Now that Path of Fire is almost upon us, I have finally played through Heart of Thorns. Here are my opinions about GW2’s first expansion:

1. Storytelling

HoT is a major breakthrough for the Guild Wars games, as far as storytelling is concerned. ArenaNet has always had trouble when trying to make the playable character relevant to the story; more often than not, it felt like the PCs were just following along someone else’s tale. This was an issue in Guild Wars: Factions and Mhenlo, in Guild Wars: Nightfall through Kormir, and in GW2 with Traheanne. In Heart of Thorns, and the following LW season 3 content, ArenaNet managed to finally overcome this. And they did so basically by allowing the playable character to speak, and speak a lot.

I understand what they were trying to do – in many RPGs, the protagonist is entirely silent, so players can project themselves in their characters. I have never liked this approach, though; not only this goes again the original definition of “role playing game” (a game in which you play the role of someone else, not you), but it also speaks of a lack of separation between what’s real and what’s a video game. Many RPGs have shown us that a game in which the playable character has a distinctive voice and a personality can be a huge success; see The Witcher games for a few great examples. ArenaNet has the added issue of paying all those voice actors (I’m sure they’re regretting now using 10 different voice actors for the playable characters), but I’m glad they managed to make all that dialogue work.

By allowing our characters to speak and take charge, ArenaNet finally made them into heroes who act, instead of just passively following someone around. I only wish there were better characters to lead. It continues to feel like ArenaNet loves their favourite NPCs way too much; it has been years since the “biconics” were introduced, and they have been used way more than they should. It’s bad to introduce a few new characters, have the PCs follow them for a couple missions and then completely forget they exist (as happens a lot in the original GW2 storyline). But really, pushing the same few characters all the time in almost every single chapter of the storyline is too much.

It becomes even worse when we face how those characters are just racial stereotypes: the tough and rough charr (Rytlock), the headstrong and dumb norn (Braham), and the physically weak but impossibly smart asura, Taimi. Taimi is right now one of the worst aspects of the game, both a source of infinite deus ex machinae and a nearly constant presence in the game that comes very close to ruining the PC’s agency. It’s very telling that there’s a big picture of her to the right side of your screen right now. More than anything else, those characters allow ArenaNet to be lazy, as they can be used over and over to fill the role of the solution to any problem.

Many of the best aspects of the HoT storyline are those apart from those NPCs. While the main story missions are basically leading them in a search for the Destiny’s Edge survivors, it’s the maps’ storylines that really shine. Through the four original HoT maps and a large gamut of dynamic events, we see how the soldiers of the Pact move from an almost complete defeat into becoming a force aligned with multiple new allies, ready to knock at Mordremoth’s door. The way ArenaNet managed to tell a story parallel to the story missions through the maps’ dynamic events was really inventive.

I wish the same could be said about the Living World season 3 storyline. Other than still using Taimi as a deus ex machinae and all the times Braham was mentioned, the story wasn’t exactly bad; only very underwhelming. It’s good to see how ArenaNet mentioned multiple plot elements from the original GW2 and even from GW1, but the stakes were really never there. We were told that two elder dragons had awoken and become powered up by the deaths of Zaitan and Mordremoth, but it felt like nothing really changed as far as the dragons were concerned; unlike Mordremoth, they didn’t even try to make new attacks at the main nations of Tyria, or do anything that was worse than what they had been doing before becoming “active”. The menace of the two dragons was never given any significant impact or weight. The reveal of the expansion’s villain was very out of nowhere and may lead to some terrible retconning, although we’ll have to wait and see how that story ends in PoF. I’m somewhat disappointed that human characters didn’t have more to say about him, though.

2. The Maps

Verdant Brink is, at first, somewhat frustrating in how annoying it is to navigate. Once you unlock the basic masteries, though (and only the basic ones), the map becomes a joy to explore. It’s incredibly well designed: you can go anywhere in the map without the masteries (other than the hard lock at the canopy), but once you have them, multiple different paths are open to navigate from one place to the other. The masteries become, then, not a way to open an area that was artificially closed, rather a way to empower players and give them alternatives in how they move around. Being a very open map with clear layers, Verdant Brink is easy to read on the map, which also helps when exploring it. And said exploration is rewarded with interesting dynamic events, each telling its own story from start to finish. Other than the flaws seen in all HoT maps, Verdant Brink is a truly brilliant design.

Unfortunately, it kind of goes downhill from there.

Auric Basin and Tangled Depths are a mess to navigate. Both have a lot less open spaces than Verdant Brinks, and also offer significantly less paths to go from one area to the other. Tangled Depths is a massive mess, with a map that is almost useless due to the many different closed spaces, and many different vertical layers that are not clearly marked; it tries to represent a confusing 3 dimensional space with a 2D map, and fails spectacularly at that. Making both regions worse, we begin to see artificial barriers preventing exploration unless characters have unlocked mid and high tiers masteries, which is the opposite of what we saw in Verdant Brink: instead of opening new paths, having those masteries allow characters to use a single path to enter a few areas, and that’s it.

Tangled Depths, at least, has many interesting dynamic events chains, telling full stories within each region. Auric Basin has shallower events, but it has the nice looking Tarir and a killer soundtrack, which help make it less of a chore to play in. Dragon’s Stand, in other hand, is… Well, empty. The entire map tells a single story, with a single event chain, and is thus the more limited of the maps. I never go there other than to see the main meta event, because there’s next to nothing to do there.

The four original HoT maps share some of the same issues, with the worst one being the lack in enemy diversity. As was to be expected, since the entire expansion is basically about defeating one enemy, we spend almost all the time in the expansion fighting against a single enemy type, the Mordrem. Considering how often we see the same foes, and how some of them were there in the releases leading to HoT (I’m looking at you, jungle tendrils), it gets old very fast. The new enemies from other armies don’t really appear enough to compensate the predominance of the Mordrem, and, to be honest, those enemies aren’t that great in the first place. One thing seen in even the most barebones MMOPRGs, those in which enemies hardly have any kind of special attack, are attacks that prevent player characters from acting. ArenaNet took the same idea and ran overboard with control effects, such as knock downs, stuns, and etc. Honestly, this is lazy; of all the effects monsters could have to our characters, relying on the same mechanic over and over and over again is pretty poor. It’s not that it doesn’t have a counter (stability), rather that, in an expansion so riddled with repetition, using the same thing over and over quickly gets boring.

The Living World season 3 maps, in other hand, are more transparent in their designs: built as quickly as possible to keep players busy for a long time, they have very inconsistent quality, but all share a somewhat rushed and grindy feel. Lake Doric is a massive disappointment, and shows the worst aspects of the living world model: it has basically a handful of enemy types, often spread in the same group composition (one cleric, one knight, one Mesmer), most with annoying uncounterable mechanics (blocks that cannot be stripped through boon removal, knock downs that cannot be interrupted, the annoying illusions). The events there are very repetitive and basically consist on killing endless waves of the same foes over and over. Even the environment looks ugly, with the shallow structures and the multiple NPCs just standing still. It’s a far cry from the illusion of life we see in major cities, or even in the Pact encampment in the Silverwastes. It feels like an incredibly lazy design. Most of the other maps aren’t as bad, but I’m happy I got to play them all at once, without waiting months between releases; honestly, waiting that much for each of them and for the next step of the story would have been underwhelming.

3. The Specializations

I’m not going to go into details about each specialization, but I believe they are simply not enough. The original Guild Wars eventually became bloated with the hundreds of different enchantments, hexes, arias and etc, each with a unique effect, but GW2 went too far in the opposite direction. The great majority of skills, old or new, basically apply the same old boons and conditions, without any kind of unique effect. They feel like slightly different ways of doing the same thing, over and over. It makes the game easier to balance, but also far, far shallower than the original game.

The specializations make this even worse by being so restricted. Linking all the new skills and mechanics to the specializations create a walled garden, restricting the combinations we can use; it’s not possible to use be a necromancer and use shouts without being a reaper, for example, which means they cannot be used before or after the death shroud skills. The revenant is a perfect example of this – a profession so limited that its utility skills can only be used in groups, without any kind of mix and match.

4. Conclusion

HoT and the Living World season 3 are better than the original Guild Wars, but still not great. Every moment of greatness – the way our characters finally have agency, the exhilaration of exploring Verdant Brink, the great storytelling found in some dynamic events – is met with flaws that basically boil down to the game being more of the same, over and over. The fixation with the same NPCs (wave to Taimi to your right), same enemies, same skill effects, and so on and so on, borders on laziness.

I’m cautiously optimistic about Path of Fire, significantly less so about the Living World season 4. For those who haven’t bought HoT, I’m not sure right now is the best time to get it, due to how empty it will likely be once PoF arrives and to how the HoT masteries will likely be useless in Elona. For those who haven’t bought PoF, I suggest a wait and see approach for now, as ArenaNet’s releases usually require quite a bit of polish.

You know how VB gets a lot better with masteries. The same is true of AB and Verdant Brink. Learn how to use Nuhoch wallows and exalted markings and there are far more options of how to get from one place to another.

TD is difficult to figure out. However, as someone who knows the map very well, I would never describe it as having few paths to get from one area to another. The issue is that it's a maze and not all of those paths are immediately obvious. Once you figure it out you'll see that there are actually multiple paths to get from one point to another and while gliding is of limited use, Nuhoch Wallows replace them as a means of bypassing the walking routes.

Further, while I wouldn't say the map does a great job of helping players navigate TD, it is a lot easier to use if you understand a few key points. First, know that any marker or pathway not on the layer you're currently viewing will appear slightly transparent, so you know it's actually on another layer. Second, pay attention to the map markers such as cave entrances/exits, stairs, ramps, etc. Anything with an up/down arrow indicates a map layer transition. Knowing these things won't help you find objectives and pathways that are intentionally hidden, but it will let you use the map to navigate those marked pathways. Finally, make sure you pay attention to the Nuhoch Wallows marked on the map. They are very important for getting around in TD.

As for Auric Basin? I think you just need to spend a little more time there. The map is pretty straightforward, albeit not offering as many paths between objectives as TD or VB. It just isn't as layered as those maps. Most everything is located on the same layer on the jungle floor in AB.

@AliamRationem.5172 said:As for Auric Basin? I think you just need to spend a little more time there. The map is pretty straightforward, albeit not offering as many paths between objectives as TD or VB. It just isn't as layered as those maps. Most everything is located on the same layer on the jungle floor in AB.The lack of paths is my main issue with the map, as well as some odd design decisions. For example:

• The area that is blocked unless the map is in a specific step of a dynamic event
• The hero point that very strongly recommends players to get a rank 5 (!!!) mastery that is extremely niche. I'm told it was almost required before an update made the hero point easier to achieve many months after release
• The village that requires gliding through tree branches in order to be reached
• The section of the map that requires ley line gliding, another rank 5 mastery

Those, IMO, fall into the category of artificially creating obstacles, instead of using masteries to unlock new ways to access we could already have been to.

@Erasculio.2914 said:

@AliamRationem.5172 said:As for Auric Basin? I think you just need to spend a little more time there. The map is pretty straightforward, albeit not offering as many paths between objectives as TD or VB. It just isn't as layered as those maps. Most everything is located on the same layer on the jungle floor in AB.The lack of paths is my main issue with the map, as well as some odd design decisions. For example:

• The area that is blocked unless the map is in a specific step of a dynamic event
• The hero point that very strongly recommends players to get a rank 5 (!!!) mastery that is extremely niche. I'm told it was almost required before an update made the hero point easier to achieve many months after release
• The village that requires gliding through tree branches in order to be reached
• The section of the map that requires ley line gliding, another rank 5 mastery

Yeah, you'll get no argument from me that Itzel poison lore was a poor design decision. At least leyline gliding is actually useful from time to time beyond just gating objectives!

If I judge hot based on the entire content released so far:

Story B-.The story was not great but the presentation is good.

Game play A-. I like the game. I generally liked all the new maps except tangled depth and season 3 episode 5 map. Exploration is good. Mostly good mob designs. Gliding is surely great.

I liked most of the elite disciplines and the continued class balance changes. sPvP is as imbalanced as ever, but that will never change due to core designs that cannot be specifically ultered without redesigning the game from scratch.

Graphics and art design A-. The game looks good. It surely is one of the better looking MMOs. I like the art design.

Communication C-. I wouldn't call it a fail, but it is mostly one sided. MMOs require more open dialogue between the player base and the developers.

Content pace A. We are getting decent content quarterly. Most AAA games out there would charge $10 for the quarterly content. In my opinion the quality and quantity of content delivered since HoT release through today is more than worth the money spent.

Overall I would give HoT A-. It is not without flaws, but it expanded the core game significantly and had good chunk of high quality content. If player feedback and communication were better I would surely give it an A.

I thought HOT was much better than their original release. I also like the Meta events which have stayed consistently interesting and challenging. My only negative on the storytelling in Season 3 is it has been very human or sylvari centered and that has played out since the initial release. I would like to see more insights into the other cultures such as Asura, Charr and Norn. There should be more attention paid to that aspect in the future to keep characters central to the narrative.

@Erasculio.2914 said:

@AliamRationem.5172 said:As for Auric Basin? I think you just need to spend a little more time there. The map is pretty straightforward, albeit not offering as many paths between objectives as TD or VB. It just isn't as layered as those maps. Most everything is located on the same layer on the jungle floor in AB.The lack of paths is my main issue with the map, as well as some odd design decisions. For example:

• The area that is blocked unless the map is in a specific step of a dynamic event
• The hero point that very strongly recommends players to get a rank 5 (!!!) mastery that is extremely niche. I'm told it was almost required before an update made the hero point easier to achieve many months after release
• The village that requires gliding through tree branches in order to be reached
• The section of the map that requires ley line gliding, another rank 5 mastery

They created the maps so you progress through and then, after you get more mastery points, go back to finish them. Trying to 100% a map before moving to the next one is what causes the problems. I admit it's not something that is easily shown to the player and it leads to frustration, and completionists have it even worse

I really like the map meta events, it's great to see things happen on a large scale and know you're helping. Verdant brink made me rage quit for two years at launch, now I've got masteries and learned the map, I love it. Tangled depths is a chore. Dragons stand is great, but as you say, I only go there for the meta. Overall HoT is a mixed bag, but very enjoyable. My only regret is staying away from it for two years and not giving it that second chance.

I'd be happy if I never see another jungle tendril again though