Vanguard!

Diemos

This is a review of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes from my personal

experience. My PC has a Q6600 quad core, Nvidia 8800GT, 4 GB of RAM, and

a 500 GB SATA II hard drive. I originally played Vanguard about 3 to 4

months after its release. I loved all of the mechanics, combat, spheres,

crafting and generally everything about the game. But having a computer

that was slightly better than the recommended specs, I was constantly

running at about 7 to 13 frames per second, lagging all over the place,

and dealing with numerous bugs. I made it to level 36 with my Dark Elf

Cleric before it was just too much to deal with, so in turn I decided to

leave the game.

Recently I was reading the "re-reviews" about Vanguard and all the

positive write ups about the games current state. It was very

interesting to read how the game has developed from its fatal launch. So

I renewed my subscription and started from scratch with a new Cleric,

started on the Isle and was amazed at the amount of polish. All the

hardware problems from the past seem to be non existent. My computer has

not been upgraded and I currently run 52 frames per second on in the

world and about 32 frames per second in the major cities. The Isle is

watered down compared to the actual starting areas of the select races,

but I enjoyed it. As far as adventuring goes, it captures how it is at

the higher levels condensed into one small area. You have your easy,

solo type of quests then you get into some quests that need small group

(duo/trio) and then towards the end of the Isle you experience your

first dungeon which at your level which should be at 8 or 9 you should

go in as a full group. As far as crafting goes, the trainers and quests

from doing the crafting on the Isle are great tutorials to help a new

player understand the fantastic but complex crafting system. Also,

Diplomacy is really awesome! Not only is it a unique card game which is

actually about arguments with NPC's but the lore that comes out from

doing Diplomacy is really cool. All in all, if you level all three

spheres to 10 before leaving the Isle, the gear and items you receive

will be suitable for the next 6 to 9 levels.

I see a lot of people use the argument that they can just go play WoW or

EQ2 for the same type of game but with more polish and have better

frames per second. My response to that is no you can't, EQ2 and WoW

require basic home computer performance and take less than 10 GB of hard

drive space. There is a reason why Vanguard uses 20 GB of hard drive

space and hardware that's not going to be in the family PC. For one the

World is Massive, if you actually played in the world (not the Isle) you

would know its size, why we get our mounts at level 10, and now they

have rift ways to port you around to select locations. Regardless, the

only thing that truly compares WoW/EQ2 with Vanguard is the fact that

they are Fantasy MMO's. Combat is synergetic, your group can create

weaknesses on a mob for insane damage, each class has Chain, Counter,

Finisher, and Rescue attacks. Adventuring quests are in depth and worth

doing. In Vanguard, quest rewards are usually going to give you gear

that you can actually use. There are also in depth armor quest chains (I

love these) they start out with some solo quests then to get the good

gear you need to group up and go to a Dungeon. By the way there is no

instancing or zoning, you might find yourself walk up to a mob that will

just destroy you and you realize your in an outdoor dungeon. Now a lot

of people say "oh no, no instancing that means I can't go in a dungeon

and kill the mob I need because it will be camped." Well you are wrong,

again the world is so massive that I have never run into this problem.

You just don't get a group for Scarlet Monastery (WoW instance) because

it is one of two dungeons for your level, in Vanguard there are tons of

dungeons for level ranges on each continent.

Crafting is not putting two ingredients and making a stack of it with a

"create all" button, it is a complete process that you try to create a

quality item as you progress. Not only do you have a process to create a

"finished item" but crafting has 3 major processes, Assembly, Refining,

and Finishing. There are quest lines and work orders that you complete

to assist you on leveling while gaining faction, money, and crafting

gear/items.

Another argument people claim is "Diplomacy is cool for the first 2

minutes, but then it turns out to be some stupid in game card game".

Wrong again, through Diplomacy you discover tons of lore about the game.

You do not put so many cards in your strategy and play the same cards on

every parley. Every NPC you come across you will need to change your

cards out in your strategy. Diplomacy also affects the community,

Diplomats can parley against NPC's in cities to give all players in the

city all types of buffs that usually last about an hour. The player

housing and Guild Halls are awesome. You buy a plot of land and

construct a house with crafters materials, where you can have additional

storage and you can decorate the house anyway you would like. The guild

halls are amazing, all guild members help out with the process,

Diplomats have to do some parley quests and Crafters are needed for

their materials.

Vanguard brings back a lot of the original EQ mechanics and modernizes

it. There is a death penalty at level 11 where you will get experience

debt after death, but you receive 90% of your experience back after

corpse retrieval. Which in my opinion, it is not all that bad, the only

bad part is running back- but don't you do that in WoW. The games

philosophy is not lets give everyone tons of experience so they rush to

the end game, this game is a lot slower paced and does not make the

lower level content obsolete. 19 races and 15 classes to choose from,

there are a ton of options for you. In my opinion this will probably be

one of the last games that tried to bring back the original MMO concept,

instead of the current MMO concept of instant gratification with cheap

linear worlds. I know Vanguard has me hooked and I plan on being here

for a very long time. Honestly, if you want to play that type of game

why not get the latest and greatest single player RPG?