Sigil Games Online’s flagship MMO, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, is a tough game to review for three reasons. First, the reviewer was never very fond of EverQuest—and Vanguard is very much a follow-up to EQ. Second, the reviewer has seen a late Beta version of Vanguard, the retail release version of Vanguard, and most recently the newest patched version of Vanguard—making it feel as though there are three separate games to consider instead of just the one. Third, because World of Warcraft holds the MMORPG world by the proverbial nuts, Vanguard is and always will be held up to Blizzard standards whether or not that system of judgment seems fair. Regardless of these three reasons, it is the duty of any reviewer to put aside personal biases and give a game an honest chance to make a good impression. To do that however, we feel the need to look at Vanguard’s protracted life story in an effort to show the hardcore and casual gamer just what this MMO has been through in its journey from development and onto your computer where it sits pretty consuming tons of memory.
It all begins with Brad McQuaid and Jeff Butler. Both were on the founding developer team of EverQuest and both left Sony Online Entertainment to found Sigil Games in order better bring about an MMO that’s true to EQ’s roots (unlike that cartoon acid trip; EverQuest II). Sigil Games began developing Vanguard: Saga of Heroes under Microsoft back in 2002. We’re not sure what they were doing for those first two years, but it wasn’t until 2004 that Sigil even announced what gaming engine they were using to support Vanguard. Two more years passed and, long story short, Sigil Games ran out of money and Microsoft gave them the boot. Sigil went back to Sony Online Entertainment in April of 2006 and the Vanguard hit the shelves in late January of 2007—whether it was ready to or not.
Saga of Heroes has been a long time coming, nobody can doubt that. But between gaming industry drama and the fact that the game was not ready to be released when it was, may have ultimately doomed Vanguard, no matter how many times it gets patched. Already, the casual gamer scorns Saga of Heroes; who wants to play a broken game? But for fans of EverQuest and a handful of hardcore gamers, Vanguard just might deliver a quality MMO gaming experience—you just have to focus on appreciating what Sigil was trying to make in order to justify the mess that they actually delivered.
