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An honest review of Everquest 2.
sayuri2006
Member Posts: 161
Greetings all,
The purpose of this thread is to constuctively give my feedback of my own review of Everquest 2. This is to suffice that the other main purpose is to give my own opinions for newcomers to Everquest 2 so that they may form their own about what this game is actually like.
I have played quite a few MMORPGs and I must first admit that Sony has quite a good marketing campaign to get this game "out there" but whether or not it helps subsciption rates, is another debate.
Firstly, Everquest 2 really needs a good computer (CPU/RAM/Graphics card) to run at a nice visual pace without lag, lag spikes, and flow of movement in general. The problem is that many believe that as long as you have a decent graphics card, your CPU and RAM don't have to be top notch. Unfortunately, I had to browse various "Everquest 2" related webpages to find out that memory leakage is common and that the longer you play, the general performance of EQ2 can slow down. Therefore, people recommend having enough RAM and CPU speed. I can't give specifics as this game is evolving all the time. Which leads me to my first point...
Graphics: As one might expect, EQ 2 features really stunning visuals. It has a real medieval look and the graphics are designed to be not "cartoony" but more life-like in appearance. If your system can handle it, it is a feast on the eyes. the main problem is that for me, I had to have the settings on a lowish setting and that took away alot of what the game visually has to offer. I have heard that even though you might have a very hi-end system, the general movement and flow still feels a little slow. In other words, players know the graphics can be better but they are unable to have them more appealing than they would like.
Realms: The second main thing that I was drawn into this game was the community. I did create several characters on different servers, got to the main cities and spent enough time to get a feel for the community. The thing I found was that this game is BIG! But, where were all the players? I know that this game has been out for some time now, but there should still be some players in the main cities and common areas that I explored in. This I felt can deter new players as I often was solo for a long time, hardly encountering any life of non NPCs. The whole world seemed empty for me, not alive and interactive which resulted in me feeling at times I was just there in a pve world.
General combat: This was an interesting aspect to think about as it is in ways similar yet different to other MMORPGs. Using icons, they perform actions and/or spells the player wishes. I really tried to get used to the combat system, but for me it all felt abit too clicky, even though you can assign macros or change to an assigned key layout. The general pace of combat was fine but as I mentioned combat felt abit too clicky. This is hard to explain as it really needs to be experienced. In other words, I felt like I was just pressing a bunch of keys to kill something and it didnt feel as involved as I would have liked.
Summary: I came to Everquest 2 with little expectations and played with what experience I have had with other MMORPGs. I really gave this game a good healthy go, on several servers, joined a nice guild, but overall the fun just wasn't there. At times, I felt like it was an empty world and combined with the graphics having to be on a lowish setting and the pace of combat abit too clicky and mundane, I simply couldn't see what others rave about. Surely, graphics don't make up half of the fun of what EQ2 is about. For new players, I definitely say give it a go, and judge on your own terms. Finally, I would like to say that I can't actually pinpoint what made EQ2 NOT fun for me, even though it is an MMORPG and it has alot of common elements of one.
I would like to know in discussion what others have experienced and their general thoughts on this matter. 
Comments
Thx for your honest opinion. I basically agree with you on that the game, while really beautifully looking and full of content, just didnt hold me. It just felt...well I am not sure how to put this in words - something was missing. Played in beta, after launch and a year after launch. The graphics are certainly stunning, but only from a purely technical point of view. To me everything looked like plastic, dunno. And the constant zoning in the city really aggrevated me after a while
The combat and classes I thought were well done, quests were OK for the most part (I just dont see what the point in these "kill x of that and y of that" quests is, of which there are quite a couple in EQ2, too).
Anyhow, I still think that EQ2 is one of the better MMOs out there right now.
Thank you for your opinion but, by the gods, what are people talking about when they see no players? I see players constantly. To the point that its annoying sometimes when they get to a quest mob before you do and you have to wait for it to appear again.
There ARE players. Maybe you're just ignoring them. And remember, time has something to do with it. Try playing after 7 or 8 pm Eastern time (which is after dinner) until about 11 pm or so. You have to remember that people have school and they have work and this game has a generally older population than say... WoW. Most of us that play this game are adults with family and jobs.
Heck, just the other day, I logged into Antonica and typed /who and it gave me a list of about 50 names. No one replied though when I asked a question on /ooc, but that doesn't mean there are no players, it just means that they don't want to talk to you at the moment (though someone actually did send me a /tell in private to help me out). And before anyone says anything stupid, /who gives only the handles of those people in that particular zone at the time.
I'm just getting so sick of this complete crap about "there are no players" when its not true.
Nice write up.
I was playing EQ2 back in beta, then played it for a year, took a break, came back, leveled 1 of my characters to 70, then moved on, and now I'm back
In the higher settings ( I play 1 below max ), the game looks incredible. The detail in the armor is jaw dropping. But as you mentioned, you'll need a good machine to play it in those settings. Fortunatly, the average gaming rig on the market can play EQ2 at those settings. So people who are replacing their older systems would be ok.
It's hard for an aged MMO to draw and retain new players. The reason of course is that the great majority of the player base has leveled up, and are out in higher level areas. Now this will of course vary server to server, and peak times have to be taken into consideration. But for the most part the newbie (tier 1, and tier 2) zones will be empty when compared to what they were 6 months after release. Heck, we're already seeing some of that in LoTRO. On some servers the dwarven starting area is barren. That will be true for every game. I have a nephew that plays WoW, and he wanted me to join him there. I found the low level areas sparse, which really takes away from the crucial first impressions of the game.
As for the clickiness of combat, I must admit that I actually enjoyed that aspect of the game. Having come from EQ1, and DAoC, I found it rather nice to have a load of combat arts to fire off. Some classes take more skill....some are just unload, and others are pace yourself, to get the most from auto combat, while others debuff first, then unload the damage. However, this model is changing in the upcomming November expansion (Rise of Kunark). They will be consolidating some of the combat arts, which translates into less clicks.
Since starting with EQ2, I've tried out the other games that have come out...it's hard for me to not at least give the other guys a try. I have to say I by far enjoy EQ2 more than any other MMO out there right now. It's changed a lot, and it's a dream come true for the casual player who wants LOTS of variety in their gameplay.
Sadly, there's nothing better than the exciting feeling you get when trying out a new MMO, while it's still "hot", having loads of newbies all running around, helping each other figure out the game. But all MMOs lose that as they age.
I do recommend the game to anyone on the fence about trying it. Give it a whirl. Try to find a server with a decent amount of folks on durring your play time, and get into a guild. Three years later, the game is still cimbing with subcriptions, and there are loads of guilds to join.
Interesting perspective, I think it can all be summed up in "your mileage may vary” As I have seen new players post on these forums with very positive new player experiences.
I am a bit confused about your claim that EQ II needs a decent computer, actually my wife is playing on balanced with a off the shelf Dell box with little to no hitching. As far as populations go, no you're not going to find people in Qyenos just hanging out, most people that play EQ 2 are older have jobs, lives etc They go in quest/craft/raid and leave. It did sound like you gave the game an honest shot and it wasn't for you, EQ II is finding it's audience though, it's never going to be the mass fad WoW is, and I think that the current community is very glad of that fact.
This is a review?
You are not even speaking of EQ2 features and or what it offers.
You mention this:
-Take a big machine
-Population is low
-Combat is too clicky
Thanks for your opinion, but this is not what i call a review.
eqnext.wikia.com
Yeah it's what they tell em to say.
We were talking about this in guild chat a few nights ago, it's almost if they are reading from a script.
One guy posted a bunch of links a couple days back the chronicled what he called an orginized smear campaign against EQ II, it was pretty eye opening, and shortly afterward the post was deleted and I guess the guy was banned...I haven't seen him post since.
They are discussing it now on the off topic EQ II forums., but I don't know if they posted the links there.
For me what let EQ2 down was....
- Instancing.
- Zoning - It just made the world feel like a series of maps rather than a living world like WOW or something seemless.
- Bland ugly graphics.
- Poor zones like Nek, Atonica and TS etc etc.
- Ugly plastic character models.
- Boring classes which non of them seemed fun, in WOW you have only 9 or so classes and each one is sooo different and fun.
When i was in family and friends beta back in 2004 the best part of the game for me was starting in Qeynos and doing all the noob areas until level 10. After level 10 the game just became sooo boring because of badly designed zones. The graphics however for me are really ugly and i personally think the older SWG game looks far better.
Also the games dead population really kills it, i remember when in beta and there was like 6 Antonicas or CL's and then after launch we had just as many. Then WOW came out and all of a sudden the game really died but i remember having a nice time in CL leveling with this group i found and made it soooo fun. So i came back to play again after DOF and the game was sooooooooo DEAD!!!!
If your below like level 60 it's nearly impossible to get a group you want and forget getting a raid together. What killed it for me when i came back really was the lack of people playing and people say they love the community but what community? The servers i tried playing on were all dead. On WOW i could get a group any level i wanted and always had people to play with, thats what made it much more fun to play for me.
moostown, the only thing I agree with you about is the instancing and zoning, everything else is garbage. Frankly, I'm glad you went to WoW. You can go play with the cartoons there.
See, the thing I'm confused about is this.... I loath WoW. Its the worst game on the market. I didn't even play it for my full free month. When I was level 26, playing for about 2 hours every other day in only 2 weeks... and the graphics made me want to pull my hair out... what a complete disappointment. But see, I don't go to WoW's forums just to bash the game about how horrible it is. I think that kind of behavior is childish. I even beta'd LOTRO and its WoW with an LOTR wrapper. But I don't go there to bash the game either. I'm over it.
So tell me.... why are you here just to bash EQ2? If you don't like it, move on.
Simple getting compensated to hang out on forums, beats asking if you want fries with that any day.
Hey OP, what levels did you get to with all the toons you made? I`m just curious because there is so much to do at all levels and it didn`t sound like you explored very much. Did you check out all the different starting areas with your toons? Did you know that more chat channels become avalible to you as you level up? Did you ever try to craft? What server did you play on?
I play on Butcherblock server and I see new toons constantly. It`s not hard to find groups for low lvl areas such as Fire Mist Gully, Stormhold, or Fallen Gate. These are high teen to low twenty dungeons (well, Fire Mist Gully is instance). Thank you for your review, but I don`t think you`ve really spent much time with the game, or even tried. I have no problems with someones opinion about any MMO, I just get annoyed when people give their feedback about a game when they have very little knowledge about the product.
I think I`ll play LotRO till lvl 12 and write a full review.
Play on Antonia Bayle, great low lvl population. I agree that I'd LOVE to see crowded cities, and to get rid of the sectioned cities, but most computers just couldn't take it. The only part of THAT game I miss is the hustle and bustle of Orgrimmar.
Why would you want crowded cities? We wouldn't even be able to play. The lag is already horrific in North and South Qeynos.
You dont need a beefey machine to play this game, but you do if you want to see all the higher graphical settings, but to be honest they are just fluff and dont really affect the way the game is played. It still looks great on "High Performance" settings.
I have a crappy Celeron D 2.53 GHz machine with GEforce 6600 GT, and 1 GB RAM and it runs great for me, bit laggy in the cities but I think most people lag in the cities no matter what their spec.
"Clicky combat" is present in all MMOs that I have ever played so I am not sure where you are going with that line of thought.
Regarding population, my server - Butcherblock - seems to have a very good population and I always see people in the cities or in other zones, the game is populated but obviously certain times are going to be quieter than others
I think that EQ2's population is fine. The problem is that the world is now over twice the size it was when the game launched and is going to get bigger again when RoK hits, as a result the there are now fewer players per zone which can make some zones feel quite empty. For this reason alone I think they should merge a few servers.
EoF brought a huge influx of players into the game, but there were two occasions when EQ2's population took a hit. The first was when Vanguard came out, my guild lost nearly half its players. Within two months the vast majority of them came back. The second was due to Lotro, although not as many left in the first place, fewer came back.
Interestingly enough I don't know one player who left for WoW when TBC came out, even ex-WoWers like myself weren't interested, read into that what you will.
What EQ2 has suffered from, and what I hope they will put right with RoK, is that since launch the game has suffered from woeful marketing by SOE and poor availability of boxed copies. Here in Europe, EoF is virtually impossible to find in stores, both bricks and mortar and online. Which of course is a crying shame as EQ2 is by far SOE's best title.
And please no comparing WoW classes to EQ. Let me let you in on a little secret...most of these games out right now are so damn similar its ridiculous to act like one is so superior than the next. I play both WoW and EQ 2. The only difference is depth. That's it. Classes are similar, combat (though more skills in EQ), direction of leveling and so forth. Nothing on the market right now is real innovative at least in the fantasy sense as EVE is scifi. So you can throw that comparison out the window.
Dead Population? you got to be kidding, I get on hit LFG and have a group with in about 10 mins, unlike WoW were everyone solos 24/7 till they hit 70th then all they do it raid.
Poor zones like Ant Nek and TS, they are great zones that are well set out and easy to move around.
As for your below 60th comment from your write up it looks like you never made it out of your 20s so how can you comment on the high level game.
You seem to really dislike this game but you seem to like WoW, a game which I found had no depth a childish player base, graphics which look like they have been thrown togther in a sad cartoon way.
As for getting a group in WoW who groups? everyone I saw soloed, they grind the levels over and over with no purpose, guild don't help each other out they just raid with the 70th.
Sorry I'll stick with EQ2, great graphics, good people, and game play at ALL levels of experiance
To all those who say the population is fine... well companies don't give out free copies of their game when buying another of theirs when their game population is "fine".
LOL, WoW does it. I played it for a couple months and they just recently sent me a free "upgrade to TBC" and play free for a month letter. I wasn't interested. All game companies do it, it isn't anything new.
"Granted thinking for yourself could be considered a timesink of shorter or longer duration depending on how smart..or how dumb you are."
I can appreciate the great opinions about EQ2 here and here is a focus on one important aspect of a GOOD MMO; server populations and the community therein. Here is my experience with one such server for EQ2.
Playing on Antonia Bayle (RP) or commonly known as just AB; I've found PLENTY of players on this server! I've been with AB and EQ2 since launch and I've found that it seems there are MORE players than ever! Amazingly enough with 4 starter areas now (Qeynos Harbor/Qeynos; East Freeport/Freeport; Darklight Wood/Neriak; Greater Faydark/Kelethin) I've taken / (who) samples of these zones at various times and have found that even in the AM hours (Eastern time) that no less than 30 to 40 people are in each of these zones, and during primetime it soars to well over 60 to 70! Quite often there will even be two instances as the population soars over 100 in each! That's just the starter areas. In many of the low / mid / high zones the same thing applies. The server in the morning is MEDIUM and always during primetime is HEAVY load. That means thousands of players online!
The level channels are constantly LFM or LFG players; which is great! Quite easy to get a group invite for what you're looking to do. The new LFG utility doesn't seem to be catching on, but I think word of mouth needs to get around that this tool is available! It can really be quite useful for those groups looking to form raids and such because it can be quite specific in what it is your group is going to do and what types of classes you need for a single or raid group. Advertising this feature in the appropriate group raid level channel would go a long ways for announcing this new awesome tool!
The community on AB has been excellent! Sure you have your less-desirable people, but overall everyone is VERY helpful and being an RP server there is a HUGE RP community on AB! A refreshing change for an MMO! SOE even goes so far as advertising during character selection the TWO RP servers available. Antonia Bayle and Lucan D'Lere. Unusual in most MMOs where RP servers are anonymous and it is tough to find the RP community. On AB several guilds will announce (ic shouts in zones) RP events in player housing (one example a guild has turned a mansion into a tavern. VERY well done and the RP there is fun and feels like you're in a PnP tavern!). Again the community is top-notch on AB!
Just my two-coppers about player populations on AB for EQ2 and LFG / LFM.
EQ2 has basically one server worth playing: Nagafen. Granted I havent played in a while, but about 6 months ago it was well populated.
Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice.
Thats a load of you know what. You may not like the game but then why are you here just to bash it? I don't go to other forums just to bash them. You know what that says about you when you engage in that kind of behavior, right?
Thats a load of you know what. You may not like the game but then why are you here just to bash it? I don't go to other forums just to bash them. You know what that says about you when you engage in that kind of behavior, right?
?????
Did Moirae forget to take his medicine again? He didn't bash anything...
"Granted thinking for yourself could be considered a timesink of shorter or longer duration depending on how smart..or how dumb you are."
I think this is indeed a honest post but like many i do not see why people have trouble finding players their levels.Each time i make a toon i find players.Remember with so many newbie hunting zones you might not simply run into someone who needs what you need.Use the lfg channel or flag youself with the request.
But i am happy to see you gave it a shot and tried it out.
If McDonalds screws up my Big Mac and as compensation, they give me a coupon for free fries, is it evidence that their fries suck? Or is it simply compensation for screwing up my original order?
Vanguard was screwed up. SOE wants to retain customers. It's not hard to see that a lot of people interested in Vanguard would also enjoy EQ2. It's obvious to anyone with half a brain. Of course, I can see why you may have missed it.
Greetings all,
I constructively read all the posts and would like to add a reply on my original topic. A couple have mentioned that I certainly can't call this a review. Well, my logical answer would be that I am giving an opinionated review of what I have experienced and know about the game. You most certainly can give a review even though you may not know all the content. I could have perhaps put a different title, which might not have mislead some, but I thought it best to put a review of only what i have experienced in the game so far; no more and no less.
Some others wanted to know did I play on populated times, on different servers and what was the highest level I reached?
Yes, I did play on one pvp server and managed to enjoy times of low and hi populated times. Of course I met people in the main cities and realise that alot would most likely be in higher lvl areas. My highest lvl was a druid at lvl 30.
The big question is though why did I not enjoy it? Well, the answer is that I did not get a feeling for the game, the game dynamics and the general sense of purpose and fun right from the beginning. My milege may indeed vary but I just wasn't having fun and drawn in from the word "go." Yes, give it a real shot, but at what stage or level was I supposed to start getting more fun? I thought lvl 30 was high enough. A game should draw you in from the start and if it doesn't seek other ways to start learning more about the game, it's lore, game dynamics, interfaces, chat, guilds, professions, amongst others. I was in a guild, I explored, tried various basic professions and worked on my game lore, combat system and chatting in game generally.
I highly recommend that you give this game a good go and take it as it comes. I was not drawn in unfortunately, but let your own "fun factor" be the judge.
This is by no means a review as such that experienced gamers use to compare MMORPGs that use a prescribed method via categories but rather myself using the game itself and playing it to review how fun the game was for me.
Peace.