Guild Wars 2

Our analysis

Innovative MMO that was too casual, lacking tension that drew WoW players. Improved significantly over 5 years.

Our analysis

One of the few MMOs that truly earns the genre's name through cooperative design and meaningful exploration. The latest expansion Secrets of the Obscure is a strong jumping-in point with compelling story setup despite some padding.

Our analysis

A genre-defining MMO that strips away the worst conventions of the format: fetch quests and backtracking are replaced by map hearts, dynamic world events reward cooperation instead of loot-stealing, and weapon-tied skills make combat deep and skill-based. The massive content offering, branching personal story, robust PvP and World-vs-World, and absence of a monthly subscription make it an exceptional value. Faults like brutal World-vs-World queue times, no trading system, and thin low-level armor variety are real but minor against the whole.