Curse

Skarjak · Apr 30, 2006, 02:25 AM // 02:25

Ok first, what are you guys talking about? There is voiceover. So far the only cutscene with no voiceover was the very first, and that's because no character was speaking, it was the "narrator".

Don't listen to all those who say it's bad. Everytime a sequel/expansion is released, all the people on the forums complain about the game while the people who actually like it, play it.

The music is better, the monsters have much more original designs, the challenge has gotten better, missions are timed to determine how well you did, armor stats are no longer associated with looks, the new skills fill nice niches, the ritualist and assassin playstyles are VERY different from what we have right now, there are tons of new weapon skins, there is much more content per area, the new guild npc's are cool, alliance battles are cool, competitive missions are cool, the new way of acquiring skills is much more flexible and allows you to quickly build your character into what you want him to be, the preorder items are actually very good (the ritualist staff kicks ass), the art is very distinct, the story is better, the voiceover is better, missions become explorable areas after you beat them...

In two words, it owns.

EnvyHax · Apr 30, 2006, 02:38 AM // 02:38

Well, when I first started playing Factions during the headstart event, I made a new Ritualist. It was fun for awhile, but then I got off of the island at level 15 and fought nothing but level 20 character. I realised (or, rather, thought at that moment) that ritualists suck.

No on wanted me for my spirits or enchantments, everyone just wanted me to be the parties healer since they couldn't find any monks around. I got really bored and quit playing for the rest of the day or so.

Now, I brought my level 20 Monk, Ember Loreweaver, to Cantha, and am having a blast. I love the first mission, it was great. I love the monsters, I love the items, and I love the maps. As for the story, nothing to great but I'm still at the beginning of it I think ^_^.

I don't listen to the ingame music, since I have winamp/vent in the BG making noise for me.

It's pretty good. I can't really see the two new classes replacing any core classes in PvE or PvE. But it's pretty good.

7.5/10 in my book ^_^

Roran · Apr 30, 2006, 02:59 AM // 02:59

ok, i know u go on a boat to get to factions...but who is the person u go to in lions arch to travel

Al Andaluz · Apr 30, 2006, 03:01 AM // 03:01

It's definitely true that factions is NOT a substitute for prophecies. Although I can't say the prophecies' plot was great, I'm not sure factions has anything you can really call a plot. Cutscenes are weak with even weaker voice-overs, and the factions pre-searing equivalent is huge. I finally got through it at level 14 and about 6 hours of gameplay. So far I've gotten through two missions; the first one wasn't bad at level 12 (full hench party, beat it in 18 minutes), but the second one was a pain. As everyone has already said, henchman a.i. is atrocious. The assasin's "shadow" movements have him/her appearing everywhere outside of the main combat area, easily agroing other groups at bad times. So what's good about factions?

First, it's something new to play. I've cleared out prophecies with 3 characters already, and I'm getting a little tired of the "challenge" of fow, uw, sf, and tombs. Factions is providing something new for us to do, explore, etc. New weapon and armor skins, new skills (finally have some axe-bleeding skills), and monsters provide something fresh and different. Missions are actually challenging from the beginning... none of that camp rankor, north wall crap from prophecies. So is it worth the $50?

IMO, yes, simply because it's providing us with something more to do. It's not what most of us were expecting, but it could be a lot worse. All in all, I'm glad I bought it, and I plan on enjoying factions as much as I have enjoyed prophecies.

strcpy · Apr 30, 2006, 11:03 AM // 11:03

I'm liking factions as much or more than prophecies, at least as a first play through (only time will tell if it has they staying power or not).

It's different. For the first few hours I played like I would in Prophecies and died a lot, and when I didn't it wasn't very fun. Heck, the first mission I kept looking to find the bonus

The maps are smaller, denser, but IMO have a larger feel. That is, you may have an explorable map be a town, get to have regular quests in mission areas after you beat them (and have them tie into the mission's story), and just generally have pretty much the same "feel" regardles of the map type. That took more getting used to than anything for me.

EXP is earned like crazy. I've heard people mention a few missions I missed in the "newbie" area and I left at level 17, might have been able to make 18. Again, different from prophecies where I left quite a few quests till end game - do *not* do that here or you hit the mainland at 13 against level 20 mobs (and, unlike prophecies that had only one such beast, many quests are in the explorable map regions).

Little reason for runs to get armor - you get max armor so quick it's faster than most of the times I had a prophecy character ran.

As far as I can tell you get almost no skills from quests (outside of a very quick, very large influx at the very first of the game), all from the trainers. Though an abundance of 4000xp quests makes it actually faster than the original.

*shrug* too much to list. It's different, for a new player I don't think better or worse. If you were very comfortable with Prophecies your gonna hurt for a while. If you are completely new until the economy settles you're gonna hurt. Unlike others here, I much prefer this story and think it's well done (For instance, my game had the same amount of voice acting after the first mission, I'm not sure why thiers didn't). I like the newer layout of the maps quite a bit more. I also like the level progression.

So far my only complaints are that I can't play it like I do Prophecies (that's also a plus, it's like a new car that you keep pressing the wrong buttons on - sorta sucks until you get used to it), the current economy (especially the current lack of the new profession's runes at the trader), and that they really should have had you at 20 before hitting the mainland. All but one of those a little time should fix.

I also like to farm, I haven't tried that here yet so I can't comment on it.

Oh, and one more thing, don't expect to feel any love for a while with the new professions. Pretty much every mission is mostly "LFG - no asassin or ritualist" or one of the new professions spamming "LFG" until they go with the henchies. Just give it a bit and I bet the Overpowered Godlike Build will be found and one of them will be wanted for everything. But right now, few seem to want someone learning a new profession (heck, I'm not seeing very many of the newer core profession's skills used and some of them are nearly overpowered for PvE). Just that after a year of comfort with prophecies there is a TON of non-comfort with the chages.

In short, worth the money. I think most of the griping will end in a few weeks as people get used to the changes.