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Earth and Beyond...
Draconis
Member Posts: 8
I notice that this game gets a lot of crap, and I seriously don't know why. I played it for the 30 day trial (Currently do not have the funds to play fully) and I thought it was pretty cool.
I've heard it being called "Everquest in space....with less to do..." Hmm...
I don't see much at all in common between Everquest and E&B. They're set thousands of years apart. Earth & Beyond is set in the real universe, only in the future, while Everquest is set in a made-up fantasy universe. Earth & Beyond has ships...and Everquest does not. Don't get me wrong, I've had Everquest for almost 3 years now, and I like it, but Earth & Beyond has it's strong points too.
Like the Character creation. Earth & Beyond gives you much more options than Everquest. In Everquest you pikc the hair, eye, and skin color, that's it. In Earth & Beyond you can pick the height, weight, skin color/tone/design, hair style/color, clothing style/color. A lot more than Everquest.
I also like the Mission/Quest stuff in E&B better than Everquest. In Everquest, you talk to a guy through a clumsy conversation where you have to use the EXACTLY correct words or you screw it all up. Then once you give your mission/quest, that's it. Nothing happens. You wouldn't even know you were on the quest. Plus you get little to no information on your target. Say you have to kill a certain NPC. The one who gave you the mission might tell you what town or zone he's in, but nothing else. You have to wander out all the way to the town or area and search the entire place for the guy, then kill him. Plus, youaren't told if he has any hlpers or if there is any other dangers involved.
In Earth & Beyond, your quest/mission is given to you through a dialogue with pre-set responses, easier than in Everquest. Plus, you have a special tab that keeps track of all the missions your on so you don't forget. Plus with some missions you can get hints telling you want to do or where to go, so you don't end up too confused. Say your mission is to find an NPC, like my example for Everquest. The person tells you where to look, and they give you more information, like if they're near any spots you can easily find once your there, or if there's much danger involved. Your given directions on where to find this person in the mission tab you can look back at so you don't have to guess if you forgot where to go.
All in all, I wish Everquest had a quest system similar to Earth & Beyond's mission system.
If you read this far and can still understand what my point is, good. If not, here it is; Earth & beyond is not such a horrible game, and is not "Everquest in Space." It does have it's downfalls, such as the extensive time it may take to travel from place to place, and all that. But I still think this game isn't given the credit it deserves.
Comments
I was a big fan of the game. I played it for 8 months. However, I can't suggest it to anyone in it's present state. Here is the letter I posted on the boards of ebportal.com as to why I left the game:
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When I signed up I picked the Jenquai Explorer because I thought of the exploration aspects. I was excited about the possibility of finding new things and making new discoveries. The thought of finding something new and investigating clues to find out what it really is, was right up my alley. However after 8 months of play I have come to the conclusion that will never happen in this game. The developers have continually promised new exploration content. The hope for me would be that it would be explorer only missions and tasks that were puzzle orientated. Over the past month they have made it clear that is not the plan. they have stated that puzzle type things are not in the plans do to the fact once they are solved, they are no longer good. They have also stated that the new exploration epics will be inclusive of all races. For months I have watched as new combat epics have been added each patch in plenty. These are designed for combat heavy players, which a Jenquai Explorer is not. I have sat waiting for activities that I could enjoy, and now Im being told that I wont get things for my class.
Another part of my decision to leave the game is also based upon the mission and story aspects of the game. The story itself has the possibility to be amazing, but the implementation by the developers leaves much to be desired. Instead of being part of the story, the players are merely observers. None of the missions have a real effect on the story. They relate to the story, but they dont affect the story. They also lack real depth and thought. While yes they are full of dialog but they all amount to go here, fetch this, kill this, return here for a reward. Ive given this example before but it is very typical of the way the game is run.
Missions should be challenging and at the end of them players should feel accomplished. That is not the case, fetching is not challenging, waiting for a timer so something spawns is not challenging. The end result never gives the feeling of having done something of note, or something that affects the story. Instead you are thrown some xp, credits, and an item that half the time is of no use anyway.
I was a major story person. I followed it closely and tried to investigate every possible lead. The problem was that EVERY lead ended up in a place where the answer would be Thats left over form Beta, That will be answered more in the future, That is groundwork for future content. Nothing can be followed through to any decent conclusion. I understand the need to have things left a mystery, but you also need to balance that out with things that can be answered. With everything being left wide open, how is a player supposed to feel like they have accomplished something? Ill be honest, the thing I enjoyed the most was coming up with theories and posting them to the story board. There is something very wrong with a game where the most enjoyable thing is making guesses about what is going to happen, then waiting months to see that you are right.
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In addition to all of that, once you reach max level 150, there is nothing to do. The new content they put in is simply more monsters to shoot. Earth and Beyond has the possiblility to be a great game. However it will never be that. Instead it will be just like everything else, lots of pointless combat.