"Overpriced Expansion Pack"

Guild Wars: Factions, the long awaited second chapter, or should I say expansion pack, to a great game.

The game is set in Cantha, a continent south of the original GW's Tyria. Cantha is more or less a mini-Asia, and about half of it is covered in a massive city called Kaineng. The other half is made up of the Luxon Jade Sea and the Kurzick Echovald forest. These two peoples are constantly at war, and you're gonna be a part of it, whether you like it or not...

It should be noted that cantha is a hell of a lot smaller than Tyria.

Story: 0/10

I'll summarise the story briefly:

200 years ago, Shiro Tagachi killed the emperor for some reason. Shiro is eventually killed and his death cry was so powerful it turned the inland sea into jade and petrified the forests, etc. You step in 200 years later, when some boring and uninspired mutant-undead-zombie-zerglings attack Shing Jae Monastery.(Factions'equivalent of Pre-Searing, AKA noobyland) You then find out that shiro has returned and he wants revenge for one reason or another.

The cut-scenes are, if possible, even worse than in GW:Prophecies. The storytelling itself is increadably confusing, the story contradicts itself constantly, Shiro's motives and character development are questionable at best, and worst of all: the entire so called focal point of the game, the faction battles between the Luxons and Kurzicks, play little to no role in the overall storyline.

I thought Anet learned it's lesson with prophecies, but I was wrong. My five year old nephew can think of a more in-depth and original storyline.

Graphics: 9/10

Gorgeous graphics. Beautiful landscapes, pretty armors, nice characters.

Skill graphics are the only thing keeping it down. If I cast a meteor shower, I don't want to see five little fireballs poof into the floor, I want to see exploding stellar rock crash into people.

Another downside graphics-wise is kaineng city itself. It looks horrible. I know it's suposed to look like it's been struck by a plague and gang warfare and all that, but it just looks like rubbish. The entire city is one gigantic, ugly, pale maze where everything looks and feels like cardboard, and if it wasn't for the map, you wouldn't even know what district you were in.

Music and Sound: 4/10

Boring elevator music at it's best.
Worst voice acting in gaming history. It's even worse than the Rurik in Prophecies.
Sound effects for skills sound bland. When I hit some poor caster folk with my big ass longsword, I don't want to hear some cheap metally stomping sound, I want to hear my sword cut trough flesh and bone.

Gameplay: 8/10

Anet has always done it's best to preserve 'balance'. Everything has a counter, no single build is overpowered. For the most part, this is true. I've hardly ever played a pvp game as well-balanced as Guild Wars. Top notch on this end.

Ok, factions introduces two new professions: The Asassin and the Ritualist. I won't go too indepth into both, but suffice to say one focusses on swift spiky death, and the other relies on spirits to help allies and to, well, kill things. Both are somewhat refreshing, and play very nicely.

Both fit in rather nicely, but assassins are currently suffering from the same problem Rangers and Mesmers had in prophecies; nobody loves them. Except for the fact that everyone plays one, but nobody actually needs one. Suffice to say, it's very hard to finish the campaign as an Assassin. Luckily, the computer controlled henchman received quite a buff and are quite often better than human players, so you'll always have a nice alternative.

Right, moving on to the campaign and the PvE portion..

I'll be blunt: The campaign is horribly short and easy. There's a grand total of 13 relativly easy missions. Where you left Pre-Searing Ascalon in GW:P around level 4-8, you leave the factions nooby isle, Shing Jae monestary, at around level 14-20. I can't help but feel rushed. I keep getting the feeling that Anet wants me to clear the horrible campaign as soon as possible so that I can get on with the factions battles and the PvP.

Well, if the campaign's that short, there's gotta be a lot of end-game content, right? In GW:P you had the underworld, fissure, tombs and SF. In Factions there are certain similar areas known as elite missions. These missions are not accessable to everyone because they are "elite", obviously. The system of accessabilty works roughly the same as the worlds at war concept, only ten times worse. You can enter the UW and FoW when your continent holds favor, and in most cases that means roughly a third of the player base can access the areas at any one time. Now, in factions, these areas are accessable not to the faction you play for, not for the continent you play on but for the alliance that holds the outpost.

An alliance is a group of 10 guilds that use faction, earned by questing, grinding and fighting in alliance battles, to control towns, and thus access to these special "elite" areas. That doesn't sound so bad, right? I'll just create an alliance or join one, and we'll hold a town for a while and enter the elite areas, just like holding the hall of heroes for your continent! In theory, yes. In practice, no. Holding the capital of your faction (the elite outposts are part of the two factions' main outposts) takes enormous amounts of luxon and kurzick faction. A small alliance with nice, cozy, friend guilds doesn't stand a chance against monstrous alliances with around a 1000 members, each adding thousands of faction to the alliance's cause every day.

The sad truth is is that most of us will never see these end-game "Elite" areas. Your skill means nothing at all if your alliance totals about 100 casual, experienced players, when you're up against gigantic organised farming alliances of around a thousand dedicated players. But hey, remember what Gaile always tells us: "Guild Wars does not require you to grind trough the game. Your skill is what counts."

Right, well I've saved the 'best' for last; Alliance battles.

People were widely excited about the alliance battles after playing them in the preview event. Hell, I played em for hours on end, and couldn't wait for release. It was awesome, 12 people just going at it in a massive battle, to see who could get the most points when time ran out. It was fast, it was fun, it's gone.

When Factions launched, it became clear that faction battles were no longer the same ones I played during the preview event. I can't tell you how dissapointed I was to find out that I now NEED a group of four people to enter, whereas before I could just run in, hit enter and get ready for battle. It's become a long and tedious process. It's also become impossible to communicate with the other two teams of four on your side, since they are no longer in your party window, but just on your "faction". There are no tactics involved, it's just organised chaos.

I, and many people I know, feel let down by the faction battles. They were a major factor for me and a lot of my friends to get Factions. I feel misled by Anet, that they would change the mechanics of the battles so drasticly.

Right, enough of the whining. The gameplay is solid as a rock, overall. But that was already the case with the original Prophecies. Factions added little to change it.

Overall: 6/10

All in all, I keep getting the feeling like I just bought an expansion pack, and got a few new skills and some armor here and there. Nothing radical, nothing ground breaking, nothing really good, just adding a bit of content for the hell of it.

We get this flawed elite mission/faction thing, while other major issues remain un-adressed. Where is our auction house? Where is our extended storage? Why are botters still running out of Elona Reach and Droknar's Forge by the hundreds? Why are elementalists so utterly useless as anything other than flashbots?

Even though factions is advertised as a stand-alone product, it's content is quite meager when compared to Prophecies. Don't get me wrong, I quite enjoyed the ride, but it was way too short, and it just feels rushed, even-though it took Anet a full year to create, rather than the 6 months they promised.

I can't tell you much on what the re-playability is on this game. I know people who have already played for over 150 hours and are still going strong. I also know people who finished the campaign, played in the arena for a while and left already. I've already given up on the PvE section after about 40 hours. It depends on what kind of player you are and where your interests lie.

If you want to play Guild Wars to the fullest, I suggest you play prophecies first and the factions expansion pack later.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 05/12/06