Guild Wars: Prophecies Campaign, Game (PC) Review

Guild Wars is a CORPG, or Competitive/Cooperative Online Role Playing Game developed for Windows by ArenaNet and published by NCsoft. The first campaign of Guild Wars, Guild Wars Prophecies was released on April 28, 2005. The different genre was chosen (as opposed to the classic "Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) RPG") due to the perceived differences between the game and other, more traditional MMOs: the focus on Player versus Player (PvP) rather than Player versus Environment (PvE) play made it almost a unique case at the time, players received their own instanced copy of explorable zones and parties were limited to 8 players each, a tiny number compared to the massive caps of other games, which often allowed for up to 64 players in a single party (and unlimited players in non-instanced zones, which were the norm).

REVIEW:

-Features:Here is something interesting. Many of you will now say "not another mmo review!!!". However there are a few things that sets this game apart from the rest of its kind. For starters the game has many innovative gameplay features such as the ability to have 2 professions (one primary and one secondary), the ability to block access by simply standing in front of a person (aka bodyblock) which although can be frustrating when a group of enemies surround you and you have a cliff at your back, but on the other hand it adds realism, after all I doubt there is anyone that can move through a person. Another great addition is the fact of height which now affects range AND damage of a ranged attack. Meaning that if you face your opponents on the top of the hill you will be able to shoot further and do more damage due to the height advantage, while if you are standing on the bottom of the hill and trying to shoot up you will have to move closer to shoot and do less damage. Those small things might not seem as much but add to a great sense of realism and a more clever way of gameplay. Rangers for instance now dont simply shoot, run, shoot, run, shoot some more, run some more, but instead they will look around them and use the terrain to their best. I find it extremely fascinating when I stand on the top of a hill while my other party members block the access to it and i rain arrows on the monsters bellow
Another thing they added which makes me love this game is the fact that there is a story. Not the usual vague backround story that exists in the other mmo's but an actual living story that you participate in and actually see through. There are cinematics, cutscenes a progressive storyline, missions and in the expansion and the 3rd campaign, even heroes that are used as henchmen but they have customizable skills and also a character and their own story. Finally it has NO monthly fee. You just buy the games and you play for free for life.

-Story: At this review I will be talking on the Prophecies campaign, also known as core. It is the first campaign of the initial release. The story begins with quite the usual way in mmo's you are a simple man who starts helping around in various quests, and you draw the attention of the prince with your skills and get enlisted in the Vanguard. So far so good. Things start to change however when you actually see that you are no longer a lackey that you will send to collect 10 chunks of shimp for the royal feast. And that is because at one of your missions you are accompanied by the prince and witness an event known as Searing, which practically turns Ascalon to a wasteland by the long time enemies of the Humans, the Charr. The story then follows you as a player as you follow prince Rurik in an attempt to save the most important thing of Ascalon, its people. You will travel through the devastated Ascalon area, talk with a foreign ambassador that offers refuge to your people. You will then follow prince Rurik as you lead a large group of Ascalonians over the mountains to find refuge in the kingdom of Kryta. But things do not end there.
The story is simply amazing, not only for an mmo but even as a story itself. The world has a history, there are things going on, it has intrigue, betrayal and off course, epic confrontations with the forces of evil. There are a lot of situations when I have felt a bit sorry for people of the story dying and although at times i felt a bit tired of moving it forward due to the difficulty of the missions, i always enjoyed the missions just because I was getting one stop closer to what will happen next. Although from all the campaigns of Guild Wars, prophecies is the longest and most boring to complete, it is without a doubt one of the most basic ones and interesting in terms of story.

Personally i recommend this game for people that both enjoy a good storyline as well as mmo's. Also keep in mind that this is the first out of the 4 guild wars reviews that will come up, one for each campaign.