Live Quest Recap
Sep 01, 2008
The folks at Vanguard have posted a recap of Live Quest event held at this year's SOE Fan Faire.
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes Rating
Graphics - 9.3           
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Fun - 8.2
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Sound - 8.7
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Community - 8.1
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Role-Playing - 8.3
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Performance/Lag - 6.7
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Value - 8.0
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Service - 7.6
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Based on 2179 total votes. Login if you wish to review this game.
Member Comments
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
- Developer: Sony Online Entertainment
- Genre: Fantasy
- Status: Final
- Platforms:
- Website: http://www.vanguardsoh.com
- Retail Price: 49.99
- Monthly Fee: 14.99
Latest Vanguard: Saga of Heroes News
Correspondent - Examining Vanguard PvP
Aug 26, 2008
MMORPG.com Vanguard Correspondent Jei Anderson pens this article about his experiences with the PvP system (or lack thereof) in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.
How I Came Back to Vanguard
Aug 12, 2008
MMORPG.com Vangaurd Correspondent Warren Bennett pens this editorial about what drew hium back into the world of Vanguard after leaving the game due to an unsatisifying earlier experience.
Dev Update and Bug Fixes
Aug 11, 2008
SOE updates us on what's been going on in the Vanguard offices during the summer convention season, including whispers of Game Update 6 which is set to fix over a thousand bugs.
Other Vanguard: Saga of Heroes News
Interview with Thom Terrazas, Producer!
Allahkazam interviews Thom Terrazas, producer of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.
Allakhazam on May 14, 2008
Vanguard Game Update 5 interview with Lenny "Tiraslee" Gullo
Massively interviews Lenny "Tiraslee" Gullo about Game Update 5 for Vanguard.
Massively on May 07, 2008
Exclusive video of updated Vanguard GU5 spell effects
Massively has posted a video showing new spell effects in Game update 5 for Vanguard.
Massively on May 07, 2008
Vanguard Game Update 5 mounts video
Massively has posted a video of mounts in Vanguard.
Three months later, it launched. My friend and I gave it another chance, and never got past level 6. Vanguard was simply horrible, as far as we were concerned.
A couple months ago, we got the email inviting us to come back. Since AoC was really annoying us by this point for its lack of polish past level 40 we decided to accept Sony's offer. Honestly, we were not expecting much. But it was check out Vanguard, keep paying to beta AoC, or go back to WoW. Vanguard won.
What we found was a huge surprise. Performance is still not incredible, but the game is certainly very playable. The key is to give your computer about a minute after loading into the game or changing continents so that it can load everything for your chunk. (This is especially important if you're at a capital city.) After that load is done, the game performs quite nicely even with high settings.
Classes are really interesting. With 15 to choose from, there's something for everyone. Some are classic archetypes such as tanks, nuking mages, etc. Many others are hybrids that blend elements and have very unique abilities. I've tried several classes at this point, and the only one I can't seem to enjoy is the bard. But I know that's personal taste, since many people love their bards. Most classes ARE a little slow to come into their own, usually maturing in the early teens. So I generally recommend waiting until 15 to decide that a class isn't for you. That's not very long, though, since the early levels do come fast.
There is an almost obscene amount of adventuring content. I honestly believe that it's possible to level a half dozen characters to 20 without ever repeating a single quest. There's also a great mix of solo, small group and large group content. No matter what your mood is at the moment, or how many of your friends are on, you can go adventuring.
Hand in hand with adventuring is harvesting. Something truly unique about Vanguard's system is that you're able to harvest together with friends. Let's say you're the only one in your party with reaping and you come across some cotton. You start the harvest, then your friends join in. They simply need to have the necessary tool in their harvesting toolbelt. (The tool is cheap, and doesn't take up any regular inventory space.) The more people harvesting the node, the more it produces and the better your chances of getting a rare drop. It's very refreshing not to have five people twiddling their thumbs while the sixth is mining that node you all just came across.
Crafting is both deep and meaningful. (Unlike what AoC tried to foist on us.) Honestly, it's possibly too deep for some people. But for those who do get into it, the process is a challenge of trying to get the highest possible quality in your item before you overwork the materials and end up with nothing. It's a nicely balanced risk vs. reward system. You can customize what you make, such as creating a belt that boosts vitality or strength; the choice is yours. What you end up making is worthwhile, too. It easily rivals or exceeds anything of equivalent level that you get from quests and drops.
Then there's diplomacy. This is an entirely different style of play that involves strategy. A lot of the game's lore comes out through diplomacy, and you can make a ton of money out of the deal. The game is strangely addictive, and your actions can spill over to other players by creating buffs that affect everyone in the region. For example, diplomats can improve the crafting abilities of everyone in the area.
In short, there's always something to do in Vanguard. Whether you're alone or with friends, you can easily find some fun and challenge.
There are many, many quality of life elements that have made it into the game. Here are a few examples:
Brotherhoods. If you have a few friends that you play with regularly, you can form a brotherhood. Everyone in the brotherhood shares adventuring experience equally, regardless of whether they're online at the moment or not. This allows you to level with your friends, even if you can't always be on at the same time.
Riftways. Caravans are now obsolete thanks to the riftway system. These are objects scattered throughout the world that let you travel to any other riftway location. Hubs are always free to travel to, while the others are priced appropriately to the level of the area they serve. In short, they're always affordable, provided you're of sufficient level to adventure in the area you're going to.
Flying Mounts. Most decent sized towns have vendors that rent these mounts. The mount will stay in your inventory for up to 10 minutes, and you can actually ride it for a total of 5 minutes. When the time expires, the mount disappears. (If you're airborne, you get a 10 minute parachute buff to get you safely to the ground.) This is actually a great feature, similar to having flight paths in WoW but with the freedom to travel anywhere you want within the alotted time.
Personal Mounts. You can buy your first horse at level 10. It's a 30% speed boost, which is certainly nice, and that can be boosted even higher with the right spells or gear. Your mount can carry saddlebags, which means extra inventory space that's always with you. At level 20 and every 10 after that you get access to better and faster mounts. Then there are also the racial mounts (such as the dark elven spiders), the epic mounts, and the permantly-owned flying mounts.
Rope. Ever been with a friend who gets stuck in the geometry somehow? Sooner or later, it happens in just about every game. In Vanguard, type /rope to throw your friend a rope and pull him out.
Zero XP. Sometimes you want to play, but don't want to outlevel your friends. Sometimes you want to try to get the last piece of a gear set before you outlevel its value. Other times you might really be digging a storyline that you'd like to finish without outleveling and trivializing it. Whatever your reasons, there's a Zero XP Gain "buff" that you can put on yourself. Sure, you might almost never use it, but it sure is nice to have options.
There really is a ton more than this. The bottom line is that Vanguard provides a wide open sandbox-type world that (thanks to the huge number and variety of quests) never leaves you flailing around wondering what to do next. It comes the closest of any game I've ever seen to blending a sandbox together with the alternative. My good friend and I were very pleasantly surprised upon our return, and we have both subscribed. We've brought other friends in who have chosen to subscribe as well. And it's really interesting to watch the continent's chat channel and see all the AoC refugees who are equally (and happily) surprised now that Vanguard has had a year and a half to come into its own.
Is the game for everyone? Certainly not! The PvP crowd will be quite disappointed because the game wasn't built around that. But for the PvE lover, this means that classes were created to be fun to play, rather than balanced into oblivion. If you're looking for a game with real depth, Vanguard is worth checking out.