31st
Vanguard: the return.
A couple of hours into my free time on Vanguard and already i’m forming some opinions of the game that are somewhat different to what they were months ago when I delved into it.
Previously I had been a caster or a rogue, having mixed and matched as I went along, dipping into diplomacy or crafting where I felt needed or wanting of something different, meaning that I never really levelled beyond 20 with any of my characters but experienced a good range of things, even if small in comparison to how gigantic the Vanguard world is.
This was all before the Isle trial came along.
Bloody hell what a difference. I mean in a sense it’s good, because you’ve got some quest hubs nicely jammed together, a range of different quest types and challenges, the ability to test any and all characters up to level 10 (but no further) and an attempt to show off Vanguard, admittedly with the occasional bug or glitch. All of this as well as a solid introduction to the game… except if the rest of the game was like this it would probably be alot more popular than it already is. Launch flop aside, the Isle feels like Tortage.
I mean I’m loving the Isle and everything on it, and even though I find the graphics somewhat out of date at times (animations mainly coming into that) and the challenge level of certain quests simply being ‘kill as many of insert type before respawns appear’, there’s a certain charm to it all, with a proper story that leads you along and a good solid amount of play even if you skip diplomacy and crafting, which this time around I have.
The Isle is really busy and there’s a flood of players. Except most it appears are here because it’s a trial and it seems many are flocking from other guys to test something new out. Yet there’s that dreading feeling that once they get past the Isle the game will radically change, because at least from my experience, it does.
Quest hubs are stretched further apart, the story lines that are nicely crafted suddenly become lumpy and crude, wide open spaces and a lack of players results in a lonely feeling and the fact that travel isn’t exactly swift nor accessable won’t please many. I love what Vanguard is about and it brings a smile to my face when I play it - there’s something nice about it that lets you get lost within it. But the isle is a bad representation of that unless the game has radically changed within the last few months.
The final thing I want to say is it’s truly amazing how many players have stated “we don’t want WoW players coming to Vanguard”. There were pages of conversation concerning it. The blind selfishness of it all amazes me. I can imagine any game, well, bar Darkfall, begging the players of World of Warcraft to come over to them, because of their sheer number. Ok with that comes the problems of a more negative community, a nastier side of play and a larger demand for ‘stuff’, but there’s also money sitting along side that and Vanguard looks and feels like it could use the cash input to give it a kick up the backside because currently the Isle trial feels like a dodgy WoW clone.
