Vanguard: Saga of Heroes

There was the briefest of glimpses at what was being touted as the next major leap for MMOs (massively multiplayer online games) back at E3 in 2004. Brad McQuaid and Jeff Butler – two of the team responsible for EverQuest – were back in the saddle, in a new company called Sigil, working on a game called Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.

Since that first look, the title has undergone a change in publishers, moving from Microsoft to Sony Online Entertainment. On Friday, Jan. 5, the game entered the open public beta stage, and players are able to jump in and see what has been a labor of love for Butler and McQuaid.  

It is readily apparent that Vanguard is still very much a work in progress. Even in the short time that the game has been open, and thousands have signed in, the game has gone from two servers to three – two for PvE (player versus environment) and one for PvP (player versus player).

The game itself is a fantasy MMO, taking place in the world of Telon. The servers have been packed, the targets in the newcomer areas too few for the new players jumping in, and there have been crashes – all part of the growing of the game as it begins its march toward release in the first quarter of this year.

For the record: The game has three major starting zones – Thestra, Kojan and Qalia. There are 19 races, many with separate starting villages or outposts within the whole of the starting zones, and 15 different classes or professions. There are a variety of quests that will draw you deeper into the seamless world and as players gain experience and level, new skills become available for purchase. But players will not merely gain skills through purchase from trainers. There will be the ability to use diplomatic skills to barter skills.

Think of diplomacy as a conversational chess match. The idea is to win points of the argument by playing your diplomacy cards at the right time. The cards (also known as strategy) have timers on them, limiting how often they can be used and when their timers are up and can be used again.

Diplomacy is a big part of the game, as is crafting. Players will train in crafting skills, then harvest materials for their profession.

Of the classes, there are the mages, offensive fighters (like rangers and rogues), defensive fighters and healers. But Vanguard does not just stick with the stock classes. The bards can actually compose songs for use in the game and one of the healer classes is a blood mage, a character that forms a blood union with his or her target. The races go from the elegant (high elf) to the brutish (orcs, but you don’t want to say that to their faces).

The game does follow a familiar pattern for MMOs. You adventure, quest, harvest, gain experience and gain experience to become a stronger character in the world. There are evolving quests, and the multi-faceted nature of the game ensures that players will always find something to do.

If there are drawbacks, at this juncture of the beta, it would lay in the fact that there are too few mobs in the newcomer zones, and that crashes are frequent. And sometimes, you may create a character and enter the game only to find that the look you spent a bit of time achieving is not recognized as you enter the world. Not to worry, the look is there, but it might take launching the game a couple of times to see it. And some of the characters created back in the third beta, revisited were lacking skills that had been earned. So, bugs are there, but it is evident that the dev team is working hard to handle the game that is being tested severely by the amount of players in the game.

There are still areas of lag, like near Khal, but even that is improving.

Vanguard is very much a work in progress, and even during a press event in late 2006, it was stated there was a multi-year plan in place for the game.

But rather than talk about what is not in the game, it’s easier to talk about what is – and what the game boasts are environments that are stunning visually, music that will have you cranking up the sound to enjoy the richness of the score. The classes and variety of questing experience (a wood elf negotiating with swords – an early diplomacy quest – to drop their differences and go back to working together), some solid animations with a variety of weapons all add up to create an experience that is very good, even with the few kinks.

Imagine sailing the waterways, coming under attack, or riding a mount through the skies; or mages who get stronger in certain environments; or intelligent monsters that will work around your flank in a cave to attack you when you don’t really expect it and you may begin to understand the scope of this world. Sigil didn’t just set out to design a casual world that can be jumped into, played for a few minutes and then forgotten. It is apparent that what Sigil is out to create is a memorable gaming experience, one that beckons time and again.

It seems to be a no-brainer that once the servers are optimized a bit more, to handle the beta tester load, that Vanguard will have the potential to be what was first promised years ago – a game that ushers in the next generation of MMOs.