Guild Wars: Eye Of The North Review

By Jim Rossignol Published 12 September, 2007

The nay of the South.

Version tested: PC

The last time I tangled with Guild Wars I was reprimanded (rightly so) for calling Nightfall an expansion pack. As it happens all three of previous Guild Wars games are essentially stand-alone games, each one allowing players to access a quite different area of the Guild Wars universe. Eye Of The North meanwhile really is an expansion pack. It caters only for people who have bought either Prophecies, Factions or Nightfall, and is accessible only when you have a level twenty character.

Hitting any of the main hub cities with your level 20 opens up the expansion pack storyline. An earthquake has caused a fissure nearby, and descending into it leads you to a world of subterranean folk (dwarves dug their way under the fence from Middle Earth) which is being plagued by the aptly named "Destroyers". You help out the dwarves in their struggle against The Destroyers who are out to, er, destroy them. After a bit of forced fleeing, you head through a portal and into the North, where all kinds of adventures await.

Well, one specific kind of adventure: killing stuff with your mates, or with a party made up of heroes and henchmen. This is still one of the finest aspects of Guild Wars: the ability to head off on your own, or with just a couple of other people, with a party bolstered by NPCs. It means you can leap in and out of the storyline without having to sit around eating biscuits and typing "LFG". Also the pitched battles that large mobs, fought with a party of up to eight people, end up delivering, can be ludicrously chaotic and pretty spectacular. The north has ravaging bands of Charr (the bull/bear beasts that destroyed Ascalon back in the first Guild Wars) wandering around and the fights with them are particularly satisfying. The new lands in which you hunt and kill are also exceptionally beautiful, although quite a lot of the fighting takes place below ground - dungeons be plentiful in these mountainous areas.

'Guild Wars: Eye Of The North' Screenshot 1

Snow beast attack! It's like Hoth without the AT-ATs, or something.

Anyway, it turns out that the little girl with the flute from the open scenes of Guild Wars now lives up north and is fighting the Charr with the remnants of the blokes from Ascalon. Gwen, because that is her name, is just one of a bunch of new heroes you can get to join your band as you head out to complete any one of three main quest arcs. All of three are designed to ultimately lead you to destroy the Destroyers ("We're called Destroyers, and we get destroyed? How is that fair?") by picking up friends and chums from the forces scattered across the north. These people don't do anything without a bit of a favour being done for them, and there a loads of ways that you can pump up that faction standing with the different folks of the North. Each mission arc is quite different, and represents approximately five bajillion hours of gameplay. Yes.

More importantly, Gwen doesn't dress appropriately for the cold, and neither do the other people you'll meet, such as the twelve-foot Norn women. Norn, yes. They are are like normal people, but larger. Sort of stretched Vikings. Their legacy makes up the core quest arc (which means you get to have some beautiful giant women follow you around at one point - apparently this pleases some gentlemen) and also offer some subquests such as hunting, and fighting the Norns in an arena. But there's another reason for the Norn. The Eye Of North expansion is being used to introduce some of the races that will appear as playable folk in Guild Wars 2. This includes giant those northland men and women, as well as dwarves (you might have seen them before: the short people who live under the ground) and the Asuras. The Asuras are a mystery to me - they look a bit like mangled, flattened versions of Disney's Stitch character, and are presumably designed as the 'cute' race for Guild Wars 2. The main one wears a headband. I am not a fan.

In fact, in all honesty, I struggle to remain a fan of Guild Wars at all. I love the skill structure, and the sheer range of abilities open to you, and the character party construction, and the fact that you can play the campaigns solo, and the beautiful, world, with its beautiful people. But I still can't stand the complete lack of feedback and solidity in combat. I find myself continually irritated by the worthless way in which the game handles death. Dying does not make you want to avoid dying. Death in Guild Wars actively encourages you to give up and go and do something else - it's not right.

'Guild Wars: Eye Of The North' Screenshot 2

Nice warm jumpers do not seem to be among the new equipment provided by Eye Of The North.

But I digress. If you've ascended to level twenty then you're clearly okay with all that stuff, and you'll be much more interested in what you can get out of the Eye Of The North. Well, for starters there's a big "Hall Of Monuments" thing which contains both a scrying pool via which you can watch past cinematics, and monuments to your achievements, in the form of tapestries on its walls. Then there are a bunch of new skills (around a hundred, and fifty I believe) along with new weapons, armour sets, and so on. For continued adventures and further rounding out of your character, Eye Of The North is ideal - but really we're just passing the time.

Ultimate conclusion! Offering new items, skills and other general stuff for level 20 Guild Wars players certainly justifies the lessened price tag, but I'm not sure that the overall quality of the adventures here can really be said to make this one of the more interesting outings into the Guild Wars universe. They're just not interesting enough. For example, one of the early core quests sees you hunting a bear-monster that teleports away and regenerates for what is presumably 'dramatic effect'. In fact it means that it makes no difference what you do, you can stand back and let him get hit by your henchmen and wait for the next waypoint to pop up. No matter how good you are, you won't kill him - it's in the script. And it's very dull.

Finally, the Dwarves, Norn and Asuras all seem a bit... rubbish, frankly, and I hope this doesn't mean that Guild Wars 2 is going to be heading off in ever more trad fantasy directions, because they had a good thing going.

7 / 10

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About Jim Rossignol

Read more articles from Jim by visiting the Jim Rossignol archive page.

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Comments (34) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • riz23 #1 4 years ago

    Some fair comments from the gnome there. Eye of the North is bastard hard too. Still that's what people wanted, so they got it.

  • RedPanda #2 4 years ago

    Post deleted at 14:31:59 28-01-2012

  • Stoatboy #3 4 years ago

    That sounds interesting, RedPanda. If only there was somewhere around here that I could read about such creatures...

  • Rev.StuartCampbell #4 4 years ago

    Don't be ridiculous. Who'd make a game about some sort of "space giraffe"?

  • ZuluHero #5 4 years ago

    whoever does should be shot

    (out of a cannon and into the sun)

    how come Kieron hasn't reveiwed this? more PCG work? ;)

  • Chaote-Imagicka #6 4 years ago

    Then set the controls for the heart of the sun!

  • smurphs #7 4 years ago

    _Each mission arc is quite different, and represents approximately five bajillion hours of gameplay_

    I'm still on the original GW, and will probably reach Eye of the North in, oh I don't know, 2107? Who has time for these things??

  • xexuxjy #8 4 years ago

    I'm still on the original guild wars as well , but have just 'ascended' thanks in part to the heroes and weapon that I got via eye of the north. I've actually found EotN a fair bit easier then Prophecies, mainly because very few missions can you fail outright, you can always rez and even at 40% effectiveness the mission can be completed. A good expansion even for slow coaches like me.

  • BrokenSymmetry #9 4 years ago

    From the review:

    "I love the skill structure, and the sheer range of abilities open to you, and the character party construction, and the fact that you can play the campaigns solo, and the beautiful, world, with its beautiful people."

    That's good enough for me...

  • thedaveeyres #10 4 years ago

    Splendid, Perhaps A Certain Eccentric Game Is Reviewed About Friday For Eurogamer?

  • ZuluHero #11 4 years ago

    well guys if you had started when the original campaign came out in '05 you'd have been well on course for this :)

    Still finish Prophecies and at least you can skip the other 2 and move straight onto this. After the oriental and egyptian/african themes of Factions and Nightfall respectively, this is like coming home after a long journey.

    Love the entire series, and love this!

  • Darren #12 4 years ago

    Two Worlds please, EG! ;)

  • NonnyMouse #13 4 years ago

    This is a weird review. What's the point of getting someone to review an expansion if they didn't particularly like the original?

    I thought that a lot of GW was related to PVP? Maybe I just dreamed it...

  • 4thVariety #14 4 years ago

    MMO reviews are the most redundant thing ever. Either you get a fanboy praising, such as 10/10 Burning Crusade Review, or you get the disgruntled treatment.

    What are the reasons for giving out 7/10?
    Can personal taste in looks of races really decide on that, because if you look around, other MMO races are just as bad. There there are scripted events causing NPCs to teleport, I am sure that is something totally unheard of. or did you just forget that while doing all those "kill X creatures" quests. Same goes for the playbalance. You are on an 8-man team! Did you really think it made a difference if there were only 7? Or 6? If the balance required 100% efficiency then people would complain about difficulty. Jim must be the first person on the planet complaining that something was too easy.

    Then there is the "ultimate conclusion", the biggest joke of the review yet. Did it ever occur to you that there were shifts in the game's core mechanics? I bet not, since you don't seem to play the game apart from the time you are reviewing it; meaning zipping through the story line fastest way possible, while nitpicking on peoples dresses hoping to be funny. But last time I checked no character ever froze to death while wearing a chainmail bikini in the snow levels of any game.

    Next time, try to look at the minigames included, try to look at the new skills which do not follow the old Guild Wars attribute linking rules, try to get a feeling for the changes of the game and do not obsess about appearances, even GW fans know that the Asura are buttugly, but that is no reason to give the game a lower score than Dungeon Runners. Because THAT is a REALLY bad game.

  • crazyhorse174 #15 4 years ago

    @4thVariety

    Did it ever occur to you that every review is the personal opinion of the reviewer? If you don't like it, you dont have to agree - its not the law.

  • BrokenSymmetry #16 4 years ago

    This review is much the same as Jim's review of Guild Wars: Nightfall. A very short and shallow review that doesn't go at all into any new features of the game. Just as before, it's as if the reviewer got a reviewing job he didn't really want at all. Especially when compared to the in-depth treatment that The Burning Crusade got (a very similar expansion) it's a bit shameful...

  • Lim-Dul #17 4 years ago

    Has anybody noticed how 90% of the models and textures are recycled from previous campaigns? Even most armor designs seem to be re-skins of older sets and/or alpha/beta gear.

    Only upside of this "expansion" - hot giant chicks. :-D
    Jora is the shit! I wonder if there could be some inter-species breeding between humans and Norn - I mean, the latter are not THAT much bigger (although some body parts are, if you get my meaning ;-).

  • IN4ARIOT #18 4 years ago

    A real half-arsed "aw , do I have to review THIS"....EG has usually got better quality control than this dogs dinner of a review ...
    I've played for a few houres now and I kinda like it...it's not the "drag it out for a bit longer till GW2" thingie that was HM on the other 3..it's more of the other 3 with new bits , but funnerer...

  • Der_tolle_Emil #19 4 years ago

    Nice warm jumpers do not seem to be among the new equipment provided by Eye Of The North.

    Obviously not - I still like the outfit in that screenshot though!

  • login_name #20 4 years ago

    Sounds like you just don't like Guild Wars or MMORPGs since most of the stuff you seem to dislike are in almost every other MMORPG. This was made for the fans, it's been stated many times, and I think they will enjoy what it has to offer. I know I do.

    The bottom line is, if you like Guild Wars then you will like this. If you don't, you won't. No score necessary. However a more informative review would have been nice instead of pointless and petty comments like this:

    "More importantly, Gwen doesn't dress appropriately for the cold, and neither do the other people you'll meet, such as the twelve-foot Norn women."

  • ZuluHero #21 4 years ago

    totally with agree with alot of what you guys have said. Personally i new as soon as saw the reveiwers name that it would be a 7/10 - lets face it the nightfall reveiw was a travesty and so is this. But lets not all get to het up. Reveiws only reflect the personal opinion of the reviewer (however wrong and misguided they may be! :p)

    The true fans of the series know how good it is and thats all that matters! :)

    And Jim, in regards to dressing for the cold - sure, some the npc's might dress questionably for the frozen wastes (but somehow still seem that they are not out of place) - but you should at least know that some of the GWEN armour sets have a kinda furry motif about them that makes them somewhat fitting for the colder climates? ;)

  • Darkedge #22 4 years ago

    predictable review from a predictable rubbish reviewer.
    Poor yet again EG. Poor.

  • Darkedge #23 4 years ago

    games radar and games daily both gave it 90%

  • Gurrah #24 4 years ago

    I don't really agree with the 7/10 but that's the reviewers opinion, probably based on the things he wrote and experienced in GW:EN. I do agree on some points, mainly the part about Norns being rubbish - they are. I still don't get why they chose to include a new race while there are interesting races like the Avicara out there. They are established in the GW world, they are different from anything that happens to walk around current MMOs and they aren't just 'monsters' you kill - they fight for a cause. Being able to play them in GW2 would be more than awesome. What the reviewer fails to mention is the fact that the Charr will be a playable race in GW2, that's why they revealed a bit more about their habits and reasons for attacking Ascalon a few years back.

  • Lim-Dul #25 4 years ago

    Hey! I have been playing GW since the alpha (!) and I do agree with the reviewer... In Nightfall's case I didn't but here I do... It's just a half-arsed filler between GW1 and GW2 and offers nothing besides grinding for titles etc. GW becomes less like the good old GW from month to month... Where is the stress on casual gaming? On PvP? And from the sound of it GW2 will be like any generic MMORPG out there... Meh.

  • Mox #26 4 years ago

    Is no-one going to laugh at his skill selection?

  • Vandrius #27 4 years ago

    Hah. That was a joke of a review.

    You can never avoid a personal bias in a one person review, but honestly, literally saying in the review that you never really liked the original game is just plain bad reviewing.

    TRY to remain impartial and review on the games merits, would you?

    As others have said, a joke of a review.

    P.S. I don't care what the score is, I probably wouldn't peg it as that much different myself, but it was a shoddily written and edited piece for such blatant personal bias to shine through.

  • 3william56 #28 4 years ago

    Norns or norks?

  • Scimarad #29 4 years ago

    You can play these games solo?

    /is suddenly interested

  • Laurenza #30 4 years ago

    I agree with what Gurrah said. When EotN and GW2 was first mentioned, I was a little annoyed they made up all these new races (barring the Char), when they already had heroes and henchman of races we knew a lot about, e.g. the Tengu and the Centaur. There's also the Forgotten. Who wouldn't wanna play as a four-armed snake person? :D

    Though saying that, I've beaten the first three campaigns and I've only just started EotN, but I'm liking what I've seen. I'll admit there will be some bias, as Prophecies was my favourite campaign so I loved Tyria, and it's nice to see some old faces again. But it is a lot of fun. The solo quests and mini games have helped to mix things up a bit. I particularly liked Magni the Bison's fighting tournament, even it was mostly fan service to bring back a lot of people you've seen before. They didn't go into this into the review. They also failed to mention that enemies are now dual profession, which makes things far more interesting.

    P.S. I laughed at his skill bar. Dear me, where's your elite, man?

  • Orange #31 4 years ago

    What a dreadfully sloppy review Jim.

    Playing as a Dervish with Backfire and no Elite skill?? No wonder you're f***cking struggling.

    You do not mention at all the wide variety of solo quests, which are far more original and distinctive than anything I saw in 2 years of WoW or any other online game. Which is not to slate WoW, but just to point out how this expansion has stretched beyond the 10/10 rated market leader creatively and yet that doesn't even warrant a mention.

    Oh and this in particular made me laugh: "I find myself continually irritated by the worthless way in which the game handles death. Dying does not make you want to avoid dying."

    What total bobbins. Every time you die you receive a Death Penalty which lowers all your attributes, making progress harder to the point where you may need to restart a mission. That's a far better system than the likes of WoW where the only penalties are trivial repair costs and a minute of ghost running. Criticising a game for testing your ability rather than enforcing a grind is bizarre.

    Presumably with your crappy skillbar you spent so long at -60% you assumed that was the natural state of play.

  • Orange #32 4 years ago

    Oh and also absolutely no mention of PVP and the effect of the new skills in it. Nevermind that PVP is half the game and one of the best designed of any online game I've seen..... good grief.

  • ZuluHero #33 4 years ago

    "Presumably with your crappy skillbar you spent so long at -60% you assumed that was the natural state of play. "

    lol :)

  • Bursk #34 4 years ago

    What is the point in getting some useless cunt to review a game. This twat is almost as bad as the one that reviewed Mafia.