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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Vast Improvement, November 26, 2007
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
This review is from: Everquest II: Rise Of Kunark (Video Game)
I first played EQ2 at release, almost three years ago now. The game was beautiful, no doubt, but lacked the fun factor that kept me involved in the original EQ for over two years. I gave up on the game after three months, and only stayed with it that long due to some friends I had made in the game and didn't want to just walk away from. At that time, the crafting was horrible, the questing overly drawn out (I recall gathering 100 each of wood and metal for a very early stage in a very long questline), and grouping was absolutely necessary to advance.
After a recent free-trial weekend, I decided to buy RoK and give EQ2 another shot. I found a much improved questing path in the new area (the Sarnak). There's nothing earthshattering in the mechanics - go there, kill that, come back for your reward that is the staple of rpg's - but the implementation shows a lot of effort was put into increasing the action and reducing the running from place to place that plagued the game at release. I have not gone back and levelled a character in the original game areas, so I will not speak to any improvements that may (or may not) have been made there, but I would hope there has been improvement in the "old" areas as well.
The crafting system was also, in my opinion, greatly improved. At release, the crafting system was in-depth and engrossing, but also incredibly frustrating. Originally, you crafted preliminary components from harvested materials, then turned the preliminary components into final products. Those final products frequently (at higher levels) required the crafter to acquire preliminary components that the crafter would need to rely on other crafters in other skill trees to provide. Finding the items you needed to advance required turning to brokers, either slowing the process, or making it hopelessly expensive to advance your crafting skills. Now, the crafter is able to harvest all of the necessary components to create a final product. The "action/reaction" part of the crafting is still in place. Crafting failures are still a possibility, but no longer are you destroying carefully crafted components in the process (only raw materials), and they occur far less frequently (greatly reducing the frustration level).
The most noticable difference is the ability to advance. It took me three months to level a character to 30 at release, and a few weeks in the current expansion. It is now possible to go out and accomplish a quest solo, and likely to do a great deal of levelling that way. This was just not possible at launch. It happens occassionally that I don't have time to form a group to go questing, but I still want to accomplish something in a limited amount of time. Being able to do so is a welcome addition to the game.
The one potential drawback has to do with grouping. At this point, the majority of players are max level, and a lot of the newbie areas are less populated. It may be tough to find a group to do the quests that require a full group. However, it's usually fairly easy to find one or two people to group with, and most of the content can easily be managed by two or three players.
It's clear to see the impact that other mmorpg's have had on EQ2 by the changes made since launch. EQ2 has clearly made strides to broaden its appeal, and from what I've seen of it there's quite a bit to appeal to both the casual solo player or the hard-core, raid-oriented player.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another great expansion!, November 21, 2007
Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars
This review is from: Everquest II: Rise Of Kunark (Video Game)
A fantastic follow-up to Echoes of Faydwer (EoF). Now you can explore the long awaited continent of Kunark, straight from EQ1 lore. I was so excited with this announcement that I participated in the beta, though purposely didn't explore very deeply until after release when I had the ability to have more friends along for the journey.
The newbie area is, like Darklight Woods in EoF, quite well thought-out and wonderfully progressive and more expansive than it first appears (and getting from one area to the next isn't always completely apparent). The Sarnaks are a glorious race, almost as large as the tallest trolls (and better looking that the Iksar, if you ask me).
However, this expansion is (purposely) missing mid-level content. So once you hit level 65 again, you can return to Kunark through the Kylong Plains (a short boat ride from the Commonlands or from Antonica) to see what this new continent REALLY has to offer. The quests there, once again, are wonderfully thought out and easily soloable through the mid-70s, at least. The areas are jam-packed with plenty of new creatures (many of old) to make exploration exciting. Fans of the old Dreadlands zone in EQ1 will recognize many landmarks and monsters roaming around... however, you may not want to step foot inside Karnor's Castle (not to mention a few other places) without a fairly sturdy group. The zones I've explored thus far are HUGE - many cover multiple mapping windows and, some of the ones that don't, SHOULD be simply because of their size. Luckily, there are also "griffins" or other faster transports in many of the zones and you CAN jump off of them (I'll leave that spoiler OUT of this review, though).
This expansion also raises the level cap to 80 (you need Echoes of Faydwer to make it to level 70, though) and raises veteran rewards to four years, now. It also adds a "character development" pane to your achievement windows (press "L") which makes it easy to not only select which traits you want, but see what you're going to get in the future as you level-up. The map pane is also zoom'able, now (and quite slick if you ask me); folks using UI enhancements like EQ2Maps will want to stay on top of patches for a while, though. They've also added adaptive combat music, though I've yet to turn mine back on (ie. the music changes depending on both the pace of the fight and "how well" you're doing). Additionally, things such as the persona window have nicely changed along with a few other things that I'd not want to spoil for anyone.
Overall, SOE has shown that they can release exciting and worthwhile content with two consecutive hits. My only real critique is the lack of the mid-level content, though they've claimed to have balanced out the levels between 20 and 80, now (and certainly leveling through 70 to 71 was NOT difficult, even running solo and without adventure vitality (ie. experience bonus)). At this rate, I can hardly wait to see Velious in some future release! (*crosses fingers*)
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A definite must have for the EQ2 lover!, November 13, 2007
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
This review is from: Everquest II: Rise Of Kunark (Video Game)
I was one of the beta testers on this and I have to say it's a great addition to the EQ2 universe. The low level quests all follow a logical progression and many of them can be done at the same time. The huge world that contains multiple zones without zone boundaries makes for seamless gameplay. The high level area as well is expansive and, except for the uissue of having to sail to the other areas of the world to progress from level 20 something to level 60 something and then come back, a logical place to go once the first part of the expansion is completed. The Sarnak "safe fall" racial ability that absorbs 25% of falling damage is wonderful and you can't fall to your death from a griffin because jumping off is not allowed. The means for acquiring this ability is found right before you see your first tower, and so once again things progress logically. I look forward to exploring the high level area more and pre-ordered this as soon as the opportunity presented itself.
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