Customer Reviews

Vanguard Saga of Heroes

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(20)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

Having read most of the 75 posted reviews to date, it is very clear this is a "Love It or Hate It" game and there's no in-between. But there's not been anything significant posted in several weeks, so I felt a need to update anyone considering this MMO. Most of these posts (sadly) do not do this outstanding game justice.

First of all, I played EQ1 since Kunark and have been searching for something to fill that addiction ever since. I've tried DAOC, EQ2, AC2, Guild Wars, WoW, SWG, and several others, but nothing (and I mean nothing) has been able to fill that EQ1 void like this does. I have an extensive MMO background to base my opinion upon.

Now, obviously, there are huge similarities between this and EQ1, being developed by the same minds. However, there are so many improvements, drawing from all of the above mentioned MMO's that it leaves one to wonder how can there be so much hostility towards this game??

I will be the first to admit that this is not a 3rd generation MMO. I don't believe such a thing exists yet. This does however (given the chance) draw the gamer into its environment and provide an immersive, fun gaming experience whether for hours on end, or just a short period.

Being a "mature" gamer (35+), I for one despise the WoW-kiddie environments and all the BS smacktalking and region spam that goes on in most MMO's. I think that in general VG provides a more mature community, and from what I have encountered over the last 8 months of playing VG, most of the people you ask questions of are more than willing to help you get the answer or explain why something is the way it is. Most of the hostile reviews that I have read are transparent enough to know that either they didn't give the game enough of a chance, or couldn't get the desired group within the first 5 minutes, so quit the game altogether. WTH? Give it a chance people.

My "main" currently is a level 38 Disciple. This class is a combination of a cleric & a monk, and can solo extremely well (as well as very desireable in a group). I can solo mobs up to 2-3 levels above me depending on the number of "dots". Anyone who says they can't beat same level mobs solo, doesn't know how to play their class. I've tried them all and all classes are self-sufficient, just in different ways.

This is not a game that you are going to "conquer" within the first 90 days. Nor is it meant to be. Buy this game only if you are looking for an open ended, fun, relationship-building experience that is going to last you several years. I read several times on these posts phrases like "waste of money" and "not worth the monthly fee". How much do you spend at the movies for a 2 hour joyride? I consider VG extremely cheap entertainment.

Here are the GOOD vs. the BAD in Vanguard:
(BAD)
- laggy at times (now made worse by the server merges)
- incessant gold-seller spamming (granted most to all MMO's have this)
- occasional crash-to-desktop issues
- some minor bugs still exist in quests
- lack of "raid" content (for now)
(GOOD)
- outstanding graphics (at any setting)
- challenging and fun quests/missives that reward experience accordingly
- a complex faction system requiring you to have to earn your player renown and status
- a HUGE (at least 10 times larger than WoW) expansive world to explore with multiple continents that have a distinctly different feel to each
- a new Diplomacy sphere which is fun and immersive
- excellent player crafted items making crafting a worthwhile endeavor
- a mature player base (for the most part)
- huge replayability factor, making alt characters almost a necessity in order to learn all the aspects of the various starting areas
- multiple mount options starting at level 10, several of which require very involved quests

Now I do have certain minor beefs with some of the recent changes to the game (such as making all gear "bind on equip"), but these pale in comparison to the overall abuse this game is taking from what seems like 70% of the reviews.

As you can see, the GOOD outweighs the BAD in Vanguard. Hopefully, this info will aid those with an open mind to give this worthy game a chance.

I got into this game during beta, I've been playing it since launch. I watched Sigil fall apart and SOE jump in. The game development is handled so poorly it's getting ridiculous.

Set yourself free is the slogan, the image is an adventurer soaring high in the sky wherever he wants to go. Not gonna happen for you in game. STILL, you can only fly on rentals for a couple minutes. They don't even work very well either, they will poof and cause you to fall to your death. Pretty annoying when you PAY for it, then have to run back and buy another one. Don't forget that you need to go find your corpse where it dropped you. Perhaps some day they can fix this and add in the quest for flying mounts. They already finished the quests on their end, but they haven't been added yet.

Guild halls were just barely added, but they require more work than anyone imagined. That's fine though, I appreciate the hard core side of it. WoW is pathetic, any step away from WoW is good. The problem is the over camped quest items you need that nobody can get without spawn camping on the hour. Not only do you have all the guilds from 4 different servers trying to get them (they had to have a server merge because the population is dying), you have the jerks camping them to sell them. It's not hardcore, it's lame. They admit this and are gonna fix it...it's fixed on their end. They've said it's been fixed on their end for a month now yet we still don;t have it live yet. See a trend?

They promised so many things and they couldn't deliver at launch. That was fine with me, you create a beast of a game you deserve a little slack and extra time in my book. Sigil tried to push updates in quickly and just broke the game further, now SOE takes forever to do ANYTHING. I'm still paying for this game because I enjoy my guild mates, but I don't know how much longer I can allow the poor development to drag it's feet and charge me money. I understand the mess they had to clean up and how much time is needed, but it's getting to be too much effort for the reward.

The 3 spheres don't work very well with each other. Adventuring and Crafting have the relationship you'd expect, but Diplomacy has been downright pointless since launch. They decided to make diplomacy finally worth it by making the guild hall construction require top tier diplomats. That just created a rush of mad grinders and players botting their way up. They are supposed to be needed in raiding whenever they actually add that. The diplo and craft grinds can really split up a guild if you are not careful.

This game still has a lot of promise and could be something some day but they need to start getting things done quicker. They are losing their fanbase the longer they take to get this to what it should have been at release. This game will eventually need PVP introduced to PVE servers, they talked about putting PVP on PVE servers but it's never happened thanks to the PVP being terrible on the PVP servers and everything else being a cluster-fudge.

I am very down on this game right now, but it has it's redeeming qualities still. It has unique classes and plenty of customization for now, most of my guild mates play their characters uniquely. I have had more fun with my Disciple than I have ever had playing another class in any other mmo. There are less complex classes like Sorcerer, but Rogues and Disciples are by far my favorite because of their complexity.

Plenty of quests, this game has a lot to do at most levels. I have seen official reviews bashing some of the quests because they were poorly written, but those have been re-worked. There was a lot of typos in the beginning. I have always enjoyed the quests, they even have some adult humor in the game that is not so obvious as other games. This game has a lack of lore behind it, but it has amazing lore buried down in the much ignored diplomacy quests. I thought the Kurashasa (cat race) initial diplomacy quests were great and as I traveled they still kept my interest.

They didn't want portals in this game, but they were forced to add them because of how buggy the game was. The boats would drop players in the water and the game would crash, they could not leave it like that with how large the world is. The game doesn't crash anymore, the boats don't drop you anymore, but the portals have stayed. They caved. That bothered me, but I can get over it. There is still plenty of hard core left in this game.

Crafting is respectable, it is very deep like SWG had. It is perhaps the longest grind in the game. It's complexity is GREAT! The rare items you need for great crafted items are GREAT! However, the way you level is by doing work orders for NPCs. Boooooooooooooooring. They needed to mix it up here, it's insane doing the amount of work orders needed. I know, I did them for 50 levels. They have introduced rest xp and lowered the xp curve so it's much easier now. I don't know exactly how it is now because they did this after I got to the top tier, but guildies have said it's better now.

Plenty of positives and negatives with this game, sadly the positives are overshadowed by things like no flying mounts, no helmets, no tails on animal races, no raiding, no decent pvp etc. The good news is that they have done a lot with the performance issues this game has had.

The community is better than WoW and EQ2, reminds me of the old SWG crowd. Sadly the majority is busy complaining, but when they are playing the game and focused they are great people.

I can't really recommend this game right now, but I hope you do come check it out. I don't see any other decent mmorpgs coming out. Most everything these days are WoW clones. This game was built with the right idea, huge world with tons of customization. Details, depth, freedom. SOE has been slow, but they have tried to stick with that original plan. I have hope still.

Ok - so I have only played 3 other MMOs - Lineage II for 2 years, Archlord for 4 months, and WoW for about 30 minutes. I have looked at other MMOs in stores, and read the reviews, but I have only purchased and played the ones mentioned.

I have just finished reading all 66 reviews currently posted. For those of you who purchased VG before or just after its release and did not like it, I suggest that you go back and give it another try. Many of the issues have been resolved.

There are now so many quests that your quest log book can not hold them all. Yes, there are only a few for the beginning areas - but there are tons of beginning areas. If you do not like the quests in your area - go to another one.

However, that is not typically necessary - as the beginning quests provide enough experience to get to higher levels and more quests.

Which brings us to what is often referred to as the "GRIND". Killing mobs over and over and over and over again to get to the next level. It is my understanding that all MMOs require experience to get to the next level and this is typically done by killing monsters. Now, I came from Lineage II where the grind is truly horrible. You kill mobs all day long and only gain a small percentage of your level.

VG is not like that at all. Yes, there is a grind, but in addition to the actual quests, there are also missives in the small towns and outposts which offer excellent experience when you consider the time it takes to complete them. And, as an added bonus, you can turn in 10 of these missives for the chance at a decent reward. As an exmample of the experience for these missives, my level 30 warrior was able to earn 40% of the experience needed for his next level in about 90 mins. This would be unheard of in Lineage II.

Death penalty? Of course there should be a death penalty. If you are stupid enough to put yourself in a situation where you will die - you deserve a penalty. I have died several times and do not consider the penalty particularly harsh. You lose some experience. Other MMOs - like Lineage II - you drop equipment - which anyone can pick up and keep. Never mind that said equipment took weeks or months to earn - unless you buy $$ from gold sellers.

Which brings me to the other part that previous reviews have missed. The economy of VG. While VG does have its gold sellers, they are not as prevelant as they are in WoW and Lineage II. Lineage II in particular was overrun with bots and sellers.

In VG, it is simply not necessary to spend real money to buy fake money to get the items you need. If you truely need a particular item, you always have the option of starting an alt (alternative character) and leveling his crafting ability to make the item you need. Or making it yourself. My warrior is also an armorsmith and can make his own armor. If he needs something other than armor, he can trade items he makes for items he needs.

Many people complained about the lag, things disappearing, and no one to group with.

As far as I can tell, these have all been addressed. Things no longer disappear (That was annoying) I play on the Hillsbury server, and there are always people willing to group up. I have never had a problem find a group when I needed one. The lag is non-existent for me - barring the times I move to a new "chunk" (region)

Overall, I have found VG to be an exceptional game which does indeed address many of the problems other games have. For those of you who gave up - give it another shot. For those of you who are considering it - I beleive it to be a good buy.

There was a whole lot of hype about how Vanguard was going to be a "third generation MMO" that built on the gameplay of its predecessors. Games like EQ1 and UO were classified as "first generation" and games like CoX, WoW, EQ2, etc. were classified as "second generation". So the idea was that Vanguard would advance the genre, and the FAQ about their design goals was impressive to say the least.

Unfortunately, that's not the game that released.

I'm not talking about graphics here. For graphics to advance much, hardware must first advance. In Vanguard's case, the graphics are in some ways truly stunning -- IF your computer can hack it. I have a powerful computer with a GeForce 8800GTX OC video card, and getting the game to look as good as Everquest 2 reduces playability to an unacceptable level. Vanguard chugs. But that's not my complaint because I never expected Vanguard (or any other 32-bit game) to exceed the current fare for visual quality.

My complaint with this game is the gameplay itself, which is very pedestrian. There's really nothing to make me want to leave the other games that I'm already playing. Your first few hours in the game are strictly ho-hum. There's nothing to really grab you and make you say, "wow, this is fun!" The newbie experience is probably closer to Lineage 2 with all of its grinding than any of the other MMO's that are currently popular. (In almost all starting zones, there are not enough quests to get you through the levels. Before you get to level 8 -- and in some cases, before you get to level 4 -- you WILL be spending at least part of your time running around killing random mobs because the developers haven't given you anything else to do.)

Those newbie levels are designed to get you experienced enough that you can team up with a group and go dungeon delving. For this you'll be in cramped quarters competing with dozens of other groups for the same mobs. Want to solo? Forget about doing anything in the dungeons. And if you don't want to spend your time in dungeons, then be ready for more grinding. A lot of it.

Character creation is nothing special. The characters don't look particularly great, with only a few face textures to choose from. Everything else is handled by morphs, and some of the morphs make them look terrible. Ultimately, the characters look about as diverse as DAoC or EQ2, which is to say that the differences are only noticeable if you're really looking for them.

Harvesting is another example of where the game did away with its original ideas. You originally had several harvesting skills that you could use during the harvest to influence the outcome and possibly get more resources. This whole system was ultimately done away with, and now you just click on the node (WoW-style) and wait until it's done. The only real difference from WoW is that you can get more from the node if multiple party members harvest it with you. Exciting, huh?

As for the world, yes it's very big and very pretty. But it's also very empty. Because the developers created a single supposedly seamless world, they had to leave large areas with nothing in them so that they can add more content later. Just getting from the newbie area to the next adventuring area usually requires walking. And walking. And more walking. All through landscape that is largely the same as what you've already seen, with few landmarks or other points of interest. Of course, you can get a mount so that you can get there faster. Or you can caravan in which case you join up with a group and log out of the game while someone else goes through the tedium of walking/riding to the destination.

I think that Vanugard has the potential to be pretty good after it has a couple of expansions under its belt. Unfortunately, it's just not that interesting now. Certainly not interesting enough to pull me away from what my friends and I are already doing! I'm not alone in this opinion, either. I have about 50 friends who were all anxiously looking forward to Vanguard. Once we played it, though, we all changed our minds.

I'm sure that this game will appeal to people who want things to be difficult for difficult's sake, like grinding, and believe that the game itself doesn't have to be fun if they have enough of an imagination to create their own fun. For everyone else, there are other offerings on the market.

I really wanted to like this game but the bugs and performance of the game made it unplayable. This product feels like beta and SOE should be ashamed of charging customers to test their products. Besides all the technical issues the game is standarg mmorpg faire. The combat is similar to WoW's and the crafting is the same as EQ2's. The world design is beautiful, but feels sterile. There are no little creatures scurrying about, or any social hubs like Mos Eisley in SWG or Ironforge in WoW. I think the game will suffer from the great expanses of nothingness in a couple months and may become a ghost town. Anyways, save your money unless you absolutely must play the latest in SOE's lineup.

Ok, this game wasn't ready to release yet. We know that. There are a lot of bugs that are annoying that are being worked on. There comes a point in game's developent that the higer-ups say we need to release this game to replenish funds. That is fine, again, Sigil and SOE are in the business to make money. Every MMO that has ever been released had bugs. Even with the annoying bugs and occasionally boots to desktop, I still play. Why? Because this game is fun, and here is why.

The game is huge. 3 starting continents that blow away the size of any MMO to date. This makes traveling and exploring fun. This also spreads out the people on the server so pretty much you can have multiple groups in the same dungeon at the same time and not even know it. Unilke EQ2 there are lots of options to do at any level. There are lots of dungeons and camps for soloers, small groups, and well-equipped groups. If you are sick of going to the same ones, there are always 2 more huge continents to try.

The game supports lots of play styles. The crafting and diplomacy aspects of the game are fun and challenging. If you are a solo player you can still get nice gear and do lots of things. The game also supports small and full 6 man groups. I have not had the opportunity to raid as of yet, so I cannot comment on that aspect. Fighting takes thought and patience and is more that pressing a few buttons over and over.

The graphics are not mind blowing and are comparable to EQ2. The views I would say at some points are much nicer than EQ2. Music is average which doesn't bother me since I usually turn it off or play my own anyways. Overall, the thing that I like about this game is the potential. Once the bugs are worked out and the world is filled, this will be one of the best. So far it does remind me of the orignal in EQ in that dying is no fun, corpse retrieval is challenging, and you are just a small part of a huge world.

I have played a dozen of MMO beginning with UOL and finishing with Age of Conan that I have just desinstalled fatre it occupied my HD for full whooping 8 days .
In my personnal ranking sofar I had :
EQ N°1 for immersion and the size of the world
LOTRO N°1 for graphics and a consistent story line/quest system
EQ2 N°1 for trade skills

After a friend's suggestion I had installed Vanguard 1 week ago .
Sofar it has been a very rewarding experience .

The overall feeling is clearly EQ like while many additionnal features were added .
The strong points I already noticed :
- a mature player basis . Many quilds require 18+ for membership and the players are accordingly rather helpfull and patient . That makes for a pleasant change after having suffered for 1 + year the WoW masses .
- a very good customer service . Friday evening I have made a /report about a quest that wouldn't update correctly . I expected that I would perhaps get a mail on Monday telling me that they were working on it . Instead after 10 minutes I got a tell from a GM who joined me immediately and solved the problem . He was very friendly and polite what also was a pleasant change after most of other MMOs .
- original and excellent diplomacy system . Especially the newbie diplomacy quests are interesting and make for a good introduction in the game (as a Gnome I have been incorporated in the counterintelligence department and charged with the investigation of strange disappearance of mages and inventors) .
- the trade skills are similar to EQ2 that I rank N°1 so , obviously , I am very satisfied with it
- the world is huge and non instanced what enhances the immersion feeling
- the classes are very complementary and balanced . On top of the classical EQ classes (with enchanters called psionists here) there are blood mages and disciples . Sofar I have tried only 3 (necromancer , bard and psionist) and they get all 3 a very different gaming feel .
- patience is needed and players don't get spoonfed with items , XP and gold by just running around 10 minutes . That has also the merit that it effectively eliminates most kids that want everything at once . The death penalty is a good thing in that respect too .

To the weaker points I'd mention :

- one doesn't see many players . My highest level is 12 and I have met players only in the big cities . Sofar it was easy to solo but I play MMORPGs mostly for the first MM . If I wanted to go solo , I would not buy an OL game . I also noticed that calls for groups were extremely rare and when it happened it was in the 30ies range . I have been told that :
a) the world is so huge that players are all over the place
b) the bad launch of the game has chased most of the players away but the population began to go again up since SOE took over , eliminated most of the bugs and implemented features that were not there at launch
c) a free trial is foreseen in september that would create an influx of new players
Well wait and see . It was precisely the huge player basis that had been an important element of the immersion feeling in EQ .

- the graphics and character customisation . While not bad it could be improved

- too fast day/night change . It is irritating . I'd scale it to something like 3 hours day and 1 hour night .

Definitely the strong and original points of this game largely outweigh the weaker points and there is still potential to improvement by future releases .
I'd even rank it overall a tad above LOTRO that was for me sofar the best "modern" MMORPG .

I recommend it to any mature player and certainly to all those who appreciated EQ .

Ive played Vanguard since day 1 and enjoyed it from the beginning.

It had a rough start and lost many customers, but it has come a long way and is currently experiencing a resurgence of players. Performance is literally 100%-300% better for most players, with thousands of bugs squashed and quite a bit of new content.

Its about the only major MMO on the market now that can be considered a bit more 'old school'. If you enjoyed Everquest, this is about the only game out there that has the potential to make give you back a bit of that feeling. The huge open world is a big plus, and there is so much content that you have to play through multiple characters to ever see it all.

Its absolutely worth trying out now that it is ship shape, and there is going to be a free downloadable trial coming out in about 2-3 weeks from this date (august 10, 2008). Check it out!

The game is quite massive and time consuming to download all the game data and patches. However, once you get it all loaded up and actually start playing the game you forget all thoughs minor details. The graphics are superb and the community is very supportive. At first I thought the game was deserted, yet it turns out the lands are just so massive that its rare to run into anyone except in the towns. Yet if you do happen upon someone they'll almost always buff you without even having to ask. If you ever have a question you can just talk over the main channel and everyone will pitch in until the question is answered. The plus side to this game is many of the players are at least in there later teens (usually keeping the stupid your mom taunts and debates to a minimum)making the chats much more enjoyable then other online games I've been apart of. Overall a killer game to be apart of, just keep in mind your going to need a top level gaming console to meet even the bare req.'s of the game.

Vanguard is a great game. Yes, there are some bugs as it is relatively new. Yes, the population isn't what it will be and at times finding groups can be difficult. But I have noticed a steady increase in population and I am finding it now less difficult to group. Sony keeps releasing updates on a regular basis which is resolving bug issues. Aside from these 2 negatives, the positives in the game far outweigh them. Being able to build housing, level in crafting or diplomacy outside of the sphere of adventuring adds dimensions to the gameplay unseen elsewhere. The graphics are awesome! You will need a decent vid card and some system ram (I currently have 2GB) but these are trivial upgrades (which will enable you to play other great games in the process). Fun, this game is. It isn't for the impatient or those that want to play a game like WoW. It is a true MMORPG - don't forget the RPG part. It's not a cartoon nor does it try to be cheeky. If you want more of a challenge and want to immerse yourself in a fantasy world, Vanguard will take you there.