November 8th. EQ2 ships!

[General Ludd]

Khan and Greystorm?

Oh man, what a couple of geeks.

[DrSpike]

It's hard to get an objective review of this game, since people seem to either be mass fanboys or EQ haters.

[Harovan]

I can't give a complete review, I have the game for 4 days only and have only a level 12 character. Here's what I like/dislike so far:

- Quests are simpler to track as in EQ1. You don't need to guess what to say (and say a lot of silly things before you succeed, if you succeed at all), but get a menu with options to say, similar to NWN
- You can't forget a quest, because a journal keeps track automatically
- I like the new archetype/profession/class system. You don't have to choose everything to the detail when you set up your character. You just have to choose one of the archetypes fighter, mage, priest or scout. With level 10, you have to choose a profession. It's done by a quest again. I as fighter could choose between warrior, brawler, or crusader. I have chosen the latter, and with level 20 I'll have finally to choose my class, paladin or shadow knight (if I defect to be an evil character, that is).
- Combat has some new options, like "hero chance", which gives a powerful extra attack, if some conditions are met
- Soloing so far seems easier than in EQ1, because you heal quicker.
- Mage profession/classes seem to be overpowered, which is bad. I see mages 1-2 levels below me soloing mobs I can not take on and live. SoE will have to balance things a bit
- It is hard to "twink" new characters. Most equipment items have an ability restriction, like "needs 55 in sword skill", or similar. So you can't give your twink an über-sword to level faster, because he won't be able to use it. The bank accounts don't have shared money slots, so it's harder to transfer cash between your characters. Overall this is good in my books.
- Hardware requirements are brutal. You need a high end PC, or your game fun will be severely limited. I have choosen the "High Performance" option (the 5th best and 3rd worst) for my 3 years old PC, and my graphics look like ****. The performance outdoors is ok, but in city zones it's helluva unfun

[Jon Miller]

umm

I am nota fan boy, or a hater

it is fun, better than CoH definitely, and maybe better than FFXI

not sure about AO

deffinitely requires a lot less calculation than AO though

Jon Miller

[Jon Miller]

if I have a kickass machine, what should my settings be/

JM

[Jon Miller]

of the ones I have played, I would say it is most similiar to FFXI, but without all the really annoying things (a lot less running, a lot less confusion, a lot less time spent healing, etc)

JM

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
if I have a kickass machine, what should my settings be/

JM

I wouldn't recommend you anything better than "High Quality" (3rd best). In fact, you get a warning if you choose higher. Sony left some space for the future hardware development. Higher settings would be "Very high", and "Supreme" quality.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
I can't give a complete review, I have the game for 4 days only and have only a level 12 character. Here's what I like/dislike so far:

- Quests are simpler to track as in EQ1. You don't need to guess what to say (and say a lot of silly things before you succeed, if you succeed at all), but get a menu with options to say, similar to NWN
- You can't forget a quest, because a journal keeps track automatically
- I like the new archetype/profession/class system. You don't have to choose everything to the detail when you set up your character. You just have to choose one of the archetypes fighter, mage, priest or scout. With level 10, you have to choose a profession. It's done by a quest again. I as fighter could choose between warrior, brawler, or crusader. I have chosen the latter, and with level 20 I'll have finally to choose my class, paladin or shadow knight (if I defect to be an evil character, that is).
- Combat has some new options, like "hero chance", which gives a powerful extra attack, if some conditions are met
- Soloing so far seems easier than in EQ1, because you heal quicker.
- Mage profession/classes seem to be overpowered, which is bad. I see mages 1-2 levels below me soloing mobs I can not take on and live. SoE will have to balance things a bit
- It is hard to "twink" new characters. Most equipment items have an ability restriction, like "needs 55 in sword skill", or similar. So you can't give your twink an über-sword to level faster, because he won't be able to use it. The bank accounts don't have shared money slots, so it's harder to transfer cash between your characters. Overall this is good in my books.
- Hardware requirements are brutal. You need a high end PC, or your game fun will be severely limited. I have choosen the "High Performance" option (the 5th best and 3rd worst) for my 3 years old PC, and my graphics look like ****. The performance outdoors is ok, but in city zones it's helluva unfun

Hmm all those are true to a large extent in comparable MMORPGs I'd say. I still think I'll play WoW if I can, but if it turns out there is no way I'll play this instead.

[Dis]

I'm no fanboy! I have never even played EQ1. I had no idea what it was like. I have never played any mmorpg for that matter.

This game is pretty cool. I got my guy up to level 8 last night.

Is it a real rpg? You can role play with other PC's as much as you like. But there is virtually no roleplaing with NPC's. You basically have 2 choices. Accept the quest or don't accept it.

So as you can see, this is a real sociable game. Playing with a party is best. And my most fun so far has come with a party. But I enjoy solo stuff as well, because I can go at my own pace (whenever I party in any game, people always want to go lightning fast- I like to thoroughly explore every nook and cranny)

I still haven't mess around with the artisan stuff. But it looks kind of intersting. I just need to figure out how to do it

[Dis]

the problem with WOW as I see it are the cartoonish graphics (which are standard in warcraft games I think- but I have never played warcraft) and the newbie friendly crap.

NPC's has exclamation points above their heads when they have quests for you. I think things like that ruin the immersion factor. I prefer a little more realism in my games. Of course rpg's aren't realistic, but I like it to attempt to achieve that goal anyways.

[Harovan]

More review stuff.

- You aren't a homeless beggar like in EQ1. You actually do have a home. Mine is a room in an inn at this time, which came for free and costs 5 silver per real time week. Later I can buy an apartment, a whole house or even a mansion. There's a thing called "status" in the game, and the better your living place is, the higher your status gets. You can buy furniture and other stuff for your apartment, and you can invite other people into it. Seen in other MMORPGs, but I missed it a bit in EQ1.
- Money isn't worthless trash anymore. The platinum inflation from EQ1, where the good weapons and armor cost tens or hundred thousands platinum does not longer exist. Now the multiplicator between the coins is not 10 but 100. In EQ1 one gold could barely feed me one real time day. In EQ2, all I earned in 5 days sums up to about 1 gold, and I succeeded to equip myself with the finest equipment available for my level for it (and eat, of course ). I like this very much. It disgusted me in EQ1, that I went three steps out of Kaladim as level 3 grunt, luckily hit a skunk and violà, had my first platinum earned.
- Some zones are huge and it's easy to get lost and be killed by a roamer. Better stay on the roads if you're solo
- Mobs don't hunt you down to the bitter end anymore, so you haven't run for the zone if you can't best them. They have some kind of home area, and when you leave it, they stop running after you and you're safe. No more "TRAIN TO ZONE!!!" shouts.

[Jon Miller]

I just hit 9 today

and I think I am approaching level 5 as a tradeskiller

I can't really figure out how to sell my stuff ot other people easily, I have very little inventory space (I have 4 bags) and it seems I must be logged on to sell my stuff to other players...

Jon Miller

[Harovan]

One more thing:

- Dying can cost you dearly, but you can't lose a level anymore. If you die and no cleric is around to reanimate you, you can resurge in one or more places of the current zone (so far I didn't see a single soulbinder). If you do so, you leave a "soul shard" at the place you died. But you keep your possessings with you. No more corpse runs into the depths of some dungeon. And you get an experience debt, i.e. for a certain period your XP gains run slower, until you pay it back. No more level losses with all the nasty side effects like losing spell abilities or not being able to enter the plane where you died. You aren't forced to, but if you are so brave to run back to your "soul shard", your XP debt will be reduced to 1/3 or 1/4. By the way, all weapons and armor you wield will be hurt by 10% when you die. This means, if you die 10 times, it will be worthless and have no effect like AC or stats. But you can let it patch in most armor shoppes, which however costs money. At the moment, a death costs me about 50 copper, but as I buy new equipment, I can see this grow.

[Harovan]

Jon, first you can store stuff in your bank account (you probably know this, but didn't mention it) and second, I have seen some kind of exchange office (not sure what the english word for it is) in Qeynos and other places. I'm unsure how it works (so far I didn't craft anything, I want to do some blacksmithing later), but I suppose you have to store it at your home (not lob it around) and somehow register it in these offices for sale. You could try to find it out, I would be also interested.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
One more thing:

- Dying can cost you dearly, but you can't lose a level anymore. If you die and no cleric is around to reanimate you, you can resurge in one or more places of the current zone (so far I didn't see a single soulbinder). If you do so, you leave a "soul shard" at the place you died. But you keep your possessings with you. No more corpse runs into the depths of some dungeon. And you get an experience debt, i.e. for a certain period your XP gains run slower, until you pay it back. No more level losses with all the nasty side effects like losing spell abilities or not being able to enter the plane where you died. You aren't forced to, but if you are so brave to run back to your "soul shard", your XP debt will be reduced to 1/3 or 1/4. By the way, all weapons and armor you wield will be hurt by 10% when you die. This means, if you die 10 times, it will be worthless and have no effect like AC or stats. But you can let it patch in most armor shoppes, which however costs money. At the moment, a death costs me about 50 copper, but as I buy new equipment, I can see this grow.

WoW just has you run back to your corpse for no XP loss, though the same weapon degradation point that Ralph made applies there too.