Guild Wars Factions
by NCsoft
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List Price: Category: Video Games See more product details |
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Video Game Reviews of Guild Wars Factions
Customer Review: awesome
Summary: 4 Stars
definately worht buying considering you don't have to pay monthly
prabably not as good as monthly charging games but it's awesome
also the graphics aren't amazing
Customer Review: Guildwars will always be Guildwars
Summary: 4 Stars
This game is great but not as good as the orignal. The great thing about Guildwars is that there is no Monthly fee. :) Buy IT. Play IT. Enjoy IT. Customer Review: Excellent game!
Summary: 5 Stars
I won't go into a lot of detail because most have described the game enough. But just wanted to say this is an excellent game.
My Opinion:
The graphics are very good along with nice sound effects. I LOVE the opening music that Factions has on its character select screen. Normally I don't care for that kind of music.
The main thing I miss in this game is the feeling of an entire real world. All the fighting zones in this game are "instanced" zones, meaning the only people you will see in a zone while fighting is either your computer controlled teammates, or human teammates. If they had made this game with non-instanced zones it would easily kill games like Everquest.
I still love this game though even with the instanced zones. I also wish you were able to wield your weapons inside of cities (the only place where you get to meet real, live players). It would be nice to be able to "show off" your cool looking weapon, which this game has a lot of. Currently the player model does not wield his/her weapons inside of cities.
The no monthly fee is a HUGE plus for this game over other games of this type. Its also gives you the freedom to take however long you want to level, there is no rush because there are no fees. And your best taking your time.
I do plan on buying the next expansion that comes out for this game if I can afford it, although $50 seems a little high. I purchased my copy on sale.
World Of Warcraft is also an excellent game, but costs a monthly fee. Most of these newer games have learned from the apathy of the Everquest authors and designed the game towards the player.
Customer Review: Do You Have A Choice?
Summary: 3 Stars
Let's face facts--when you sign up with an online game, you're pretty much buying in for the long haul. As far as that investment goes, if I'm reviewing the Guild Wars franchise as a whole, I still think you're probably playing the best game of its kind that's available on the market.
That said, Factions could have been better. For instance, when you, as a developer, know that you have problem with changes in the z-axis (which this game doesn't really recognize), it doesn't make a lot of sense to put a lot of stairs in the game. If you know you're introducing two new professions, it makes sense to include lots of things that they would be good at doing in the cooperative content.
Don't get me wrong--I like my ritualist. I'm kind of enjoying playing through the campaign a second time with my old character from Tyria. Sort of. But if I had picked this game up as my introduction to the series, I think I would have a MUCH more negative opinion of it than I already do.
The problem, of course, is that this is NOT a stand-alone game, no matter what their marketing department says. If you don't know how the professions are supposed to work and you just roll up a character with no extra money in storage, you better hope that you're lucky enough to figure out an effective way to do things the first time through, because the skill acquisition system has a HUGE built-in penalty for experimentation (skills, which are the lifeblood of the game, are only acquired in this expansion by purchase from skill trainers, but the ramp-up in cost is pretty dramatic, and before you even leave the training area you can find yourself spending 1000 gold - the maximum - for each new skill you open up for the character). The game has never done a particularly good job of explaining effective cooperative play either, and this is only emphasized in this expansion by the inclusion of two somewhat subtly nuanced classes, at least one of which (the Assassin) is not ideally suited to the cooperative game in the first place.
In terms of additions to the competitive arenas, there's not much to find fault with. The two new professions are effectively balanced against the existing ones to a certain extent. Their utilization, however, is not now and never will be on the scope of the six core professions. There are some interesting tricks and gimmicks you can use, but ultimately, if you're buying this game as a competitive player, you're getting it for completeness. The new skills added for the existing professions are, in some instances, critical new additions to the competitive game environment and are a lot of fun to play around with.
On the whole, for new players, I'd have to recommend starting at the beginning and buying the original Guild Wars (Prophecies). The slower ramp-up, quest-based skill acquisition, and graduated complexity present a much better learning environment for somebody new to the game. For players who already have the game, you probably know what you're getting--a new set of maps and a couple of new professions. The maps are adequate, though the composition of enemy groups in this edition is just as homogenous as in the previous release (though different) and haunted with more of the frustration that plagued some of the late-game areas of Prophecies. On the whole, I'm not sorry I bought it, as an established user, but I had certainly hoped for more.
Customer Review: Is it for everyone? Probably not! But...
Summary: 5 Stars
First of all, I just want to say that this game is not an expansion pack, it is far better, actually. Factions is probably the better version of the first Guild Wars, and anyone who is starting out should probably play this first. Why? Because it starts out with a campaign that introduces common buttons, methods and gameplay information that is imparative to know, and you aren't supplied with this information in the original.
The graphics in this game are by far better than the original. But I will warn you now, if you don't care for the asian scene, don't purchase this. You are trapped in the asian scene, which is incredibly realistic, untill you get off of the island. In the original, you weren't put in the asian scene. The lands that you travel will take you by suprise, and you will enjoy what you see.
The gameplay is amazing, you are challenged in ways that you aren't normally challanged in mmorpgs! You have to choose from the list of skills that you have in order to make a build, you can change your attributes (What makes you powerful in what) at any time to better fit your chosen skills, and you can be different from the rest by choosing different skills and making your own combos. The pvp action in this game is simply amazing, and the pve is incredible. PvE also supplies you with different cpu party choices, which gives you a wider range to choose from when questing for levels and skills.
It's not the average MMORPG, but if you enjoy interaction with people, then this is probably the game you are looking for.