Guild Wars Nightfall

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Guild Wars Nightfall
Developer(s)	ArenaNet
Publisher(s)	NCSoft
Release date(s)	October 27, 2006
Genre(s)	CORPG or MMORPG
Mode(s)	Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: T (Teen) PEGI: 12+
Platform(s)	Windows
Media	DVD, CD, or Download[1]
System requirements	Intel Pentium III 1 GHz CPU, 512MB RAM, 3GB Hard disk space, ATI Radeon 8500 or GeForce 3 series video card with 64 MB of VRAM, 56kbit/s internet connection, Windows 98/ME/2000/XP[2]
Input	Keyboard, Mouse

Guild Wars Nightfall is a fantasy Competitive/Co-operative Online RolePlaying Game (CORPG) and the third stand-alone campaign in the Guild Wars computer game series developed by ArenaNet. Nightfall was released worldwide on October 27, 2006 after beginning in development in November 2005^[3].

Nightfall takes place in the continent of Elona in the Guild Wars universe. It follows the player's character as they join the Order of the Sunspears and uncover the desire of Warmarshal Varesh to return a long forgotten God to the world through an event called Nightfall. The player, assisted by their hero allies, fight through civil war, ignorant Vabbi princes and Varesh's demon allies as they attempt to prevent the coming of Nightfall.

Contents 1 Story 1.1 Setting 1.2 Plot 2 Gameplay 2.1 Professions 2.2 Heroes 2.3 PvE Gameplay 2.4 PvP Gameplay 3 Critical Response 3.1 Awards 4 Editions 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Story

[edit] Setting

Nightfall is set in the continent of Elona, a new area designed for the Nightfall campaign. Elona is a land of wealth and power and has three major provinces; Istan, Kourna and Vabbi. The provinces are at peace, but are anxious to keep that peace. The continent uses Africa as inspiration giving it a unique style compared to the Europe-inspired Prophecies and Asia-inspired Factions.

The Order of the Sunspears, abbreviated to the Sunspears, are an independent military order based on the island of Istan, they are tasked with protecting all of Elona from threat and have done so for many centuries. They are currently led by Spearmarshal Kormir, who is well respected and widely regarded as the best leader the Sunspears have had for some time.

The position of Warmarshal, the leader of Kourna, dates back to when the Turai Ossa defeated and imprisoned the undead Lord, Palawa Joko. The title has passed through Turai's descendants to the current Kournan ruler, Varesh Ossa.

The Nightfall campaign takes place in 1075AE/1535CC - five years after the Searing that destroyed the Kingdom of Ascalon across the Crystal Desert to the north of the Desolation, and two years after the twin events in the previous campaigns of the Undead Lich being slain on the Bloodstone atop the volcano of Abaddon's Mouth in Prophecies and Shiro Tagachi being sent to the Realm of Torment by the Envoys to pay for his crimes in Factions.

[edit] Plot

The player's character is recruited as a junior Sunspear. The player quickly earns respect and rank in the Sunspears dealing with unusual occurrences around Istan.

The strange deaths of a dig team excavating a long abandoned city, information about an event called Nightfall and its ties to the return of a forgotten god, Abaddon, start to cause concern for the Sunspears. Evidence builds that the Kournan delegation conveniently visiting are behind these unusual happenings. When the Kournan General, Kahyet, attempts to strike a deal with the corsairs harassing Istan, the Sunspears intervene. Kahyet is killed, plunging cautious relations with Kourna into strife. During a hearing with the elder council, Kormir - who had temporarily left in order to seek allies in Cantha and Tyria - returns, citing that similar occurences have happened elsewhere.

Realizing the danger in the activities of Warmarshal Varesh Ossa, current Kournan leader, Kormir convinces the Istan council to cease diplomatic talks and instead start civil war to prevent Varesh from bringing about Nightfall.

Rallying the troops the Sunspears sail from Istan to the main city of Kourna, Gandara, to confront Varesh. After fighting through heavy defenses the Sunspears find Varesh who plays her trump card. She summons demons of Abaddon which rout the Sunspear troops. Kormir is left for dead as the remaining Sunspears flee through Kourna province.

The character establishes a hidden base of operations in Kourna, rescues Sunspears from the Kournan forces, rescues Kormir and prevents one of Abaddon's demons from corrupting Kourna's water supply. However these are only stalling tactics as through Varesh's rites Nightfall continues to come closer. The Sunspears travel to Vabbi to convince the Princes of that province that Varesh represents a threat to them and their people. They prove difficult to convince as Varesh has told them that she wishes only to protect them from both the Sunspears and other threats to Vabbi.

Too late the princes see the treachery of Varesh. Her troops and the Margonites, Abaddon's demons, already in Vabbi province move against the Vabbi princes. The Sunspears help as best they can to prevent Varesh's forces from prevailing. However, their best efforts seem to simply stall the inevitable, as the signs of Abaddon's coming begin to appear throughout Elona. After a Chaos Rift appears and sucks Kormir into the Realm of Torment, a part of the Underworld where only the most wicked souls go, the Sunspears decide they must pursue Varesh into The Desolation to stop her from completing the rites to return Abaddon to the world.

To pursue Varesh to the northern part of The Desolation, where Abaddon's link to the world is the strongest, the players release the undead lord Palawa Joko. He reveals to the Sunspears that the only way to traverse the sulfurous wastes is to tame the Junundu - an undead desert wurm, one of the few creatures alongside the elementals of the desert and Abaddon's demons that can survive the toxic atmosphere.

The heroes eventually reach Varesh, who is just about to open a rift to the Realm of Torment, and kill her. Unfortunately, it is too little much too late. The only option is to head into the Realm of Torment itself, find Kormir and face the God of Secrets face-to-face. The players cut off the Margonite source of power, the River of Souls, and discover that Abaddon is seeking aid from Dhuum, the god of death before Grenth overthrew him, and Menzies, Balthazar's half-brother. They also discover that one of Abaddon's main generals is no other than Vizier Khilbron - the Undead Lich.

Battling through Titans and Shiro'ken, the players reach the Temple of the Six Gods, a part of the world taken to the Realm of Torment when Abaddon was imprisoned by the five other gods. Before the heroes can ask for the help of the Gods to defeat Abaddon, they must defeat Abaddon's generals, Shiro and the Khilbron who defend the Temple. After defeating them Kormir and the heroes request assistance. Avatars of the Gods appear to say they will not help but to take their blessing "already within the heart of each human". The Sunspears must face and defeat Abaddon alone.

In the final battle, Abaddon is breaking free from the bindings holding him to the Realm of Torment. The Sunspears renew his bindings long enough to inflict enough damage to defeat him. When defeated Abaddon's power grows out of control and his Realm of Torment threatens to merge with Elona causing Nightfall without him. Thinking quickly, Spearmarshal Kormir sacrifices herself by running into the mouth of Abaddon, hoping to control or stop Abaddon's energies. Kormir is successful, but is forever changed as she now holds the power and knowledge of Abaddon. The God of Secrets, Abaddon, is over-thrown by the new Goddess of Truth, Kormir, who must set about undoing the damage done to the world by her predecessor.

The player may return to the Chantry of Secrets, base of operations for the Order of Whispers and enter the Domain of Anguish.

[edit] Gameplay

Nightfall is a continuation of the Guild Wars franchise and so follows the same gameplay principles. Guild Wars in previous releases attempted a marriage of PvE and PvP gameplay, starting out with PvP being the logical endgame for the Prophecies campaign, and PvP interspersed throughout Factions play. Nightfall moves away from this as the storyline is more PvE focused than previous campaigns.

[edit] Professions

A player with Guild Wars Nightfall may create a character from one of the 6 core professions from Prophecies or one of the Nightfall-specific professions:

• The Dervish, a sort of holy warrior, wields a scythe and uses many different enchantments to support themselves and damage their enemies. They have the ability to temporarily transform into the likeness, or form, of the Five Gods.
• The Paragon wields a spear and acts as a battle commander. Heavily armored, they are an effective support character capable of helping teammates using shouts and chants affecting all nearby allies.

The Assassin and Ritualist are only available through Guild Wars Factions. Upgrading from Prophecies to Nightfall directly will mean you cannot make either of those classes.

[edit] Heroes

Further information: List of Guild Wars Characters

In previous campaigns players could use NPC Henchmen, or bots, to add to their party to assist them with their questing. New henchmen are available through Nightfall called Heroes. Heroes are customizable in that the player can select skills, armor upgrades and weapons for them. The player also has a degree of control over the actions of the heroes through being able to set map waypoints for them, controlling the type of AI they use and directing the skills they use. Heroes are unlocked through play and can be taken into both PvE and PvP areas. A new PvP arena has been made available specifically for players to fight each other with their Heroes. A player cannot control more than three at a time. Heroes can be acquired by all characters (Tyrian, Canthan & Elona) and used in battle if the player has a Nightfall account. Additionaly, each other campaign has a hero available to add to Nightfall (an assassin for Factions, and a necromancer for Prophecies).

[edit] PvE Gameplay

As with the other Guild Wars campaigns the maximum level for all characters is level twenty. Nightfall strikes a middle ground with the other Guild Wars campaigns with the amount of time spent leveling; faster than Prophecies, where much of game is spent achieving level 20, but slower than Factions where level 20 was very quickly achieved.

New PvE only skills have been introduced available by gaining ranks in titles. The "Sunspear Rebirth Signet" is available by reaching a certain rank in the Sunspear Rank track. "Lightbringer's Gaze" and "Lightbringer's Signet" are available upon reaching level 2 and level 3 in the Lightbringer track, respectively. Also, wearing the skill title "Lightbringer" increases damage done to certain creatures in the PvE environment.

PvE has been expanded when compared to the previous chapters and some parts of the game draw parallels to single player RPGs such as Knights of the Old Republic or Baldur's Gate. For example, in one Nightfall mission, the player has to undertake it alone without the aid of other players, Heroes, or henchmen. The mission requires very little combat and is actually comprised of mini-games. Another example is a mission that involves the player acting as a lawyer in a court case, where choosing the right line of argument will alter the outcome of the trial. The ability for the player to choose a course of action brings the game closer to its offline counterparts as opposed to the linear mission structure in other MMORPGs and indeed Guild Wars Prophecies.

The addition of Heroes has also made the game similar to single player RPGs as each Hero has their own side quests the player can complete if they choose and depending on which Hero you bring on quests, they make different comments on the current situation. Heroes also allow more freedom when playing as a single player with only computer controlled party members since they can be given more commands than ordinary henchmen and their skills can be tailored to specific situations. The addition of commands and customization makes many challenges that would have required other human players without Heroes, possible.

Mission structure has changed somewhat. Like in Factions, bonus rewards are dependent on the performance during the mission, not just one side quest; however, the bonus could depend on something like killing certain creatures or preventing others from dying. For all but the last two missions, a certain hero must be in the party before the mission can begin. Also, not all the missions need to be completed, unlike in previous chapters. There are three pairs of missions where either one or the other must be completed before the plot progresses. Two of these pairs are selected depending on which hero was added to the party early on, while the third mission split offers a choice to the player. All the missions can be completed at the appropriate place in the plot, either depending on other players or by waiting until the plot has been completed.

[edit] PvP Gameplay

Prior to the release of Nightfall ArenaNet announced the PvP Editions of the campaigns they have released. This made Nightfall the first campaign where players could have access to the skills and PvP parts of the campaign without having to play or pay for the PvE parts of the game. A player interested in PvP gains access to the core PvP content, 300 new skills for the Nightfall campaign, new guild halls and Hero PvP.

[edit] Critical Response

Reviews of Guild Wars Nightfall show that it was well received. While the reviews were favorable, it has been rated less favourably by reviewers when compared to other Guild Wars campaigns, Factions and the original, Prophecies.^[4] As the third game in the Guild Wars series, reviewers expected more from the game, for instance, Gamespot notes "the underlying game hasn't changed much and is starting to show signs of aging"^[5]. Despite this Guild Wars Nightfall was widely recommended as the best game in the series for new players to start in^[6][5][7], and some extend this to say it is the strongest offering in the Guild Wars series^[8].

Heroes were viewed by many as a significant gameplay modification introduced by Nightfall. Heroes were commended for allowing the player more flexibility and choice in the game^[6][9], but were also felt to be a mixed blessing because, more so than the existing henchmen, they are complex to micro-manage^[6] and more likely take slots in the party which might normally be filled by human players^[5][7]. Many commented that it seemed that the game was now more solo player focused than previous installments^[5][9], Eurogamer suggests heroes bring "Guild Wars closer to the party-based RPGs of old ... instead of the solo-but-with-people RPG that it had initially delivered."^[10]

There were few Nightfall specific complaints. Several critics noted that existing characters from previous campaigns had to grind for Sunspear points to advance the storyline^[6][9]. This grinding for non-Elonian characters has since been removed. Others noted that for Elona-made characters the story starts slowly, only really starting once the point where existing characters may join the story has passed^[7][9].

Some reviewers mentioned issues with the Guild Wars games in general. Several noted that while some modifications have been made to the interfaces, that other interfaces in the game were still lacking^[5][7], for instance Yahoo notes, "the chat and player-info features are rudimentary, and you only meet other players when you're in a town."^[11] It was also felt that Guild Wars is becoming an increasingly complex game due to the vast number of skill interactions^[5].

[edit] Awards

Guild Wars Nightfall has received several game awards. MMORPG.com awarded Nightfall RPG game of 2006^[12]. It received PC Gamer Magazine's 2006 awards for Best MMO and Best Value. 1UP awarded Nightfall the best Online/Multiplayer Game of 2006^[13].

[edit] Editions

Pre-release Bonus Pack

The bonus pack is similar to the pre-order packs from the previous campaigns and was available from September 15, 2006. It includes; a game trial key, an additional character slot, weapons for the new professions and a CD containing bonus materials.

Standard

The standard edition contains the full game, which was released October 27, 2006. It contains 3 game CDs, a book of game lore, a manual, and a miniature map of Elona. New players will get four character slots while players adding Nightfall to an existing account will get two additional character slots. In Europe, the standard edition was also released on a single DVD-ROM.

Collectors Edition

The Collectors Edition has the same content as the standard edition but is also known to include; a behind-the-scenes DVD, unique Dervish and Paragon in-game emotes, a Varesh Ossa Minipet (Miniature NPC that follows the player), an art book, skill pins, a Varesh Ossa mini-standee, a map of Elona, a code to unlock extra in-game music and the Nightfall soundtrack CD. It also gives you an "Nightfall Buddy Key" to give to one of your friends. The Nightfall Buddy Key allows your friend to play Nightfall for 14 days or 10 hours (whichever ends first) without purchase.

PvP Edition/PvP Pack

The PvP edition unlocks all of the skills and professions which come with Nightfall for use in PvP. It does not allow the player to access the Nightfall PvE content and the player must unlock weapon upgrades and Heroes. The PvP edition is only available for purchase online.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The official Guild Wars web-site
• Guild Wars Nightfall In-Game Cinematic
• The official Guild Wars wiki

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Prophecies • Factions • Nightfall • Eye of the North