Vanguard: Saga of Heroes (PC)

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is the new MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) by Sigil and Sony.

Set in the new fantasy world of Telon and firmly in the traditional Everquest mould (in fact by much of the same team) Vanguard is a game aimed at the more hardcore end of the market.


MMORPGs

For those not familiar with the concept, an MMORPG is a virtual world that can be connected to ...
...online characters (Avatars) which they use to battle monsters in the game or other players. Avatars gain in power through gaining experience and getting better equipment and are able to access higher level areas of the game. There are usually several identical versions of the world (servers) to accomodate all the players.


The World

The world is the newly created world of Telon and the first thing to notice is ... more

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is the new MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) by Sigil and Sony.

Set in the new fantasy world of Telon and firmly in the traditional Everquest mould (in fact by much of the same team) Vanguard is a game aimed at the more hardcore end of the market.

MMORPGs

For those not familiar with the concept, an MMORPG is a virtual world that can be connected to by large numbers of people throughout the world. People have online characters (Avatars) which they use to battle monsters in the game or other players. Avatars gain in power through gaining experience and getting better equipment and are able to access higher level areas of the game. There are usually several identical versions of the world (servers) to accomodate all the players.

The World

The world is the newly created world of Telon and the first thing to notice is that it is large. I mean huge, larger than any other game of its type. There are some fantastic panoramic vistas here and basically if you can see somewhere you can go there (though it may take a while) Sigil have tried to put the adventure back into journeying and the scope of the world should be applauded.

There are three major continents, the oriental themed Kojan, the Desert and Arabian themed Qualia and the more tradtionally medieval Thestra. Of these Kojan is a smaller series of Islands with content only up to level 25. This has been criticised by a number of players who were not told this upon starting and have invested a lot of time befreinding the races (building faction) of this continent with no reward.

The world is beautiful, the lighting effects are excellent, the draw distances huge and their is a high level of detail in the trees and flora. I have only seen a portion of the world but there is no graphical disappontment here. Particular praise should be given to the Wood Elf city of Ca'iel Brael which had me stopping for a while just to look. However some cities seem a little less finished with too many identical buildings. Sound is great with good atmospheric music but irritatingly repetative NPCs.

The creatures within the world are varied and well drawn they also spawn very quickly. If I have a criticism it is that some of them are used again at higher levels so I was fighting the same wasp with better statistics at levels 5 and 16. I would also mention that it is slightly irritating that monsters still attack you even when you are a much higher level than them and this slows you down when journeying through easy areas. Some of the larger creatures, especailly when they spawn unexpectedly will have you panicking and this is great.

There are a large number of quests to direct you to kill x number of enemies or carry x to x person, occasionally you will come along a series of quests leading to a final larger creature and this is much better, especially if you go through the whole series with a good group of friends.

Death sees you sent back to the closes alter where you can summon your tombstone (and equipment) for a brutal experience penalty and damage to your items or you can get back to your tombstone and mitigate the penalty. I think it is great that there are harsh penalties for dying, it makes you care more and gives you euphoria when you just survive. Healers can bring you back to life where you died for very little penalty.

Characters

Of course this type of game lives or dies by the characters you can create. There are a whopping 17 Races and 15 Classes to choose from. The races are both good and evil, there is the traditional orcs and goblins, elves (wood, high and dark) many types of humans, gnomes etc. There are also some more obscure classes such as Lesser Giant, Raki (fox based) and tiger and wolf based races. Your race has a direct bearing on the city in which you begin.

As for classes there is a huge range, broken down really into fighters (warriors, paladins, death knight), Rogues and Rangers, Casters (Sorcerer, Necromancer, Psyonisist) and Healers (Cleric, Blood Mage) different classes have different skill and it is a matter of personal preference what you select. Currently healers seem overpowered and the best classes in the game, there seem to be fewer fighters and they are always in demand for groups. Personally I play a Wood Elf Ranger.

Crafting

Vanguard has a comprehensive crafting system, much of the ingame items are crafted by players but there is a constant debate on whether the items that drop off monsters are just better ruining the crafting market.

There are six crafting classes, Minerologist (houses and jewelry) Carpenter (boats, bows and furniture), Tailor and Leatherworker, Armoursmith and Weaponsmith. Choosing something that relates to your class is a good idea.

The crafting process itself is clever wheth you having a series of action points to spend on balancing quality with actually completing the items and dealing with complications that occur. In effect each craft is a little mini game. There is a nice touch that as you advance you can make simple recipies in batches of 3 or 5. Your skill, tools, equipment and materials all make a difference to the final result.

Usually crafting in these games costs more money than it makes at low levels. Sigil have got past this by the introduction of Work orders where you craft for an NPC (Non Player Character) and they supply the material and give you cash and item rewards. This is an absolute godsend and you main method of advancement. I find as a carpenter the market for my crafting goods is sluggish but there is a huge market for boats in the future. Be warned crafting is hard and progress is slow.

You can also skill up two harvesting classes and gather materials to craft yourself or sell to crafters for some welcome cash. Harvesting is done on nodes of material and there is even the option to group harvest.

Diplomacy

Diplomacy is the third sphere of Vanguard there are many many missions that take place through diplompacy and the promise that some areas wil only be accessible if you bring along a high level diplomat.

Diplomacy takes place through a card game, a little like magic the gathering where you play what is in effect a tug of war with who is winning the conversation. The mechanics are hard to explain but it is very very fun. The rewards are great as well as I recieved a horse through diplomacy quests.

There is even city wide diplomacy where a group of diplomats can influence a city by talking to its inhabitants, this gives a bonus to everyone in the city whether they are diplomats or not as well as items for the diplomat. The whole concept of diplomacy is a fantastic feature and provides a welcome change of pace from hack and slash.

Features

Vanguard stands out from the crowd by putting some very clever features on what is a tried and tested idea. There are lots but here are some clever ones:

Flying Mounts: Though I am yet to see one you can raise and train flying, controllable, mounts such as Pegasi, Wyverns or Griffons and fly them anywhere you can see in the world.

Fellowships: For friends who want to stay the same level but who are on for different amounts of time they can form a fellowship. This means that experience, whenever earned, is shared among all members of the fellowship whether online or not. A fantastic feature though i might be too selfish to use it.

Equipment for each sphere: You gain equipment for diplomacy, adventuring, harvesting, crafting and your mount. This means you are constantly gaining new items and feel like you are making progress.

Bugs

Here comes the bad news. Sigil basically ran out of money during the development of the game and were forced to release or fold. This means there are many many bugs in the game. I personally have been stuck underground, had quests not update or fail upon completion and there are little irritations like the constant wish of the programe to dismount you.

Some people have had much more serious bugs such as experience and item loss. There is a trade off here, you are basically paying to test an unfinished product but if it takes off you will be some of the more advanced and powerful characters in the game. I will say that Sigil are aware of the problems and constantly bringing out fixes. They are also the only MMORPG not to run official forums to voice complaints which does not please me (I like to moan)

System Requirements

Usually I would leave this to the end but I have to say this is a hugely hugely processor intensive game, the specs are brutal and on my modest PC it does chug a bit (my friend had to buy a new PC!!). I will post the reccomended specs but it is possible to run with less

Recommended Specifications:
Windows 2000/XP/Vista
Processor 3.0Ghz Intel or 3500+ AMD processor
2GB RAM
Vertex and Pixel shader 2.0 compatible hardware with 256MB of texture memory.
DirectSound compatible audio hardware
Broadband Internet Connection
16X Speed DVD-ROM
20Gigabytes Hard Drive Space

Availability

It is available in most game shops and as a digital download from Sony (be warned its 20gb) its actually cheaper to get it online as a boxed game however. There is a $15 (£8) a month fee to play.

Personal Reccomendation

Do I reccomend this product? Yes because it has so much potential, so many clever ideas but for each one of these there is a frustration. But if you like to get in on the ground floor come and join the fun, there is a friendly and more mature community who dont mind the fact that the game is a bit harder, that there are punishments for dying and that you have to work for rewards.

This is a good game that may become great.  

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