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From:Sony , Sony Online Entertainment ,
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User Rating: Amazon Sales Rank:#7039 |
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1 of 1 customers found the following review helpful:
 Not the Vanguard it used to be, 2008-08-02
Vanguard SOH had a lot of hype and expectation when it launched. From what I hear, the launch was pretty rough and a lot of people were very dissapointed. The old reviews reflect that.
But the VG that exists today is NOT the same game you played last year!! Sony has been working very hard on fixing things and adding stuff. They just offered a free month to previous account holders, and everyone who came back to try it out remarked on just how improved the game is overall.
If you've never tried VG, this is not your ordinary MMO. Yes, there's plenty of adventuring in a giantic, almost seamless world. 3 huge continents to explore, dungeons galore dot the maps, 16 starting races and 19 starting classes. Graphics are gorgeous and Sony is constantly bringing in improvements (like expanding on the available character creation models).
You can adventure as you would in any MMO, running around exploring, doing quests and killing things. But you can also build your own house on a plot of land of your choice, go sailing the ocean in your own boat, or delve into the spheres of crafting and diplomacy.
VG's comabt is a slight expansion on typical MMO fare. Most moves are cool-down based, but you have the addition of several layers of stances (determing more damage vs. better defense, for example), and specials that are only activated at special times (like in response to a successful dodge). There are also effects that can be triggered by a special (like stunned) that can be utilized by another class's special (if the special is linked to a 'stunned' vulnerability, it gains bonuses). Level cap is currently 50, but there is also end-game raiding available.
But if you're tired of just 'running around killing stuff' (since that's all most MMO's are), there's still so much more to do in VG. When you need a break from the adventuring grind, try out crafting or diplomacy. Unlike most other MMO's, VG crafting requires actual skill and thought, and there's consequence for goofing. All items require basic materials, some utilities (like solvent or glue) and can be enhanced with special dusts to give it bonuses. Various steps in the process can have choices of how to proceed (like choice A giving lots of completion progress, but no quality upgrade; or choice B which gives a little completion and a little quality upgrade; or choice C which gives a lot of quality upgrade, but no completion progress). You have a set number of points you can spend to complete your crafted item, and each step costs points. Run out of points and you're done, even if your item isn't. You just wasted all your materials. Run out of important materials (like a solvent) or have missing equipment and you're done, materials wasted. But crafted items are also quite decent for players in VG (unlike other MMO's where crafting is next to useless) and some things can ONLY be gotten from crafters.
Diplomacy is the third sphere in VG. It is the realm of social persuasion, where you engage in 'parley's with various NPC's to obtain gear, get permission to build a guild hall (only diplomats can get the guild hall plot) or even provide city-wide buffs. Buffs last for 1 hr usually and can be for adventurers (e.g. +to all stats), crafters (+to a crafting skil) and diplomats (add cards to your deck). Diplomacy is played out like an online card game, except that UNlike Legends of Norrath or the other MMO's, VG diplomacy is FREE! Yes, I said FREE! No buying cards online and paying even MORE money to play this game. It's included in the VG game itself.
The best part of all this is that it's YOUR choice how to play. You can level each of the three spheres (adventuring, crafting, diplomacy) completely independant of any of the others. No more required levelling just so you crafters can get that next recipie! If you don't want to go and kill things, you don't have to. Just keep working on your crafting and leave the killing to everyone else. Diplomats also can completely avoid adventuring if they want. But with so many starting classes and races, I'm sure you'll find some class to try the adventuring sphere with too. It's just really nice to have a CHOICE for a change.
And that's really what VG is about: having a choice of how you want to play.
2 of 2 customers found the following review helpful:
Doesn't suck balls anymore!, 2008-07-31
It's true, this game was launched far too soon and was a bug riddled mess (blame Sigil for imploding).
That was a long time ago, and the game seriously doesn't suck balls anymore (like it arguably did).
There are still bugs and things that needs fixed, but the game is very playable at this point and on par with other MMORPG's out there right now in that they all have bugs and issues and area always going to need constant updating and fixing, it's the nature of the genre.
The performance is much improved, though still has hitching and lag issues (what game doesn't though). The skeleton dev team remaining have done a wonderful job getting the game playable and adding enough polish and content that it's having a rebirth right now and populations are on the rise. The important thing is that the game is finally very playable.
There are three spheres of advancement, all of which you can gain levels:
The classes are unique and fun, and you'll never get stuck with a class that 'sucks' as all the classes are viable and fairly well balanced (more balancing and revamps coming very soon).
The crafting I'm told is amazing, I don't personally craft much, but I know many people that ONLY craft in the game, it's that good.
Diplomacy needs some work, but is fun. It's a sort of mini card game where you argue/discuss with different npcs to gain buffs, learn a lot of lore. It's not for everyone, but you can get a free horse doing it in the early levels, so it's worth trying ;)
Nobody ever doubted the world is beautiful and amazing. It's non-instanced and doesn't have zones to load into (though there are chucks that can make you hitch a bit crossing). There are actual dungeons, with actual other groups and players fighting things, so the world feels alive even with low populations because everyone isn't couped up in one of a hundred different versions of the same instance.
The best thing is the game is dirt cheap right now, and the first month of play is free if you buy the box. As well, in a month or so a free trial is going to be released. If you go to the official website there are also a lot of people giving away free buddy keys that will let you try the game out too. Basically at this point you can try it for free (or less that 20 bucks easily), so why not give it a shot?
It's still not perfect and has it's issues, but it's finally playable and a lot of fun, and even with a skeleton dev team a lot of new content and fixes are in the works.
 Vanguard Saga of Heroes, 2008-07-29
The first copy I received the CD key was already being used, so I had to send it back for another. The game still has a few bugs, which can be annoying, but its still playable. Overall I was not impressed and I did not want to continue to play after the first free month.
 Crap!, 2008-07-24
I bought this game with great hopes and I was greatly disappointed. I'll be short here and say that: 1) I felt like I was playing a game made for a 12-year old. 2) I had to deal with multiple game-killing bugs. But the worst was dealing with SONY Online Entertainment's (SOE) billing department. I hate recurring billing, so I used SOE game cards. I would enter a card's code but my account was never credited. After hassling with SOE's billing department (for God knows how long!) to the point where I threatened to report them to the Better Business Bureau, they finally fixed my account's problems. To SOE's credit, they were actually quite apologetic about the mix-up but by that time it was too little too late. I ended up giving the game away to a friend along with two unused SOE game cards. To this day, he has never used it.
Awful, awful game, 2008-06-26
Besides having a decent graphically enhanced environment (which by the way completely hogs all of your systems memory, leaving your gameplay experience more or less laggy at times) this game disappointed me on many levels.
-Classes no more "advanced" than any other MMORPG. I was told this was a "second generation" of MMO, and that combat would be far more difficult to master. It was the same set-up as every other MMO I've played.
-Horribly buggy, holes in zone floors that make you stuck (which there is a /stuck command, which sends you to a set point, BUT)
-Terrible in-game support: My friend was banned for using the /stuck command to get out of a buggy zone spot. GM claimed he was "manipulating the game" and creating an unfair advantage for using it. A LIFETIME ban. For a command the game creators created. Tried to appeal, with no such luck. Customer support and game masters complete idiots.
Honestly, if you are looking for something that is unlike the norm, I'm still yet to find it. All I know is that this game is pitiful, and I would gladly play something "first generation" like World of Warcraft before considering re-activating my account- ever.
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