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A key portion of the Eye of the North landscape – and one of the first massive structures you’ll see in the game – is the epically sized Hall of Monuments. Exploding out of the frozen wasteland of the Shiver Peaks, the Hall of Monuments acts as a sort of “trophy collection” for players that have garnered particular accomplishments in Guild Wars. Five unlockable monuments can be placed throughout the hall and serve as records for your collected armor sets, miniatures, completed campaigns, unlocked high-end weapons, titles and more. With each monument that you display in the Hall, players will be able to go into the Hall of Monuments in Guild Wars 2 and view their old treasures to bestow certain unique aspects upon their new characters.

Your first look at the Hall of Monuments.

To a long-time MMORPG player – one who has played through original and sequel titles like Everquest and Everquest 2 – this is an extraordinary step forward in player sustainability. For many players, there was a hesitation to move onto new games simply because of all the time and energy they’d spent in the old world to attain certain items. Using the EQ and EQ2 example, I saw entire guilds split in half because a number of players didn’t want to move onto the new world. The developers at Guild Wars may have found a solution to that problem and have certainly taken a step in the right direction.

However, a good portion of the Hall of Monuments is dedicated to items that can be found exclusively in the Eye of the North expansion content, so there is more than enough incentive to have players engage in the content located with Eye of the North. Furthering their GW2 characters aside, the dungeons and monsters located within Eye of the North are some of the most hardcore and intense PvE dungeons that I’ve ever experienced.

The Meat and Potatoes

Eighteen new multi-level dungeons have been added with this expansion, and “The Depths” – as they’re lovingly called – span underneath the entire continent. These dungeons are not for the faint of heart either, they feature all sorts of traps and puzzles for players to solve and elude, and the boss monsters at the end of these dungeons are no walk in the park either.

The Eye of the North expansion also expands upon the already solid graphics engine that has been chugging along for the past two years. The graphics can’t be called “cutting edge,” but the new environments are definitely stylized to a beautiful degree. Instead of drawing cold, gray landscapes to put the characters in, the developers created a purple-hued sky for the northlands and “The Depths” have more colorful lifeforms than you’ll find in almost any other MMORPG.

On top of that, the music in Eye of the North is phenomenal. From the moment I first heard the bleating horns and pounding percussion, my body primed itself for triumphant battles and heated combat. The dynamic sound truly works well in the game, and I found myself anxiously awaiting the next musical score that would come blooming out of my speakers like some long-dormant flower.

Despite the continued upgrades on the graphics engine and the fantastic musical score, I never felt the same sort of epic “pull” that I did when I explored Everquest or Everquest 2 Although the roleplaying experience was thrilling and fun, it seemed to stem more from the strategy and tactics involved with my characters than any sort of relationship I had developed with my characters “role.”

Concerns?

The Hall of Monuments is a popular place.

And this hits squarely upon one of my main complaints against Guild Wars: Eye of the North and shows where the Guild Wars team has had the least amount of success. When developing games for player versus player combat, it’s essential that the designers of the game focus upon the balancing of the skills involved in combat first while taking a look at the player versus environment portion of the game second. If you look across the board at Guild Wars reviews, you’ll often find that critics love the PvP and strategic element of the game, but think the storyline is lackluster. When GW was focusing on the PvP aspect of their games, this turned out alright. But with GW:EN, they’ve set their sites on the PvE elements and have exposed many of their weaknesses in the process.

Unfortunately, the quests, storyline, and general RP environment in GW:EN aren’t as intriguing as players would hope them to be. The voice-acting, in many cases, comes across as flat and lackluster. The quests tell a story, but it’s not one that is exceptional. In the end, I don’t “care” overly much for the main characters in the story, which is something that’s essential for solid storylines and a factor in superb PvE play.

Final Comments

Thankfully, exploring the multi-level dungeons and the general PvE combat in Eye of the North is a fantastic experience whether you’re playing solo or with a guild. Choosing your skills before you enter a mission is a heart-rending task, and if you’re not prepared or aware of what’s inside the mission, you could find yourself in a tight spot very quickly. The monster AI has been improved from previous versions, and the general dungeon-y feel of the game comes across very well. While this may sound like a contradiction from my previous point, I assure you that solid combat can make for fun gameplay as much as intriguing storylines or punchy characters.

Through it all, I found Guild Wars: Eye of the North to be on the same sort of level that I’ve come to expect from the rest of the franchise. Although they’ve yet to create a perfect game, I believe the crew at ArenaNet has educated themselves with each new experience by taking their development one step at a time: PvP, expanded PvP, then PvE.

If Guild Wars: Eye of the North is any indication, you should be on the lookout for Guild Wars 2. The game can only expand upon what’s been done in the original Guild Wars series, and that’s saying quite a bit about what’s in store for players.

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