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Once again, Guild Wars gets it right!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 33 / 40
Date: August 31, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This expansion pack requires that players have at least one of the previous Guild Wars campaigns and at least one character at level 20. If you want to play Eye of the North (EotN), you must already have Guild Wars: Prophecies, Guild Wars: Factions, and/or Guild Wars: Nightfall installed or purchase at least one of them now.

PREVIOUS CAMPAIGNS
(1) Guild Wars: PROPHECIES has a good story line and is also the most natural "prequel" for the story in Eye of the North. However, leveling to level 20 in Prophecies is comparatively slow and reaching the city of Lion's Arch (where you can access the new region in EotN) will take you many hours of concentrated (though enjoyable) play.
(2) Guild Wars: FACTIONS is the quickest of the campaigns in which to level up to level 20. It also has the best story of the three campaigns, although some players did not like Factions as well as the other two campaigns. I enjoyed the campaign's Asian theme and locations, although I found the missions in Factions to be much more challenging than in Prophecies.
(3) Guild Wars: NIGHTFALL introduces Heroes (customizable non-player characters), which are very helpful as you level your character, but has the weakest storyline of the three campaigns (it is still a good story, however). I also found the leveling to be a bit slower in Nightfall than in Factions.

WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT EYE OF THE NORTH
Everything that I appreciate about Guild Wars is in EotN:
(1) It has an intriguing story, punctuated by entertaining and often amusing cut scenes (mini-movies). The story is also divided into three main "arcs", allowing players to go this way or that in the story line, as they so choose.
(2) It has additional Heroes (you get a monk, elementalist [mage], and mesmer almost from the get-go, and more Heroes come soon after via questing).
(3) Once again, Guild Wars is packed with extraordinary landscapes, monsters, and battle effects. I spend a lot of time just snapping gorgeous landscape "photos" (Print Screen) to use on my desktop.
(4) Numerous multi-level dungeons have been included. The dungeons are challenging and often fun (but sometimes extremely difficult if not downright impossible [see below]).
(5) The option to play in groups of "real" players or alone (with henchmen/heroes) or in any combination of real players and henches you want. I LOVE the fact that the Guild Wars campaigns accommodate so many playing styles. As for me, I like to play on my own or with a friend most of the time but I do group up with others occasionally. Grouping is also a great option for normally solo players that are having particular difficulty with some mission or quest.
(6) The story arcs involving the new races--Norn, Charr, and Asura--are entertaining and the associated missions are challenging, occasionally humorous, and creative.

WHAT's NOT GOOD ABOUT EYE OF THE NORTH
(1) Guild/Alliance interface--It would be helpful to be able to "see" not only who is online but where and what they are, for both your guild and alliance, but you cannot.
(2) Polymock/Dwarven Boxing/Norn Fighting--The new "minigames" introduced in EotN are not very fun in my opinion but, since they are optional, this is not a big problem.
(3) Hall of Monuments--The Hall of Monuments is a place where you can display past campaign achievements. As other reviewers have noted, the Hall is a letdown but, like the minigames, is incidental to the story.
(4) Dungeon Difficulty -- A number of the dungeons and associated quests are irritatingly long and/or difficult (at least with henches and heroes). I wish Guild Wars offered a more reasonable range of dungeon difficulty settings to choose from. Online sites such as guildwiki do provide helpful information and tips for defeating these dungeons and bosses. (With the right heroes and skill sets, many of the dungeons and end bosses can indeed be soloed with henchmen and heroes, but several of the dungeons [see Comments for dungeon list] are, in my opinion, too long, too difficult, and/or NOT WORTH THE TIME AND EFFORT with hero/hench teams. In ratcheting up the difficulty to such an extent, ArenaNet has inexplicably opted to post, in effect, a "Keep Out!" sign for a substantial portion of this expansion for many of its more casual/solo players.)

Overall, however, I am still pleased with and greatly enjoying EotN. It is a welcome addition to an already great game series, this time designed as an Expansion Pack tailored for veteran level 20 players. For new players, Guild Wars is a great game and it's easy to get started. One can jump in via any of the previous campaigns listed above and have a great time with it.

[*This review was updated 10 October 2007]

A great idea that wasn't playtested enough

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 20 / 23
Date: September 07, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I've been playing GW since shortly it came out and have bought every campaign and expansion and have been generally very happy with it. I wish I could say the same for Guild Wars: Eye of the North (GWEN). First off, let's start with the good things:

1. Tons of eye-candy. Tons of attention was paid to making the dungeons et al. look amazing. There are gas traps that shoot out amazing fountains of poison, there are cogs and wheels in motion, etc. It is very well done in the graphics dept.

2. The story line is really good. It ties in various factions from previous campaigns.

3. Tons of new PvE skills. There are new Title tracks and skills to go with them (Norn, Dwarf, and Asura) with benefits for displaying the title (similar to Lightbringer track from Nightfall). There are also standard skills you can buy for PvP and PvE from a skill trainer as well, but by and large, the new skills are on the Title tracks, which also means they can't be used in PvP.

Now for why I am disappointed in GWEN:

1. Dungeons - These were touted to be oh-so-amazing things to explore. Well, they are in an entirally visual way. The problem that arises is that most dungeons are a pain in the rear. You basically have to meta for each specific dungeon and if you don't ahead of time, expect to finally reach the boss at the end of the dungeon after 2-3 hours fighting your way there and find out that you have no way of beating the boss, and will have to start all over. There are some simple puzzles in dungeons which I will say is a good thing, but they are childishly simple. There not even to the level of say Knights of the Old Republic series (whose hardest puzzle was a modified Towers of Hanoi). Another issue is the benefit/difficulty ratio - it just isn't worth the time to go through the dungeons (except when required to). On average, there is 7.5K xp and 1.25k gold for clearing out a 2-level dungeon (plus a guaranteed gold item or gem drop at the end). But be prepared to spend 2-3 hours earning it. Yes, you'll get tons of swag to sell and score some pts. for the various Title tracks, but you can do other things with a lot less hassle for the same, if not better, rewards.

The dungeons just feel like they were thrown in without making sure they were not a NPE (negative playing experience (a playtesting term used to indicate an experience where the fun was pretty much sucked out of the game for a player)).

Unfortunately, some dungeons are required to complete the story line, and one is very heinously a NPE. After spending quite some time to fight your way to the boss, you find out that he has a shield that requires you to run through fire to be able to drop explosive to bring down the shield (requires 3 runs). Problem is that the enemy can explode the explosives you are carrying, deals almost lethal damage (very lethal if you have any death penalty), and that he never misses under ordinary circumstances. Even if you bring down his shield, you have about 30 secs. to kill him before the shield goes back up and he starts healing. Then you have to try to bring his shield down again! My description just doesn't do justice to how much an NPE that dungeon is! Unfortunately, just about all dungeons are like that.

2. Lack of universal (usable in both PvE and PvP) Elites - the new Elites are PvE only ones. This is a minor gripe but some new universal Elite skills would've been good.

3. Polymock - this is a new side game that allows one to basically duel an NPC one on one and play as a different creature (skale, ice imp, etc.). Sounds neat, right? Problem is that you have to go sequentially against your opponents (you can't just go to the local Polymock NPC and play him; you have to fight your way to him), and those that you have to challenge always have better pieces (the creatures you can take the shape of come as playing pieces). The only way to get better pieces is to beat people in the Polymock series, random drop in a dungeon (only found after beating the boss of a dungeon), or the secondary market (i.e. buying it from someone (prices currently run around 60,000 for one piece)). Furthermore, once you actually play Polymock, you find out that you and your opponent are stuck on towers, and your opponent always has Area of Effect spells that he can't miss with. While there are people that can excel at it, most players find it generally a pain to do. Fortunately, it isn't required to complete the story-line.

4. AI has been changed for heros/henches - In past, your heros and hechmen/women would continue to fight if you had to back off to heal yourself for a moment. Well, they've changed the AI so that if you move at all during combat, the AI interprets that as a call for retreat and your heros/henchmen will immediately stop fighting and break-off. It doesn't matter that all you were trying to do was get in to position to attack - your heros and hench will break off and form up behind you!

So, to sum it all up: GWEN is artistically amazing and is generally fun, but feels that while the makers wanted to make the final chapter of GW 1 memorable, they forgot to playtest to make sure the fun of playing the game all-the-way-around exists.

A wonderful collection of repeatable endgame content

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: October 04, 2007
Author: Amazon User

First, you must understand that GW:EN is not a chapter, and is not trying to be. Instead, it's a giant collection of extra material for very experienced characters. Almost everything here is repeatable, with sizable rewards and lots of skills/titles/other ways to become more powerful. People will tell you it's short, but that's just the story line. The story itself IS a little short, though it's also quite good and the bits in the Charr homelands (and the bonus quests with Gwen) are wonderfully nostalgic for players of the original Prophecies. However, in addition to a main plotline that's basically 12 missions long (about the length of Factions but without the intermediary questing that made that very short chapter seem longer than this) there are a full 18 massive multilayer dungeons. Each dungeon has it's own plot (or in some cases plots), has sizable rewards and secrets, and takes several hours to complete. Add to that an (ever increasing) pile of quests that aren't accessible until after you've complete pieces of the main story and no one could seriously claim there's not a ton of fun things to do here.

The game is still gorgeous (even moreso, really), the new heroes are excellent and the minigames are fun. There aren't a lot of new skills, but what's here does create some very interesting possibilities when combined with what's in the other chapters.

All in all, this is a must buy for anyone that enjoys Guild Wars. It's a great collection of content for the level 20 character that's done it all, and if you're a fan of the game what more could you want?

GW:EN review

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: September 16, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is anet's poorest showing so far. The expansion seems to have been rushed, and rather overpriced. However if you are a hard core Guild Wars fan (like myself) you can probably eek out some fun from it.

The Good-
-The scenery is incredible. I've found myself stopping suddenly to gaze in awe at a waterfall or other landscape feature.
-Mini-games They aren't great, but they are there, and are enjoyable as an alternative to questing.
-We meet up with Gwen again, and get to fight the Charr again.
-Rez shrines in the missions! Very nice.

The Bad-
-Grind. Grinding to have something to show in you Hall of Monuments, grinding for access to merchants and armor, grinding for rep.
-Gwen Should be a good point, but her long anticipated return is poorly orchestrated and a big let down.
-Lots of new hero but still only 3 heroes allowed in a party.
-New collectibles, but no additional storage.
-Hall of Monuments is all about grind, and punishes people who play more than one character.
-Dungeons They are nice and initially interesting, but after you've been in a few, you start to feel some deja vu. It appears that features of some dungeons were simply copied over to others to save time.
-New mobs to fight? Same art, new names.
-New armor Reskins unfortunately.
-The storyline is very short, and after your done the only thing left is to grind for titles.

Overall a pretty big disappointment. The over hyped the Hall of Monuments and the Dungeons, and substituted grind for content. So for the price it's at I really can't recommend it, but if you find it in a bargain bin for $20 or less, then you may as well pick it up, as some of it is enjoyable.

Enjoyable Experience

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: September 04, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I have enjoyed the Eye of the North expansion pack so far. Here are some positive and negatives I've seen about the expansion from playing it since the release.

Positive:
- More content for the seasoned players
- More spells
- Reputation gains
- Hall of monuments (achievements transferred to Guild Wars 2 when released)
- New Armor set for each class
- Expanding questline, elite boss fighting (Notorious Monster kills)

Negative:
- Heavily populated areas in Expansion parts (large server ping)
- Short quest line than actual campaign (casual players don't worry, it still is pretty lengthy when you take your time)
- No changes in PvP beyond new spells
- Confusing Hall of Monuments and Dungeon Exploration / Explanation
- Traveling to other towns is extremely hard, and lengthy.

The biggest pet peeve I found is that it's easy to get lost in the content of the game. The main story line follows a linear pattern but early on, then splits into several different quests which then don't have markers to run to. It doesn't help that the explanation given in the quest log is difficult to understand, and sends you "South" or "North" to a city you have no idea where it is at. I want to follow the main story and do the quests later, but I feel like I'm being forced to do other things instead which I don't care about doing.

The reputation grinds are a scary memento of how World of Warcraft handles "content" for the hardcore players. I don't enjoy grinding reputation. I don't have time to kill 10,000 enemies for someone to like me. I would suggest NCSoft to not go the way of their Lineage II folks or Blizzard entertainment and stray away from it. You're not fooling anyone when you call it reputation. Its just another way of leveling a character that is already level 20.

Beyond those two big sticklers, I have enjoyed the content overall. The expansion dungeons are vast and very well done graphically. It felt like an epic adventure at times, and the difficulty bar was raised significanlty. Just crossing to a new area is a challenge in itself. I recommend this expansion to anyone with the original Guild Wars campaign. It wont knock your socks off with content, but it is a good addition to people looking for something fresh in this already vast game.

Good content value

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: March 21, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Eye of the North is the latest, and likely the last, expansion in the Guild Wars series. As such, it definitely adds more content than any of the previous games (Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall) but it also requires at least one of the others to work, and is designed for higher level characters that are presumably controlled by players with some degree of experience.

The primary draw of the Guild Wars series is that it has no monthly fees for online play. Though it isn't a true MMO in the traditional sense, it has a lot of elements found in other games. Additionally, players need not be 'hardcore' in order to experience endgame content or reach the maximum level- it is quite possible (one might even say, easy) to do the latter in one day. Eye of the North actually breaks the mold in some regards, in that it does reward hardcore players for their dedication. However, it generally stays true to the series roots.

To start Eye of the North, you have to attain level 10 in any of the previous campaigns, after which you can travel to the north. If you're not level 20, you get 'buffed' to 20 while in any of the Eye areas. The storyline generally continues the Prophecies campaign, but you don't have to have played it to understand the gist of it. The expansion introduces three new factions- the Norn, Asura, and Ebon Vanguard. All of them have reputation tracks, unique armor sets, special 'blessings' that help you while in their territory, and unique PVE skills. This is where you're rewarded for dedication, as the higher your reputation with a particular faction, the stronger the skills tied to it. Additionally, there is a lot of new content, ranging from the typical new items with new looks, to new regular skills and multi-level dungeons.

The factions in general are a great addition, and their quests are generally well done and challenging. There's quite a few 'master' quests as well, which are typically very difficult- some bordering on the impossible unless you have high ranks in certain factions. You will be introduced to all the factions and acquire moderate reputation over the course of the main quest, which is lengthy but not to the point of boredom. The first questionable game issue comes to light with this aspect, however, as some of the faction skills- especially Norn faction skills- become ridiculously overpowered at higher reputation levels. Perhaps this was done as compensation for some of the equally ridiculously difficult quests and dungeons, but it also forces players to 'grind' reputation mindlessly for hours and hours if they really care about attempting the harder content with others. The vast majority of groups won't even consider low-ranked players unless they have no choice.

Overall, the campaign is quite difficult, though the main quest isn't overly challenging and can largely be completed solo with henchmen and heroes.* Most of the side-quests and dungeons are definitely challenging (though not necessarily for 'good' reasons- more on that later), and become a very itchy proposition for solo players. There are also an assortment of minigames, solo quests, and challenge missions for those that get tired of the other things. In short, there's plenty for casual gamers or solo players to do, but you won't be able to get through most of the harder content without at least one other person along- preferably more in most cases.

*This isn't to say this is the easiest way to do things, however, and a few quests will almost certainly require at least one person to help.

The new areas are generally well designed in terms of looks and layout- they include some really large maps and very attractive scenery. Of course, no area is complete without a bunch of deadly monster mobs, and you will very frequently see enemies above level 20- some as high as 30- with as large teeth as one would expect of something their level. Sometimes very large packs of high leveled monsters patrol certain areas, and some of the random and wandering bosses are extremely dangerous. This makes exploration far more of a chore than one might expect after playing any of the previous campaigns. Typically, areas are about as densely populated with patrols as they are towards the end of the Nightfall campaign, which is to say there's probably too many.

The multi-level dungeons are a great idea that could have been implemented a whole lot better. In general, the dungeons are attractive but very poorly designed. Allow me to offer a case in point. Once upon a time, I visited Vloxen Excavations, cleared almost to the end of the first level, and wiped. I respawned at the start, because that was the closest resurrection shrine- linearly, through several very solid walls- from where I died. Then I had to walk all the way back to the end, passing the other 3 shrines along the way. Further down on level 2, I encountered a necromancer boss with a patrol coming up a nearby cave- but of course I didn't know it was there, because it was off the radar at the time. As I was merrily smacking down the boss and his cohorts, the patrol emerged out of nowhere and wiped me out. I then resurrected at the shrine directly behind the boss- bitter irony after the previous nonsense- and was now trapped spawning literally on top of 20 mobs that included several minion master necromancers who kept making more minions from my party's dead corpses.

Bottom line- the developers have no idea how to design dungeons, and the Guild Wars engine was never intended to function in closed twisting tunnels of the type they introduced. This makes the dungeons very difficult, not for good (i.e. requiring you to plan/strategize/be smart) reasons- but for bad (technical, nuisance) ones. The rewards are generally not worth the time spent, as well, and players looking for a solid dungeon crawl a la Neverwinter Nights or World of Warcraft 5-man will be sorely disappointed.

Additionally, the henchman, hero, and enemy AI is not at all improved from Nightfall and in some cases is a lot worse. You still have no idea who has aggro, and things will randomly break off for no apparent reason. Sometimes henchmen will run out of deadly AOE like meteor shower, other times they'll just stand there and wait for more. If you call targets, sometimes henchmen will attack them. Sometimes they won't. If you move to engage a new target, henchmen sometimes stop whatever they're doing and drop in behind you as if playing follow the leader. Henchmen aggression settings sometimes result in very odd behavior, and occasionally heroes will do totally wacky things that I can only say must be the result of some sort of bug. Heroes can be equipped and skilled with whatever you want them to be, but they tend to be very dumb at using certain skills, and of course you can only have 3 with you at any time. In short, if you like to play solo you can expect to be cursing- frequently and at the top of your lungs- at Mhenlo and company, and whoever else you deign to take along on your adventures.

Though this might sound like a lot of serious problems, one tends to ignore them for the most part. There's simply so many things to do that when you run into a brick wall (which does happen pretty often) you can just go do something else. As with the previous Guild Wars games, the ambient music is well done. The graphics are superb, and the character and item designs are excellent. The story, though not exactly breathtaking, isn't too bad. And if some of the quests and areas are outrageously hard, it does provide something to shoot for if you thought the previous campaigns were too easy (a very common complaint). And if for some reason even that's not hard enough for you, you can turn on 'hard mode' after finishing the campaign and make it even harder! Suffice to say, provided you don't mind playing with others and suffering a few bloody noses along the way, you can get a lot of hours out of this game.

Though it has its flaws, Eye is generally a lot of fun and a great value for your money. Considering that it's free to play, it's really about as much as you would expect. It has enough content to please casual and solo players, but also quite a bit for the more hardcore fans to enjoy. It also provides a good glimpse of how things might progress from here, as in the upcoming Guild Wars 2- to which you can supposedly carry some content if you make accomplishments in Eye (no details as of now). If you've tried and enjoyed any of the previous Guild Wars campaigns, Eye is definitely recommendable. If you're looking for something that's not quite as big or polished as, say, World of Warcraft- but a whole lot cheaper and more casual, then this is probably your game.

Possibly good but not tested enough

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: September 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Eye of the North might have been a good expansion to Guild Wars, but it wasn't tested nearly enough. Once the expansion went live, many people started to have their CD keys for their Guild Wars expansions disappear off their account. This made it very difficult, if not impossible, for most of the players with this problem to play the game at all. That wouldn't have been a problem if the problem was resolved immediately by customer support, but it seems customer support has been swamped and response times have been horrible.

I am not saying that the expansion is bad or shouldn't be purchased, but I would reconsider purchasing it until they have time to get some of these major bugs worked out.

Completed in 6 hours...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 8
Date: September 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I love Guild Wars... I have every Chapter... but this expansion... hmmm... it's got plenty of 'things' to keep people busy (i.e. grinding for titles), but other than that... it took me 6 hours to go through the primary quest line and defeat 'The Destroyer' (a boss that went down in under 5 minutes) - which was dissapointing.

The team was left going - "Is that it?" .

Then there are the mini-games... Polymock - supposedly dubbed "Pokemon on steroids"... I take 'steroids' as a negative... and unfortunately Polymock is waaaa~y off the mark... enforcing limited skill sets, and user choice which is NOTHING like the flexibility of Pokemon... it's more like Pokemon watered down. The AI is terrible at the moment too - anyone care to compete with AI interrupts?

Having said that - there are the good points, which are all over the press if you look for them... for me... I'm going back to Factions and playing AB.

Not bad, the others are better

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: September 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I liked this and had fun with it, got a bit frustrating when you can't level up and you have to fight a large number of characters at a greater level than your own, I played all the others and for a much longer time.

EoTN is Not Worth the Time, the Effort or the Money

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: December 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

It doesn't take a player long to realize that the developers of Eye of the North weren't interested in creating a good game so much as creating a difficult and frustrating one. Eye of the North quickly becomes time-consuming drudgery; very little enjoyment or fun here.

The quests are excessively long and difficult. It is not uncommon for a quest to take 3 hours to complete (or more). Quests overlap each other so that Quest X cannot be completed until Y is complete. But Y cannot be completed until X and A are done first. It is maddening to say the least. When quests are not overly time-consuming they're simply too difficult. (Death penalty points rack up and you haven't even arrived at the dungeon to start your quest!) The artificial intelligence "heros" and "henches" are still weak and die often leaving you forced to find (and beg) other players to help you.

The graphics in the other three Guild Wars games were really superb; not so in Eye of the North. The dungeons and several of the towns strongly resemble each other. The Eye of the North structure itself is very uninspired and thoughtless; the interior is one large floor, unadorned and empty.

This could have been a great game. Instead, the developers rushed an incomplete and poorly planned product onto store shelves. Save your time and save your money.

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