We all know what happened so no need to go in to that. They all screwed up and it was badly managed and the game had a buggy release and everyone left etc, etc.
But when I think about the actual game itself, it wasn't a lot different to Live, and not a lot different to SoD. It's a LOT nicer looking, and the quests were as good or better, but either way, similar. It has similar classes, similar combat, and at the end of the day, for most people, it's about grinding from 1 to max while making friends and acquiring a stash of uber lewt. So again, not really any different to SoD or Live or WoW etc. It also had the great locations which are key to games like this. In fact, it wipes the floor with any other game in that respect IMO. Perhaps WoW has the upper hand now that it's had two expansions, but as a game on release, Vanguard was enormous, and it was filled with interesting locations. Hillsbury reminded me of Unrest, they had enormous desert areas, snow capped mountains, enormous dungeons, grassy planes, volcanic areas, swamps, etc.. and LOTS of it.
So I find it interesting to think that it's practically dead, and yet games like this live on, even though it's not a $40 million big budget game. It's easy to just blame it on the bugs and performance issues, but they are mostly gone now. I played it several months ago when they offered a free month, and it was pretty smooth. So I am interested what people think about the gameplay itself. What aspects of the gameplay were so bad for you, that you decided to stop playing?
Personally, I loved it at first, and the Bard class was amazing... But what really bugged and ultimately made me quit, was the inability to solo properly. I could kill 2 dot mobs in overland areas, but to me, that is the equivalent of fighting light blues in SoD all day. It was no challenge, slow exp, and extremely boring. The thing that interests me about games like SoD and Live, is that I can solo in a deep dark nasty dungeon like Mielech or whatever. In Vanguard, all the interesting locations like Hillsbury and dungeons etc, were filled with *groups* of 3 and 4 dot mobs. So they just instantly made it impossible for me to solo there, and that ruined the whole thing. So although Hillsbury seemed like Unrest 2 at first, it quickly turned to crap when I realised you can't even go in there unless you have a group, and by the time I was able to solo it, they were all far too low level to be interesting. And that pretty much sums up the entire rest of the game for me. In the 20's I would find an interesting looking dungeon but yep.. there were two 4 dot mobs standing at the entrance so that was a no go. And then in my 30's, again, I would find a great looking dungeon but there were a bunch of 4 dot mobs all over it, so again, it was out of bounds unless I put together a full group. So it was forced grouping, or forced BASIC soloing. No in between, and that is mainly why I left.
How about you?
But when I think about the actual game itself, it wasn't a lot different to Live, and not a lot different to SoD. It's a LOT nicer looking, and the quests were as good or better, but either way, similar. It has similar classes, similar combat, and at the end of the day, for most people, it's about grinding from 1 to max while making friends and acquiring a stash of uber lewt. So again, not really any different to SoD or Live or WoW etc. It also had the great locations which are key to games like this. In fact, it wipes the floor with any other game in that respect IMO. Perhaps WoW has the upper hand now that it's had two expansions, but as a game on release, Vanguard was enormous, and it was filled with interesting locations. Hillsbury reminded me of Unrest, they had enormous desert areas, snow capped mountains, enormous dungeons, grassy planes, volcanic areas, swamps, etc.. and LOTS of it.
So I find it interesting to think that it's practically dead, and yet games like this live on, even though it's not a $40 million big budget game. It's easy to just blame it on the bugs and performance issues, but they are mostly gone now. I played it several months ago when they offered a free month, and it was pretty smooth. So I am interested what people think about the gameplay itself. What aspects of the gameplay were so bad for you, that you decided to stop playing?
Personally, I loved it at first, and the Bard class was amazing... But what really bugged and ultimately made me quit, was the inability to solo properly. I could kill 2 dot mobs in overland areas, but to me, that is the equivalent of fighting light blues in SoD all day. It was no challenge, slow exp, and extremely boring. The thing that interests me about games like SoD and Live, is that I can solo in a deep dark nasty dungeon like Mielech or whatever. In Vanguard, all the interesting locations like Hillsbury and dungeons etc, were filled with *groups* of 3 and 4 dot mobs. So they just instantly made it impossible for me to solo there, and that ruined the whole thing. So although Hillsbury seemed like Unrest 2 at first, it quickly turned to crap when I realised you can't even go in there unless you have a group, and by the time I was able to solo it, they were all far too low level to be interesting. And that pretty much sums up the entire rest of the game for me. In the 20's I would find an interesting looking dungeon but yep.. there were two 4 dot mobs standing at the entrance so that was a no go. And then in my 30's, again, I would find a great looking dungeon but there were a bunch of 4 dot mobs all over it, so again, it was out of bounds unless I put together a full group. So it was forced grouping, or forced BASIC soloing. No in between, and that is mainly why I left.
How about you?
