Another Vanguard review (this one from T.A.G.)

[Bubba Grizz]

I can't wait for this game to come out.

I have to say is that EVERYONE on the Vanguard team was personable and helpful in every possible way. I’d like to thank Brad, Jeff, Cindy, John, and the rest of the team (thank you all) for all their help with understanding the concept as much as possible as well as giving me the opportunity to see the magic they are working down in San Diego. In addition I’d like to thank Zack for the tour of SD and the ride in his very sweet car from the airport!

I had a lot of the core group submit questions to me the night before the event because I didn’t want to let the “cat out of the bag” so to speak. I hope nobody gets offended but you must understand a certain level of tact needed to be exercised with regard to the details of this trip. In addition, while we had almost every one of our questions answered in great detail, you must also understand as readers of our website and members of TAG that Sigil needs to keep some of the aspects of this game under wraps for a while longer (for very good reason). If you see a question below that says N/A or TBD (to be discussed) assume the answer to them in the end will be “You will be impressed.”




So, the answer to the first question is yes, I played the game. I also watched others play it for most of the day so there will be some information in this review / Q&A regarding actual play. Details wise, well… Read the Lore because #1 the SOH Lore team is VERY good, and #2 I refused to spend the whole day writing down the name of every area in the game for the sake of an article. Instead, I paid more attention to what people said about the mechanics, content and depth (and I do mean, depth) of the game.


The first section of this review will be perspective, as in mine.


Game play: Incredibly smooth considering where they are in the development process. While 21 persons had the opportunity to play the game there were 3 crashes total in a period of about 7 hours with the game running constant on 3 machines. Pretty good for alpha. I remember seeing a certain futuristic MMO recently that claimed it was “beta” and wouldn’t stay running for more than 2 hours solid on a machine due to a serious memory leak. In that respect I have good things to say about stability even at this stage. Overall stability rating considering where the game is currently, 9.

Graphics: This is the “next level.” SOE hasn’t been nice enough to include TAG on recent Community Events so I am unable to compare it to what everyone knows SOH will be in competition with, because EQII is much further along at this point. SOH graphics versus WOW graphics however, I can comment on. SOH wins, thanks for playing. The scary part is, I say that even with the characters unpolished in SOH. Terrain is absolutely mind-boggling. Dungeons and Towers, also very impressive and absolutely no content, not even a brick is a duplicate. It’s all one of a kind and it’s all, next level stuff. I’ll give graphics a 10.

Look and feel: Think (finally) the D&D look and feel you have been trying to get since you first imagined MUD’s going to MMO’s. The artists seem to be inside Keith Parkinson’s (TSR/Sigil) head. It is absolutely gorgeous and it feels like I’m finally walking around inside a world modeled after a Dragon Lance novel or an old D&D campaign from my table top days. The closest thing you can equate this experience to if you have had none of the above experiences is playing Baulder’s Gate, only with a lot more heart put into it and certainly with a much better depth and about 500 times the content. The sky seems almost limitless with creatures flying around in the air and the sky looking and feeling like it would in the days of Arthur and his Knights. Clean clear crisp and alive. For those wondering, no you do not feel like a cartoon in this game! This game is presented well and it certainly has the power to take you out of this smog filled noisy reality and put you in a clean, clear, magical realm where only you hold the keys to your limitations. For the impression, I’m giving look and feel a 10.

Mobs: Talk about some vile creatures. While some of the lands we explored were not yet populated, I did have the pleasure of killing and being killed by some of the residents of this realm. The mobs were done very well, they were aggressive when expected and even sometimes when not expected. I was certainly impressed by the mobs themselves and by the pathing of the mobs. Even the mobs in the air have various ways of attacking you. You could be swooped, you could be in melee if the mob decides to fly up and land in front of you or… get this, YOU could be kited by a mob if it so decided. Yes folks, this is a 3 dimensional world and the even more fun thing about that is that the mobs are also aware of their surroundings. Mobs rating is a 9 at this point, I’ll reserve 1 point for later review on the finishing touches.

The Team: These guys know gaming. As one might expect from the All-Star cast assembled by Brad & Jeff they know exactly what they are talking about and exactly what they are doing. They have a very clear structure internally, one even apparent from the outside looking in. While structure is important and present they also have teamwork. None wants to shine over the others, they want the product to succeed and they want us to love what they have conceived. Every single member of this team right down to the composer is in sync or at least appears to be from my perspective. As you can see from my generous words previously, what they do shines as a result of this apparent chemistry. In addition, I have to say I am very encouraged about this game because of the fact that every single one of these people are gamers. From what I could tell, they all keep up to speed on the games that are out and they also enjoy the creativity of other designers. Make no mistake, Sigil is not making they are innovating.

Member questions (answers):


PVP is in development. It is currently not entirely complete and more details will be available as they move toward beta.

Drops will be a combination of crating content and unique uber lewt.

Instancing? No. However, they are handling the issues of grieving and KS’ing in a very unique (classified) manner which I am unable to comment on at this time.

Yes, there will be multiple types of realms consisting of different levels of pvp participation and non.

Beta? While most of the answers I got on the subject of beta were either vague or classified I am able to give my opinion that Beta 1 will be some time before March and not before January.

Realm hopping is something they are trying to incorporate in the most economical manner.

Volenteer and Guide positions will be available for those who qualify, however I have to mention that they will not be necessary in my opinion. Simply a bonus.

Gender bias toons? No.

Guild leader/Guild functions and perks will be a very extensive system.

The DEV team will pay a great deal of attention to bugs and community feedback during the beta cycles. So yes.

The issue of international subscriptions due to financial gender will not be a concern.

Multiple character per realm accounts appears to be the way they are going but it will in the end depend on the size of the actual character files when they are completed as to how many slots will be available to each account.

There will be epic adventures and rewards in the game, however a great deal of planning and thinking is going into this so that the system will not become unbalanced or bias due to them. No elite profession.

The skill reset system in case of weapon change or other variable will be a gradual change, not an instant one but it will be possible to change your characters weapon proficiency without a great deal of trouble.

The system will be SP based for level increments mostly but there is a mixture.

When I asked the question about bot’s and other such 3rd party additions the answer was (verbatim) “If you guys need those, we failed.”

Public DB access (limited), no.

Macro or afk grinding, no. In addition I have to add that Macro’s will be obsolete so forget about it.

The interface seems flexible so yes you will be able to personalize.

Game eco and duping is something they are putting a great deal of effort into. They want to prevent issues of economy and exploitation as much as possible and from the sounds of it if some persons did find a way to break the EULA they would be severely punished in the interest of increasing quality of play for all.

For healers, the accessibility to team members will be very well done.

Party size will depend on the necessity. More on this later.

Yes, there will be many variations of exp. Group, Guild, Personal come to mind right off the bat.

Yes, there will be a community professional program of some sort but it is too early to discuss that at this time.

Issues of mob KS’ing, stealing, pulling, training will be addressed and addressed well in this game. You will be pleasantly surprised to find that a great deal of people put tons of time into insuring that your experience in SOH is as good as possible. Keep in mind, the people on this team build games AND play games.

Individuality and flexibility of characters is paramount in SOH. There will be dependencies on others and the ability to do as you are. The crafting system for example is so diverse and FUN (yes I said fun) that being a crafter in this game will be a pleasure instead of a task. More on this later.

General questions about trade system (secure) and vendors were asked. This is a blanket answer. ALL of the above.

I directly questioned the designers and DEV’s about whether or not SOH will have some of the same db problems that are apparent in SWG. After the system was explained to me I am satisfied that you will not be kicked out of the game at 3AM so they can re-index the server. I’ll leave it at that and you can talk to me personally for a better explanation.

Travel? Fly, ride, run… your choice. When I asked about teleportation, someone smiled at me. Hmmm…

Death means exp loss and corpse hunt, however a very good guide system to your corpse has been implemented. Don’t bite off more than you can chew in SOH, this is not the kiddy game you seek!

When I asked about Community Banks, Armories and the like the answers I got were vague in some cases and clear in others, however due to the nature of those answers I am not going to publicly post them at this time until I have had a chance to contact someone at Sigil for clarification.

Yes, the game can react to population and spawn can react as well. In addition I’d like to say that one might conclude that with a balance system in place you could feasibly have a game that knows the limitations of it’s hardware. Further, one might assume that in this scenario the stability of realms would be increased. Good lord I’m starting to sound like them!

When I looked and asked on High Level content the answer became apparent in other questions and the one at hand. If a game were aware of its surroundings and what is inside of itself, it is safe to assume it is aware of you and your level and might adjust accordingly. Speaking hypothetically, of course.

Someone (I wont mention names) asked if you could get naked in the game. Well, it turns out that the alpha is accidentally R rated. So the 21 of us who saw the game on Friday may be the only ones besides Sigil employees to have ever seen… Oops! That’s, not quite done yet! Don’t die then zoom out!

Expansion? Yep… Already in the works.

In closing:


I am compelled to say that Vanguard Saga of Hero’s will be TAG’s greatest adventure yet and quite possibly the greatest game ever conceived to date in it’s genre. Sigil is pulling no punches, when this thing hits the market there will be black eyes all over the industry in my opinion.


Having done this 8 ½ years and having seen what I have seen it has been a very long time since I have been excited about the release of a game. Unlike the other 2 times I can think of from the top of my head, in this case I do not feel as if I am building something up only to be let down. As well as being quite impressed by the game and the team I find myself having a great deal of faith in the marriage of the two.


For Sigil I say thank you, good job, keep it up and remember BY gamers FOR gamers!

Argulace (President) - Total Aggression Gaming

[Ebumar]

Yeah, look on the Vanguard news site ( http://www.vanguardsoh.com/news.php ), and they have all of the different summit reviews there. Not all of them are completed yet, as it happened on the 8th, but still all good reads and very incitfull as to how the game will end up.

[masteen]

This game is prolly going to be really, really good.

[Winnow]

I'm very cautious regarding what's said about new games. I remember everyone getting wet over Shadowbane.

I'll happily beta it and try it out. You can make all the promises and claims you want about an upcoming game but we've seen time and time again that games don't match the hype save for a handful.

It will be a pleasant surprise if it turns out to be good.

[Xouqoa]

The one reason I'm pretty sure this game will be excellent is because Brad McQuaid is behind it, and we all know how popular EQ was. I think he, more than anyone, knows what he's doing with this genre of games.

[Siji]

The one reason I'm pretty sure this game will be excellent is because Brad McQuaid is behind it, and we all know how popular EQ was. I think he, more than anyone, knows what he's doing with this genre of games.

I would agree with you, but many wouldn't.. I recall a lot of complaining and grief over the 'Vision" when they were around. But since they've been gone, EQ has completely changed.

I for one will be buying this game. EQ2.. eh.. Sigil's.. yes.

[Mr Bacon]

Already looks way too much like EQ/2, not suprisingly, as TKing works for them.