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Guild Wars Review: Eye of the North Review - Edit
8.3
| Pros |
 Fun minigames Hall of Monuments carries over to GW2 More Guild Wars |
| Cons |
 Hall of Monuments requires grinding No new PvP modes Not much new game play |
There's no denying that Guild Wars 2 is one of most hotly-anticipated MMOs on the market. ArenaNet and NCSoft have the potential to shake up the genre with all of the innovative concepts that they're putting into their new MMORPG, a true sequel to the original Guild Wars. Mobin Koohestani recently re-reviewed Guild Wars Trilogy, which is a compilation of the original three campaigns of the game, and with the release of Guild Wars 2 coming in 2012 and hopefully a beta this year; we're of the mind that now would be a great time to take a look at Guild Wars: Eye of the North.
Unlike the standalone Prophecies, Factions, and Nightfall campaigns that comprise Guild Wars Trilogy, Eye of the North (EotN) is a traditional expansion in that it requires a level 20 character from one of the previous campaigns to play. It returns to the original setting in the Prophecies game and is meant to serve as a bridge between Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2, along with the out-of-game novels currently being produced. Rather than adding new professions and PvP modes like the previous expansions, EotN focuses on PvE content, offering 4 new explorable regions, 18 multilevel dungeons, 150 skills, 10 customizable heroes, 40 armor sets, and your own Hall of Monuments. It's more Guild Wars and introduces some key concepts that will appear prominently in the sequel, so if you like ArenaNet and NCSoft's style, you might want to check it out.
Aesthetics: 8/10
The art of Guild Wars has always been very well done, and EotN is no exception. Considering that Prophecies released in 2005, it's a wonder that the game still looks as good as it does, but the environments in EotN are simply beautiful. EotN's new regions range from the snow-capped Shiverpeak Mountains to the lush Maguuma Jungle and war-torn Charr Homelands, and each are splendidly detailed. Combat animations are fluid and varied as ever, and the lighting in the game is among the best in the genre.
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Dungeons in Eye of the North are epic in scale.
The sound and music in all of the Guild Wars games are also excellent, although you'll recognize most of the themes in EotN from previous campaigns as they've been used again here. There's some good voice acting for the in-game cutscenes that go along with the main story quests, which is also one of the series' strong points.
Gameplay 7/10
Ah, Guild Wars, with your fast-paced skill-based combat and your instanced exploration areas. How can I resist the allure of customizing my deck of skills and those of my heroes before jumping into dungeon after dungeon with assorted henchmen that round out my party? Never mind that your content is designed in such a way to not allow jumping, or that your world isn't "persistent" in the sense that players associate with most MMORPGs. I've come to earn titles and weapons that I can hoard for Guild Wars 2!
Seriously, if you've played any of the Guild Wars campaigns, which you'll have to before digging into EotN, there's not much here that will surprise you, but you might be pleased nonetheless. The main campaign is interesting enough and introduces the new playable races of Guild Wars 2 through a struggle with the Destroyers, an underground group of monsters who have begun boiling up to the surface of the Prophecies, Factions, and Nightfall regions. You'll start the game with a quest from a local NPC in whichever campaign your level 20 character belongs to, which will funnel you to the EotN content and require you to gain the support of the game's different factions.
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Build your party with henchmen and Asuran, Charr, dwarf, human and Norn heroes.
Guild Wars' hero system, first appearing in Nightfall, returns in EotN and adds a fun party-based element to the gameplay. Rather than just using NPC henchmen over whom you have very little control (which is admittedly an awesome feature of its own), you can earn 10 new heroes to add to your party, each with their own customizable skills, ability points and items. You can't control them directly, but can give them waypoints to direct their movement and micromanage their skills if you like. It's also nice that they each have personalities and are involved in the main story, adding a level of depth that is sometimes missing from solo content in many MMOs.
EotN also boasts the addition of minigames, which are a surprisingly fun diversion from the main content. You can engage in dwarven brawls, Norn fighting tournaments, and Asuran Pokémon-esque "Polymock," which each are interesting enough to try out between running dungeons or engaging in PvP.
Speaking of PvP, there aren't any new modes here, and considering how big of a role player-versus-player combat has in the Guild Wars universe (it's even in the title), it's clear that ArenaNet and NCSoft mostly have the story bridge to Guild Wars 2 in mind with EotN. The best you'll get in updates to PvP and combat in general are the new skills, which have some decent variety.
A big draw to the expansion is the Hall of Monuments, which is a personal achievement instance that keeps track of and displays your accomplishments across the campaigns and particularly in EotN. You can only access it through the EotN expansion and earning your rewards will take some doing, as most of them require completing various story, dungeon, and faction-based objectives to attain. The cool thing is that once you achieve certain goals, you can apply them towards your Guild Wars 2 characters in the form of weapons, armor, pets, titles, and other rewards. It'll take quite a lot of grinding to earn some of the higher level items, but knowing that they will give you bragging rights in the sequel is pretty neat.
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The Charr are mostly just misunderstood.
Innovation: 7/10
Most everything that you've already seen in Guild Wars is present in EotN, save the new minigames and Hall of Monuments. That's not to say that ArenaNet and NCSoft haven't perfected their formula, as the expansion is an excellent Guild Wars experience, but if you've played any of the campaigns (particularly Nightfall), you won't be surprised by anything here.
Polish 10/10
ArenaNet and NCSoft have a knack for developing and publishing highly polished Guild Wars content, and EotN is no different. The game is stable and runs very smoothly, and should do so on a large range of PC hardware, given the game's optimization and age. The UI is the same as it has been for the past six years and is still very clean and user-friendly, and it's as easy to hop between campaigns and in-game regions as always.
Longevity 8/10
The main quest is decently long and there are plenty of side-quests and minigames to keep you amused along the way, but the main endgame content has to be the long-term draw of EotN. Tackling the 18 new dungeons and earning the 40 new armor sets will take you a good long while, alongside grinding achievements for your Hall of Monuments. If this doesn't sound interesting, the main campaign is compelling enough, but if you like Guild Wars, there's a lot more of it here.
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The Asuran town of Rata Sum.
If you have a level 20 character, you're likely familiar with the way XP works in the Guild Wars endgame. You'll continue to gain experience without "leveling," per se, instead earning points to spend on your attributes, and those of your heroes. You also probably know by now if you're a PvE or PvP player in Guild Wars, so if you're only here for the PvP, you'll have to wait for Guild Wars 2. If you're here for both or just PvE, there's a lot to do and explore, especially if you're looking for a fix in anticipation of the sequel.
Social 8/10
Like the other Guild Wars campaigns, the social scene is what you make of it in EotN. You can play through most, if not all, of the main story with your own henchmen and heroes and never speak to another player if that's what you're into. Or, you can do everything with a full party of other people, or some players, some henchmen.
Some of the endgame dungeons are much more complex and will most likely require a full party of players to complete, so if you're interested in running them, you might have to come out of your shell and make some friends. Fortunately, Guild Wars players seem to be pretty friendly and knowledgeable, and there are always a lot of people online in the quest hub areas. The community in general is also pretty active and lively.
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Actually, I'm looking for something in green.
Value 10/10
You simply can't beat ArenaNet and NCSoft's Guild Wars pricing model: buy the game, and you own it. You can purchase in-game extras like pets and missions if you'd like, but nothing crucial to the core game experience. Plus, EotN is 20 bucks on the NCSoft Store, which is only slightly higher than most MMO subscription fees.
If you haven't played the original Guild Wars Trilogy, I'd absolutely recommend picking it up, as you'd be getting three great games for 30 bucks, and would have to level a character to 20 anyway before you can jump in to EotN. Either way, both Guild Wars Trilogy and EotN are very much worth your money.
Conclusion
At this point, hopefully pretty close to Guild Wars 2's release, the decision to pick up Guild Wars: Eye of the North depends on a few things. If you haven't played any of the Guild Wars campaigns, or if you have, but feel like you've gotten what you wanted out of them, you can pretty safely wait until the sequel comes out next year. One the other hand, if you love everything about Guild Wars, are looking for more, or are so eager to get your hands on Guild Wars 2 and want some in-game items and bragging rights when the game launches, EotN might be just the ticket to tide you over until then.
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Earn achievements toward Guild Wars 2 in your Hall of Monuments.
Frankly, after playing EotN I'm even more super-excited for ArenaNet and NCSoft's sequel, which I suppose means the expansion has done its job pretty well. I'm a big fan of the Guild Wars lore and story, and if you are too, you'll probably like what EotN has to offer here. Heck, even if you haven't played any of the games, you can get everything for $50 and have a pretty good time with it. If you've played Prophecies, Factions, or Nightfall and are looking for something entirely new or more PvP, you can probably skip EotN, but if you're looking for more Guild Wars, you'll be entirely content with this expansion.
I loved all 3 guild wars games but I didn't pick up GWEN when it came out. Now I would like to play but I don't enjoy playing alone. It is super boring. I find myself browsing the internet while my henchmen do all the work for me.
If anyone knows a group of people who want to play through GWEN please message me..
I agree with most of what is said in the article. It doesn't mention one big downturn regarding the completion of the Hall of Monuments (HoM), though: At this point in time, it is safe to say that no new player can achieve 50/50 on the GW-to-GW2 transition scale, at least not before the GW2 release. The problem are the elitist PvP modes Heroes' Ascent (HA), Guild vs Guild (GvG) and, to some extent, Codex Arenas (CA).
For HA, it is insanely difficult to find a party that accepts newbies, and even if you manage to find 7 other newbies, you will be crushed by the elitist Rank 12+ parties that inhabit this domain. You might be able to achieve Rank 3 (which requires 180 fame (the name of the points counting towards the title)) and get the first of 5 emotes (Deer (3: 180), Wolf (6: 1000), Tiger (9: 4,665), Phoenix (12: 21,600), Dragon (15: 100,000)) till the GW2 release, but in order to unlock the achievement in the HoM, you need to be at least Rank 6. It was fairly easy to get the title "back in the day", but as of now, HA is populated mostly by highranked teams, which makes earning fame extremely difficult.
Getting the required rank in the Champion title track (GvG) is even harder, since you get the points only for winning a match between two guilds with at least 1,200 rating on the ladder. Even getting this high is difficult enough (but definitely not impossible), getting the 100 victories required for the achievement, though, is. At least it will take a lot of time and patience.
Although CA, like the two above, is a non-random party PvP mode, it adds a significant amount of randomness by rotating the available skill pool every day. This makes it a lot easier for inexperienced players to actually play and slowly build points - of which you still need 2,000 to be able to add this title to the HoM - because you can hide your lack of skill behind the severely restricted skill- and therefore build pool.
I am aware of the fact that the review is also aimed at existing players, who played Prophecies, Factions, and/or Nightfall, but in order to be competitive, access to the complete skill pool is necessary - and for this you need all 3 standalone campaigns and EotN. If you are an active player with only Proph, Factions and NF and haven't yet bought EotN more than 4 years after the release, you probably don't have that much PvP experience and the list applies also to you.
On the bright side, most of the PvE content is easily accessible. A friend of mine bought all 4 campaigns in July and unlocked more than half of the HoM achievements in the 2-3 following months.
(Also, what's wrong with the bullet point feature in the comments?!)
What? 50/50 (50 Hall-of-Monuments points out of 50 possible) is not an easy feat, but what's written in the other post is bullox. You don't need to play high-level PvP to get there. There are ways through PvE to get the one PvP statue you do need. I know it sounds weird, but that's the way it is. Z-keys and Z-coins is all I say.
So, after this, you should also know that you don't need 50/50 HoM points to get good stuff for GW2. In fact, only the first 30 points get you items, pets, etc. For the last 20 you get four additional titles you can display, one at each 5 point increment.
Getting to 30 is still a bit of work if you start from scratch. There are some guides that help you focus on the easier points and how to score them. If you have played the other campaigns you are likley already at 10 points or so and can get a couple more with a little work. And the expansion can now be had for even less money than mentioned, from $10 down to $5 if you snag it at a sale. I would say it's definitely worth it.
HoM is 3/4 money, few heroes (you obtain em anyway) and just then (assume you play for at least few months) you need to finish some titles.
May I ask how long it takes to get 50/50 HoM? I bought the whole package on a steam sale and haven't played yet, waiting to get a new pc as the current one doesn't play for shit.
Really, most people are going to be satisfied with hitting 30 in the HoM since everything after that point is just titles (unless it's changed since I last looked). Some are even content to hit a part way mark once they've unlocked the one bonus item that appeals to them.
Most players aren't all that interested in reaching GWAMM. They want the shinies, which aren't that hard to obtain. The normal course of play will unlock a bunch of stuff even without any extra effort.
I couldn't tell you exactly, but I would guess in excess of six months if you were dedicated and had some help. One of the biggest hurdles is money and that requires you know how and where to farm, plus the time to actually do it. Realistically, I'd say a year for a new player who doesn't pursue it neurotically. But you can fill out quite a bit of it pretty quickly otherwise. I think I reached 25 in about three months from a fresh account, with no guild and no assistance from friends. I wasn't even all that dedicated to it.
exactly. Play for fun and it will come to you.
30/50 is not easy let alone 50/50
The most painful is getting the armors and the weapons, other achievements gets unlocked as you go, but some needs a lot of attention.
My suggestion is, as soon as you are able to get the Hero's Handbook just follow that story line to gain a lot of faction rep. You also get a lot of gold this way, which is badly needed to be able to purchased the over-priced materials for your Elite Armor set. This is basically your grinding guide. :/
After 3-4 turn-ins of this handbook, I got bored already -- that means, it's time to complete it in Hard Mode. >:D
GL, I already have my 30, no need for 50.
You only need to be level 10, not level 20, to be able to starting doing EotN expansion.
Yeah, if you start now from scratch, getting to 30/50 is quite a lot of work. A lot of the things in HoM are things you normally accumulate over time when playing GW. Like the minipets from the birthday presents for toons and the armoursets. Getting those in a relative short amount of time needs a lot of ingame money.
Still 30/50 should be possible for someone who starts now.
One of the best expansions ever made, for any game.
seams a good expansioin
Reaching 30/50 shouldn't be too hard, I would think at least. You get 3 points just for playing (the account linking). Beating the three campaigns (and bonus modes for at least two) will easily nab you another 5 points. MOX is a freebie for your hero points, and as a Ranger any pet will add in a point as well. 10 points without trying.
The most expensive things in the game to obtain, without a doubt, is the Obsidian, then Vabbian, armor and lastly the Tormented Weapons (20-25ectoes for one armbrace). The rest can all be bought easily with just 50-60 platinum (Destroyer and Oppressor weapons) and a little closer to 80-90k for armor. That is assuming you just outright buy the items though from the material traders. In truth just going through the game will cover a good portion of material for your Prestiege armor sets, and rare crafting material itself can be crafted as well if necessary. Eye of The North also provides some cheap sets of armor that count towards the HoM as well.
It can look like a major grind on your own, but you'd be doing a diservice to the game then. Join a guild, have fun, join in the community events (while they still last). I jumped 8 points in my own HoM (20-28) thanks to a community-ran event I participated in. I got to that 20 points not even touching the armor or weapon set areas. Pets are also commonly traded, and if not given away for free, the first couple years of white mini-pets are pretty much just 2-5 platinum each (unless its the rare ones).
Also, it should be noted that there is the GW Beyond content being released, which takes place after Eyes of the North, and provides its own chances for HoM points (the earlier mentioned Oppressor weapon come from the War in Kryta/Romance plotlines).
Just to clarify some things, as there are some mistakes in the article:
1. You neither need a level 20 character, nor you have to complete a previous campaign(you still must own one though) to acsess EotN. As soon as you get to one of the major cities (Lion's Arch, Kaineng Center and Kamadan) you can obtain the quest to get to the new content. If you're not level 20 the game will automatically place a buff on you("Journey to the North"), which will scale your health, armor and skills to that of a level 20 character, but you will still continue to gain experience for your actual level . When you finally reach the level cap the buff will simply dissappear.
2. Getting all the items in HoM (30/50) is EXTREMELY EASY and almost grind free. It requires basic knowledge of the metagame, for example to know how "to do" the Traveller's weekly quest (basically a 35-40 minute long grind, that will give you rather neat ammount of gold 22-25K), Glint's challenge mission, Zaishen daily's, and another great source of money if you have Factions - Jade Quarry (you can get Zaishen keys pretty fast from there and sell them for about 4,6-5,5 K).
It took me around 3 and a half months, and I was playing about 8 HOURS PER WEEK ( I'm a higher education student so I don't have much time). Given I had completed all campaings, but then again if you play let's say 4 hours a day - you can be done in 3 months for sure!
3. Getting full HoM (50/50) is completely optional and, at least for me, POINTLESS - as it only grants you TITLES and NO ADDITIONAL ITEMS in GW2. It really requires a lot of time, and it's for hardcore fans only.
EoTN was that good that I bought my two brothers the Game of the year Edition each, to play with me. Shame the player base is too difficult to get along with now.. Although you do get some nic epeople who give out free runs in the high level content.
Never playing Guild Wars, it'd take you a while. And since a good bit of places will be empty it'll take you longer than normal. If you join a guild and get the basics withing 5 days time, it'd probably take you a month or 2 or 3 depending on how long you play and how often. Guild Wars has a ton of content to cover and it's challenging. Simply running past mobs is impossible unless you have certain builds.
I'd suggest just playing the game like normal and finding a helpful guild. Having RL friends you can play at the same time with will help a lot.
Good review. I agree the HoM points are a bit rough, but they aren't game-breakers for GW2.
30/50 isnt hard. Just requires a lot of farming or cash. I pretty much stopped playing GW after I got my 30+. Just waiting for the game without a release date to finally come out :p