Anyone who was around back then remembers: in 2005, Guild Wars arrived proving an MMORPG could work without a monthly fee. Its last expansion, Eye of the North, came out in 2007. Now, nearly two decades later, ArenaNet and NCSOFT have announced Guild Wars Afterlife, the original game’s first new premium DLC in almost 20 years.
ArenaNet is making it with co-development partner studio 2weeks, and it launches on January 13, 2027 on PC, Steam, iOS and Android. You need Guild Wars Reforged, the current version of the classic, with full controller support and all the campaign content in a single package. NCSOFT says the game has been played for over 1 billion hours by more than nine million players.
A dungeon that never repeats
Afterlife takes players through the Mists to Xotecha, a land long believed lost to time. There, the Order of Moonless Night asks for help against the Nightmares and the mysterious Cult of Odran, who threaten the Unformed, an ever-changing dungeon of jungles, cenotes and floating ruins.
On each run, you pick a starting loadout and face a unique sequence of maps, enemies and bosses. After every successful encounter, a skill-drafting system offers new abilities, and they are not limited to your character’s primary or secondary profession: you can even end up with multiple elite skills from different professions on the same bar, something unthinkable back in 2005.
Rewards and story
Completed runs unlock rewards that help on future dives as well as permanent rewards you can use across the rest of the game. The Afterlife story reveals itself as you progress, and runs can be played with friends or with henchmen. Ancient Golems and the Nightmares are among the new foes.
Price and languages
Pre-purchase is open now at a discounted $23.99 (price may vary by platform and region), and the DLC returns to its standard $29.99 at launch. Pre-purchasing also grants the ancestral-themed Vestments of the Order costume. Guild Wars Reforged itself costs $19.99 on Steam. The DLC’s Steam page lists English, French, German, Italian, Spanish (Spain), Japanese, Korean, Polish and Russian.
For MMO fans, NCSOFT also saw AION 2 pass 400,000 concurrent players on Steam, and Square Enix has dated Final Fantasy XIV’s next expansion. The series that helped popularize the subscription-free MMO clearly still has some life in it.
Where to buy
Guild Wars Afterlife on Steam ($23.99 pre-purchase)
Affiliate links: SavePoint may earn a commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
See also this month’s game releases.
Source: NCSOFT and ArenaNet.
Lady Combo