Vanguard: Saga of Heroes (Collector's & Guild Edition) (PC Games)

If I had to choose a genre to write reviews about, it would be mmorpgs, because that is where my experience is. I've played many, since Ultima Online right on up to Vanguard. I'd like to think I am somewhat of an authority . . .

With that said, I will write an objective review of Vanguard. Sometimes it's hard when I truely love the game to write negative things about it, but in the end, realizing weakness leads to improvement, or in this case, may help some players decide if Vanguard is right for them.

The main weakness in the game is it's performance. Despite its recommended system requirements, the game is a resource hog and will push your system to its limits no matter what setting you choose to play on. Even at its lowest visual setting, the game looks fine. I am convinced that coding and programming is still not optimized, so there is hope for players that are struggling with framerates. The improvements to performance are constant, but still not where they need to be so that the majority of players can experience the game with a consistant, smooth framerate. Yes, there are many FAQs about tips and suggestions to tweak your system to run Vanguard optimally, but I believe that in the coming months, these will not be as important as Sigil nails those kinks in the game that are causing the major hits to FPS, especially around cities.

If the game ran smoothly, I would not really have much else that is negative to say about it. It really has everything I ever wanted in a mmorpg, beside some extra details and fluff that a roleplayer would appreciate. But being honest and realistic, mmorpgs are not made with the roleplayer in mind anymore, sadly. And so Vanguard is your basic adventure, with a few twists and additions.

There are 4 main spheres - Adventuring, Crafting, Diplomacy, and Harvesting. Diplomacy is the most innovative feature I've seem in a mmorpg in years, and really adds a lot to the game in both gameplay and personality. It is somewhat complicated, and difficult to learn at first, but essentially, it is a card game that you play against NPCs in order to gain "presence" with various stations (Guards, merchants, city leaders, etc.). It can be done cooperatively, activating "switches" in a city that determine benefits to everyone in that city. The switches refer to things such as a crafting bonus. I told you it was confusing, but it is a lot of fun.

Aventuring is standard. Combat is rather dull compared to some other mmos, especailly EQ2. There are some nice additions though, like counters, and other abilities certain classes have that can be used in certain situations in combat. Quests are also your standard collect, kill, etc.

There is not much guidance in Vanguard, right from the start. I cannot say this is a negative, because I think most Vanguard players have read about the idea of this game enough to know that it is not a simple and easy mmo like most modern mmorpgs. I won't go into specifics about features, gameplay, etc. Think back to Everquest except add many new features and a great Unreal 3 engine, and thats Vanguard in a nutshell.

Graphics are terrific. I try to keep visual setting at high or higest quality, with some customizations both in-game and in the sysconfig.ini (recommended only for those comfortable with playing around with such things). Animations are mediocre. They can be much better, but they don't detract from the look and feel of the game.

Audio is good. The music of Vanguard is average. I love some of the themes, and I can do without some of them. Since turning off sound completely boosts FPS a good 5-10 frames, I sometimes just listen to my EQ2, Lineage II, or Guild Wars soundtrack while playing Vanguard . . .

My rating for Value would be the lowest, since there are bugs in the game and it is not running optimally at this point in time. If you purchase the regular boxed game, you get the standard 30 days free, and the limited edition supposedly offers 90 days, but this might be a confusion with 90 free of Vanguard Players (vgplayers.com) and not the subscription to the game, I have yet to find the answer. The subscription costs is stanard at $14.99 per month, decreasing with extended subs. Its a shame that Sigil and SOE couldn't be innovative in their subscription options as Turbine has done with Lord of the Rings Online.

I could really say a whole lot more about the game and go into specifics, but it is still very early in the game's life. It just launched and things are changing constantly, and for the better. I expect the game to really hit stride in a few months, when the majority of bugs are fixed and performance is improved even more, but considering everything, the launch has been smooth and I am enjoying Vanguard: Saga of Heroes very much. That seems to be what most players are saying in the in-game chat.

I rate the game slightly lower than what I should just because it really isn't complete, but in a few months, things are going to really pick up in Vanguard, and with it's limitless potential, this can be an excellent mmorpg.

 

Part 2

 

So I decided that Lord of the Rings Online, Tabula Rasa, and most other mmorpgs I've played were still just not what I was looking for.  I loved Everquest.  I really enjoyed the immersive environments, the fantastic lore, and the difficulty of the gameplay.  I thought I might find this again in Vanguard (since it was originally created by the man who created EQ).

 

This time around, I am getting to feel much better about the game and it's direction, with a few exceptions.  Now that SOE is fixing, optimizing, adding to the game, it has become more playable, more enjoyable, but I fear that it has also become easier and more accessible.  Why would I think this is a bad thing?  Well, I was very excited about the things I heard about Vanguard being a niche mmo for hardcore players.  This is what Everquest was back when it was released.  Things are obviously different now.  Mmorpgs have made it big thanks to World of Warcraft, and now companies making them are trying for a broad appeal.  Personally, I think this leads to a game that feels like it underachieved and didn't match up to its potential.

 

Vanguard still has potential, however, and it still narrows the gap for mmo players with its steep system requirements, death penalties, and overall difficulty.  I think SOE did make the game a bit easier, but it is still harder than WoW and LotRo.  I like a challenge.  If I am not disappointed, or even pissed off when I die in the game, then it just isn't creating that immersion and difficulty I want.  Vanguard is somewhere in the middle here.  The penalty for lower level characters is nothing, but at higher level, prepare to make that dangerous corpse run and put up with the hassles that go along with dying. 

 

The optimizations that SOE has made so far are impressive, for me at least.  There are still players who cannot get a smooth frame rate or that still crash, but I am really happy with performance of Vanguard, even on my 3 year system.  It looks very good, and I'm not bothered with hiccups, crashes, bugs, and graphics glitches like i used to be.  That's not to say these things no longer exist . . . there are just fewer of them now.  Things are improving, but most of us that played Vanguard and saw it for what it could be knew it would get better.

 

The gameplay is pretty much the same so far.  I started a character from scratch so I still have a lot of exploring, levelling, etc. to do before I can really compare to the time I had just after launch.  The basic things to know about the game is that it has improved, but it still isn't up to par when comparing to other top mmorpgs.  It will get there though.  I think it will.