GameOn!

"North" Star

by Shawn Sines

Returning to the world of Tyria is like visiting that favorite aunt who lives in a crumbling old house. You love to see her and enjoy her company, but you know the whole trip is going to be hard because the world has ended around you.

Guild Wars: Eye of the North continues the Guild Wars saga by returning players to the lands of the original game (now called Prophesies). The relentless invasions of the lion-like Char are subsiding and new races reveal themselves and introduce the threat of an evil deep below Tyria.

Players can enjoy the advancing storyline and the peek at things to come in preparation for the upcoming Guild Wars 2.

Eye of the North is the first true expansion to the series, breaking the trend set by the previous installments, Factions and Nightfall, by being purely add-on content for existing players. There are no new classes, no new apocalyptic events, just a continuation of the story set forth before. Players with characters at maximum level can travel from any of the games to Eye of the North's new areas.

Unfortunately, the story will only mean a lot to players who completed most of the Guild Wars storyline. Along with a plethora of new skills for experienced adventurers to unlock, players will find some new foes and a few entertaining mini-games (one of which closely resembles a demented version of Nintendo's Pokemon).

Eye of the North does introduce many of the enhancements made in the later games. Heroes, a feature of Nightfall, make their appearance in Tyria here; many of them represent the newly revealed playable races from the upcoming sequel.

Guild Wars 2 is more than a year away from release, but players looking forward to the transition will enjoy one key feature—the Hall of Heroes. This personalized building serves as a "love-me room" where players earn tapestries and statues to represent their accomplishments in the various games.

Once the new title comes out, the creators intend to advance the game world quite a few years, but they promise that players who've invested hundreds of hours will retain their personal halls of fame.

Longtime fans of Guild Wars should definitely pick up this expansion. Those who are unfamiliar with the world or who do not own Prophesies, Factions or Nightfall need not apply, as the game requires one of those titles to play.

Then again, there's never been a better time than now to pick up Guild Wars.

September 13th, 2007

Copyright ? 2007 Columbus Alive, Inc. All rights reserved.