The release of the original Guild Wars in mid-2005 was the beginning of a whole new direction for online RPG's. Long gone were many of the mainstays of traditional online role-playing, and, for the most part, this was a good thing. The developer's focus on skill rather than time played and the game's lack of monthly fees helped make it one of the best RPGs in recent years. Nightfall is the third iteration of the Guild Wars franchise and it's definitely the best in the series thus far.

While Nightfall has been billed as a new game, not much has actually changed within the core gameplay. It still retains the strategic, real-time experience that has been the staple of the series since its introduction. The basis for most of the gameplay relies on the various skills, classes and attributes found within the game. There are hundreds of skills to choose from, but you can only bring eight into battle at a time. This not only adds a layer of depth, but forces players to think about how to create a skill set that would not only be effective for your character, but would best help your party. The character class system is also unchanged, in that you still choose both a primary and secondary profession. Since each primary profession has a unique set of attributes that are unavailable when designated as a secondary class, this further adds to the strategic possibilities. It's this formula of strategy and combat that helps keep Guild Wars interesting, as you'll be constantly experimenting with different skills and classes, each of which can radically change the way the game plays.

Probably the most touted addition to Guild Wars: Nightfall would be the AI controlled heroes. In previous games, outposts often had hirable henchmen, which were computer controlled characters used to supplement (or replace) human members in your party. These henchmen had limitations, which made their usage frustrating when attempting to play the more difficult missions. Heroes, however, essentially improve upon every aspect of henchmen, with the introduction of customizable armor, skill sets, behaviors, and improved artificial intelligence. That's not to say they are infallible though, because while the ability to customize skills dramatically increases the hero's effectiveness, there are still some AI issues that keep heroes from being all they could be. The most glaring problem lies in the pathfinding, which still remains unfixed from the original game. The AI will often get stuck on certain NPC characters, forcing you to have to take the extra time to maneuver around and untangle them. Also, while the enemy AI seems to have fewer problems with this, you will find that heroes and henchmen alike often fail to run away from extreme damage, whether it's from several melee attackers or area-of-effect magic. Many times they will simply stand there unflinching until their death. It's problems like these that make the new heroes pale in comparison to a party of competent human players.

Some of these issues also carry over into the new hero battle player vs. player mode. Hero battles are essentially glorified 1vs1 match-ups with each team taking themselves and their choice of three heroes into the arena. The goal is to score more points than your opponent, and this is done by either killing enemies or capturing strategic points on the map. Unfortunately, the most effective means of winning is to capture and hold these points faster than your opponent can. As a result, you'll often find the experienced players quickly splitting up their heroes to capture as much as possible, with nothing but defensive and speed enhancement skills equipped. If your opponent can do this successfully before you can, you've essentially lost the match. This makes hero battles less about the fighting and more so about the running around and capturing, which grows boring fast. Combine that with the aforementioned AI issues, and you have a game mode that is best left forgotten.

Nightfall also adds two new professions: the Dervish and Paragon. The Dervish is a scythe wielding melee character that mainly focuses on damaging large groups of enemies with sweeping attacks and area-of-effect magic. The Paragon is pretty much the exact opposite; a support character, which uses various chants and shouts to buff the entire party both offensively and defensively. When used correctly, these two classes make great additions to the already heavy cast of characters.

Perhaps the most massive addition to Nightfall would have to be its brand new role-playing campaign. It's clearly the largest campaign of the three games, clocking in at nearly 40-50 hours for the experienced player, and double that for newcomers. One thing that's been constant with the Guild Wars series is that the developers know how to give you your money's worth, and Nightfall is no exception. This aspect of the game is huge, and it contains tons of cooperative content that will last most players a very long time. If there's anything negative to be said about the campaign, it's that it tends to drag on a bit. This is partly due to a strange shift in difficulty toward the end of the game, forcing you to resort to trial and error tactics in order to finish some of the tougher quests and missions.

Graphically, Nightfall is starting to show its age. While the game looks good artistically, it's hard not to notice its technical shortcomings, especially with today's graphical standards being what they are. Things like blurry textures, clipping issues, and simplistic facial animations all make the game feel that much more dated. It's especially noticeable during cutscenes, as the camera tends to zoom in real close at times. It's a shame too, because there are some nice looking environments to be seen. Since the majority of the game takes place in a desert, it's amazing to see how much variety the artists packed in. The architecture of many of the outposts as well as both the lighting and water effects keep things feeling fresh, and help make up for whatever may be lacking in raw graphical power.

Nightfall's sound design is well done. The music stands out the most, with composer Jeremy Soule putting in another great effort. The addition of percussion to the musical themes easily makes this best soundtrack in the series, and the introduction of ambient and battle music does much to immerse you into the game. The only criticism about the music is that there does not seem to be enough of it. The ambient themes only change a few times during the course of the campaign, and the battle music is seemingly the same four tracks looped over and over again. Since you're in battle for the majority of the game, this is mostly what you'll be hearing as you progress, and it can get a bit repetitive. The voice acting is better than what you heard in Guild Wars: Factions, but it still could use some improvement. Some performances are way too hammy to be taken seriously, while others sound like the actors are bored to tears. Fortunately, the voice acting is restricted to the cutscenes, so you won't be hearing too much of it. The sound effects are on par with what you've heard previously in the series, and all sound great.

All in all, Nightfall is a solid addition to the Guild Wars brand. While the core of the game may not have changed much, it still holds up well, and the addition of two new classes and a new role-playing campaign add a humungous amount of playability to an already content-ridden series. If you've played any of the previous Guild Wars games, there is still more than enough new material here to warrant another purchase. And if you haven't, and are looking to get into the series for the first time, Guild Wars: Nightfall is a great place to start.