Hi, mmorpg.com. I've been reading this site for a while now, browsing game forums in order to find something worth playing. Today, I gave VG a shot and it's been a blast. I decided to share my experience I've had so far, hope you don't mind :)

During the last years, I mainly played WoW, which was also my first MMO. After some time (years), I started looking for alternatives. I stumbled upon a game in beta, its name was Vanguard. It looked great and I even got into beta. I however was more or less unable to play the game, because it was very unstable and my fps were horrible. So I decided to wait for the release ... which was catastrophic. I decided not to play it for a while because of so many negative criticism from like everywhere and because I heard that the client was still unstable and hardly optimized. So I moved back to WoW, tried EQ2, AoC and Spellborn, but neither of them impressed me for very long. So I played nothing for a couple month, until today...

I read this forum and noticed that many players who gave the game a second chance after the bad release are really impressed by the game in its current state. So i decided to do the same,  there is a 14day free trial, no harm done... I installed the game, it did not work in the first place (windows 7), but after installing DX9, it now works fine. I have 20 to 40 fps and the game looks great. Enabling AA destroys my framerate, I don't know why, but I'm fine without it.

After spending 15min on designing my character I entered the world. I remembered the 5fps "experience" from beta so I was really impressed by the smoothness of the game. I did (and do) not have a clue about anything, so I just explored. I did some quests, killed some monsters, got some new abilities. Combat feels familiar (WoW), but seems a bit harder to master. I like it. I hit level 8 and decided to try out crafting. I was used to the dull WoW crafting "system", so I was really surprised by what i found. The crafting system seems kinda challenging and rewarding. I'm only a newbie crafter but I really like what I've seen so far. I discovered that you can money by building stuff for NPCs, and I started doing a cool crafting questline. I'm not sure what can be achieved by crafting as the game moves on, but right now it looks like a whole game itself, not just some dull minigame. I even have my own crafting and harvesting gear :) After crafting around for a while, I decided to try out diplomacy. Took me quite a while to get  the hang of it. Again I'm just a starting diplomatist, but I've enjoyed it so far. I love that i can parley with so many NPCs, it makes the world feel alive. Everything i did so far seemed more complex and fun as in other games I played. I kinda have the feeling I had when I started playing me first mmo. Great.

However, I did not only speak to NPCs, but also to players. And there are many of them. Them ain for making this post was because some people claimed that the game was dead. I'm only in the starter zone, but there are people everywhere (i'm on Halgar). Maybe it changes later on, I dont know, hopefully not. The people i talked to were all nice, no chat spam, no stupid names. I dont really know anyone yet but judging from my first impressions and from some forum posts the community seems really good. In case low level players of Halgar are reading this, please contact me if you want to explore a dungeon or whatever :) My name is Dees.

I've been ingame for only four hours or so, but if the games stays as it is, and if I find some nice people to play with, i can easily see my self playing this game for quite a while. If you are looking for a new game to play, try the free trial and maybe you will find what you've been searching for, just like I did :)

I'll now leave you alone with a lovely screenshot of my character.

See you ingame!

teh game is terrible on like 5 different levels

Great post and glad you enjoyed the game, i might try it again myself you know!. thanks.

Originally posted by gibspider2

teh game is terrible on like 5 different levels

Yeah good point well made. Troll.

Originally posted by gibspider2

teh game is terrible on like 5 different levels

Nice first post... welcome to MMORPG.com.  You will fit in real well here.

Indeed welcome and awesome post. Nice to see someone actually play the game BEFORE posting ignorant chatter. Anyone who has played the game recently would not make a bad post on Vanguard as it truly outshines any other MMO on the current market. Everyone I have met in game pretty much feels the same way. This is the holy grail of mmo's and is our last hope Obiwan. Now if we can just get SOE to pull thier heads out of thier ass and recognize! This game could be HUGE!!!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE3MZf6q7Bk   <First in a series

Nice post.  I had such High hopes for Vanguard when it came out.  My wife and I were one of the last people in our guild to leave the game.  I am mostly enjoying Warhammer at the moment but I keep pondering back at trying out VG again.  If for no other reason but to have that flying dragon...  Got to fly one in beta and it was great..

Great to see I'm not the only one! Im one of those returning players that's having a lot of fun rediscovering Vanguard. It is the best PVE experience out there imo.

The game is far from dead but you'll notice a drop once leaving the island. Another reason for that is the sheer size of the world, but pops could be better. I just wish SOE would devote more resources to the game...but since starting fresh again it's not too much of an issue for me yet.

How about the housing?  Is it still in the game and is it better?  I was very excited about  having housing in the game on the same lands that you play in.  Similar to what housing was like in UO or SWG.  When I first saw a house though it was so bugged and you could not use anything in it (chairs, etc) I was very disappointed.  What's that like now?

And ships?  How are those?

I thought the game was pretty good after four hours played also ( except for the bugs I encountered ).

But by the time that I had played 40 hours, the flaws of the game were obvious, and the lack of people to play with just didn't make continuing the game worth it. 

Originally posted by Hammertime1

I thought the game was pretty good after four hours played also ( except for the bugs I encountered ).

But by the time that I had played 40 hours, the flaws of the game were obvious, and the lack of people to play with just didn't make continuing the game worth it. 

 

 

I'm now done with the island and just subbed for a month. I'm a bit worried, but i hope for the best.

Originally posted by banard

Originally posted by Hammertime1

I thought the game was pretty good after four hours played also ( except for the bugs I encountered ).

But by the time that I had played 40 hours, the flaws of the game were obvious, and the lack of people to play with just didn't make continuing the game worth it. 

 

 

I'm now done with the island and just subbed for a month. I'm a bit worried, but i hope for the best.

I have played more than this and haven't found a lack of people to play with at all.

Having said that, the world is MASSIVE. It would be easy to find unpopulated areas, but there are hubs that people gravitate to.

Qa Riverbank would be a good place to go after the Isle for example.

Originally posted by Capernicus

Originally posted by gibspider2

teh game is terrible on like 5 different levels

 

Yeah good point well made. Troll.

Is it any different than the original poster who just joined today to write yet another soe viral infomercial? 

Originally posted by Daffid011

Originally posted by Capernicus

Originally posted by gibspider2

teh game is terrible on like 5 different levels

 

Yeah good point well made. Troll.

 

Is it any different than the original poster who just joined today to write yet another soe viral infomercial? 

 

 

Umm, yes it is. Don't you see it?

Originally posted by Wrender

Indeed welcome and awesome post. Nice to see someone actually play the game BEFORE posting ignorant chatter. Anyone who has played the game recently would not make a bad post on Vanguard as it truly outshines any other MMO on the current market. Everyone I have met in game pretty much feels the same way. This is the holy grail of mmo's and is our last hope Obiwan. Now if we can just get SOE to pull thier heads out of thier ass and recognize! This game could be HUGE!!!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE3MZf6q7Bk   <First in a series

I like it too but taste differs so anyone playing it the last few days can still make a bad review.

I wouldnt call it the holy grail or our last hope but it is fun and if SOE allocated some resources on it the game would grow.

But I still think SOE should make it into a F2P game, with the few and hardly populated servers they have now they aint got so many players but it would really kill off all F2P games since it is in a totaly different class.

The alternative would to revamp the whole game and relese it with a different name because it have way too bad reputation now and I fear that it never can compete with EQ2s number of players as things are. The mechanics works very well now so some new skins, changing names and adding content would really pay off, it is a lot cheaper than making a new game. Re-releasing it with the same name would probably not help as the game got a bad reputation even though it is good now.

Originally posted by Daffid011

Is it any different than the original poster who just joined today to write yet another soe viral infomercial? 

Yes, the OP wrote a lot why he likes the game. The other guy used no reason at all, just flaming.

And while many people here accusses almost all MMO companies to make phony posts about their games we never seen any proof of it, they got better things to do with their time and money than that. And if SOe did want to make something like that they would advertise Freerealms instead, not the game they are advertising least of all their MMOs.

Originally posted by Daffid011

Originally posted by Capernicus

Originally posted by gibspider2

teh game is terrible on like 5 different levels

 

Yeah good point well made. Troll.

 

Is it any different than the original poster who just joined today to write yet another soe viral infomercial?  

Is the OP good viral marketeer?

There is other aspects aswell. Just like gibspider2's post, a post that can be disputed, argued about. That could make people come together and write even more positive things about it. It is just a twist, sublime marketing.

Oh, there have to be alot of better "shills" then that, that makes their first post, a positive one. About a game where people tend to assume that positive posts are from "shills".

:/

I would actually believe that halftruths, obvious lies and misinformation, are just as good viral marketing. That for the game they are marketing. As long that their is a community that is able to argue and dispute the wrongs.

I never intended to write an unbiased review, I not even could as my progress is far too little. All I did was writing about my first hours of experience in this mmo, with an added suggestion to try out the free trial. What's the problem? I never understood why people are roaming forums of games they don't like just to write one-sentence-bash-posts like a five year old.

Originally posted by banard

I never intended to write an unbiased review, I not even could as my progress is far too little. All I did was writing about my first hours of experience in this mmo, with an added suggestion to try out the free trial. What's the problem? I never understood why people are roaming forums of games they don't like just to write one-sentence-bash-posts like a five year old.

You haven't done anything wrong, not that you would, but don't let them get to you.

On another note, this game isn't perfect either, nobody is saying that, but damn is it fun and immersive.

Hi,

I am in the process of downloading the 14 day trial, and has it happens i actually own the full game but never installed it (i bought it out of a bargain bin for realy cheap!)  can anybody recoomend a good populated server that is UK or european based?

 and when i get in game would be nice to hook up with some people..

Col