Curse

Lourens · Apr 14, 2009, 06:57 PM // 18:57

I'm gonna say Prophecies mainly because the great story line and the need to coöperate with others and the great scenery ofcourse.
I don't like Asia that much so factions was a little less but still great.
Last but not least Nightfall, the heros kinda ruined the game for me because you are now able to solo everything without the need of others wich lowered the social factor of Guildwars for me , nightfall still has a great scenery and story line.

~Lourens

Qing Guang · Apr 15, 2009, 10:34 PM // 22:34

Nightfall. Now, I know I came late to the game (started summer '07), and I started with Factions, so maybe I don't have other people's experiences, so maybe that's why I like NF best.

Take a look at my chars:
"Core Four" - Factions:
- Rit (largely ignored after completing F, went back for a little bit to do EotN and get Asuran armor)
- Necro (okay, okay, I adore this char, but come to think of it I only play her in HM really)
- Monk (used only for 2-man CoF/UW/FoW farm or helping newbies)
- Ele (used only for Luxon AB maps)
...all completed Factions, all mostly ignored except necro.
Second set - Prophecies:
- Ele (probably closest thing I've got to a main, completed P and F and working on NF)
- Mez (played only with friend)
"The Newbies" - Nightfall
- Derv (finished NF and EotN, now used mostly for farming but will go back and do other campaigns later)
- Necro (played only with friend, stuck on Istan atm)
- Para (favorite new char, waiting for friends to catch up but anxious to move on)

Had to buy an extra slot for the para, but I was dying to try one, and I really wanted to run NF again. Why?
a) No Pre. Having started with F, I lack the nostalgia everyone else has for Pre. In fact, I hate, loathe, despise, and abominate Pre - the glaring oranges and yellows, the stupid lowbie monsters, the 2-man parties, the incredibly limited skill selection, the lack of proper merchants, the wacky economy, the "skill? what's skill? firestorm makes any build better!" mentality. It almost turned my friend, a recent convert from WoW, off the game entirely because of the pacing. Yes, there's a lot of good scenery, but that's pretty much it.
b) Good missions. While I have a soft spot for good ol' timed Factions mishes (I like knowing that if I have a half an hour of free time, I can easily fit a Vizunah run in there), I do like NF ones. They're not just timetrials, but they don't take forever like P mishes. That was another awful thing about Pre - the mishes are insanely long in most cases, and half the time the bonus would add another 10 minutes because you'd have to loop around, switchback, zigzag into a whole new area, get lost, talk to a guy, go back and collect ninety million little things for him, and make your way back to him. Not my idea of fun. I'd rather try to keep idiot NPCs alive or sneak past corsairs than spend fifteen minutes tracking a bunch of Charr or trying to raise up some old dead guys.
c) Gorgeous scenery. Now, don't get me wrong - I think Factions is beautiful. However, half the map there is fugly Kaineng City, and another large chunk is the Jade Sea (which, like Pre, is rather bright and gives me a headache) and the gloomy Echovald. Proph is okay, I guess, but as I said Pre is awful, Post is worse (it all looks the same!), and I've spent so much time capping in the Ring of Fire I never want to see it again. Plus, the maps are so tangled I'm constantly getting lost. Nightfall, on the other hand - my screenshots folder is full of screenies of Elona. The wide open spaces, the rich colors, the astounding architecture and communities - I love it. Vabbi is perhaps my favorite place in all of Guild Wars.
d) Heroes. I know what it was like to be without heroes, but all my experiences from that time were still post-NF, so I recall everyone asking if I had heroes and my dejected "no". However, I do like working with them, because I can set them up with builds I know work, and they still encourage collaboration - just right for me and a friend to run together. They also fill holes in PUGs well - and I still PUG despite using H/H frequently.
e) Dervs and Paras. My rule of thumb: never leave Sogolon out of a H/H party unless I've got Morgahn/Hayda. I love my derv to death (aoe, reasonable-energy melee with better-looking armor than a war, at the cost of a few armor levels? I'm in!), and she, unlike my Proph E/W, is always suitable as a melee character. And my Motigon - I was happy to find that at level 8 I could solo tank my way through the Cliffs of Dohjok as a Survivor - I love healers, but this was the first time I could run a healer that could fight for herself (rit never had room on her bar for channeling, and the monk never got to use her sword). Admittedly, I run her with my guildies' two other paragons (one Spear, one Command), exploiting para-para synergy, but that's kind of fun.
f) The music. Especially in Vabbi. The music is just brilliant; I love the feel of it. Very much like my soundtrack to the Broadway version of The Lion King, with its more traditional elements incorporated. And heck, though this isn't a virtue of NF itself, it makes a good setting for other music - the other day, I had this crazy thrill when fighting my way through waves of corsairs with "Jai Ho" going in the background. Mostly, though, I just adore the soundtrack - I don't get tired of it, really.
g) Freedom to explore. I'm not too fond of Proph's way of letting you run straight to the end if you really want (nor am I big on having to pay for a run all the way to Droks if I want to get good armor relatively early), but I despise Faction's gates. It feels like I'm being force-fed the game in little bites. So NF was a good middle ground - room to roam, but not to throw the story completely out of whack. Also, quick access to real armor = yes. I'm not a fan of having to buy armor multiple times. Better to save my money and get multiple real sets.
h) Character appearances. Nightfall characters are stunning. Well, actually, a large percentage of characters (excluding male warriors and monks) from all the games look like professional models, but NF's are the best. I think it's because in P and F there were always a few truly strange looking faces (the blue cat eye necro from P and the bucktooth rit from F, for example?), but in NF they really cut down on those. Probably the best-looking monks and (female) necros in the game (although I'm constantly getting compliments on my F necro - not too many loli necros around), and the eles aren't far behind.
i) Storyline. Okay, so it's uber-cliche and all, but it's still better than Factions'. And while I agree P has the best plot, I think none of them have particularly outstanding stories at all. But if I wanted great plot I'd go play KotOR, not Guild Wars. For me, length of plot is more of an issue. Factions is short and sweet, but Prophecies takes forever (tons of long, story-laden mishes ftl), and it's kind of unwieldy. Maybe that's why so many get runs. Nightfall is a good middle ground, again - lots of missions, but not as long, and it branches, so I don't have to do them all. Also, I actually don't hate Kormir - compared to Rurik, Mhenlo, and Togo, the Unholy Trinity of Obnoxious NPCs, she's very cooperative and relatively intelligent.

In the end, from most to least favorite, I'd rank the games:
Nightfall (see above)
Factions (home sweet home - my own nostalgia factors in here, as does my Asiaphilia)
Prophecies (too slow, too easy until you hit the desert - it says something about the game that I leveled from 11 to 20 not by questing or doing mishes but by skill capping in the Shiverpeaks)
Not counting Eye of the North, since it's not a real campaign. If I had to put it somewhere, I'd probably drop it around Factions - it's got its ups and downs (good and bad maps, nice - albeit reskinned - armors, boring title farms)

wtfisgoingon · Apr 16, 2009, 12:57 AM // 00:57

Started first with Prophecies only because I heard it was from the creators of Diablo. Big disappointment, quited after the first few hours.''

1 year later, Factions released, I decided to give it a try as the Asian theme attracted me, as well as the new profession Assassin. Big improvement. Assassin class was a nice implement, and ever since then, I've been hooked onto GW.

Nightfall was a decent 7/10 campaign in addition to Factions, I enjoyed it more than Prophecies though.

EToN hasn't generated any memorial experiences for me.

Overall best campaign for me was Factions
Things I liked in Factions:
Fast paced, face leveling
Introduction of the Assassin Profession
Asian theme & scenery
PvP orientated
oh yeah, and Kuunavang also

My least favorite campaign would have to be either Prophecies or EToN, not a big fan of the sceneries nor the professions. Don't like the extreme slowness of the game also. Storyline was pretty lame to be honest, I dont understand what the big applause about this is.

maraxusofk · Apr 16, 2009, 04:40 AM // 04:40

By far prophecies before heroes and inscriptions came out. No inscriptions meant iding any gold weapon was a thrill, and everyone pugged.

Scary · Apr 16, 2009, 06:26 AM // 06:26

Indeed by far Prophecies,

almost 4 years ago now, and still thinking of al the suprising things we had those days.
Pre Searing,, the sunshine between the trees, the first drops ( O men, there
where so many drops those days :P)
But than, after across the wall.. is this averything, nothing more ???
Till a guildie said...No my friend you have to take that quest to get to the
other site.
Aaa ok.. :P So I did, and yes at that point I filled with some sadness.
Where are the green fields the nice trees the blue rivers... More angry
I was at the charr so we went on...Taking all quests there where did the missions.
With over crowded towns. Find my first runes... getting messages you unlockt this you unlockt that... Find my first fiery dragon sword.. men I think I had high req low upgraded sword for over a year..

Getting to the mountains afte Yakks Bend than up to Ascalon and the Jungle... Yes by far
prophecies was and still is the best part ever made.

Empress Amarox · Apr 16, 2009, 07:00 AM // 07:00

Nightfall I absolutely CANNOT STAND going through after the 3rd time or so when it first came out, and it drains the very essence of life out of me having to go through it for Master of Whispers... I'd rather beat myself in the face with a spiked club than do it again.

Factions is dreadful, feels like sooo much grind going through it all... Especially with all the "run here, now run here, now talk to this guy.. Good, now repeat the steps in reverse order just because our quest designers are jerks."

Eye of the North, first time through was pretty fun. Haven't built up the nerve to go through it again, but it wasn't that bad. I'd say it probably comes in second, cause I did really enjoy the first time through.

Prophecies takes them all, hands down. I love Presearing, they're my favorite missions to do. I can run places and skip the horrible stupid missions I hate, everything is familiar, I like there being skill quests. My absolute favorite thing is being able to run places. I HATE how in all the other campaigns I can't run through a portal because some a-hole in the last town was supposed to talk to me, and it FORCES me to do the MQ every.. single... time (it just kills the fun and continuity, not to mention any sort of immersion). But, Prophecies wasn't like that, y'know. You could just skip right to the ass end of it after you did it once, I absolutely love being able to do that... The storyline is actually fun and interesting, the missions are actually fun (minus the jungle ones). The farming spots were actually fun too, until Anet f'd that one up.. I loved killing the Minotaurs.. Then they added those stupid scarabs EVERYWHERE in that region.. omg.. what were they THINKING?!

Anyways, Prophecies in my favorite, by far. Absolute best. I'm sad that they started following a different model for all the succeeding campaigns instead, with all the things I hate.