Vanguard: Vanguard: Saga of Heroes--One AMAZING Game!!

From the chilly clime of Calgary to the sun-drenched shore of San Diego, it has been one helluva trip. And I don't mean travel-wise either. The word that stays in my mind is "amazing"...in the fog of my travel-dazed brain, I keep coming back to it...my trip to the Vanguard Summit was...amazing.

In days to come, I will be giving fuller details of what went on during this one-and-a-half-day whirlwind trip, including our stay at a haunted hotel. Today I am hitting the two burning questions that everyone is probably asking:

1. Did you get to play the game?
2. What was it like?

Yes, we (being the 21 community representatives picked by Sigil for the Vanguard Summit) got to play the game. Sigil officials announced it the night before and, if I hadn't already been sleep-deprived from excitement, I would have stayed awake all night being excited about that. As it was, after the supper for community reps and Sigil execs, plus a little further socializing, I went to my room and fell into an exhausted, dreamless sleep, awaking amazingly refreshed and raring for action.

We had breakfast and piled onto the bus to cruise off to the Sigil offices in Carlsbad, about a 40-minute drive from downtown San Diego. You could feel the excitement in the air, on the bus, and in the building itself when we arrived. Cindy Bowens, Sigil's Community Manager and our hostess for the entire visit, wisely decided not to keep us from the game any longer than possible. Almost immediately upon our arrival, after a brief introduction to the day's events, we got to play Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.

Three computers had been set up for us, and we took turns until all 21 of us had had at least 15 minutes play time. I went in the second wave of players and was immediately totally in love with the game...from the ease of controls, to the ease of movement, to the beauty of the art, to the intricacy of the gameplay. Note, I said intricacy, not difficulty. There was nothing difficult about it, at least certainly not at the lower level...and it was NOT mind-numbingly repetitive, nor boring, nor something that has been done to death by everyone else.

We got our choice of three different characters-Vulmane, human or elf-at a starting point near Leth Nurae on the continent of Thestra. I chose a female warrior elf and began to move her immediately across the terrain. The controls were familiar, clicking the setting to run and moving either by mouse or directional arrows. The UI was beautifully rendered by artist Tom King, as reported previously, and implemented by the programmers into a screen that was unlittered with unnecessary information. All the info was at the proper fingertip or eye-scanning reach and made the gameplay fun. Across the top of the board were the various function keys-rest, run, etc. This was also where the bar gauges of health, mental, physical and another that was unidentified, resided. Along the bottom were the different combat modes-slash, stab, kick and so on. To the right was the inventory screen and to the left were the party/group information displays.

My tutor was Andy Platter, senior web developer and production lead at Sigil, who patiently showed me how to find a mob to kill (after all that plane riding, I wanted to kill something, fast). We turned up a badger, I targeted it and conned it, same as in EverQuest, by hitting "c." The badger was within my level range, so I started stabbing at it. Seems that wasn't a good idea because I was putting myself too close to it and giving it too good a chance to hit me...so I slashed at it. This worked better. It turns out that everything in the gameplay is intuitive. It is based on what would happen in real life...you don't stab at things that have a long reach because you are placing yourself in more jeopardy than is necessary. Use longer weapons or ranged weapons. And different stances that fit the mobs...like "Bold Rush" or "Cross-Slash" or "Staggering Blow." There are three modes of attack: Offensive, Defensive and Neutral, and various modular attacks depending on levels.

The next mob I hit was a spider. Andy suggested I use "Kick" on this mob because he was a lot lower than me and kick would be more effective. I also had the chance of turning him over and then being able to stab the mob in his soft underbelly. Furthermore, I found out that my "opening" move, if used often enough, would open up other combat options that were available only briefly. I used some of these options to more quickly render the mob incapacitated. This was important. The spider conned yellow and I was going down almost as fast as it was. Thus, you will not be able to make macros to set off a series of planned attacks (nor will you want to) because of the ability to open up various other attacks. This will be progressive and require knowledge of your abilities and which skill opens what secondary attack.

I managed to finish the spider off...and then had to rest to build up my mana (yes, warriors have mana; it's called stamina) so that I could fight again. With every move you make, you "cast" stamina and will need to renew it. After I clicked on the "Rest" key, my stamina replenished itself very quickly and I was able to tackle a few more mobs. Andy told me that there were plans in the works to have the moves keyed, but for now we had to click on the appropriate buttons.

The character herself was well designed and rendered. Her movements were very natural, almost to the point of being awkward or ungainly, especially the running movements. However, I figured that this was an early stage of the character. That particular characteristic would probably be refined, and that was probably the ONLY "constructive" comment I had about the whole thing. The rest of my reaction to EVERYTHING shown was whole-hearted admiration, awe and excitement.

There will be progressive combat skills that will require thinking on the part of the warrior, rogue or other melee type. It won't be just a case of hack-and-slash as you watch TV or work on your homework or business report. It WILL require your undivided attention and the learning and progression of every bit of skill you acquire along the way. And as you level, you will learn new skills that will intermesh with previous skills. Some skills you will drop, but some you will keep on using at a more refined degree of effectiveness and success. . It will be up to the combatant to find out which skills and abilities work with others and how to use them in conjunction with other players. For instance, if I slash a mob until I unlock the secondary move of "Staggering Blow" or some such, my warrior friend who is helping me can play the secondary move to finish off the mob while I move on to other mobs.

Although we didn't get to play casters or healers, we did get a rundown of what kind of progression these types will have as well. Same thing will go for the casters...i.e. spells of one kind will open the way to spells of another kind, which can be used in conjunction with the melee-ers' moves to more quickly immobilize and vanquish the enemy. The caster will also learn counter-spells, so when the NPC wizard starts lobbing his nukes and other debilitating spells on your group, your wizard can cast counter-spells to neutralize the NPC spells. It will take knowledge, skill and awareness of what is going on.

Although everything in the game is dynamic and moving, it is not bewilderingly so. I felt like I had come home, but to a new home...a beautifully revamped and revitalized home...one that will nourish and nurture and regenerate enthusiasm and life experience. One of the things we talked about at the Vanguard Summit was how we play these games for the same reason that kids play games...to acquire life skills and life experiences so that when we meet the real thing, we have a better idea of how to handle it. Some games, of course, are better than others for this...and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is one of them. I have only scratched the surface of what went on in the 31 hours we had to explore this new game and talk to the people who are creating it.

The Sigil team was very forthcoming about the things they wanted to tell us and show us. There were things they were not ready to reveal yet, and that was okay because I am prepared to wait for what promises to be the best game ever, since...well...EverQuest.

By the way, did I mention we saw a snake in-game, with many protuberances on either side of its body that looked suspiciously like feet? "Snake?" many of us wondered out loud. Brad McQuaid, CEO of Sigil and co-producer of the game, grinned at us. "Yeah," he said. "These are the snakes that kick!"

Watch for more news, stories, background and pictures at Vanguard Warcry in the next days and weeks to come...until I run out of notes, brainfeed, and desire to write anymore. If you'd like to ask questions about the game (or indeed the Summit), post here.

Raya of Warcry - Roving Reporter and newly inspired Vanguard fan.

Links to great articles from other community reps at the Vanguard Summit:
Epic Vanguard's easy-going Staunch
Vanguard OGaming's irrepressible Arnie
AND Arnie's great 43 pictures of Summit goings-on.
Vanguard Okratas's funny guy and everyone's friend Shelby (Garthilk) with snaps of some of the new concept art
The Safehouse's big-hearted Freonsmurf
Vanguard Gamergod's ubiquitous Zeus
Vanguard Gamerhell's affable and courtly Overgauss
I will keep an eye out for new posts by the reps who attended the Summit - nice folks, great supporters of the game.