New features, new lands to explore, new skills to play with, and more butt-whipping action against others or the AI.
The gameplay is still terrific, as it doesn't take much to come up with an ideal set of builds for your style of gameplay, explore the lands of Cantha, and battle all kinds of enemies. Speaking of skills, new skills, both common and elite, has been added to widen the possibilities, as well as new kinds of weapons and armor; some of which require faction-specific materials, which can only be acquired through the use of faction points. The new Canthan sets are nice, fitting the Eastern style and theme of Factions, with some of them already hot commodities by the player community. You can also boast a bit with character titles, provided your character meet the requirements for a title. Those titles can range from exploring Tyria or Cantha, to your prowess in Heroes' Ascent, to identifying gold items, bringing a Canthan to lvl 20 without dying, and so on.
The new forms of PvP are nice too, as it's a battle in Cantha for two key strongholds between Kurzick-aligned players, and their Luxon-aligned counterparts. Guilds can also form alliances and engage against faction-opposing alliances in 12 versus 12 battles. Guild Halls also got the option of using a Guild Lord to add the amenities of a major city for alot of money. However, just about every guild will want a Xunlai Agent, a Merchant, a Priest of Balthazar, and so forth, to fit the needs of the guild. The Battle Isles, as was introduced in last January's PvP Preview Event, is still the place for Random and Team Arenas, plus Heroes' Ascent for the fight for the Halls of Honor. As of the time of this review, Europe controls favor for the longest time, with America following that region, then Korea. Sometimes, a Taiwanese or Japanese guild or team will win the Hall of Heroes at least once. There are also new Guild Halls to see and battle in, although guilds like Korea's War Machine and The Last Pride still dominate as some of the very best GvG guilds in the game.
Two new classes has been added, and anyone familiar with the classes that were added into Diablo 2 through its Lord of Destruction expansion will find some sense of similarities here. The assassin is pretty much your ninja with a pair of daggers, capable of wearing armor similar to Factions "cover girl", Nika (sans the purple hair). Call them anorexic or just small in size, these assassins are lithe and fast, if not as hardy as warriors. Their energy regeneration are that of casters, allowing them to pull off attack combos, shadow arts to heal themselves or cause mayhem in the back lines, or deadly arts for major hexes to enhance ensuing dagger attacks. Then there is the ritualist; a mix between monks and necromancers. Wearing headgear that cover their eyes, these ritualists can use some form of healing magic to support primary monks or provide necessary primary healing and enchantments, use a base of spirits as support for the party, or use channeling magic for a form of smiting. Some ritualists can even summon a small army of necromancer minions to go with the spirits; others go with the "secondary" healing build to support monks. Both of these classes have their array of skills, and capturable elites, plus both of them can visit parts of Tyria--provided the player has both Factions and the original Guild Wars--if only on a "limited basis".
The graphics are still fantastic, as players in the Factions world of Cantha will see a mixture of middle-high class Eastern architecture, shanty cubbyholes of peasant dwellings, dangerous sewers and tunnels, the lush lands of the areas outside the gigantic city, the Jade Sea, petrified forests, and Shiro's stronghold. The foes are well-defined for their wickedness, too, as you'll see all kinds of afflicted, Eastern mythical, and human gangs of cutthroats. It's not surprising to see a group of them appear in your tracks and attack, or multiple groups cluttering together to make you and your allies think strategically.
Jeremy Soule and his orchestra did another wonderful job with the music. The music for Factions are Eastern-ish, as you'll hear the Eastern-theme mixture of drums, violins, and so on. Collectors Edition buyers have the luxury of four additional music scores to listen to, although anyone can download the soundtrack at DirectSong and listen to them too outside the game. The voices are well done too, as most of the main characters for Factions carry the Eastern accent, and Mhenlo speaks too in cutscenes. Otherwise, the duo of voices for player characters are carryovers from Prophecies.
There aren't much in the way of technical issues; a few quest bugs and glitches that Arenanet seem to have addressed and fixed since the release of Factions. However, the general difficulty of the PvE campaign has been ramped up some, while some quests can take awhile to complete, as it require going to multiple different zones, and through plenty of tough enemies. In addition, what you tend to do for either the Kurzicks or the Luxons, you can't quite do things for the other faction without working yourself neutral to both, so to speak. Otherwise, these things are offset by the fantastic positives.
Both new players to Guild Wars and those coming over from the first chapter have plenty of things to see and do here in Factions. If anything is certain over the last year we have seen Arenanet do for the Guild Wars community, then we can look forward to new content and new areas over the next 11 months, until somewhere down the road in 2007, we see the third chapter in the Guild Wars saga. Until then, everyone will find plenty of things to enjoy in Cantha, and in Guild Wars Factions.
----In Game Characters, all PvE oriented, at time of review----
Morrighan Blackrose, Tyrian Minion Master/Battery Necro/Monk
The Emerald Maiden, Tyrian Barrage Ranger
Scarlette Sylvanas, Tyrian Domination Mesmer
Sunn Lian, Canthan Assassin
Shinzuma Takara, Canthan Sword/Axe Warrior
Chrysthanthemum Lin, Restoration/Spirit Ritualist