Customer Reviews

Everquest: Shadows Of Luclin With Free Book "Tome of Lore"

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

Pro: Adds new elements to the game for characters above level 50. Horses can now be purchased which basically give faster travel speed or could be used for a symbol of status. More facial customization abilities. New beast lord class and vah shir race.

Cons: Very slow on machines below 1.2 ghz 512 ram, features and viewing distance need to be reduced greatly for optimal performance. Long loading times, very laggy in crowded areas. Very laggy, very lagg, very slow, very choppy. The design of the engine was done very bad, no matter how good your system is, it will get slow the majority of the time. Do not underestimate the power of how bad this game handles memory, I yet to figure out why the game needs at least 512 ram.

conclusion: so what's up with the 5 stars? Nothing will get you to stop playing except for when the server kicks you off or when your boss calls you when you've missed a week of work, that in it self deserves the credit for what we call everquest.

So disappointing, in every way for me. Yes I can play it with 512 MBs DDR RAM, AMD 1.4, nvidia2 mx 400, yada yada. Bleh. I thought SoL was going to make EQ worth playing again, not hardly.
Get a clue VI, graphics are hardly what a RPG is about, and frankly, for the sys reqs to run this POS excuse for an upgrade, the graphics are way lacking. The spell effects at the very least should be way better than they were, they are not. The character models should be more than just buffed boobies and muscles straight out of a wanna-be DC comic book, they are not.
Ah, but you have the new "alternate advancement system" starting at lvl 51. Jeez, how lame does it get. Nevermind I have stuck with your game long enough to have more than one character lvl 51+ (try 2 years for 3 characters total), what about the poor SoBs who don't know any better cause they get there gaiming info at the K-Mart shelves. To think they have to endure months and months of your lvling treadmill to make a unique character built on an advancement system that is even more grueling then lvling was.

For those of you who don't know what everquest is really about, SoL should will slap you in the face with the reality of it eventually: it's all about a gaming company stringing you along, sucking you dry, making promises they never intend to keep, and making things harder and harder for you in-game along the way.
Anything to keep you rreaching for the next lvl, the next spell, the next "alternate advancement" point...and then the next expansion that will make you feel better about the very real time you have wasted trying to get to the "next thing," Only to find out months down the road that it's just another chore.

Sorry Verant, I am totally on to your real game. You suckered me into buying tis PoS expansion, but my account is closed forever...

In response to the previous review on the technical side, I think the reviewer is being much too hard on the game. I have 2 machines that meet the requirements and they run the game well. I also have one computer that is at minimum requirements in some aspects and below in other. The computer has a 400 Mhz Celeron processor (at low side of the scale for running Luclin), a Matrox G400 video card (at low side of the scale for running Luclin), and only 128 Meg of Ram (below requirements for Luclin). The machine runs Luclin just fine with one character model loaded and the graphics are better than before Luclin even for models not loaded and for landscape. Zone loads are a bit slower, but did not seem too excessive most of the time. The only excessive load times were when loading into some of the new zones which can be explained by the massive number of people in the Luclin zones. This should clear up as people begin to move out from the new Vashir city and spread out on Luclin. Personally I think the developers did a fine job.

Graphics from everquest, to kunark, to velious were all pretty much the same... when luclin came out characers were 100% different, not just the head or so, the whole characters looks have gotten more realistic... the details on a monks robe shows even the patches... even a rangers Rygorr Battle Mail armor can be seen down to each mail... each piece of armor is completely different than before, and the designs that made it so worthwhile to seek have made it sometimes worth it. Also, you can change hair color, beard color, eye color...
Cons- the sky hasnt changed... doesnt look like a sky, no clouds! Not like i have the time to just sit and look around anyway.

Spells:
My class alone (and there are about a dozen classes) got at least 5 spells ranging from the teen levels to the level 50's. When casting spells, the character doesnt always use the same arm movements, there are several ways they cast now, one handed or even using two hands.

Alternate Advancement:
Like getting to level 60 is not enough turmoil (IT IS)... There are ways to improve your characters stats permanently, how about running 3 times faster than usual? How about adding 10points to your Dexterity, Strength, Stamina, Wisdom, Intelligence, and Agility, permanently?... and oh theres so much more... for us Paladins (and shadowknights) when we reach the highest of levels, we can summon the Ultimate Steed (horses); not paying obsene amount of coin for one.
Cons - the level 60 characters are coming down from the planes and other super high zones and running over the level 50 zones so they can solo and camp what the lower level guys are trying to get so the can gain in their Alternate Experience points.

Entire Game
I am level 55 and have not even been to half of the original everquest game... and been to about half of kunarks expansion, been to about 1/10 of Veliou's expansion... now luclin... I gave it a test drive and to my surprise... the zones were enormous in size, its like combining several regular zones to make up just one Luclin zone (I can see where horses would come in for the classes that dont have the ability to port or have spells to enhance our speed).
I went through the same patching blues as everyone else did... but knew from earlier expansions not to bother playing till about a week after the expansion came out. I guess im not as addicted as the others were who just "had to get" their "fix" (let me tell ya, there a a LOT of evercracks)

REQUIREMENTS:
I run a 1Ghz AMD/256MB RAM/Radeon 64Mb system... on a 56k modem. After reading the requirements for luclin, I just told myself... "great!, i was gonna buy some more memory anyway". Nor running 768Mb of PCI 133ram I zone faster than anyone i have met (remember im on 56k)... did I mention Im in Japan? I have confidence that the makers of the game will make/keep the game getting better (and getting rid of some bugs).

Catch me on Cazic Thule server as Lamini

Enjoy!

I played EQ with Velious & Kunark expansions on a p3 500mhz with 256mb ram and a voodoo 3500 video card. It performed fine, just kept the particle effects on low. I decided to get a new computer for Luclin when I heard the new requirements. I use an Athlon 1600, 512 DDR ram, Windows XP, and the cheapest Ge Force 2 AGP video card I could find .... I can load all models and hi resolution textures with perfect performance. It takes about 8 seconds to zone in game which is less than on my previous system prior to Luclin. I am also using a 56k dial up modem. No lag to speak of. This is a tremendous step forward in the graphics department for EQ and is well worth the money as long as you have the hardware to run it. The alternate advancement for post 50 characters is also a nice addition. Keep in mind that Verant is likely using the push for new hardware to run the graphics to get everyone ready for their Star Wars Galaxies title that is coming up.

Everquest has put out Shadows of Lucin without warning us(the old playerbase) that major system modification would be required.
NOTE: this also comes right at christmas when most peoples hard earned cash is being spread thin already.
I have heard from some of my fellow players spending up to ($$$)to upgrade things like memory, video cards, and even new p.c.'s just to play at the old level.
As far as I am concerned this was uncalled for just to put in 1 minor feature that was not required for play.
Thos of us who chhose not to upgrade(or cannot afford to) or locked completely out of the game.

This expansion is great. I have a P3 1ghz with 512mb of Ram and a 32mb video card and the game runs fine with all the new character models loaded. While reading some of the other reviews I realized that there are a lot of dumb people out there that didn't give it a chance. One guy actually said it took 3 hours to install. The installation took no more than 10 minutes. Now the first night the patch server was overloaded so it did take a bit to get in to the game that one time. Since the release date the patches have made it run like the old EverQuest. I have also run this on an AMD 1ghz Athlon and had no problems after the 2nd day. Also some people in their reviews have mentioned Ashron's Call which is a joke of a game. Yes it is easier to solo in AC, but you can still do so in EverQuest. I know many people between 50-60 level that have soled there way to the top.

This is a great, great expansion. THat is, if you have a extremely good computer. Mine: 1.7ghz, 512 RDRAM, 64mb Ti500 card(i just got the computer). I have no problems. As soon as I got into the game I noticed extreme differences, in a good way.
I just feel terrible for the people that had not, before buying the game, known you needed a (dollar amount)+ computer to play it.(Thus, most likely, wasting 20 dollars and being unhappy. I'm a terrible writer, sorry for this pointless and unhelpful review.

You figured the guys at Verant would have at least tested this buggy piece of garbage. But, as it is, their motto is "your in our world now." and I suppose the rest of that statement ought to read; "and if you don't like it, then tuff..." Horrible customer service and a condescending, and almost disdainful regard for their "customers", is par for the course for these clowns. I would strongly recommend this tittle for those with strong masochistic tendencies.

I purchased Luclin, but in my opinion its not worth the money... The zones are poorly designed, basically every zone has mobs that gang up on you, which make for zero fun if you prefer to solo as most people do. If you start out as a Vah Shir (cat person), its literally impossible to leave your home land without a teleport due to the fact the adjacent lands are extremely high level.

For whatever reason Verant decided to make Luclin be on another planet. Apparently the game has already become star wars.

Like many others have mentioned, Everquest is a huge time sink for a game. If you play, plan on spending many hours every day to even have a chance to get anywhere in the game. Every single aspect of the game is designed, intentionally, to waste your time... therefore more money for Verant.

The game has been out 3 years now, and is to the point that just about everyone playing is playing with a twinked character (twinked=having high level gear that you normally wouldn't get starting out new) So I'm certain that Verant has tweaked the game to offset the twinking... which means its extremely hard for a non-twinked character to even level.