Everquest II, one week impressions

Vinda-Lou · Post by **Vinda-Lou** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 1:09 pm

I think Gamespot underrates many games to gain "respect." If they are viewed as tough, then a game is all the more better when it gets a higher score. Gamespot is like the stuck up girl who won't talk to you, so you almost feel the need to get her to like you. I for one avoid girls like that, and I avoid Gamespot for the most part.

Vinda-Lou · Post by **Vinda-Lou** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 1:10 pm

Oh, anyone pick up the strategy guide for EQII? Is it worth it for at least good maps and class descriptions? I felt that the manual was not as elaborate as I had hoped.

Lockdown · Post by **Lockdown** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 1:10 pm

hepcat wrote:Gamespot review in. I'm more than a little surprised that it got a 7.8. even though i got a little frustrated the other night, i still honestly believed it would at least break 8!

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/everquest2/review.html

UPDATE: jeez, they gave vampire a 7.7 when the majority of reviews so far are in the 8 to 9 range. someone must be cranky at gamespot this week.

Just for shits and giggles... Any prediction on the WoW review score from Gamespot ?

I will say 9.0.

LD

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 2:31 pm

That GameSpot review just pisses me off. If you actually read it, it's by and large a very positive review with no reason why the game must arbitrarily be given a mediocre score like that. And yes, I know by GameSpot's scale a 7.8 is "good" but by every other review site in the world 7.8 is "just OK."

If WoW gets a better score, especially when they say EQ2 only marginally pushes the genre forward, then I'm going to go f-ing ballistic.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 2:35 pm

YellowKing wrote:That GameSpot review just pisses me off. If you actually read it, it's by and large a very positive review with no reason why the game must arbitrarily be given a mediocre score like that. And yes, I know by GameSpot's scale a 7.8 is "good" but by every other review site in the world 7.8 is "just OK."

If WoW gets a better score, especially when they say EQ2 only marginally pushes the genre forward, then I'm going to go f-ing ballistic.

i particularly like the lengthy discussion on the fact there's never a lack of quests or things to do. guess that's what makes a game mediocre.

EDIT: by the way, here's to WoW getting an 8.0...i wanna see the fireworks!

Lockdown · Post by **Lockdown** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 2:36 pm

C'mon now YK... It's Gamespot. Since when has there been any kind of even marginal congruent thinking there?

I'm telling you, WoW is a Blizzard game, by DEFAULT, an 8.4 minimum score. And I'm guessing around 9.

-- -- -- -- --

BtW - I was in EB this afternoon picking up College Hoops 2k5, and lo and behold a WoW Strategy guide was on the shelves. There was only one, but I had to page through it. It is quite the book - extremely well put together. How relevant the information is, I don't really know, but the book looks great!

No EQII books on the shelves yet though.

LD

Dramatist · Post by **Dramatist** » Thu Nov 18, 2004 3:03 pm

I have questitis. I'm only lvl 14, but I've completed over 75 quests in EQ2. Plus I have about 48 in my que.

It's crazy. And fun. 8)

Peacedog · Post by **Peacedog** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 1:23 pm

I have a question: I find the whole concept of getting/keeping aggro in MMOs interesting from a design standpoint (especially since I got front row seats to part of the ride that turned into the current WoW trainwreck).

How does it work in EG2 from an individual standpoint, and then relative to a group (especially for warriors)?

Tareeq · Post by **Tareeq** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 1:46 pm

Peacedog wrote:I have a question: I find the whole concept of getting/keeping aggro in MMOs interesting from a design standpoint (especially since I got front row seats to part of the ride that turned into the current WoW trainwreck).

How does it work in EG2 from an individual standpoint, and then relative to a group (especially for warriors)?

On a slightly related note, "training" for the most part is gone. You can run without having to hit a zone wall, get away, and the mob will eventually turn back. It won't wreak havoc on the way back.

So far aggro management seems to be similar to what it was in the first game, and related games like DAOC. In particular a mage or healer grouped with a lower level fighter had better restrain himself, as I learned to my chagrin last night.

Austin · Post by **Austin** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 1:49 pm

Peacedog wrote:I have a question: I find the whole concept of getting/keeping aggro in MMOs interesting from a design standpoint (especially since I got front row seats to part of the ride that turned into the current WoW trainwreck).

How does it work in EG2 from an individual standpoint, and then relative to a group (especially for warriors)?

Not sure exactly what you are getting at but...

You do more damage you rise on the hate list. You cast certain beneficial spells, you rise on the hate list. The highest person on the hate list gets the mob's attention. There are skills and spells that lower your, or other people's hate. As a squishier member you have to watch your damage/beneficial spell out put to not rise to the top. As a meatier type, you want to gain as much hate as you can through damage and taunts and effects.

(Am I over simplifying or am I missing your question?)

Austin · Post by **Austin** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 1:50 pm

Tareeq wrote: In particular a mage or healer grouped with a lower level fighter had better restrain himself, as I learned to my chagrin last night.

LOL. Stop looking at me. I died what? 12 times? Not like you have to share my debt or anything. Oh yeah.

Peacedog · Post by **Peacedog** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 1:57 pm

On a slightly related note, "training" for the most part is gone. You can run without having to hit a zone wall, get away, and the mob will eventually turn back. It won't wreak havoc on the way back.

It kinda sorta worked like that in WoW. Most mobs would break off after some running. And on the way back, if they picked up a new target, they'd often break off more easily. Of course, most != all, and that's another story.

So far aggro management seems to be similar to what it was in the first game, and related games like DAOC. In particular a mage or healer grouped with a lower level fighter had better restrain himself, as I learned to my chagrin last night.

Do warriors have to generate rage or adrenaline or something like that? See, that's the problem in WoW. In a group, regular attacks alone can't generally hold aggro, you need to use abilities (not just taunt, but damaging abilities of which there were many). You can use them through rage, which you generate by 1) doing damage and 2) getting hurt You start battle with 0 rage). Over the last 9 months or so, things have changed so much that now Warriors in a group basically can't hold aggro against single monsters (can't do enough damage to generate enough rage to hold aggro, since any other character sneezing basically generates a buttload of rage and forget spells, and you don't get hit so. . .). They used to be great at doing it against multiple monsters, as getting hit frequently allows quick rage generation to use the fancier (and often AoE) abilities. Except they can't really do that well anymore, as I understand it.

Austin · Post by **Austin** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 2:04 pm

No rage meter. You have a power meter that is based off your strength. From this you use your special abilities and taunts and such. (Like mana for fighters)

Tareeq · Post by **Tareeq** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 4:46 pm

Austin wrote:Not sure exactly what you are getting at but...

You do more damage you rise on the hate list. You cast certain beneficial spells, you rise on the hate list. The highest person on the hate list gets the mob's attention. There are skills and spells that lower your, or other people's hate. As a squishier member you have to watch your damage/beneficial spell out put to not rise to the top. As a meatier type, you want to gain as much hate as you can through damage and taunts and effects.

(Am I over simplifying or am I missing your question?)

There is also proximity. If you are far away from the mob, you draw less hate for your actions. Healers and mages should avoid pulling (or at least pull with weak spells) and hang on the periphery.

Crabbs · Post by **Crabbs** » Sat Nov 20, 2004 12:32 pm

I posted this at the Wanderers site, but seems to fit in this topic too:

Mind you I am a level 10 summoner working to become a Necro. I have about 3 play days in, probably about 12 in game time. All of these are my initial impressions and are bound to change.

Graphics:
Overall the graphics are awesome, when I have them tuned right, they are smooth and very flowing. The way clothes drape and wave as I run is beautiful. The minute detail and shine on my Mage's chrome dome is great. I have mot measured FPS, but I have had very few slow downs. Seems there might be a memory leak somewhere since after about 2-3 hrs my comps will start to slow down noticeably, but no where near the SWG 2-5 FPS in cities.

The ambience of Freeport is amazingly depressing. Very dingy and dark, (even with my torch, still looking for my tow-behind spotlight to make life better.) I'm suprised how mucch this bothers me, I wonder if it is the gmae overall or just because we're in the Evil World.

Interface:
Nicely customizable. Almost every window resizeable, all are moveable. I have barely scratched the surface on adjusting the UI. Overall though it looks "Clunky" to me. It just doesn't look very refined. It desn't look much different from the UI's on games like Eye of the Beholder.... The lack of detail on the maps I guess suprised me too. Yes it lists the vendors and the streets, but I guess I would have expected better artwork for such a major MMORPG. Chatting and playing can be a pain, this is most likely my fault in that I have not figured out how to get chat to default to /gu whenever I type.

NPC's:
Very well done. The way they carry on conversations and spout utter nonsense at times is wonderful. The way NPC's hail you is very good, but it can still be a pain to find who has a quest and who doesn't. The pure # of NPC's also is amazing, just considering the work that went into giving each of them a backstory makes my head spin.

Gameplay:
Quests, quests, quests, wow. No wonder you can carry 50 in your journal at one time. The variety of quests runs the gammut from Gathering, "kill Tasks", to fed-ex. Nothing new in this arena besides the sheer # of quests. It is very nice that you can get directions to NPC's from guards, this is critical with the huge # of NPC's in this game. The differing moods of the NPC's is also neat, sometimes makes ya wanna kill them on the spot.

Combat while innovative with the combat wheel, ends up not being very different from other MMORPG at the early levels. I can see how HOs will become more critical and more difficult, but right now It's still pretty much spamming the same sequence of keys every time with 1 or 2 variations. I have also not grouped, so I can't comment if combat is much different in those situations or more of the same with harder mobs. Oh one other thing is that targeting seems like a bit of a pain sometimes. Tab doesn't alsways seem to pick up the next mob (maybe its a distance thing) but with so many mobs in small areas its easy to click on the wrong mob and get yourself killed by creating adds. I can understand adds if the mobs are agro to you, but to end up picking up non-agro mobs by faulty targeting stinks.

Zoning: while zone loading is very short for the most part, it still bothers me. I suspect this was done to create bite sized pieces of a world without lag and over population, but to have to zone 2-3 times for one quest..... I guess that brings me to a question, are a lot of these zones instanced where a new zone is created if there are X people already in a zone? Or is it just dungeons? I know that seamless transitions are possible in the MMORPG world and helps covey continuity and imersivness. As immersive as this game is in manyways this zoning rudely yanks you out frequently. (I love the splash screens though)

Corpse runs 1 comment : THEY SUCK, I know, I know I'm a wuss, but having a death penalty so early in a game when people are just learning the system is harsh. I know I know, EQ I was worse, well .... this is EQ 2. I currently have 2 spirit s sitting amongst a nasty agro mob 5 levels above me that I won't be able to retrieve for a while.... ugh. And don't harp on me as a carebear, I played D2 Hardcore death penalty for over 2 years, I know what it's like to lose a Lev 80+ charachter. This death penalty is just a time and exp sink IMO.

Overall Imression: This game is suprisingly polished, not quite what I expected after reading some Beta info and SWG launch. I have had 1 CTD during my play time which is quite impressive considering I play this game on 3 different machines with very different specs. I can see how people get sucked into this game and play for ever, there is just sooooo much to do/kill/quest. I have not quite gotten sucked in yet, and I guess I'm missing the overall "end game - objective" unless it is to kill and quest for ever. Parts of this game are amazing and then other parts make me scratch my head and go "Huh?" why do that? This game seems to have a very Gritty, hardcore feel to it, polished yet gritty.... does that make sense?

Right now I will play for my free month, but most likely not beyond. I will see if I can get up to the 20's or more and judge that game before making it final, but looks like WoW will be my game.

Kael · Post by **Kael** » Sun Nov 21, 2004 3:32 am

I played both this and the WOW beta quite a bit. I thought I was defintily going to be a WOW player but EQ2 has grabbed me. Its a great game. I just started getting into the crafting and its an entire game in and of itself. Definitly fills up the downtime and gives me yet another thing to do. I think the game really set out to give you 4 activites:

1. Fighting
2. Questing (NPC interaction)
3. Exploring
4. Crafting

I think they did a great job on all 4. I could easily lose an evening focusing on just one of these, and it is I bounce back and forth between them as the fancy strikes me.

But no game is perfect, and for me the true glaring problem of EQ2 is the utter lack of documentation. I shouldn't have to beg another player to tell me how to perform even the simliest task. For example the game does an excellent job of teahcing you how to craft, but once you arrive in Freeport if you want to craft you have to join a society that will give you access to the tools you need. Now nothing tells you or suggests that you have to join this specific society to do it. In fact their doesn't appear to be any pertinent reason to join them at all (there isn't any quest leading you to do so). There are tons of mysteries like this in the game and the book and online docs are amazingly unhelpful.

Im hoping when the strategy guide comes out Tuesday a lot of this will be taken care of.

PlankOwner · Post by **PlankOwner** » Sun Nov 21, 2004 11:32 am

Hey Kael did you know on the starter isalnd you get a note listing the societies though granted it doesn't tell you you have to join but my EQ2 manual says you craft at trade shops and lists the names...the same names that are in Dreacs (sp) note.

I do wonder how they expect most people to find some of the quests on the refugee island......unless they download that starter guide. I was being a tour guide most of yesterday as I worked on crafting to get to level 8 before leaving...another great tip i think i got off of this board.

is_dead · Post by **is_dead** » Sun Nov 21, 2004 12:49 pm

Wow, I meen eek, you guys make this game sound fun. Too bad I don't play MMOGs, they're too addictive for my school-comes-last personality

tals · Post by **tals** » Sun Nov 21, 2004 1:14 pm

PlankOwner wrote:Hey Kael did you know on the starter isalnd you get a note listing the societies though granted it doesn't tell you you have to join but my EQ2 manual says you craft at trade shops and lists the names...the same names that are in Dreacs (sp) note.

I do wonder how they expect most people to find some of the quests on the refugee island......unless they download that starter guide. I was being a tour guide most of yesterday as I worked on crafting to get to level 8 before leaving...another great tip i think i got off of this board.

I think part of the fun of the game is discovering the quests and the various stories to tell. EQ I never managed to 'get' sure apparently their were quests but they were far more - dare I say subtle and no where near as immersive. That said a player guide I would say works well - game guides i'm not so sure. I really don't want to turn the game into a must go from a to b to c quest, before I know it the grind effect will kick in.

Tals

p.s bearing in mind how good Half Life 2 is. check my profile out