View Full Forums : General Review


Fenier
05-26-2005, 06:51 AM
Purchased this a few days ago since most of my EQ friends from long ago took up the game, yay no monthly cost.

Warning, this is a 2 Gig install.

This is not Everquest, is a very good game however, which is kinda diabolish, but way more dymanic.

For one, there are only 6 classes. However, you can multiclass. You are all Humans.

Closest thing to a EQ Druid I could find, was Ranger Primary (Druidish with Special Bow attacks), Monk Secondary (Cleric), however a Elementalish (wizard) / Monk (Cleric) would work too but you don't get nature magic that way.

There, at current seem to be 20 levels, but, level doesn't mean awhole lot honestly. Armor is much more important, and it is made by players - tho it does not wear out. Locating and Purchasing/Questing your skills plays a bigger role here.

There is no patcher like we know it in EQ, you can on average start GW and login in less then 30 seconds.

All players play on the same server.

The Cities are the only place you can find/make groups. Think PoK instanced x number of times where x is the number of players who want to be in the city. Each instance is a district, and you can move between them.

If your anti-social, you can hire any of 4 NPCs to round out your group, tho I do recommand seeking out other players.

You have a Map, each time you visit a landmark (city/outpost) it appears there and you can travel there at will. You must have been there at one point the hard way, or have unlocked that perticular mission area. The Pre Searing map is abotu 1/5th the size of the Post Searing Map.

Once your group is formed, you can enter the world/mission of your choosing. This is completly instanced. You will not run into other people, there is no KSing, no Training, or anything. This is why I suggest bringing people, as well, npcs don't talk much.

I must admit, the game is rather stunning enviroment wise. Futhermore, storyline missions are given cinima scenes which the game customizes so it actually displays your group, with your group talking.

Appeariance is from armor sets, like in most other games. There is dye available, tho it is rare and drops from creatures.

What most people will wonder about is Capes. Capes are a guild feature, which allows you to id each other on sight. Each Guild can pay 2000 gold to draw up a logo, and place it on the backs of all their members. This seems to be a big drawing point for alot of people guild wise.

Futhermore, the game is divided into 2 areas. Pre and Post Searing. Once you endure the searing, you can NOT go back pre searing, which is fine becuase the game maxes out around level 7 otherwise.

Death does happen, tho if your smart and use your skills wisely it happens rarely. If you die Pre-searing, nothing negative happens to you. You simply reapper full health at the nearest temple (which are nearly all over).

Post Searing, you still appear at your temple, but you suffer negative Morale. This balances out the instance where you can't zerg stuff (becuase instances don't respawn). To fix Negative morale (lower hp/mana) you kill things until it becomes positive again. Postive morale gives you more hp and mana, so if your group is doing awesome, you all benifet.

On Rezzing. Each player can get whats called a rez signet. This gives any player with that skill, a one shot rez per mission (you can rez more then once, as killing named resets this skill). Monks (main/secondary) can get a spell version, which they can cast as often as they like.

Nearly all of your exp will be from quests, which makes questing remarkably fun actually. Each quest tells you upfront what the reward is, the stats on the reward and how much experiance you'll gain from it.

You can be working on as many quests as you like at any given time, and your map can highlight the rough area your supposed to head to with flares if you click on a quest then check the map.

Besides the cinimas the other thing which I thought was really cool about the game was creatues do not always appear before you, Spiders can drop from trees as you walk under them and bugs can burrow out from the ground around you.

Missions are fun, You are assigned a Primary Objective, which varies, think like DON. During the mission you also get secondary objectives if you locate the NPC, which can allow you even more rewards/exp etc. The Map updates with each Mission - a Shield for yet to complete, 1 sword for complete or bonus mission, and 2 Shield and 2 Swords for totally completed.

I think its well worth the $50.00 but if you go into it expecting there to be a end game, so to speak, I doubt you'll find it much fun. At level 10 group missions of 4 are the norm, unlocking more areas and getting more skills seem to be the general focus of the game 30 days after release.

The company plans to release expansions as time comes along, but never, according to their site, plans to charge per month. In comparison to EQ, there is afew things I Wise it had, similar to EQ, and a few things I would think it would be awesome of EQ to do, tho I doubt it ever will.

Yes I realize the paragraphs are kinda out of order, but its 7 am ;p

-Fenier

Yrys
05-26-2005, 01:02 PM
Thanks for the review, sounds interesting. :)

Panamah
05-26-2005, 01:08 PM
Yes, enjoyed reading your review!

Fenier
06-03-2005, 04:48 PM
For those wondering, if you are a power gamer, you can "beat" the storyline part of the game in less then 6 days, 12 hours.

Panamah
06-03-2005, 05:11 PM
That's 12 hours total? Or 72 hour total?

Fenier
06-03-2005, 09:07 PM
6 Days + 12 hours.

took me awhile to actually find where the missions began, becuase I had no clue ;p

Knowing it now tho, I think it could be done in much much less time.

-Fenier

Aly
06-04-2005, 12:27 AM
Well the main draw of the game was meant to be it's competitive events and lack of monthly fee. I've bought Playstation games that took less than six days to play. Seems like it's well worth the cost to buy.