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Vanguard: Saga of Heroes Previews: A Vanguard Preview
With the launch of Sigil's Vanguard: Saga of Heroes now at hand, Carolyn Koh takes a peek inside the game pre-launch to give us her impressions of this new MMORPG offering.
By Carolyn Koh on January 30, 2007
A Vanguard Preview
With the launch of Sigil's Vanguard: Saga of Heroes now at hand, Carolyn Koh takes a peek inside the game pre-launch to give us her impressions of this new MMORPG offering.
I did not know what to expect when I logged into Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. Despite a couple of previews at shows and an interview with Brad McQuaid and Paul Luna, I had a nebulous idea of a game with lots of grinding in various forms of game play.
I had deliberately not played in beta as I wanted to approach Vanguard as a new player. While the game patched, I read the manual which was surprisingly well written. Score… one point.
;)
I could have read the character creation screen for a much longer time than I did. Placing your cursor over each race brought up a character sheet giving you racial attributes, starting city and background. Clicking on a race toggled all the classes it could be, and the true was the same in reverse. The choice is wide. Score… two points.
Creating a Goblin Blood Mage on Kojan, I named her Sweete Treate, decked her out in pink and logged her in. Nope. Not quite. Another screen came up. It was her background history – which gave me an idea of what to expect. I was faced immediately with my first quest giver. I waited a few seconds for my character to appear before I realized that the default camera view was first person. The words “Just like EQ” came to mind. The scroll wheel quickly took the camera back over the shoulder and I obtained my first quest.
;)
I was to find that races starting in different cities had different starting background stories and newbie experiences. However, on every continent, some races shared starting cities, and hence, starting experiences.
Some races still start out hunting the proverbial rats and bats. As experienced by my Morbedi Human on Qalia. Starting out, he obtained two quests immediately. One was to kill beetles, and the other, harvest the leaves of a plant. Running around in the deserted newbie area, each plant he harvested, another beetle spawned. Much like a quest received by my WoodElf on the continent of Kojan, except that these little guys were not as large as I was, nor aggressive. Neat method to make sure there are plenty of mobs for players on the same quest or getting a little XP, I thought, except that judging by the empty area, this didn’t seem to be a very popular race to play.
;)
“Friend, where may I learn to harvest?”
“North of here lays the town of Leth Nurae. You will find many trainers there.”
With nasty level 9 critters in between where I was and the town. Hmmm… My Thestran human was the first to learn harvesting and diplomacy as the starting area was basically in the outskirts of a major city, and the quest givers sent you into town right off. At level two I was already felling trees (harvesting) and making loud criticisms (diplomacy), whereas my High Elf was still trying to figure out where the town was at level six.
;)
As designed, this is a grouping game. Although solo advancement is possible, advancement will come by faster if you are a social player. I asked another player to group in order to see what it would do for our fledgling harvesting skills. We figured that tress fell faster, and the yield increased. Being that there was no way to split physical loot, we went round robin.
“This is surprisingly fun! More fun than dying to spiders anyway, which was what I was doing before I started this quest.”
After a dozen trees or so, he suggested buying novice axes to see if that would increase the yield even further, and purchased one for me as well – my toon was level two remember?
;)
Some players came by to watch the animation of the falling trees. Interestingly enough, the animation of the falling tree is much better than the wooden animation of the human NPCs in town. I’d have expected better idle animation. In fact, humanoid models felt wooden and static. But this is still pre-launch. As often as servers were taken down, I’m sure more will be patched in by the January 30th launch date.
Players used to World of Warcraft type non-aggressive newbie mobs that stand around picking their noses while you slaughter their brethren, be warned. If you are engaged in combat with a similar critter and they happen to wander into aggression range, they will assist. That was how Sweete died the first time. I’d been lulled into incaution by EQ2 and WoW.
The in-game map is a large over-view of the continent with some key points marked. A general guidance direction is also marked on your compass for some locations. Players are provided some information but are not spoon fed.
;)
“Mileage may vary?” Depending on your experience with MMORPGs, and as mentioned above, the newbie leveling path depends on the starting area chosen. You can be seeking out diplomacy, harvesting and crafting at level two or you may not have even found the main town yet at level ten.
.At first glance, color me impressed. The game looks engaging, and tips and tutorials were easy to follow. The player experience is diverse and rich, with enough quests and fun game play to keep players engrossed for some time. With this many starting areas, the frustration of hundreds of players all hunting the same 20 rats is alleviated. Allowing players with pre-orders to start before launch also spreads out players.
Indeed, starting out in Vanguard, there seems to be many, many choices so that players can do what they wish to do and be what they wish to be. So despite the annoying bugs – disappearing mobs while in a fight, losing your guild tag and having to camp out and back in again, I am engaged enough to want to continue playing to see where this game goes. To see if it really gives me back the challenge that EQ was without the tedium. Besides… I think I’m hooked on Wood-Elf diplomacy *makes demands*.
Yet another , biased semi propagandal preview.
Let me give you the real deal
Vanguard is released 6 months before it is ready.
Is it a good MMO , it is.... If you liked original EQ combined with bit of WoWish flavor.
Actually so many things of original EQ made crossover to Vanguard.
The world is big, huge. But also not as well fleshed out like let say WoW or EQ2. You will feel very generic , randomly placed monsters
and generally uninteresting locations.
However Vanguard is home of potentional. And will easily become the best hack&slash fantasy mmo in years to come.
Reviewer also forgets to mention how greatly unoptimised game engine is. And how playing the game on any but top of the line PCs equals frustration.
So my advice is
Vanguard will be great game when it is "really" ready to release , and if by then you purchase new PC - You will be in for a treat
It could be a very good game in a year or so, kind of like Anarchy Online continued to improve and get better and better after its horrible release, but just like AO... you only get one chance to make an impression with most players and with so many games to choose from it would be best to make that first impression your best one.
It needed more time. Definitely.
I dunno, perhaps I read your messages with the wrong tone or something. If I "knew" this was going to be the great game I was hoping for, I'd be more inclined to discuss that, give examples of why and how, then sound negative about how it came out 6 months early.
To see if it really gives me back the challenge that EQ was without the tedium.
This is all i'm asking for in a game. Bring back the good of EQ without the bad. Tall order to fill I know. I'll keep my hopes up and try game after game till someone does it though. Including Vanguard.
-Naaz.
Why ,
I dont belive in promoting this buisness model. It has allready brouth enough grief to MMO player.
I will buy Vanguard somwhere along the line. But not yet.
But if you have PC to run it. You are bored of WoW (or whatever was your crack) , and you dont mind playing "work in progress"
Vanguard is highly recommended, because it will be a great game
ROFL!!!
So don't read the reviews! Get them from another site, join beta, ask people in the forums now that beta's over...
oooorrrrr.... let's just bitch about something instead.
BAH! I was going to try and keep a civil tongue. Dangit...
-Naaz.
AMD X2 3800
2GB ram
Ati X850 256MB
Soundblaster Fatality X-Fi
200GB free space on a Sata 2 drive fully defragged
The game runs like a slideshow as soon as other players are close by.
I know some have been playing using a much poorer system than mine so I can only assume that the game doesn't like something about my setup as I have no problems running any other recently released games. I will try out the trial in a few months to see if the tweeks have helped,
Agreed, my P4, ATi 7600 1GB system ain't cutting it so well either. I'm in the process of building a new machine though so I see a brighter future. i'll just tough it out for now I guess.
-Naaz.
Well, I have a buddy that hit 11 over the weekend with his Dread Knight. I'll grab him later this morning and have him post something for you if it'll help. Highest I ever got in Beta was 8 with a Bard and a Ranger so that won't help ya much. From what I gather, soloing to 10 is rather easy but it slows WAY down after that. Even grouped the experience started to slow after lvl 11 or 12, but I don't have much more info there.
-Naaz.
Made it to 17 in beta and 15 in prelaunch. From seeing other MMOs on launch day this game is more than ready for launch.. WoWs launch was a nightmare.
As far as soloing, I could easily solo still at 17 and dont think ill have too many problems later. For all those saying blah blah this games not ready.. buy it and shelf it for 6 months to make yourself happy...
What race/class were you? I'm hoping to be able to do a lotta soloing too as time in game will be limited for me for a while.
-Naaz.
Don't trust anything this site says, if you want proper reviews then look at gamespot or something.
ROFL!
Well, beta's over so just ask the thousands of us that played it. You don't HAVE to be so harsh and jaded when it comes to people's opinions ya know.
Cool, I messed with a Half Elf Ranger the last night of Beta and liked it. Thought it might last me a while.
Oh, and as far as this review is concerned... do you REALLY think everything everyone says about every game listed here is biased? Do you really think EVERYone is making things sound better than they truly are so long as the game is paying for advertising? That is SO jaded man. Maybe you watch too much Sopranos?
-Naaz.
You must all be talking about beta, the reviewer is talking about preorder.
My Latency in beta was 500, my FPS on low settings were 15.
In preorder my latency is now 80, my FPS at HIGH settings are 25-30 consistantly.
Beta was a mess, and I hated the game. But, a friend got me the preorder box, so I tried it, and wow, it was so much better. Graphics looked nicer, gameplay was smoother, tons of bug fixes had gone in and the whole thing seemed more polished. And most of the forums reflect this. I agree its not 100% there yet, but its getting better and better all the time.
I've gone from logging in once a week to check changes to logging in every night for 6 hours a night for all the 3 days of preorder, and havent been bored or fustrated yet (except with diplomacy, which past a certain level becomes a real challenge!!)
I think the reviewer did a fine job. Pretty much explains my opinion of the game. This game is vast and diverse . I 've played a crap load of mmos and this one combines just about everything I like in one. Yes theres room for improvement but it is just launch and im sure they have plenty other stuff already in the works to add to the game soon. Not to mention all games struggle on release, and Vanguards developers seem to be doing a fine job.
Been on the early access and made it to level 10.5, all solo as well. Not really planned, just kinda happened that way which is fine while I'm still learning the game. Though after level 10 mobs get a lot harder to solo. Grouping seems the right way to go ,but its never a must. Missions were kinda bland in the begining but did the job of getting you familar with the game and the leveling process. Now at my current level missions are getting more interesting and theres more objectives to complete in the missions. There so mcuh to do in this game, so many things to aquire . And the challenge. God this game looks like it's gonna have me throwing shit, and I have a glass desk. One more thing . Dragons, lots of dragons. Own a dragon, fly a dragon, kill a dragon. To bad I can't play a dragon character, that would be dragontastic.
My socket A system seems to run this quite well. Click my Xfire sig below to see my full system specs. Running at high quality with volumetric clouds off with maybe a couple other fine tweaks in graphic settings. Balanced runs super smooth, but the detail just is not there. I've had some lag but nothing thats not too bareable in an mmo, and I'm sure they will address any issues with lag as top priority. I must also mention I've been downloading my favorite tv seris through bittorrent every time I've played this game. So shutting that down should make a differance as well.
All in all im pretty pleased with the game . Its got a bright future, I'll probably be on this for the next 3 or more years. That 's as long as they dont try some swg crap.
MMO's need to start going live when they are ready to go live. Not before. I put money down on the pre-order to help with that money they say they need, but I am not willing to buy and pay monthly for a game that could be entirely rewritten.
I just can't go through all that again. It was so demoralizing and I admit to getting pretty jaded in the process. I wanted to buy and play right away and I'm irritated that I can't. I can't, because I refuse to get burned again. When I start hearing good reviews about the game and how it plays on people's computers, then I'll consider buying and starting to play again.
I have very high hopes for this game. They have everything I've been looking for in a game. I guess if I could get some reassurance from Sigil that they will not rewrite the entire game so that it isn't recognizable, then I might go ahead and finish paying for my preorder/game.
Meanwhile, I'm trying to keep an eye on Lord of the Rings Online. The buzz is pretty good about it and hopefully, hopefully, they will wait until they feel it is ready before they publish it fully.
I liked the review.....
It was the honest experience of someone just starting out in the geme. There was no hype or bias she wasnt saying you MUST buy this game its the greatest thing since sliced bread etc etc... She even mentioned some of the bugs that still haunt VG. I would have to say it was a fair assessment of the beginners experience. I would like to see a more in depth review in 6 to 8 months when they have reached the high level content and seen how the game plays long term.
Oh on a side note people who have crappy computers shouldnt beat this game down just because their system is junk. Dont assume this game is going to run well on your computer just because WOW did. Unless you have a P4 3.0 ghz processor, at least 2GB of RAM and an ati x1600 or higher or nvidia 7900 or better your system is dated and you need to upgrade
VG is just the beginning. Games like AOC will require just as tough a machine if not more so to run. I suggest you start saving your pennies and shopping around if you are planning to enjoy this generations pc games.
Not quite true, thrones of chaos was advertising too and see where it went 8)
Rattrap you haven't seen the game since the release patch which took out all the debugging code; Vanguard plays perfectly now. No more memory hitching and instead of laggin when there are 3 people around I don't even lag when there are like 15 people around now. It is ready to release. There are still bugs but its playing like a dream.
Just because your experience doesn't mirror hers doesn't mean she is wrong and in fact it was a very objective review of someone simply reporting her experience. Get over it.
Is Vanguard more like the original EQ than EQ2 itself? How ironic would that be....But if thats true...then I'd much rather play vanguard than EQ2 =(.
Im playing the game on this machine:
Athlon X2 4400+
1GB DDR RAM
ATI Radeon X700 w/ 256MBs
It runs GREAT. Get over it. Every other post you make is going on about how you need a top of the line computer to run the game. I havent added anything to my computer in a YEAR and the video card is like 2 years old
Im playing VSoH since beta (currently level 10 shaman) and im enjoying it so far. Maybe soon ill hit the "grind" wall, or maybe not. I dont know that untill I experience that myself. So for now, Im enjoying VSoH. Am I advertising? No, im expressing my own opinion. Now If i said a lot of good things without actualy experiencing it, yeah then id call it advertising.
nice big world, tons of things to do, crafting and diplomacy are addictive.
but a couple of bugs to be fleshed out but i think performance increase greatly through the open beta.
This is my system
AMD 3700+
2gig ram pc3200
Geforce 7800gtx 256meg
7200rpm Maxtor drive.
with settings on balanced and at a Resolution i like I'm getting about 40fps in the field and about 15 or so in crowded towns.
people who say 6months more time is needed I'm not 100% convinced they even played the game recently. sure in a couple of months time this game will be outstanding and will be greatly polished and ready to go for all those people who are sick of WoW and TBC.
All in all the game is good now and it'll be one of the best games on the market in about two or three months time (if it isnt the best already to some people)
i personal plan on playing this one for at least a year but I'm sure ill check out Conan and maybe Warhammer when they are released just for kicks
Tried to create char but couldn't because of huge lag issues so quit and tried again and I was able to login and create char. Had some graphics problems while getting into server but I've seem similar problems when logging into eq2 so just waited. Waiting for char to show but realize in first person mode so use scroll wheel to get out of first person mode.
HUGE lag problems moving. Tooltip popped up about going to trainer. The only other tooltip I got in the game was after I killed my first beetle then no more tips. Graphics was not what I expected after playing EQ2 but gameplay is what's important. Toolbar looks like WoW and some windows look like WoW. Did they merge WoW with EQ2?
After about an hour playing, I notice a number of graphics problems and LOTS and LOTS of lag. I lost connection to server and could not get back into game so I played EQ2.
Nice review, how can you say the reviewer is biased anyway look? at the last line 'it's good but theres still annoying bugs' pointing out the game isn't 'OMG it's the best thing since sliced bread!!' which TBH any review from this site people 'claim' they seem to say about any game that isn't 'their' game. We've already astabished that it's not 'a WoW beater' and the game isn't perfect and we know a lot of players hate it because it doesn't cover 'X,Y or Z' but look at at this way a lot of the 'critics' belong to that '8 millon' that 'WoW' currently has, Vanguard isn't 'like' WoW or EQ2 becuase it wont apeal to that type of gamer witch essenally WoW brought to the MMO table, Vanguard will pull the 'others' that have been looking for 'the next EQ' so like many have said it's filled a void we've had for a while now
Vanguard is techally 'EQ2' more then EQ2 is (as EQ2 is becomming more and more like WoW to try and get it's own chunk of that '8 million') Vanguard has taken of 'old views' of the 1st gen/era titles (EQ/UO), spliced some ideas and tools from the 2nd gen/era (WoW/EVE/EQ2) to create the first of the 3rd gen/era titles (which I'm not going to go into that much over the '3rd gen' debate). Vanguard isn't trying to be a 'game' it's trying to be a MUD/RPG, which TBH was lost within the 2nd gen/era titles in some places and it's done that very well IMO, sure it's ragged and ruff around the edges but it's charm is there, Vanguard will not go away as long as MMOs try to be more like WoW then be like EQ, as that 'EQ' market is still there and it's finding a home within Vanguard.
Oh on a side note people who have crappy computers shouldnt beat this game down just because their system is junk. Dont assume this game is going to run well on your computer just because WOW did. Unless you have a P4 3.0 ghz processor, at least 2GB of RAM and an ati x1600 or higher or nvidia 7900 or better your system is dated and you need to upgrade
VG is just the beginning. Games like AOC will require just as tough a machine if not more so to run. I suggest you start saving your pennies and shopping around if you are planning to enjoy this generations pc games.
Exacxtaly why I think we're gonna have the same song and dance over AoC too we are deffinitly going to see 'ooh AoC sucks because it doesn't work on my toaster' type of comments because of the way console gaming is. just becuase the PS3 titles 100% work on PS3 and 360 titles 100% work for the 360. doesn't mean all PC titles work on any PC it''s a whole diffrent ball game and people have to remember unlike consoles it's a work tool first and a gaming platform second..
So yeah, VSoH release was not as polished as WoW or DAOC release, but its still very much playable and not annoying enough for me to get pissed and drop playing it. If VSoH were like any other MMORPG, then id agree with you. But VSoH has alot of "unique" features to support the company developing it. VSoH is not a regular "bland" game, its a game mixed with truly innovative ideas. I hate to sound like a fanboi, but I hope VSoH will set up new standards for future generation games, where crafting is meaningfull and doesnt feel like a chore, where grouping is fun and is another substitute for soloing, where graphics are amazing, where you could do much more then just grind mobs.
VSoH is not a perfect game, but just like WoW, it is one step closer to the perfection. Please more games like these
Well your not alone about what happened with SWG, this is the main reason why Brad and co set up Sigil, to stop the SOE fiddling and to do things their way.
I believe the crunch for them was EQ2, when they realised they had not got enough control of the game and after they left it became a different beast.
The whole game design is controlled by Sigil and they are an experienced bunch. As for SOE, I think they have learn't their lesson well with SWG.
As many have said and I agree, Vanguard is the spiritual successor to EQ1. It has elements of SWG, WoW, UO, just about every good game you can find.
The preview was I believe very straight forward and fair. The bugs the reviewer experienced don't happen all the time, in fact I have only seen them a few times now, others folks more.
I am seriously impressed with this game and its launch, probably the smoothest lag free MMORP I have ever played (at launch) and I am on a highly populated EU server and expected huge lag spikes.
Currently I have a 16th level Shaman and hunting in Kaon Rush, a wonderful place with an elven outpost and undead plaguing the area. The music is just so amazing, the game is just amazing, totally addicted.
I pretty much agree with the preview.
This game has a great deal of potential. Despite what I am reading here about the game being insta-debugged, the game was still buggy last night for me, when it crashed to desktop twice in an hour and also did this weird freeze to black and then a minute later zones back in thing. Somebody fell through the ground yesterday and wound up dying someplace odd. But those problems are actually decreasing.
I pre-ordered and will not cancel. I have a Station Pass, so my subscription fees are already being paid, and the game is fun enough to play when it is not crashing. I knew that I would buy it eventually, so I figured that I would just get it now and watch it get debugged. I am still sampling the various starting areas, races and classes, because there really is quite a variety. My Thestran human paladin has been doing so many diplomacy quests that she hasn't been leveling as a paladin, which is ok for now.
Is the game ready? No. Is is worth playing? It is for me, because it really has a lot of material. Is it balanced? No, I get the sense that they haven't finished with all of the starter content for some races and classes, because they were rushed to release. I don't blame the design team, because they have done miracles over the past few weeks since I went into open beta.
I bought the game because it is fun, and because I have full confidence that the game will continue to improve at a quick pace. If I hit a wall, I will take off a month or so and come back, because this game is a keeper. It is just a shame that SOE wouldn't let Sigil finish this one right.
There's a pretty big difference.
2.8GHz P4
1gig DDR2
7600 GS OC 512MB DDR2
I cant say i was particularly that impressed with the authors preview feature , seemed to lack a little substance and didnt really say anything i didnt know.
Im going to hang on for a little while longer and see how it pans out before i buy. Been suckered into preordering before so im never gonna do it again.
Not only is it a preview, it's a "First Impressions" of a new game at Pre-Launch stage with a total of about 8 hours in-game. The standard requirement by MMORPG.com for a Review is two months of game time after official launch and about 3,000 words plus Ratings in 8 different areas. Heh. It can't even be called a "At First Glance" article because the game only launches today.
Editor Jon (and previously Dana) deliberately will not send a "fanboi" to review a game. I was the biggest skeptic in the bunch and frankly, I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by my early experience. Despite some bugs... despite the difficulty in figuring out which death option gave me the least xp debt... despite my getting horribly lost in some areas and whining for maps.
I've seen some impressive trains. I'm wondering if the way xp is awarded will allow for power leveling. I have yet to explore the trade-skill gameplay, I'm in total LOVE with diplomacy at this stage despite some NPCs that "cheat" by having more cards and the ability to play them faster than I.
Different strokes for different folks. From what I've seen, it looks like pretty good mix of challenge and temperance of tedium. For example the map & direction system.
You don't have to practice "Sense Heading" you have a compass that works. You can get locations marked on that compass - from Quests and from town guards. There aren't any detailed ingame maps but there is a large overview map with some key locations marked. You aren't spoon-fed nor are you just thrown into a completely new landscape without any tools to find your way.
The game launches today. The jury is still out of whether the game will keep my attention long term - I have yet to explore the game with any depth.
{Edit} Oh... P.S. /wave Kevyn Padraig on the Florendyl server. Thanks for twinking me that Novice Woodsman Axe!
Is she a seasoned MMO player? I mean everyone has their own opinion but it sounded like she never played a MMO before (reading the manual and it was greatly put together ...score ....lol, whats that all about; most of us judge the game based on game play. Not manual layout)
Ehh...I dont know....but I would have given it a totally opposite review that Carolyn did. Just seems like all the previews here has now been watered down and politically correct to make the ad payers happy.
Dont be afraid to give an honest review from time to time. It'll help you more than hurt you.
edit: and I do understand its a preview...
The way I read it, she played multiple race/classes. In order to see different starting areas.
I doubt she spent a lot of time on just one character.
And she did things like Diplomacy as well . .
Don't worry, they solved the problem of 100 players trying to kill 20 rats who spawn every minute with 20 players trying to kill 3 Rat Monsters that spawn every 10 minutes.
I like the Diplomacy, but there isn't enough of it in the game. So much of the game is adventuring centric that doing any side things require you to be a certain adventuring leveling class, (harvesting, diplomacy, crafting). It isn't a replacement as advertised.
Let me get this strait. Vanboi's claim that wow has a sloth of immature players, and this reviewer named her character "Sweete Treate". Um that's like a name that my five year old cousin would think of. I'd rather see someone named ELITE knight dash five or something than Sweete Treate, roleplay wise too. And this isn't just my opinion, tell me how bad ass as a diciple yoru going to feel when your grouped with Candy Kane, or Lovely hugster. Seriously, everything that anyone about vangaurd ever said with regards to wow being a haven for immature players has just been nullified. I myself am a hardcore roleplayer. You'll see me in wow iwth names such as Moontip, Skintag, etc. naming my characters with epithets similar to the native american tradition except int he enlgihs languag enad less profound.
I don't want to sound lik ea stickler picking on the name, but really vanboi's you need to drop the argument that wow is full of immature players because from the looks of it it seem sthat there are more pople who play vangaurd under the age of 20 than wow.
Edit: Speaking according to ratio that is not absolute number.
Diplomacy is pretty addicting once you figure it out. I've played about 5 hours of diplomacy without the need to be above level 1 in adventuring so for me, adventuring, crafting, and diplomacy have been independent of each other.
Not a big fan of crafting yet. It's just boring to me.
Other things I like:
- Death penalty brings back the days of actually having to pay attention and caring about yourself and others while adventuring. However, the tedium of EQ has been fixed with the multiple ways of getting your stuff back. Well done.
- Mounts can be purchased early on. At my level, I already have a horse that has 39% speed increase. Nice.
- Starting continents are very unique and, so far, appears that the replay value may be very good already.
- in-game email, broker (auction house), and LFG tools already built in
- Player models are larger than EQ2 and the ability to show off your new equipment is more comparable to WoW. Big plus.
- You can cast spells and perform skills while moving. Nice feature and may add some more strat options in boss and end-game content.
- Action and reaction spell and skill chains look like they'll be more exciting than that of EQ2. I'm having fun with them anyway.
- Graphics are top notch. Not as Artsy as WoW but better than EQ1 and 2. Some aspects better than WoW.
Things I don't like:
- Server stability is still an issue but they are working hard on it. It's much better than Beta but still needs a little work.
- Yes, there are some graphic issues and bizarre things here and there but they will be fixed.
- Some of the quests are broken
- Some pathing issues
- Ship/Boat system not working
- The game supposedly came out today but no one seems to have them. I pre-ordered from Best Buy and they didn't have one copy today :(
Even though Vanguard is not a innovation is gaming, I thing they have successfully raised the bar a bit.
For the record.
After about 8 hours of game play.
High Elf Cleric - level 7 - took a dive immediately to check the death penalties.
Wood Elf Ranger - level 4 & completed first 2 diplomacy quests
Thestran Human - level 2 & completed first diplomacy quest, harvesting quests and grouping to check out what it did for harvesting
Goblin Blood Mage, Orc Shaman, Mordebi Human Warrior (and a couple others I've since deleted) to check out starting experiences.
Ignoring all the political crap and getting to the point, your starting experience varies greatly depending on your starting race/class.
Some is intentional, others like having a gap in quests if you start as a half-elf or kojani durring levels 12-14ish are clearly showing that some quests are planned and have stories written complete with excellent and detailed dungeons but simply not implementing the actual option to take the quests yet. Magi Hold is a great example. Damn impressive, clearly has story to it but you can't get any quests for it yet.
So was VG released early? You bet.
Was it released too early? Matter of opinion. My thought is that its a game.
The purpose of a game is to have fun. My wife, myself and my friends are having quite a bit of fun so far. Tons of guildies from back when we all played EQ have come out of the woodwork.
And yes it feels much more like the original EQ than EQ2 does.
But it also gives you A LOT of choice in how you want to go about things. The death penalty is a shining example. You CAN go on a nakkid corpse run, or you can summon your corpse at an alter for a fee and take a hit to your gear's durability.
Sometimes the risk of trying to get your body back just isn't worth it, so you swallow the hit to your gear and pay repair fees. A lot of the time you'll find yourself happy that you can make a corpse run. Its just extremely well balanced in most cases in that regard.
Many of the animations are stale, many are excellent, another example of "released early" but "released too early?" well, it doesn't break immersion for me but anyone's milage may vary.
I like the reactive combat and chains... a lot. The game definitely is more challenging than WoW close to on par with EQ but with more depth to the combat system comes more options for player skill to shine so you can pull off some impressive stunts with a less than full group and still survive if you're careful, where as in EQ if you didn' thave a full group you had no prayer in several cases.
You also will find yourself exploring at several points much like in EQ instead of having your hand held 24/7.
I have yet to talk to someone who was unable to solo at any given level. Some classes are better at it than others but so far they feel pretty capable.
Things that can hook you is taking great floating leaps jumping from roof to roof "crouching tiger hidden dragon" style fighting evil monks that appear in puffs of smoke with cherry tree petals floating around you.
Some aspects you just say "OK that's just plain cool" and then you'll hit a glitch or crash to desk. Granted crashing to desktop doesn't happen too often but its another ear mark of early release.
The servers have been pretty solid though, a credit to SOE.
More quests seem to be added every time I log in, both adventuring, diplomacy levers (civic diplomacy), and crafting options.
If you have a weak graphics card, you'll have to turn the settings way down, but it still looks much better than EQ2 did when it launched and everyone with older graphics cards had to turn their settings way down. (remember faces that were simply a blur? Yeah VG doesn't have that problem ;))
The lore and background is consistantly excellent and diplomacy is a GREAT vehical for it.
Crafting currently is dissapointing to me, I expected there to be MANY more recipies than what is currently available, GRANTED my crafter is low level but still...feels like way too few recipies. On the flip side crafted gear is excellent on average compared to dropped and quested gear...very competitive and functional but not unreasonably so. A good balance.
I could go on about this and that, but if some of this intrigues you, talk to someone you know whos been playing and still is, hit em with questions, see if its a good fit for you. It won't be fun for everyone. Example, while you can always solo I can tell you that the game dynamics don't show themselves off unless you're in a group rockin and sockin. Soloing is nice, especially to get more in touch with your character and their skills, but the real action happens in groups, even smallish ones of 3 people can be a blast and functional.
The group harvesting idea is excellent and works. You'll just have to do it to see what I mean, wish every MMO with harvesting did it the way VG does.
Anyway, find a friend, convince them to give you their free 10 day trial pass. See what you think. I'm having fun with the game right now, I like the mechanics and flow among other things, the game made litteral leaps on improvement in the last few weeks, seems to be continuting to polish rapidly. I'm looking forward to that as well.
The lack of instancing hurts at some choke points in some of the over crowded popular newbie area's but after a point people get spread out far and wide pretty quick, it seems to work well in practice overall. Its nice to have real people around in dungeons that you can save or follow and/or group with or lead etc. Its nice to be able to to do run by heals or buffs again that have significant enough durration to be useful to the groups being buffed etc. :)
Ok done rambling must sleep.
My 2 cents are this is a great game.....and Im running it on an old machine.
Athalon XP
2 gig ram
Nividia 6400
Things run fine. In the Bata I ran the game on High Performance but since prre-release Ive been able to run it on Balanced and Im having a great time. There are so many choices and options in the game and so much to do that I hardly feel the drive to madly level up to get the next best thing.
Just started playing Vanguard...and i still dont know what to expect.
The 1st thing to trouble me is the performance of my pc.
It may not be a top edge machine but i play all other games (incl L2, Wow , EQIIant others) without absolutely any probs.
It seems there must be something with my conf cause all aspects are better than the recomended system from sony.
In addition it seems to be a lil more advanced EQII edition rather than a new game.
Even the create a char page is the same.
I think im gonna give it a try for a few more lvls to see how it goes and what aspects are patched, but i ll proly return to L2 (yeah i dont mind PvP in every day gaming life :P)!! However i really hope they ll impress me cause im rather bored of most mmorpgs out there!
Just to point out the reason for Vanguard being 'like' EQ2 because it at the core it is: Sigil (well they were techally still SOE at the time) started EQ2 as EQ's sequal however when WoW exploded the market SOE wanted to push EQ2 to be more WoW-like to get that chunk of the market, some didn't like that idea as the game wasn't being made as intended so some of the team dropped and Sigil was formed to restart 'EQ2' anew and make it the way THEY wanted it, unfortunatly Mircosft was trying to push Sigil into doing what they wanted like SOE did, so Sigil dropped from MS and got picked up by SOE again but this time under probly a very large 'hands of my game' stip, as far as we know it's been held up ok, some of the SOE dev teams were brought in to help meet the deadline SOE put in however as far as we know SOE havn't touched the game itself so far, just mucked about with the server side...
Geez... pay attention... this was NOT a review. The game just came out today. How's she going to review it before it comes out? Don't you think she'd have to have a chance to get into higher levels, experience more characters, get further into crafting and diplomacy before giving an actual "review"?
It's a PREVIEW. A first impression of a new game. She didn't beta test it, she saw it for the first time, for a few hours and tried to absorb as much as she could in those few hours to give you an impression. There was no number crunching, hardware comparing or other typical "review" information.
Some of you people need to take a deep breath, forget that Sony owns you all, accept that Sigil has the ability to put out a good game whether you like it or not and drop the "soap box" attitude. I realize forums are a way to speak your mind and express yourself while hiding behind a monitor, and that you may feel more comfortable while bashing someone to bits verbally because you're better than them in your own mind. But seriously, why bash someone that wrote up a little something to give people a "preview" of a new game? What the heck kind of satisfaction are you feeling from that?
Personally, I thought it was an enjoyable read, kinda funny at times. I'm not going to judge the whole GAME on it though! Gods...
-Naaz.
I don't know the reasoning behind sugar-coating it so much but this review IS biased. I've been playing the game for a long time now, including pre-launch. Most of what she said was accurate, but sugar coated. She said nothing about how horribly it runs on even a good system. The starting areas are dead for a lot of the races I have already tried out, the quests are uninteresting and the cities, while beautiful, seem very boring.
I enjoyed the review.
I am having a blast with the game. It is awesome. I have enjoyed it since I started and have my computer set to high performance or highest depending on what I feel like because I am not a real fan of the way graphics look today. I am much more interested in the game and have had a blast. I spent pretty much a full day working on just my crafting and another on diplomacy. It is because it might be boring to some it is not any worse to me than any grinding for adventuring levels. I have experienced some of the bad stuff but add it together and still better in my eyes compared to what I had when WoW came out.
People can come in and bash and say this and that. I enjoyed reading the authors' first look experiences. Had more than me. I have had 3 different characters. Had too much fun playing through the diplomacy quests and doing the harvesting/crafting to play much else.
This is the first MMO I have pre-ordered since WoW. I am having fun but can understand why others would not or would want to wait. Just hope I have this fun for a long time. I figure this game is going to take me a while to reach the high levels unlike WoW.
I paid the $10 for pre-order from Best Buy but I will not be buying the the final game for 3-6 months. I do not believe in paying to beta test and, as others have said, Vanguard is very much beta. It is nowhere near ready for release.
The biggest issue for alot of people will be that it runs badly on low or mid end systems even with graphics turned down. As someone else said, it seems to be an issue with rendering players - I get 40+ fps as long as there are no players around but it drops to 5-12 fps if there is just one player moving around on my screen. This was true the final day of beta - as I have not bought the final game, I can't say if they actually managed to fix this issue (though I tend to doubt they fixed it in a week when it existed throughout beta).
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/113733
Biggest Obstical this game has to overcome for me to try it out? Three letters.......SOE
Those are the 3 letters that actually have a better chance of me trying a game. I have not been burned by them. Had problems yes but they have never ruined my fun.
1- In what way is it no where near ready for release? You just slamming or do you have something (other than opinion) to back that up?
2- You can't say if they managed to fix this issue but you are ready to bash them anyway? Did you catch the part about Vanguard being able to remove the debugging code now that beta is over which improved performance all on it's own, never mind whatever last minute tweaks and changes they added?
It's fine if a lot of people aren't open to giving this game a chance. Everyone's got something different they're looking for or expecting. Each person's perspective of a game and how it plays will differ. Bashing a game without trying it when it's released because you weren't happy with beta though...
-Naaz.
Kojani Bard here... and loving every minute of the game.
I give every game a shot, and this is the first one in a while that I look forward to playing every evening while I'm sitting at work. The world is huge, the options are amazing, crafting is deeper than any other game, and the diplomacy card game is adicting.
The removal of the debugging code has made a huge difference in game performance. During beta, I was able to run on highest quality settings in the less populated and get 60+ FPS. Once in town, I had to drop down to 'Balanced' and I'd get around 30 FPS.
In release, I'm at 'Highest Quality' all the time with 70+ FPS in the wild, and 50+ in the largest cities with tons of PCs and NPCs around.
Good "preview." Most of the annoyingly snobbish mmo critics who just love to rag on every new game, failed to acknowledge that this was a "preview" and that the "previewer" was obviously going on about 3-4 days of exp- max. To call this propaganda is flat-out insulting to the writer, and further proof that there's always an mmo'er (or 1000) out there somewhere, willing to act like they know more/better than you.
I've criticized bad reviews, most recently the MxO re-review, but I'm with whoever said "if this is GOING to be such a good game" and only missing a little revenue and patching, WTH are you talking about?
I run the game with pretty much the minimum requirements: P4 2.4ghz, 1gb ram, 6200 vcard-256mb
The game is running very well for me. I don't believe it takes a top of the line computer to run the game, but it does seem to pick and choose certain systems it doesn't like. :) I hear of people with top of the line puters having the same problems as peeps with low end systems.
so this was my first day in the game and I think it has some pretty good potential. There's only one thing bothering me to the extent of not wanting to play it for long: Why in the world did they not spend some extra time on the characters? I mean, if you want players to stick with their chars, give them something to identify with and grow attached to.
If you want to stand up to WoW then why dear developers didn't you finally trash those LOVELESS character models? They look so last century, their movements are sloppy and not realistic at all. Customization?! I dunno if I am the only one who thinks like this, but I couldn't care less about a few millimeters of eye or chin adjustment... features that you will NEVER actually see in game. You start out and every player in your area looks almost exactly the same as you. How boring is that??!
Technically speaking Vanguard might be top of the line as long as your computer is brandnew and plays along. But if you can't motivate the developers to put some genuine LOVE into the character creation, then how can you expect any player to love their chars back and cherish them for a looong (paying) playtime?!
C'mon, a gnome that looks like a human with too big a head, or a dwarf who looks like the victim of a tragic gen-manipulation accident... I just wish Sony would spend half the commitment to character into this game as they would for another Final Fantasy sequel.
Peace.
i do need a new pc though... i updated all drivers on my p4 2.4 ghz gf 7600gt system but still get some bad crashes and mean graphic errors. still, i just had to get the feel of this "next gen" game... and right now i feel like i have seen those crappy characters in EQ before... hope they'll work something out.
On an old machine like a P4...(how come you think that's good hardware? Maybe it was 4 years ago...) you will still be able to play it if you dont expect too much. Do some updates to all your drivers (especially graphic card) and you'll be ok. I'll go and buy a faster harddisk tomorrow, too.
My take,,,,
1. Graphically, a very excellant game if you have the hardware to run it.
2. Everquest clone and even the font is the same.,.
3. Game engine optimization is a ways off, and for those f you that played the SWG failure, the transfer from one zone to the other will not get seamless IMHO.
4. Like most games in the industry, except 9 dragons, XP hits for each progressive level get worse, can someone please break the mold and do something diffrent.
5. Gameplay, not too bad if you like partying, sharing and taking forever to level in a group enviroment, XP slows to a crawl when groupped, what takes 1 hour solo takes 3 hours or more groupped, no bonus for groups.
6. Questing is very efficent, even waypoints on your map to the location of the quest giver and quest itself.
7. Economy in the game reminds me of WOW before the farmers came, which i am sure is coming :).
8. Getting mounts at lvl 10 is the kewlest thing i have seen in the game. at least you dont have to wait till 40 to ride across the massive maps.
9. Collision in the game is not working correctly, and im not sure that it won't seeing that the model works like SWG did, Placeable houses, and we remeber the problemn with that after players realized they were testing something that willl eventually fail with SONY breathing on it.
10. The bugs in the game are the same as the ones i saw in final beta, it seems that rushing the product to market is more important that quality.
I truely thought that Sigil would do better after all the hype, but i was wrong, just like their partners SONY, it seems that the almighty dollar is more important than Quality, the game IMO has been released way tooo early and the bugs are utterly embarrasing for a Software company of the magnitude. I for one don't feel like playing another "SONY" game for 2-3 years before it reaches final status, so cancelling my subscription early will save me the trouble that SWG did, STRIKE 3 SONY,,,,,,,
For those of you that are tired of WOW, grab ya a digital download for the generic 49.95, pay ya 15 a month and BetaTest another game for 2 years while Sigil and Sony get paid, lol, i choose to pass.
For those that read this and say , "if you dont like it play something else", ,,,, Already ahead of you, i paid my 49.95 to beta test for 2 weeks, and now its time to move along, sorry i spent the money on this everquest Clone. Darkfall is coming and it has the game model of a game i WANT to play, crafting, graphics, balance, sandbox skills, no levels,,, If it makes it to beta..
At this point , and i have been gaming since Apogee games, SONY has "ruined" the image of the gameing community by passing off cheap, unfinished products of inferior quality and will continue to do so as long as everyone keeps playing them, There is a great disturbance in the force and SONY is it..
I average 5 FPS with my system and the game is playable. I do run the game one setting above the lowest. You must be running at a higher setting or just don't have the tolerence to play as it is.
They released the Geforce7 series and crippled a lot of the cards (GS for example), yet pushed the Geforce7 name hard, as if all version 7 cards were the best. Fact was, they were not better performers than some of the Geforce6 cards. In almost every single way the 6800 Ultra would outperform something like the 7600GS.
www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html
Only the GT card and GT in SLI for the 7600 are above the 6800U in this Half Life 2 test above. So lame of them.
They would also load up the cards with something like 512MB of RAM, yet the hardware was so underpowered there was probably no way any game could even take advantage of it acceptably.