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Another personal review
ClaudeFR
Member Posts: 376
Good morning,
this is my personal view and opinion of vanguard after playing it from release till today.
Im not bothering you with long text, i rather do it in telegraph/category style:
Graphics:
Oblivion was a "WOOT". The gfx of Oblivion was deep, very nice shaded and had a great atmosphere. Oblivion was made with the "Big World" Engine. The folks of Oblivion took care about their models, optimizing them, cutting polygons and vertices down to a mix of "good enough to look nice and optimized enough to play them".
Vanguard ignored ALL OF THAT.
Vanguard is a "next gen" game. And that has to be taken literally.
The hardware running Vanguard without a glitch is really "next gen": Its not existing in the payable consumer market these days and yet has to come...
Take an ATI 1950 or NVidia 8800 on a high end system and say "Vanguard is running smooth" and i call you a liar.
Sure, there ARE people out there considering Vanguard running smooth on such system, but jerkey movements and redraw lags are not what i PERSONALLY consider "smooth".
Many people play Vanguard on "High Performance" up to "Balanced" overall-settings these days, to just get a gfx that could be considered "working".
Of course, this is far away from "looking amazing".
To the look of gfx:
Vanguard appears to me done hasty. There are no gimmicks in the world where you feel the Devs where "with love" designing the world. The usual 4 house types, a bit of an accessory here, a bit of "something" there.
Dont get me wrong, im not the "Oblivion fanboy" mentioning the game always as a comparison, but hands down: Oblivion is a good "idol" for every game artist.
See the world of Oblivion and all the details, the little things around, the love they put into the designwork. You clearly feel and see it when you play Oblivion.
This is completely missing in Vanguard. Sometimes i think VOH has a world because you simply NEED a world for every game, but there is no love in design beyond that.
The models, textures, bumpmaps, mashes etc. in Vanguard are far from optimized.
The performance of Vanguard is according to that.
Even high end system are running on the edge to a heartcollapse when Vanguard is loaded.
Sigil done a loveless job here and needs bettering in this aspect, to match the title
"Next gen", at least gfx-wise.
Sound:
That is nice. THe sound is 3D and following movements and headturns.
The sound atmosphere is good and matches the theme of Vanguard.
The sound isnt "penetrating" and well choosen for the different areas/situations.
Also, they did take care about sound blending. When you pass from one area to another, the sound is not changed aprupt, its blending smoothly into the new sound/music.
But (a "but"..yay) he big minus here is:
There need to be MORE score, muscitracks.
The "standard background music" is mostly one or two scores, which gets repeating and boring soon. A few more tracks would help here.
Combat:
Nothing uber here:
Funny colorful buttons, an invisible 2-move-queue, warmup and cooldown timers.
But Sgil took care about "variables". So you wont fire a move and get 26 damagepoints in, your position, randomizing and stances coming into account.
There are countermoves and "chained actions" which are called "finishing move" which can be devastating IF THE RIGHT ORDER of moves is played.
Combat can be considered "tactical/strategic" in Vanguard and is everything but boring.
This part of my review is made upon my PvE-experience, cant tell you about PVP here.
Crafting:
Looks very good. Im far from being able to tell you anything "reliable" because im such ubernoob in crafting yet. But from what i see about the general SYSTEM - it looks cool and deep.
Ressourcequality matters. You need anorganics (mining with a pick) and organics (harvesting). You can (and should) train/skill up harvesting and "mining" (forgot the ingame term).
You can compare this to the crafting in SWG. You need the same resources and quality matters, the better...the better :P
In SWG we had "Scout" and Artisan, in Vanguard everyone can learn harvesting and mining in ADDITION to his "masterline(s)".
That makes in Vanguard a pretty deep and complex profession system which is (should) be fun to play. Today i feel like combat...go for it. Tomorrow i want to craft, no problem.
Earth & Beyonf player might remember to plan a day for "mining" with their Jenquais for ammo-minerals. Vanguard is similar here, one day mining/harvesting, the other crafting, the next "finishing".
Dedicated crafters will definatly get a good deal here.
I even saw "creation onyl guilds" forming in Vanguard, kind of industry-orientated guilds. That sounds cool !
Diplomacy:
That is a complete "mini game" in Vanguard, like a card game.
You have cards (you get them like skills: Higher..better). These cards have abillities (Expression, Assertion and a few more) on it. You "play" these cards against your...well, i wont say "Opponent" rather call it "parley partner". There is a sneaky math-system behind these cards and it even needs some strategy and intelligence, think of chess planning moves ahead and trying to forsee your partners move.
THe diplomacy system is such a huge (but yet still underrated) part of Vanguard, that there will be even "Diplomacy PVP battles" in the future.
What is it good for anyway ?
There (are) will be tasks and quests, asking you to have good diplomacyskills to progress in that particular quest. That makes Diplomacy a needed "profession". Diplomacy is, like harvesting and crafting, another additional abillity so everyone can go up that line simultan.
BTW:
Combat isnt called "combat" in Vanguard, its the "Adventuring line".
Housing:
There is playerhousing, non instanced.
There are areas(many) around where you can buy "plots".
You then need to have a crafter (or yourself) harvesting, mining and crafting stuff to build the house finally. Think of the deed in SWG made by artisans/architects.
Downside:
Redicolous expensive. Dont even THINK of having a house in the near future.
The money ingame is like that:
100 coppe=1 Silver
100 Silver=1 gold
100 gold = 1 platinum
So you need 1000 copper for 1 Gold.
You need 10 Gold to just buy the PLOT for the house.
A noob mission level 1-10 is normally from 30-80 copper payment.
You get the idea, how VERY expensive a house will be finally.
Mounts:
Horses, camels and whatelse (flying mounts).
Also very expensive and you need to be at least level 10
There are quests granting a horse at the end.
But honestly, i dont even see an advantage of such mount yet.
THe movement bonus (speed) of a horse is just minor minor, you are faster with a buffed Shaman (30 minutes bustrun buff).
The mounts WILL become faster at some point, you get horsehoes to speed up and additional stuff like that...but do not ask for the prices of such addons (and fast horses anyway).
It takes a bit to gain such amount of money - well at least from my point-of-view as a noob right now...LOL
Bugs, Lag, Servicequality:
This game was rushed out cuz Sigil run short in money and cant afford any "non publish offline time" anymore.
Unfortunatly, this is VERY VERY present in the product.
There are not that much real bugs, bothering you to death - its more the technical aspect of the game which is TOTALLY AND MAJOR PITA.
The game is absolutely unfinished and unpolished.
THey have HUGE problems with the servers, with the clients, with chat, with downtimes and crashes.
People crash on crowded places, people even crash or freeze up on serverboundarys.
People cant even log into the game, black screeen, freezing computers etc etc etc
The list is ENDLESS.
Their forums is at best "a joke".
There is a board called "Website discussion" and "technical help".
THe "website discussion" is something without any meaning, cuz who in all names cares about their website, besides that their website (forum) doenst even have an edit button.
The technical help is also a bad joke, there is no single dev showing up.
Only the usual "TSR" crap posting there, canned comments like "please contact ingame server (GM) to assist you), then deleting some complains and topics with critics about all that.
SoE at its finest - why is no1 surprised here...
A product like Vanguard should have a community like very other single game out there.
I have no clue, why the official Vanguard site is nothing more then the most sad and ugly example of the poorest community site ever.
I think even "Tupperware" has a bigger supportsite...
Community:
From what ive seen (Hilsbury server), the community there was very nice and helpful.
Sure, you always have some jerks everywhere, but this server was far from "rude" or "jerks".
Might be different with other servers, but i cant say that cuz i played on Hilsbury which was totally ok.
I also do think, that the "rude" servers will naturally "clean out" themselves...when the "minor customers" are to overwhelmed by the steep learning of Vanguard and return to their mouse-mashing FPS games.
Grouping/Solo:
You can play solo. I mean, you also have your dentist doing a root-canal handling without narcotics...what i want to say, its a pain and no1 really wants it.
There is a difference between you "can" solo and you "want" to solo.
You def. DONT want to solo in Vanguard cause it takes long for a single player to fulfil quests with mob which comes in level 2 above you (that is a big step in Vanguard).
At some point you are forced to group if you really want to advance.
I have nothing against grouping, im even a fan of it - due to the social aspect.
But its NOT that easy in Vanguard to find a group.
FYI: Groups are limited there to 6 players
Sometimes, you get an invite within seconds after "L10 Necromancer LFG".
Sometimes, you are alone on this planet...
In SWG you ported out at the Mining Outpost and had unasked groupinvi-"spam" on the screen already.
In COH/COV you send a "L26 Stalker LFG" and you had an invite.
Not in Vanguard. At least not these days on the server i play.
Dont get me wrong, there are constantly groups going - but not like you might used to it from other "group intesive games".
Should i join Vanguard:
Honestly, no you shouldnt. At least not before "Version 2.5"
The technical aspect of the game is a nightmare, the service is too, esp. everything that is under control of SoE - all conceirns of the burned "SoE-victims" has come true:
SoE is sucking at its glance again. There is no "service" in real.
Talk to "Rashid" at the india-customer support and get a canned and famous
"Anything else i can (not) do for you" and you get the idea...nothing new here.
Sigil isnt posting in their official forums (or rather say 2-board presence), so you are either lucky not being stucked or simply better watch a movie...
If you are the hardcore gamer willing to join just for the sake of...whatever, do it.
But prepare to spend 15.- $ for a rough time, testing your patience...
If no1 would tell me the state of Vanguard and install it on my machine and asks what i think, i would say:
THat has potential and could be anice nice game when all the SERIOUS technical issue get fixed and the polish is done. When is this early beta getting to be released ?
This would be my honest statement and should give you a hint of the games state.
Vanguard was #1 here when it was released.
But people got so very many serious issues and gameplay-bugs, that the tables turned and Vanguard dropped to #3 in only a few days.
If Sigil and esp. SoE (service) are not getting their business DAMN STRAIGHT in a shortes time, this game has the potential to become a disaster, which would be a major shame cuz it has so many nice aspects and huge potential.
I like Vanguard very much but i also cant stress out, that all the technical problems need a serious addrssing A S A P !!
Esp. younger customers are not willing to pay for such nightmare.
When THIS word is making the round, it can (and will) cause a huge harm to this title.
But who do i tell this?
It was said a million times with other games like Horizon, Star Wars Galaxies, Line Age etc etc etc.
And whats up with these games today?
Dead, killed, ruined.
I wonder when studios start to listen..but im afraid even my kids wont face that.
Have a nice one...
PS.:
Typos are not corrected, im in a hurry
Claude
Comments
I mean seriously...that was a bad move in my opinion.
The only issue I have at the moment is that i've seen just as many GOOD reviews as BAD ones...it seems 50/50 for most of the time!
So I'll continue to inwardly-digest user reviews of it, until they convince me to buy the game, some kind soul gives me a buddy key, or Sigil release a demo option.
Laters
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
This game needs a free trial. It would allow people to see for themselves and decide if they like it.
A good review, I agree with most points except the one about soloing - it's not boring at all, and definitely not painful; and graphics.
People put way too much accent on graphics today. And sorry, but placing Oblivion graphics in a MMO is just asking for unplayability. It's one thing to put such graphics in a single-player game (ever wondered why no Elder Scrolls game ever had NO multiplayer content) where anything not in the player's immediate area simply does not exist and does not need to be processed, where everyting is custom-tailored to avoid performance issues, and another to place such graphics in a game and expecting up to 50 player models, each different, to be rendered on screen even remotely smoothly?
No way. Hell, even WoW, with it's ultra-low polygon counts has problems staying smooth in raid fights or huge world battles (back when those actually happened, anyway).
I think expecting the same performance from a MMO as you get in an FPS or a single player game is just not realistic. And next-gen should not mean "better visuals". It should mean innovative concepts in gameplay. We can discuss if Vanguard is really that innovative, yes, but saying something is "next-gen" does not entail the necessity for better eye-candy, IMO.
Everyone has their own take. While I agree with alot of the review (definately NOT the graphic quality review), I love the game, play it every day and look forward to playing when I'm not playing. There's so much more to do in this game then any other I've ever played. The bugs tick me off at times (I've entered several bug reports) but with each patch the game gets better -I recommend that if you need a highly polished product wait 3 or 4 months then check the forums again.
Just a quick note on this. Oblivion was not made with the "Big World" Game Engine. It was made with the Gambryo Game Engine. Gambryo is the also the same game engine used in Civilization 4.
Edit: it's too early for me to be typing*