Guild Wars: Nightfall

Guild Wars: Nightfall is a game which should not be considered an expansion. Nightfall, in essence, is not a new chapter in the saga, but a new book. Where Guild Wars: Prophecies and Guild Wars: Factions failed, Nightfall succeeds, and where Prophecies and Factions succeeded, Nightfall improves.

The original concept of Guild Wars still remains largely the same. You still control a custom character that will gain experience and learn skills (of which there are several hundred) as you venture across a foreign fantasy land. Skill selection is unchanged in that you may only equip eight skills at a time, meaning you must use strategy and forethought before charging in to battle. As a PVE player, or an RPG player, you'll encounter quest and story-based missions which will guide you around the game's new continent and come across new game-play elements to keep things fresh. Along the way you're able play co-operatively with other people in the game world or enlist the help of AI-controlled henchmen to do a similar, though less effective, job. The only real change from the standardized Guild Wars formula is the addition of Heroes, best described as custom AI, which can now be used as an alternative to playing with real people or henchmen.

The Story
Something which is sure to please RPG fans is the approach to the epic storyline presented in Nightfall. Elona is a land with a history of war and corruption from its leaders, and in between its three provinces is finally enjoying a period of peace under the non-governmental rule of the Sunspears, the protectors of Elona. But there'd be no game if it was all sunshine and smiles. A dark-god who was long thought to have been banished to a distant realm seems to be coming back into power, and is casting a shadow of malice over the peaceful land of Elona. As a newly recruited Sunspear it is your duty to lead your allies into battle against the unknown and restore Elona to peace.

Previously, players were introduced to the world with a beautiful CG cinematic and were pulled along by unpolished in-game cut-scenes which looked more like machinima than anything else. Now we have the addition of characters being able to emote through facial expressions, and follow a script which is admirable instead of laughable. Though this isn't exactly innovative, or done better than other games, it does for the first time make the storyline seem to take itself a bit more seriously. The removal of the cinematic seems to be a smart move, as it demonstrates ArenaNet's faith in their new-found storytelling abilities. Even so, Prophecies and Factions sported incredible opening cinematics, so it's slightly upsetting to see we've not been given an equally impressive one with Nightfall.

Guild Wars has always had a rich lore which was let-down by poor story-telling; thanks to Nightfall, though, amends have been made to this misfortune. The tone of the story has also become a little more upbeat in the earlier parts of the game, compared to the macabre and gothic Factions, but near the end of the main mission-lines you'll be facing a seriously dark and epic war which we've not seen the likes of in previous Guild Wars titles. It wasn't explicitly clear in Factions but the three chapters actually have a linking storyline which you'll discover in your journey across Elona. And the depth of the discovery actually becomes quite engrossing.

The Heroes
Heroes are the crowning feature of Nightfall, moreso than the new professions, which is sure to pull in new fans and bring back old ones. They're NPC's you gain control of through completing specific mission and quests. You'd be forgiven if at first glance you thought of Heroes as a fancier name for henchmen, but the differences are actually quite immense. Unlike Henchmen, these Heroes are all individual characters, meaning they speak during cut-scenes, have personal goals and ambitions and help shape the overall storyline of Nightfall. However, they aren't just resigned to building the overall aesthetics of the game; you may command Heroes on the battlefield to attack or guard positions, to stay or follow you around and even ignore the enemy in pursuit of retreating from the enemy.

To make the last option a less necessary one, their AI is leaps and bounds ahead of anything we've seen in previous Guild Wars titles. You are also able to customize their skill-build for the battle ahead, and even craft armour and weapons to further enhance their fighting capabilities. Even with the near-infinite amount of fighting combinations you can provide your Heroes, they can still adapt and handle each build with finesse. As a token of gratitude to players who have either Prophecies or Factions you will be able to visit new NPC's in each of the campaigns' respective central cities to acquire a quest which will give you access to a Hero specific to Prophecies and Factions.

The Enemies
Prophecies presented a creature-set which wasn't entirely original but still somewhat fearsome. Bar the Titans near the end of the game the enemies faced were mostly forgettable. Factions resolved this issue with its impeccably rich art direction. Intimidating and nightmarish Factions enemies had a fantastic lasting appeal. One kind of enemy, however, shared a lot of properties with Halo's Flood, which slightly detracted from its intended gruesome visual intention. Similar enemies to these, the Afflicted, appear in Nightfall with major redesigns fulfilling what ArenaNet tried to do in Factions.

Beyond the improvement of existing enemies, Nightfall brings a whole new roster of nasties to the fighting grounds. Some of them have a cute but dangerous appeal to them (giant rolling lady-bug with pincers) while others are unmistakably hellish and fright-inducing (floating bi-pedal charred demon with octopus-like tendrils), all of which appear at the most fitting points in the game. Be prepared for some demented visuals near the end of the game.

The New Professions
With each installment of Guild Wars two new professions are added. Though the new classes have excessive ‘cool' factor, their real use seems to be rather unnecessary. The Dervish, for example, is an overpowered Warrior with enchantments. The class does have some unique traits such as its weapon-type, the scythe, which can strike multiple enemies at once, and the visually impressive elite-skill which allows you to transform into one of the five gods of the Guild Wars world to use their inherent abilities. Basically, it's an alternative to playing as a Warrior, and an easier one at that as it provides similar skills from Monk and Mesmer skill-groups.

The Paragon, who are described in the game as Elona's holy warrirors, are a mix of the Ranger class through weapon-based attacks, and Mesmers through their shouts, which are similar to team enchantments. Both are fun to play, and currently, as you'd expect, are very popular, but don't really seem worthwhile, just like the Assassins and Ritualists of Factions.

The Look
Which brings us to the visuals of the game. Nightfall features upgrades to an already robust graphical engine through the addition of extra shaders, and most remarkably, per-pixel lighting effects. Now, an area in the light actually looks lit, as opposed to a texture with a lighter colour-tone. This makes for game areas that look very rich and vibrant, and above all, are realistic despite their fantastical nature.

In Prophecies we saw an archetypal fantasy world with its roots lying in ancient Romanesque architecture, and in Factions we saw a deepy organic and oriental world. In Nightfall it's predominantly North African with later parts of the game showing a distinctive Arabian design. Even further in, you'll enter a dark and unforgiving world unlike any we've seen before. All of these areas look and feel beautiful, and have an enormous breadth to them. Areas still have a linear field, but now allow for free-roaming into places which previously would've had conveniently positioned barricades in forms of trees and other impassable objects.

The Sound
Earlier this year composer Jeremy Soule won ‘Best Video Game Score' at the MTV Video Music Awards for his work on Oblivion, which was strange as his work on Factions was vastly superior. Soule returned for Nightfall and has managed to trump his previous efforts, and hopefully will pick up a few awards for them. It's worth recommending you get the Collector's Edition of Nightfall if only for the soundtrack CD.

Largely sampled from previous Guild Wars, the effects soundtrack is very familiar. This isn't a bad thing, however, as Guild Wars has always sported excellent sound design which syncs seamlessly with its action and ambience.

The Upgrades
There have been a number of upgrades to the over-all user interface which help lower learning curves and make the game more accessible. Previously, if you wanted to change your skill-build it needed to be done entirely manually, meaning you'd need to memorise or note the different skill/attribute combinations for each of your custom build. Now we have a feature which allows you to save builds. Not only for yourself in an easily selectable menu, but on your hard-drive as a file you can share with other players online. Simply send a friend a copy of this file and they'll be able to store it in the Guild Wars game folder and load up your custom build. It's that easy.

Another addition to easing the build swapping process is the removal of having to visit specific NPC's to request a change of your secondary profession. Now, once you've learned another profession, you may change it at will via the same skill menu mentioned above.

An identical upgrade has been implemented for equipment sets too, whereby you are able to save custom armour/weapon combos. A definite must for PVP'ers.

One of the most welcome changes is the complete overhaul of both enemy and ally AI. Your allies will manage their skills more efficiently and strike more damaging attack/spell combos, and best of all, won't charge into battle without being commanded to do so. A nice touch given to your henchman/hero AI is their response to your emotes; if you break out into dance, so will they; if you start playing the guitar, someone will get on the drums and another will play the violin – sometimes they'll even make cheeky comments.

But not all the changes have been for the better. For no apparent reason at all ArenaNet have decided to upscale the damage interface, meaning that each time you strike an enemy or are hit yourself, the damage number indicator is now a third of the size of your character. To make things worse, when an enemy attacks you with a skill, its respective icon will show up next to the damage indicator. Fortunately, the icon can be swapped to text, displaying the name of the skill which isn't as bad, but this change is both unnecessary and obtrusive. As the age old saying goes "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

The new professions have also brought about a rebalance of skills for all professions, and for the most part it now means a reduction in recharge times and increase in damage caused. Unfortunately, farmers have been hit hard, as have 55 Monks (a specialised monk build where the character's hit-points are reduced to 55 but still remain virtually impossible to defeat in PVE). It sends a paradoxical statement from ArenaNet – they're encouraging you to play with others by doing this, yet they implement an expansive feature where you effectively never need to (Heroes).

The Experience
You might be wondering how it is NZGamer.com has been able to get this review to you so promptly. This is because the driving force for enjoyment behind an MMO is its player experience, so four of us here have been playing the game almost non-stop since launch - and this review is our collective thoughts on the game.

Nightfall is very accessible, the upgrades are mostly for the better, and the Hero feature breathes new life into the series. Again, Nightfall isn't just an expansion; it's an entirely new game, one which you'll be playing for months, and one that you cannot afford to miss.

Little-Dudes.co.nz, little brother site of NZGamer.com has a new web-comic up based on this game. Click the image to check it out!

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