It tryes way to hard.
Vanguard falls short in a few major areas, the first is performance. This game requires a computer like no other, if you don't have a dual core processor with two gigs of ram and a top of the line Graphics card, you should just put the box down and walk away. If you don't have those requirements than your going to be playing a game that looks worse than EQ1 back on launch day. Sure your character models will look better, but at the same time the world will look so plane and drab that it will make you wish you were on EQ1.
The next big failure is the gameplay. It has lots to do don't get me wrong but, at the same time it can all be taken away by harsh death penalties. Now we all know Sigil stated they wanted to make the next gen EQ1 game, but in the end we have to look at it like this: The next gen of EQ1 was EQ2, and they got rid of all that harsh death penalty stuff, so in reality all they've done is made a EQ1 with better graphics and no zones.
Zones would have helped this game, as it would have droped the system requirements a bit. In the end though you could pickup a differnt MMO and have more fun, and higher end graphics. Now if your a hardcore PC gamer and you've got the rig and the patcients for the game, you should give it a try (if you want an EQ1ish experiance). Normal game players should stay away from Vanguard and spend the money on somthing more "mainstream".