EverQuest: The Scars of Velious

by Sony

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00004XOXL
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: December 5, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #44,156 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

Once the EverQuest: The Scars of Velious expansion pack has you in its icy grasp, you'll likely be wishing for a long winter just so you can stay indoors and play without feeling guilty. The new snowbound continent gives veterans of the game an enormous new area to explore and exploit, comprised of 16 distinct and challenging zones.

It wouldn't be an EverQuest game if the new world wasn't populated with an array of dangerous beasts, and Velious has more than its fair share. The new enormous creatures like storm giants and ice dragons will have novices scurrying for their lives, and are powerful enough to truly challenge a team of seasoned adventurers. In fact, beginners should definitely spend a lot of time with the original game (including The Ruins of Kunark) before even thinking about entering the unforgiving land of Velious. This world was obviously designed to give powerful high-level characters a serious challenge.

Some long-awaited technology improvements prove that Verant Interactive is devoted to improving the game. The graphics have been cleaned up and are more detailed than those found in previous installments. The interface has been updated to run at all resolutions, meaning no more jarring resolution switches when doing things such as buying equipment. On the gameplay side, there are many in-game factions players can align themselves with, and the inevitable rivalries add an extra level of depth to the fun. There are also plenty of quests to solve, and the best part of EverQuest--its devoted online community--only gets better with time. EverQuest subscribers will definitely want to pick up this expansion. --T. Byrl Baker

Pros:

• Better graphics, with a tightly maintained theme
• Gives high-level characters plenty to do
• Interface enhancements allow for smoother gameplay

Cons:

• Far too tough for beginners
• If you don't like EverQuest, this won't change your mind

EverQuest is a multiplayer online game you play via the Internet. A stable Internet connection is required to play. Sony Online Entertainment charges a small monthly fee for this game, separate from your Internet service provider access charges. The first month of this fee is included in the purchase price of this package. You must provide a valid credit card to register and play. After your first month, you can use your credit card to buy more time.

Product Description

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You only need to have the first Everquest installed, October 16, 2000

By 

Graffe M'yrddin - See all my reviews

This review is from: EverQuest: The Scars of Velious (CD-ROM)

Sharon Mach, in order to play this expansion, you will only need to have the first CD of Everquest installed on your computer. You do not have to have Ruins of Kunark on your computer to play this expansion.

The Ruins of Kunark expansion gave you the ability to adventure on a new continent as well as allowing you to level your character to 60 instead of the previous cap of 50.

The Scars of Velious will be another added continent based on an ice landscape with approximately 16 to 17 zones. The lowest level zone (and the most accessable zone) in Velious has been designed for characters level 30 to 35. There are rumors of a zone that will give level 60 characters a run for their money.

43 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A role-player's dream come true, December 18, 2000

By 

Lisa Shea "medieval swordfighting enthusiast" - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: EverQuest: The Scars of Velious (CD-ROM)

EverQuest is a hugely popular multi-user online role playing game, where players buy the base software and then pay a monthly fee to connect to the server. The server holds the worlds that the players explore 24 hours a day - a world populated by computer-controlled people (NPCs, or non-player characters), by monsters, and by many, many other gamers. It is in many way a role-player's dream come true.

Where Ultima Online uses a top-down, isometric view a la Baldur's Gate, EverQuest goes for the in-your-face style of Doom or Thief. You can rotate through to other views, but the character-point-of-view seems to work best, truly immersing yourself in your world. You begin by choosing a server to play on - each server hosts a set of characters, quests, and NPCs. A given CD can allow up to 8 characters on each server. If you don't like a character, you can immediately delete it and make a new one - a nice feature compared to some of the other gaming systems that make you wait a week or more. On the downside, your new character only starts with a weapon and some food. The other gaming systems start you with a good amount of cash, which is why they don't let you simply cycle through characters in an attempt to build up wealth.

With the characters being polygon-based, they have done a nice job of allowing different facial features on the characters. You can choose from a wide variety of races. The traditional human, elf, dwarf, gnome, halfling, etc. are here, but they throw in a lizard race, ogres, trolls, and intelligent black "erudites". On the downside, only the erudite is of color - everyone else is a "tan" with fixed hair and body. With Ultima Online, you can fully customize your hair color, length, and style, and skin color.

Classes (or professions) are done in the D&D-2 style instead of the new edition. This means that choosing a certain race limits which classes are available to you. The typical classes of paladin, warrior, wizard, ranger, etc. are available. You can choose from being an axe-wielding dwarf, a elven bowman, a human wizard, or many other combinations. You then customize your various statistics - strenght, charisma, intelligence, etc. to finalize your character.

There can only be one character of a given name in each world, which cuts down greatly on confusion between characters. Where some other gaming systems might have ten "Bilbos" running around, some good and some bad, in EverQuest you are the only character of your name in your server.

You start out in a city that promotes your race and profession. You can talk to the guild leader there, get some initial training for free, and maybe hear about a quest or two. You can start talking to other characters that roam the city, finding where the best lairs of monsters are, or perhaps of other interesting goings-on. Once you practice moving about in the city, it's time to head out into the Real World.

The world of EverQuest is *huge*, and as in most of these on line servers, it can literally take hours to walk across the continents. With the frontal view of EverQuest, you walk amongst the trees, past the shrubs, and see the monsters fly and wander right past you, scaled appropriately to size. The small snakes slither underfoot, while bats fly past your head and larger beasts tower over you. This is one area where EverQuest clearly shines - the immersive quality of exploration is fantastic. You have to learn 'sense heading' as you go. Each time you use any skill, be it swimming, fishing, clothes making, direction finding or fighting, you gain experience and knowledge in that skill.

After killing a few of the vermin of the forest, you gain items and money, which you can trade in for better weapons, armors or spells, and on you go. The beauty of the system is that it is open-ended, and that there are always players to interact with, no matter what your schedule is. If you work third shift or are an early riser, there are players there. If you're a night owl or have a few hours free in the afternoon, there those players are. You can leave your character when you're done, and when you return, your character will be exactly as you left it. The world around you, however, will NOT be - it has been growing and changing in the hours you were away! It's an incredibly dynamic system, constantly changing, with real life people interacting with it.

The ability to learn trade skills (like fishing, or cooking, or clothes making) greatly helps you become 'self supportive' and even create things for other characters. The inventory system has its good and bad points. The graphics are great, letting you see large, 3-dimensional images of the swords, backpacks, spell books, and other items. They are easy to keep track of and use, compared to other on line systems. On the downside, you can only carry 8 types of objects other than what you are wearing. If you get a backpack or sack you can increase this amount, but that is a bit limiting in the beginning.

Highly recommended because of the large number of roleplayers that help populate this world, and because of the high quality first-person graphics. Downsides include the integrated player-vs-player combat, where other systems keep pvp in its own 'area' so those who do not wish to fight players do not have to. Another downside is lack of detailed customization of a character's appearance.

40 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love it already., August 28, 2000

By 

"wingbat7" (Sturgis, SD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: EverQuest: The Scars of Velious (CD-ROM)

Well, it is still August and this software comes out in December, but I love it aready. Everquest has become my favorite game...ever.

I have read some of the bad reviews about this game being based on good 3-D graphics that aren't really that good. I disagree. The graphics in this game are wonderful. The different areas of the game look very different. Aside from the basic square design of the 'zones' they usually aren't very alike. The suroundings and NPCs look very different.

My second argument is that game is not BASED ENTIRELY on good graphics. This game is based on the interaction of real people from all around the world. When your character reaches higher levels it gets harder to do battle by yourself. They planned it this way so you would want to group with people and make friends. You don't have to group, but it is much easier to play and is, in my opinion, a lot more fun. This is a role playing game. YOU make it fun. Not the graphics or the sound. YOU. The great graphics sure make it a lot easier, but there is no substitute for good ol' friendship.

This game has so much variety already. Now they come out with the 2nd expansion which has another whole new continent! I don't see how this could be a bad purchase.

Have fun, Happy gaming!