My early impressions of EQ2

[Riggswolfe]

This is about an hour or two of play. (All I had time for).

Disclaimer: I'll probably mention WoW a few times during this simply because it and EQ2 are the two contenders for my money right now.

I made a scout because I figured that is closest to the WoW hunter class. I will make a fighter later for similiar reasons. My thought process was by playing similiar classes in each game it'd give me a better feel for their
differences and similiarities.

I'm not far enough in to give any kind of accurate class rating. So far the scout plays like a rogue which is kind of fun. I'm assuming you can get ranged attacks later.

Graphics:

The graphics are ok. They look blurry and stuff to me when up close. This is probably due to me not having a god-like machine. So far they are technologically pretty cool but not as stylish as WoW. I Don't feel like I can honestly say alot about the graphics simply because I have to run them at medium to be playable so it doesn't look as good as the movies.

Sound:

Sound is pretty good in some areas, lacking in others. This may be a setting I haven't found but it doesn't seem like EQ2 has many ambient sounds. Birds chirping, things like that. It does have awesome music, and the voice overs are pretty good. (Though I have yet to hear all the speech from the Qeynos king when I activate that coin I started with on the island. I don't have the patience for it). Actually, I've already noticed myself clicking through speech alot. I enjoy the voices, but am impatient by nature. I do the same thing in alot of single player RPGs with voices.

Gameplay:

It's way to early to tell much. I have gotten lost a few times. The quests seem ok. I started a goblin Mastery quest which seems kind of cool other than being based on rare drops. (I hate drop quests in any game. Mostly because my luck with drops suck.) My only complaint so far is that it feels like grouping is being rammed down my throat. Let me explore for abit before having to have a group of random strangers with me dammit.

I am having trouble with HOs. Are they still disabled?

[Trippy]

I am having trouble with HOs. Are they still disabled?

They are working for me (just tried it). The earliest HO combo a Scout gets is Quick Strike, Evade, (wait, wait, wait) Quick Strike. Yes it's counterintuitive to Evade since it doesn't do anything when soloing but that's the way HOs are. Look for your flashing combat arts/spells for the next step in the combo (though they don't flash when greyed out, oh well).

[Ardent]

The "Simon says" nature of HOs while soloing is kind of dull. It removes any semblance of strategy from the way you fight, as opposed to the myriad of options the WoW rogue has.

Perhaps this dynamic improves as you level, I'm not sure. It definitely has more important implications when grouping as opposed to soloing.

[Riggswolfe]

Yeah it said they'd flash but I didn't see it. So far things feel...less interactive than WoW did at this point, does that make sense?

[Trippy]

Yeah it said they'd flash but I didn't see it. So far things feel...less interactive than WoW did at this point, does that make sense?

It makes sense to me even though I haven't played WoW myself. Rogues have their combo and finishing moves which is like a much more flexible HO system, Warriors have their combat stances, and Pallys have their, uh, run away moves.

Scout's in EQII do have one nice non-HO combo of their own which is Cheap Shot (which you get at 6 I believe), Sneak Attack (which I think you get at 5). Cheap Shot will stun a mob long enough for you to circle strafe around to its side and Sneak Attack it. Make sure you turn off autoattack before doing Cheap Shot or else you'll break the stun too soon.

[Evil Elvis]

Here's my review: I spent more time beta testing AC2 and Horizons than I did EQ2.  That should sum it up.  Of course, I've only had my account for a week, but I'm not even interested in logging in right now.  

Not that EQ2 is in any way worse than those games, it's just that since I've had very little lag, and no game-breaking bugs I've been able to deduce how boring it is in half the time.


Slightly more in-depth review...

Graphics: Would be passable if not for the fact that most male avatars look like over developed females, and the poor performance their engine gives.

Landscape: Not even done as well as AC2 (osteth continent) or DAoC.  Bland, bland, bland.

Cities: Multi-zone, 10-min city traverse runs are horsecock.  Trying to find something/someone without using a 3rd party map is unbearable.

Locked-combat: I hate this crap.  Can't heal other people, get no experience if you disengage, you pull every mob in a group always, etc.  If the zones weren't so claustrophobically small, there wouldn't be a big kill stealing problem.  But then they couldn't beat it into your heads right away to group up.

Class Divergence: Or really, the lack thereof.  Snooze.  Even EQ1 had at least a few unique classes.  4 is crap.  The new systems they're putting in aren't enough.  

Leveling: First few levels went by well enough.  Was doing alot of quests, and it didn't bother me too much.  But then I went to try to explore, became fully aware of how much like EQ1 this game was in that regard, and then felt the grind set back in.  The quests I was seeing were nothing new or different.  By level 11, I'm already sick of the grind.

Spells: It feels like I only have 3-4.  At least, that's all I really use.   Spell list looks like it follows EQ1 tradition in that you basically just get higher level versions of spells.  Simplistic combat options, and their weak hero opportunity system doesn't do jack to alleviate the feeling.

[jpark]

Evil Elvis and Riggs - it may be posted elsewhere - but to put your comments in context for me - can you say what MMORPG you like / are currently playing?

Thanks.

[Evil Elvis]

My fav mmorpg's were UO and AC.

UO for it's unique world feeling, open-endedness, and for never knowing what was going to happen that day.  AC for its fast fps feel, great lore, monthly content, and physics-like engine.   I also thought CoH was pretty good, except for the fact that it was very one-dimensional, and I grew tired of doing nothing but monster bashing simply for some story that didn't draw me in.

There really isn't an mmorpg out there that even sounds interesting to me.  Noone's trying to improve on the experience, they're just trying to copy EQ's mechanics and supposebly making them accessible to casual players with things like instancing and locked encounters.  Someone wake me up when we get some real advancements in AI, open skill tree systems, and deep involving quests that aren't just a front for foozle bashing.

[Riggswolfe]

Jpark,

The MMOs I have liked in the past

AC1: I enjoyed it though I got tired of gimping my characters and having to have magic of some kind to be at all playable at high levels

AO: Kind of fun though it didn't last long for me

DAoC: same as AO. It was somewhat fun but didn't hold my interest long.

CoH: The only MMO besides AC I've ever quit and considered going back to. I honestly quit CoH more for money reasons than anything else.

MMOs I didn't like:

UO: Player justice is BS.

SWG: Ham. Nuff said

EQ1: Tried it about 6 months ago. Found the interface clunky and the graphics almost unbearably ugly.


MMO I plan to play in the future:

It is looking solidly like WoW. It has addicted me more than any MMO in the past ever has.

[Riggswolfe]

Oh, and to update my impression. I played for oh...probably another 4-5 hours tonight with Aslan. I made I think 2 levels. (level 4-6). I seem to be leveling slow pretty early, though this may just be due to not taking the right kind of quests or something.

One growing frustration I have is with quests that say "go find NPC x". It rarely gives me any kind of clue as to where this NPC is so I waste 20 minutes wandering around a zone trying to find them. I noticed that when you die you can activate a waypoint to your soul shard, I just wish something similiar would work with "find NPC x" quests.

One thing I've noticed, the spell affects seem kind of bland. I'm surprised considering how high these graphics shoot. Maybe Ijust need to give it some time.

Also finding bugged quests left and right. For instance, in a place called...ummm...hell I don't remember. It's a zone in Qeynos feeled with halfings and gnomes. Beeblebraur or something like that. Everytime I enter I mysteriously get a bag of parts in my inventory. However, when I examine it and click on return it to the owner nothing happens. I've found said owner and can't seem to give him the bag.

Another example is the citizenship lore quest. You have to go around the city and talk to certain NPCs. At least one and maybe as many as three of them do not exist in the game. Or so other players tell me.

[Trippy]

One growing frustration I have is with quests that say "go find NPC x". It rarely gives me any kind of clue as to where this NPC is so I waste 20 minutes wandering around a zone trying to find them. I noticed that when you die you can activate a waypoint to your soul shard, I just wish something similiar would work with "find NPC x" quests.

Scouts now get Tracking (not sure starting at what level) which helps *a lot*. Everybody else is still screwed.

One thing I've noticed, the spell affects seem kind of bland. I'm surprised considering how high these graphics shoot. Maybe Ijust need to give it some time.

There are some controls you can fiddle with to adjust the spell effects but I agree that generally they are nothing special. EQ overall had better spell effects frankly, though some of the EQII bard song effects are pretty good.

Another example is the citizenship lore quest. You have to go around the city and talk to certain NPCs. At least one and maybe as many as three of them do not exist in the game. Or so other players tell me.

They all exist (unless they took some out last patch) since I've completed it with one of my characters. However, not only are most of them a pain to find but many of them are in areas that are dangerous to wander around at the low levels people get that quest at.

[Alkiera]

SPeaking of dangerous places, are there any maps of Antonica?  Someone mentioned mapping and having good maps...  but the only map I saw on a fansite was a screenshot of the city-view of Freeport... in short, less than useful.

I can manage with most of the zones, but Antonica is just so huge.

Alkiera

[Signe]

http://eq2vault.ign.com/images/map/Antonica.jpg

There are maps up at EQ2 Vault, the Freeport one is complete and there's a link to it further down in this forum.  The last time I lchecked, however, there was no key associated with the Qeynos map, although the locations are numbered.  Someone did fill it in somewhere on vnboards, but I can't be arsed to look for it.

[jpark]

So I am noticing that with ALL the changes announced for EQII over the past week - at least looking at the Priest forum there is very little discussion...

Sorta wondering whether the mods deleting the posts / rants and keeping it confined to the non-public beta forums...

[Riggswolfe]

That is what ended up happening with SWG.

[Signe]

That is what ended up happening with SWG.

Yeah, good idea, innit?  You can keep the pissed off paying customers from spreading their venom while pissing off potential paying customers by not allowing them to read it.

SOE has always been an equal opportunity anatagonist.

[Ookii]

Here's my review: I spent more time beta testing AC2 and Horizons than I did EQ2.  That should sum it up.

Yep, I had more fun playing Horizons than I did this POS, EQ2 is being uninstalled in lieu of other much better games coming out.

[schild]

Here's my review: I spent more time beta testing AC2 and Horizons than I did EQ2...

Yep, I had more fun playing Horizons than I did this POS...

While a certain amount of hate is expected. That is truly going a little overboard.

[Numtini]

There are good maps on Eq-artisan.com Also a skill list, though I don't know if it's been updated or not.

I'm also surprised there's been so little discussion about the changes. There was quite a bit from the priests in the private part of the site.

[jpark]

There are good maps on Eq-artisan.com Also a skill list, though I don't know if it's been updated or not.

I'm also surprised there's been so little discussion about the changes. There was quite a bit from the priests in the private part of the site.

Again I am confused - if the NDA is lifted - why is there a "private" part to the site?

[Signe]

I probably won't play EQ2 for a few months.  I've decided it's not really good enough yet.  For me, anyway.  If there is a chance it'll improve, and I think there is, I'd rather not be so pissed off at it that I never give it another chance.  I'll probably play WoW open beta, and possibly release.  I did enjoy the short period of time I played, but games nearly always seem fun during the initial discovery period.  I never played beyond that, really.  I'll fiddle with GW during the open weekends and will play casually on release.  I may even try Halo 2 and Half Life 2, if Righ gets them for himself.

I'm not worried about having no game to play, not with all the games being released and beta tests coming up.  I'll enjoy this Feast period right now... this time next year might be Famine... who knows?

[shiznitz]

After playing this weekend I cannot dispute any of the critiques here. The game is fun so far (level 8 in qeynos doing class quests) but it is hard to separate out the new from the good. Isle of Refuge was great and I probably left too soon but it's a beta so I wanted to see more than the island.

Like most MMOGs, if you want to group you have to be proactive. Once I started asking, I found willing people. Sharing quests is so much more efficient, a player has to be ignorant or a moron to not group with someone else trying to do the same Kill 10 Fairies quest.

Group fights are a fucking fireworks show - way over the top on sparklies.

I have skipped a lot of basics - like upgrading my skills - just to try and see as much as I can. Wandered Antonica at level 8 and survived ok. Killing falcons with a sword is pretty stupid. Little things like that hurt my brain.

[kaid]

Ha if you think killing a bird with a sword is funny try being a scout and tracking fish then swiming to them and have the fish repeatedly kick you in combat.

Still thats pretty classic mud stuff and probably left in there just for kicks and giggles for the old timers.

[HaemishM]

Still thats pretty classic mud stuff and probably left in there because it's too difficult to figure something else out.

Fixed it for you.

Glad to know I'm not the only one who was wholly unimpressed with the game. After looking at the map of Antonica, I see I've barely explored half of the damn zone. Yay for me. That zone is huge, and even with Griffon rides and teleport spells, it's going to run into the "West Karana" problem. Zones can be too big.

[Signe]

There are a lot of posts on the more reputable gaming boards (yes, yes, oxymoron and all that) from people who are going to play EQ2, although they wish the game was better.  A lot are saying they'll play WoW open beta and set EQ2 aside until some of the problems are fixed.  I don't think they can make a patch big enough for launch day to resolve all the issues that are apparant this late in the beta.  At this time they are still in that nasty bit where updates break as much as they add or fix.  This mustn't happen on launch day... it's better to release a half finished game that works reasonably well.  We've all seen it before.  It's got to be the number one thing that pisses people off, almost as much as nerfing high level characters that you've been playing for ages.  

Haemish is NEVER alone in his underwhelment of over-hyped MMOGs.

[Sky]

I didn't want to start up a new thread, so I'll tack my initial impressions on here.

I like the game, glad I didn't cancel my preorder. It's not the second coming of the son of the invisible man you may or may not worship, but it's good entertainment.

Firstly, it passed the home theater test by having overall higher production values (combined, one or two games ding it in individual categories...but only one or two) than any other game I've ever seen on my system (and I've seen a lot of those types of games on it). I can run it with all options cranked (except shadows, set to minimal or off), 1280x720 with 16xFSAA/AF. Looks incredibly good, textures could be a bit sharper up close, but I'm not dinging it much for that. With bloom and mirror reflective water, it's almost a painting come to life in some areas.

I didn't bring in any expectations, and I haven't played a 'traditional' mmog since I quit EQ years ago (2001?). It was kinda like playing a much better version of EQ, which I see as a pretty good thing, since I liked EQ (before it got to the endgame). I saw a few things to gripe about, but nothing too major.

I'll probably hate EQ2 by the time I get to the endgame and have dealt with the inevitable ubertards, but if I can get a few months of gaming like this past weekend, it's well worth the box cost. Beautiful graphics and sound, runs good on my system, enough content to spend a few months on. I wish I could say that about Fable, goddamned abortion that was. If I can waste $50 on a game I didn't like, blowing $50 on a game I might only like for a few months is a gimme.

I took the opposite method from Shiz's: I intend to not leave the Isle of Refuge in beta, don't want to ruin the sense of discovery on release. Instead of exploring the world, I'm exploring the game mechanics, getting a solid feel for them before venturing out. Played most of the weekend and still have a couple little things to do on the Isle yet, it's a nice self-contained mini-game with most of the major gameplay elements fully intact. Since I haven't played this kind of game in a few years, it's nice to have a solid refresher like that.

[Rasix]

I took the opposite method from Shiz's: I intend to not leave the Isle of Refuge in beta, don't want to ruin the sense of discovery on release.

Ohh dear.  This is like staying in your bomb shelter, only looking outside at the one patch of grass that survived armageddon and thinking everything must be alright.

Seriously, take a step into the world.  The nightmare doesn't materialize until you're off your front lawn.

[Kageru]

I suspect Rasix has a point. The reviews written on the isle of refuge and the reviews written in the teen's are dramatically different in tone, even if it's the same person writing. Of course if you want a game that hits every feature your graphics card has there's not much competition to EQ2.

[Aslan]

I think this game is fun and all, but I won't be buying it for release either.  Riggs keeps telling me that the things I like about EQ are, for the most part, also in WoW and that they work better and feel truer in WoW.  Also, I hard-crash about every third or fourth zone that I try to go into, and that gets pretty freaking old.  I tried fiddling around with different settings to fix it, but nothing yet.  So I like the beta, and if WoW wasn't coming out a week or so later, I might be tempted to pick it up, just to fill the medieval MMO gap in my life.  But WoW is coming out soon, and this game is made by SOE, so that clinches it for me.  I won't be buying this, at least at release...but I will play the free beta as long as I can, heh.

[shiznitz]

Well, Sky's approach isn't invalid. I do think his enthusiasm for the shiney will change when he leaves the island. My system ran much better on the island than in the Qeynos, although his PC is probably better then mine (2.5GHz ti4600 1GB RAM). What really kills the cities is the zone load times. They seem brutally long (20 seconds is a long time when you are staring at a progress bar) and the zones are not that big so you do a lot of zoning.

As schild said, The Isle of Refuge is phenomenally well done (which is why I wanted to get off ASAP) but it differs from the Qeynos game in important ways:

1) There is no zoning needed (except to tradeskill and the final orc fight - both of which are small zones that don't take long at all.)

2) There are only a few possible quest givers and they are all in the same place. Same with the stores.

3) The whole island has an automap. Off the island, only the city sections do. Places like The Peat Bog and Oakmyst Forest do not.

[HaemishM]

Go to the city, Sky. I actually thought the game got better in Qeynos, but I was wholly underwhelmed by the entire Island experience. It felt like kindergarden.

The true suck doesn't show itself until you have to run across two zones, with horrible loading times just to deliver a note, then run back to get your reward of 11 copper pieces.

That isn't one quest, that's a LOT of the quests.

[shiznitz]

You are forgetting the exp, though, Haemish. At least those delivery quests are teaching you the layout of the city. EQ2 is a lot less about running around a forest killing things to level than EQ. At least so far. Also, you don't need money/gear before level 10. The Isle sets you up pretty well.

[HaemishM]

You don't need money or gear unless you like combat, that is. And I like combat. If you actually want to fight at any time during those levels, you'll eventually need gear. And if you go into the Down Below, expect to die a lot. WORST ZONE EVER.

[shiznitz]

And if you go into the Down Below, expect to die a lot. WORST ZONE EVER.

Agreed.

[Kageru]

Down below is the one modelled on EQ1's `befallen' zone I think. Since it was the worst zone ever in EQ1 I applaud their consistency.

To be specific it had multiple hidden trapdoors that would drop you down three levels, behind three locked doors, surrounded by mobs you had no hope of defeating. Many a noobie cancelled their subscription over that zone.