Curse

mazey vorstagg · Jul 12, 2007, 07:18 AM // 07:18

Yep Factions wins hands down. It's most fun and best put together!

I like Proph too because the plot is great but it's missing all the little things in the other chapters, such as pve skills and res shrines to gods.

The problem with NF is the lack of varience. Admittedly you've got Istan, Kourna, Vabbi, Desolation and RoT but essentially they are all one big desert (well not RoT). Proph had 6 areas Factions had 4 but NF is just a hige crystal desert and that much sand can suck the will out of anyone.

Qual · Jul 12, 2007, 07:29 AM // 07:29

1. Prophecies
2. Nightfall
3. Factions

Shriketalon · Jul 12, 2007, 08:18 AM // 08:18

Story
Nightfall- Compelling characters, and generally good plot. For the most part, the heroes have a good, singular role: important enough to cause change, but not single-handedly fighting against The Big Evil. The heroes were well suited to the story, and each has enough personality to be an interesting character. The villain is clear, with a good emphasis on the horrible power of Torment, Abby, and the Kournan army, later destroyed. While not particularly subtle in its methods, the campaign stayed relatively believable throughout. At the finale (following an awesome battle, which, although not amazingly difficult, brought back the Legend of Zelda-ish, fantastic feel), the campaign seemed truly concluded, as if the PCs had made a true, heroic difference.
On a random note, Kormir seemed incredibly suited for her role. Yes, she was kind of boring, yes, she didn't do much of anything. She provided a bit of advice, and for the most part, kept out of the way. Personally, I see this as a good thing, as it means you do not have to protect her hide on missions, follow her lead wherever her AI takes her, and can do your own thing. The God of Truth is a giver of advice, not a doer of deeds. Kormir keeps out of the spotlight (sans the ending), letting the PCs be the heroes.
Not that the campaign was always wonderful. The back-and-forth missions were monotonous, and the eventual fate of Kormir was rather underwhelming, perhaps undeserving. All in all, however, it seemed the most complete, fantastic, and rewarding.

Prophecies- I really, really didn't like the Prophecies story for one reason: we, the PCs, don't really accomplish anything. At the end of the campaign, the Charr are still rampaging, the Stone Summit are kicking ass, the White Mantle, although less powerful, have not been removed completely from Kryta, Ascension did nothing whatsoever for us, the Shining Blade are decimated, and the Titans are back in the Foundry, after we let them out. Sure, the lich is dead, but the majority of the campaign is not about him. All this time, we've been fighting other opponents, and suddenly he reveals himself, we slay him, and he lies dead. Meanwhile, we attracted the Charr raiding party, provided the excuse for the Mantle to slay the Blades, let the Titans burn a good bit of the world, did nothing of worth acquiring True Sight, and barely maintained the status quo with the dwarves. No rising action in the story, no sinister conversation mid-game to make us dislike the lich or fear his grip on Tyria, no decent plot, merely a Conquer the World foe at the last moment, and half the campaign spent following his obviously evil guise (Total time to decide he was evil upon meeting him: ten seconds. Why ten? Because after the first "he is evil" thought at one and a half, I debated that the designers might not have been that blatant in their writing.). Boring npcs, terrible leaders, and a general lack of purpose throughout. I did like Glint, however. She was nifty. If puppetmaster-ish.

Factions- Comedy of Errors, as one person put it. I like Shiro as a villain, he was an interesting character. Sadly, both he and Togo seem to stumble about, without any of their actions totally making sense. Shiro grabs randomly for power, while Togo seeks advice (How did Vizu defeat Shiro? Backstabbing. Thanks, girl.), flimsy artifacts (They don't do much, and are rather fragile), or completely random pursuits (We don't know where the guy is, so go befriend a random clan, who will do nothing to help against him). Togo was a pathetic attempt at the wise, old sage character, as his advice was terrible, his humor lacking, and his personality unworthy of note. The minor drama of Mhenlo and Cynn was amusing, but hardly a savior of the campaign. Both clans, despite their wonderful landscapes, were complete idiots, with a terribly politically correct resolution to their conflict. Moreover, the missions forcefed the PCs terrible dialogue (my two most hated being "Your fight *pause for effect* is my fight!" in Gyala and "Please, it is an honor merely to be in your presence" to the dragon we just mopped the floor with.) Factions had its moments, but they were few and far between.

Missions
Nightfall- Lead an army, raid a temple, infiltrate a base, sneak past guards, defend a citadel. Each mission was unique, from start to finish, departing from the usual "move forward, kill mob, repeat" feeling of many earlier campaigns. There were a few, however, that kept the same, semi-boring strategy, but they were far enough apart to prevent tedium.
Prophecies- Unfortunately, the majority of the campaign used 1) Less than normal party size. Most of your career enforces tactics you won't need, as the eight member party functions differently from anything else. 2) The same general method: Kill mobs, while moving forward, without rhyme or reason. Half the creatures fought are random beasts, without any ties to the mission goal, and are simply in the way. A few were unique, from the desert quests and the trebuchets, but they generally follow the same, somewhat boring path.
Factions- Sadly, the majority of Factions missions did not depart from the same method as listed above. Furthermore, they enforced the annoying "escort a single npc, failing the mission if he/she falls" situation, which leads only to annoyance. While the 16 person missions were amazing when the game started out, they are unreliable without a method of knowing who is on the other side.

Environment
Nightfall/Factions- Have to give a tie on this one. Nightfall felt special to me, as every single area is different. Istan varies from dark and depressing swampland to towering ruins to simple fields to dazzling archipelago. Although mostly plains, Kourna remains interesting, as the deep red of Marga Coast, the towering rocks of the Barbarous Shore, and the rolling hills of the Sunward Marches keep each area unique. Vabbi was simply breathtaking. The desolation was less interesting, however, and I felt they could have employed the Egyptian-esque structures of the distance more adeptly. The Desolation was an interesting excursion into madness, from the fleshy halls to mirrored worlds.
Factions, although not especially varied, still remains beautiful. The Jade Sea and stone forest are amazing, and continue to please my eyes on every visit. The city could have used a bit of glitz, especially in richer areas, but the other regions make up for it in spades.
Prophecies- A few elements of prophecies I do enjoy. The Stone Summit architecture is brilliant in its hostility, the jungles are absolutely beautiful, and the Ring of Fire was very well crafted. The swamplands, tedious snowscapes, dreary deserts, and blasted wastelands detracted from the campaign, however, as none of the areas were very notable, for the most part.
Many talk about the beauty of Pre. It's a nice area, sure, but I think my retirement point would have to be either Nightfall's Keys or a little island on the Jade Sea.

Environment
Factions- In terms of nations, I rather like the potential within Factions. The land is rich in myth and power, with plenty of fantasy to captivate the imagination. Factions was the first place to feel truly urban, compared to the tiny settlements scattered across Tyria. The Kurzick and Luxon regions, once again, are the greatest of the campaign, with interesting ideas of ground-based pirates, carved communities, and a deep sense of the mystical.
Nightfall- Rather decent setup, although nothing strikes me as completely amazing in the general world-building. Rich history, tied into previous campaigns, with well defined nations and customs. The political sphere is well constructed, although the regions outside of Vabbi could have used more fantastic a feel.
Prophecies- I found Tyria to be too decimated to be very compelling. Ascalon's a husk, Kryta has very few people surrounded by hostile marauders, and Orr's gone. For the most part, it's amazing that humanity still survives there. The dwarven settlements are fine, the centaurs have their thing going, but the world seemed to consumed in random mobs of beasts to seem even habitable.

So, yes, Nightfall is my favorite. I'm not sure if I prefer Factions or Prophecies, as both are a tad tedious, especially to repeat. Each campaign had their moments, however, be they the Doppelganger match and the Ring of Fire, staring up into the stone branches and sailing across the jade, or staring into secret riches of Vabbi and fighting an evil god.

Sophitia Leafblade · Jul 12, 2007, 09:24 AM // 09:24

Prophecies - By far the best campaign. Prophecies had the Best storyline, it gave u an attachment to characters who are always brought up now and again, Gwen, Rurik, The Lich etc. Id had great varied enviroments, lots of free skills, it had fun missions that u could do as fast or as slow as u wanted without any pressure. You got to play through and lvl up as u went slowly developing into the Hero u became. Had some of the Best lore in the GW saga so far such as where the Mursaat really evil or good? It had some interesting Creatures such as the Charr, the Mursaat, the forgotten, Glint. Ok compared with the newer campaigns its still missing a few features but all in all its still the best.

Nightfall - Nightfall added some more great features; Heroes, Hero skills (to make up for lack of skill quests), and expanded upon things from Factions such as being able to explore mission areas, similar mission Quest rewards. Nightfall added to the lore but only really expanded the Tryia lore rather than adding too much new lore, it had less "animal" style creatures and gave some creatures there own culture. It was alot a decent size and wasnt as rush based as Factions. It had soem great Enviroments such as Vabbi and the Desolation athough i general they were all to similar. It had some of the best humor in the campaigns but is big let down was its storyline. It all felt too unrealistic, Varesh herself seemed too plain and uninteresting, her generals all fell too fast and easy, Tieing everything to Abaddon was both clever and yet a total scape goat. I wont go into how we killed a god or how Koromir seemed alot more evil than im sure she was susposed to seem. The whole npc we join up with in the 1st mission ends up dieing has become kinda tired, not to mention the good number of sacrafises of other smaller npcs. Story aside it was a Great piece of Anet developement.

Factions - Although its very good its the worst of the 3 campaigns. It had a reasonably good storyline, some varied enviroments (athough the Forest and Kaineng were fairly dull after a while) It suffered from forcing u to repeatily enter the same areas over and over again trying to make the game look bigger than it was and the creatures lacked any sence of motivation and were merely animals. In reality it was by far the smallest of the campaigns, promoting Fast paced missions, fast paced lvling and generally completeing the campaign as fast as u can. It also added some great new features, Campaign rewards, better quest rewards (minus skill quests), some new PvP additions such as AB and Fort Aspenwood, Dual Party missions (both good and bad.) It also created a new set of lore to sift through which was interesting, Its by far best thing was the Luxons side of the border.

Lafayette · Jul 12, 2007, 09:48 AM // 09:48

Previously, though after all three releases, I still preferred Prophecies most. Recently I guess my favourite would be Factions. Prophecies I usually skipped 70% of lately, and Elona was played just for location access and heroes. Factions was played more for enjoyment.

upier · Jul 12, 2007, 09:56 AM // 09:56

Factions.
C1
C3 - huge let-down

Angelic Upstart · Jul 12, 2007, 10:02 AM // 10:02

Prophecies is for me the best of the three by a country mile, this may sound odd but when i am there it feels like "home".
Factions would be next with Nightfall third, and even though Factions saw all my guild bar three of us leave for WoW, it still ranks above NF, simply because there is no grind in it, once you leave the slums of Kaineng behind.
The grind for Sunspear and Lightbringer points i find tedious beyond belief although strangely enough i have warmed a little to NF as more and more of my characters wind thier way thorugh it, but when it first came out i disliked it intensely.

L.J · Jul 12, 2007, 10:11 AM // 10:11

1.Factions- The campaign that made me come back and stay playing guildwars
2.Prophecies- Only because I absolutely cannot stand NF, this campaign was the first I bought, played pre-sear quit for 2 months, got to post ascalon and quit for another 2 months(untill I heard about factions which I LOVED and turned me into a gw fan).
3.Nightfall- Ok in all games I HATE DESERT!

Xanthar · Jul 12, 2007, 11:47 AM // 11:47

1. Factions

After slogging through most of Prophecies, the fast pace and hard missions if Factions was a breath of fresh air. Add to that that it has the best character models in the game to date and some absolutely amazing art, it surely comes out on top. Marks off for the whole "Mhenlo is in charge" thingy though.

2. Prophecies

Initial contact with GW. Presents the environment well, and some parts of the game feels really epic (ascension primarily). Loses points for erratic story and that is has zero replayability in the Maguumas.

2. Nightfall

Tied with prophecies because of its many new and fun features. Also has some really interesting missions. The problem is that it's to firmly entrenched in Kourna, meaning that all old characters feel out of place (also known as the "I'm no bloody Sunspear!"-effect). Some nice artwork, but mostly a bit bland environments.

Malice Black · Jul 12, 2007, 11:51 AM // 11:51

1. Prophecies

2. Nightfall

3. Factions

30th August needs to hurry up, I'm seriously bored (yet again)

MirkoTeran · Jul 12, 2007, 12:27 PM // 12:27

Prophecies > Nightfall > insert-something-boring-here > Factions

Malice Black · Jul 12, 2007, 12:29 PM // 12:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by MirkoTeran

Prophecies > Nightfall > watching paint dry > Factions

Fixed it for you

Ninna · Jul 12, 2007, 03:49 PM // 15:49

Rated according to my PVE interests:

1. Nightfall
- Story and Heroes

2. Prophecies
- lots of environmental diversity

3. Factions
- fastest levelling to 20 but otherwise annoying until you can get out of the city

beanerman_99 · Jul 12, 2007, 05:00 PM // 17:00

Although I think Factions has its donwfalls I find my self spending more and more time there. I like doing the Aspenwood and AB battles a lot now. I wish Nightfall would have added some new PvP arenas like these. If you had ask this a few months ago I would not have picked Factions. I use to hate it but for some odd reason I like it now.

I hop over to Nightfall every now and then to farm title points.

Prophecies, well I rarely go there anymore. It still feels like home but for me personally there is very little to do there if you are just loggin in for a few minutes of fun. The other 2 chapters offer some things you can do for quick entertainment.

Kashrlyyk · Jul 12, 2007, 06:02 PM // 18:02

Gamemechanics: 1) Nightfalls
2) Prophecies/Factions

Story: 1) Prophecies
.....
10) Factions
......
Trashbin) Nightfalls

Mordakai · Jul 12, 2007, 06:10 PM // 18:10

I just made another Prophecy character.

Sigh. Maybe this one will actually make it to Ascension before I get bored...

thetechx · Jul 12, 2007, 07:51 PM // 19:51

1:Factions (sin and rit are my two fav chars to play as, and AB. the only downside is lack of players after the city)

2:Prophecies ( just hella fun to play and it was the original)

3:Nightfall (the heros are cool and all but it doesnt seem like they put much effort in to the enviorment. after you get of the island there are really only two areas. a barren desert and a barren wasteland. gets to monotnous. and the being a wurm thing was cool for the one mission, but basing an entire section of the game to being a wurm was seemed oddly out of place.)