Customer Reviews

EverQuest 2 (DVD-ROM)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

EQ2 has undergone some major changes. If you like to solo or are a casual player this is the game for you. You can get to level 70 with any class solo. The developers have put in new solo quest lines that are really fun to play. The new broker system makes selling easy.

Frankly it was not that good when it came out but the changes have made for me the best MMO - I have tried WoW and hated it -- EQ1 gets old unless you are into raiding.

I think anyone looking for an MMO should definitely get this game -- especially if you want to solo or are a casual player.

I wanna start out by saying that not everyone will like this game. I am only 14 (just because i cant be below 14 if i wanna post this lol, im really one year younger) but i love it, and i have been playing for about 5 months. If you have played everquest one you will like this game. The graphics are amazing (if u have a decent computer) and the gameplay is awesome. The only thing is, of course since i play the game ill tell you how great it is. Most other people either tell you how amazing it is or how horrible it is. This game has also been changed a lot since its debut so ill go over some of the changes in LU 20 and from KoS (Kingdom of Sky) expansion.

1. Your character can reach an adventure level of 70.
2. There is a new achievement point system for players over level 20
3. Guilds can now reach level 50.
4. There are two new arenas for PvP (player versus player)
5. There are all new heritage quests, quests to get items from the original everquest game.
6. 30 new collection quests, for items found across Norrath that can be turned in to a collocter for exp and a reward.
7. You can now choose your proffession as you start the game, no longer requiring longg hours on quests to advance your level
8. There are now better tutorial islands for the beginners.
9. not from KoS but, for people who want to interact more with others, the servers have merged, causing almost all of the servers to be "heavy" so you can always find a group.

I think just trying this game would be one of your best moves to find out what its like. In 30 days of the free trial, if you work hard, im sure you can get to level 15-20 or beyond. In order to really experience this game you really need to play it for 30 days at least.

I have never played WoW so i cant say that eq2 is better than it however i can say that you need a lot of patience and maturity to really like this game. The guilds in this game also help low leveled characters out a lot. They can help you with quests and often like to invite new characters just to help out. I havent met any unfreindly everquest players and they all seem to treat everyone equally. If you dont like what people are saying though, you can choose to take out different chat channels from your chat window where all the messages appear as well as put people to your /ignore list.

I am not going to say that certain groups of people will like the game and certain groups wont, such as married couples. My guild is run by a married couple who completly love to play the game however i know that it is also frustrating for two people to try to succeed in this game alone. As someone has mentioned already, if you want to solo the game all the way through dont play this game. That is also incorrect, you can solo throufgh the whole game if you prefer. I will admit that it isnt as easy to solo as it is to group with people however it is just as possible.

When i read the other comments people made i could tell whether they were on WoW's side or EQ2's side by the way they owuld bash the opposite game. I have just tried to tell some the strong points of this game to you and cant really compare it to WoW. I hope it helped you, whoever you are reading this article, to know what its like to actually play the game and some of the good things about it.





EQI
Cathan
56th level Monk
Tarew Marr Server
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EQII
Cathan
22nd level Monk
Befallen Server

Do NOT purchase USED versions of this game! USED version's have USED Account key's and will NOT WORK!!!!!!

I have read a lot of horrible reviews on this game, and I have read a lot of good reviews on the game. However, I disagree with most of them because somewhere in the text, they always put the game down for either it's grouping ideas or the way it's supposed to be played.

Let's be honest, there is NO MMORPG that doesn't require a group at some point in the game. In fact, all new style MMORPGS do require it to continue. In order to complete most quests in new style MMORPGS, you need a group! WoW, FFXI, etc.

As for Everquest, yes, you do need to group at some point in the game, but it all fits together. You're character is as needed as everyone elses. This is what makes this game more balanced than most. Every character shall have his/her place in the sun. Healers shall heal and mages shall cast, while fighters will fight and scouts will do their own thing. The truth is, every character is equal in this game. So, for a change, we don't have to wonder if our character is going to get a group or no, because it will. In other games, such as FFXI, we had to worry weather we would be able to get into a group or not at ALL TIMES. You could hardly be a summoner or anything of strange taste without having huge issues with getting a group.

Now, as for gameplay goes. The graphics are not top par, but the gameplay makes up for it. The animations in EQ2 are incredible. You will be surprised when you play this game, because every character is given enough special abilities to put anyone in awe. Again, every character will have his/her spot in the light.

If you enjoy MMORPGS, and I mean real ones, then you will honestly love EQ2, the patron of them all. If you enjoy PvP, you will enjoy EQ2 now, because they have two servers which offer PvP features. (Read up on EQ2 for more details) Remember, one of them offers Station Exchange, a new kind of bidding software available to those involved in EQ2 servers that allow Station Exchange.

Try it, at least. What will it hurt? If you feel that you wont enjoy it, download a demo and give it an attempt, or watch a movie or two from the official site. But trust me on this, you will not become bored with this game. There is always something to be doing and you are always counted!

I have played EQ2. The voice acting is great and it is leaps and bounds above EQ1. I echo what a lot of positive reviews here have said. However, the main purpose of this "review" is to clear up incorrect information in a review by Matt J. Taylor indicating the following:

"No kill/loot stealing! I love this in everquest II once you attack a monster that monster is locked with you. A little lock appears at the top indicating to other players that kill is all yours and other players cannot barge in and kill the monster ( steal your kill and your experience and loot from that monster) This was a big problem in Everquest that fustrated me as a player a lot of people were inconsiderate and stole my experience points ! This is probally one of the biggest reasons why I prefer this game over World of Warcraft, in World of Wacraft no such system like this is in place other players can steal your kill, I speak from my own personal experience."

In regards to the World of Warcraft portion: This is absolutely positively NOT TRUE. WoW has the same system as EQ2. It is called "tagging". Once you attack something IT IS YOURS AND YOURS ALONE just like in EQ2. If another person comes up and starts attacking the same thing as you they will NOT get your experience points and they CANNOT loot the corpse and take the stuff rightfully belonging to you. The only result is they helped you get your kill faster with no gain for them. I have been playing WoW since Beta and I don't know what version of the game Mr. Taylor played because it has always been that way.

I wanted to clear that up for those who might be looking for an MMO to play and are weighing the pros and cons of each.

WoW and EQ2 are both good games, but are very different from one another. Most MMOs offer free trials these days so I would highly suggest trying out a few to see what you like best. (And a few others out there too!)

Have a good one and best of luck finding the right game for you!

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.

Has some improvements over the original EQ, but falls short in the story and plot dept. One of the nice things in EQ 1 was that each race and class were unique from the beginning. Each race started in its own city, which fit that race. Dark elves in an underground city, were no non-evil visitors were allowed. Halflings in their shire-like setting. Wood elves in their treehouses, etc. Each class got its own abilities and spells from the beginning. Each race and class felt unique.

Now, everyone starts in one of two cities, depending on their alignment. Everyone starts as the same class, specializing as they go along. The game has lost a lot of its magic because of that.

And why did SOE have to rehash the EQ1 story? The game is not different enough to warrant a brand new release. Couldn't they come up with a better, different story line?

Also, forget about going solo. First, you gain experience MUCH faster if you are in a group. In addition, you can't really do anything in the dungeons unless you are grouped. Grouping is fine, but sometimes you just want to go around on your own. Also, there are certain things in the game that you cannot do unless you are in a guild. This game is not designed for the lone adventurer.

Another problem: You have to be logged in and in your room if you want to sell your items through the player merchant system. Now, since you can't do anything in your room, you can't play the game while you are selling.

EQ 2 is a simplified version of EQ 1. While it addresses some of EQ 1's problems, it seems to have lost something in the process.

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.

I played the first EQ for 2 years on and off. Eventually it became more of a process then a game and I swore it off, told myself I'd never play another MMORPG again... and then years later a friend introduces me to EQ2. I Believed I'd hate it as much I'd grown to hate its predeccesor, however this was far from the truth. As soon as I started playing I fell in love with it, the amazing amount of detail, the astounding amount of spoken diologue, the actual feeling that I was part of a beautiful and rich world.

If you've got the computer for it, the graphics are nothing short of amazing... unfortunalty if your machine is a bit older the game will look worse then EQ1, full of bland textures and characters that look like featureless plastic figures running around. In a sense, the graphics are one of the best and worst aspects being they can either make the game that much more impressive or make it impossible to play... its clear the developers had the future in mind by setting the bar so high.

Also, the music is very fitting and enjoyable, although a bit boring after long periods of time. The sound effects work well enough, nothing amazing but nothing dramatically bad. If your not fond of the in game soundtrack, there is a player made music pack of varius songs that may fit your liking more appropriately as well if you'll willing to look for it on Sony's offical player boards.

Gameplay is what keeps you coming back to the game. In this games case it may be what pushes you away: The game is by no means short or easy. In one hand there will ALWAYS be something for you to do... on the other this makes the game seem overwhelming at times, especially to people with short amounts of time to play or more casual players. If you don't have alot of free time, this isn't the game for you. Many mortal flaws that plagued the first EQ have been either eliminated or atleast now minimal. Powerleveling is now impossible as you can only buff members of your group, and can only group with people either 6 levels above or below you. This can also be a flaw for people who have higher level friends, being its impossible to do anything meanful with someone higher or lower then 6 levels. There is currently a Mentoring system soon to be incorporated that should help bring that problem to a curb. Also theres diffrent ways to decide loot and looting rights in groups as well as no longer needing to worry about losing corpses when dying. Every piece of equipment now has a level range, meaning it cant be worn on low level characters. Also just about every piece of nice equpipment must be "attuned" meaning once you've attuned it only the character who did can wear it... This will no doubt put a hold on inflation and characters becoming too rich or great items becoming too common.

This game IS very group oriented... soloing is very possible, and a good way to pass the time when seeking a group... however it still isn't as efficient. Many rewarding quests require groups... it is POSSIBLE to get to 50 without grouping... doesn't mean it will be fun or easy though. Personally I feel that If your paying per month to play a videogame online, you might as well play with other people.

So far I've gotten three level 20+ characters and in my experience this game has GREAT low level content... there is no shortage of quests or things to do. I've heard there are glitches and unfinished content currently at higher levels but as the main player base gets higher, the higher content will be improved, so unless you have all the time in the world to level up this shouldn't be a problem.

Many people complain that WoW is better. I won't say either is better, but I will say that WoW is not for me. WoW is a more lighthearted, silly, and cartoony world. EQ2 seems to be more of a serius fantasy setting akin to Lord of the Rings. Their both nice MMORPGs... EQ2 just seems so much more impressive to me. I could go on for pages about this game, however I believe anyone who enjoys fantasy RPGs who has a good bit of free time, a good bit of patience, and enjoys playing online games with others will find a greatly enjoyable experience with EQ2.

I have played Everquest 2 since it's release and I just have to say, you must play it to believe it. The graphics and sound effects/music are just amazing. I invested in a high-end graphics card around for around $400.00 and have made every penny in enjoyment from this game out of that video card. You can adjust the graphics from low to extreme, depending on your video card, and usually you find a good balance between great graphics and fast game play. The graphics and worlds must be seen to be believed.

The development team is constantly changing the game up to keep the game evolving. The customizations you can make on your character are vast, as are the variety of classes you can play. Sony has made changes to make tradeskilling more basic and less confusing for some, so when you get tired from adventuring you can go make yourself or your friends some items such as food/drinks or armor/weapons.

The game is only as time consuming as you want to make it. Even if you play for only 5-10 hours a week you can still have enjoyment and advance your character at a good rate. They have released numerous expansions and dungeons that make the game continuously fun to explore and advance in.

I have played 2 other MMORPG's and this has blown them both away. The crowd is a mature, mid 20's type of players with very rare instances of immature players scattered among the zones (few compared to the other MMORPG's I've played), which is a nice change.

If your computer is capable of playing Everquest 2, I would definitely recommend getting the game and trying it for at least a month.