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Review of Vanguard (Not a Flame, Not a Vanboy)
Daedalus732
Member Posts: 589
Hi everyone,
I recently decided with all the information floating out there about Vanguard that few people who actually played the game to any real depth were giving reviews and information on the game. That said, everyone should know up front that I've decided to stop playing Vanguard. My reasons are numerous as will be explained later for those who care to read about them, but suffice it to say, I'm not having fun playing Vanguard and this is in no small part due to the glitches, bugs, and in general, a lack of content in the game.
Who I Am and Why It Matters
I'm a 21 (almost 22) year old, full time college student who works 20 hours a week and lives with his future wife and a dog named Spunky. As you can imagine, all of these things take a considerable amount of time, but in the end, I still have about 4 or 5 hours a day in which I can relax and play games. I think this is crucial to understand because everyone has responsibilities outside of the games we play with others, and game companies need to find the middle ground when trying to decide how much effort should go into something before the player sees a return. With that in mind, lets move on to the game.
Vanguard's Main Features (Ups and Downs)
There are three "Spheres" of Vanguard. One requires you to kill things, one requires you to craft things, and the other requires you to play a strategy based card game. These are Adventuring, Crafting, and Diplomacy Respectfully.
Adventuring is pretty straightforward. Simply use your abilities and weapons to kill things. All in all, there's really nothing new here. Even in groups, combat doesn't really generate anything special. It quickly becomes a repetitive grouping exercise to find the best loot so you become more valuable the next time you look for a group. If that's all you want out of a fight, then Vanguard gives it to you in spades. If you are looking for something original, then you've come to the wrong place.
Crafting involves several "Steps" in which you expend "Action Points" throughout the process to create an item. You only have so many crafting points, so you have to be careful about how you spend them, or you could end up with no item and wasted resources. Crafting has to be one of the worst and certainly buggiest aspect of the game at this point in time. It's a grind, but it's a grind with random negative complications that crop up making it impossible for you to knowingly produce an item of the same quality repeatedly. It's not a very difficult process to understand, but it has got to be one of the most boring and repetitive actions I've seen in any MMO to date.
Diplomacy involves playing a kind of strategy card game, in which the goal is to keep a little progress marker on your end of a progress bar. It's actually a pretty enjoyable and creative element, but unfortunately it doesn't really give you anything in the way of loot or money, so it's not terribly productive to the advancement of your character in the early stages of the game.
All of these spheres (With the exception of diplomacy) would not have disappointed me so much if Sigil had not expressly promised a unique and reactive combat system (which doesn't seem to exist) and a crafting system that wouldn't involve grinding your way up the progress bar. Instead, both elements are a grind, though adventuring can seem less so when you are exploring dungeons with a group. But standing alone crafting for hours just doesn't give any real sense of accomplishment.
Vanguard's "Unique" Elements
Vanguard tried to sell itself as a game with limitless possibilities. You can own your own home that's placed in the environment (Like SWG offered) and even buy flying mounts once you get up high enough in the levels. And finally, you can even build and command your own boat in which you can invite your friends to take a ride and battle pirates and other PVE elements out in the oceans.
Owning your own plot of land is nice and all, but I can't get excited about that for some reason. I had to think: "Why do I want a house out in the open? So I can show off how much loot I've received going through countless dungeons?". It's a nice concept, but I don't think it does much. Also, the plots of land are typically far from the main cities, making your journey back and fourth kind of tedious.
Flying mounts and mounts in general are cool, but the novelty seems like it would wear off pretty fast. Then you just have some expensive mount you can show off to lower levels and maybe get to other dungeons. Again, it's a circular sort of thing. It never leads to anything new or original. It's a self-perpetuating existence.
Building and sailing you own ships might be pretty cool. I haven't experienced his element of the game yet, but I even if this part of the game became super unique and fun, it just wouldn't be enough to pull the rest of the game up from where it currently stands. I do suspect however that boats will mainly become another method of grouping and fighting on the ocean, offering little new to the game experience.
Why You should Play Vanguard
If it's fun to you, you should play it. Pure and simple. For me, this game just isn't the fun I was looking for. I left EQ2 to play Vanguard, and found the game to be a shell of an MMO. Maybe it has "potential" as many claim, but then again, it might turn out to be a total flop. It's a risk, and each person needs to decide if the time and money are worth it.
Some Final Thoughts
Vanguard needs a lot of work to be anywhere near completed. It was rushed out the door to ensure that the whole project wouldn't get dropped (NY Times Article). It also requires a beast of a machine to run, and offers little in return for all the energy it sucks from your computer. The "seamless" world that it offers actually does have zones, and you become aware of them as you cross them. There is little or no customer support, role playing is non-existent, and there are so many bugs that progress is even slower going than was intended. Vanguard is unfinished, and I do not personally believe that I should be charged to play a product in its beta stage.
Why I'm Leaving Vanguard
Aside from all the negative aspects of the game that I mentioned, I'm also leaving the game because I have guilds and friends on other MMOs that offer more than Vanguard does currently. There's simply not that much to do in Vanguard outside of the three spheres, with exploring being a rather tedious process as you don't ever actually get a decent map (You're expected to remember where everything is be memory) and can't create your own POI on the maps itself. Many game features are not even available (Fellowships and Caravans) and animations for head armor and spell effects still do not exist.
Simply put, this game was suppose to be the next big MMO, but it doesn't offer anything special. Despite claiming otherwise, Sigil doesn't understand the difference between a challenge and a tedious romp through the vast countryside. In a nutshell, the main parts of the game have serious issues and there simply no little side elements of the game that can be explored in the mean time.
Bottom Line
If this game is fun for you, then play it and ignore the people trashing it. If it's not fun for you, then play something else.
I recently decided with all the information floating out there about Vanguard that few people who actually played the game to any real depth were giving reviews and information on the game. That said, everyone should know up front that I've decided to stop playing Vanguard. My reasons are numerous as will be explained later for those who care to read about them, but suffice it to say, I'm not having fun playing Vanguard and this is in no small part due to the glitches, bugs, and in general, a lack of content in the game.
Who I Am and Why It Matters
I'm a 21 (almost 22) year old, full time college student who works 20 hours a week and lives with his future wife and a dog named Spunky. As you can imagine, all of these things take a considerable amount of time, but in the end, I still have about 4 or 5 hours a day in which I can relax and play games. I think this is crucial to understand because everyone has responsibilities outside of the games we play with others, and game companies need to find the middle ground when trying to decide how much effort should go into something before the player sees a return. With that in mind, lets move on to the game.
Vanguard's Main Features (Ups and Downs)
There are three "Spheres" of Vanguard. One requires you to kill things, one requires you to craft things, and the other requires you to play a strategy based card game. These are Adventuring, Crafting, and Diplomacy Respectfully.
Adventuring is pretty straightforward. Simply use your abilities and weapons to kill things. All in all, there's really nothing new here. Even in groups, combat doesn't really generate anything special. It quickly becomes a repetitive grouping exercise to find the best loot so you become more valuable the next time you look for a group. If that's all you want out of a fight, then Vanguard gives it to you in spades. If you are looking for something original, then you've come to the wrong place.
Crafting involves several "Steps" in which you expend "Action Points" throughout the process to create an item. You only have so many crafting points, so you have to be careful about how you spend them, or you could end up with no item and wasted resources. Crafting has to be one of the worst and certainly buggiest aspect of the game at this point in time. It's a grind, but it's a grind with random negative complications that crop up making it impossible for you to knowingly produce an item of the same quality repeatedly. It's not a very difficult process to understand, but it has got to be one of the most boring and repetitive actions I've seen in any MMO to date.
Diplomacy involves playing a kind of strategy card game, in which the goal is to keep a little progress marker on your end of a progress bar. It's actually a pretty enjoyable and creative element, but unfortunately it doesn't really give you anything in the way of loot or money, so it's not terribly productive to the advancement of your character in the early stages of the game.
All of these spheres (With the exception of diplomacy) would not have disappointed me so much if Sigil had not expressly promised a unique and reactive combat system (which doesn't seem to exist) and a crafting system that wouldn't involve grinding your way up the progress bar. Instead, both elements are a grind, though adventuring can seem less so when you are exploring dungeons with a group. But standing alone crafting for hours just doesn't give any real sense of accomplishment.
Vanguard's "Unique" Elements
Vanguard tried to sell itself as a game with limitless possibilities. You can own your own home that's placed in the environment (Like SWG offered) and even buy flying mounts once you get up high enough in the levels. And finally, you can even build and command your own boat in which you can invite your friends to take a ride and battle pirates and other PVE elements out in the oceans.
Owning your own plot of land is nice and all, but I can't get excited about that for some reason. I had to think: "Why do I want a house out in the open? So I can show off how much loot I've received going through countless dungeons?". It's a nice concept, but I don't think it does much. Also, the plots of land are typically far from the main cities, making your journey back and fourth kind of tedious.
Flying mounts and mounts in general are cool, but the novelty seems like it would wear off pretty fast. Then you just have some expensive mount you can show off to lower levels and maybe get to other dungeons. Again, it's a circular sort of thing. It never leads to anything new or original. It's a self-perpetuating existence.
Building and sailing you own ships might be pretty cool. I haven't experienced his element of the game yet, but I even if this part of the game became super unique and fun, it just wouldn't be enough to pull the rest of the game up from where it currently stands. I do suspect however that boats will mainly become another method of grouping and fighting on the ocean, offering little new to the game experience.
Why You should Play Vanguard
If it's fun to you, you should play it. Pure and simple. For me, this game just isn't the fun I was looking for. I left EQ2 to play Vanguard, and found the game to be a shell of an MMO. Maybe it has "potential" as many claim, but then again, it might turn out to be a total flop. It's a risk, and each person needs to decide if the time and money are worth it.
Some Final Thoughts
Vanguard needs a lot of work to be anywhere near completed. It was rushed out the door to ensure that the whole project wouldn't get dropped (NY Times Article). It also requires a beast of a machine to run, and offers little in return for all the energy it sucks from your computer. The "seamless" world that it offers actually does have zones, and you become aware of them as you cross them. There is little or no customer support, role playing is non-existent, and there are so many bugs that progress is even slower going than was intended. Vanguard is unfinished, and I do not personally believe that I should be charged to play a product in its beta stage.
Why I'm Leaving Vanguard
Aside from all the negative aspects of the game that I mentioned, I'm also leaving the game because I have guilds and friends on other MMOs that offer more than Vanguard does currently. There's simply not that much to do in Vanguard outside of the three spheres, with exploring being a rather tedious process as you don't ever actually get a decent map (You're expected to remember where everything is be memory) and can't create your own POI on the maps itself. Many game features are not even available (Fellowships and Caravans) and animations for head armor and spell effects still do not exist.
Simply put, this game was suppose to be the next big MMO, but it doesn't offer anything special. Despite claiming otherwise, Sigil doesn't understand the difference between a challenge and a tedious romp through the vast countryside. In a nutshell, the main parts of the game have serious issues and there simply no little side elements of the game that can be explored in the mean time.
Bottom Line
If this game is fun for you, then play it and ignore the people trashing it. If it's not fun for you, then play something else.
Comments
Totally agree with everything the OP said .. well writen too
Thanks for the review!
eqnext.wikia.com
Something I forgot to add explicitly in my original post (And this is something everyone should be able to agree on) Vanguard requires a major time commitment. Probably at least 20 hours a week for you to see any real progress that's going to be enjoyable for you (Thought I'm sure this varies from person to person). There's none of this "log in for a few hours a week and play with your friends" thing that the developers claimed that wanted to see implemented. It takes a long time to do anything, whether that be level up in the adventuring part of the game or finding an NPC to parley with in Diplomacy.
This is NOT a game for the casual MMO player.
The game seems to be made to take a long time. The problem for me is that there's simply too few roses along the way for me to stop and smell.
I like it A LOT. Everytime i log in, i donno what to do... should i level my crafting, diplomacy or adventuring hmm... How many people from my guild is in? 4, ok, let's do quest. I'm alone? No prob, let's craft or diplomasize (!!!!!).
eqnext.wikia.com
eqnext.wikia.com
Your post pretty much sums my thoughts up on it at this point.
I still far from lvl 20 (currently 13adv, 7blacksmith and 50dip) and i love it. I guess i'll know later on, but from the adv point, it freaking love it. The mecanics of combat are somehow like EQ1... and playing with friends and vent/teamspeak is a must IMO.
eqnext.wikia.com
Some starting continents have more to see and it feels more finished in those areas. They should have scaled down the world and made every race and every continent feel more complete to hook everyone. Some races are less interesting then others for this reason.
Maybe thats the problem, if the game bores you right away you convince yourself it could never entertain you, but others may be getting a different perspective because of it?
Focus on making an interesting world rather then a huge vaste wasteland of emptyness. They could have always added more later. It just doesint seem very smart on the developers part to focus on other races more then others. But when you have so many of them, its easier said then done, i just think 19 or so is too many during launch. Ide rather have 4 or 5 complete race of characters and a more interesting detailed world.
But different strokes for different folks right?
I think that's a good point. Some areas do feel more finished than others, and everyone is going to either like or dislike the game depending on your style of play.
If I had 5 friends on teamspeak with me and we could coordinate times to play together, I might enjoy the game a little more, but I don't think it would take away the repetitiveness factor.
Oh well, to each his own.
Good review, very fair and balanced.
I miss DAoC
I guess I was looking for something new and instead very little of Vanguard was over all. Quests still follow the same patterns as games before. Diplomacy, I did manage to get to about level 75 (give or take) and it wasn't my cup of tea. Crafting I didn't quite give an honest chance although I dabbled in it a bit.
People will have to try it for themselves and as the OP said, if you like it then have the time of your life with it.
Similar to my thoughts. The bugs themselves are not my big issue. It the number of bugs and type of bugs - and many have been around since beta 3 at least.
But the real reason I am rapidly losing interest in Vg is because the promise of all sorts of original things simply has not come to pass. It is just another grindfest for the most part.
And the quests - if you can call 300 different "kill-a-rat" things "quests" are simply repeated over and over and over. I have done over 125 quests, and of all those not a single one showed any originality at all. Nearly every single one was just a simple "kill 8 mobs and come back" type thing. Even WOW has better quests, and those in EQ and EQ2 far surpass them.
Diplomacy just seems .. lame. I got up to about 35 and decided it was just another grind, and a very buggy one at that.
And I would agree 100% with the OP on player housing. Why in the world they stuck the housing areas an hour run from anyplace at all is a mystery to me. And why have a house - it does not seem to serve any purpose. Supposedly you can set up a shot to sell there (if they ever get that in the game), but why bother - who in the hell would run 30-60 minutes to your house to buy something?