Guild Wars - Third Edition

[DrSpike]

/me points at Kassi and laughs.

[DrSpike]

Played to 20 this weekend. I hate to say it, but, well, meh.

There are many indications that the game is rather rushed. I haven't finished it yet, so I'll reserve final judgment, but my initial feeling is that it's going to be quite mediocre overall.

[Kassiopeia]

You mean the PVE? I just want the hawt new pvp stuff. PVE? Pfft. I didn't even know there was an extensive pve part.

[Jamski]

I am continually amazed by all the new cool stuff in Factions. This is the best sequel ever (except Civ2, maybe)

[Barinthus]

The reason for quick levelling to 20 is so you can be good and ready to participate in faction battles and so on.

[DrSpike]

I should clarify my earlier post. I would happily buy Factions just for the new skills/classes and shaking up the existing GvG and HA metagames.

However, compared to my expectations, and sense of wonder at what they had achieved with Prophecies, I am disappointed. They made the wrong decision in making it a standalone/xpack in my opinion, and the price to pay for this is mediocre PvE up until level 20, which is the bit I've played.

I am reserving judgment on the 12v12 factions stuff, because I haven't played it yet.

[Jamski]

DrSpike, you realise that all of Factions up to level 20 is basically the Factions "presearing", yes? The PvE I've experienced from the first mainland mission onwards has been absolutely barnstormingly fantastic. The co-operative missions where two teams of 8 have to work together are insane-cool, and the challenge missions are bananas. Then there's the whole standard/expert/master level for each mission. PvE has taken a huge shot in the arm here.

[DrSpike]

I do realise this, and have prefaced my comments by saying I haven't seen everything yet. I've been preoccupied with WoW.

However, whatever the rest of the game is like some of the comments will stand. From looking through the forums there are a lot of GW fanboys that aren't very happy with the game too, and this goes beyond the usual whining.

Basically there were 2 good ways to do it - add new level 20 content (ie an expansion) like SF, UW, FoW, PvE tombs etc, and some missions to continue the story, whilst adding new classes and skills. The other way would be to make a proper standalone game with the same levelling curve as Prophecies, but with all missions after Lions in Tyria and Seiseng (sp?) available to both. The titles could give an incentive to complete the upper part of both campaigns, and other rewards could be designed.

What they've done is a halfway house, and the first part of Factions is really unfulfilling because of it. It might be worth it if to counterbalance the overly fast levelling curve to 20 there was a lot of 20+ content, and content worthwhile playing through with old characters as well. It doesn't seem to me like there is. There are 11 PvE missions to do at 20, roughly the same as the original game.

Also, not sure why I would play the Tyrian missions with my Canthan character, or vice versa. Because not all of the content is available you can't get the mission titles or exploration titles for both continents. They made such a big deal of the benefits of merging (because you get 2 less character slots) you can see why people are a bit peeved they haven't thought that through.

There is a gem of a post on the forums from someone who said that the money he's spent on Prophecies and Factions is worth it overall, but 80% of the worth comes from the original game. I think he's spot on. Some of it is fixable of course, and it's early days, but it looks to me as though I'll largely focus on PvP in Factions, including the new PvP options.

XLI are reformed, and back in the top 20 for GvG. We owned some top guilds hard last weekend - was great fun.

[DrSpike]

Played through more this weekend, and I am warming to it. They've clearly made some mistakes, but if the past is anything to go by they'll probably put some effort into rectifying them.

[SirOsis]

I am quite pleased with Factions. Some great new skills and areas to play with. I have yet to do any PvP or Alliance stuff. The only thing I found painful was the tutorials. There should be some way to skip them.

It has kept me from playing Oblivion.

[Barinthus]

I am loving Factions. However I have to admit I've found quests in Wajjun Bazaar and B--- Byway to be somewhat tedious.

Missions are fun although it can be frustrating trying to get master level but it's same thing with bonus for Prophecies anyway

[DrSpike]

Yeah they were a bit cheeky with the statement about each mission having 2 bonus goals.

[conmcb25]

I am enjoying Factions thus far. Brought a Tyrian toon over. I need to start from scratch with a new profession toon and check out the newbie island.

[DrSpike]

Playing it again this weekend.

I saw a rumour on the forums earlier that a separate team from chapter 1 did chapter 2, which explains some of the oddly bad decisions. The original team is currently working on chapter 3 so they can release it within 6 months apparently.

[Jamski]

Its not a rumour, they are indeed running paralell teams.