Guild Wars Factions

"Is this expansion worth it?"

OK, on the off-chance that you got lost and just happened to stumble onto this review, this game is Guild Wars Factions, ANet's follow-up/expansion pack to the original Guild Wars Prophecies. I don't have any witty ideas for the intro, so I'ma just skip to the important stuff.

Background and explanation of a few game systems, so you know what the hell I'm talking about
Prophecies (or just plain Guild Wars) took place in a land called Tyria. It featured many different locations, including a destroyed kingdom, frigid mountains, a desert, volcanic islands, etc. Characters from this land are generally European in appearance (and so will your characters if you create them in the Prophecies campaign). Prophecies features six character classes: Warrior, Elementalist, Monk, Necromancer, Ranger, and Mesmer.

Factions takes place in a new continent called Cantha, which is about a third of the size of Tyria. It only has a few new locations, but they're all really cool in my opinion. A run-down city with zombie-like Afflicted running around everywhere? That is AWESOME. Cantha also has an Asian feel to it, and characters created with the Factions campaign appear Asian. Factions has all of Prophecies' classes, with the additional Assassin and Ritualist, which can ONLY be made if you have purchased Factions. However, you can still see these classes in the Prophecies campaign if a user who has made one has purchased both Factions and Prophecies and decides to take his Assassin into Tyria. It's good advertising. Factions also has unique skills which can only be acquired in Cantha. The same goes for Prophecies. If you really want all of the game's skills, you have to buy both. ;_;

Levels
The max level in BOTH Prophecies and Factions is 20. Leveling up gets you more HP, a skill point (used for purchasing skills), and attribute points (used for raising your attribute points; these are COMPLETELY reassignable). Every 20,000 experience points after level 20 nets you another skill point. This has NOT changed since Porphecies. You can still not go higher than level 20. I'm sure Prophecies players would like to know that. :P

PvE Gameplay: 8/10
I'm quite a big fan of this game's PvE (Player vs. Environment), in which you essentially just run around, doing quests and killing things with other people on your side. NPCs called Henchmen are available to replace other users when you suck too much to get them in your party. At its best, fighting off the hordes of enemies in PvE is awesome and entertaining, especially in Cantha's new areas, where the enemies are pretty much guaranteed to be awesome (I already mentioned the Afflicted). HOWEVER, the henchmen generally fail at life and suck at everything, so for the harder areas, you're forced to use other people. ...Which never seem to form parties for anything but the most important quests. ...And did I mention that a party has to be assembled very carefully or it'll be useless? Virtually all of the classes except the Warrior can't take much of a pummeling, and Monks are absolutely NECESSARY, especially for classes that don't heal themselves very well, like Elementalists and Mesmers. "But Feesh," you ask, "how the hell do I get all of these people together?" Most of the time you don't, and you just have to wing it with what you can find and supplement the rest with henchmen. Which sucks.

HOWEVER, there are also missions (separate from quests), which are like scenario quests that take place in their own special explorable areas. There are even waiting rooms for missions, so only other people interested in doing the mission will be there (most of the time). Don't even try to use henchmen for these. Now, assuming you're actually playing with a full party of other humans, (8 people in Factions) the PvE gameplay is VERY entertaining. If not, it's annoying and frustrating, which is why I just can't give it a perfect score. Prophecies had many more areas for PvE, but I generally prefer the ones for Factions, even though there aren't as many. It all depends on your taste.

In addition to regular missions, Factions features new challenge missions, which are usually mini-games involving killing as many monsters as possible with a time limit. These are purely optional, with experience points and gold given as rewards. Prophecies still has more missions, though. Also, different missions are given for Luxons and Kurzicks (see below).

PvP Gameplay 7/10
I've never really been a big PvP player in Guild Wars, but I like some of Factions' new additions. In Prophecies, PvP took place in special arenas for fun, usually with specially-made PvP characters. Factions still has this element, but now fighting also goes on between the two titular Factions in Cantha; the Luxons, nomads of the Jade Sea, and the forest-dwelling Kurzicks. Alliance battles can occur between players who are members of the two opposing sides, and the outcome of these battle determines the Battle Line on the world map, which influences the guilds that can control which areas. The only real problem with the battle line is that there's no real reason to care about it. If your faction has control of the territory, then your guild alliance can contribute faction points (gained by doing things for your faction, either through quests or PvP) to control it. Yep, that's it. Domination is carried out by contributing points. BORING. Worse yet, there's not even any real reason to control an area other than the faction's capital city. The capital will give the reigning alliance access to a special elite mission (and anyone that they decide to ferry there), but anywhere else only gets the alliance in power a 20% discount at merchants and a fireworks NPC.

What's really cool, though, is the new PvP missions. Fort Aspenwood, for example, involves the Luxon side attacking a Kurzick fort. The Kurzicks just have to hold out against the Luxons until their countdown is finished (which can be sped up by giving a certain NPC chunks of Amber from controllable Amber mines). The Luxons try to get past several gates and bring their relatively large army of NPCs and giant siege turtles with them. With good teams on either side, the mission is REALLY fun. Unfortunately, it's the only decent one that I've seen so far. Don't take my word for it, though; you might like the other aspects of PvP more than I do.

Combat
This is basically the same for both campaigns. Since everybody is generally level 20 and has the highest armor rating possible, getting anywhere in this game depends entirely on skill... literally. You're only as good as your skillset, which can be edited in any town or outpost. You can take 8 of them with you at one time. Countless strategies are possible depending on the skills you have, and that's what really makes this game interesting. You just have to have that in mind beforehand for PvE characters, because you CANNOT change their subclass (which, of course, affects half of their skillset) after they've been made. (PvP characters are easily remade.) Gaining new skills is only plausible for a PvE character, who can buy them from NPCs in towns or capture them from bosses by using a Signet of Capture. PvP characters can only gain skills by exchanging their PvP points (called "faction points", although they have nothing to do with the Factions campaign itself) for new skills to be unlocked for PvP only. If this doesn't sound good to you, don't buy the game. It's all about the skills.

Factions- buy or not?
Some say that Factions is overpriced. For the same price as the original, but with only a fraction of the content, they're probably right. However, the alternative to this is a pay-per-month game. That's right. Guild Wars features no monthly fee, and you don't even have to level grind. You could make do without Factions if you have Prophecies, and Factions can stand alone if you really want it to. But you'll be missing out on skills if you only have one or the other, not to mention classes if you only have Prophecies. Really, it's up to you. You've heard what I have to say about both campaigns. Obviously, I enjoyed it. The rest it your choice. Annnnd... that would be the end of the review. =D

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/13/06