"Why the comparison between WoW?"

Being an experienced player of both WoW and Vanguard, I have noticed a few differences, as anyone could. A few months ago, I left WoW for several reasons, but the primary one was lack of space on my computer. My friends and I had been discussing a game that was soon to be released, called "Vanguard: Saga of Heroes", in which we were all going to start (while we were playing WoW). I was somewhat skeptical at first, and then after a bit of research, I found out that it was made by the people who created EQ. I have never played it myself, but I have heard great stories about it. One night, I decided to watch a director's commentary video online. It gave me a brief introduction of what was to come. After that, I was sold.

Visuals: 6/10
The visuals are one of the best parts about this game. At maximum detail, it's, quite simply, stunning. On my PC, I have an old ATI card. I was almost forced into having to buy a laptop, which obliterates my PC by almost two times. 256 Graphics card, dual core processor, 2gbs of RAM; still, the lowest graphics settings. This is a very large turn off for me, and as for many people. The frame rates are horrible, but this is probably because I'm running it on a laptop. Several .ini tweaks were made available, so as to increase the frame rates. While this only did by a few frames (as opposed to the "5-10 frames for each tweak) all together, it was an improvement nonetheless. And even at the lowest graphics settings, it's still quite amazing to look at. I can't help but wonder how much effort they actually put into the graphics of the game.

Sound: 10/10
I really don't have much to say about this category. The shear amount of sounds and noises, along with the massive variety of noise-makers, is just wondrous. Sadly, one of the .ini tweaks mentioned above completely remove sound. Another point, is that sometimes, with bad frames, the sound will sound rather choppy and skip somewhat. Points aside, this category easily deserves a 10.

Gameplay: 9/10
The gameplay of this game is quite easy to pick up. You start out at the main screen, and pick one of nineteen races and one of sixteen classes. The races vary from Asian themed to Middle-Eastern themed features, as well as classic fantasy characters. Character customization is grand, although some additions would be thanked, such as skin tone, hair color (and style), etc. Otherwise, it's basically total control. You can edit your characters entire body, such as nose shape, eye height, cheek depth, muscle tone, to their very height. After that is all said and done, you can choose from one of sixteen classes. These classes are divided up into categories, basically how they are classified by what each class does. There are healers, offensive fighters, spellcasters, and defensive fighters. Currently, there is only 14 classes, with two to be released along the road.

After you create your character, you are given a brief overview of your races history, as well as a basic scenario for your character and their current situation. Once you have finished reading this, you are put into the mystical world of Telon. You are given some starter quests to help you get situated with the game. Then as you progress, it will get more challenging. Along with basic adventuring, there is two other very important factors; diplomacy and crafting. These aren't required, but the ability to have diplomatic power over others to gain information and the ability to create your own items will ease your adventuring.

Diplomacy is a basic card game that you play with NPCs. If you win, you will get either information required for a quest, items, or just general information to help you. There is a tutorial that explains the basics, and allows for you to pick up more as you go.

Crafting, is very handy. There are many tutorials involving the intricate processes of making an item. Compared to WoW, Vanguard blows this out of the water. Instead of gathering a certain amount of materials, and pressing the "create" button, you have to not only gather these materials, but go through a series of steps to create your item. The actual amount of steps is dependent on which profession you choose. These are very basic, and include Artificing (sculpting), Blacksmithing, and Outfitting. You can go further into each of these, and they all have a respected harvesting skill that is required to gather the needed materials. After this is all finished, you get a grade of the item. Naturally, the higher the grade, the better and more valuable the item. Work orders may also be performed to increase your profession's experience. They are generally easy, and are very simple.

I suppose that crafting and diplomacy could have used their own category, but these are the literal three "spheres" of gameplay that are implemented into Vanguard.

Overall: 9/10
The graphics, beautiful. The sound, amazing. The gameplay, astounding. I could hit my head on this keyboard seven times in any given spot, combine all the letters to create any given word in the dictionary (and then some), and still not be able to give a good enough description. Overall, this game wonderful. My only turn of is the high performance requirements, and low frames. But, this will all be solved eventually, since the game is relatively new. Compared to WoW....well. there is no comparison. WoW is a great game, but Vanguard just simply takes the cake.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/20/07