Eurogamer pits Vanguard vs. EQII in first head-to-head MMO battle

by Michael Zenke on Feb 18th 2009 7:00PM

Fantasy, EverQuest II, Culture, MMO industry, Opinion, Vanguard, Humor

Eurogamer has begun a novel way of 'reviewing' MMOs, a hilarious head-to-head competition premise for this notoriously finicky genre of games. The series is called the "Ten Levels Test", and it couldn't be easier to understand. The writers are going to install each of the games involved in the test, and then play through the first ten levels of the content. Whichever game is more fun will stay in the running, while the other will be uninstalled. There are going to be several rounds of gaming goodness, each pitting 'similar' games to each other in a trial of the second tier of massively multiplayer titles. Full details on the competition are available on the Eurogamer editor blog.

The first competiion was between EverQuest 2 and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes ... and the result is not what you might have expected. Despite being welcomed into an EQ2 guild early in his career, writer Oli Welsh found that Vanguard was ultimately the more engaging world. A different twist on the typical fantasy, interactive combat, and a very fresh approach to storytelling grabbed the author, and gave the troubled title the clear win. Welsh points out that the starting experience in Vanguard was just recently added, and so its clear quality may be disarming or short-lived. Still, the purpose of this series is only to explore the first ten levels. Vanguard was the clear

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Tags: eq2, everquest-ii, soe, sony-online-entertainment, ten-levels, vanguard

Reader Comments (22)

I was a long time EQ2 player, and am currently a longtime VG player. I've gone back to EQ2 once since VG came out. I pretty much agree with most everything in that article. It pretty accurately mirrors my own impressions of both games.

the starting character customization of EQ2 is superior. The characters look better from the defaults, naked, and have more customization. If I could have EQ2 characters in VG, that would be awesome. However, once you start playing, VG characters do eventually come to life. the armor customization eventually I think is really pretty good, esp with the latest addition recently of an appearance tab. I actually like how most of my characters look once they get a bit higher and get more elaborate armors.

The reasons VG won this duel... is why I had to quit EQ2 and go back to VG. It felt like an overdose of achievement. Lots and lots of little carrots. Too much, so that eventually nothing felt like adventure, accomplishment, and I started to just not care. In their effort to reward EVERYTHING, the whole experience just comes out bland, esp after I had been playing VG.

Anyway, as a long-time VG player, I hope people give it a try. There WILL be bugs and a bit less polish, but if you can get past that without getting overly frustrated, it's much improved and the overall gameplay is much more satisfying imho. :)

I played VG when it first came out. I was also playing EQ2 at the time. I just couldn't get into VG and get also couldn't get past the bugs so gave up. However, I've been finding EQ2 increasingly boring and find I hardly ever play anymore. To the point of thinking of closing my account! Atnor hit the nail on the head and really clarified for me why EQ2 just isn't doing it for me anymore. I think it's time I dust off VG and give it a go again. I appreciate this type of article and the comments! Especially those that aren't WoW vs. everything else.

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