anything. PvP, WvW, Bosses, PvE & crafting
- Most uniquely, there is no gear treadmill. If you had ascended gear in 2014, it's still the best gear in 2026.
Cons
- The voice acting in the base game is bad. Trehearne in particularly is absolutely atrocious. Everything (except Trahearne) gets a lot better after the base game story
- During large combat events it's impossible to know what you're meant to stand in and what you aren't, in terms of coloured circles. I'm guessing some of those are beneficial ally effects, but I can't tell them apart from the boss' bad things
- This is not really specific to GW2, but a side effect of any (13 years) old MMO. Working out what all the currencies and items are for is hard. Want to craft an ascended item? Better get on the wiki and start a to do list
- Because there is no gear treadmill, you basically need to find your own fun. Once you've got all your hero points for your elite spec and full ascended gear, there is no way to improve your character more. There are legendary items to craft, but they have the same stats as ascended, except that you can swap the stats. Thankfully, there is a massive ton of "content" to do; it just doesn't result in better gear.