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My Serious Review of Vanguard
Cor4x
Member Posts: 241
Preface:
I played vanguard from 2 days after it opened until today. I doubt I will log in again. My main is ~L24 so I’ve played a good bit.
This isn’t a definitive statement of everyone’s experience in Vanguard. It is mine.
I don’t do crafting and wouldn’t even if they paid me, so I won’t be reviewing that.
The baby card-game (diplomacy) is essentially a free run-around drool-proofed kiddie game that a child could win. It doesn’t give any meaningful reward that I could see and was hideously boring. So I didn’t continue after 20 or so wins. It might get better, but I couldn’t bear the thought of playing it any longer.
Adventuring is where it is at for me. This was the make or break of the game.
Unfortunately, there are several factors that I feel make the game’s aggravation outweigh the fun, even if it were free. Paying for this game is out of the question.
I’ll outline what I see are the major problems and give short examples of each:
1. To get it out of the way: the client and world are badly bugged and broken. The majority of my deaths have come from being boot-killed, lag killed, insta-pop killed, kill-pop killed, and teleport killed. If you don’t know what those are, you haven’t played and I’ll explain them to you:
Boot-killed: You get randomly booted to the desktop or the loading screen, but your character is still in game for 30 seconds or so and gets killed.
Lag-killed: The game randomly freezes up for up to 30 seconds at a time. (Due to memory leak problems and just bad code.) You will die while frozen and unable to act. This happens most often right after you cast a spell or use an ability.
Insta-pop killed: Randomly, when you kill the last mob in a spawn set, ALL the mobs will pop in the area the instant that mob is killed. They add, you die. It is impossible in most cases to flee from mobs over L15 (even with SOW).
Kill-pop killed: Randomly, when you kill a mob, another level 0 mob clone will pop from the corpse and instantly agro. You get no xp or loot from killing it, but it will likely kill you in your weakened state.
Teleport killed: my favorite. Randomly, you will get teleported into a random part of the world. In 2 cases (1 mine one someone elses), you get teleported into the field by the ruins of (whatever). It is the highest level zone in that part of the world and you die quickly. You will lose the xp as you will be FORCED to recall your shard.
There are also massive problems with equipment being lost or having to re-equip stuff time after time when logging in.
When you zone, your pet becomes a ghost and you now have a magical ghost copy that won’t work. Wolf form also drops every time you zone.
I could go on and on about the client, but it is extremely buggy for a release product.
2. The game is a huge grind. It takes over 400 kills at level 20 to go to level 21 solo (2 dot yellow mobs). The combat is brain-dead easy and boring as hell. It is like having to move 400 marbles 10 yards one at a time from one jar to the next. Tedious, unchallenging, and not fun.
All of the equipment sucks and really isn’t any better than any other. It might give some small bonuses, but you really won’t notice much difference between all rare equipment and none at all (if you are a caster, that is). There really isn’t much reward for anything you do besides xp and some token coin.
The market interface sucks as well with only 10 sell slots. I just sell (to the trash vendor) or destroy all the green equipment as the inventory is so small. (So is the bank by the way.)
3. The number one REAL reason is all the damned running around because “mindless clopping back and forth is supposed to be fun”. It takes over 20 minutes of running with the fastest horse + sow to reach the L20 – 25 areas. Across bland, horrible terrain. Cloppity cloppity clop. The game forces this on several levels:
The first is your equipment falls off every time you begin to fight. It begins to take massive damage each time you begin to fight. (My equipment goes to 0% after around 4 – 6 hours of play.) They moved all the armor repair vendors back to the main city or at least 10 minutes run away, so it means a recall and a 20 minute run back after fixing your armor.
The second is: the trainers are located ONLY in the starting city for most classes (warriors and such can just run the 20 minutes to the next city I guess). That means you are stuck teleporting back to the main city and running back every time you level. 20 minutes again. Clop clop clop.
If there is one thing that kills this game for me it is the constant damned boring ass running across featureless, bland, uninspired, and uncreative terrain. (Yes, I can do better.)
4. Like CoH, you get ~3 - 4 basic abilities and these are copied for 50 levels. All the abilities on the classes I checked repeat over and over. You only get them every other level (in most classes, there are some exceptions). Many of them are completely useless. I could go on and on about that, but the abilities are uninspired and boring clones.
So: Combat boils down to the same exact thing in the same sequence. They shortened the casting and effect time (such as 30 second roots), like EQ2, so it gives you buttons to frequently push like a fisher-price activity set.
5. The mobs spawn far too slowly. A single grinder can eliminate an entire dungeon of mobs when they are level appropriate or huge swaths of terrain. I saw this time and time again and did so myself. It makes questing a pain in the butt. It also means that in some areas (like the entire giant starting area to around level 15 at least) the few people that are there have a hard time finding something to kill.
6. The game is pretty much populated by children and ass hats. It has the worst community I have ever seen. I haven’t played WOW, but that’s how I would imagine the community to be.
7. The overall experience is just irritating and not fun or challenging. It is very easy, but too aggravating for me to spend my time or money playing.
That’s pretty much it. I could write pages on this, but it’d be beating a dead horse. (Clop clop clopity clop?)
Oh yes: the server I played on showed medium population but I almost never saw more than a couple of people at a time and usually went for hours without seeing anyone else (except for the forced trips back to town). It seems to have gotten more sparse in the past few days. I only played on the European-like continent so maybe everyone is on one of the other continents. As there really isn’t a reason for me to go there before 50 (I’d be afraid there weren’t any trainers of my type there and I’d just have to come back), I really don’t care. To me they don’t exist.
Comments
Sorry man...
eqnext.wikia.com
Hmmm have to agree with the other posters... a lot of that is not what I have found.
Diplomacy particularly is NOT easy... sure the first 20 missions while you are learning are designed to help you win so you get the feel of how the game works. But once you hit 40-50 you are basically going to spend most of your time engaging in discussions that are with NPC's at least 10-20 levels above you and anyone that finds that easy... FFS tell me your secret because I find it quite hard to win more than about 60% -75% of the time. In some cases you cant win, you have to just go away and build your skill a little more and maybe get a new card or two before you can even try to win certain conversations.
I actually rate diplomacy as the most innovative addition to an MMO since treasure hunting in UO. I was lucky enough to be on a server the other day when a reasonably high level diplomat triggerd a city wide crafting buff and it was then I started to see the potential of diplomacy to affect the game in the months to come.
If your only going to play the parts of the game that are basically identical to every other MMO then its kind of no surprise you werent thrilled. Crafting and Diplomacy are the two things that really seperate VG from other games.
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"MMOs, for people that like think chatting is like a skill or something, rotflol"
http://purepwnage.com
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"Far away across the field, the tolling of the iron bell, calls the faithful to their knees. To hear the softly spoken magic spell" Pink Floyd-Dark Side of the Moon
I think you have played the game. Some of the bugs you said in your interview I have never seen but I have only managed to level a guy to level 13.
I realize that I haven't seen 90% of the game yet so maybe those bugs are there.
I get so tired of people who pretend they have seen it all in the game and then come here to bash other people. The OP wrote what he thinks is a fair review. Cut him some slack.
I remember treasure hunting in UO. Ahh the joys of macro fishing. They added it when they were trying to increase the number of skills people were using.
As for the last paragraph, I respect your opinion and say that I found diplomacy (with the little I tried it) to be boring and silly. I won't craft.
I expect an MMORPG to have cool adventure and combat. Without that, you have second life. That isn't my cup of tea.
I agree wholeheartedly.
I wish MMOs came with a money-back guarantee
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Played - UO, FFXI, WAR, WoW, EVE
Currently - Bored.
Ok, I call BS.
There is no way you could have played this game. No way, or your just a fan of another game that you like better, nothing wrong with that but don't bash games others enjoy. The reason I call BS on you is things that you have said that arent true. Some things are your opinions and I respect those that you have, like the Diplomacy (shrug, its a secondary game like crafting) but for you to say
"The game is a huge grind. It takes over 400 kills at level 20 to go to level 21 solo"
Well bud if you played you would know that the quest give a nice exp bunus better than the grind.
and i love this...
"The mobs spawn far too slowly."
ok maybe if your 5 levels higher maybe, but we were just talking about this the other day, you can get into a jam if your not careful with all the re-pops comming at you the way they do. Hey maybe I like a challenge and have been leveling off of even con quests (shrug)
"The game is pretty much populated by children and ass hats. It has the worst community I have ever seen. I haven’t played WOW, but that’s how I would imagine the community to be. "
This was a big one that I knew you couldn't have played, I have found that everyone has been really getting into the game and helping each other out, one of the big things that I was actually surprised with.
"The overall experience is just irritating and not fun or challenging. It is very easy, but too aggravating for me to spend my time or money playing"
Ok first you say its a major grind then you say its too easy? Yeah um I don't think you even played this game.
"This is not a game to be tossed aside lightly.
It should be thrown with great force"
Why do people think that GRIND = HARD?
Just because it's hard on your life, doesn't mean a retarded 5 year old couldn't do it.
In terms of unoriginality ... It's amazing how my Rogue in VG plays EXACTLY like my Rogue in WoW...
In WoW:
- Stealth behind mob
- Ambush (250% + x damage, requires behind target and stealth)
- Sinister Strike (Weapon damage + x)
- Gouge (5.5 second stun)
- Get behind target
- Backstab (150% + x damage, requires behind target)
In VG:
- Sneak behind mob
- Pummel (?) (400% + x damage, requires behind target and stealth)
- Whatever the basic DPS move is called (Weapon damage + x)
- Blinding Flash (6 second stun)
- Get behind target
- Backstab (300% + x damage, requires behind target)
Wow... People say WoW gameplay is too easy but that looks pretty damn similar. Eh?
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Played - UO, FFXI, WAR, WoW, EVE
Currently - Bored.
Diplomacy is pointless because you can never rally lose : you just do it over and over again until you win.
Also to the OP don't post Vanguard reviews in a Vanguard forum because this game has fanbois like no other. Well it's close between EVE and this game.
I like a review, good or bad, but when it's so far off from the reality of the game it's not a review anymore. Kid yourself all you want but what he posted was garbage.
I find it's hard for me to log into my level 14monk and play. VG doesn't feel like the game I had HOPED it might be. It might be fine as a beta, but not a game that anyone should pay to play.
This reminds me of the PS3 vs Wii debate. I have a PS3 because I want the quality, but like VG, my PS3 is sitting idle because right now, it's just not that fun. Potentially, who knows though.
Well, I guess some of us are a bit hard to please. Afterall, fat girls, like poorly launched games, need love too. Happy valentines!
Go read my post again (if you even did the first time). A single item was the grind, which is expected to some extent in all MMORPGs. I have played them constantly since UO first opened. I was there on opening day.
I played MUDs before that. I understand grind. EQ has a grind as well, but it was a lot more fun. And it was a challenge.
I stated the number one reason was the stupid endless running. (Even though it was listed as number 3.)
As an aside, to some people the entire point of an RPG is to level. To me it is to have fun. I had loads of fun in EQ1 camping a halfling mask for my bard hour after hour day after day. I chatted with my mates and generally had a good time doing something difficult. (It is deep inside the sarnak fortress and sort of a pain to get to.)
This is a bug ridden game. I have seen it with my own eyes. I have to agree with the OP's assessment, since his views match that of mine. If you disagree that is your perogative, but for you disregard the plethora of bugs this game does in fact have, only proves you meet the Vanboi stereotype.
While you may not find many of these things tedious or boring, there are plenty of people who do and there are people who read these forums who could probably find this informational since it might meet their game purchasing criteria. His opinion are valid, whether you agree with them or not and anyone who might be thinking about buying this game who has our same point of view will be happy that they've been warned.
In regards to the poster above me. Just because you say you haven't experienced some of his issues does not invalidate his claim. I'd like to see the poll you issued in order to come up with the 99% helpful people on your server let alone any other server. I can safely bet you haven't even met 99% of the people in your starting area, let alone the entire server.
With PvE raiding, it has never been a question of being "good enough". I play games to have fun, not to be a simpering toady sitting through hour after hour of mind numbing boredom and fawning over a guild master in the hopes that he will condescend to reward me with shiny bits of loot. But in games where those people get the highest progression, anyone who doesn't do that will just be a moving target for them and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay money for the privilege. - Neanderthal
I'll never understand people that go for the eye candy over substance...