01.12.07
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
After complications in downloading the patch the last two days (many people seem to have the exact same problem – download the latest version of Direct X or else!), I’ve finally been able to play Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. Another MMORPG as may be, it does seem to have some promise. It’s out 30th Jan. (in the UK at least) for £17.99 according to Play.com (Amazon doesn’t even stock it. somehow when you type the product name, it comes up with The Burning Crusade…).
The opening screen… is uncannily similar to WoW as is most of the game – in that sense, it’s very playable for me (I spend probably more than 15hours on WoW a week). But the characters are more in-depth – probably a lot more realistic looking than the comic-based looks from WoW, and the scenery – it’s really good. The details are more in line with Guild Wars though you don’t get the gay ‘every bit outside town is an instance’ thing here (that really put us off playing for good). The music’s soothing in an ambient kind of way too (or down right classical), but I kept having a deja vu of sorts – the elf starting place in WoW (Teldrassil) and some of the starting areas in VG kind of look similar to me. Of course, what with this being a Beta and the fact I’ve only been playing it the last couple of hours (and not having seen much of the continent), the comparisons to WoW may be uncalled for. But it’s there to illustrate my point – how playable this seems to be. Of course, as soon as you get used to the way your character moves, etc.
There are little problems, as any games would. There was even a shouted argument in the chat pannel – it turned out slightly one-sided as one person seemed to be the target of everyone else. But that one unnamed person was right. There does seem to be an awful amount of bugs (patching took well over 9hours, not to mention that Direct X problem which wasn’t highlighted until today), and a respawn rate of mobs from bloody awful (several players gathered in one spot trying to find a mob needed for quest) to a fastness that resembled popcorn (several players were killed due to ultra fast respawn rate in one area). I realise that there would be problems, especially in Beta stage, but yes, there certainly seems to be a lot going wrong. The Quest log does tell you where to go – or which direction to go to – but it doesn’t give you a detailed map of an area… so you could be wandering in the general vicinity for a while.
I can quite complaining though – every quest I finish, I get to leave feedback on, so maybe, in a couple of weeks’ time, the problems will be sorted :)
PS I never really thought I’d miss my left thumb, but there we are… I do use it for typing after all. Was dicing some onions last night for curry, and managed to slice a bit of the thumb along with them. Didn’t hurt at the time, but without hourly rests, it does now. Utter stupidity!