My gaming friends and I have been waiting for the release of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes for what feels like forever. Last month, I got in on beta four testing and, now that the non-disclosure agreement has been lifted, can tell you I’m a bit disappointed.
Having played Everquest, Everquest II, and World of Warcraft, I was hoping this much hyped new MMORPG would have something different to offer. While the game has just opened in public beta and will likely continue to improve, right now it plays like just another remix of the aforementioned. The user interface is nearly identical to World of Warcraft — the same bars, bags, hotbar locations, and chat windows — and the character classes and races, with few exceptions, include the usual mix of suspects.
I was, however, pleased with the many options for character customization that were more extensive than any game I’ve played to date. The game graphics are noteworthy overall– but that’s assuming you can get them to run on your system.
Performance is the huge drawback to Vanguard at this juncture. Though the Sigil team states, “it is very important to us that Vanguard be a game that can be played and enjoyed on an ‘average’ gaming machine,” and currently list minimum specs of “2.4 ghz processor, a graphics card with 128M of RAM, and between 512 megs and 1 gig of system memory,” when I tested the game on a system meeting this criteria, it was unplayable. It was choppy and unresponsive, even at lower graphic resolutions. A fellow tester remarked, “I’d hazard a guess that to run with the highest visual settings you would need roughly 4GB ram, dual SLI 7950GT’s (possibly 8800’s), and a 4GB processor at least.”
The game itself currently weighs in at a whopping 16 GB.
If performance issues were addressed, I think Vanguard has possibilities of being a good game (or if you currently have a top of the line gaming system). But for now, I’m taking a pass. The game doesn’t blaze any trailways in the genre that would make expensive upgrades worthwhile.
Vanguard is rated “T” for teen by the Entertainment Software Rating Board. Titles with this rating contain content that may be inappropriate for children under the age of 13, including scenes involving aggressive conflict, mild provocative references, and usage of alcohol. Parental guidance is suggested.