MMORPGs, love them or hate them when the potential monthly cash-cow a successful MMO can be the genre is here to stay. Vanguard, created by Sigil Games Online and published by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), is your standard high-fantasy Elf and wizard affair that looks to enforce and expand on genre touchstones. Vanguard supports a meaty variety of Races with 19 total playable races commanding 15 unique playable classes at the time of the release, with the Inquisitor and Berserker to be released after. Upon creating their characters players may choose races as varied as lesser giants and gnomes to Dark Elves and furry friendly feline humanoids. There are three main continents with a plethora of climates and environments, and oceans all there to be explored by players.
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| The most furry "friendly" game since Furcadia! |
Game-play in Vanguard falls into one of three spheres of play: Adventuring, Crafting, and Diplomacy. Adventuring is the most common MMO style of play and players won't find many changes to the “tried-and-true” method of game-play. Players will grab and complete quests, form groups and camp spawn-points, or enter and clear out various dungeons. Casual players beware! Vanguard has a very steep leveling curve, as of this writing I am over 150 hours of playtime in and only level 24 out of 50.
Moving on to the next sphere, crafting in Vanguard is by far one of the better experiences I've had in an MMO. Crafting doesn't feel like a tacked on afterthought as in some MMOs but has a strong impact in the world economy. Players will be able to craft items as small as backpacks and earrings to big ticket items such as ships and player or guild housing. Many of the larger or more unique items will require multiple crafters from different areas of expertise to work together till the culmination of the project.
The final sphere of advancement is Diplomacy. Diplomacy is a new concept in MMOs and in Vanguard can create real, if only temporary, impacts in the world at large. This changes may be as simple as getting two people to talk together again or as big as to have groups of soldiers stop protecting a city or give large and sweeping bonuses to any and all players in the vicinity. One addictive part of diplomacy is that players advance through a series of customizable card game battles with NPCs.
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| Yes I cried when viewing this landscape and no that doesn't make me a woman! |
The graphics in Vanguard is a thing of wonder. Players with a good rig have the ability to turn the distance view up to insane levels. The level of detail in the terrain and buildings is simply awe-inspiring. But all of this beauty comes at a cost. Players hoping to play Vanguard will need healthy system specs along with a vector and pixel shader 2.0 compatible graphics card.
Ok so here it is, many of the developers at Sigil worked on the original Everquest game with Vanguard appearing to be a spiritual successor, even more so than Everquest 2. Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is the MMO players MMO. This will either be a great thing or a bad thing that is for the player to decide. Players will need quite the masochistic streak to subject themselves to some aspects of this game, especially if they do not have a high quality computer to play Vanguard on. Vanguard seems slightly unfinished and as though it was rushed to completion. The SOE and Sigil team have done, to date, a great job at creating new content and squashing bugs as they appear and this game will continue to improve in the upcoming months. There is already a bevy of content available for players of all ages and many MMO players will not have boredom seep in on their grind to level 50. Come on, how many MMOs out there turn you into a vampire when bitten by one? There is quite a bit of potential in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes but the hardcore nature with some of the unfinished qualities will keep away all but the most hardcore players for awhile. Casual players beware, masochistic hardcore MMO players enjoy!
