Customer Reviews

EverQuest Atlas

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(29)

 

 

The Maps of Myrist is a colorful addition and is worth the buy for a true collector. Despite all the nay-saying reviews I read here at Amazon.com I purchased this book anyway and was pleasantly surprised to find the book to be of much better quality than I expected.

First of all, the book was a lot smaller in size than I had previously anticipated. I was expecting it to be the size of a large portfolio, but instead it turned out to be a much more compact size. This is incredibly convenient as it doesn't take up too much room of my already limited desk space. In addition to that, the book is spiral bound (as you can see from the picture), which helps to keep the pages open when you need a constant reference.

Now lets get down to the nitty gritty. The maps are arranged entirely in alphabetical order (except the Planes of Power, which is a seperate section in the back, which I will talk about in a minute). So far this has made the maps easy to locate as long as you know the name of the zone in which you are seaching for. Some people feel it would have been better if the maps had been grouped together by region, however nifty zone-connection maps in the back of the book give you a good indication of how all the maps connect together. With the maps alphabeticallized, you will not need to constantly refer to a table of content to see which order the maps are in.

Each map is hand drawn in a 3D isometric fashion, which gives them a very nice appearance that you won't find on any online reference. Each map is marked with points of interest (for the most part) and zone exits. Each section has some useful information, like Bestiary (or example monsters for zones with huge monster lists), Dangers, Benefits, Background (my personal favorite) and Notable NPCs. Each story opens up a whole new dimension to these places that have been reduced to nothing more than hunting grounds for most players.

So with all the praise, what are the downsides? Well, for starters, the Atlas is not the answer-all cheat guide that tells you the spawn locations for the hardcore campers. The guide is generally a book of lore that still tries to capture some of the mystery of the game. If you swear by the /loc command, than you will sorely be disappointed as this game does not have grids over the map. Also, the maps are generally vague in markings. You will not have a marker for every point of interest. In addition to that, not every zone has a complete list of monsters. You won't find monster spawn points or an references to NPCs on the map. In short, this map will severely disappoint any hardcore EQ junky that heavily depends on online guides to even play this game. This atlas was more geared towards the adventurer who likes to have a little mystery and yet know enough about their surroundings to appreciate them and to not get lost. Also the book is a good reference of what zones you should be in at what level. Lastly, the maps for the new Planes of Power are non existant, which is unfortunate.

Unfortunately, the book does have some errors. I've noticed some missing details or some wrongly place details in some locations, as well as the famous Dreadlands level typo (the book lists the level range as 1-10 which is far from the truth).

All in all I think this book is excellent addition for people who like to explorer, for people who like lore and for new players. Hardcore gamers should steer clear of this book.

This book had the potential to be a "must have" on every avid EQ player's desk, but it falls painfully short. So short, in fact, that as a map resource, it is horribly inferior to most maps available on the internet. As a source of practical zone information, it is completely useless, in some cases (as have been mentioned in other reviews) the information is simply incorrect. As a bit of light reading including some EQ lore minutiae that may have been heretofore unknown, it might actually succeed. I can't tell, however, since I really don't care.
Things that are not included that should be, in my opinion:
The positions of Plane of Knowledge books.
A grid for finding locations.
Names for prominent map locations.
Descriptions and possibly level ranges for various monsters. found in the zone and information on where they can be found
Faction information in a more specific sense.

Almost all of these things can be found on maps provided by many of the various EQ cartography sites.

If you want hand drawn maps with colorful commentary about the various zone, but not much else, maybe this book is for you. If you want a legitimate EQ resource, look elsewhere.

One more thing, the book that I purchased (brand new) was missing roughly 30 pages. Zones starting with the letters "E", "F" and "G" had vanished from inside the shrinkwrap mysteriously.

If you want "The EQ Story Book", this is your product. However, very few people purchase this for the stories. People purchase this for excellent, detailed maps and they do not exist.

There is nothing in this book that cannot be pulled from a website... Owners of the other Sony authorized guides were probably aware this would be the problem.

This material is sold as if it contains in-depth information to help people find secrets in game, but like all other materials Sony has released on EQ, it is full of "roleplay" speak and void of detailed substance.

If you are an avid EQ collector then buy the book. However, if you play the game, this book is worthless to you. There are no grid lines and North is not at the top. SOE could have done so much with this, but as usual they didn't even go half way.

If you just have to spend the money, donate it to the premier map site. At least there it will do some good.

The idea of an atlas, should be a fairly simple concept. Unfortunately what I ended up buying was quite frankly an art catalog. Now I'm sure on some obsene level someone feels this is a real atlas, but for the majority of us it isn't. Maps are inaccurate and for the most part artist's renditions. Information on the zones is limited mostly to lore. Monster lists are often lacking in terms of what you might actually find. There is literally no quest information, or race information on who controls the area. NPC's often seem to be included as viable targets throwing the suggested level scale way off. Way off? Let me re-phrase... the suggested level for almost every zone is downright wrong! For instance one of the most common areas in the game, Qeynos Hills has a suggested fighting level between 1 and 50 (page 362). 50! I'd love to meet the poor sop who managed to make 20 in Qeynos hills, let alone 50. Furthermore another area called The Dreadlands has a suggested level of 1-10. Honestly I'm just appalled at the blatant misinformation here. I can't remember the last time I felt more... Case and point... you want art and collectors memorblia buy it, you want something you can use? Visit a website. Good luck and happy hunting.

The Atlas offers some background and nice maps. It is however outdated. List level of mobs in Innothule Swamp as 1-26. The Black Ravagers were added in May of this year and are level 55.

No Planes of Power Maps. If this was the case, why not release it ahead of Planes of Power. Not even the mapes of the Plane of Tran. or Plane of Knowledge.

No Port locations to the Planes are listed, or even the port stones to Jaggged Pine from Surefall Glade or Black.

I spent the money to get a copy of the SoE EQ Atlas. It arrived last night. (I have not checked the bonuses on the CD yet, but the labelling made it look very promotional.) Here are my views on it.

Positive Points:
1. It has nice 3d colored pictures of each zone. The pictures show the positions of the entrances and exits.
2. Nice general write up on the zones including history.
3. General Identification of a few mobs in each zone.
4. Some indication of the Zone level Mobs.

Negative Points

1. The pictures/maps have no co ordinates on them.
2. The pictures/maps are to small to be useful in normal navigation. They might be useful in extreme cases for navigationn. But without coordinates or indication of north, I am not sure how useful.
3. No mob/key locations are showm on the few picture/maps, I checked.
4. No information concerning levels of identified mobs.
5. Nothing but very general information on mob drops.

Conclusions

It is no replacement for Eq Atlas Maps and Allakhazam. The exception would be the places where EQ Atlas has not done maps then a poor map is better than no map. In fact, there is less information about the zones than in the Prima guides.

I would call it a coffe-table book except that for the size. It is somewhere in the 4 x 6 or 5x7 range.

Nice, somewhat informative. Well drawn maps, but not really helpful to someone like a newbie who's lost and /shouting for directions. The average novice would find it useless I think. Yea sure it shows landmarks, that's if the person can find those even. Location grids are by far easier to navigate with and its very easy to get lost in allot of zones and not be able to see landmarks that could be familiar. I agree with "This one Guy", get a REAL map. Only good as a collectors item you ask me. Get better maps online.

The only thing good about this is the humours errors. They mis level almost every map. the maps are so useless it's comic. we've been using the web and our own scrachpads of notes to keep track of things for years, and done a better job. this book is a horrible joke.

Symphonic

The maps are worse than the one that came in the box in terms of detail--as in what is where, and no mob spots are shown. The desriptions are like a travel guide--fluff and worthless. The Mob levels are completely off. I am not making this up, the Dreadlands lists, right from page 97, Monster Level: 1-10. In truth, the monsters in that area are in the 35-45 range. Go there hunting as the Atlas tells you and you will be doing corpse runs a lot.

Simply put, this does not merely contain 'no worthwhile information', the information it contains is bad and will cost you time and lives.

Take [money], throw it in the street--you will be better off.