Guild Wars: Factions

It was an idea ahead of its time. Create a massively multiplayer online game, then charge people for the retail version of the game, but do not charge a monthly subscription fee to play it – thereby making it a ‘free’ MMO.

When Guild Wars launched, the industry – outside of NCsoft and ArenaNet – were shocked that this model was in place. NCsoft and the game’s developer decided that instead, it would sell the expansions at the full retail price of the original game.

And so, Guild Wars: Factions has been released. It’s been almost a year since the original title released (Guild Wars hit retailers on April 28, 2005 and Factions shipped on April 26) but in that time, the original title has scored legions of fans, becoming a top-tier title in terms of sales. Would Factions be as huge a success? The answer is yes. During the week of its release, Factions was the top-selling PC title.

Guild Wars: Factions takes the groundwork laid by the original title and takes it further. New classes, new skills, new missions and more reasons to fight in a player-versus-player environment fuel this game.

For beginners, Factions introduces a new land (Cantha), which takes on an Asian influence complete with temples and trees resplendent with cherry blossoms. This goes hand-in-hand with the two new classes – the assassin and ritualist. Of course, just as in the original game, players will be able to dual class after taking on the starting class of choice.

The ritualist can do decent damage, whether through summoning pets or by buffing weapons and allies. They also have some hexes that seem to be a combination of the necromancer/mesmer class. Assassins are strong, quick fighters; not quite capable of the melee extremes of a warrior, but when invested in the shadow arts, very deviously sneaky and deadly.

Other new features include more than 100 new creatures to battle in the player-versus-environment setting, new weapons and armor sets, 300 new skills that include 90 elite skills for the (now) eight professions, and more than 50 new locations within the framework of the game.

The Factions main campaign mode features 15 progressive missions that unravel the tale of the world, with numerous side missions in each zone. But Guild Wars was, perhaps, one of the definitive player-versus-player experiences in MMOs. While the actual missions were fun, and the story was full of twists, turns, sadness and intrigue, the PvP was so compelling and quick that players could jump into the game for 10-15 minutes and actually accomplish something. Of course, on a personal reflection, holding an arena through 43 consecutive wins took quite about longer (way back in the fall of last year), but was still a blast.

While the tale of Cantha unfolds, the PvP element in Factions has taken a leap forward as well. The game introduces two civilizations – the Luxons and the Kurzicks. Players will have the opportunity to pick a side to fight for and not only play competitively against other teams in mission sets, but also secure land for their chosen side. Guilds can, if aligned with the right side (and the right side would be the one you are on that is winning) actually control settlements. And the game now sports elite missions that are extremely challenging and meant to be cooperative affairs. Alliance battles are not grander than before, and they could be very intense and enjoyable previously.

For veterans of the original title (which now is being called Guild Wars: Prophecies), not much has changed in the overall structure of the game, or the AI. The same base gameplay mechanics are still in place, with the hotbar only allowing players to slot up to eight skills entering either a mission or PvP zone. The game can use the keyboard or point-and-click mouse combination.

And for those wondering, yes, you can move your characters from the Prophecy original title into the zones of Factions. Merely go to Lion’s Arch and talk to Sergio and take the Mhenlo quest line.

Graphically the game still looks stunning and enables players to be competitive in the world, whether at level 1 or level 20 (the level cap). Factions is a wonderful addition to the Guild Wars universe and in addition to being rather entertaining, it is also challenging.

Gameplay: 9.0
The game still has some minor lag spikes, and targeting is much the same as before, but this is still a game that is intuitive and designed for both the hardcore PvPers and the casual PvE players.

Graphics: 9.0
The environments are first rate, but the ‘John Wayne’ run swagger has to go. The environments, though, and the mobs are very well done and there are certainly times when the game’s environs will cause you to pause and just stare. 

Sound: 8.8
The musical score is still very good. The rest is somewhat old hat for the title, but still, just putting on the main title screen as a screen saver, with that melodic tune floating out is very nice.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Tactical battles, with quick arena-based combat and now competitive missions up the ante, but still manage to cater to players of differing MMO backgrounds.

Concept: 9.1
Some of the small problems that were part of GW are still here, but they are minor. Factions offers much more to the whole game package and thus is truly what GW needed when it came to expansions.

Multiplayer: 9.0
The core is cooperative PvP/alliance battles and missions. Yes, you can still hire subordinate NPCs, but screaming at them when they don’t play really smart will do no good. They are NPCs; they don’t hear a thing. The GW community still feels really solid, with a lot of good people playing and willing to help.

Overall: 9.0
There is a lot that is carried over from the original title, but Factions, in its own right, is a terrific stand-alone game that adds so much more to the Guild Wars experience. Allowing players to move Prophecy characters to Factions landscapes and quest streams is a definite plus.