Guild Wars Nightfall review

Online gaming with no fees. In the face of stiff competition from the likes of World of Warcraft and Everquest, that has become ArenaNet's maxim since the release of the first Guild Wars game, and it's a phrase that appears to be going down well with the punters, since we have just witnessed the appearance of the second standalone expansion in the space of 12 months.

This time around, there's a vaguely Moorish and African theme to the proceedings, but it’s not all Persian rugs and carved ivory statuettes, as there's the inclusion of two new classes, a new PvP mode, and an elephant-load of previously unseen items as well as controllable hero NPCs.

Before all that though, there's the business of choosing whether or not you want to play through the PvE segment or skip straight to the PVP, as well as which flavor of protagonist you wish to enter the newly discovered land of Elona as.

Fresh blood

With the introduction of the Dervish and the Paragon, the number of available classes to play has swelled to a generous eight. The two new classes are quite disparate in terms of their fighting abilities, with the Dervish looking and playing a bit like the Grim Reaper with a blood lust, as it wears a hoodie and carries a massive scythe that can inflict close range melee damage on multiple enemies at once.

One of the other tricks up the Dervish's sleeve is its ability to enhance its performance through a series of two-fold enchantments, such as self-protection. These enchantments work by providing an initial buff, which can then be spent to give the Dervish a further boost to his or her performance.

A range-based yang to the Dervish's melee yin, the Paragon excels as a spear chucker, but it also has talents in party based buffs in the form of shouts and chants, which can be used to bolster the offensive capabilities of nearby friendlies. Proving itself to be a jack of all trades, the Paragon can also heal itself in a pinch, however it seems a tricky class to master and as yet appears to be not very popular on the servers.

Combine & conquer

Of course, Guild Wars has never been about strictly defined classes, and as before you can mix and match two different class types to produce a character that best suits your playing style. Fancy attacking the enemy at range while providing healing support when needed? No problem, just combine the Ranger and Monk archetypes.

Want to lead from the front while sowing confusion amongst the enemy? Then a Warrior/Mesmer might just fit the bill. It's a simple enough twist on traditional class definitions, but it adds a whole new aspect to the 'rock-paper-scissors' PvP dynamic, as you can never be too sure which combination of classes will work out best.

What’s the story?

The overarching plot of Nightfall is fairly clichéd stuff, but its written in a gripping enough manner and is interwoven with interesting subplots to keep you engaged while plowing through a succession of quests on your way to the level cap of 20.

In a nutshell, it revolves around the land of Elona, which has enjoyed a prosperous time of peace and serenity, but which is now threatened by the onset of a long forgotten evil, with the apocalyptic event in question being the titular Nightfall. Naturally enough, it is your job to ensure that night, indeed, never falls, but I'll leave it up to you to find out whether you are successful or not.

If you've played any other MMORPG or indeed any of the previous two Guild Wars games you'll be familiar with the types of quest on offer in Nightfall, as they don’t deviate much from the typical 'kill creature X to collect item Y' or 'escort person A to location B' type missions, but they are still entertaining nevertheless. In fact, there's very little grind involved in leveling a character from 1 to 20, which, as before, can be achieved within just a few days of hardcore play.

From zero to hero

One of the new features touted is controllable NPC hero characters, which the player can fully customize to as great a degree as their own character, deciding which items and skills they should equip as well as which attributes to boost as they level up.

A variety of hero characters are on offer once you unlock them through PvE play and you can then recruit them to fill out your party whenever you find yourself shy of a full complement of human players. They are controlled through a simple but effective navigation system that lets you place flags to tell them where to move to, and you can also set their overall combat stance, whether that be offensive, defensive or passive. All things considered, they are a welcome upgrade to the standard henchmen that you can recruit in some outposts, but they are no match for the human touch when the going gets tough.

Speaking of which, it’s in player vs. player conflict where Nightfall excels. As with previous games, there is a wealth of different player vs. player options and game modes, from simple Annihilation - where you have to eliminate all the members of the opposing team - to an all new game style in which you lead a team of NPC heroes against an opposing human commander who has their own team of NPC minions to control. One nice touch here is that you don't have access to all the game styles from the get go, and have to rack up a number of consecutive victories in the Random Arenas before you can play other modes.

It’s all good

There really is very little that can be said detrimentally about Nightfall; it's one of those games that, if it gets its hooks in you, could have you playing for weeks or months. Possibly the best compliment I can give the game is that I've racked up over 40 hours play in a little over a week, and I've nowhere near experienced all that there is to see (there are some convenient indicators in one of the interface screens that tells you how many of the missions you've completed and how much of the content you've explored).

Not only that, but it serves as the perfect introduction to the franchise or indeed MMORPG games in general, as the quest system is exceptionally easy to follow, while the presentation and visuals are top notch. So what are you waiting for - there's whole new continent waiting to be explored, and it wont cost you an arm and a leg each month to do so.