Originally Posted by
Miatela
The game is fine and perfectly enjoyable - the one off price is most likely worth paying if you enjoy MMOs. However I wouldn't recommend going into the game thinking that dynamic events and hearts will be drastically different from questing in a game like WoW. While they have a slightly different feel at first it doesn't take much to see through the illusion. The personal story is spread rather thin and between stops you'll often find yourself wandering into totally different zones and completing them without ever getting a feel for what the major plight or necessity in that area is; though I have only managed to reach roughly level 55 since release due to casual play times and taking things easy, I couldn't tell you the first thing about what is different in each of the human orientated zones. Things can ultimately feel rather similar.
The dungeoning experience is also incredibly frustrating at first and particularly unenjoyable (especially trying to do lower level instances) and the world events I participated in (Halloween and Lost Shores) were dull, boring and attrition based zerg fests. Hopefully these will get better over time. However, the game can be relaxing and enjoyable in small bouts - especially when I limit myself to not going crazy over how beautiful the world map was before it began to fill with zone details. Rectangles everywhere.
That and the voice acting is painful - especially the squeaks and squeals of the Sylvari female and the asshat human male lead knight character thing.
I once heard Guild Wars 2 described as a very beautiful yet shallow puddle which is fun to splash and jump around in for a short while before moving on to other things. I think it describes the game (in so far that I have played) rather well.
Edit: I noticed that someone said the game was a grind. I wouldn't describe it as such. Instead, many activities feel like a drag. Moving across the world map through instant travel is too costly (a cheaper "flight point" option involving a waiting time at reduced expenditure would be preferable) and you'll often find yourself annoyed that to even get back to a place will cost you two to three hearts worth of quests. The crafting system can also be rather intolerable and the pitifully small bank space that you are given when starting out is an incredibly transparent attempt to get you to spend money on microtransactions. Little elements like this (coupled with the previously mentioned voice acting and characterisation) can really make the game swing wildly from great fun (Pistol Whip smack smack, pretty scenery - yay!) to I-don't-want-to-play-this-let's-log-off very quickly.