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Graphics are Mixed Blessing

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 13 / 27
Date: December 06, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I have all the previous games in the EverQuest series, and play regularly on The Rathe and Rodcet Nife.

From the screenshots and notes on Luclin, I am VERY ambivalent about it. First, a look at the technical side, then some personal comments.

Technically, they went very high end. It takes a machine with 512 MB of system RAM and a good video card just to see the graphics. You CAN turn off the new graphics if you do not meet the standard. From comments in my roommate's guild (NB, The Rathe) there is no way around these requirements if you want to see everything. Don't bother trying because things will start dropping out of the engine. One guy got all white landscapes when he tried edging around the hardware minimums.

Also, the zone load is MUCH slower after you install this update. DSL and Cablemodem users with high end systems have reported up to a 5 minute zone time. I personally experienced a 15% to 30% longer zone and a LOT more Zone LD. I tried this on two machines, and it happens on both. That is WITHOUT the new expansion, so I can see where it would be worse with it.

Now on a personal note, I am not sure if I will bother to buy Luclin, and if I do, I will NEVER turn on the new character models. I was already disgusted with the obscene and completely inaccurate females in the earlier game. The new ones look like strippers. The clothing is more revealing, and EVERYTHING is way out of proportion.

If you have kids, DO NOT get this expansion. All you will be doing is teaching them to expect a 20 inch waist and a 40 inch bust on women. EQ is looking more and more like a strip bar with the addition of this expansion.

Verant claims to have put a lot of work on the new bone structure, musculature, etc. As far as I can tell from screen shots, this is absolutely UNTRUE. The musculature on the old models was better, and if they said breast structure (not bone) they would be a lot more accurate. Also, the new horses are out of proportion, and very poorly done. I did like the new wolves.

I think they needed a few art teachers to critique the graphics for an accurate representation, and anything that got less than a C would be thrown out. Well, that would remove all the female models, and half the male ones. They also seem to have made everyone more ugly. I do not know why, but that is the way it is.

This game is the best!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: December 06, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This game blows every other RPG away. Sony Stations has raised the bare for RPG. The graphics are state of the art, and the characters look so real. This is the best game i have ever seen. It is a must buy for all ages!

GREAT GAME...still some gliches

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 6
Date: December 06, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This is an awsome expansion to the incredable game of everqest. The new graphics are amazing and the new world is huge. Although there are some glitches that need to be worked out, i have a feeling that before long, this game is going to be a must if you want the true expenience of Everquest!

Response to last review

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: December 08, 2001
Author: Amazon User

In response to the previous review on the technical side, I think the reviewer is being much too hard on the game. I have 2 machines that meet the requirements and they run the game well. I also have one computer that is at minimum requirements in some aspects and below in other. The computer has a 400 Mhz Celeron processor (at low side of the scale for running Luclin), a Matrox G400 video card (at low side of the scale for running Luclin), and only 128 Meg of Ram (below requirements for Luclin). The machine runs Luclin just fine with one character model loaded and the graphics are better than before Luclin even for models not loaded and for landscape. Zone loads are a bit slower, but did not seem too excessive most of the time. The only excessive load times were when loading into some of the new zones which can be explained by the massive number of people in the Luclin zones. This should clear up as people begin to move out from the new Vashir city and spread out on Luclin. Personally I think the developers did a fine job.

Exactly what gamers were asking for, but ...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: December 08, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Everquest: Shadows of Luclin (SoL) is the 3rd expansion to be released for Everquest. As such, it offers many great features which many players should find encouraging.

The most obvious improvement is the graphics engine. Given the massively multiplayer nature of Everquest, it was impractical at its original release to make the game intensely high graphic (because transferring the data to display high-polygon characters and environments would have restricted the gaming audience far too much). Given that the average PC these days is much better than the average PC was when Everquest was first released, most players should be able to handle the immensely improved graphics engine with relative ease. The most obvious example of graphical achievement are the character models: the polygon count is over 12 times higher in some models, and the attention to detail is magnificent.

Many higher level gamers were also complaining about the lack of innovation towards the end of Everquest. SoL contains over 20 new zones for players to explore (many of which are intended for high level players), as well as an intense alternate experience system designed to let high level players improve their characters in new ways. Also, SoL introduces a new character class and a new race, offering new character combinations for a wider variety of gameplay.

Of course, all this comes with a price ...

SoL's system requirements are in most cases more than double the original Everquest system requirements. Windows 95 users can no longer play the game, and I myself had to upgrade both my processor and my memory in order to support it. The recommended specs are a 500+ mhz processor, 512 mb RAM, 32 meg geforce2 or better video card, and a cable connection.

Talk about harsh.

But not so harsh when you think about it. Everquest needed to upgrade their graphics and keep their old players around in order to compete with newer MMORPGS (namely, dark ages of camelot), and most of said MMORPGS have system requirements around the same as those of SoL.

It still hurts to think that someone might not be able to play because they can't afford to upgrade their system, though.

Where does therealeric get the info from

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: December 08, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I would just like to know where these bars are that eric goes to!

SoL

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 08, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Nice addition, has bugs but VI will work them out.

My luck may not be in with Luclin

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 08, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I have not bought this game expansion, and will not do so, until the bugs introduced have addressed.

Somehow, the introduction of the new expansion for Everquest has created many bugs with graphics and sound in the original game, without even installion of the expansion.

These render the game unplayable for me, but as this is a subscription based service, I still have to pay for time I cannot use. My PC is up to spec even for the new expansion, with Win2k, Geforce, SB Live, 512 MB RAM - anyone with a spec lower than this be warned!

Also Windows 95 is no longer supported, yet boxes of the original game and expansion are still on sale with W95 stated as supported.

Be sure to check the forums on the official Everquest web site for current technical issues before purchasing this or any Everquest based product.

This review was written on 8/12/01.

A fantastic game! However, it's not Win 95 compatible.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: December 08, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Folks, please go to Everquest's official website. You'll see that this game IS NOT Windows 95 compatible as listed on Amazon. It is compatible with Win 98, and it's run quite well on my Win ME system.

Is it money well spent? OH YEAH. The game is absolutely wonderful, for new players, and seasoned EQ players. Each previous expansion has always been well worth it, but Luclin outshines them all. The textures created by the new graphics system is the best I've ever seen for PC, and I've been a hard core gamer for some time now.

I'll leave it to the other reviewers to tell you about the wonderful features and additions. All I can say is that the price is excellent for such a fantastic product.

Shadows of Luclin / Released before it was ready

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: December 09, 2001
Author: Amazon User

As a loyal player of Everquest for more than a year-and-a-half, I rushed out on the release date to purchase Everquest: Shadows of Luclin. Geez, what a mistake.

First time I tried to install the software, crashed on locked files and and had to run the install program again. Loaded fine on the second try.

Finally got it loaded and set up after three hours of configuring and logged in. The graphics were a little better than the pre-Luclin EQ, but the clipping plane looked odd and the sky in the zone I was in (Greater Fay) was non-existent even though it was on.

Took my high level wizard (50's) to Nexus to zone into Shadow Haven to buy the new spells we were looking forward to, crash to desktop. Logged back in (and let me tell you folks, you will be twiddling thumbs waiting to log back in), crash again. Restarted computer, logged back in, crash again. Turns out, Shadows of Luclin has an issue with AMD K6-2 processor chips that Verant / Sony is in the process of trying to find a work around for. Anyone with this type of chip was getting locked up and crashed to desktop in certain zones and as of this date and four days after I installed the software, my wizard is still stuck in there with no fix in site. This is just one of the bugs.

Another issue was the promotion of a feature in which the "Bazaar" zone was supposed to have a feature where you can set up an unattended character to market items you were selling. Well, as of the release of the software that feature was not included and we just found out this week (after the release) that that feature was not implemented because there was not enough "time" to work out the code, so it will be added in at a later date. Please.

If you are using Windows 95, you will need to upgrade to Windows 98 or better because DirectX 8.1 which is required to run Luclin is not supported on Win95.

Expect slow frame rates, lag, long zone times. All being "fixed" according to the corporate tech site.

I understand that software releases in this day and age will have some issues, but if you haven't bought this yet I would wait for a month or two. Read the EQ websites for updates and let Verant / Sony get the major bugs in this thing worked out. I really like Everquest and I am sadly disappointed in this release. Its like someone really didnt care and rushed it out the door for Christmas.

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