Vanguard: Saga of Heroes

Yeah so I took a look again.

If some of you recall I was a pretty hard core VG player not all that long ago but drifted away (mainly because of SOE slow progress at doing anything with the game)

So anyway, I did the open beta for WAR (yawn) but found it lacking....I guess if you like WoW and linear gameplay its ok...or how about "if you like WoW and want to play it again but with a slightly different twist on some gameplay aspects and some minor graphic / art differences...give it a go".

So I tried out the new Isle of Dawn and here are my impressions after not playing for a few months.

• Performance - felt about the same but VG runs pretty good on my PC so not much to say there. It runs just as well as any other game these days. Its come a long way since launch, I'll give it that. The game looks pretty good still compared to many MMO's out there.
• Character Creation - very nice. Its good to see all the sliders back in and working. Now the only issue I had with creation was the fact they only still let you have 4 hair styles and 4 facial hairs per humanish race. Now there are tons of hairs and beards...I would just like access to a few more then 4.
• /setfog command - the Isle of Dawn, like the main game, still is all murky and dull looking. You STILL need to use the /setfog with your preferred distances to give it a nice crisp and clear look. I use /setfog 75000 200000
• Content in the Trial vs Mainland - I'll be honest, I like the mainland better. But the quality and taste is about on par with what is on the mainland. Some of it is a bit to "kill task' centered but what isn't, right? The mainland quest give a better feel for your Race / Background. The island has this generic "save us fromthe hobgoblins" thing going on which applies to everyone. For example the Dwarf areas you come to see the struggle between the Dwarves and the lizard guys, learn about the history a bit, especially if you do and read the diplomacy. A lot of the "lore" is stashed in there on the mainland...but anyway...
• You get a nice looking suit of armor up front, whats that about? I didn't reactivate my account but you normally start out in your cloths there. Minor detail.
• SOE couldn't have launched this a worse time. Warhammer is barreling down like a train and they have put ZERO advertisement out for this game. I hate to say it but the Island only had a few people running around on it. (at least in the little village area) They really need to unseat their heads from their asses. Why go through all the trouble of making a trial area and NOT hype it? Who does that? It took them like a year to make it. Especially if you are going up against something like WAR. WTF, who runs SOE's advertising dept?
• EDIT...oh...rain for Vistas??? I can hear it but I still can't see it. My windows XP PC, I can see it...

All in all, the trial is pretty decent. Its a bit on the generic side IMHO but I only played the first few levels so far. It gives a very good taste of what VG is like.

Now if SOE would just get in there and give the game a little more love in mainland and fill in some content for mid-high levels, give some purpose to the game aside from grinding out kill task, I might resub.

By the way, if you like this style of MMO do yourself a favor and don't bother with WAR. It's so darn linear and pre-chewed moreso then WoW, it hurts. If you like PvP that actually matters, play L2 or EVE...WAR is point grinders heaven. L2 level grind has been recuded to WoW levels.

Thanks for writing the review. Interetsing read.

With regards to the lack of promotion for the trial isle, I reckon there is someone/some people in the heirarchy at SOE who really do not like VG and see it as a dead horse. The resources given to VG seem remarkably scarce, especially considering the change of reputation it's enjoyed in the community over the past few months. Hopefully SOE realize the word is getting out about VGs progress and give it some advertising cash so that the progress can be shown off.

Originally posted by Torak

• /setfog command - the Isle of Dawn, like the main game, still is all murky and dull looking. You STILL need to use the /setfog with your preferred distances to give it a nice crisp and clear look. I use /setfog 75000 200000

I actually like the murky look... In some areas it adds to the general feel of it. It's a dark and harsh world in some places.

Compared to the lollipop called LOTRO I prefer VG's with untouched /setfog.

Originally posted by Orphes

Originally posted by Torak

• /setfog command - the Isle of Dawn, like the main game, still is all murky and dull looking. You STILL need to use the /setfog with your preferred distances to give it a nice crisp and clear look. I use /setfog 75000 200000

 

I actually like the murky look... In some areas it adds to the general feel of it. It's a dark and harsh world in some places.

Compared to the lollipop called LOTRO I prefer VG's with untouched /setfog.

True in some places of the world like Thangal Keep (forgot the exact name) or Hillsbury Manor but it resets every time you log anyway so its not a perminent decision.

In many places that fog does some damage to the views like in the Dwarf homelands, three rivers area the High Elf city....

Originally posted by Torak

Originally posted by Orphes

Originally posted by Torak

• /setfog command - the Isle of Dawn, like the main game, still is all murky and dull looking. You STILL need to use the /setfog with your preferred distances to give it a nice crisp and clear look. I use /setfog 75000 200000

 

I actually like the murky look... In some areas it adds to the general feel of it. It's a dark and harsh world in some places.

Compared to the lollipop called LOTRO I prefer VG's with untouched /setfog.

True in some places of the world like Thangal Keep (forgot the exact name) or Hillsbury Manor but it resets every time you log anyway so its not a perminent decision.

In many places that fog does some damage to the views like in the Dwarf homelands, three rivers area the High Elf city....

 

Yes, Hillsbury Manor. :) That is my thought everytime when I think of setfog. Even though that setfog wouldn't directly ruin the coloring.

Nice to hear you liked Isle of Dawn.  The next Game Update is focused on adding in more high level content.  Pantheon of the Ancient is being redone to introduce more challenging group content along the lines of the Flying Mount Griffin quest.

Pantheon has group/quest content to allow you to select a god and follow the quest chain.  Ultimately it unlocks Raid Content. 

Midlevel content is abundant in VG imo.  If you turn off your XP, which you may do, you can see a lot more content before reaching level 50.

High level content needs addressing which they are doing.

If you haven't experienced VG yet, I'd say now is a great time to sub.  If you played VG and did all there is to do and have your flying mount, I'd say wait till GU7(Game Update).

Hope this helps.