Chris "Pwyff" Tom checked out Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and found it to be an incredibly deep game - now all it needs is a bigger community to appreciate its grandeur.

As a writer in the MMO industry and someone whose only real source of gaming involves MMORPGs, I have to say that I used to be fairly depressed about the state that the industry was in. With World of Warcraft casting its 11.5 billion user shadow over everything, it just felt as if so many developers were simply re-crafting the World of Warcraft. As I write this, I'm sure you'll realize that my opinion has since changed. I realize now that there are definitely other developers out there who are creating new and unique takes on the MMORPG genre. One game in particular that really contributed towards this epiphany has been Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.

Released in 2007, Vanguard was Brad McQuaid's next creative step after his development of Everquest. Unfortunately, McQuaid believed that Vanguard was released about three months before  it was ready. While he points out that they did this for financial reasons, McQuaid does not argue the fact that, on launch, Vanguard was definitely a half-baked pie. Unfortunately, while the Vanguard team has managed to really shine the game up over the past two years, they've also suffered the long term effects of their bad release, in that the game's reputation tanked pretty badly and it has lost far more subscribers by word of mouth than it has gained. In this way, my entrance into the world of Telon comes after two years of solid development, but the game itself has been pretty much ignored by gamers after its not so grand opening in 2007.

Upon entrance into Telon, the first thing I noticed (and this is hard NOT to notice) is the very small amount of server selection it has – I believe I spotted two regular PVE servers, one PVP server and one EU designated server. Being a competition junky from my World of Warcraft Arena-ing days, I naturally picked the PVP server. Big mistake.

The real problem with games that are under populated, like Vanguard, is that, as the core of the dedicated community moves toward the upper levels and the stream of new players dwindles to a trickle, early content ends up becoming a barren wasteland – devoid of life and community. This is pretty much how I felt the first time I entered Telon on its PVP server – I think I met a grand total of three people as I made my way through the Isle of Dawn, and that seriously brought me down.

In fact, my first experience with Vanguard was so downright depressing that I almost walked away from the whole thing, discouraged. It was only with some prodding from some fans of the game that I grudgingly deleted my original character and rerolled Ooglar Pwyfftacular, a little wolfling Raki Monk, on a PVE server.

Big difference.

Before I get to that, player creation in Vanguard was nicely balanced in its initial character customization – while it sports an impressive 18 races to choose from, and about 14 classes to pick, most races were various shades of human, with the occasional Wolf-man and aesthetically challenged Ogre tossed into the fray. Classes were fairly stereotypical, but it's fairly impressive to see the game implement so many of them. I suppose the only qualm I had lay in the fact that I really wanted to play a little Wolf monk, but most of the pre-determined stat growths of the three Wolf races didn't seem to be optimal for a Monk. On the other hand, the ability to make an ultra-buff, ultra-short Wolf Monk in a loincloth was fairly appealing.

Upon entering the World of Telon for the second time and making my way through the Isle of Dawn, I have to say that I'm glad I gave this game a second chance. The difference in population from a PVP server to a PVE server was staggering – after I had hit level 5 and moved on to the next area, I had been chatting with random people in Global Chat, and was happy to see a fair number of other newbies killing monsters in the wheat fields beside me. Others might not crave this social aspect as much as I, but trust me when I say that having a decent sized peer group is important; more on that later.

Originally, combat in Vanguard was also fairly mediocre for me, but I had played a Hunter at the time, and it's fairly frustrating to have half of your abilities negated because nobody wants to stand still and take a magical arrow to the face. When I rerolled on the PVE server, however, I decidedly chose a more individual class, in the Monk. The Monk class in Vanguard operates on a neat system of Endurance and Jin – for anyone who's played Warhammer, the Monk will remind you a LOT of the Battlepriest and Disciple of Khaine. For Monks, each attack 'generates' Jin, but reduces Endurance; there are other abilities (usually stronger abilities) that can then utilize this Jin, but require no endurance. In this way, players can alternate between using their two types of abilities, and chain them seamlessly together without running out of either.

Initially, Vanguard is very shallow in the lower levels, in that players get a few attack abilities, walk up to whatever mob they're hunting, and they just stand there pressing 1, 2, and occasionally 3. Once you get to level 10 or 15, however, the game really opens up in combat depth. First, there is the introduction of Counter Attacks, Finishing Moves and Advanced Finishing Moves. With each of these, when my Monk would critically hit his opponent or dodge an attack, he would be granted the ability to perform a powerful counter-attack or finishing move (you have a limited opportunity to do so, so one needs to pay attention to what's going on). Later on, if you critically land that Finishing Move, players can then perform an Advanced Finishing move to deal even MORE damage. Not only that, but my Monk was granted an ability that guaranteed a dodge on his opponent's next attack – thereby allowing me to 'generate' a counter-attack at whim. All of this comes in at a relatively slow pace, but once combat really begins to open up, the game definitely gains a huge amount of depth. One problem that I have with this combat system, however, is that some abilities would randomly put me on global cool down, while others are allowed to be used in quick succession. Not only that, but the targeting system in this game is a bit of a chore – in group fights, I would just look out for who was beating on my casters, and then I'd run up and smack them.

Vanguard also gains yet another layer of depth in the upper levels as players discover the 'effects' of their attacks, and then work to chain them together to exploit these effects. For example, one of my Monks' abilities appear to 'exploit' a monster that has been 'Enraged,' while also adding the effect of making the monster 'Dazed.' Other classes have abilities that deal extra damage to 'Enraged' monsters, while also causing the monster to have a 'Wracked Soul.' Incidentally, another one of my Monks' abilities deals extra damage to monsters with the 'Wracked Soul' debuff. In this way, not only does Vanguard reward individual ability sequences to maximize damage, but it extends this to the entire party, as entire groups can create elaborate ability chains that maximize both their own damage, and the damage of their party members.

Vanguard is also unique in its other 'spheres' of play, where players can engage in things like Crafting, Diplomacy and Harvesting. In reality, it's not the fact that players can engage in these things that makes Vanguard unique, but it's the fact that these three things are completely separate from the adventuring aspect of the game. Players gain experience and combat levels via 'adventuring EXP,' but once you try your hand at crafting or diplomacy, you've basically entered another game. Vanguard offers players the ability to define their clothing, depending on what they do; thus, when one begins crafting or engaging in diplomacy, the game automatically pops you into some normal civilian clothes, as opposed to intimidating combat attire (for me, it was a purple robe and a football helmet, but I digress).

Crafting in Vanguard is quite remarkable, actually, as the game goes to great lengths to give some depth to the world of crafting. Instead of having you sit and wiggle your arms for 5 seconds to 'craft' five hundred pounds of cat food, the game enables players to take an active part in their creation, and the craft's 'grade' is affected by your actions. Players are given a set amount of 'action points' they can use each time they polish, prime or temper their item, and once all of the action points are used up, the item comes out with a quality rating that's dependent on the amount of care you put into it. All in all, I really enjoyed this crafting system just by the sheer fact that it allows players to craft and not simply drag two items into boxes, click accept, and then watch themselves wiggle around for 5 seconds while a meter fills up. As well, the game really tries to make the player feel like a true artisan, by giving work orders for players to craft specific items for the artisan guild, and giving crafting experience points (!) for doing so. Not only that, but since crafting EXP isn't tied in any way to adventuring EXP, players can even choose to become masters of their trade as a level 1 adventurer.

Diplomacy is another interesting sphere in Vanguard. It's a card game that players can engage in to influence NPCs to give neat items, buffs, or just information. While the system itself seems a bit complex, it ultimately boils down to clicking things like "Angry Retort" and gaining points. Unfortunately, I found the diplomatic system to be incredibly tedious. Even though the game offers you the ability to make "Aggressive Statements" and "Arbitrary Remarks About Turtles" (I'm kidding about that second one), the conversation is completely unaffected by the type of statement made – it merely gauges how many points you have scored, and it advances the conversation. I imagine that they've pre-written the script and for every non sequitur statement you toss out, they reveal to you what you 'said.' To me, this feels quite unlike the crafting system, where ones' actions directly affect the outcome of the creation – instead, diplomacy is just about playing the cards with the right bonuses on them, instead of forcing you to think about saying 'the right thing.'

In the end, however, Vanguard is not entirely roses and puppies. I noted earlier that Vanguard does suffer from low populations, and the game only works to exacerbate this situation by making a lot of quest content difficult without a party. Throw in the fact that monsters respawn ridiculously fast (like I killed it and while I'm looting, it comes back to kill me) and the death penalty requires you to run back to your body (but not as a ghost, so you have to fight your way to your grave), and I hope you can see where my frustrations lie. When I first began my Vanguard adventures on a PVP server, the lack of human contact and the frustrating difficulty of the game really took its toll on me. I realize that Vanguard is more oriented towards group play, but even when I had to run to a more populated PVE server to find a group of three, the respawn rates threatened to make me give up. In the end dungeon on the Isle of Dawn, when one player would die, my entire team would have to fight through hordes of monsters to get to the entrance so that our teammate could regroup with us. Hilariously (and ohhhh so frustratingly) enough, the moment we turned around, the path of dead monsters we had cleared had already respawned. In this way, any deaths suffered by my group essentially meant we had to restart our progress through the temple and its inhabitants. A resident player noted that this made Vanguard more like an old-school MMO, where players really had to work for their reward, but on the other hand, is this really 'working hard' for a reward, or is this mindless frustration? It's difficult to decide.

All in all, however, Vanguard was definitely a positive experience for me, as it really showed me that an MMO could have true depth in its combat system in a way that I have never seen in any other MMO. This is a game that might be frustrating at times, but I believe that as more players take notice and realize that it has really improved itself since its original incarnation, the game will only get better. The only advice I can give would be to not start on an empty server.

Just a tip.

Christopher "Pwyff" Tom
Editor
Allakhazam.com