Well the gamegasm has finally arrived, and ye-haw!

We have previously heard from Dave about EQ2. I had it pre-ordered and was glad to see it arrive yesterday with Halo 2. I played Halo 2 for a couple hours (JOY!) then I settled in to play EQ2.

First… installation. This bad boy has 10 discs. YEOW. The requirements on the side of the box said that it would need 7 gigs Luckily it seems the truth is closer to 4.5, but still DAMN. Looks like games these days are just gluttons.

Character creation is for visuals only. It appears that only your base attribs that accompany your race matter, you don’t assign any extra points. This was probably aimed at the more new player. A less complicated creation process gets you into the world. Also your base stats are auto adjusted based on class selection, so this helps to cut down on people being mad that a class isnt working since a mage with only 5 int really wont exist.

After your character is created, you are treated to a nice opening story that sets the stage for the game and the world in it. The gods have abandoned Norrath, Luclin is exploded, and a massive Orc horde seeks to destroy both Freeport and Qeynos, the last two major cities. And while they both have different ways, and in the end different goals, in the short term, they are both trying to survive, and push back this horde (they have another name for them.. but i cannot recall).

Norrath has been shattered into several small continents. And refugees from the cataclysm are all around. Enter me. A Dark Elf named Aranae. Apparently I was plucked from the Ocean and taken aboard a ship known as the Far Journey. The captain is taking me to the Ile of Refuge to train be up so that I can join one of the two cities.

The people who run the Far Seas Trading Company (of which the Far Journey is a part of the fleet) get paid money for bringing refugees to the cities. The cities get new productive members, and the refugees get a new life. How nice. But in order to be worthy of joiningn one of the cities, we first have to be trained in some basic skills.

As soon as I land, I am greeted by some guy,and he allows me to pick my class archetype. I chose mage. (I think I’m going Enchanter). I am quickly granted a couple spells, (very pretty lightning ones in fact). He tells me my first job is to go stop the goblin invasion on the island.. and kill some goblins. So off I go on the isle to kill goblins, and follow a few quests, but something far greater was awaiting me. Seashells. So as I’m heading out I found a seashell on the beach. This pretty shell when I examined it, offered a quest to add it to my collection. I did. And then I had to find more shells. So I looked for a while. After I had about half of my collection, I finally remembered I was there to kill. So Kill I did.

After wandering about the island, I killed more goblins. I found a quest or five. I slayed skeleton pirates, I finished my shell collection, I got in a group, and I met the ambassador to freeport. I was level 6 or so by then. Adn I was ready to be off. The ambassador gave me the skinny on how to get to freeport, and I chose it as my home. I mean c’mon.. they promised me power

After choosing freeport, I got permission to head out and By ringing a bell at the docks, I summoned the ship to head to freeport. Yay!

When I arrived in freeport I was treated to a very nice and evil woman who was an overseer. She told me that every refugee is given a room, and that I was to report to it immediately and meet my slumlord er.. landlord, and get acquainted. I met him, entered my lovely little inn room, got a free table, and learned that my slumlord hates me. Ahh freeport. It had been a long day, so i decided to log right in my house. Oh.. and lest I think it a gift, I have to pay 5 silver within 7 days to keep my house. Fucking Freeport. Thus ended my first several hours in EQ2.

Now.. some info on gameplay.

#1) Overall impression is that it really is everquest 2. Not Everquest 1+ and not “SOME NEW MMORPG”. It is everquest, with the rich story, and environements, and all of the fun (and sometimes pain) that was but updated, in a richer world, with more to do, with a WAYYYYYY simpler interface, and generally a much better package.

It even has.. dare i say.. some polish. WoW it ain’t, but nobody polishes like them. My biggest peeve thus far was that fish can chase you out of the water.. but meh..

#2) Here are some really cool things that I liked:

– The voice acting is in fact very cool. It helps to get you into the world, and makes it far more interesting.

– The interface is actually quite easy to use. Letterbox makes it pretty, and puts some UI crap in places that aren’t in your way.

– There are helpful quest guides that keep you on your task when you have a quest selected (choose the quest you want the task list on in your journal where they all are)

– Looting is frickin awesome. If the leader has loot on lotto, then when someone loots something, everyone sees a loot box. If they choose to loot, they are all entered into a lotto, the winner gets it. Its that simple. If people dont want it, they decline and aren’t in the lotto. WAY TO GO! That feature rocks.

– Some quests have a light trail to follow. For example, getting to my apartment the first time would have been impossible… but I just followed the little lights and poof.. I was there.

– Heroic Acts.. These are cool chains that can be done by people in a group. For example.. I can click an abliilty to start a heroic act. THen someone else in the group shoudl try to do an ability that maches a certain class of abilities (they have icons to denote the class). If everyone in the chain does them, then good things happen, like really high damage, or a quick buff or something (I didnt catch just what it was.. because my fights were kinda fast, but it was neat, and adds more to combat).

– Macros.. These are so damn easy. Hit the ‘o’ key, and a macro window appears. You simpley type in the name, then the macro, then choose an icon, and you can drag it to your hotbar. Just as simple as can be. Assist anyone?

– No Kill Stealing!! When you engage in combat with a mob, a little icon appears next to you and the mob that shows a lock. This means noone can interfere with your fight, and steal your kill. The only way they can is if you yell for help. At that point you relinquish all your EXP from the monster, and the locks are broken. Then people can save your ass. Nice feautre.

– Treasure Chests. Some kills they drop chests. These are usually trapped (and they could kill you if you were weak after a fight..) so finally a reason for rogues! They are usualy indicative of a nicer loot drop.

– Some visual cues. When you select a person, or a mob, there is a light blue arrow that shows who the player or mob is attacking. Nice touch to help in a fight. You still need the assist button, but its cool.

– Gorgeous effects. No doubt about it, the spell effects are gorgeous.

– underwater slightly blurry vision, and it hangs for a second when you go back above water. I bet that iksar don’t have it, but my Dark elf does. Its cool.

–Mobs are moving around at different speeds that make more sense. RUnning, walking.. all kinds. It somehow is much better than in other games I’ve seen. It feels more.. dynamic. Maybe it was just the anims.. but it felt a bit more scary.

– Interactive environments. Harvest wood from the ground, rocks from the ground, find seashells, all kinds of things. It seems that EQ2 is using the new industry standard of stuff in the environmen to gather the basic resources. At one point I even got stung for a swarm of bees near a beehive. Cool.

–My apartment is way bigger and cooler than i imagined it would be. And placing items in it is easy and frikin awesome. I am very happy with my little shit pad.

– The stupid game launcher is even better. It has news and info (and ads unfortunately) right on the launcher.. so you can read shit while you download.

#3) Some things I didnt like.
– I saw fish chase me out of the water. tsk tsk

– Even though I am certain that MY isle of refuge was an instance of some kind, I was not alone on it (there were some other people on it with me) At one point, a particular spawn was a little busy. So i suspect while Spawn camping has been mitigated, it probably is not gone completely.

– Some things like “/assist” I still had to learn from a person in game. That should have been a button to start with. Though it is VERY easy to do once you do it.

Conclusion:
In the end I think EQ2 is a good game. I wont give it great until I get further into the content. A level 6 does not an MMORPG experience make. It is a different game than WoW is, and I think it should be treated that way. EQ seems to have a less polished, but certainly deeper and richer flavor to it. Both are fun, and I think you should play them both One thing is for sure. If you liked everquest for the way it sucked you into its world. And made you stay up late promising yourself just one more kill then you’d stop. Then let me tell you…

The Crack is Back.