I’ve spent a couple of pretty intense weeks now with Vanguard:Saga of Heroes, and before the self-loathing sets in, let me say the game is pretty great. The sense of scale is awesome–the world feels huge and real. The art direction and design are top-notch. The community is polite and helpful. There is always something new or interesting to do, whether it be PvE combat, quests, diplomacy, or crafting. It’s sort of like a grown-up version of Everquest (some of the same design team as the original EQ).

Is there a downside? Of course. The game is a huge system hog, beginning with an 18GB install. Only a few weeks old, it suffers all the slings and arrows of most MMO launches…bugs, holes, and stutters. It’s unforgiving and hard when it comes to things like death and XP loss, and you really can’t solo much at all past the first handful of levels. The voice acting sucks. Really, really sucks.

It eschews a lot of the hand-holding we’ve come to expect thanks to WoW and Guild Wars but in its place is a sense of real accomplishment (even at low levels) and–for me at least–the exhilaration of visiting a well-crafted, beautifully imagined world. I hope it hangs on and players (and Sony) give it a chance to succeed.