A good addition that continues the Guild Wars name but some fans of the original might not be impressed.
This time the story is set in Cantha, an Asiatic based island nestled somewhere in the oceans of Tyria. A mysterious plague has overtaken the land and it is your job to set off on an adventure to find out why....
Factions adds in two new playable characters, an Assassin and a Ritualist. The Assassin is a fast in your face character, relying on its teleportation skills and chains of combos to unleash a heavy amount of damage in a short period of time before exiting the battle to a safe location. The Ritualist uses a series of summon spells, calling up spirits which do different effects in the field from health gaining to nasty effects to your enemies. While the Ritualist is similar to the Shaman from World of Warcraft, it does a great job at remaining unique in its application....
If you chose to create one of the two new characters, you will start out on a separate island called Shing Jae. Unlike the starting area of the first Guild Wars, were you leave before you are leveled up very high, this time you will leave the starting area when you are anywhere from level 15-20, meaning all of the main game content is designed for your higher level characters. This does well as you can port your characters from the first game to the new world, and start out from the main island of Cantha, without having to go through the new starting area....
The biggest problem with this game is its length. Once off the starting island, it is very possible to beat all of the factions story line within a day or two, and very easy to complete within a week or two for a casual gamer. This is a little bit of a letdown for the pve fans who loved the lengthy story line of the first game.....
This game is much harder then the original, which provides a more edge of your seat sense of battle, however it can also cause lots of frustration at certain times. Factions however does add in some new content to the game not previously seen, most of which is pvp based....
On the island of Cantha are two warring factions, the Luxons, a pirate like society based on Darwin's law of natural selection, and the Kurzick's, a tree dwelling society based heavily in religion. During the course of your adventures you will chose to align yourself with one of these factions, unlocking the quest for the given side along with allowing you to compete in giant pvp wars for control of the map....
These giant battles generally consist of 12 people fighting in a similar way to the style found in Battlefield 2. There are different areas set up on the map, and by standing in them you take control. Whichever side controls more shrines, will gain more points as the battle rages on. Whichever team gets to 500 points, wins. These battles are a lot of fun and open up a good area of pvp for people who don't like the heavy, strict pvp combat that some of the other areas tend to offer....
While it is a good concept in its design, it can be a little tiresome to work for one side or the other. A good example of this, is at one point in the game you have to collect 10,000 factions for one side or the other to progress in the story line. This can either be achieved by pvping in the areas mentioned before, or by doing a series of quest that offer several thousand faction at a time. While this helps lengthen the gameplay some, it can become a repetitive task to those wishing to bring many characters through the story line. Also it can create a forced situation for people who do not like to do side quest or to pvp, in now they have to chose at least one to move on....
Thankfully this faction serves more of a purpose then just buying your way through. You can trade in your stash of faction for amber or jade, depending on which side you align yourself with. This in tern can be used to purchase new armor only available to that side....
Luckily your account is not bound to one side or the other, and you can change sides between characters or even on the same character as you see fit, opening up a little bit of re-playability. Which is good seeing as you now get a special item for defeating the end boss, which you can trade in for a powerful end game item, adding in a much bigger reason for beating the story line unlike the original....
Overall it is a good game and a good continuation to the series. Die hard Guild Wars fans might be a little turned off at this second game in the series, but most everyone will find the gameplay enjoyable and the two new classes fun to play. The game also does a great job at adding in tons of new weapons and armor, along with skills, which make the purchase very worth while for anyone interested in expanding their Guild Wars collection....