The Angry Raider

Vanguard in November 2008 is definitely not Vanguard in January 2006. The game is remarkably different in a lot of good ways, all while maintaining the spirit of the design and original intent. I played several different classes to level 4, including a dread knight, a ranger, a sorcerer, and a bard. While level 4 is hardly going to provide an exhaustive impression of an MMORPG, it does do a good job of capturing that initial excitement–or annoyance–that new MMO experiences provide.

While I was doing those initial quests over and over, I thought about how Vanguard is different from other MMORPGs and tried to identify what would make someone choose it over, say EverQuest 2 or World of Warcraft. If I were to draw a direct comparison between Vanguard and any of the other fantasy MMOs I’ve played, I’d have to say it’s more similar to EQ2 than WoW, but sitting somewhere comfortably between them. Indeed, Vanguard was designed by people who worked on the original EverQuest (namely, Brad McQuaid), but Sigil (the developer of Vanguard) didn’t ignore the success of World of Warcraft entirely. So what you have is a game with a UI similar to World of Warcraft’s in terms of simplicity, with an overall feel that’s more in line with EverQuest 2. The combat mechanics are more akin to WoW: there’s a global cooldown, and each ability has its own cooldown.

What makes Vanguard unique is its consideration of the player. As I told my fiancee at lunch today, Vanguard is the ideal MMO for RPers. Much more so than WoW, and even better than EQ2. When you start a new character in Vanguard, you have a full set of class-specific armor. At level 2, you do a simple quest chain that gives you your class-specific weapons. By level 4, you’ve completed enough quests to have several pieces of armor with stat bonuses on them. Rather than make you feel like a child growing up in a fantasy realm, you are immediately thrust into the environment: upon entering Telon for the first time, you’re ready to make an effect on it.

Leveling up gains you new abilities based on your experience, and itemization comes along for the ride. Why should you have to wait until your teens or twenties to get some meaningful gear? In this regard, Vanguard takes an approach similar to the classic tabletop RPG Dungeons & Dragons. Level increases are meant to make your character more powerful so she can face more powerful adversaries, not serve as a reward for a commitment to the game.

EverQuest II, to its credit, follows that same road. Sony learned that over time, though, so only later expansions (Rise of Kunark, namely) offer good itemization in the starting zone. World of Warcraft has embraced this mentality as well, but shifts it to the higher level content that’s created for expansions: Hellfire Peninsula rewards in Burning Crusade come to mind.

Vanguard’s support for the RPer extends beyond armor and weapons. The initial quests are meaningful. You don’t just kill ten rats, then kill ten wolves, then find ten candles. The quests have lore behind them from the start, and introduce you to NPCs that will be important throughout your time on the Isle of Dawn. Vanguard also introduces you to faction at level 4, which leads to the biggest part of the RP aspect: diplomacy.

Diplomacy is like a game-within-a-game in Vanguard. Interacting with an NPC, you select diplomatic abilities and interact in a sort of back and forth discussion. It’s like a card game; you have cards that indicate certain abilities, such as Booming Voice or Courteous Bow, that affect the NPC in some way. If you’re successful in Diplomacy, you’ll gain levels and faction. If you fail, you’ll piss off the NPC and lose faction. The higher your faction, the better quests and interactions. This, in effect, lets you interact with the world in a way that’s beyond just killing the guys that the faction hates.

Of course, if you’re entering diplomatic relations with someone, you can’t show up with swords and spiky armor. Vanguard supports different sets of clothing for different scenarios. You have armor for fighting, clothing for diplomacy (with stats befitting diplomatic relations), and clothing for crafting. You wear your armor when you’re fighting, your tuxedo when you’re meeting the Prime Minister, and your overalls when you’re making horseshoes. This aspect of the game is fairly unique to Vanguard, with some of it borrowed from EQ2 (case in point: EQ2 lets you wear one set of armor for stats while showing another set of armor for appearance, and has certain armor that gives bonuses to crafting). Vanguard automatically switches your gear for you depending on the situation you’re in.

Add that to the ships, guild halls, player housing, mount choices, and so on, and you have an amazing game with endless possibilities for the fantasy adventurer.

Ultimately it is the immersion in a fantasy setting that makes Vanguard a strong game. I think it’s exactly the kind of game that WoW refugees should take a look at rather than EQ2. Vanguard features a simplicity not found in EQ2, despite the original intent of Sigil in making Vanguard a difficult MMO. But Vanguard is harder than WoW and less forgiving in certain ways. For example, in WoW, there’s no death penalty beyond losing some durability, which money will take care of. When you die, you run back to your corpse, sort of like a ghost monster in Pac Man. But in Vanguard, the death penalty is more severe: you lose experience. If you choose to run back to your body, you will regain some experience and whatever non-soulbound loot you were carrying at the time. If you use the "spirit rezzer," your body is summoned to you but you don’t get the experience back. And of course if you’re rezzed, you get your experience and your items. This kind of penalty is rough for WoW players who are used to a simpler system.

For me, I don’t see Vanguard becoming my main game. I already have too much invested in EQ2, and with the games being similar, I feel more comfortable in Norrath than Telon. But I believe that if EQ2 fails to retain my interest, Vanguard will be the game I retreat into, rather than spend another day looking for someone to run heroics in Northrend.