Everquest 2 - First Impressions

Pasomatt

Recently started playing Everquest 2, and after reading an idiotic post (i.e. I've never even tried EQ2 but it sucks!) I figured I'd post some impressions from having actually played the game. Here we go from the beginning.

1. Character Creation.
Fairly straightforward, and limited in terms of actual manipulation of your form. (at least in comparison to SoE's other game, Star Wars Galaxies.). Where its shallow in manipulation, its abundant in choices. There are a large variety of races to choose from, each with its pluses and minuses, and anyone familiar with Everquest will likely be semi-familiar with these.

The setup is quirky in that it names the hair and beard styles. Something not so much innovative or new as it is just different and a small little thing that makes you wonder. (Heh.)

I'd say there is nothing extradordinary here, and compared to other games in the genre (like DaOC, World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XI) it has neither improved or degraded the system.

2. Getting Started.
In what appears to be a trend, the game whisks you away on a boat to an island. Though I shouldn't skip ahead... You start on a boat. Admittedly I toned some of my graphics down (better safe then sorry) so I'm likely missing some of the splendor, but it was really pretty. The water rises and falls in the background, people mill about the boat's deck, and the voice-overs are not horrible.

The boat is a tutorial that teaches you the extreme basics, like looking around, walking, talking, attacking, and dealing with NPCs and doing quests. Its all fairly straightforward for any semi-veteran, and despite the tedium of phrases like "Press the right arrow key, or the D key to move left", the environment is immensely enjoyable, and puts a spin on 'tutorials' in general.

This, I feel is highly innovative, and beats skimming through a manual anyday. There is an option to skip it, so don't worry about being sucked into a needless tutorial.

So as I was saying, in what appears to be a trend, the game whisks you away to an island. This 'newbie' island, is basically a place to do introductory quests, and build up your character before going to the mainland. It lets you go more in depth into your character development. You fight things like goblins, or hunt prey if your a scout.

Everything is nice looking, the monsters talk (sometimes), and generally the world feels well developed.

Voice overs are abundant, and seemingly fit (for now), I hope that they don't turn to reusing actors and sound-bytes throughout the game, as a year from now it may get highly repetitive.

3. Speculations and Observations
-The "grind" so far has been non-existant. For the most part I've been on relatively fitting quests and gaining levels naturally. There has been no "Go kill 30 Such and suches and return". Its more like... "The city is in need of meat, go hunt some deer and return their meat". Or "prove your worth and kill a goblin". They make you feel a part of the world, and its highly enjoyable (so far.)

-The graphics are indeed great, and running smoothly on my computer, which is average. (128 mb video card, 512 ram).

-There is no lag to speak of on my server.

-The game has a cinematic appearance, with a 'wide-screen' set up (black bars on the top and bottom of the screen). Not sure yet if this is adjustable or removable, but so far I'm liking it.

-There are many many players even on my low population server.

4. Conclusion (for now)
The game offers mild innovations, namely the voice-overs as their hyped feature, with numerous tweaks to make the feel of the game more intuitive. I'd not say its revolutionary, but I think that its added nice touches in simple interfaces, and not just reused plain menus.

That is what I have so far. I'm very enthusiastic to say that the game has been standing up to its hype and not disappointing on a number of aspects promised and shown in screen-shots. I hope to have more impressions as my time goes on with the game, as so far its only been a few hours.

jimothypetro

Good overall review, and I agree with most of your points.

And yes you can turn the black bars at the bottom and top off. In options under "letterbox".

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