Impression: Vanguard’s Trial of the Isle

Ryan took the opportunity to try Vanguard’s Isle of Dawn trial island. The area was a part of Game Update 6, a game that had a struggling launch. Read Ryan’s impressions after the jump. Sony Online Entertainment finally managed to create a way for players to get a sneak peak at Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.  At the end of September, The Isle of Dawn trial was released as a separate download to allow players to get a chance to see how Vanguard works, without having to download the gigantic 17GB install file.  It is something that the developers have been wanting to do for awhile, as the one thing that the game is sorely lacking, is players.

I had totally forgetten just how many races (19!) and classes (15) this game had until I had logged back in with the trial and created a new character.  Some of the races seem kind of blah, for example there are three types of human, but they vary them by being different nationalities and ultimately tie-in with the look and feel of their home continent…  Which, unfortunately, you wont see on the trial island.

It is entirely self contained, using the Kojan style, which is what you would call an Asian theme.  I was surprised they used Kojan, because like most people I was expecting something a little more typical of the fantasy realm, but it helps show off one of the things that makes Vanguard are darn cool game: diversity.

After choosing your Race/Class and creating your avatar, you are dropped into a little village where you quickly learn that the entire area of the trial has been in constant battle with the Hobgolbins for many years.

Only recently, a new player has shown up and is threatening to destroy both sides of the battle.   As you progress through levels on the isle, you learn that the people of the Isle were betrayed and ultimately make your way to beating this nefarious character and helping set free the isle.

While the story sounds like something you would hear just about anywhere, SOE does a great job of keeping you moving from one quest or area to another.  Always keeping you in something to do, or with a goal in mind.

One thing that differentiates Vanguard from other MMOs is that not only does it have adventuring, but crafting is considered it’s own “sphere.” You can level it up the same way as you would adventuring, including things like doing quests.

Or, you can chose to progress in the  Diplomacy “sphere.”  It’s a sort of card game that has its own quests

and rewards, and is very integral to the game if you want it to be, in that you can learn a TON of information about the world.  On the Isle, you learn a lot of the storyline from adventuring, but by doing diplomacy, you get to see exactly what is happening from a storyline perspective.

I think the Isle was great.  It gives you a great idea of how Vanguard as a game works.  It shows you and teaches you about abilitiy chains, crafting and rewards, diplomacy and its rewards, and is a fun time to boot.  If you haven’t had the chance to try Vanguard, or tried back at release when it was an absolute mess, you owe it to yourself to give the game another try.

The community honestly, is the one thing that surprised me.  Vanguard is not a WoW clone, and while it may be that Sigil is taking steps to change things and make it a little easier for some players, it has not lost out in the community.  The community on the Isle is great, with players offering up free bags, being very helpful, and just in general seeming a little more mature than what you find in most games today.  Honestly, it felt a little bit like playing EverQuest back in the day community wise, which was a huge delight for me.

Vanguard is not perfect.  It had a ton of problems back at release, and has had its backlash because of that. What you see in the trial might not always be 100% indicative of the actual full title. The biggest issue facing Vanguard at this time is lack of content at the level cap, which in turn has made population an issue.  You wont always see the amount of people running around Telon as a whole as you will on the Trial Isle.  But the dev team is hard at work on creating some brand new content for max level players, and is constantly working on new things. In fact, they are getting ready to launch a new content update that is to include max level content, including 700 new items,  and new quests.

I’m hoping to spend some time with the full game and bring you some impressions of the title, but in the meantime, check it out!  The Trial of the Isle is here to bring new players to the game, and show old veterans that the small team working on Vanguard is committed to making this into a great title.  If you haven’t played Vanguard, give it a shot.  I am sure that you will be pleasantly suprised!