Everquest II Review

For years the Everquest series has delighted and amazed online gamers as they plug countless hours into the heroes and villains of Norrath. With monikers like Evercrack , Evercash, and Evercamp , it's apparent a strong bond between gamer and game has been formed. Everquest II, therefore, takes on an enormous challenge, creating a new and refreshing world for long time fans and newbies alike to enjoy. Players are thrust into the realm as refugees in a broken world, and new choices must be made to determine from what vantage point you will try to restore the world to its former glory and whose rule will govern it. 

"Everquest II is the subject of years of live market research and customer feedback"

The premise of EQII is a tale of two cities, the good Qeynos and the evil Freeport . You arri ve on the shores of the realm with little identity. Your actions from this point on will determine your path. This starting point is primarily a simple tutorial of the general mechanics of the game. Beginner quests and skills are introduced, as well as important NPC roles such as the banker and the repairing blacksmith. You will eventually become a citizen of one of the major cities. Sony Online Entertainment hosts numerous MMO hits such as Star Wars Galaxies, Planetside, Infantry Online, Everquest and now Everquest II, and is no stranger to marketing them. Right away you'll notice that Everquest II is the subject of years of live market research and customer feedback. Sony has constructed a behemoth of a game environment, entirely geared towards character development a nd team play.

Gameplay: 7

The entire interface of Everquest II pays homage to its predecessor, with minor enhancements. EQ2 is played in widescreen mode by default. The size of the widescreen bars along the top and bottom are customizable, as are almost all the toolbars and notifications inside. Sony's experience in this game market is evident in its consistency, making it both a strength and a weakness. If you like the interface from EQ1, then you will probably like the interface of EQII.

I found the command interface to be highly available, but clunky. I often had to click on bag items or conversation balloons more than once to register the action. I lowered the detail settings and continued to have the same issues. Not having a higher-end machine to test out made it impossible to tell if these quirks go away when played on an ü ber-PC.

"Sony's experience in this game market is evident in its consistency."

Some great features include an active quest tracker which shows your progress on whatever quest you're currently undertaking, optional looking-for-group flags, and the all important /pizza command. I am not making that last one up... Pizza Hut has partnered with Sony to bring piping hot sustenance to your player housing – er... real-life home.

Apart from the familiar interface, you will find some other enhanced features not directly offered by other MMORPGs. Sony Online provides packages of online content that interact with game information. Guilds can have a simple, free website and players get realm-specific information and basic character data for free. Pay features include more advanced character profiles and guild features with exclu$ive content that other character$ may not have ace$$ to. All of these conventions lend themselves to a very strong community of players.

Leveling was not too interactive, as assignment of new abilities is largely dependent on your class and level. I felt more like I was graduating than leveling, becoming something greater with time more than choice. You do, however, choose to layer over your character with items, tradeskills, and subclasses in order to arrive at your own flavor.

Graphics: 8

EQII pushes towards realism. When you push towards realism, you lose the ability to be forgiven for failure to properly mimic certain aspects of the physical world. Don't get me wrong: EQII is beautiful . Understand this: if Han Solo had said “you look strong enough to pull the ears off an elephant ” instead of a gundark, everyone watching would have said “Hey, they have elephants in their part of the ga laxy, too!” and every person would be pulled from the story and back into reality. I found many moments where I was yanked from immersion because the physics of the game just didn't match up. I do expect a degree of attack animations that appear to miss yet damage, and I can suspend my disbelief there. Yet I have a hard time with mismatched footfalls when running and moments where character movement inconsistencies distracted me from totally enjoying the realism of the environment.

There also seemed to be a lack of contrast between creatures and their surroundings. It is often tough to spot foes unless there is a great color contrast between them and their backgrounds. That being said, the surroundings are fairly well designed and thought out. Excellent water effects enhance many areas, and these bodies of water are often teeming with life.

"EQII pushes towards realism"

If you want to play an MMORPG for its looks, then EQII is go od IF y ou have a high e n d system. The requirements are listed at a 1 GHz CPU, 64 Meg DX9 video card, and half a gig of RAM; this i s laughable. To experience the game at a level worthy of your money, a rig boasting twice their specs would be preferred. Regardless, it did play fairly well on a 1.8 GHz AMD XP class CPU with 512 megs of RA M and my trusty 128 meg 9600 Pro. I toned down the texture quality and suffered some level-of-detail management, but ran completely stable. At no time did the game crash or error. It was refreshing to play an MMORPG that did NOT dump me to the desktop. Kudos to the devs!

Sound: 9

Sony has gone to great lengths to secure a quality audio experience. Aside from hardw are surround sound support, EQII boasts the voice talent of Christopher Lee (think: Star Wars bad guy or bane of Gandalf ) and Heather Graham (think: Austin Powers pursuit ). Every audible response from NPCs is colorful and entertaining, driving a player deeper into their EQII-coma. Over 130 hours of voice acting has been recorded for this production, making it quite a project to behold and a precedent that will be hard to match in the future. Ambient sounds are plentiful, fitting with each area you come upon. Music responds strongly to whatever situation you are in, helping players know they are in stages such as combat mode and to be wary of creatures nearby. Sony has outdone themselves, and everyone else, in the audio department.

 

"Sony has outdone themselves, and everyone else, in the audio department."

Multiplayer: 7

I do not remember one time that I experienced connectivity or lag problems, which is essential since EQII is designed for, and dependent on, cooperative play. If you are itching for PvP (player versus player) action, then this is not the game for you. It has monsters and enemies out the wazzu to challenge you and your friends on your path to personal character development, but nothing to offer in the way of unpredictable combat. Do not take this to be a flaw of EQII, it's important to understand that there is much to do, and often you will not be able to do it alone.

"…you can't go Pompeii on another human's medieval mail-plated hide"

Many areas of the game will require your cooperation with other players if you want to make it through in one piece. While many MMORPGs are focusing a large effort on multiplayer skirmishes, this iteration of massive gaming has dedicated itself to a persistent and consistent world. You will find contention among players competing to be the best overall individually or top guild in town. Again, this aspect drives home the focus on community. Even if you can't go Pompeii on another human's medieval mail-plated hide, there is much to be experienced and enjoyed in Norrath. You must ask yourself what kind of multiplayer gamer you really are: PvP or Co-op. If you are not ready to get involved with other human player s, then you really don't need to be paying per month for what would amount to a standard (albeit large ) RPG.

Replay Value: 8

There is much to be done in EQII. The tradeskill system is too vast to cover in detail in this review, suffice it to say there are many options with virtually limitless paths to take. You can learn to experience a little of nearly everything, and will often need to rely on other characters to take your skills to the next level. There are a load of races to choose from, and the classes in Everquest II stage themselves with options as you progress. Each character class has subclasses that you can graduate to. The question "Are you a fighter" becomes "What kind of fighter are you?". With all of the cooperative play and new content being added, characters who reach top levels will not have reached end game. Extra content will likely cost you more money, so players who desire to see all the sights will need to open the pocketbook. The classes are unique enough, however, to warrant another pass through familiar territory just for the new perspective on combat, so your characters can all share in the new content you have purchased.

"What kind of fighter are you?"

Conclusion: 8/10

It is tough to review this game as there really is nothing as ambitiously dedicated to player interaction. If you like RPGs without the fuss of worrying about another human player capping you, Everquest II is a solid option. While there are things that could be improved, it is far superior to many MMORPGs on the market. The environments are beautiful, sound is quality, and community is strongly encouraged. You do not have to be running this game all the time to be enjoying it. There is a tight-knit group of players waiting to discuss finer points of the game, as well as an in-depth look at regions of the realm and their inhabitants (and their loot!). If you have a mid-to-high range computer on your desk, a bit more cash to spend than the average MMORPGer, and a whole lot of time, Everquest II is easy to recommend. If you pick this one up, do not short-change yourself; be a part of the web community. It is a greater part of the game than you probably realize, and will increase your enjoyment when in-game. Good travels!

Further Reading :
EQII enhanced online features: http://stationplayers.station.sony.com/eq2tour.vm?sid=1
What the heck is a Gundark? http://www.theforce.net/swtc/zoology/gundark.html

Pros:
• Interdependent tradeskill system
• Huge online community
• Free or pay web tools for guild management and character data viewing
• Excellent environment audio and voice acting

Cons:
• Expensive to purchase ALL the bells and whistles of the web content
• High system requirements to run at a level worthy of a game you pay to play