Vanguard: Saga of Heroes

...the uphill struggle the game faces may simply be too steep. Conventional wisdom in the MMORPG market says that you can't recover from a bad launch, and Vanguard is already a by-word for poor quality, rushed software in MMOG circles. Even now, it's not bug-free and well-polished - it works, it's innovative and it's well-implemented, but compared to the you-can-see-your-face-in-it shine of something like WoW or LOTRO, it's still second-rate. More dedicated MMOG fans will be prepared to forgive that, and to them we're happy to say that Vanguard is now ready for its close-up. If you are an old EQ player or in search of something more hardcore than WoW, but you dismissed Vanguard as a ropey old goat earlier in the year, you could do worse than trying it again. However, if WoW is your poison - or if you're unusure about this whole MMOG lark in general - Vanguard should probably stay off your shopping list.

"Experienced role players will enjoy the engaging combat and fascinating diplomatic gameplay, in spite of Vanguard's litany of bugs and singular focus on group adventuring."

"Vanguard may be a very good game a few months from now, but it's not quite ready for prime time."

"Once out in the world, players will find that they can solo their way to the level cap of 50 or band up with groups. The rough breakdown of content points to 20% solo, 20% raid, and 60% group (2-6 people) play. The action was warped out to an area called Trengel Keep for a bit of group adventuring with some other GMs currently in the world. One of the interesting things about Vanguard, one that's pretty controversial and one we're still not too sure about, is the lack of instances. They didn't want to break people out of the MMO experience at any point so players might end up sitting in some of the dreaded spawn camping lines that have been much maligned over the years."

"Sigil hasn't shaken up the MMO experience. It's an evolutionary game, from what I've seen. The fact that it's a bit early out of the gate has caused it to have a number of launch issues, most of which are fairly common to the genre. The slower progression, group focus and huge world all set the game apart from the current MMO behemoth, World of Warcraft. Whether those differences are positive or negative is largely a matter of taste. For now, it's a nice evolution, learning from the smart decisions and mistakes of the MMOs that came before it. Once all of the bugs and other issues get hammered out, Vanguard could end up being a loveable game."