Customer Reviews

Everquest II: Desert of Flames

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I play EQ2 and want to counter some of the lies by previous reviewers.

You can sell while offline, you don't need to be logged into the game to sell. If you stay logged in then people can come to you and not pay the 20% broker fee, giving those merchants an advantage in big transactions. But the person stating that you MUST stay logged in is 100% wrong.

I pay the basic fee and get more than four characters. If you pay the extra fee you do get more characters but you also get many features like being able to talk with guildies while you're not logged in and free access to the mini-expansions. The statement that you only get 4 characters is 100% wrong.

At no time in this game has SOE charged $10 for content. The basic subscription covers a lot of updates, all received for free. As of this writing, Live Update 18 has been in place for a while. SOE occasionally introduces "mini-expansions" called Adventure Packs that they charge a few bucks for, or that you get for free if you subscribe to the bigger plan (see above). If I remember right, one Adv Pack was $5 and the other was $7. Whether they're worth the price is a matter of opinion. The statement that you must pay extra for updates is 100% wrong.

Zone times really depend on your PC. It's not a seemless process like it is in many games, by the same token you always have somewhere to run to for safety. Zoning for me generally takes 15 seconds for a smaller zone, 30 seconds for a larger one. Only someone with a very slow PC will see the 1-2 minutes the original poster stated and if you have that slow a PC, you really won't enjoy raid level content until you upgrade.

The game can be played solo but it will take you quite a while to reach the level cap if you do. The best way is a mix of solo and grouping. Some classes solo better than others (caster and hybrid fighter classes mostly) and some are more designed for grouping (pure fighter and healers mostly). There's a variety of styles supported but soloing to 60 will take longer than some other games do. A good group can really get you moving and I don't have much problem getting groups unless I'm in during a light population time.

I've been playing EQ2 since launch. I bought the expansion the day of release. I also pay the extra fees, so I get the extra character slots, for a total of 10. A regular subcription gives players 6 slots. Everything Smash said in his review, entitled Countering Lies, is 100% true. I'm not sure what information the other reviewers are basing their reviews on, but they're not only wrong, but lying. Anyone who did a little research on the SOE website, would see for themselves. Don't believe the lies.

EQ2 is one of the more difficult mmorpgs to master, but is also pretty easy to play. If you want to master advanced EQ2 tactics, you can, but you don't have to.

EQ2 has a great community. The people there are generally more friendly than in any other mmorpg I have played (I've played almost all of them). I think this is exactly because it is more challenging to master than other games.

The bottom two reviews in this thread are ridiculous, just plain wrong. For example, Guild Wars doesn't charge a monthly fee - I love some aspects of GW by the way but you do get what you pay for. You don't have to be online to sell in EQ2. Zones are not a big deal. Expansion packs are not like paying for the two zones listed - they are like paying for two new zones that didn't exist before, something WoW players have not had the chance to experience.. It's like buying a D&D module. Since WoW doesn't ever add much to the game, there really isn't anything to compare it to there.

After reading reviews posted here for this game, I wanted to give my opinion. There is definately a feeling of competition between EQ players and WoW players, and I think the negative reviews here are either from WoW players trying to discredit EQ2 or just uninformed people.
The only problem with EQ2 is that there is a lot of stuff that there seems to be no documentation for. However, the internet is full of sites with tons of info for anyone who takes the time to look for it. Also, any time you have a question you can simply ask in game on the "out of character" chat channel and you'll get an answer. The players are pretty good about that. I haven't played any other MMORPs except the original Everquest and I like this one WAY better. There's a lot less camping here and the graphics are the best I've ever seen in a game. Enough quests to keep you busy no matter what your level is or how much time you spend playing. The next update is due in a couple days and it will take the tedium out of tradeskilling up to level 50. I honestly couldn't recommend this game higher and haven't regretted buying it for a moment.

I've played to level 60 conjuror and enjoy the game. It really seems to me that the one star posters are the same people who rant on the EQ 2 boards about how great World of Warcraft is or how they hate SOE..etc.

Honestly the game is versatile and fun. If you want to wait for 4 hours to get a creature then you could. Or you could run around having fun and adventuring. Games are what you make them for the most part and EQ 2 has great promise.

First of all, I'm impressed with all the WOW loyalists that seem to want to review/bash this product, obviously having most likely barely even played the trial version of the game, if they even bothered to go that far (meaning that they've never made it in to this part of the world to see/explore this content).

For the most part, it's true that this content is largely aimed at the 40+ characters. It's the same segment of the world that the famed "Carpet Quests" (Aka CQ1 through CQ5) are found and completed. And no, for such a valuable item, it's not going to be soloable, unfortunately (and those types of items are flagged "no trade").

However, to date, this is some of the most impressive content in the game (pre-KoS). I don't want to spoil all the surprises, but in this part of the world you'll find climbable walls, carpet transportation (instead of griffins), and an beautiful and interactive environment that will surely astound you -- just watch out for the dust storms. If you long for the lands like the "Deserts of Ro" again, this is a must-have... plenty of caiman, orc, genie, spectre, desert madman and spiders - just to name a few. Like most of the expansions, you don't necessarily need them in order to get some of the items from the area... but you'll need it in order to get to those items first-hand.

For reference (addressing a previous post): I'm currently running EQ2 running in moderate-to-high detail on a 3GHz box with 1GB of RAM and a 256MB ATI Radeon 9800 Pro at 1920x1024 (32bpp) on a 20 inch wide screen flat panel... and it's simply a gorgeous game. My zone times are still typically in the 10-15 second range, if not less... occassionally (mostly busy city zones), I may have a long zone time (30s to 1m), but it's a pretty rare. I've been told that simply bumping RAM to 2GB really helps in that regard, as well. For the time I purchased it (around game launch), that was quite-a-bit of machine... the likes of which only really required by games such as Doom III or Far Cry -- these days my machine's no longer really "high end" anymore.

The game has changed a LOT since the initial release.

A few changes to note:
it is easier to solo now than it was a while back. You CAN solo all the way to level cap. Just avoid the mobs made for group combat.

The game is easier. Perhaps too streamlined compared to old EQ. You don't get the same feeling of accomplishment and discovery as you did in EQ1.

A few spells have been removed from some of the classes and placed into others for balancing.

The begining tutorials could use some more involvement.

All in all, Fun but still far from perfect and definatly worth a look. Try it before you buy all the expansions.

DoF is definately a top notch expansion to EQ II. It's has good and bad parts too as stated previously though. It is a zone for 40th plus characters (but not just expansion for hard core gamers as previously stated) and I am not going to say that it is easy to get there but me and my wife took awhile to get our characters above that level...but I will say if you want faster xp to level grab a partner....most ppl who complain about slow xp are soloing ALL the time...why did you buy a MULTIPLAYER game then if you want to solo....lol...The elements of DoF are definately worth getting to 40th though....beautiful graphics and sounds....desert that has sand blowing....music is beautiful too..overall added up 60th level....more quests, and even more beautifully designed creatures.

Added lots of nice new content to the game. Got stale for me after awhile, the whole EQ2 thing, not just this expansion. I got really peeved at their expansion every couple months, plus Bonus packs, plus this plus that..... You pay a monthly fee already, yet they drain your wallet even more for add ons every other month or so.....

EQ2 is a great game. But, it has a new expansion called Rise of Kunark, which comes with all the previous expansions, adventure packs and the original game (ALL IN ONE). Therefore, don't waste your money on this old expansion, instead only buy the RoK expansion.

What is said by all the reviewers here are true. The first couple of reviews are true as well. That was the state of the game 4 years ago. Now the game has changed a lot and it has got better and better over the years. Now, I consider it to be the best MMORPG in the market today.

Another thing, as some reviewers has mentioned, it is not a hard core game. It is a very casual game. You can get from level 1 to 80 (max) in just a couple of weeks. And, you can solo all the way from level 1 to 80 if you want.