Guild Wars Beyond: What do you like/dislike about the gameplay and storytelling?

What does everyone think about the gameplay Guild Wars Beyond has presented? I've seen a lot of mixed feelings about things like WiK from difficulty fighting mobs to disliking the search for dialogues and a few criticisms of the gameplay. I know a lot of the fangirls/boys will descend like a flock of seagulls mimicking the phrase "it's free content, shut up and be grateful" but I'd like to think we are intelligent and mature enough to constructively criticise our experiences playing through the recent content additions to the game.

One of the things that stands out to me about recently added new content from a gameplay perspective is how ordinary most of the quests seem. Almost all of the WiK quests were just glorified bounties, go to location a and kill mob x - without any dialogue to break it up or make the characters interesting.

Take a little help from above. Most of us groaned when we had to fight through the respawns on the way back (until we realised wiping saved a tonne of time and pain). They tried to mix it up a little with the frustrating asuran becons which were disappointing for a single use item and pointless for martial classes. The quests felt like a beta version of the golem kilns in the EotN mission GOLEM. Having Blimm or Zinn following you around and giving you another becon on a respawn timer would have been infinitely better. In the end it just felt like someone was trying to stretch out limited content to occupy more time.

Then we have the weird spawn variations in Temple of the Intolerable (when I play through that now it feels like the re-spawns are never ending). Again it seems like someone is trying to increase the time it takes simply for the sake of taking more time. Yes it's possible to ignore the respawns and just kill the boss but I think we all know that's not a reasonable expectation for 80% of pugs.

I think the biggest problem most WiK content had was the mobs we were investing all this time and effort into killing were just voiceless mursaat. Honestly killing Lovisa and Bauer was more interesting because they actually spoke and had something to do with the story - not enough tbh, more screen time for the villains please. Generic bounty style content is vastly more entertaining if you put up a smoke screen of dialogue, story and hopefully personality (most of the dialogue takes place in static camps where nothing happens and most of the people talking never do anything at any point). Killing an ordinary mursaat was just kind of boring. I want Winds of Change to have villains I care about stopping. I want to have a purpose for what I'm doing beyond "it's a mursaat, kill it." If you are limited with the kind of gameplay you put forward, at least try and create memorable characters to participate in it.

Did anyone else end up killing Confessor Isaiah and think, "Is that it?" I personally enjoyed the Battle for Lion's Arch (as a Splinter Barrage ranger it's the perfect content with large mobs and defensive bluffs) but I found the boss encounters incredibly underwhelming to the point that I thought Isaiah was going to get up again later on and do something meaningful.

I also don't think it would have hurt Salma to aid us in some way. She wants the favour of the people, she's an important part of lore and she is supposed to be a great leader of the human nation fighting for her throne not waiting for us to finish doing it for her (Kormir 2.0). Give her some kind of awesome monk-like shout to make me enjoy fighting by her side instead of it being another run of the mill experience doing all the work for an NPC who takes the credit. People criticise Rurik for being an aggro magnet but at least he fought beside us. There is a reason people love Killroy Stoneskin and it's not just because of his personality. You can give your NPCs powerful skills and still balance content to be challenging.

As far as festival quests go there is one thing that pleases me with the new ones (aside from there being new ones) - they tell some kind of story beyond the novelty yawn inducing ones we are used to. The Lunatic Court is kind of interesting (even if the quests were incredibly ordinary in terms of gameplay). The development of the Mad King beyond his simple yearly visit is also kind of interesting, especially when it enhances depth in other parts of the world via things like his Vabbi wife (the Krytan king interacting with another part of the world makes it feel more dynamic and alive).

I think the Guild Wars Beyond content is missing memorable villains that are represented in their gameplay and the boss encounters are kind of ordinary. There seems like so much missed potential with the mission style quests from WiK to be experiences where you interact with a villain to tell a story. When you did kill a boss (Torimo, Lovisa, Isaiah) it felt anti climactic and less challenging than the rest of the content - not to mention it was a blip in the bigger picture. I want more memorable boss fights (via game mechanics), more memorable characters (via involved story telling reflected by gameplay) and more memorable heroes (make the allies in Winds of Change enjoyable to play with, not just walking cut scenes or credit ninjas).

What would you change about the gameplay and storytelling of GW:B? What do you like most about it?

There's a lot of lore background to the mursaat and the WiK itself.

I enjoyed WiK for the most part. HoN was a lot of fun to play and the dialog was pretty neat except for

[spoiler]Gwen's acceptance of Keiran's proposal. Gtfo Gwen.[/spoiler]

So... overall I'm pleased.

Its poorly designed, shallow and pointless.

No, not really. I want to keep up on the storyline, and all, but... meh.

"They're falling in love and gonna get married!" plotlines aren't really what I play action RPGs for.

I was actually happier when I thought Gwen had died in the Searing.

Love and Love.

Guild Wars Beyond Content: Do you like the gameplay and storytelling? <-- No.

what i found interesting abouit wik and like many players when hitting wik for first few times is the change in foes skills.
Ignoring wik tempory and lookinmg at the 3 campaigns and eotn - all foes have a set build which we get used to and can easily work out counters for.But enter the wik realm and what we know ( or think we knew ) gets thrown out of the window as most of the foes have a chance of a different skillset which means on run A - a warrior may be using one build but on run B his bars changed.
This makes wik more of a challenge along with their damn obbsesive rez`s and i found this a pleasent change to standard gw.
Storyline - how many of us casual players care much for the storyline .. not many as we like to go in and kill things and see whats dropped ( maybe farmers would be better than casual players lol ).
I gave up on storylines after realising that canthan new year screws up the storyline for nf for new players in the way that its said in it about kormir becomming the 6th god - talk about major spoiler.Luckily i did nf before my first canthan new year as thru most of nf i despised kormir and actually enjoyed what was happening to her and if i knew beforehand what she`d become id have enjoyed it a lot less.

We have to remember that wik and gw:beyond is free content so we wont get the bells and whistles that a campaign ( or eotn which was a big letdown in several ways ) provides as its free .

Unfortunately, I think most game players are like this:

http://funnyjunk.com/showcomment/3807777/

The very first quests of WiK were fun. Then as usual , it got a lot repetitive( they obviously want us to farm...). Then , BLA and green items were nice too. Unfortunately , lazyness showed up again on Hearts of the north content recently. BLA alone was by far better , more fun and challenging than whole recent content .

So , just to answer OP's question : storytelling : totally not( wedding looks like for me an excuse to sell costumes.., logic would have been we unlock one right before wedding or idk...) ; gameplay : not really. Using thackeray was fun , but ofc we had to do same 5 times..... As well , i do believe heart of the north is really TOO easy..., if you compare for example to some HM boss from WiK...

Short and Sweet...

I disagree and loved the new content, keep it coming

I like both. The combination and immersion it provides can really put the rpg back into the mmorpg. Although for someone like me, having all the professions to repeat with, HotN got real boring, real fast. Otherwise it was alot of fun, the first time through. WiK didnt seem to be as bad when you repeated it. At least my builds changed to keep it interesting. I still repeat the WiK bounties for the same reason.

It's a lot of fun, and it's not like I'm expecting EotN levels of storytelling.

I liked WiK and HotN both quite a bit. Could it have been done differently? Sure, but then again, it is really nice to get fun and free new content on a game that I bought years ago.

Different people like different things, I am happy that they keep mixing it up. I didn't like the BMP content but I liked the Kieran quests, go figure. Either way, all new content is good.

I have enjoyed it as a very late-comer to the game. I felt that this was something I could get in on from the beginning and not be 4-5 years behind everyone. Unfortunately, as a casual gamer with a family, I can't dedicate the time for the grind and now it's extremely difficult to PUG b/c all everyone wants HM and I just not optimized for it and get (some) hate for that.

I still encourage the storyline to continue, even if I get left behind.

(sigh)

Extra stuff being added without me having to pay?
Of course I think it's good

it was new content that kept me busy for a while on a few characters.....so yeah it was ok, (not happy with the keiran solo quest stuff--though finally getting a rotscale bow was nice and a black dye)......


score: 6.5/10

Gameplay 9/10

Gameplay has always been Guild Wars strongpoint so I'm very satisfied with that.

Story 3/10

I've never been impressed with Guild Wars storylines for a variety of reasons. But it's better than nothing.

AC

Enjoyed the gameplay.

Enjoyed the experimentation with "better monsters" instead of "more monsters with bigger numbers."

Enjoyed parts of the story (I want to know what those Seers are all about dammit!), did not enjoy other parts so much. Not terribly bothered by this though; GW's story is tasked with being all things to all people, so there's going to have to be a little something for everyone. I can endure the supermarket-romance-novel aspect in exchange for the mythos-finally-explained aspect.

I think most of it is fine, although I can't emphasize how much less I'd like to see NPC's that only hit me up when they need a huge favor. Screw them, they need to learn to fend for themselves. I wish we could drive the story more ourselves.

i liked it in general but constant rez drove me crazy i really wish they didnt rez so much especially when my team wether it be h/h or people it was hard to stop every rez that occoured

/agree even a couple cinematics of Lovisa/Bauer/Confessor Issiah burning kryta villages to the ground would have been better.
30 second cinematic > Entire book of dialogue

No monthly fee, with new content that I don't have to pay for? Sign me up. Of course I love it. I like the storyline and everything. It's nice to see the game progressing. It's like we are finally making an impact on the game, and that is one thing that I like about it.

Uhh what? RPG = Role Playing Game. The plot and storyline is the main focus of the game and what it is about.

Gameplay I would say 8, any lower and I would have stopped playing.
Storyline, can't say anything bad...looking forward to seeing some more of the bridge between games.

Frozen Soil.




Overall I thought it was ok. I didn't care for the solo stuff too much, or how they went about selling the costumes then making us wait for an undetermined amount of time for it to actually complete. But other than that I thought it was ok.

Right.

And when I hear that there's new content for my favorite action-themed sword-and-sorcery RPG, "help me convince that girl that we were meant to be together!" and "watch the relationship between two NPCs grow into something real, until finally culminating in marriage" aren't the kind of plotlines I hope for.

And when the ranger that I'm playing meets an assassin, and their inter-combat dialogue reads like something from "Sex in the City" it makes me do quite a good bit of eye-rolling. Miku, Kieran... stop talking about your inner feelings when I'm trying to kill mursaat, kthx.

I mean, I'll watch the story unfold because I'm interested in the continuity between GW1 and GW2, but I'm just not into this type of story. Not something I'm going to bounce up and down in anticipation of the next chapter. I could honestly take or leave the whole thing.

"Guild Wars: The Kieran and Gwen Romance Story" = meh. I'm not into soaps.

I enjoyed it all. The new Halloween content was my personal favorite though, much more entertaining (for me anyway) than the WiK and HotN content. But I've always found the Mad King very entertaining, so of course that would be my favorite.

I also loved the challenge of the BFLA, and the Kieran quests are fun enough that I actually replay them not just for the rewards, but true enjoyment. Yes, Miku is a little annoying with her fresh-outta-Ascalon Wammo c-space tactics, but that's the only blemish on some otherwise excellent content.

What didn't I like? Running way the heck out to the middle of nowhere for dialogue.ds

This:-

and you dont have to play through it if you don't want to.

That may be the reason you play, but it's not necessarily true for everyone. I don't play this game for the plot or storyline, as I find much of it(not all, I like the lore and the setting) uninteresting. I also couldn't care less about the role-playing bit. I don't identify with any of the characters I play; I merely control their actions. My characters are just puppets as far as I'm concerned.

On topic, I like the gameplay.

Me too. And even though it was fun at first to see Gwen in EotN, it becomes rather annoying to have her angst around all the time I play it.

What I liked was towards the end we got to play with a defined bar. It made for an interesting change of pace and what i am looking forwards to is something like a duel, all the better to showcase an enemy's skills in order to make him worthwhile. Isiah? I didn't even see his sorry ass get off the ground before he was thoroughly demolished in aoe bombs. I actually didn't find the "content stretching" too bad. The mobs were varied enough that I didn't feel like I could turn my brain entirely off.

I really enjoyed the lore aspects of GW:B, having a reason to revisit old areas, the variable skillbars of the enemy, and getting some free shinies as a reward. Most people seem to hate Gwen/Gwen's personality and her interactions with Keiran but personally I thought she was great and had a good laugh at some of the things she came out with. ("Where have you been? You smell. I've missed you.")

I didn't enjoy having the new enemies spawning for any character that's finished one part of the game and being forced to complete WiK on that character to make the new enemies disappear. I really didn't enjoy having to use someone else's (fixed) skillbar to complete HotN - I've never liked parts of the game that change your skillbar like that (wurms, polymock, BMP, dwarven boxing) and I'm seriously hoping this isn't how it's going to be in GW2 with the weapon-linked skills - and I can't motivate myself to play through it again on my other characters just yet because I won't get a different experience playing as a different class with a different skillbar when all I'm doing is playing Keiran again. Oh yes, and I didn't particularly like the feeling that HotN was just a bad marketing ploy to push the new costumes.

I only want loot, PHATT loot and nothing but loot. Storylines are a waste of time and I don't even read them unless I have to. Kill floozie gemme my drop and let me move onto the next floozie. Only problem with GW is the loot content has become boring, not enough inscriptions and variants for me like say a Diablo II or Titans Quest (boy is there loot in that game). I like to keep finding something better not go face the same mobs everyday for the same items that dropped yesterday. That's why GW will always be 3rd rate MMO, it will never meet the fun factor of WOW or DIABLO's in loot content. Even combat is pretty boring if you read what most people say. They run the same old builds day after day week after week year after year. Sabway, Discordway, Spiritway, Sinway, etc. etc.

So all n all this new content adds nothing but a different place to play but the same mechanics of the game follow you forever.

I really enjoyed HotN - I loved the plotlines although not being able to skip the dialogue was frustrating; if I've died, which happens with more regularity that I'd like, then I'd like to start straight away, not wait for the dialogue to turn the Mantle guys red.

The main thing I *did* like was the semi reveal about the combat systems for GW2 - I loved the skills interractions between Kieran and Miku, although I do wish I didn't have to run in and aggro things before my melee partner decided to help me out.

The main thing I *didn't* like was something that other players have touched on: the set skill bar. I'm not a great player, I only have one caster main, so it was quite a shock to become a ranger on not-stupidly-easy gameplay levels. I don't mind that they were the same skills regardless of profession. What I do mind is that my profession, and gameplay experience, was dramatically changed! Thank heavens Kieran isn't a warrior, or else I may never have completed that quest line! It would have been nicer if Miku could have been your class (whatever that had been), although I accept that to still showcase skill interactions it would have taken a lot more work. But even if she had been caster/melee/ranged attacker it still might have made the transition less jarring.

On WiK I enjoyed it, especially tBfLA. However, some of the build up missions was just so difficult as to be impossible (for me - bad player, remember!) to HH. I'm lucky to have a great guild, otherwise I'd never have my first Oppressor weapon

I have a serious love/hate relationship with WiK. There are so many things right with it, like variable enemy skillbars, challenging enemy squads and quests, and furthering the story. I'm really a lore nutjob, so I enjoy all the little tidbits that go into things, like quest dialogue and so forth. My only gripe about the story was that Keiran's proposal was so anticlimactic, rushed, and generally unexciting. I murmured to myself when he did it: "Really? That would never work; Gwen would slap him." Other than that, the story was cool and I appreciate all the work that went into it.

That isn't to say that WiK isn't without a dozen or so faults. Thank God ANet made henchmen infused, but really that isn't enough. Many times, the stupid quests are easier on HM because at least the henchmen have elite skills, max level, and max armor. The limited party sizes for the expanded content, coupled with inferior henchmen and general difficulty finding PUG teammates makes the content very difficult and extraordinarily frustrating to navigate. Some other things that were really annoying were the lack of added ressurection shrines in areas like Divinity Coast (Explorable Area) and D'Alessio Seaboard (Explorable Area). If you wipe, virtually 50% of your play time for the zones is spent running back to where you wiped to continue. That's no good. Lastly in this vein, I want to suggest that the lack of rewards for playing through WiK on HM (bar Wanted quests) is disappointing. I'm glad that ANet has suggested that they want to fix this in future content updates, but it's still saddening that they won't retroactively apply it to WiK.

I think these oversights make WiK look rather sloppy, despite having a bunch of cool new stuff. Also, I won't lie, I am terribly disappointed with the skins for Oppressor weapons. They're generally less detailed than other HoM weapons (Tormented / Destroyer), lack intriguing designs, and just don't feel cool. I don't like having them, and I don't like getting them; I only have them because they fill my HoM and are the cheapest weapons to use for it. I think that's very unfortunate.

All things considered, the content is pretty cool. If I had to rate it out of 10 on the whole, I'd give it a 6. It's not bad, but I know that ANet can do better even with their limited GWLive team, and hope that they do for future updates.

I've loved everything so far. finally some prophecies areas became challlenging, most of them are a joke right now. everything needs some beef up, like in EotN. I'd be happy to see elona/tyria/cantha monsters with 2nd jobs and stronger bars

If you want beefing up, play only in Hard Mode. EotN areas were designed for post-campaign play, which is why their difficulty levels started pretty much at the Southern Shiverpeaks, eastern Kaineng City (ie, past Bukdek Byway and Wajjun Bazaar) , and Vabbi levels. And the War in Kryta starts even harder than that (at Realm of Torment levels of difficulty - and beyond).

The earlier areas need to stay the same to accomodate new characters who are leveling and gradually ramping up in skill, equipment, and insignia/rune quantity on the player and their Heroes. They should not be altered for the sake of those who have most/all skills unlocked and can afford to get their characters (and Heroes) all set up right off the bat.

THIS. So much this.
I remember the first time I ran into a WiK mob and had a total "OMG is that a packhunter build?!?!?!" moment. There were some clever builds going on, and it took me a while to work out who had a res and which WM Ritualist was just a regular Proph Necro and which was an actual Ritualist with channeling magic that hurt. XD It was fun to run up against WoH mesmers and I had to start really thinking about my PvE builds again instead of just "plug-and-play".

And I think most people I've talked to seem to have enjoyed the way the HotN missions have played out so far, repetitive or not. The BMP style is a refreshing change of pace and Keiran's ridiculous skills were a lot of fun to use.

I'm happy with the new content. There are some problems (difficulty level in some points, the terrible dialogue, especially in the romance dept., etc.) but overall it's been fun.

For the first time in quite a while I wasnt able to complete content running my standard E/W bar (ie. it wasnt stupidly easy). That alone made WiK enjoyable