Guild Wars: Factions (Add on) for Windows

Introduction

          How I came across getting this product is when I was at EB Games, a game store in my mall which also owns Game Stop, I had a gift card for and I ran out of things that I really wanted. I took something back and they wouldn't give money back and would only give me a gift card to spend there, so I pretty much got ripped off. It was a new game and when I saw it, it was $50. I liked what it looked like because you could play online with other people, had really good looking graphics on the box, and people told me how good it was so I had to try it out for myself. Now the game is under $35 and my friend also plays with me.

My Experience

          During the time I owned Guild Wars, I had a lot of fun. I played every day and it was about the only thing I was doing. After about two weeks of playing, I broke my computer. I can't wait to get it fixed so I can play more. I had so much fun playing, I had a friend of mine buy it so we could play together on it. He got it and in about a week, we couldn't play any longer because of my dumb mistake. It only took me about two days to learn how to play it and I was well on my way doing good. The worse thing I did on this game was instead of getting my levels up and making some money in the first city, I rushed to the second city and had a bunch of troubles getting my character good. If you buy this game, do not do what I did.

Rating

          Guild Wars got rated "T - Teen" because of violence. In the game, there are a lot of times you will need to fight. You are able to fight with swords, bow & arrow, magic, and many more weapons. The whole game is mostly about fighting, you fight to get up your level, to do quests you must fight and kill, and to play against other people you must try to kill each other in one of the duel arenas. The fighting in this game looks really good because of the great graphics but it's not a bloody game. When hitting/killing, like most other fighting games, there isn't a pile of blood left behind. You can enjoy playing without having to deal with all the blood you or your kids may see. You don't have to worry much about the is game. Even kids under 13, if they can understand how, could play this game and I don't think it would hurt because it is a really friendly game. The only thing that may be bad about little kids playing is that you are playing with and against other people and they can talk about, or ask you anything without a filter.

Graphics

          The graphics in this game are very good. You can easily tell what is what for example, trees, grass, water, people, monsters, and a lot more. This game has some of the best graphics I have ever seen for computer. Some of the good looking parts of the game is when hitting someone, you can see blood come out of them, but it's not a blood and gore game so you do not have a bunch of blood laying around. It disappears to stop from having to have it laying around for everyone to see. Another good looking part of this game is the characters. You can see the people walking/running and when they have their arms moving or something like that when your walking, you are able to see everything!
          A bad part of this game is when your character runs. If you are in a guild, you will be able to have a cape showing. When you run, the cape will move to show that your moving forward. It will move back while moving forward, but when you stop it flies up and falls through your body until it is sitting straight down again. I don't like that it can go through you because it makes it look less real. I would rather have the cape as a solid item so you are able to have it hit off of your body instead of going through. I think it would make the characters a lot nicer looking.

The World

          The world in Guild Wars is very big! There are three continents, each continent is very big and to get from one to another, you must walk or have someone run you. On the way to each part of the continents there are cities you can goto and from there all of your health is restored and you can teleport to each city you join. This makes it very easy to get around the world because you can goto your mission map and click the city you would like to goto if you have already been there and you can be teleported. On the way to each city, as you get farther away from the home town, Ascalon, the monsters get harder. You can get ganged very badly from a lot of monsters and die quickly. For people that try to make money rushing people to each town, the monsters can really get to be a problem.
          On the way to each city, one of the biggest problems is finding your way around. When your in the woods, you can always look on your map to see where you have been but in places you haven't been is blurred out so you can't easily find your way around. This makes it a lot harder to get from city to city and find your way to each place you need. If you ever have troubles finding your way around you can always pay someone to take you to the next city.
          The first city you goto is called Ascalon. When your there you are able to talk to other people, party with them, and fight many things. In this place, the best money maker is gargoyle skulls which you can purchase armor, weapons, and many other things with. It is a lot easier to level up in Ascalon than moving on at a very low level because the monsters here are a lot easier than the ones later on. It's a good idea to stay here and try to get your levels up before moving on.

Characters

          This part of the game is what makes you stand out from everyone else. You can create your own character, ranger, necromancer, warrior, elementalist, male, female, and more. This is what makes you good with the weapons and skills you use. They can give you the option to play with magic skills, sword skills, hammer skills, and much, much more. What you choose you should set your skills for so you are able to hit higher and kill things much faster and easier. It's good to have higher attack mainly for gangs of monsters so you are able to kill them without dying.

Levels

          This is the worse part of this game in my opinion, you are only able to get to level twenty. At level twenty you are still not able to easily kill everything. I wish they would have taken the time to give more levels in game because it would give you something to try for. It is way to easy to get to level twenty in this game. This game is so easy to level up that in about one week you are able to be up at level twenty already. In my opinion they should have had this go a lot longer than they did, but that still don't change the fact that this game is really fun. When your level twenty, it's fun to play and have the new players looking up to you.

Quests

          In this game there are many quests to do. You have about twenty to do before you even go to a higher city. The quests all range in lengths and hardness', also ranges in what the quest is worth. The quests can be worth over four thousand experience and in this game is a lot to get for a quest. The quests in this game are not hard and if you get help, it makes it even easier. I think they give to much experience for some of these quests because of only being able to get to level twenty. When your level twenty, you are still able to get skill points but it is sort of hard. The quests help a lot with that and help to make it a lot easier on you. Also, when playing with other people, doing quests are actually sort of fun because you get to work as a team in the wild to get completed what you both need.
          Most quests in the game send you into the wilderness on a mission to kill something. One of the first quests you do, you must kill five elemental monsters. They are close to the town and not hard to find. This is the first quest I did because it's very easy and I needed to learn how to do quests. After learning to do quests you will need to level up. You get good levels and go to higher cities to have the chance to complete quests worth a lot more. The first quest, and easiest because you can buy what you need from other players, in the second city is worth two thousand experience. It helps a lot at a low level and even at a high level, but when you are a lower level it can raise you up to, two levels just from the one quest. I really enjoy the quests in this game and they help me do the harder stuff later on by helping me level up. Leveling up is one of the most important things in the game so your not weak and beaten by monsters every time you leave the city.


Sounds

          The sounds in this game are pretty nice. They actually sound like good movie quality sounds. In the game you can hear the people/monsters running towards you, the rivers flowing, trees waving in the wind, and everything. When you talk to someone, unfortunately they don't actually say what they are telling you. It comes up in text across the bottom of the screen displaying what they want the characters to be saying to you. This game has some of the top quality sounds in my opinion. Also, throughout the whole game, theres music playing no matter what you are doing and where you are. In town where there isn't much danger, there is easy going, calm music. Out when you are fighting monsters and other people, there is faster playing music to go along with the mood of the game to get you more interested in what you are doing.

Storyline

          This is one part about Guild Wars that I don't really mind but a lot of people do. This game has no storyline during it. When you travel from place to place and see different things, there is no story to go along with it. Some parts could really use a storyline, for example when you first meet a monster or other things in the game, I think there should be a story to go with them. I don't think they should just be things in the woods trying to kill you.
          Another part of this game that could really use a storyline is when you talk to people. They talk to you about your skills and everything else about the game but they tell you nothing about what is actually going on. The gargoyles that you fight, the charr, everything has no story to go along with it. The only hint of a story is that it is a old times story because when your guild wins a battle, it tells you that you have won it for the gods. Sometimes it says under which god you won it, definately showing it is a setting from ancient times.