Guild Wars: Eye Of The North - Expansion Pack

ArenaNet's Guild Wars series of free-to-play fantasy MMORPGs always marches to its own drumbeat -- but these days, it sounds a little too much like something out of Donkey Konga. The tin-eared Eye of the North expansion marks the series' first entry that doesn't stand alone, instead sequelizing the original Guild Wars: Prophecies for veteran players. In other words, GWEN ain't for first-timers.

The acronym's a mildly clever reference to Prophecies' presumed-dead youngster (and mysterious plot device) Gwen, who's now all grown up∧ still traumatized from the cataclysm that set the Guild Wars series in motion. She and nine other customizable hero NPCs join in your solemn mission to traipse across a handful of newly unlocked areas on the old Prophecies map, saving the world from yet another clichéd demonic incursion.

In a somewhat refreshing move, GWEN shuns Guild Wars' tiered reward structure in story-driven missions. Instead, multilevel dungeon instances populate the map, each yielding fixed experience point rewards -- and move the plot forward with the speed of a runaway train. The fiction's initially divided into three separate paths (each exploring a particular plot thread), which eventually converge for a final string of high-end dungeon crawls. The problem: It's over before you know it. GWEN's easily finishable in a weekend of dedicated play; I'd (liberally) estimate the total campaign content at about 25 percent of the typical Guild Wars game. Suddenly, that $40 price tag (just $10 cheaper than usual) doesn't look like such a bargain, does it?

Then again, if you dig repetition, GWEN's extracurricular activities are perfect for you. While the game mercifully includes only 10 new (and easily bought) skills per class (for a total of 100 new class-specific skills), every side quest and minigame exists to encourage mindless grind, dangling faction-specific reputation rewards before you as a constant carrot. Want those cool class-neutral faction skills to work well? Want to buy new armor (in all its retextured-model glory)? Prepare to kill a whole lotta monsters to "earn" those privileges.

The Hall of Monuments -- ostensibly a bridge between this game and the impending Guild Wars 2, where future characters can claim the titles and treasures preserved here -- is the most egregious offender. It's an ill-conceptualized monument to inefficiency, allowing you to put only the most menial of your "accomplishments" on display: your elite armor (only if you grind for the platinum to buy it), favorite heroes (only if you repeatedly run challenge missions for their armor upgrades), weapons (only GWEN weapons, ensuring plenty of repetitive endgame "raiding"), and so on. Talk about fun!

This ties into one of the weirdest things about GWEN: It comes off as a hasty advertisement for Guild Wars 2. Some of the racial retcons (the obviously Conan-inspired Norn; friendly factions of Guild Wars' minotaurlike Charr) fit comfortably into the existing fiction&while the impish Asura look (and sound) as if Harry Potter's Dobby, Sam & Max's Max, and a stereotypical Martian got into some sort of freak lab accident. Yes, we know the sequel's en route, without these incongruous elements shoehorned in. But hey -- ArenaNet's making doubly sure we're aware of that, as GWEN's halfhearted presentation is an unmistakable plea for players to forget about this old game and focus on the future.

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