Vanguard: Saga of Heroes Review
One of the best PC MMORPG’s (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game) I’ve come across is Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. It’s owned and developed by Sony Online Entertainment, the same company that owns the well known EverQuest games.
Released in January of 2007, Vanguard has vastly improved since the beta version. Originally starting as a game with a lot of potential, but much needed polishing, it has grown into a versatile content-packed world with contentious GMs and regular updates.
The game itself is huge. It’s comprised of three continents and countless little islands, dungeons, caves and sunken ruins in the ocean. The only bummer is that the full game takes up 19G of hard drive space, so make sure you’ve got lots of room before trying to install it! The maximum settings for the graphics are absolutely stunning, so if you’ve got yourself a mean rig you’re in for a nice experience. If you’re curious what max settings look like, check out the YouTube video The Beauty of Vanguard II in HD.
Game play is standard WASD controls with mouse targeting and a pretty decent starting interface. It’s a game that mostly revolves around PVE, but you can consent to duelling and gain infamy by doing so.
There are nineteen different races to choose from, but about six of them are various human types so the initial number actually isn’t that exciting. There are fifteen different class types: three defensive fighters, four offensive fighters, four healer types and four caster types. I have to say though, whatever lack of imagination that went into races the class balancing makes up for it.
When you first make a character, you can choose to start in your home town or on the Isle of Dawn (IoD). IoD was released quite a bit later after the beta version and has all sorts of decent starter goodies for new characters and anyone wanting to try out the fourteen day trial. But it’s no piece of cake. Vanguard is not a game that one would call particularly easy during any level, and it encourages grouping as early as level nine, with tough bosses where a group comes in really handy!
However, adventuring isn’t the only thing you can do in Vanguard. There are in fact three different spheres of game play. You can choose to just adventure, or you can level your crafting and diplomacy.
Crafting is almost as in-depth as adventuring is. You can make just about anything you want (weapons, armour, jewellery; even boats and houses) and there are special crafting quests that offer up some pretty good rewards. Crafting also has a sort of sub-sphere where you can harvest for resources to use later. If you’re lucky you can get rare or even ultra-rare resources which will give you an improved version of an item you want to make.
Diplomacy is just that; you solve diplomatic problems in various towns. This is the only area of the game where I think it lacks content. You have a lot of decent quest options around your starting level to about level fifteen-twenty, but then there’s hardly anything until level 35. However, diplomacy can always be used for something called Civic Buffs. There are lots of different types of Buffs, some can aid your skill damage, health regeneration, even your harvesting attributes depending on which one you choose to work on.
All in all, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is a pretty good contender in the MMORPG line, offering up a game with amazing graphics and animation, variety, colourful NPC’s and is difficult enough to make you think. I’d give it an 8 on the 1-10 scale, simply because unless you have an amazing set up, it’s a game that’s very taxing on your computer.
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