Guild Wars Nightfall

poor
key review info
  • Game: Guild Wars Nightfall
  • Platform: PC
  • Show system requirements
  • Gamepad support: N/a
  • Reviewed on:

In early 2005 NCSoft released Guild Wars Chronicles, a game to take up the many challenges of the MMORPG scene. ArenaNet developers did quite well in their endeavor of creating a stimulating online action role playing game and keeping it up to date with daily content additions. Since it is a new marketing model that needs no regular monthly subscription fees, the publisher had to come up with a different way of making the franchise a commercial success. Opportunity presented itself with the release of Guild Wars Factions in April that quickly rose to the Top10 best selling games this year. This saw Guild Wars with overall sales of more than two million copies. The idea is pretty straight forward: ArenaNet will release a steady stream of expansion packs, to be sold at full price.

This weekend, players were offered a special PvP preview event for the announced Guild Wars Nightfall campaign. It was during this time that the owners of both Guild Wars Prophecies and Guild Wars Factions installments were able to take a look at some of the new features to be presented in the game. The creation of new PvP-Only characters using the upcoming Dervish and Paragon professions enabled players to test both classes' skills in current battle arenas as well as exclusive preview arenas. A trophy tournament started, with the cup being displayed at the central PvP starting area, in addition to the various items exchangeable for, preview-only, token currency.

Gameplay

Nightfall showcases distinct North African influences, obvious in models, clothes and even the new PvP random arenas I fought in. One particular arena had African influenced masks, artwork and other items with similar styles throughout the map. I noticed the improved quality of the new armor textures. Shall we say, the first generation Warrior armor looks like filthy rags compared to the glamorous shiny and over detailed chain mail the Paragons wear. There are three available combos for each the Dervish and the Paragon to illustrate the various possibilities of matching with the existing professions: Melandru's Prophet (D/Me), Whirling Dervish (D/W), Shadow Reaper (A/D), Battle Commander (P/Rt), Centurion (P/W), and Pack Hunter (R/P). After all, the secondary profession is of little concern once you start a PvP character during this event. NCSoft made it so that one could freely change secondary class, without the usual, time consuming, run-around specific to regular gameplay. There was a problem though. If you pick either Paragon or Dervish as secondary professions, you'll find yourself having no skills to choose from. Skills are usually gained through a series of quests during campaign play. Without such a Nightfall campaign available, the only way to get skills is by unlocking them from the Temple Of Balthazar's priests, for heavy faction fees. Well, I guess that was intended all along since the developers wouldn't like to reveal too much anyway.

The Paragon

Paragons would be more suitable named paladins, but I guess that monicker is already taken by a World of We-know-what class. Paragons hold heavier armor, similar to a Ranger's, with extra protection from elemental and either fire or lightning attacks. Holymen, bent on the spiritual part of life, are most efficient while fighting close by their comrades. Being natural born leaders, is through faith and dedication they manage to effectively use the powers of healing. Paragons look as the name implies, almost like the offsprings of gods among men, revered for their actions and attitude alike.

The Centurion (P/W) is a mixture between Pagaron and Warrior. As a healer and buffer type, he deals incredibly low damage and is only suitable for healing nearby allies. One particular chant has good offensive abilities, enabling team mates to deal stunning blows for the next ten seconds or so. Provided you have a balanced team that attacks in a compact group, this could prove to be a game turning intervention. Paragons have a signet that heals a great amount of damage from a single ally target with the chance to heal the caster itself, if not affected by any buffs. Combined with The Mending Refrain skill that gives an ally 3 points of health regeneration for 20 seconds, provides the Paragon with decent single target healing capabilities. Maybe they're not as powerful as the Monk's, but the Paragon will always fare better at healing allies in an area. To this end one chant heals each nearby allies while another protects them from the next blow they'll receive.

Leadership is the primary attribute for the Paragon profession, gaining 1 Energy for each ally affected by one of its Shouts or Chants (maximum 1 Energy for every 3 ranks). This goes well with the main idea behind the character; the more players you heal of buff, the more energy is returned. Spear Mastery increases damage done with spears and the chance to inflict a critical hit when using a spear. As usual, spear attack skills become more effective with higher Spear Mastery. While no inherent effect is gained through Command, many Paragon skills become more effective, generally skills that protect your allies or increase your tactical advantage on the field of battle. Lastly, Motivation affects skills related to Energy management as well as buffs that inspire your allies.

The Dervish

On the other hand, if you are the kind of player that prefers to fight, then the Dervish profession is what you're looking for. The Dervish could be termed holy warriors as the character not only has some powerful spinning attacks that can take on several opponents but also special skills that can increase their abilities in battle. Dervishes have caster type armor, with extra protection from elemental attacks and either a bonus to hit points, earth or cold attacks.

Whirling Dervish (D/W) has a combination of Dervish and Warrior abilities. It's a mana intensive fighter that uses its Dervish skills to hit as many players as possible. With one skill hitting multiple enemies and two areas of effect spells, it's a force to be reckoned with. Survivability is not an issue as far as hit points are concerned, since The Avatar Of Melandru form has more than enough and makes the character immune to conditions for its duration. Combined with Melandru's Intervention limited healing abilities, the only problem might be armor class.

Mysticism is the primary Dervish attribute. Whenever an Enchantment ends, you gain 3 Health for each rank of Mysticism and 1 Energy for every 2 ranks of Mysticism. Scythe Mastery increases the damage you do with scythes and your chance to inflict a critical hit when using a scythe. Special scythe attack skills become more effective with higher Scythe Mastery. Wind Prayers hold no inherent effect, yet many Dervish Spells dealing with movement or cold damage are directly affected. Earth Prayers improve spells dealing with defense or Earth damage.

These new professions are fun to play, yet the three day preview raised more questions than it answered. With the recent release of Factions and its two extra professions, one can only wonder if releasing the Nightfall add-on so soon is a good idea. I'm not even going to think about the marketing implications and in stead point at class balance. With such an active PvP community, Guild Wars developers are bound to keep character innovations within reasonable boundaries. When they throw at players too many classes, too soon, it all goes bad. As a fact, hardcore albeit professional GW players will not embrace new classes that fast into their championship builds. Previous intensive testing is first required.

Conclusion

To sum it up, Factions and Nightfall bring four new characters to the existing six, a whooping 67% improvement, revitalizing what came to be a stagnant evolution in the history of Guild Wars. Scythes and spears are expected to be new weapon additions, as well as armor types for each class. Nightfall will be a standalone expansion too and will not require previous installments. A new campaign will introduce players to the many new skills and the countless adventures will furthermore spark interest in Guild Wars. Reportedly any Nightfall characters that you create in this free preview can be used later when the final version ships to stores this fall.

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story 0
gameplay 0
concept 1
graphics 0
audio 0
multiplayer 0
final rating 0
Editor's review
poor