Customer Reviews

Guild Wars Factions (Prima Official Game Guide)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is a product you don't need to spend your money on.

If you - like me - played the original game and bought the Prima guide and liked it - then you're probably moving on to Factions now and thinking about buying the new guide. Do move on to Factions, but don't buy the guide.
As a more experienced player you don't need the basic stuff anymore and a lot of the advanced stuff you'll be looking for (where to capture elite skills, which bosses drop which green items) you won't find.
What's more alarming is that even a lot of the stuff that was good in the old guide is gone. The new maps are poor (the collectors aren't marked for example) and the general description of the game is poor.
The only worthwhile thing in the guide are the skill lists and even these are dated because Anet changed a lot of the skills recently (so no fault to Prima, but it still makes the guide less useful).
So this product is a no go unfortunately.

If you have played Guild Wars, you probably already know that the game is constantly being updated. That makes strategy guides like this one pretty pointless. Even worse, there are plenty of websites dedicated to keeping this information up - for free. Google it, I use guildwiki.org for my information and it's 100% free and updated by players frequently.

Don't waste your money on this guide. This is why people created fan websites!

Okay, base on comparsion on last chapter of Guild Wars game guide to this one, all I can say in is that this game guide was even worse than the last one. You can tell by just looking at the table of content.

The following information that is lack from this game guide:

Poor layout on the table of content
Pull-out Map of Cantha did not even showed the name of each explorable area.
Skill listing was okay except the layout was harder to look at it than the original Guild Wars game guide.
Missing information on merchant item and incorrect information on the cost of Guild cape.
Some of skill information was already outdated the date Factions released.

Anet said they had someone write this game guide this time instead external writer, perhaps they should let external writer do it. Like what people say "leave it to the professional".

I have NEVER been very impressed with the PRIMA guides and this is just another crummy example of what a terrible job they do, particularly with Guild Wars. I once bought one of their e-book versions and their stupid piracy protection was so hokey I ended up getting my money back. The content is very superficial. While they do a reasonable job of listing all of the skills and mobs in the game, if your hoping for some actual helpful hints on how to beat that tough mission (especially if your going at with just henchies), this guide is of zero use. There is practically no real mission specific information or hints. You would be much better off going to guildwiki or guildwars.gameamp.com or tentonhammer or just googling for what your after. You'll get much better information then this guide will give you.

The whole idea of a guide book for an Online RPG is flawed, and in all honesty, they don't have much business existing. Any good RPG will be constantly updated by the developers over time, and Guild Wars is no exception. I am writing this review four years after the release of Factions, and suffice it to say that this book is about as obsolete as it gets. For example, of the 22 Restoration Magic skills available to Ritualists in Factions, this guide book omits one, and gets 19 out of the other 21 wrong.

While the constant skill tweaks and updates over the years are hardly a fault of the guide book, the fact remains that even at launch the guide was inaccurate. The guide lists the final boss as having a powerful skill called "Suicidal Impulse," a skill which has never existed in the game. Tack on the fact that the book does not list particularly good or detailed guides to any of the missions, and that the listing for side quests are woefully short (nothing more than a single sentence description), and it's hard not to make the argument that every remaining copy of this book should be burned (or recycled).

In fact, the only redeeming qualities of this book lie in the extras. There is a nice little section at the front of the book dedicated to game lore, and here you'll find fun information and backstory for stuff in the main game. The tearout map poster is okay, too, and it's marginally larger than the version that is included with the Factions Collectors Edition.

In the end, those couple of extras are what salvages a second star for this guidebook. It's of interest only for absolute diehard Guild Wars fans, and even then I can't recommend it. Anyone looking for actual information or help playing the game would be better served looking for one of the two wikis about Guild Wars, which offer much better, updated, more detailed information for absolutely free.

It is not worth buying it. There is nothing additional that you can find over the internet sites such as Wiki. Besides that the content gets outdated quickly due to ANet's periodical updates.

The Prima guide for Guild Wars Factions was the worst game guide book I've ever seen Prima produce. Don't waste your money -- in fact, don't even waste your time reading it if someone gives you a copy.

I found the game, Factions a little confusing to follow. What quest would lead me to the end of the game or how many towns were left in the campaign.I bought Prima game guide, from the first page, which is the map, I began to understand what towns I missed and what quest I needed to finish the game. Very informative guide, great addition for the guild wars fan.

This game Guide is another quallity production from Prima that we have come to expect from them. I open it always during every mission and when exploring the land of Cantha.

I would highly recommend it's purchase. It's assets far outway it failings. That is to say, we cannot judge this guide poorly in the face of the game's rapid development.

There have been many Quests and changes added to the game sense this book was released this is how life goes in an MMO. It is to be expected. Where the Books lack newer quest information forums seem to pick up.

On a very positve note I found the mission maps easier to read then the ones they first developed for the main game. So that is at least something too.

Great Book
Thanks

Loved this guide. Its good when you are stuck in a quest or a mission tells you step by step where to go. and its fun to read. Get it!! thank you