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Constantly improving
Vanguard had a shaky start for sure, but since the launch almost two years ago it has improved constantly. The game is still not perfect, but the playerbase seems to be growing, and I have a blast every time I log in!

the real Vanguard
Returning player from launch. I was one of the many disappointed by Vanguard. I wanted to fall in love with it, but I couldn't. I always checked up to see how it was improving. Then I read impressions of the current state, so I had to check it out for myself. WOW!!! Vanguard is now truly an epic game. Flying mounts are in, ships are in, basically everything promised at release is now in game and then some. The team currently helping VG chug along has done a tremendous job. VG wil never see subscription numbers in the millions, but it will have a very tight knit community that love our game. I can finally call Telon my home for good.

Refreshing
I have played a dozen of MMO beginning with UOL and finishing with Age of Conan that I have just desinstalled fatre it occupied my HD for full whooping 8 days .
In my personnal ranking sofar I had :
EQ N°1 for immersion and the size of the world
LOTRO N°1 for graphics and a consistent story line/quest system
EQ2 N°1 for trade skills

After a friend's suggestion I had installed Vanguard 1 week ago .
Sofar it has been a very rewarding experience .

The overall feeling is clearly EQ like while many additionnal features were added .
The strong points I already noticed :
- a mature player basis . Many quilds require 18+ for membership and the players are accordingly rather helpfull and patient . That makes for a pleasant change after having suffered for 1 + year the WoW masses .
- a very good customer service . Friday evening I have made a /report about a quest that wouldn't update correctly . I expected that I would perhaps get a mail on Monday telling me that they were working on it . Instead after 10 minutes I got a tell from a GM who joined me immediately and solved the problem . He was very friendly and polite what also was a pleasant change after most of other MMOs .
- original and excellent diplomacy system . Especially the newbie diplomacy quests are interesting and make for a good introduction in the game (as a Gnome I have been incorporated in the counterintelligence department and charged with the investigation of strange disappearance of mages and inventors) .
- the trade skills are similar to EQ2 that I rank N°1 so , obviously , I am very satisfied with it
- the world is huge and non instanced what enhances the immersion feeling
- the classes are very complementary and balanced . On top of the classical EQ classes (with enchanters called psionists here) there are blood mages and disciples . Sofar I have tried only 3 (necromancer , bard and psionist) and they get all 3 a very different gaming feel .
- patience is needed and players don't get spoonfed with items , XP and gold by just running around 10 minutes . That has also the merit that it effectively eliminates most kids that want everything at once . The death penalty is a good thing in that respect too .

To the weaker points I'd mention :

- one doesn't see many players . My highest level is 12 and I have met players only in the big cities . Sofar it was easy to solo but I play MMORPGs mostly for the first MM . If I wanted to go solo , I would not buy an OL game . I also noticed that calls for groups were extremely rare and when it happened it was in the 30ies range . I have been told that :
a) the world is so huge that players are all over the place
b) the bad launch of the game has chased most of the players away but the population began to go again up since SOE took over , eliminated most of the bugs and implemented features that were not there at launch
c) a free trial is foreseen in september that would create an influx of new players
Well wait and see . It was precisely the huge player basis that had been an important element of the immersion feeling in EQ .

- the graphics and character customisation . While not bad it could be improved

- too fast day/night change . It is irritating . I'd scale it to something like 3 hours day and 1 hour night .

Definitely the strong and original points of this game largely outweigh the weaker points and there is still potential to improvement by future releases .
I'd even rank it overall a tad above LOTRO that was for me sofar the best "modern" MMORPG .

I recommend it to any mature player and certainly to all those who appreciated EQ .

Worth checking out
Ive played Vanguard since day 1 and enjoyed it from the beginning.

It had a rough start and lost many customers, but it has come a long way and is currently experiencing a resurgence of players. Performance is literally 100%-300% better for most players, with thousands of bugs squashed and quite a bit of new content.

Its about the only major MMO on the market now that can be considered a bit more 'old school'. If you enjoyed Everquest, this is about the only game out there that has the potential to make give you back a bit of that feeling. The huge open world is a big plus, and there is so much content that you have to play through multiple characters to ever see it all.

Its absolutely worth trying out now that it is ship shape, and there is going to be a free downloadable trial coming out in about 2-3 weeks from this date (august 10, 2008). Check it out!

Not the Vanguard it used to be
Vanguard SOH had a lot of hype and expectation when it launched. From what I hear, the launch was pretty rough and a lot of people were very dissapointed. The old reviews reflect that.

But the VG that exists today is NOT the same game you played last year!! Sony has been working very hard on fixing things and adding stuff. They just offered a free month to previous account holders, and everyone who came back to try it out remarked on just how improved the game is overall.

If you've never tried VG, this is not your ordinary MMO. Yes, there's plenty of adventuring in a giantic, almost seamless world. 3 huge continents to explore, dungeons galore dot the maps, 16 starting races and 19 starting classes. Graphics are gorgeous and Sony is constantly bringing in improvements (like expanding on the available character creation models).

You can adventure as you would in any MMO, running around exploring, doing quests and killing things. But you can also build your own house on a plot of land of your choice, go sailing the ocean in your own boat, or delve into the spheres of crafting and diplomacy.

VG's comabt is a slight expansion on typical MMO fare. Most moves are cool-down based, but you have the addition of several layers of stances (determing more damage vs. better defense, for example), and specials that are only activated at special times (like in response to a successful dodge). There are also effects that can be triggered by a special (like stunned) that can be utilized by another class's special (if the special is linked to a 'stunned' vulnerability, it gains bonuses). Level cap is currently 50, but there is also end-game raiding available.

But if you're tired of just 'running around killing stuff' (since that's all most MMO's are), there's still so much more to do in VG. When you need a break from the adventuring grind, try out crafting or diplomacy. Unlike most other MMO's, VG crafting requires actual skill and thought, and there's consequence for goofing. All items require basic materials, some utilities (like solvent or glue) and can be enhanced with special dusts to give it bonuses. Various steps in the process can have choices of how to proceed (like choice A giving lots of completion progress, but no quality upgrade; or choice B which gives a little completion and a little quality upgrade; or choice C which gives a lot of quality upgrade, but no completion progress). You have a set number of points you can spend to complete your crafted item, and each step costs points. Run out of points and you're done, even if your item isn't. You just wasted all your materials. Run out of important materials (like a solvent) or have missing equipment and you're done, materials wasted. But crafted items are also quite decent for players in VG (unlike other MMO's where crafting is next to useless) and some things can ONLY be gotten from crafters.

Diplomacy is the third sphere in VG. It is the realm of social persuasion, where you engage in 'parley's with various NPC's to obtain gear, get permission to build a guild hall (only diplomats can get the guild hall plot) or even provide city-wide buffs. Buffs last for 1 hr usually and can be for adventurers (e.g. +to all stats), crafters (+to a crafting skil) and diplomats (add cards to your deck). Diplomacy is played out like an online card game, except that UNlike Legends of Norrath or the other MMO's, VG diplomacy is FREE! Yes, I said FREE! No buying cards online and paying even MORE money to play this game. It's included in the VG game itself.

The best part of all this is that it's YOUR choice how to play. You can level each of the three spheres (adventuring, crafting, diplomacy) completely independant of any of the others. No more required levelling just so you crafters can get that next recipie! If you don't want to go and kill things, you don't have to. Just keep working on your crafting and leave the killing to everyone else. Diplomats also can completely avoid adventuring if they want. But with so many starting classes and races, I'm sure you'll find some class to try the adventuring sphere with too. It's just really nice to have a CHOICE for a change.

And that's really what VG is about: having a choice of how you want to play.