Hi,
I’ve just tried Vanguard for the first time and hope this feedback/experience is helpful to the development team.
Context to feedback: I have not played a FPS game for the last 10-15 years (personal preference, I enjoy the thinking in strategy games or becoming absorbed in a game’s lore and atmosphere). I have not followed vanguards development nor researched it or others feedback on forums prior, and am not across the lore associated with them in Eve (my total knowledge is they’re connected to the Deathless faction who have the Zarzak Pirate station, which I haven’t visited yet). While I’m probably not the target audience for this product hopefully feedback from across a spectrum of player interests/abilities assists in creating a more robust and broader reaching game.
Reason I tried Vanguard: I had seen the previous vanguard announcements through the eve launcher, with a recently upgraded desktop and internet plus a couple of hours free on a Friday night I decided to try something new.
Initial experience: While brief the black and white intro video set a nice tone and gave enough background for me determine I was a clone working for an institution called vanguard and we were a sci-fi disposable infantry force. I was then plopped into the first (tutorial?) mission. The start felt a little too quick for me with the white clones (their suits looked like white robots and there is an element of ‘uncanny valley’ and robotic movement to them at this stage) engaging right away – I died while trying to absorb what my screen overlay was showing and figuring out the controls/walking into walls. I’m unsure if I missed the tutorial lady mention some of the buttons to press or skipped an overlay screen showing the various buttons but something like this or having it start ‘paused’ or in a safer location could be useful?
I found the keybinding controls through the ESC menu and this helped me immensely, one of the more appealing ones for me was the melee key where my character pulls a knife and stabs the air. I decided then and there that I was going to try using this as my primary weapon! When I was launched back down again I ran between cover at my foes and pulled forth my trusty combat knife – it was somewhat surprising that the white robots were vaporised by my pointy metal/carbon fibre stabby tool and each left a pink brain goo puddle on the ground (at this stage I was not aware that this was to be activated for loot, maybe that could be explained?). Venturing forth I proceeded through the map stabbing more shiny white robot clones, some pale monochrome turrets with blue detection beams (Da Ba Dee..) that got me down (Stabbing these multiple times were what let me realise there was loot to be collected with the ‘E’ key). I proceeded along the route we were limited to discovering Robot Clones that had bigger guns that needed multiple stabs and big red boxes that seemed a little too convenient and out of place that let me refill all the ammunition I hadn’t used.
I found the environment/map while still in an Alpha was quite interesting, detailed and frequently found myself wanting to go explore ‘just over there’ especially when we received views of the broader world with the crashed spaceship in a desert. I understand it is a tutorial mission, and funnelling new players along a pre-determined route is optimal to teach sequentially the gameplay loops, but I did find the feeling of being ‘led by the nose’ a little irritating (like a DM in a roleplay game forcing players to make only the decisions that lead to the story going in a single way). Further for the world, I think the addition of dust, dirt/atmospherics would be handy. Everything felt too ‘clean’ for a crashed spaceship in a desert, no build-up of dirt, no breeze and dust storms plumed up and clogging the air or atmosphere from a recent crash, vapour trails from the spaceships fighting in atmo could also add a greater level of realism. The maps could also benefit from having a rethink on the amount of ‘prebuilt’ barricades all conveniently placed around the crashed spaceship site removing a large amount of the ‘chaos’, the lack of civilians or drones going about salvaging/repair operations. There’s an abundance of containers and general ‘neatness’ and regular orientation to objects that looks to have been neatly stacked vertically lending to the feeling that the ship has either had a swarm of logistics personnel and maintenance crew going through it for the last 6 months to clean and start organising or everything or it’s all been ‘placed’ and feels slightly unnatural. Possibly some ‘lore’ elements and further nuggets to enable us as player to connect with the world and the people who occupy/occupied the space before us as well?
Using the laser tool (button 2, weapon) to cut bars to allow map progression was a memorable if somewhat jarring experience, but definitely shows some interesting map interaction tech potential that could be creatively applied as the game develops further. It was also fun to draw and try and write things on the wall.. I may have died a few times while wandering around trying to write on objects!
The finale of the tutorial mission was fairly difficult with my self-imposed melee limitation, a more developed melee system could be interesting to develop further. Possibly different melee weapons, a physical ablative ‘shield’ that covers a small area that you could hold in one hand to help close on the more difficult foes? These could then be integrated to the crafting system that was introduced at the start of the next mission. I found that the melee gave me an option where my co-ordination, mouse control and speed were not as much of a hindrance to me enjoying the game, I could move around the map without trying to keep the middle of my screen and a cross hairs on the enemy. Being solely melee also let me see the npc model clipping that occurs when I run up to them and press stab – possibly remove the ability to clip partially into the npcs or add an ‘over the shoulder’ 3rd person view, such a view could also help for reducing motion sickness for some players?
With the amount I died during this mission (likely more than most people!) I found the length and repetitive nature of the respawn pod cutscene with the lack of means to speed up or interact with my character (or even just turn the screen black until I was good to go a little irritating. Possibly having a few different launch scenes to keep things fresh, or allow some level of interaction while going through the sequence (could I check my gear, review some map intel etc) instead of seeing the same planet from the same position in space before staring at the same closed metal door before falling out the bottom and proceeding back to white clone stabby time.
After the first mission I was teleported (consciousness moved?) to a base of sorts where I was introduced to weapon customising (crafting I believe came after I finished my second mission?) I think the crafting/customising elements had a solid base but could possibly benefit from being presented in a different manner – it felt a little jarring that a disposable soldier such as myself was technically an expert and happily crafting away with raw materials all these unique upgrades to highly advanced technical equipment. Could the system be presented more as having the customising/building/research done by others on our behalf such as supply sergeants, maintenance and biomedical crew? Not sure what support personnel a clone soldier who jumps consciousness would have, but it feels like this could be more realistic to me – that way we are collecting resources, intelligence, technical and equipment samples, materials and such on their behalf? You could have us peruse the dark sci fi equivalent of a gun magazine for upgrades etc that we ‘barter’ from our support personnel.
My second mission was more interesting than the first – I had greater freedom of a map to explore and achieve the objectives of finding some devices and pressing ‘e’ on them or standing in a circle after pressing ‘e’. The ability to jump on objects and wreckage was freeing (although jumping and ‘climbing’ over things felt a little janky), although the red line and warning text around the map boundaries was a little jarring but likely necessary. I didn’t see other players (likely timezone related for me, something I’m used to) but realised the game has a built in voice transmission system, I don’t have a microphone linked to my new computer yet so would not have been able to interact if there was – possibly some text msg system or a way to let other know I won’t be in comms could be helpful if others are in a similar situation? After dying (a lot more) I finally completed my second mission and this brought my adventure to a close, I might try again depending on free time availability over the weekend and will continue this thread if so.
Summary: I enjoyed and had a fun evening trying something new in a genre I don’t normally look at. While I don’t know what’s already on the market that is similar, the game feels like there is a fair amount of potential, the maps were beautiful and some atmospherics will really bring this right up. The gameplay of moving and shooting is a bit draining and difficult for me, but if the melee is improved and possible different weapons introduced (ablative shields, force batons, mauls, monofilament blades, laser pike, plasma axes and swords..) I could see myself regularly enjoying this as a fun game to play in conjunction with Eve. I found the mission and objective based gameplay much more engaging than other FPS games I had tried previously. I think with other players this could definitely foster a collaborative style of play.. or we would all start shooting each other. Further character customisation and allegiance options could also be interesting – there are other pirate factions or ideologies I wouldn’t mind roleplaying my character as being exposed to.
I hope this feedback is helpful and the perspective of someone who is not experienced in this type of game is useful.
Kind Regards,
Mik
