Product Description

Guild Wars Factions is the continuation of the epic online battle set forth in Guild Wars, the ground-breaking online roleplaying game that took the gaming world by storm with its fantastic design, depth of play, and no-subscription-fee model.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7561 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: NCsoft
• Released on: 2006-04-28
• Platform: Windows XP
• Dimensions: .53 pounds

Customer Reviews

Before you play, please remember to phone in sick for work or uni the next day.
The first guild wars (prophecies) was too addictive nearly costing me a year at my university and almost ruining my relationship with my friends. I was attracted to the game because it required no monthly fees to play and the theme of the game was to my taste - swords, magic, monsters all wonderful. Give the game a chance and before you realise you are keenly awaiting the next addition to this MMORPG 8 months later, Guild Wars Factions whilst still playing the first one.

This game Factions is a welcome addition to the Guild Wars Prophecies campaign yet has diluted some aspects that made the first game that made it so addictive in the first place.
The two new characters gave this game a new buzz for a short while, oriental setting, new appearances for existing characters, weapons and armour but all this is expected. The selection of rare green weapons have been extended and there is a new palette of skills to experiment with, all very welcoming.
They have introduced "titles" to be earned and this simple idea strengthened my addiction to the game and alliance battles that is an exceptionally fun and addictive alternative to pvp has now ruined my life.
One of the greatest aspects of the game is the two teams of 8 co-op in missions since there were so many enemies. The battles in these missions were fantastic and just pure utter chaos, the most enjoyable part of Guild Wars for me.

The levelling up of characters in factions however is irritatingly quick and makes one think about how painfully long but proud you felt of taking your character to lvl 20 in the first campaign, it just goes down the drain. This has slightly put me off working on a new character from lvl 1.
Rumours of an auction house that would have made trading less vulnerable to scammers has not materialised. Rumours of slow changes of appearance ie the growth of hair, changes of skin colour in relation to the climate where the character has been the most ie desert = tanned, snowy terrain = paler skin has not materialised either. Neither has extended material storage capacity until recently ^_^ about time (thanks to ncsofts frequent game updates).
Nc soft are slowly refining the game so I'm confident they will improve on these such details. They have slot in some new great features to guild wars so far and I'm sure there is the best yet to come with the next game Nightfall.

Guild Wars Factions
Well, having given the original game a lot of my time, and reporting my findings to amazon for the world to see, I thought it only fair to do the same for the first Guild-Wars add-on.

Factions is a game in it's own right, in that it does not require you to purchase the original game in order to play this one. This is an intriguing decision by the developers, but I applaud it. As with the first game, there is still no monthly subscription to pay, and if you so wish, you can actually download the game client from the AreaNet website and purchase a game access key without physically going into a shop and buying the game. Areas and updates stream continuously into your computer whilst in the game, and everything continues to operate really rather smoothly, relative to other On-Line games.

Specifically to Factions, we are introduced to the region of the GuildWars map called "Cantha". This asian-inspired landscape is an interesting contrast to the pseudo medieval look of the first game. Cantha is made up of a small island which is where the beginners are fenced-off from the more established players, and can learn the ways of the game without getting under peoples' feet. Once you have completed enough of this area, you travel over to the mainland, which is principally made up of a built-up urban region, which for a veteran of the game with it's wide open spaces, does seem slightly restricting and claustrophobic. There is a lot to see and do here, and if you stay on-course to the primary story, you'll eventually work your way out to the other side of the urban area, and out to the countryside.

Here is where this game gets it's name, as the story progresses to where you become involved in a feud between two warring Factions in the area, the Luxon and the Kurzick. It's up to you who's side you pitch, you'll do different missions and quests, but either way, you'll end up on the same path eventually.

In contrast to the original game, there are occasions in Factions where up to 16 human players can be in a mission at one time. There are a small number of such missions in this game, either in the direct Kurzick-Luxon section, or where an ex-original-game group of players launch into a certain mission at the same time as a pure-Factions group of players. It makes for an interesting mix of old and new-style characters.

Owners of the original game (Prophecies) can have their characters of either game travel back and forth at leisure once they reach the main nodal point a few steps into each game. You will also get the option of either having Factions entirely separate from your Prophecies game, and thus having a whole 4 new character slots for the new game. I chose the alternative route however, and merged the two accounts, which gave a total of 6 slots across both games.

The two new character types added are Ritualist - a spirit-summoning character with some electric-shocking abilities; and Assassin - an evasive lightly-armoured stealthy character with some clever skills and abilities.

The graphics in the game are as good as ever, and some areas in this game, just like before, are really a sight to behold. They scale well to lower-end systems.

The sound is also good, atmospheric and styled to suit the theme.

My criticisms of the game, are that perhaps in some ways, the graphics need to move on a little, if not in the appearance of the game world, then in the actions of the characters, their skills and spells for example. Not that they're bad, just that perhaps it could scale up to computers that can cope with a lot more these days.

The character models are very good, and their general movements are fluid and well-animated, apart from the faces, which remain static unfortunately.

Also, with the addition of 2 new character types, comes a flurry of people just trying out those types. And we see a whole lot of Assassins, and people who aren't willing to play the type in the manner in which it was designed, generally making themselves a liability to the team they are in.

As before, the Monk-type is sought-after in most missions, and you often find yourself standing around waiting for a monk to turn up. Sadly, few people recognise that a decent team can get by with the computer-controlled Monk. But then that's the beauty of an on-line game, you have to put up with other people's ignorances.

Overall, it's a great first expansion to the Guild-Wars franchise, and it's certainly making big boots for itself to fill with the next title, which I believe is due before Christmas 2006. One wonders where the world will take us next?

Factions
I have tried out the two Factions events (First with the basic PvPs and this weekend the more detailed version) and I have to say it does look like it could be very good.

I've tried many of the online games, this being the only one you don't have to pay monthly, and in my opinion it is far better than any of those. Surprisingly, been playing Guild Wars for a good 7 months and i'm still hooked!! The graphics are excellent, there's a lot to do, and a lot of detail put into it all. I'd greatly recommend Guild Wars =)