Review: Guild Wars Nightfall

Since its release, Guild Wars has been the only title that could effectively challenge World of Warcraft in the MMO arena, mainly because it delivered the same experience without monthly fees. The first expansion, Factions, was received well among the MMO crowd, and Nightfall continues down that path.
Guild Wars Nightfall features two new classes, a new world, and new stories and places to explore. You can either begin in the Role Playing mode, going from quest to quest with your NPCs, or you can jump directly into the PvP mode, where you start at level 20. Nightfall also makes it possible to include NPCs in the PvP mode, but you can always fill out the remaining three spots with human players.

The RP features an extensive storyline and has a lot of gameplay value, you start at level 0 and work your way up to level 20, then you can chose to export you character to the PvP mode, and take it from there. If you haven’t played Guild Wars before, it’s best to start of in the RP mode, since it’s easier to get into the gameplay, while leveling up and unlocking items (which you can use in the PvP mode).

In the PvP mode however, Nightfall features the new NPC Hero ability, where you can control you heroes and their inventory. This is especially good for those who want to go solo in the PvP mode, where you don’t have to interact or play with other human players, should you chose not to.

From a technical standpoint, Guild Wars Factions naturally uses the same engine as the previous two games, and it looks amazing, even on lower-end machines. Going from your desktop into a game is only a matter of seconds. While Factions mostly used Asian settings, Nightfall features an Egyptian and Arab look, with lots of sand, temples, and Arabic architecture. The audio is great as well, ambient sounds feel natural, while the voice-over is typical of a game, nothing great, but nothing bad either.

All in all, Guild Wars nightfall will appeal to fans of the series, while new players will have it easy to jump in and start playing. Even though it’s an expansion, Nightfall is a standalone product and doesn’t require the previous games in order to run. And if you didn’t know already, Guild Wars has no monthly subscription fees.

-Tobias Dahl 

The good
Great value, lots of content
No monthly fees
Standalone product
Extensive manual

The Bad
PvP mode might be hard to pick up for beginners
Single-player story can get too long and tedious