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It's not for everyone

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 251 / 345
Date: October 30, 2004
Author: Amazon User

A local area friend of mine started out as a beta tester for EQ2 and became frustrated and bored with it and allowed me to continue in his place and while the game has many "beautiful" graphical elements far surpassing anything else, it's the skeleton of the game I must now tell you about.

If you are a die-hard group oriented type player you will most likely enjoy EQ2.

If you are die-hard solo oriented type player you will not enjoy EQ2.

The content is so group oriented that on some of your core quests (to continue to level) "requires" a group. This is the bad part about the game as a whole.

If you are a duo (husband and wife team like), you are going to run into the same problems, you won't even be able to kill the quest mob as a duo, you need that 3rd person. This is a very sad part of the game and for many working class adults.

The mobs are setup mostly for 3+ players, 6 being the optimum choice with one archetype of each catagory, healer, scout, mage, warror, the other two can be anything really, scout this time around being most important because they are the ones that create the bonus specials to combat.

Mostly through my beta play I researched and tested the solo content (that I could find) and while early on there seemed to be viable content in open areas and dungeons alike, the recent last patch has now taken away ALL dungeon content for soloists. Thus the soloist is reduced to yard trash mobs, with little or no loot and never any decent loot at all and the slowest experience grind around.

It appears as if SOE has misled us, while not misleading us, they love to use play on words like "You can solo to 50", yep, you can solo to 50, but, you will pay "hell" doing so. You will find yourself frustrated and unrewarded for your play other than experience which is about 1/3rd (if that much) that of what groups get per kill. You will be reduced to buying all of your gear from crafters or other players, and never feel any satisfaction of a reward for all your work. This is not good for those who enjoy soloing.

There is no twinking, other than you can hand down level restricted equipment to your alts or someone lower, but, you will never see the likes of a level one in level 50 gear anymore or even level 10 gear, there is basically no powerLEVELING since all encounters are locked and outside buffings or heals or special spells by other players have no affect. Once you are in a locked encounter, you are own your own, whether grouped or solo, that's all the power you're going to ever get. So those expecting their buddies to powerlevel them up in EQ2, you had better start looking for another game. It's gone.

The grouping levels are about the same as EQlive, starting out you can group with people about 4 levels higher than you and it scales up as you gain levels at about a 75% range. You can be 75% of another persons level and still group with them.

I pity some of you on launch day, be prepared to be bombarded by "group" requests relentlessly. Even in beta, there are just too many "children" playing it. Be prepared for the vulgar mouthed, smack talking, rude, crude, and socially unacceptable causing ruin to your gaming pleasure and groups. Because now when ONE person dies, the WHOLE GROUP pays for it, 1/6th of your experience is zappoed, everytime some idiot or fool does something stupid. And you know kids, they love to do stupid things and cause frustration.

The game is being launched about 60% complete if that, it's not exactly ready, but, it's ready sort of thing. It's ready enough that it will probably have the same kind of launch day and days and weeks ahead as any other. Expect long downtimes for emergency patches and possibly to not even be able to login at all that first day. Expect quests to be broken. Expect crashes to desktop. Actually just expect the norm, cause that's just how they do these games nowadays, there's not a one that doesn't have bugs/flaws gaming issues and incomplete programming when released. You can buy it or not, that's your choice, just expect to have some rough and rocky rides along the way.

If I were group oriented I would probably enjoy the ride of EQ2, but, I am predominantly a soloist and when I beta test that is what I look for in them, how much do they offer a casual player with little time to play 1 to 3 hours a day if that. Not all casual players are soloist, but, many are forced to solo in these games due to time factors. And when it takes hours to find a group or someone that will have you, you just don't get your moneys worth out of the game.

Duo's might do a little better if you are willing to pick up a 3rd, one extra is not as bad as 4 extra, because the more you have in your group, the more chance you have of gaining that idiot or fool I spoke of before.

My review here is focused on how I play and what I look for, of course I cannot descibe every little detail about EQ2, I have descibed and reviewed what I felt important to deliver to the rest of the uninformed out there that might be thinking about buying this game for the same reason I 'thought' about buying it, but, will no longer be doing so. I hope it was helpful.

Not Interested in Verant

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 48 / 186
Date: January 19, 2004
Author: Amazon User

My daughter and I played EQ loyally for a year and a half. It was awesome, an escape into a fantasy world of dungeons and dragons and marvellous elves. The expansion packs were nice until EQ went to the moon. I never bought an expansion after that.

In the old days, all the classes had purpose. My wizard was a remarkable traveller and I used to make a few plat porting people people around. My guild had fun banding together for raids and hunts too. But then it became so easy to port anywhere. Why bother playing a basically weak druid or wizard?! Then cat people started running around, and lizards on their heals. Sigh, how I missed the Tolkienish feel of the old EQ.

I finally quit EQ when DAC came out. I left EQ on one of our computers for a few months more for my daughter. But one day when she entered the wrong password while logging in, they locked her out of her account. I called them and they were very arrogant and refused to fix it. Nevermind they had just cut off a 9 yr old child from her favorite winter passtime. They were very arrogant and clearly implied that they owned the MMOLRPG market, so we could play be their rules or rot. Instead, I introduced my daughter then and there to DAC. There are a dozen good MMOLRPGs out there now that have beaten EQ hands down. As long as Verant runs it, I'll never go back.

EQ has always had lousy customer service. The game was a good RPG but turned into a videogame. I doubt EQ2 will be an improvement.

They expect us all to just start over?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 17 / 43
Date: October 22, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Ummm... no thanks. I don't care HOW pretty it is, I, as well as just about every EQ player I know (and I know many of them) all agree: The timesinks stop at EQ1. There will be no starting over for any reason. We've all invested too much time on EQ1 to just drop it and move forward, especially with Sony's infamously horrific customer service.

I am a paying beta tester for Everquest (in my opinion that game still hasn't left beta, and since I pay to play it, well, that makes me a paid beta tester doesn't it hehe). I will not pay Sony for the privaledge of testing their new game.

IF Sony was smart, they would make Everquest II a complete rewrite of EQ1 with this fabled new engine of theirs and allow people to import the characters into it that they have worked so incredibly hard on.

EQ2 is going to be a total loser, mark my words--regardless of it's prettiness or features. It will be another Anarchy Online, UO2 (ummm WHAT UO2? heh), Dark Ages of Camelot, etc. It simply will never reach critical mass because EQ1 players will NOT switch in droves like they are hoping.

Sony is crazy to make EQ2 incompatible with EQ1. Not smart at all.

It truly seems that the "soul" of Verant has left the building, in a big way, since their acquisition.

Not much Fun - Try {EDIT}

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 17 / 26
Date: December 10, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I have been Playing EQ2 for about two or three weeks now. I am up to level 15. I am still fighting mostly badgers,bears,and deer. I am still using the same lame armor and weopons I got around level 8. Each new spell I get is lamer than the last. The zones are pretty boring, with all of the decent monsters mostly in groups of five or six, so they are impossible to solo. Loading between zones can be up to 5 min. long. I have a good running system, and when I run through a populated city the lag is unbearable. The quests are pretty boring too. Run to this zone and deliver this. Run back to the other zone and talk to so and so. Most of the quests are spent running through different zones, so between the running and the loading time lag for each zone a 30 min quest turns into a hour and a half long. I enjoyed EQ1 enough to get up to level 40 before I quit. I doubt I will make level 20 on EQ2. Just not worth the time and energy to play. {EDIT}

You will need to play 1/2 the game afk

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 16 / 25
Date: December 06, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Turn on your computer, load the game and walk away for the night. Is that how you like to play your games? Are you ok with leaving your computer on all day, running the game when you are at work? If are not you have extreme difficultly advancing in the game.

The auction system is an interregnal part of the game. In order to sell stuff on the auction your character must stand in one spot with nothing to do. If you log off our leave this spot your items are no longer for sell. You can ether sit and stair at the same screen for hours on end or walk away with EQ2 running.

If you choose not to use the auction system you will have substandard abilities gear and spell.

Don't even thing about running this game at the minimum of 512 meg RAM, a 1gig CPU and 128 video card with. I ran the game at first with 512 meg RAM, a 1.7 gig CPU and 256 video card with. When I was in town I lagged so badly I could barley move. Zoning took forever. I upgraded to 1gig of RAM. I still lag in town and busy zones but I can know get around. Most of the people I speak to that don't have serious lag issues are running 2 gigs of RAM. I have a DSL connection.

I have to say pass on this game. For two reasons 1 The game dose not play smoothly a lot of lag and a lot of time waiting for screens to load and unload as you change zones. 2 Then amount of time you need to leave the game and run while you are not playing. It's a shame. I wanted so badly to like this game. I liked the other version of Ever Quest.

A horrible game, a horrible company

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 16 / 31
Date: January 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

After playing PlanetSide, Everquest, and Starwars Galaxies, I thought I'd give SOE one more chance to make things right with EQ2. Of course, they failed. What we get is everything that sucked about EQ and nothing good out of it. The world is dull and lifeless. Sure, you can spend 30min customizing your character, but that's about all of the fun I got out of it. The questing system is dull, as are the quests which are based on wasting your time running from one end of the world to the other with very little reward. The forced group play is atrocious.

To all those "Power Gamers" who think that we are just all whining because we are stupid and want everything on a silver plate let me tell YOU something. Just exactly HOW much intelligence does it take to sit at ONE camp for 14 hours and grind the heck out of a group of mobs? Not a lot there buddy. What you think is "EARNING" your level is just a bunch of repetitive grunting and smaking of a mace. Higher forms of intelligence require more to do than simply grinding out tradeskills or xp on mobs. Now, if YOUR brain is so small that all you CAN do is sit there and waste hours of your life online and kill the same thing over and over again like a bug zapper thats fine. However, most normal people will get bored with that and want to move on to other things. There has been alot of WoW bashing that I've seen here and its sad. WoW is a completely well done game that adds so much more to my online experience. Sure its called a MMORPG but I think you groupie fanatics who believe we should all be grouped up constantly and completely sociable, forget the RPG part of it. Maybe I DONT want to be in your stinking group 24/7 every single minute of gameplay? Maybe I want to go check things out on my own? WoW completely wins over EQ2 on this because it gives YOU, the player, the PAYER, the CHOICE to play the game YOUR WAY, not what is dictated by the company. Don't tell me that I need to work on my social skills if I have trouble getting groups. If YOUR social skills were so good, just what the heck are you doing spending 13 hours a day on a GAME? Falling in love with some beautiful woman who is really a 45 year old fat drunk? Pathetic. If you have social skills go out in the real world, but I guess ya don't cause you are on your 50th hour straight of killing spiders outside of Freeport. I loved hearing how these "tough" gamers complain that people are too weak and want stuff too easy. If I was a monkey, I could be one of these people. But I like new quests, new items to craft that are actually something people would USE, not a cruddy sword that takes 40 subcombines to make that would be cheaper to buy from a vendor. NeverQuest is FULL of time sinks that make you want to just vomit. They still have the old "Zoning" system where you have to load each and every new area. As much as I love waiting for a new zone to load I'd still rather have my unmentionables waxed by a butch 40 year old woman named Greta. How is it that WoW can get away with having to only zone between continents and EQ2 is stuck in the dark ages of loading. Talk about losing your immersion. Nothing is as bad as runing to town only to be greeted with the loading and 2 more minutes of life wasted. If I wanted to wait around all day, I'd just pop in my Windows CD and reload that. It would actually be alot more fun than EQ2. Of course, NeverQuest is the more appropriate name for this series. Broken Quests, stupid quests, and boring quests are also in the running. Why subject yourself to hours and hours of mindless labor to yield the crappiest item of all... Whoo hoo! You earned it! Big deal. Congrats on running around the world for 5 real days in order to get a tunic that does absolutely nothing. Do people like you spend 10 hours wandering the local mall looking for a bag of socks only to come back to the first store you were at 10 hours ago and then congratulate yourself on a job well done? No, because its a WASTE OF TIME, just like EQ2 is. Speaking of wastes of time, SOE has got to be the biggest waste of space ever. Their servers constantly crash, yeah so did the WoW servers but at least BLIZZARD comped us some time. 24 hours yeah, big deal, but SOE did jack crap. Another waste of my time.

Invest your time and money elsewhere, play World of Warcraft.

A Review on Reviews

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 15 / 48
Date: July 26, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This review is not about the game. Since neither I nor anyone else has played it yet, noone is really qualified to give a review of the game at this time. This review is in regard to the dozens of other pointless reviews, comments, and/or questions regarding the game.

Regarding the first, if you haven't played the game, then why should your review hold any relevance at all? Everquest 2 is a game independent of its predecessor, so having played the first game does not give you the right to bash or glorify this one. In regard to the equally needless comments and questions on the game, there are numerous chat rooms and topic boards dedicated to all things Everquest, where your questions may be answered far more quickly and thoroughly and your comments may recieve however much consideration they warrant.

As it stands, the numerous reviews posted so far do nothing but clutter this page and hide relevant articles. So please, in the future, carefully consider whether your comments, questions, and otherwise truly need to be posted on this site.

And please don't respond to this review, as that will simply create more useless junk.

Lotsa bells and whistles, but where's the beef..?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 15 / 51
Date: October 27, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The general consensus amongst the MMORPG community would seem to be this: EverQuest II is yet another example of Sony's fanatical obsession with eye candy over content.

There's little to no "meat" here... in fact, Sony's own online websites can't seem to provide any sort of storyline behind EverQuest II, other than it being set 400 years or so from the time of the original EverQuest, the moon of Luclin blew up, and now the entire huge, sprawling world of Norrath has been reduced to two measly starting cities, on one continent...

...sounds pretty cheesy to me. Wanna see another red flag..? The sheer size of the installation of this game positively SCREAMS that it's loaded with resource-sucking bells and whistles, which Sony is well-known for focusing on when their overall storyline and content are weak.

Most veteran EverQuest players have watched Sony Online Entertainment completely RUIN the original EverQuest, ever since late 2002 when Sony bought out Verant (the originators of that once-classic MMORPG game). Given what we've all seen from SOE over the past few years (the destruction of EverQuest, the absurdly pointless Star Wars Galaxies, horrible customer service, and insultingly shameless greed), I see absoultely no reason whatsoever to believe that EverQuest II will be anything short of an overpriced, inane memory hog of a "game" that will ultimately leave the player feeling unsatisfied and cheated.

...

Take everything bad about EQI and multiply it

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: December 25, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I really enjoyed EQI once upon a time as the first of its kind, and thought that EQII would be the 'next generation' of MMORPGs. Alas, it's like they took everything that was really annoying in EQI and then removed everything fun for EQII. Grinding, camping, lag, poor graphics, horrible loading times, forced grouping ... three times as bad as it ever was in EQI. Then add in the fact you only get three character slots for more money per month and I really have to wonder what they were thinking.

Hardcore EQI fans and powergamers who enjoy camping and grinding will enjoy this game, as it's really just the same as the first but made 'harder' for those that spend every minute of their freetime online.

Still not ready for prime time

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 11
Date: December 09, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Before you give this game as a Christmas gift, be aware that the game is still in a pay-to-Beta state. I get tossed from the servers ~every~ day for up to an hour for maintenance. Be sure the recipient of your gift has a Beta tester mentality or they may get frustrated.

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