Guild Wars Nightfall - Critical Response

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. It received a score of 84.20% on GameRankings and 84/100 on Metacritic.

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". Despite this, Guild Wars Nightfall was widely recommended as the best game in the series for new players to start in., and some extend this to say it is the strongest offering in the Guild Wars series

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, but were also felt to be a mixed blessing because, unlike henchmen, heroes require micro-management, and often take slots in the party which might normally be filled by human players. Many commented that it seemed that the game was now more solo player focused than previous installments, 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."

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. 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.

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, for instance Yahoo notes, "the chat and player-info features are rudimentary, and you only meet other players when you're in a town." It was also felt that Guild Wars is becoming an increasingly complex game due to the vast number of skill interactions