Written Spring 2007
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
First Impressions
With gaming giants like World of Warcraft and Everquest II looming over the massively multiplayer online role playing game (referred from here on out as MMOs) genre, it may seem as though no other contender could make its mark. Out of the dust, however, comes Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. From the mind of Brad McQuaid, one of the original creators of Everquest, the first of the third generation of MMOs has arrived. As with most games of any genre, and most certainly for MMOs including Vanguard, first impressions are key: they show their players exactly what they are getting in to in the first moments of gameplay. Vanguard shines a new – and quite overdue – light upon the genre in its opening levels and first impressions are in nearly every category, without exaggeration, some of the best the genre has ever seen.
As with all MMOs, Vanguard opens with character creation. The menus here are straightforward and quite easy to navigate. One click of the mouse and selection begins. Vanguard boasts nineteen different races and fifteen classes – the most of any MMO to date. Each race has its own detailed history, lore, and bonuses, which makes every character feel entirely unique. From here a server is selected and character customization begins. Vanguard shines in this department, with an unprecedented sixty physical characteristics to edit and create including brow size, nose flare, eye tilt, and many, many more. There are “quite literally millions of different customization features that guarantee [a player] will never run across another character in the game that looks identical” (Brydges). Vanguard starts off on the right foot – beautifully modeled and endlessly customizable characters to fill a world befitting their fates.
Once a character is complete, it is time to enter the world of Telon. A large page is immediately displayed that explains the history and lore of the chosen character and beyond this reside a few pop-up windows which explain the basic controls. Most is self explanatory, using the ever familiar “wsad” keys, but for a player new to the genre, these blurbs are of upmost importance. The player now finds himself in a small city, a conflict, or in some other fantastical situation – each race having a very unique starting zone. This is much more fulfilling than most MMOs, which simply plop you down and tell you “go!” An ever familiar quest giver, marked with a floating shield, explains your current situation and gives you a basic quest. This is where Vanguard truly shines. Unlike most opening quests in other MMOs, Vanguard makes its players truly feel as though they are actually having an impact on the game world. There are no “kill x boars and bring back x hides” in these ever important opening quests. They instead range from having a character talk to and inspire a group of soldiers, to finding a hidden treasure chest, and to purifying a lake of its evil essences. There are a few scattered “kill x” quests, but they are – surprisingly – formidable foes, unlike other games that start their players off with rats, boars, and bumble bees (Everquest, World of Warcraft, and Final Fantasy XI, respectively). Moving from quest to quest, the player begins to learn more about his world and its turmoil. Story here is incredibly impressive, and adds tons of content and role playability. Quests are often linked and add snippets of story after each leg is completed. These are very unique and compelling, as well as different. One opening, level three quest has a player find an enemy’s secret plans. In the next leg, the player causes a distraction in the enemy’s encampment. The player then fights his way through a small dungeon, and lastly, the final quest has the player recover a poison that’s been tainting a Wood Elves’ lake – referring back to multiple quests prior to this chain. Unlike nearly every other game in the genre, Vanguard gives its players what they want early on: fun quests, a feeling of importance, incredible lore, and even dungeons – something other games only have for mid to high level players. By level seven, a Kojan Human will have completed one large, group based dungeon. By level eleven, a Kojan Raki will have participated in two solo dungeons and two group dungeons – one of which has literally hours of content to complete. Vanguard immediately starts a player in a fun, engaging, and unique environment, with tons of content and a variety of playing styles. Promise of more enjoyment, which most certainly follows, makes the player only crave more and more of Vanguard’s offerings. Vanguard’s content and game play certainly leaves its players with a grand impression of what is to follow.
Combat, adventuring, and the game’s user interface (UI) are fairly standard as far as MMOs are concerned, with a few exceptions that make Vanguard a third generation MMO. Adventuring is standard: a player completes quests, fights, and raids in order to gain experience. What differs here from your run-of-the-mill online game are the other two “spheres,” as they are called in Vanguard. Vanguard has three separate adventuring spheres, which a character will be introduced to in the first few hours of playing: crafting, diplomacy, and adventuring. A player will have three different levels, one for each sphere. This allows any player to specialize in whatever sphere, or combination of spheres, he desires. Adventures will take combative quests, crafters will fill “work orders” for themselves or as crafting quests, and diplomats will participate in a never-before-seen card game within Vanguard that handles diplomatic battles between diplomats and their adversaries. Combat, as the main sphere of focus, fits in with the online niche. A character auto attacks a foe and mixes in specialized, learnable abilities to keep combat interesting, strategic, and enjoyable. The addition of what Vanguard calls “chained” and “responsive” attacks is what makes combat so thrilling and unique. Above a character’s hot-bar (a bar located at the bottom of the screen that displays a character’s special abilities) a set of chainable and responsive abilities waits to be used. Certain attacks, abilities, and counters will allow a player to respond with these specials. Like Final Fantasy XI’s chains, chain and responsive attacks can be linked with fellow group mates to deal upmost damage or cause status effects. These abilities are made available early on in a character’s life, between levels six and eight, so they are able to get a taste of things to come. The game’s UI, which is also quite standard and comparable to World of Warcraft’s, is unique in that it is entirely customizable. This allows a player to maximize their gameplay by creating a UI that suits themselves, much like Everquest II. All this, made available in the first few levels of a character’s career, only adds to the yearning and addictive qualities that make an MMO not only desirable, but successful. So many options and ways to play the game leave the player with a solid outlook on how the game will play out.
Graphically speaking, Vanguard is simply breathtaking. The first scenes a character beholds reveal what Vanguard is all about and leave the player with the impression the game clearly portrays: Vanguard is simply stunning. The “detailed enemy skins and environmental effects such as snow and rain round off this game as being graphically enjoyable and addictive.” With the ability to see five kilometers in all directions, the chance to visit European, Middle Eastern, and Asian inspired landscapes, and the prospect of truly being able to go to whatever landmark you see makes Vanguard not only impressive, but allows it to stand out from the last-gen games. From textures to models, Vanguard stands out as one of the best looking MMOs on the market or soon coming to the market. From the moment a player logs in, he will behold the beauty Vanguard displays.
First impressions are crucial. In a world of subscription games, first impressions are doubly as important. Vanguard not only reaches out to players, but once they begin to experience what Vanguard has to offer, they will be drawn in to stay. From the graphical beauty to the multiple play styles, to the opening quests and stories, Vanguard leaves a powerful impression on its players, making them yearn for more. What IGN calls an “evolutionary” game, Vanguard is able to leave a positive impression on its audience and has achieved an amazing stance in its first few hours of gameplay (Patrizio). With “quests that are usually more than FedEx adventures, and a combat engine that adds several layers to what [the MMO market has seen] so far... it's incredibly hard not to recommend Vanguard”(Fisher). Vanguard gives its players a strong excuse to subscribe and truly lives up to its motto of “set yourself free.”
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Lost and Found
So I went through ever computer artist's worst nightmare. Both hard drives crashed. At the same time. Go figure. Anyways, my entire portfolio is gone. Unfortunately, I had several blog posts that I simply hadn't put up yet stored on those hard drives, so they're lost for good; save for a few posts on CRIMSON SEAS, which I'll put up later.
In the mean time, here's some game reviews I wrote up!
There seems to be a trend in the video game industry in which more and more games are based off of existing properties. Games such as Neverwinter Nights and Baldur’s Gate are based off of the Dungeons and Dragons pen-and-paper role playing game, and others such as the 007 series, the Lord of the Rings series, and Star Wars series are based off of their respective movie titles. As of late, the movie industry has borrowed from the game scene with movies such as Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Doom, Final Fantasy, and Tomb Raider, but with little financial success. Rarely, however, have interactive video games been translated into successful non-digital formats. With Upper Deck Entertainment’s and Blizzard’s new World of Warcraft trading card game, a new change is on the horizon. This refreshing new medium of the massively popular role playing game turned card game successfully demonstrates how a video game can take form in a non-digital medium. The “WoW” card game clearly takes the best of a video game and turns it into a brand new genre of card games.
World of Warcraft is about a character, a digital “you,” that inhabits the world of Azeroth. How could a card game possibly emulate the immense world and character possibilities that an MMO provides? Well, it starts with the character, to be precise. The nine classes that are available for play in the MMO appear in the trading card game (TCG) in both the menacing horde and do-good alliance factions, creating eighteen possible character choices. These characters are represented by character cards, which in turn represent the player himself. Each player fields one character, and the game revolves around that character’s success and downfalls within the card game. Each character is characterized by his race, faction, class, specialization (example: Shadow Priest vs. Holy Priest), profession (tailoring, enchanting, etc.), health points, and special abilities. These are all taken directly from the digital World of Warcraft and truly give its players a sense of inhabiting the same world. Although these characters are not customizable as they are in the digital game, there are multiple variants of each class, race, and faction, which allows for a large number of choices. Within the game, characters can and will equip items, weapons, and armor – all taken directly from the online game – which will allow for more freedom when it comes to character customization. The game revolves entirely around the player’s character, ending when one character successfully kills his opponent’s.
As with most MMORPGs, World of Warcraft focuses strongly on the completion of quests. As such, quests cards create the foundation of play in the TCG. These cards are identified with the all-too-familiar exclamation point and allow the player to do a myriad of things. These cards form the basic points, referred to as “resources” that are exhausted (used) to play ally cards, purchase weapons, and perform special abilities – much like the “energy” cards from Pokémon or “mana” from Magic: the Gathering. These cards also allow the player to complete a quest, which can have multiple outcomes: from drawing a card to resurrecting a fallen comrade. This gives the player incentive to do more than mindless killing, much like the purpose of an in-game quest: a break from the endless grinding current generation MMOs are known for. In the MMO Warcraft, quests generally focus of player versus environment (PVE) aspects and have the player collecting, killing, or otherwise interacting with his environment. In the TCG, this has changed and typically involves a player spending the previously mentioned resources to achieve the quest’s outcome. While the questing system has been dumbed down in the TCG, it never the less incorporates a key factor from the MMO into the new TCG format.
Combat provides the basic foundation of game play for players in World of Warcraft, with the player participating in either player versus player (PVP) or PVE combat. In the TCG’s main phase of play, the “action phase,” players participate in a blend of the two aforementioned modes of combat whilst boosting their ranks, playing ability cards, completing quests, and adding weapons to their hero’s arsenal. Instead of a player fighting against either a fellow player or a vast number of non-player characters, the Warcraft TCG introduces the “ally” card. This style of combat has been seen in TCGs for ages, mimicking Magic: the Gathering’s “summons” and “creatures.” What is new here is how combat takes place and is resolved. As the overall goal of the game is to defeat your opponent’s character, the player will play ally cards to attack his adversary and reduce his health to zero. The opponent will in turn play allies to protect his hero and fight his opponent’s. Combat here begins to take a step away from the traditional TCG and makes a new stride in the genre by quite literally following the online game’s example. Combat is dealt with on a one-on-one basis, and instead of an attacker declaring all his attackers and a defender declaring defenders, the attacker actually declares a target. This simple and what appears to be a miniscule difference from traditional TCGs is what makes World of Warcraft’s so unique. In the online game a player chooses who he attacks, so why not in the TCG? Players can specify if they want their ally to attack the opposing hero or select one of his opponent’s allies. This then allows for certain allies to have special abilities, such as “protector,” which allows an ally to stand in and take damage from the declared defender. This represents in game classes such as paladins and warriors – known as “tanks,” as they often hold aggression (stealing a monster’s attention away from a lesser character) and are able to take the most damage – using their abilities to change the course of combat. Other specials such as “ferocity” and “elusive” allow for interesting twists and strategies to be utilized in the combat phase while borrowing more and more from the online game and making the TCG feel that much more like the MMO. Ability cards complete the action and combat phases by representing specialized attacks and skills that match your hero and his class. This is the primary influence a character card has over the game, as each specialized ability represents a character’s power: whether it be a healing spell or a magic attack. While this combat and action phase may mix a few of the online game’s characteristics, it still stays true to the game’s roots and values. It adds a new face to Warcraft while sticking with the qualities that make Warcraft Warcraft.
While the basic concepts are incredibly similar and allow the TCG player to really feel the MMO’s influence, what really sets this game apart is that extra mile the TCG travels to truly make the game feel like the world of Warcraft. Most every TCG pits players one-on-one: first one out loses. While World of Warcraft is solo friendly, much of the game is group-based. Two of the games major turn-ons are, in fact, its group dungeons and raids. The World of Warcraft TCG has introduced something never-before-seen in the TCG market to cater to these players and make the game even more like the online version: the raid deck. Onyxia’s Lair, the first of the Warcraft TCG’s raid decks, represents the stride this new TCG has already made in the industry. Based on the highly popular end-game raid of the same name, Onyxia’s Lair allows a group of players to join together, as a team, to fight through the dungeon – controlled by another player – and defeat the dragon Onyxia. The amount of detail and the similarities found between the MMO and TCG raids is almost frightening. During one play test (each player having never played the raid deck and only one having played the MMO’s raid) the MMO experienced player was able to give out advice as to strategies and how to go about defeating the dragon; his advice actually helped the team win, as the weaknesses and tiers the raid deck presented matched the MMO’s almost identically. One player even commented on how he felt the same anxiousness and excitement battling the card game’s Onyxia as he did when facing a raid online. Subtle characteristics of the cards further help to make this game feel like the online world, as cards so often directly represent items, characters, and abilities from the online game. During another play test, a player noticed an ability card titled “Wing Clip.” He immediately recognized the ability from the online game, and when combined with the card’s illustration of a Tauren fending off harpies, he actually recalled a point and place where he fought the same harpies using the same ability against his own Tauren hunter. To make the TCG and MMO stay up to date, the TCG will, and has, released new editions of the game. With the recent release of the MMO’s Burning Crusade expansion back, the TCG followed with its own expansion, Dark Portal – bringing the card game up to date and introducing the same two new races to the card game as were introduced to the MMO. These expansions will not only allow for new additions to the TCG, but will allow for the TCG to stay current with the MMO. With the promise of more expansions and new raid decks, the Warcraft TCG will always be right up with World of Warcraft.
Traditionally, one doesn’t see a digital property turned into a non-digital format. Trends are, in fact, usually quite the opposite, or all the different formats appear at once, such as the case with Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon. The folks at Blizzard decided to give it a whirl, and made a game innovative and new while still sticking right with their roots. The amount of detail and the similarities the MMO and TCG share prove that not only is it possible to translate digital media into other forms of entertainment, but it set a new standard as to how well such a translation should appear. The World of Warcraft TCG is the World of Warcraft in the flesh: different medium, yes, but still the same, incredibly successful game.
In the mean time, here's some game reviews I wrote up!
There seems to be a trend in the video game industry in which more and more games are based off of existing properties. Games such as Neverwinter Nights and Baldur’s Gate are based off of the Dungeons and Dragons pen-and-paper role playing game, and others such as the 007 series, the Lord of the Rings series, and Star Wars series are based off of their respective movie titles. As of late, the movie industry has borrowed from the game scene with movies such as Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Doom, Final Fantasy, and Tomb Raider, but with little financial success. Rarely, however, have interactive video games been translated into successful non-digital formats. With Upper Deck Entertainment’s and Blizzard’s new World of Warcraft trading card game, a new change is on the horizon. This refreshing new medium of the massively popular role playing game turned card game successfully demonstrates how a video game can take form in a non-digital medium. The “WoW” card game clearly takes the best of a video game and turns it into a brand new genre of card games.
World of Warcraft is about a character, a digital “you,” that inhabits the world of Azeroth. How could a card game possibly emulate the immense world and character possibilities that an MMO provides? Well, it starts with the character, to be precise. The nine classes that are available for play in the MMO appear in the trading card game (TCG) in both the menacing horde and do-good alliance factions, creating eighteen possible character choices. These characters are represented by character cards, which in turn represent the player himself. Each player fields one character, and the game revolves around that character’s success and downfalls within the card game. Each character is characterized by his race, faction, class, specialization (example: Shadow Priest vs. Holy Priest), profession (tailoring, enchanting, etc.), health points, and special abilities. These are all taken directly from the digital World of Warcraft and truly give its players a sense of inhabiting the same world. Although these characters are not customizable as they are in the digital game, there are multiple variants of each class, race, and faction, which allows for a large number of choices. Within the game, characters can and will equip items, weapons, and armor – all taken directly from the online game – which will allow for more freedom when it comes to character customization. The game revolves entirely around the player’s character, ending when one character successfully kills his opponent’s.
As with most MMORPGs, World of Warcraft focuses strongly on the completion of quests. As such, quests cards create the foundation of play in the TCG. These cards are identified with the all-too-familiar exclamation point and allow the player to do a myriad of things. These cards form the basic points, referred to as “resources” that are exhausted (used) to play ally cards, purchase weapons, and perform special abilities – much like the “energy” cards from Pokémon or “mana” from Magic: the Gathering. These cards also allow the player to complete a quest, which can have multiple outcomes: from drawing a card to resurrecting a fallen comrade. This gives the player incentive to do more than mindless killing, much like the purpose of an in-game quest: a break from the endless grinding current generation MMOs are known for. In the MMO Warcraft, quests generally focus of player versus environment (PVE) aspects and have the player collecting, killing, or otherwise interacting with his environment. In the TCG, this has changed and typically involves a player spending the previously mentioned resources to achieve the quest’s outcome. While the questing system has been dumbed down in the TCG, it never the less incorporates a key factor from the MMO into the new TCG format.
Combat provides the basic foundation of game play for players in World of Warcraft, with the player participating in either player versus player (PVP) or PVE combat. In the TCG’s main phase of play, the “action phase,” players participate in a blend of the two aforementioned modes of combat whilst boosting their ranks, playing ability cards, completing quests, and adding weapons to their hero’s arsenal. Instead of a player fighting against either a fellow player or a vast number of non-player characters, the Warcraft TCG introduces the “ally” card. This style of combat has been seen in TCGs for ages, mimicking Magic: the Gathering’s “summons” and “creatures.” What is new here is how combat takes place and is resolved. As the overall goal of the game is to defeat your opponent’s character, the player will play ally cards to attack his adversary and reduce his health to zero. The opponent will in turn play allies to protect his hero and fight his opponent’s. Combat here begins to take a step away from the traditional TCG and makes a new stride in the genre by quite literally following the online game’s example. Combat is dealt with on a one-on-one basis, and instead of an attacker declaring all his attackers and a defender declaring defenders, the attacker actually declares a target. This simple and what appears to be a miniscule difference from traditional TCGs is what makes World of Warcraft’s so unique. In the online game a player chooses who he attacks, so why not in the TCG? Players can specify if they want their ally to attack the opposing hero or select one of his opponent’s allies. This then allows for certain allies to have special abilities, such as “protector,” which allows an ally to stand in and take damage from the declared defender. This represents in game classes such as paladins and warriors – known as “tanks,” as they often hold aggression (stealing a monster’s attention away from a lesser character) and are able to take the most damage – using their abilities to change the course of combat. Other specials such as “ferocity” and “elusive” allow for interesting twists and strategies to be utilized in the combat phase while borrowing more and more from the online game and making the TCG feel that much more like the MMO. Ability cards complete the action and combat phases by representing specialized attacks and skills that match your hero and his class. This is the primary influence a character card has over the game, as each specialized ability represents a character’s power: whether it be a healing spell or a magic attack. While this combat and action phase may mix a few of the online game’s characteristics, it still stays true to the game’s roots and values. It adds a new face to Warcraft while sticking with the qualities that make Warcraft Warcraft.
While the basic concepts are incredibly similar and allow the TCG player to really feel the MMO’s influence, what really sets this game apart is that extra mile the TCG travels to truly make the game feel like the world of Warcraft. Most every TCG pits players one-on-one: first one out loses. While World of Warcraft is solo friendly, much of the game is group-based. Two of the games major turn-ons are, in fact, its group dungeons and raids. The World of Warcraft TCG has introduced something never-before-seen in the TCG market to cater to these players and make the game even more like the online version: the raid deck. Onyxia’s Lair, the first of the Warcraft TCG’s raid decks, represents the stride this new TCG has already made in the industry. Based on the highly popular end-game raid of the same name, Onyxia’s Lair allows a group of players to join together, as a team, to fight through the dungeon – controlled by another player – and defeat the dragon Onyxia. The amount of detail and the similarities found between the MMO and TCG raids is almost frightening. During one play test (each player having never played the raid deck and only one having played the MMO’s raid) the MMO experienced player was able to give out advice as to strategies and how to go about defeating the dragon; his advice actually helped the team win, as the weaknesses and tiers the raid deck presented matched the MMO’s almost identically. One player even commented on how he felt the same anxiousness and excitement battling the card game’s Onyxia as he did when facing a raid online. Subtle characteristics of the cards further help to make this game feel like the online world, as cards so often directly represent items, characters, and abilities from the online game. During another play test, a player noticed an ability card titled “Wing Clip.” He immediately recognized the ability from the online game, and when combined with the card’s illustration of a Tauren fending off harpies, he actually recalled a point and place where he fought the same harpies using the same ability against his own Tauren hunter. To make the TCG and MMO stay up to date, the TCG will, and has, released new editions of the game. With the recent release of the MMO’s Burning Crusade expansion back, the TCG followed with its own expansion, Dark Portal – bringing the card game up to date and introducing the same two new races to the card game as were introduced to the MMO. These expansions will not only allow for new additions to the TCG, but will allow for the TCG to stay current with the MMO. With the promise of more expansions and new raid decks, the Warcraft TCG will always be right up with World of Warcraft.
Traditionally, one doesn’t see a digital property turned into a non-digital format. Trends are, in fact, usually quite the opposite, or all the different formats appear at once, such as the case with Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon. The folks at Blizzard decided to give it a whirl, and made a game innovative and new while still sticking right with their roots. The amount of detail and the similarities the MMO and TCG share prove that not only is it possible to translate digital media into other forms of entertainment, but it set a new standard as to how well such a translation should appear. The World of Warcraft TCG is the World of Warcraft in the flesh: different medium, yes, but still the same, incredibly successful game.
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