Customer Reviews

Everquest II The Shadow Odyssey

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First of all, the reviewer who is telling you to not waste your money just because of the 'fluff' you can buy with Station Cash obviously didn't play the game. Sony is a company whose entire purpose in life is to make money. Who cares if they sell items to people who have too much money and not enough sense? And seriously, they are worthless items, like illusions for your pets and experience potions. If you want to spend $10 for a two hour potion that increases your experience gain for killing monsters by 50% be my guest. And it's not forced on you like the Legends of Norrath card game, which is broadcasted over every channel at least twice a week...anyway...

The game itself has many great features. Yes there is only one new outside zone, but there are also 30+ dungeons and instances including new tradeskill instances!! The gear you can get from the new instances is really nice and a great way to get started if you want to raid. The new outside zone also gives a ton of quests so if you're low on your AA's , you can pick up quite a few from this zone.

With the tradeskill instances, you can go with a group or by yourself. You have to make 108 combines (or items) at the end of which you get faction, coin, tradeskill xp, recipe books, and an array of items that you can equip which will help with crafting. You also get tokens for every daily and weekly quest you complete that you can use to purchase additional items from a faction vendor.

The daily `shard' instances are also a really great feature. Those of you who may have played World of Warcraft will find it reminiscent of the daily heroic instances for badges, except in this case you can do 9+ instances per day rather than just one heroic. The shards work much the same as badges, as you can use the shards to purchase gear. One of the other great things about the tradeskill instances mentioned above is the recipe books that you can loot give you recipes to craft shard gear. If a player purchases the gear directly from the vendor, they have to spend extra shards. For instance if a pair boots normally takes 4 shards for a player to craft, the vendor will charge you 5. So any friends or guild mates that want the gear but don't want to spend the extra shards at the vendor can have you craft the gear for them.

Another great item that comes with this game is a free mount. It's probably not the most attractive mount, or even the fastest you can buy, but again, it's free! It 'level's' up with you, so if you start a new character, once you get to level 20 you can start riding it. It starts out pretty slow (20% run speed) but it does get faster, and it's better than scraping together 3 platinum to buy a horse that's only 12% faster, and way better than running along at a 0% run speed! Also, with the new Shadow AA tree, you can spend 5 Achievement Points and get an extra 10% run speed.

The only complaint I do have with this expansion (and it's very small) is that, unlike previous expansions, Sony did not tack on an extra 90 days toward your account age, which affects veteran rewards. But I think the perks that you do get more than make up for that.

All in all, I think it's a great expansion and I'm glad I bought it. If you're a veteran EQ2 player or someone who is thinking about joining up, I would absolutely recommend this expansion.

This game is a must-have for those who love online roleplaying games. Everquest II The Shadow Odyssey includes ALL the previous expansions and the original game; that's a deal that can't be beat!

The graphics are amazing when played on a high end computer, but it is capable of being lowered for those using an older PC (I have been playing it on a laptop).

There is tons of races and classes to choose from so there is something for everyone to enjoy. It is easy enough to play for inexperienced or casual gamers to enjoy...but has enough content and higher end game play that it is great for hardcore gamers too.

An all around wonderful game.

This is a huge product for the price when you consider you are getting 5 expansion packs included in this purchase. Consider that fact when other newer online games either only have one or none for similar or more cost. If you've never played Everquest 2 now is a great time to join in and experience its wonders. Beautiful landscapes, nice background music, a vast variety of lands to visit such as lush scenic green hills, deserts, underwater cities, civilizations in the sky, several floating asteroids in the depths of outter space (Bonemare), tunnels, caves, crystal caverns, huge haunted castles, haunted cities, etc. As for the variety of beasts you will find many to discover ranging from weird to very strange and bizzare; unlike other games that seem to limit their challenges to humanoid based creatures. And when it comes to battling giant beasts EQ 2 does it BIG. Their giants are really big as well as some of their epic creatures.
There are so many things to enjoy in this game. If you are one who appreciates a cool looking character with impressive armor then EQ2 is the place to be. The vast array of armor in this game is mind boggling and fantastic with plate armor really looking like metal. All the other materials are just as impressive such as leather, chain, and cloth armor. Their armor is not only realisstic looking but can also be very flashy with impressive designs, patterns, and many colors.

Serious gameplayers typically like to use some form of voice communiction (voice chat) while playing to coordinate their battles. Everquest 2 really comes through by providing a FREE chat communication feature that allows players to literally talk to one another while playing (provided your pc has a microphone and speaker). This is so convenient for those who have had to deal with figuring out how to use 3rd party chat products. Its easy to use and built right into the game interface.

Before you buy this game make sure your PC is up to the challenge. Check the system requirements and see where you stand. The cost of PC RAM is rather low cost these days so you should consider adding more if you need it. I think the recommended RAM is 1 gigs but most serioius players I know have at least 2 gigs. You will also need a good graphics card, one that at least supports Direct X 9 and has at leaat 256 megs of ram.

You may want to also check out some actual gameplay videos of Everquest 2 on YouTube. I would recommend seeing videos made by user name zonker61.

My husband & I started out playing EQ 1 when it first came out & I could not imagine myself going to another game. Then EQ 2 came out, so we decided to give it a go. Now I can not imagine ever going back to EQ 1 nor ever leaving EQ 2. The graphics, zones, quests, weapons, drops, & much more is so much more in this game. You meet people from all over the world & usually become friends rather quickly. It is a cheap escape from the normal life & it allows you, for a few hours, to become someone that does not have the troubles of the real life daily troubles. With todays world, being in the shape it is in, this is just a very nice escape. So, if you want to meet new people, go on new adventures, & just give yourself a break from real life, please try this game. It is worth it.

I had played the game in 2007 and decided to purchase the expansion and catch up with some old friends. I am glad I went back, the game is dynamic and I enjoy it even more than I did in 2007 when I stopped playing.

Everquest has such a wide variety of things to do that it accommodates a very wide range of play styles. I like to think of Everquest as WOW for grownups.

I love this game and spend far too much time playing it. There is a huge amount of content, many lands to explore, a huge number of things to do. The fantasy artwork is pleasant, and I enjoy the selection of races. Join a heavily used server, and you'll find plenty of people to join up with who like what you do, whether that's rp, or informal grouping, or hardcore raiding, or even just playing by yourself in a public setting.

Going into the negatives, as you get into the high end content, it requires an investment in time I wasn't interested in if you want your toon to be competitive with others (of course for those who like challenge and rewards for challenge this will be an advantage). Pulling together large groups for raid content at the high levels is difficult because the design often requires specific classes of character for it to work. But hey, if you don't care for that, the game is huge and no one forces to play at any particular level, you can do what you enjoy. There are even guilds who make a policy of stopping their characters from increasing in power so they can enjoy older content together.

This is a worthy expansion to the Everquest 2 universe. The new areas and perks like raising the Achievement Point cap, the daily dungeon raids, the free mounts are really nice.

I particularly appreciate that they are doing something to the raids to make them interactive. I got tired of raiding, all it was before was just a large group of people button mashing for shinies. Now you have things to coordinate, puzzles to piece together and other things that change each time you go in to a raid or new group instance.

And the group instances or mini raids give almost as good loot as the huge raids, so for those (like me) who get bored with the huge raids you can still get some nice bright and shiny things.

And they continue to put all previous content and expansion packs in the newest one, so if you haven't played at all, or for awhile, you get all caught up with everything for a low price.

You get the base game and all xpacs. Its a steal for this Legendary game. I let the SOE haters keep me away far too long. If you see something you think innovative in WOW or LOTRO chances are its been in this game all along.

R3TZJZA4DYS3J5The person who said EQ2 had a crappy interface doesn't realize - unlike WOW, you can CUSTOMIZE your interface. Not only can you download pre-made customized interfaces (from [...]) but you can make your own, save them, and then load them on every character you make from then on. Or you can make as many customized interfaces as you want depending on character class, and load them on the appropriate characters. I've known people who have different interfaces saved for Raids, Groups, and Solo, and they simply load the interfaces that they've made themselves depending on what they're doing. It is VERY easy to do; it doesn't take a PhD to figure out how to do it.

WOW is for children, with its non-customizable (and extremely limited) interface; EQ2 is for adults, with its flexible and powerful interface capabilities.

I've tried other MMORPGs many times in the last three years, and each time have felt extremely disappointed. I kept comparing them to EQ2, and it just consistently fell flat. Not just graphics (the graphics in WOW, for instance, look incredibly childish and immature, overly bright and colorful, like a little kid who overdid the crayons) but playability. None were as fun, had as much variety, or were as well-planned and well thought out as EQ2.

The same person said the newbie areas suck; what newbie areas was he in? Neriak is awesome; the other newbie areas are also a lot of fun. It sounds like he may have actually skipped the newbie areas (left the islands of Qeynos or Freeport before he did those quests) and then headed back to Freeport or Qeynos to try to do the newbie areas there. In which case, he's right; those are really NOT designed for level 1 characters, and I don't think they're as fun to do as the islands.

I have never been bored of EQ2, even after five years of playing. They have special events going on almost all the time; the monthly city festivals, the monthly Moonlight events, and holidays throughout the year. There are rarely NOT any special events going on, which can keep you busy trying to keep up with them, in fact.

Tradeskilling is also a lot of fun. When EQ2 first came out it was complicated and cumbersome; they've streamlined it so that it's actually fun to do now. Almost every holiday has special event crafting items you can make as well; most of the items you can continue to craft throughout the year, but the items used to create them are only available for harvesting during the holiday event.

One of the most enjoyable features of EQ2 is the Appearance slots a character has. Once you hit level 20, you can put different gear in the same slots you have for your standard armor, but they're for your appearance. This allows you to wear armor that is great for your stats (but may look mismatched together or simply be very ugly) and then have something else in your appearance slots that make you look the way you want to look. This customizes the feel of characters throughout EQ2, allowing for more roleplay options and more variety in the characters you will meet in your journey on that world. That person wearing the pink robe over there and apparently carrying a greatstaff? It may be a Shadowknight wearing platemail and carrying a two-handed sword! The options are endless and often highly amusing.

And then there are the shinies, the collection quests that allow you to gain additional (usually no-trade) armor or house items in the game. Shinies are addictive, and often people are highly competitive for them! They are a lot of fun to gather and collect, and rares can sell for incredibly high amounts on the broker.

EQ2 is the best MMO RPG out there; I've tried many, but always come back to EQ2. It isn't really designed for children, however, or people who want an easy out for things. If you want to be spoon-fed and not have any options for customizing, or if you want a game that has you "grind" your way to the top instead of playing for content and doing quests, by all means, choose a different RPG. EQ2 allows you to customize almost everything in the game, allowing you to have the experience YOU want to have.