Guild Wars is not your typical MMORPG, by that of course I mean its not like World of Warcraft. You could say they are worlds apart. It was released in April 04 at £29.99 and as soon as I managed to install the game, I was taken.

I was taken by the graphics, the background music, the story and most of all the gameplay. It was exciting straight away you were learning how to play the game in what is known as pre-searing. And each quest gave you an idea about what was going on in and around Ascalon city. As you leveled up and did quests you were rewarded by skills and further insight into the story. Then came a time when pre-searing becamse small as you explored every nook and cranny and eventually things got boring.

So you decided to step out into the big world and venture new grounds and to do that you had to prove your mettle by fighting against other players. The victors had bragging rights but even the loser was accompanied by Prince Rurik on their new adventure.

Pre-searing just got bigger and was now known as post-searing. The world wasn't as green, nor as lush and I really felt like something was brewing everytime I stepped out of the new burnt down Ascalon city. The landscape had all changed but things got bigger, much bigger.

Quests lead from towns to outposts and from outposts to missions and then to towns. There were 3 major citys in Tyria (as the world was known) - Ascalon city, Lions Arch and Droknars Forge. Each city was basically controlled by a different faction - Ascalon was by Royals, lions arch by the White Mantle and Droknars by Dwarves.

Prophecies is big, actually let me reiterate it is massive compared to succesive Guild Wars games. It was genuinely an adventure each time you set out and saw new landscapes and fought new monsters. But theres were things went downhill sometimes. Parties were limited to 8 players and each area or mission is instanced specifically to that party.

That aside the glorious soundtrack added to the thrill of the game and it is as epic as Lord of the Rings music. Graphically the game is far superior to World of Warcraft and to be honest I loved the Guild Wars look more. It was darker, visceral and a lot more believable.

The game got progressively harder and you had to come up with new ways or builds as it is known to defeat different areas and missions.

Come to think of it, Prophecies was truly a groundbreaking game that its successors haven't come close to.

Overall score 9/10 and for £5.99 you can play an epic that is awaiting its next sequel - Guild Wars 2