Product Description

Let the adventure begin.... the time has come for you to choose your allegiance, forge alliances and lead your guild to fight for faction glory. The Collector's Edition contains everything you need to become a fearless hero in an empire ravaged by war, and exclusive Map of Cantha, breathtaking Art Book and one of a kind Ritualist Cloth Picture are just a selection of what is included. Guild Wars Factions is the second stand-alone release from developer ArenaNet, and features a new world, new mechanics, and new professions.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3361 in Video Games
• Brand: NC Interactive
• Released on: 2006-05-07
• ESRB Rating: Teen
• Platform: Windows XP
• Format: CD-ROM

Features

• Factions campaign can be played either as part of the regular Guild Wars or as its own separate game
• Large-scale alliance battles pit teams from opposing factions against each other in a struggle to conquer new territory
• New elite missions allow the most skilled players exclusive access to areas of the ultimate cooperative challenge
• Features the addition of two new professions, Factions' Assassin and Ritualist
• Collector's Edition features bonuses such as a CD of game's soundtrack, and a double-sided poster with Map of Cantha/Factions Poster

Amazon.com Product Description
The stand-alone Guild Wars: Factions is the second campaign in ArenaNet's massive multiplayer online role-playing game. The Factions campaign, which can be played either as part of the regular Guild Wars or as its own separate game, takes place on the continent of Cantha, where new and existing Guild Wars players join an epic quest to defeat an ancient evil and save a war-torn empire. New scored challenge missions and strategic competitive missions allow players to test their role-playing prowess and earn the right for their alliance to take control of cities, towns and outposts.

Two new professions, Assassin and Ritualist, join the original game's classes. View larger.

You can customize your characters' clothing colors, weapons and armor. View larger.

If you're interested in complex characters and interactions, look no further than Guild Wars: Factions. View larger.

Large-scale alliance battles pit teams from opposing factions against each other in a struggle to conquer new territory and redraw the battle lines across the continent of Cantha. New elite missions allow the most skilled players exclusive access to areas of the ultimate cooperative challenge.

Besides new content, the biggest addition to this sequel are its two new professions, Guild Wars: Factions' Assassin and Ritualist, which join the original game's warrior, elementalist, monk, mesmer, necromancer, and ranger classes. In terms of their immediate skills, Assassins specialize in wielding a dagger weapon in each hand and attacking swiftly, while using evasive skills to increase their running speed. Ritualists, on the other hand, specialize in summoning a variety of stationary spirit creatures in battle. Although these spirit creatures can't advance or retreat like normal characters, they can remain in the world for up to two minutes and can dish out some pretty significant damage, particularly when multiple units appear suddenly amongst enemy characters. In a pinch, Ritualists can instantly destroy their creations in a flash of lightning that damages any nearby foes. Ritualists even possess a unique resurrection skill that can be used multiple times in battle at the cost of half their current health points. Users should note, however, that the new professions are available only in the game's competitive arena battles, and only in certain combinations.

These two new professions actually add a great deal of variety, because in Guild Wars you create a character with both a primary profession and a secondary profession. In Factions, as in the original Guild Wars, all professions' inherent qualities can be useful when picked as a secondary class. For instance, the assassin's ability to move quickly over short distances includes a skill called "shadowstepping," which lets assassin characters briefly sprint, then immediately transports them back to where they started. This becomes incredibly powerful when used as a companion to the fireball-hurling elementalist class, suddenly allowing your character to get close enough to rain down fiery death on enemies before instantly retreating. And the Ritualist can also augment its own attack power which, when combined with the ranger profession, allows you to fire highly accurate and damaging arrow volleys. Not to mention that the Ritualist's multiple-use resurrection power makes it an extremely valuable addition to just about any adventuring party.

As you might expect from a Guild Wars game, when chosen as the primary, each new profession has a highly distinctive look to it. The Assassin resembles a classic ninja assassin from feudal Japan, complete with ragged tights and a face mask. The Ritualist has an indigenous, shaman-like appearance that includes earth-colored tunics, ornate jewelry, and intricate tattoos. As always, you can customize your characters' clothing colors and eventually pick up different weapons and armor that will further alter their appearance. In both cases, each new character seems to fit in well with Guild Wars' art style, which features such influences as medieval fantasy art and Japanese anime cartoons.

Guild Wars: Factions furthers one of the best made, most popular, and most intriguing games of all time. Anybody who is interested in complex character development and interactions, combined with smooth and immersive combat-action gameplay, will want to check this series out. This Collector's Edition includes bonuses such as a CD of the game's soundtrack, and a double-sided poster with a Map of Cantha on one side and the Factions Poster on the other. This Collector's Edition also includes a game manual, quick reference card, art book, desk calendar, mouse pad, sticker set, key for bonus music, and a special in-game dance emote for the two new Assassin and the Ritualist classes.

Customer Reviews

No more pay per month!!
Games have certainly come a long way and Guild Wars: Factions is no different!

Characters: Both classes offer niche offerings. For example, the Ritualist is a great support character with either healing or damage-dealing properties. The Assassin on the other hand can rush in and do damage every second, slicing and dicing the enemy before they have time to react. What is the most important feature of Guild Wars over all though? Your secondary profession! It MUST compliment your first one if you want a well-rounded character as elite skills are just the tip of the iceberg.

PvP: Howabout PvP you say? Guild Wars: Factions has it in the form of unlimited potential sporting actual missions that can be done over and over again with guild members or with randomly grouped comrades in arms.

PvE: Quests and missions do abound, but not as greatly as in Guild Wars: Prophecies. Guild Wars: Factions only contains thirteen missions total where Guild Wars: Prophecies contained more than twenty. Does this hurt the game? Well, there are plenty of areas to explore, but the continent is not as large as the landmass of Tyria by any means so technically, you could finish exploring all of Cantha in less time then the later. BUT, the game does manage to balance this out though with a very good placement of enemies including enemies that roam in semi-predictable paths making strategizing even more important as you may find an enemy that was running away from you suddenly coming up behind you!

All in all, I'm still playing through Factions on my third completed character and still finding new nooks and crannies to explore. If you're a fan of in-depth RPG's, then you'll enjoy Guild Wars: Factions.

Factions: Collectors Edition
The extras included in the collectors edition package are worth the extra price. It includes an book of Artwork, and music soundtrack are super. The calendar is dated but cool. It includes a code for a one time special mini pet Kunavang retrievable online. This is a highly sought after mini pet and one that I will say always attracts attention when online. Unlike the first Guild Wars release, most of the landscape is a city scape which gives the fights a much different feel. I am only half way thorough the game, and so maybe there will be some suprises yet, however I find that the cityscape to be drugery. The ability to get Celestial Items, only place in the Guild Wars world, is a great selling point. Celestial Weapons are impressive looking.

good game, poor extras
the game is excellent and the graphics are cool. What dissapointed me are all the extras,(map, poster etc.)they are of poor quality and actually it looks they only put them to get more money. I know that's the point of any special edition, but I would like to see someting better for the extra money.