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Dial-Up Customers Beware

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 13
Date: August 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I have played EQ and EQII for over 4 years. If you buy this game be prepared to download many patches to it. If you are a road warrior and have a slow dial-up connection, expect a 2-3 day download. Yes I mean 2-3 days not hours. The game does not specify but recommends you have high speed bandwidth...In the past, Sony has issued new versions or extensions for EQ I, but they have not done so for EQ II.

I recently re-installed EQ II on a computer with a cable modem with a download speed past 512 KBPS, it took more than 20 minutes to download all the patches after the EQ II application connected...this does not include the time you spent installing 10 CD's before this happens.

Sony has made many changes to the game. EQ 1 players will think they understand it at first...but there is no incentive to group or join a guild until you have played the game for several months. The focus has been to allow the solo player to advance, perhaps to compete with WOW...this isn't bad...but as an EQ1 player I felt lonely many times. Guilds and groups don't have the loyalty you felt in EQ1.

If you decide to create an Evil character...be forwarned...On the server I played on there was a tiny fraction of people playing as there were in the "good" city. The NPC's in the city normally insult you. They try to coerce you to perform quests by using intimidating or insulting remarks when you ask...at first it is cute, after all you are a (supposedly) evil person (sic), but most folks don't like it after a few rounds of hearing it...that may explain why the betrayal quests...i.e a person leaving one faction for the other are so one-sided (evil folks wanting to become good)
Although having insulting NPC's is the flavor of an evil city, no one wants to hear it all the time. In EQ 1 the NPC's were nicer and glad to see you if you originated there.

Furthermore, it was nearly impossible to find a balanced group n Freeport (the Evil City). And, there were never any items fit to buy that were crafted by players. Since the game designers felt it necessary to make tradeskills so important, it is odd that in the evil city, you'd be better off wearing things you found looting dead monsters The bazaar is empty in Freeport...probably because people don't want to be insulted continuously when they live there.


If you have the right hardware, the game has slick graphics and is easy on the eyes. Game play is fast past level 1 through 15 or so...at levels 29-30 the game is a real drag as a solo player...if you want fast progresssion here, you will need to group with others in a dungeon. I loved the game thru this point when I could play it. After level 25 as a solo player...it was a slog.

As to social things...Many of my toons belonged to various guilds, but the Guilds never seemed to do anything like organized raids, or group together to help a guild memeber. Mostly they wanted to build a high membership count and force their members to accept city quests (tasks so hard that they required a group to fullfill) to build up their 'guild' score, but almost never did the guild leaders organize anything or anyone to help me finish these. After many minutes begging for help on Guild Chat, I normally found that the guild leadership had left it up to us to find non-guilded players - unwitting participants, to fill a quest that the guild would get a credit score for...In EQ I, you'd never see this happen...

Overall I think this is a good game. The graphics are great, Sony has included Guild web sites and management tools that the guild need not pay for at their own expense. You can even manage a guild wthout being logged into the game as a player.

My biggest complaint is the unreasonable expectation that no matter where you are you will have high speed bandwidth accesss to install the game and download the patches which seem to be larger than the original game files. If you payed 50 bucks for a game, you wouldn't expect that it would launch a dialogue box that says "You will need 20-30 minutes on a high-speed connection after you install all 10 game disks before you can play Everquest II"...

Sony expects bleeding-edge technology. A 128mb or better Video card, 1 GB of ram (or more) and a fast CPU with a high-speed bandwidth connection seems to be the norm...anything less and you'll pay a price in game performance. These things aren't cheap...if you add the cost of the hardware and the high-speed connection to the monthly fee..you won't be playing this game if you're relatively poor.

Finally, a note on the guilds and group psychology.. It is completely blown here...with the later emphasis on allowing folks to solo, somehow, the flavor of EQ is lost..I don't know where it went..but many times in this version of EQ, you will feel as if you are quite alone...

Graphics are stunning and SOE ought to have learned now

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 26
Date: September 06, 2004
Author: Amazon User

EQ was a powergamer's game. Let's face it. Your average couple-hours-a-week casual gaming man couldn't make the grade, what with the 12-hour spawn timers on the most precious dropped items. And levelling was incredibly difficult, as dying could ultimately take you from the godly level 65 all the way back down to level 1. Everquest was frustrating, but it was very addictive, and the sense of achievement one gained from reaching the unreachable level 65 was incomparable. For thousands of die-hard fans, Everquest was a good game. For thousands more, it sucked.

Then we have Star Wars Galaxies: the mother of all buggy releases. Add to that a horrendously-designed player versus player system, a disfunctional trade system, and a hardly entertaining combat system, and you've got yourself a pretty junky game. We won't even go into the network and server problems... it was just flat out ugly.

What this means for EQII: look for a game with stunning visual affects accompanied by a game engine that accomodates for the casual player, but that also rewards the dedicated gamer. I expect a thoroughly-tested release, especially after the whole SWG mishap, and I expect levelling will be much different than it was in EQ1. I also expect combat will involve much more actual involvement of the player; you will have to think fast and act accordingly to win high-level fights. No more running into a camp of mezzed whites with autoattack on while your mage friend sends his elly to do all the damage. Expect a game where battles will be challenging, the trade system will be engaging, crafting will be rewarding, and walking will actually be fun for a change. I have a feeling the feedback SOE has gotten over EQ and SWG will force them to learn from their mistakes. To say the very least, this game will be worth buying. Use that free month to see what they changed; that's what it's there for.

Oh yeah, and the graphics on this game are amazing. They rival both SWG and Asheron's Call II. Wow.

looks killer :-D

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 26
Date: September 10, 2004
Author: Amazon User

First i'd like to say that EQ2 looks killer. the graphics are incredible yet dont require a $500 video card. There are at least 20 races which you can be and a total of at least 30 classes probably more. ... the character customazation is the best there is. you can change things from ear rings to any shade of eye color you can imagine. by every appearence it looks like SOE has learned from past mistakes with star wars galexies. every gameing company(except blizzard entertainment)has screwed up some game at some point. just like you can judge a book by its cover you cant judge a game by its devloper. ;o)

time better spent elsewhere

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 15 / 24
Date: December 10, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I never played the original EQ -- my introduction to the MORPG genre was Star Wars Galaxies. If you played and loved that game, don't even bother with this one. Kill stuff, level up. Kill stuff level up. Fun times! Want to craft items? Don't even think about it. There's no player economy like in SWG; why waste your time and money crafting cruddy items that anyone can buy from an NPC for cheap? The character customization is less extensive as well: you can change your features to some extent, but not body size, and everyone kinda ends up looking the same. The game is good looking, but there's no sense of community, or world; and EQ2 has absolutely zero sense of humor. I felt like I was running around in a maze, with other mindless rats, pressing levers for very little reward.

Bleh.

Will Be Awesome

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 20 / 36
Date: June 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I have listened to many reviews on this website and have found that many people have been hating the fact that there will be 2 cities.

For those of you who don't know, it's called a storyline

There has been 500 years passed since the first eq game and an age called the age of clatyclysms. All cities were destroyed and even the moon exploded. Only two cities had the idea to rebuild their home, Qeynos and Freeport. Well, if they were the only ones doing this and one was good the other was evil, I guess you wouldnt sit around your city's old ruins for the rest of your life, you would have to join one. EQ2 is a freeport/qeynos war. Freeport led by the always-known-to-be-evil Sir Lucan D'Lere. Qeynos being the good side led by the good looking Antonia Bayle.

Pick your side

Everquest2 will be a better game than everquest with improved graphics, cities being a major part of the game, and a wide varity of races and classes. Everybody here is comparing it to everquest1. EQ2 IS NOT EVERQUEST. It is not even considered a sequel sometimes to the creators, it is a parrelell universe with the history, zones (with some new ones, and some old ones left out from when they were destroyed), and races of everquest, but it is COMPLETLY DIFFERENT.

You have to understand

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 27
Date: September 14, 2004
Author: Amazon User

You have to understandf that SoE has come a LONG way from the begining. EQ 2 looks amazing and after all the beta reveiw I have to take the players word for it, Qoute "If you liked EQ you will love EQ 2, if you hated EQ you will still love EQ 2" This game is going to be a huge hit and will lead to other competition between other games. Besides I am sure that we have all wasted away 50 bucks before why not try it and if it doesnt work out then O Well.

Sure to please

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 26 / 54
Date: June 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have played EverQuest continuously since the open-beta some four years ago. I believe I have the qualifications to make a comment. ;)

"A Gamer from New Jersey" paints a pretty jaundiced picture of EQ. I suggest that if you find grouping a pain, than you shouldn't review a game that is fundamentally designed to be social and group-oriented.

Soloing in Everquest is like removing a philips-head screw with a flat-tipped screwdriver; not a problem with the tool, but with the mechanic.

Everquest has evolved and expanded into a rich and almost unbelievably nuanced game for the fantasy roleplayer, old-school or new player alike.

Sony Online Entertainment has taken the fruits of their unequaled MMORPG experience and combined it with the latest of cutting-edge graphical technology.

For the *social* role-player (anyone who is not social should probably stick to first-person shooters) this new rendition of Everquest is sure to please.

Not so bad but not so good either

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 9 / 12
Date: November 21, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I played both eq2 and WoW during beta. As a huge eq1 fan I enjoyed way to many hours playing while in college. But eq2 didnt have that same fun feeling like when i first loged onto eq1 and was awe struck.

{EDIT}

Best MMORPG I've played thus far

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 12
Date: August 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I've been playing this game since January 2005. Have played pretty much every day, sometimes ALL day.
obviously I love this game, the question is why?

Immersion. There are times when i feel so immersed in the world of Norrath, that I "become" my character. I feel fear, excitement, utter joy, even anger at times.Perhaps a bit hokey and sad, but let's face it, any mmorpg that can manage this feat has done something right.

The grind. Is there one? Sure, if you allow it. My character is only level 46. I have been in no rush to get to end game as it seems many are. Unlike SWG, in eq2, you can choose to either grind your way boringly and without imagination to 50, or enjoy the world and your character development. there are plenty of quests to do (I have made alts, just to do the quests that I missed the first time around).

Diversity of gameplay and grouping/soloing. Another reviewer had said here this is nto a game for soloers. Very untrue imo. I often make my best xp soloing. As far as duoing, I leveled my main to 40 almost exlusively by duoing. Was it slow? Yep. But, the point of duoing in a multiplayer game should not be only xp. Obviously in a game designed for multiple players, a duo will have slower xp than a larger group, and yes some quests will not be possible. In this game, a full group is best for getting through tough quests. A group of three however, is the best for xp. But, in the end, eq2 allows for a decent amount of xp/fun/chalenge/exploration for any kind of adventurer(s).

Mentoring. I love this feature. it basically allows one to mentor down to any level, in order to group with a lower level friend. As a bonus, it gives the mentored extra xp.

Graphics are impressive, character creation is detailed (unlike Lineage and WoW bleh :p)

Complaints... the game can be a bit buggy, mobs stuck in walls, encounters breaking, etc. Clothing and armor (yawn).. I hope in the future they add more choices. ( remembering fondly the tailored wares from SWG).. speaking of swg, I wish there were player towns, but it is a small complaint.

One thing I was discussing with my husband and son the other day (yes they also play)... something I miss from swg. Vastness of the world. I remember playing swg, going to say tatooine or Dantooine, and feeling like I was in a large, lonely place. As odd as it may sound, I liked that. EQ2 is missing that, i think because around every corner and behind ever rock is an aggro mob... similar to (but not as bad as) Guild Wars, the world in eq2 gives the feel that it is "guiding" a player here or there, see this, kill that, click this. I have considered going back to swg, just for that feeling of vastness.. but the truth is that EQ2 ruined swg for me in so many ways, there is no going back.

I hope I'll be playing eq2 for many years, and then eq3 for many years after that :)

Luna
Highkeep
WoG

Great game!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: February 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I recently switched from playing World Of Warcraft to this because of the annoying immature teens who litter that game and I have been having ten times the fun since making that decision.

Yes, the game is more complicated. If you don't like the game just because you don't have the patience to figure things out then maybe you shouldn't be playing these types of games in the first place. The fact that this game is more invoved makes it far more intense and interesting. The area that I am in right now,Freeport, is huge and has tons of quests to accomplish.

This game seems to attract an older crowd which is great since you don't have to deal with idiots every ten minutes. The world is larger, the game more interesting, and the characters more highly developed than World Of Warcraft. Make the switch, you won't be dissapointed.

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