Great For New Players To The Genre
Personally I loved the game. Other than WoW. This is the first MMO I have played. I dabbled in WoW for about a month and quickly lost interest. I hated that people could just steal your kill or loot. That drove me insane. I love that the loot and tagging system in GW2. It encourages everyone to help, because it benefits everyone. That may be the biggest step for MMOs in the future. I think you will see all MMOs start to go this route.
The free to play is great as well, as it only requires you to buy the game. You are not handicapped by not purchasing weapons or armor with real money. Although it may help you level faster, it is nothing that gives anyone a clear advantage which is incredibly refreshing.
The character creation is in depth enough for you to always see another person's character exploring Tyria, that you have never seen before. Having said this, the armor and weapons are boring. Don't get me wrong, they are very detailed and there are plenty choose from. The problem is that from level 1-20 you might only see one or two different looking swords or armor for your character. You can however change the colors of your armor with plenty of colors to choose from, which gives you a sense of uniqueness. But I don't like how my level 1, +10 damage sword, looks the same as my level 15 +damage, +critical sword looks.
The waypoint system is also a positive. For an extremely cheap fee, you can travel anywhere you have discovered, which makes questing move along at a fine pace.
As for grinding, well, of course you have to grind, it is an MMO. But, regardless how the instances or the hearts are setup, it is essentially grinding. But I think GW2 does a great job in making it feel as you aren't grinding. The hearts, which are basically the same as a Quest NPC in WoW, require you to kill X amount of bad guys, or gather X amount of things, don't seem as daunting as other MMO's list of things to do. A lot of times, you will complete hearts just by participating in real time events in that area.
As for the story. It is pretty bad. There is nothing that makes you feel like you want to finish your next personal story quest, other than the fact you earn XP. While all races have their own story, they are all pretty bland. The voice acting is very bad, and clearly not the focus of the developers. If you are looking for a great story, GW2 will not do it for you.
I feel more that GW2 requires skill more than any other MMO to date. To me all other MMOs require stats to determine whether you win or lose a battle. To some degree, so does GW2, but at least it requires you to move and dodge.
To me, the positives definitely outweigh the negatives in GW2, and it is for sure worth diving into if you are looking for an MMO to play. Requiring no subscription was the only reason I gave GW2 a shot, and I am glad I did. This is the first MMO I have really gotten into, so take that into account with my opinion.
