Guild Wars 2® ▶ Trailer
Guild Wars 2® screenshot 1Guild Wars 2® screenshot 2
AdventureMassively MultiplayerRPGFree To PlayMMORPGCharacter CustomizationFantasyThird PersonPvP

2,140 playing

Peak in the last 24 hours: 4,732

Peak in the last 7 days: 5,201

Guild Wars 2® Steam store

Game description

Guild Wars 2 is an award-winning online roleplaying game with fast-paced action combat, deep character customization, and no subscription fee required. Choose from an arsenal of professions and weapons, explore a vast open world, compete in PVP modes and more. Join over 16 million players now!

Basic info

DeveloperArenaNet®
PublisherArenaNet®, NCSOFT
PlatformsWindows
Steam DeckPlayable
Release dateAug 23, 2022
Price

Minimum specs

OSWindows 7 (64-bit)
ProcessorIntel® i3 3.4 GHz / AMD Athlon x4 3.8 GHz or better
Memory8 GB
GraphicsNVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 680 / AMD Radeon HD 7970
Storage70 GB
steamyze

Review Analysis Score

Based on 409 reviews from the past 1 year

83.0/ 100
Top 50%

Steam rating: Very Positive (88%)

Metacritic: 90 /100

Review analysis summary (Reviewed Oct 22, 2026)

Free to start and without a subscription, Guild Wars 2® is an online role playing game that scores 83.0 across 409 analyzed reviews.

👍 Strengths

108 reviews find it fun, and some praise the way players team up and a rewarding endgame. Multiplayer ranks 106th of 642. 42 praise the sheer amount of content, and some list raids, player battles, crafting and exploration as well as years of expansions. Content Volume ranks 65th of 1351. 39 like its pricing model, saying the core game is free with no monthly fee, and some value that you can return at any time without a gear treadmill. Pricing & Fairness ranks 33rd of 1399.

👎 Where it falls short

45 reviews raise complaints about what you pay for, and some say the Steam version is cut off from account features while others point to quality of life items in the cash shop or systems tied to expansions. 31 feel overwhelmed by systems that are poorly explained, and some needed video guides or miss a translation in their language. 9 find the progression grindy, with some saying elite specializations and crafting goals take hundreds of hours. Story & World ranks 617th of 1096.

Representative reviews Original reviews ↗

“one of the few actual MMOs with amazing player collaboration and fun endgame” · 108 reviews
“loads of content, good game with hours of gameplay” · 42 reviews
“core game free, no subscription, can return anytime without pressure” · 39 reviews

How it holds up

−50+5

Controls, difficulty, progression and depth
Mentioned in 65% of reviews · Top 30% of the games we've analyzed

Freedom +3.59 · Room to explore, build, and play your own way
Positive “excellent exploration with hidden locations and rewards” · 21 reviews

Progression 37% · Difficulty 6% · Onboarding 23% · Strategy 17% · Controls & feel 15%

Plot, characters and the world
Mentioned in 38% of reviews · Bottom 50% of the games we've analyzed

World +3.19 · Lore, atmosphere, and how immersive the setting is
Positive “beautiful world is awesome to play in” · 24 reviews
Negative “lack of Portuguese translation breaks immersion” · 1 review

Story 22% · Characters 5%

How much there is to do, variety and replay value
Mentioned in 45% of reviews · Top 5% of the games we've analyzed

Volume +3.94 · How much there is to play, including endgame, for the price
Positive “loads of content, good game with hours of gameplay” · 42 reviews
Negative “no new dungeons since launch, raid LFG dead” · 3 reviews

Variety 18% · Replayability 1%

Graphics, art style, music and sound
Mentioned in 18% of reviews · Bottom 40% of the games we've analyzed

Visuals +2.38 · Graphics, art style, and animation
Positive “beautiful map design and artwork aesthetics throughout” · 16 reviews
Negative “graphics outdated; mostly foreign players, language barrier” · 8 reviews

Audio 5%

Playing with others, the community and servers
Mentioned in 42% of reviews · Top 20% of the games we've analyzed

Community +3.35 · Who you play with — how many, and how friendly
Positive “community is chill and friendly, very active and welcoming” · 38 reviews

Playing together 24% · Servers & Connection 3%

Pricing, cheaters, balance and matchmaking
Mentioned in 48% of reviews · Top 5% of the games we've analyzed

Pricing +0.61 · Whether the price, DLC and microtransactions are reasonable, and how much paying gives you an edge
Positive “core game free, no subscription, can return anytime without pressure” · 39 reviews
Negative “Steam version locks players out of forums, sales, and account features.” · 45 reviews

Anti-cheat 0% · Balance 9% · Matchmaking 1%

Bugs, performance and developer support
Mentioned in 19% of reviews · Top 30% of the games we've analyzed

Developer support +0.11 · Updates, patches, and how devs respond to players
Positive “excellent customer support exchanged wrong key without hassle” · 2 reviews
Negative “account blocked by VPN detection, support loop prevents login recovery” · 9 reviews

Stability 2% · Performance 5%

Grey means too few reviews mention it to trust. — means almost no reviews mention it.

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