I have a lot of fondness for the original run of Guild Wars, particularly the Prophecies campaign (if I ever get around to rating it, I'll get into the details there). I finished everything else back in the day (Prophecies, Nightfall, Eye of the North), but I never got particularly far in Factions. Finally decided to play through it with my father (who got me into it back in the day) so I could finally clear it off my to-do list.
I can say with confidence that the main reason I never bothered to finish Factions as a kid is because of Kaineng City. How dreary and dismal, this single city that spans the entire coastline of a continent! You mean the bulk of the game's content takes place here? No thanks! Of course, now in retrospect I realize that it's deliberately evocative of some of East and Southeast Asia's densest cities, particularly the Walled City - all things that I had no context for as a kid growing up in suburban and rural America. Completely meaningless to me, but that doesn't make it bad, of course.
Having said that, I don't think the game does a great job communicating how diverse a continent-sized city would be. One thing that always impressed me as a kid was how ArenaNet was able to get four games of pretty massive scope out in the span of two-and-a-half years. These days I fear the answer is probably "crunch", but Factions' reliance on a lot of fairly repetitive architecture offers an alternative answer. I couldn't really tell you the difference between Bukdek Byway, Xaquang Skyway, Wajjun Bazaar, and Nahpui Quarter without revisiting the game, and I don't think that's entirely on my lack of cultural awareness.
But there is more to the game than Kaineng City. The game's other three areas - Shing Jea Island, the Echovald Forest, and the Jade Sea - resonate with me better, with the Jade Sea being the game's most enduring image and 'Unwaking Waters' being the stand-out set piece (the Kurzicks feel out of place as Russians in an East/Southeast Asian story, at least to me, but the forest's pretty). I like how much the game tries to push its Factions gimmick and overall themes of duality, even if the consequence of that is a shorter story. For example, 'Vizunah Square' is functionally two different missions for Factions-original player characters versus characters imported from a separate campaign. Could the game's scope have benefited from the mission being consolidated and dev time being pointed somewhere else? Perhaps, but that's not as interesting.
Of the two new classes, the Assassin is the obvious stand-out, but Ritualist is fun, too, even if it's not as flashy. Prophecies was definitely wanting for another direct support class like Monk, and Ritualist patches that hole nicely.
Finally, this is definitely the most interesting the Henchmen ever get in Guild Wars. The obvious example of this is Mhenlo, who goes from being almost entirely utilitarian in Prophecies to one of the main characters of Factions. But everyone else has their moments too, usually playing off Mhenlo. It is sort of neat that ArenaNet accidentally made Henchmen way more practical in the final mission than Heroes, when Heroes otherwise completely outpace Henchmen in the rest of the original series.
I can say with confidence that the main reason I never bothered to finish Factions as a kid is because of Kaineng City. How dreary and dismal, this single city that spans the entire coastline of a continent! You mean the bulk of the game's content takes place here? No thanks! Of course, now in retrospect I realize that it's deliberately evocative of some of East and Southeast Asia's densest cities, particularly the Walled City - all things that I had no context for as a kid growing up in suburban and rural America. Completely meaningless to me, but that doesn't make it bad, of course.
Having said that, I don't think the game does a great job communicating how diverse a continent-sized city would be. One thing that always impressed me as a kid was how ArenaNet was able to get four games of pretty massive scope out in the span of two-and-a-half years. These days I fear the answer is probably "crunch", but Factions' reliance on a lot of fairly repetitive architecture offers an alternative answer. I couldn't really tell you the difference between Bukdek Byway, Xaquang Skyway, Wajjun Bazaar, and Nahpui Quarter without revisiting the game, and I don't think that's entirely on my lack of cultural awareness.
But there is more to the game than Kaineng City. The game's other three areas - Shing Jea Island, the Echovald Forest, and the Jade Sea - resonate with me better, with the Jade Sea being the game's most enduring image and 'Unwaking Waters' being the stand-out set piece (the Kurzicks feel out of place as Russians in an East/Southeast Asian story, at least to me, but the forest's pretty). I like how much the game tries to push its Factions gimmick and overall themes of duality, even if the consequence of that is a shorter story. For example, 'Vizunah Square' is functionally two different missions for Factions-original player characters versus characters imported from a separate campaign. Could the game's scope have benefited from the mission being consolidated and dev time being pointed somewhere else? Perhaps, but that's not as interesting.
Of the two new classes, the Assassin is the obvious stand-out, but Ritualist is fun, too, even if it's not as flashy. Prophecies was definitely wanting for another direct support class like Monk, and Ritualist patches that hole nicely.
Finally, this is definitely the most interesting the Henchmen ever get in Guild Wars. The obvious example of this is Mhenlo, who goes from being almost entirely utilitarian in Prophecies to one of the main characters of Factions. But everyone else has their moments too, usually playing off Mhenlo. It is sort of neat that ArenaNet accidentally made Henchmen way more practical in the final mission than Heroes, when Heroes otherwise completely outpace Henchmen in the rest of the original series.