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Totally bugged and frustration gaming

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 33
Date: May 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I played Guild Wars for more then 1800 hours and couldn't wait to get Factions in my hands. Now... I'm more as just a little bit disapointed.
The Henchmens KI is even worse then before. The maps have bugs all over and the game is unbalanced in Monster force and player force. They wanted to increase the difficulty.. fine... to try for 4 hours to get ONE bossmonster down and die about 10 times per try as your henchmen ressurect you inside a damage field (Balthasar aura) so you die instandly again and get 15% more mallus... this game is not funny. I was a BIG Guild Wars fan.. now.. with Faction. Guild Wars itself has to many disadvantages to play it (PvP) as you don't get the equipments for your PvE chars. This game is.. dead.. sorry to say. for me a HELL NO!!! Don't buy it!!!!! As Guild Wars only provided 4 character slots for 6 possible chars.. I had even two games so I could create all characters... bought 2 Factions so I can all move em to the new play ground... BIG MISTAKE... cash blown into the wind.
Keep your hand away from NCSoft games... simple.. they have a Microsoft behavior.. use the player as beta Tester.. do setups so you buy the game more as just once. I'm sure.. this game will not survive the next update.. as peoples will leave it soon. Just to many bugs and frustration. The customer support.. is ridiculous... just do yourself a favor and buy something more funny!

Major Disappointment

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 9
Date: May 29, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Before I start, let me say I've had over 4 years MMO experience, starting with SWG, CoH, EVE, Guild Wars, and a little WoW. I've spent plenty of time playing MMORPGs and know them pretty well.

I got guild wars for the same reason that most other people did: Free Online. It was nice starting the game, and not have to go through subscription services to shovel out 15 bucks a month. When I started it though, it just was not fun. The stater city is a mess, the game doesn't help you at all, the quest is confusing, the zones are hard to get to, everything outside of the main city is deserted, not to mention that PvP has nothing to do with the actual game at all. You could be a starting the first day and when you eventually find how to pvp, you create a different character and fully level it. Meaning that it doesn't matter how much experience you have, or how much time you spend playing the actual game.

The new zones are also a problem because they have nothing new in them. They are basically the first ones with some changed names/creatures, filled with bugs. The only reason they exist is so NCSoft can continue to make money of the title, by forcing players to buy expansions. Please, take my advice and do not buy this game. It is much more worth it just to either avoid MMOs altogether, or just shell out the 15 bucks a month. You'll have to come up with the cash, but atleast it will be worth it.

Not what you think you're paying for...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 24 / 38
Date: May 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

If you bought the first Guild Wars (now called Prophecies) and were inclined to believe that Factions would offer more of what you loved, then you might be in for a suprise.

The good:

The Visuals:
Visuals in this game are very nice and a good change from the older Prophecies campaign. In Prophecies I often felt like I was being blinded by glare because some of the maps (notably the Cyrstal Desert and Shiverpeaks) were so monochromatic and tended toward white/yellow. The city of Cantha is impressive if not a little repetitive. What really shines are the Luxon and Kurzick areas. These provide a very nice atmosphere for adventure with the Kurzick tending to be very dark and forboding while the Luxon is more of a bright hill country-meets-frozen sea.

New skills:
Many new skills have been included with quite a few elites. This makes taking an older Prophecies character through the game quite worthwhile as you'll be able to purchase and capture many new skills for your character.

New classes:
You now have the opportunity to play the ritualist and assassin classes. The ritualist being a versatile hybrid of healing/protection and damage dealing class via the use of spirits. The assassin a lightly armored class that specializes in killing caster/soft targets. The addition of these classes provide a nice rounding out of the pre-exisiting classes from Prophecies.

Challenge Missions:
A nice diversion where you race against the clock to do things like kill as many foes as possible. High scorers may be rewared with faction, experience points and gold depending on the challenge mission.

The Bad:

Quests:
The quest system is boring and in the FedEX style. Go to point A, then point B, then point C, then back to A. Talk to person A, A says talk to B, B says talk to C. All the while you be killing endless mobs of the same monster.

Skills:
There are new skills for each class, but many are simply renamed versions of older Prophecies skills. Sure, it's fun to have two of the same skills on your skillbar, but it's not that original.

Timed Missions:
All missions are now timed. If you finish them quickly you earn more experience points and more skill points. This puts players in the awkward position of having to rush through missions in order to get the best bonus. In a mixed pickup group some players may be on the mission for the second/third/forth time and wish to rush while new players will want to take their time. This can lead to mission failure.

The Map:
To prevent running/bypassing of the storyline (which was common in Prophecies) much of the Factions map is gated. Characters may only progress further by completing quests and missions. This is fine on the first character through, but many times a player may wish to bring a second and third character through the game but bypass the more tedious parts. This is no longer possible in Factions.

Alliances and Elite Missions:
There are new elite missions in the Factions campaign that are only available if a player happens to be a member of a controlling alliance. Alliances are formed by guilds allying with each other. To control an outpost/town and hence elite content an Alliance must gain faction point via PvP or PvE. Town/Outpost control is costly (500k-1.5million faction). Only large alliances with several hundred players can hope to control outposts and access elite missions. This locks out the casual gamer from some of the higher end content. Casual players may still be able to access this content by paying the controlling alliance. This system is ripe for exploitation in the form of price gouging. It also encourages consistent farming for faction. This farming is a form of grinding play that was originally what the Guild Wars team set out to abolish. Sadly they've only encouraged it in Factions.

Too little content for PvE fans:
The power gamer or those with highly addictive playstyles will find they finish the content Factions provides within 2-4 days. You can stretch this out by doing most of the quests, but their FedEX style is painful and somewhat annoying.

A rather lacklustre MMORPG

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 12
Date: November 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I actually bought Factions about the same time I bought WoW, thinking I'd like to get into this MMORPG thing; and WoW and GW being the biggest MMORPGs it seemed like a fair deal.

I will admit that for a time I did enjoy playing Factions but I really strain to say anything very good about it. My biggest gripe is the economy. If you're going to try and accumulate any amount of gold prepare to sell almost exclusively to other players, as quests and vendors give a paltry sum of money. The sense of reward versus the difficulty of the quest or mission really does feel horribly disproportionate.
Now, this wouldn't be too bad save for the fact that most skills (and in particular the higher level skills) are purchased. So...I need to purchase skills. And yet the quests don't give near enough to allow me to purchase them. Right.

I also get the feeling that there is a very strong leaning towards the PvP side of things, which is something that really doesn't interest me. Unless you've played for countless hundreds of hours you're likely to be styled as a 'noob'.
Again, this wouldn't be so bad if the PvE experience was, well, a little more entertaining. Henchmen (AI controlled allies) can very often be of little use, running off to dispatch with the nearest monster, unless specifically dictated, and even then this is rather limited.
Other players can be useful, but again these tend to be people who put a lot of time in and expect those they accompany to be of equal profeciency.

I've played most of the way through the main quest, but the frustratingly difficult missions and now the impossibility of actually getting to the next area have lead me to abandon it. Eight people in a group just does not cut it.
And, as another reviewer pointed out, aside from the PvP element there isn't much replayability.

Maybe I come off as being a little harsh, and perhaps I am, but I really do feel cheated of a decent gameplay experience. I don't have hundreds of hours to spend looking for rare item drops and then trying to hawk them off on other players, to get the gold to get the skills, to kill the enemies to do it all over again.
I suppose the only good thing, in this light, that the whole Guild Wars series has going for it is the lack of a monthly fee. Which, for me, doesn't make up for the lack of gameplay.

PvP, and limited at that

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 26
Date: May 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

After loving GW, I'm uninstalling Factions. The +/-:

+Graphics (beautiful, intricate, and run well on most systems)
+GUI (the user interface) very simple and straightforward
+System resources (very easy to switch btw this an other programs w/ zero hangups)
+diversity (w/ 8 classes combinable into a character w/ x/y pair of classes, several hundred skills and the ability to switch your character in almost every way, you can shift character builds very easily)
+ Learning curve (very simplistic combat, roles, and you're max level w/in a few hours if playing a new charcter)

-PvE (constantly respawning mass-mobs of enemies that are higher lvl than the PCs, almost immediate requirement to be at top level w/ your character)
-Story (the constantly morphing nature of your character makes you feel like several soldiers in one giganitc army and NOTHING is done to make you feel like an individual)
-Seriously limited models (characters can wear one of a few armors--all of which are beautiful--and have a very limited set of appearances. Necromancers look very different from warriors, but most necros look like each other)
-PvP (better know what a mold is and be prepared to fit it, at least until you can talk folks into trying your strategy, which may never occur)
-Community (PvP action really limits the desire of folks to help one another out)
-Weapons (several models, but very little in the way of unique abilities)
-BUGS (not mobs, but as w/ many online games near launch, this one has some crippling ones: I've replayed the first mission 10-ish times trying to get competent parties and then to get the bug where the mission refuses to complete)

After two hours and the apex being about 1/8th of the cost for a single piece of armor dropping, I was asking "Why?" a lot more than I was asking "How?".

If you loved the PvP aspect of the original GW, this should entertain you. If you want an MMO, a friendly community, PvE, story, or anything remotely consituting an incenstive to develop (not grind) your online alterego, skip this.

IMO, this is cafe-monkey fodder or a PvP/Raid only title.

Yech, from me, a rpg fan.

Factions - Bleh

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 18
Date: July 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Unlike the Prophecies campaign, Factions is like going from pre-sear to Ring of Fire in one step. It just isn't any fun. It's too hard for lower level characters, and the real people in Factions you get in PUGs are for the most part worse than the PUGS in Prophecies. I particularly hate the fact that you can't start a quest then come back to it, but have to start all over. I also dislike the "stacked" quests where you have to run around the countryside forever to get one quest done. Overall, I am fed up with Factions and am going back to Tyria and work on getting some titles.

Ok

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 20
Date: May 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The game is ok.The graphics are good but it is pretty much just a you against the mob game.There are still bugs but that is to be expected.Every new game needs time to iron out the kinks.
The game tends to push you to GVG or PVP.I like PVE or PVM myself and so it isnt really as good as the first.You have to be persitant in this game.They like to overwhelm you with mobs that are higher level and they hedge alot on the leaders.
Also the AI for npcs is really bad..I trade them for critters any day.
There are people that have been killed over 500 times and that is with just one chr.Still there are times in missions where you have no control and havent reached the area where the npc is at and the npc gets killed and you all die.Happen 5 times with my chrs and that is lame.I like to at least have a chance to fail on my own.
There is alot of good things about this game but so far the bad outweight it.I have completed with 3 chrs and have 3 left so it is doable just more like work then fun.
Oh just a note.Everyone gets a right to a opinion...oh well

Not as Good as the Original

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 20
Date: July 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Movie sequels always have trouble living up to the original. Factions is the same way. Prophecies was so wonderful that I guess a good expansion was too much to ask. The game is bugged, bugged, bugged. Truly an aweful disappointment. I have trouble thinking of any good things about it. Most people start characters in the origanal game and go to Factions to goof off. Maybe someday they will fix the bugs, but I doubt it.

Quite simply a weak link in the series

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: April 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I've read most of the other reviews, and there is pretty much a concensus that this is the weakest installment of the series. With an expansion announced for this winter and a whole new game, Guildwars 2, announced, the only reason to buy this one is if you find $40 on the street and can't hold on to it until Eye of the North comes out. Longtime players will want it simply to round out skills and for the sake of completeness, but there is no reason the guildwars universe can't be fully enjoyed without ever setting foot in Cantha.

Ritualists ruined pvp Random Arena

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 8
Date: December 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The ritualist is one of the new professions that comes with factions. It is the only profession that allows you to create multiple spirits that do damage, blind, interrupt, heal, evade melee, steal health, knock downs and other things. Its an army all it self. So instead of 4v4 in random arena you and up with 4v5 or even 4v6.

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