The main storyline for Factions is the battle to defeat an “envoy,” or guide to the dead. Shiro was once a great warrior, but slew the Emperor of Canath 200 years ago. Now he has returned as a spirit to raise the dead and to infect the living. The heroes are taken from a beginning tutorial-like island to the mainland and become Weh No Su, “Closer to the Stars,” while finding a way to defeat Shiro. Once becoming Weh No Su, your character can now freely travel to Tyria. The storyline up to that point was challenging and interesting, though the dialogue and plotting was not of the best quality. Admittedly, there isn’t a high standard in MMORPGs to provide the best in dialogue, but there were times where it was best to not read the story and just follow the blinking green star to the next part of the mission.

The level cap did not change from Prophecies, and it is much quicker progression to level 20 for Factions. For me personally, it was jolting to go from level 14-15 enemies to level 20 enemies in a single mission. While I know the developers wanted to have a lot of content for their original core players to experience, it would have been nice to have a slightly slower progression for new Factions players. I believe that someone having just picked up Factions without Prophecies would have had a hard time if they just followed the missions and did none of the side quests. On the other hand, the side quests in Factions offer greater experience rewards than the side quests of Prophecies, which helps with the level disparity. Any characters from Prophecies are folded into the Factions campaign by traveling from Lion’s Arch to Kaineng Center, while fresh Factions characters begin in Cantha proper.