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Review: Guild Wars: Factions – First 15

by Nick Haywood on 31 May 2006, 09:22

Tags: RPG

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qafub

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A new game... a new story...



Last year we saw Guild Wars from NCSoft take the online world by storm. With no monthly fees to pay it now has a huge following with over a million players worldwide which is still growing. Whether you are interested in the highly competitive Player Vs Player and Guild Battles or the role playing story mode Guild Wars can keeps you occupied for many hours.

It took me from May till September last year to finish the game with a total of 130 hours game time, after that I still found myself going back to help people out on the areas I found difficult (The Breach and travel to Piken Square come to mind instantly there!). And that’s not to mention the free add-on Sorrows Furnace and the Titan Quests for people who had completed everything, this added a good few extra hours to what was already a huge game.



It was obvious that NCSoft had hit on a winner with Guild Wars and players worldwide waited with bated breath for the follow on, Guild Wars: Factions. This new addition to Guild Wars sees an entirely new area, Cantha, being hit by a plague, mutating inhabitants into something like a cross between Half Life 2 headcrab zombies and The Flood from HALO. Cantha needs a hero so it’s down to you to head into the fray once again and save the day.

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As well as the plague you have 2 factions that are constantly at war bringing terror to the land of Cantha, Luxons of the Jade Sea and Kurzicks of Echovald Forest. Some of the missions will see you having to take a side and fight alongside one of these factions which, later in the game on the main story, make for some great alliances for guilds. You also have the option to take your Prophecies character over to Cantha or you can create a new character from the available classes.

This time we have 2 new character classes to add to the classes from the Prophecies campaign, giving you Assassin and Ritualist to choose from too. Assassins are fast and can link attacks together with ease, Ritualists can summon creatures from the void (spirits and the likes !) to aid them and party members in battle.

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The good news for those yet to step into Guild Wars is that Guild Wars; Factions is a standalone game to the original, you don’t have to own Prophecies to be able to play Factions. New players to Guild Wars can dive into the new campaign without any knowledge of the previous chapter; you can get Prophecies at a later date and take your Factions character over to Tyria if you wish. So after that brief history lets take a look at the first 15 minutes or first mission completion, this is a case of whatever comes first !

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