Vanguard's most unfriendly characteristic is its instability. To its credit, it launched without a hitch, and server disconnects are relatively uncommon. Unfortunately, a number of other bugs infest the game. Respawning at an altar or teleporting to another continent may result in your character appearing inside the world geometry, underwater, or in midair. Lost quest items, random appearance changes to avatars, and other frustrating issues have popped up frequently in the weeks since release. Even turning on antialiasing functions on your graphics card can cause your screen to go black, flicker, or hide the character names over avatars. Lag spikes will hold up combat for several seconds, or even cause an action in progress to stop while still costing you the time or energy the skill requires.

Many of the visual bugs result from Vanguard's lack of support for full-screen antialiasing. Surprisingly, though, this missing feature doesn't have much of an impact on the beauty of the visuals. Many of Telon's vistas are stunning, from both an artistic and technological standpoint. The lush foliage and colorful Asian architecture of Kojan is one notable example, but exploration on all three continents reveals plenty of dramatic landmarks. The splendor doesn't translate evenly, though. The native, barren environments of Qalia are inconsistent, and many of the dungeons and enemies are graphically uninspired. But as pretty as most of it is, the game engine has difficulty keeping up. A top-notch system is required to see Telon in all its glory. Even on a high-performance PC, Vanguard is a system hog, requiring a lot of muscle and some adjustments to the graphics settings to run at a stable frame rate.

The soundtrack is attractive and often evocative. Musical tracks like the vocal elven swooning in the city of Ca'ial Brael and the Arabic strings of Khal reflect the local environment perfectly. The swooping harp glissandos and angry cello grumbles of diplomatic exchanges are also noteworthy. The din of combat and ambient noises are what you would expect, although some enemies are eerily silent when attacked. Just don't expect the pleasant NPC chatter from EverQuest 2, or witty WOW-ish quips; NPCs in Vanguard mutter a small number of short phrases, and most of them are delivered without a hint of enthusiasm.

Features like player housing and boats for travel extend Vanguard's shelf life for players approaching the top level of 50, and even with plenty of room for future questing content, there's plenty to see and do. But Vanguard is undoubtedly not for everyone. Multiple bugs, forced grouping, and a vocal player community sensitive to criticism currently keep players looking for an easygoing adventuring experience at arm's length. But Vanguard gets a lot right, and the engaging combat and nifty diplomacy are more than enough reason for genre enthusiasts to give it a shot.

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