Vanguard: Saga of Heroes [PC]

So there we are, killing a couple of giant bees on a cliff overlooking the city of Khal. Guildmates are chatting about traveling across the vast and magnificent landscape of Telon, the setting for Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. Someone jokingly suggests Druid Circles, which allowed players in the original EverQuest to teleport quickly around the world. Immediately, one guildmate responds: "I don't want any teleportation. The harder they make this game, the happier I'll be."

That's the guy who will call Vanguard home, six hours every day for the next three years. Sigil has created a game for hardcore MMORPG players who want full immersion in another world. While World of Warcraft proves you can attract millions with a polished but simple approach, Vanguard hopes to fulfill the dreams of MMORPG veterans with its intricate, challenging, and unforgiving experience.

On the back of the box, Vanguard encourages you to "set yourself free." You have lots of options: first choose from 15 professions and 19 playable races, then customize every detail of your nose, chin, arm length, and waistline. But once you jump into the game world, you'll see what they mean by freedom.

Whether you're in green and hilly Thestra, the jungles of Kojan, or the rocky deserts of Qalia, you're in a world that feels almost like a real place. There are no bright colors or cartoony textures; just hard, realistic scenery and natural geography. And you can explore it from one end to the other. It's a world that demands to be taken seriously, like The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. Vanguard has set the standard for an immersive multiplayer game world.

However, that beautiful landscape has a price: poor performance. Even on a moderately powerful system the graphics are slow, and group combat in a dungeon against several foes requires turning off many of the visual effects that make Vanguard so beautiful.

The gameplay will feel familiar to anyone who's ever played a MMORPG, and especially familiar to those who played the original EverQuest. While the user interface borrows extensively from World of Warcraft, the game mechanics, professions, skill system, and even the typeface used for the name floating over your head come straight from the EQ playbook.