On Guild Wars: Nightfall Collector’s Edition

If I start a sentence with “I really like Star…” most of you will finish it with “…Wars”. Judging from ArenaNet’s current offerings they intend to make the Guild Wars series just as popular and well known. With the balanced mix of online fighting, an intriguing story, well designed player versus player combat and the lack of any kind of subscription they might just make it.

For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past few years here is an overview of what this franchise is all about. The first Guild Wars (now subtitled Prophecies) took the recipe for a standard online RPG and then hacked it to pieces. From the remains it took only the most appealing parts and meshed them together into something the world has never seen before. There are still fierce arguments raging around the net about Guild Wars being or not being a true MMORPG. While nobody is questioning the “Online” part several have their doubts about the “Massively Multiplayer” in the definition. Their main argument is that except for the player hubs in the game (cities, settlements, outposts…) everything is instanced. This means that when a player leaves an outpost he enters into an instanced version of the world where he and his party don’t have any contact with other players. While this might bother some players the general consensus is that this instanced nature of the game helps make the adventures more personalized and dynamic.

Unlike other MMORPGs the past Guild Wars titles (Prophecies and Factions) featured a solid story which took the player through several quests and missions (the games name for longer and more scripted quests). This approach made questing in Guild Wars a more challenging and involved activity as opposed to what can often be considered a grind in other online RPGs.

Skills are also an important concept in the fantasy world of GW. At any given time the player can only have 8 skills (out of more then 100 available to a single character) equipped (they can be freely changed when in an outpost). This forces players to think ahead and equip skills that complement the skills of other party members. It also makes the battles more tactical as they sometimes begin to resemble matches of Magic (the card game).

Another area where the past games of the series shined in are player versus player (PvP) battles. They took (and still take) place in separate arenas where random or predefined teams of 4 to 8 players battle one another for fun and the rewards (items, experience, new skills). This part of the game is in fact so refined and well thought out that there are championships going on all the time with the prizes reaching unholy amounts of money for the winning team.
All in all the Guild Wars games have so far managed to impress a great number of players and while the series might not be as popular as World of Warcraft it is without question one of the best online RPGs available to date.

When Nightfall comes

Nightfall is obviously the third installment of the GW games. It takes the refined formula of the past two games and together with some enchantments puts it into a desert world similar to ancient Egypt. Contrary to Factions which placed a lot of weight on PvP combat Nightfall focuses on questing and the overarching tale of the desert.

The story this time around plays a bigger role than in the past two games and involves the player to a higher degree. The main character (controlled by the player) belongs to the order of Sunspears, an organization sworn to protect the desert world of Elona. A few hours into the game a plot to reawaken a banished god forces the player to wage war against a formerly allied nation in a desperate try to prevent the god Abbadon from returning to Elona. The story is of course much more detailed and there are some interesting (and often unexpected) twists in this epic tale.

A Sunspear never fights alone

An important addition to the series is the concept of Heroes. Whereas before the players had the choice to adventure together and complete quests in groups composing of human players or to roam the world with the help of computer controlled henchmen, Nightfall gives adventures another option. It comes in the form of Heroes, computer controlled but completely customizable henchmen which can be told exactly what to do. In past games the henchmen were a nice substitute when you were unable to form a full group, but their lacking AI and the inability to control them made adventuring with the lot less than a perfect experience. With heroes this problem is solved, as not only is their AI better (henchmen AI also got improved) but you can tell them who to attack, what to do when attacked and which skills to use. Yes, those of you who know Guild Wars will be happy to hear that you can tell heroes which skills to use. When you are in an outpost you can even select which skills they will take into the fray. Basically you can tweak every aspect of them, just as if they were your character.

As if this wasn’t enough heroes also help make the story more personal. They join you one by one as you progress deeper into the story and they stay with you till the very end. You can only have 3 grouped with you at the same time, but you can change between them in any of the settlements. Sometimes a certain hero is needed for a quest or mission and you cannot undertake it unless that hero is grouped with you. You may wonder why this is necessary, but believe me that by the end of the story you will care deeply for at least some of your heroes and will do your best to keep them alive. In this aspect Nightfall comes close to some of the popular single player RPGs such as Baldur’s Gate.

The Dervish and the Paragon

As expected Nightfall introduces two new playable classes (the two Faction classes are obviously unavailable in this campaign). Both classes fit well into the game but one of them (the Dervish) seems to be a good bit more popular than the other.

Once you realize how the Dervish profession works its popularity comes as no surprise. At its core this class is a melee profession, similar to the warrior class. The main difference is that the Dervish relies on magic to stay alive and is able to hit multiple enemies at the same time with its scythe. The Dervish is also capable of taking the form of the god’s avatars, making it the possibly most badass class of the bunch.

The Paragon may look boring and bland in comparison, but once properly mastered it is all but. His ability to give massive boosts to the teams damage output make it an excellent supporting class and most of his skills work better if there are more team mates present. He is also quite capable of surviving on his own as he wears heavy armor and is capable of dealing quite some damage with the help of his spears. Because of this an experienced Paragon never has problems finding his place in a good team.

The beauty of Elona

Past Guild Wars games were always praised for looking good even on older hardware. This is still true in Nightfall, but this time around the game looks even prettier on high-end systems. I’ve played the game on two computers, one being a dual core desktop machine with a Radeon x1800xt and 2 gigs of ram and the other one being my laptop running on a dual core Centrino (1.66Ghz) with a poor GeForce 7300 and only 512mb of memory. While there was no surprise in the fact that the desktop machine had no problems running the game I was quite impressed when I saw the performance levels of the laptop. The fps were for the most part in the low thirties and even the stuttering (due to HD swapping) was only noticeable in the player hubs (with hundreds of players in sight). Note that I was still running the game with all the details maxed and the resolution was set to 1280*800. I was unfortunately unable to use AA as the framerate dropped significantly when I enabled it.

The performance on the desktop machine was expectedly very high and using 4*AA didn’t bring the framerate below 60 even in the most intense PvP battle. It has to be said that Nightfall does an amazing job of looking great (as you can see in the screenshots) and the augmentation of the game engine with per pixel lightening makes this game one of the prettiest out there. While the engine is impressive on its own the game wouldn’t look half as good if it weren’t for the amazing art direction. There are several occasions in the game where you just have to stop and enjoy the scenery, be it an old ruin or the vast savannah stretching into the distance.

Sound is also well done with sound effects being of the highest quality. Music fits the mood of the game well and the new combat tunes make combat even more exciting. Voiceovers are well done and the cinematics in the game are handled better than in the past games.

Collector’s Edition

The Collector’s edition of the game comes packed with goodies. The now standard Art of Guild Wars (Nightfall) book is accompanied by a well written manual (also part of the regular version of the game), a poster-sized map of Elona and a poster of a Nightfall character, a desktop character standee, a making-of DVD, the games soundtrack on a CD and a bonus key to download additional in game music from DirectSong. Last but not least the box includes two pins depicting two skills from within the game. Another important fact is that the box itself is great looking and gives the owner a sense of superiority (yes, I’m a total geek).

In the game owners of the Collector’s Edition have access to two signature dances (one for each of the new professions) which mark them out from a mile away. All in all the Collector’s Edition is a nice upgrade over the standard version and easily warrants the extra bucks they ask for it.

Conclusion

If you liked the previous Guild Wars titles you are bound to love this one. PvP takes a side role in this installment as except for hero PvP (1on1 combat with the help of 3 heroes for each player) there are no new PvP features. The players still have access to all the old arenas (plus 2 new ones) and the classic PvP modes though.

People who disliked the past Guild Wars games might try to avoid Nightfall, but I can guarantee that if you like role playing games you are sure to enjoy Nightfall a lot.

Gameplay	19/20	The Guild Wars formula at its best. Fun quests, challenging missions and heroes you care about make this game a must for MMORPG fans. PvP is still the best in the genre.
Graphics	19/20	A great engine coupled with amazing art makes this one of the prettiest games on the market.
Sound	18/20	A typical Guild Wars soundtrack with the added feature of a dynamic music system helps the player feel like he is really there.
Value	19/20	The game offers hours upon hours of questing and following the main storyline. The excellent PvP adds even more hours to the stack.
Preference	18/20	If you liked previous GW games you will like this one as well. There is a big chance that even if you don’t like the GW franchise you are still going to enjoy Nightfall
Overall	93/100	Nightfall is another successful release by ArenaNet. If they continue at this pace we can expect the ultimate MMORPG in the near future.