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Disappointed
UsualSuspect
Member UncommonPosts: 1,243
Hey,
I was hoping for something special with all the talk of EQ2, but when I come to play it I'm pretty disappointed. The performance issue isn't something I have a problem with, unlike so many others, sure it slows down a lot on maximum everything, but I still get 20-30fps at 1680x1050 so thats fine. Its the gameplay that gets me down.
Combat is very dull. For example, I tried out a swashbuckler and my attack was the same every time. I could have taught a monkey to fight mobs. Sneak, 2, Auto Attack, 3, 4, move behind target, 5, 6, go back to 3. It was the same with all the classes, it was hitting keys in sequence then wait for recharge to do it all over again. I was having flashbacks to City of Heroes, which was even worse as you only have like 4 attacks in that game unless you spend a week going up 2 levels.
My main character was a Templar, after I'd tried out a few, levelled up to 20 through the Qeynos area. Equipment was pretty poor, +3 sta rings, etc. A bit bored I decided to try out the new Kunark expansion and, no surprise, SOE are up to their usual tricks. Make the expansion have bigger and better equipment so people will buy it. It worked for EQ1, right?
The equipment I was getting at 1st level in Kunark, my Templar hadn't even found anything to compare at level 20. How stupid is that?
Then theres the quest system, which is a bunch of static quests in different areas. What incentive does that give to restarting a different character in the same place? I'm very much reminded of LOTRO in that regard, its just playing through the story you just did.
The challenge is also non-existant, I haven't found a need to group yet, everything dies in three attacks, especially on my new Warlock. My Templar its just, Heroic, Smite, (other damage), repeat until mob is dead. Even the multiple mobs are easy because when they're grouped they're all 'vvv' - 3 down.
I rarely see other players, and when I have they're all two or three boxing. i.e. solo. Isn't that the saddest thing ever? A person joins a massively multiplayer game and is so lonely and/or anti-social that they play by themselves in their corner. Its like watching a child enact a war game on his own with his toy soldiers. Sad.
So, not a lot of draw here. How is the game at later levels? Does it get harder? Do people actually group, or is it solo all the way? I'm really disappointed. After EQ1, which was the Holy Grail of MMO's, EQ2 has gone so soft that I sometimes feel like I'm playing in a cartoon world. Where are the crunches and cries of EQ1? Whats with all the flashy effects and lack of impacts? Is this game for kids?
Comments
It largely matters what server you are on and/or if you are with a guild
the most popular PVE server is Antonia Bayle
EQ2 is a different game than EQ1 except for the Lore
EQ2 has more in common with WOW and COH for gamestyle -- than EQ1
on launch, EQ2 was more group intensive
but the game has been made more solo friendly over last 3.5 years
EQ2 fan sites
I agree with UsualSuspect that EQ2 is a very watered-down MMO. The world is bland, and there is very little challenge. no matter what path you decide to follow. The classes are different enough, but they are only really interesting in groups. Unfortunately, the game is too solo-friendly, so no one ever groups.
Usual Suspect, you do understand that you just described every MMO on the market, right?
Well, I just found out the answer to my last question.
I was back on my Warlock in Kunark and came across an NPC that was going on about Chokemon and how you've got to collect them all, and that they have wonderful powers that they're trying to unlock. And I had my own Chokeball to go and collect a Chokemon that gives me a cute Chokidai pet. Wonderful...
EQ2 certainly is a kids game. It might have been done for humor, but to me it just answered a question I had.
If you don't like it, don't play it.
Simple, really.
There are boring moments, I come and go from EQ2 but I almost always go back to the game at some point.
As for combat? I thought combat was like that in almost any MMO you play. It has been for me. Nothing spectacular in any game I've ever played.
It does get more difficult at higher levels. There are certain classes that are more solo-friendly and then there are some classes that don't solo very well at all and this is where grouping comes in. For the most part, it's pointless to group before level 30, but once you reach level 30 you can generally get into some groups. Whether they are -good- groups or not is debatable. Of course most toons at the lower levels are alts, so the people behind them know what they're doing.
From its launch theres no doubt that the games been watered down..this is a WOW led genre where people want to see results no matter how long they play,the days of hardcore MMOs are long gone its time to accept it.
The chokemon quest was/is a bit of fluff one of the things people said about EQ2 when i first started back in march of 05 was the lack of humour in the game (which to an extent back then was true) but they try to add a little humor and they cant win..its a kids game..the mind boggles it really does.
Difference in the classes/button mashing..well thier are differences between them but unless you go into higher levels of the class you wont really see it tbh,but in some cases the AI is i agree thick as a short plank.
ROK is IMO a woeful expansion,its unbalanced the game badly and added poor content its really a solo expansion theres no variety as to how you get xp you more or less solo to the top of the tree,i only hope that the devs put something into the next expansion far ALL types of players,i.e places to group grind xp and the like while also giving a good vein of solo stuff to do,the OP is right about this aspect of ROK its too much like LOTR with the starter quests but honestly try a qeynos/freeport based toon and dont go to the newbie areas and you'll see a bit of a difference in how you play the game becuase the gear is so poor.
Boxing has always gone in every MMO i've played..i dont understand why people do it but hey its thier cash to use as they see fit,so this "problem" is not an uncommon one in MMO's.
EQ2 despite ROK is still the best MMO on the market at this present time its far from perfect but its good enough for me.
I will not accept it!
If a good MMORPG doesn't come out in the next 5 years, I'll just start making my own. Even if it fails utterly and never gets off the ground, it'll be a refreshing change of scenery from the crap everyone else does (entertainment enough for me!).
I will not accept it!
If a good MMORPG doesn't come out in the next 5 years, I'll just start making my own. Even if it fails utterly and never gets off the ground, it'll be a refreshing change of scenery from the crap everyone else does (entertainment enough for me!).
Make it and i'll play it manBut for now "mainstream" MMOs will just copy the WOW template and hope for some of its success
I will not accept it!
If a good MMORPG doesn't come out in the next 5 years, I'll just start making my own. Even if it fails utterly and never gets off the ground, it'll be a refreshing change of scenery from the crap everyone else does (entertainment enough for me!).
If you build it they will come....
Seriously though, I think the current crop of gamers have been raised on wow and even if they say they want a hard core MMORPG would be screaming the game is crap one week after playing it. I'm afraid the days of a hardcore game are over. EQ has even been watered down over the years and it's still the closest to hard core there is..
I remember laughing when my daughter dinged 30 for the 5th time one week, or my friend who died for the first time and wanted to know what to do because he was naked.... Those were the days, death wasn't inconvenient it was something you hated and pissed you off and terrified you. There will never be another game where running through a zone and getting to a safe spot you need to sit and rest while your heart rate comes down from the sheer terror of running through that zone fearing death. No more will there be epic stories or corpse recoveries and the team work of a group of strangers that all came together to help you recover your corpse.
Today death is just another form of teleport where you gotta pay for it with a few gold to repair equipment.
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Ethion
Ethion said:
"Today death is just another form of teleport where you gotta pay for it with a few gold to repair equipment."
That, sadly, is true of most MMOs I've played in the past couple of years. Death used to be scary but now, as it's been watered down because people don't like the idea of losing gear, status, points, whatever, it's just a form of transportation with a different method of payment.
Bring back permadeath I say.
Oh, and public flogging for pharmers...
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So, you all sat in camps and that was fun?
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If you don't like EQ2, don't play it. Go back to WoW or troll another game
I like EQ2 and everything a/b it.
I will not accept it!
If a good MMORPG doesn't come out in the next 5 years, I'll just start making my own. Even if it fails utterly and never gets off the ground, it'll be a refreshing change of scenery from the crap everyone else does (entertainment enough for me!).
If you build it they will come....
Seriously though, I think the current crop of gamers have been raised on wow and even if they say they want a hard core MMORPG would be screaming the game is crap one week after playing it. I'm afraid the days of a hardcore game are over. EQ has even been watered down over the years and it's still the closest to hard core there is..
I remember laughing when my daughter dinged 30 for the 5th time one week, or my friend who died for the first time and wanted to know what to do because he was naked.... Those were the days, death wasn't inconvenient it was something you hated and pissed you off and terrified you. There will never be another game where running through a zone and getting to a safe spot you need to sit and rest while your heart rate comes down from the sheer terror of running through that zone fearing death. No more will there be epic stories or corpse recoveries and the team work of a group of strangers that all came together to help you recover your corpse.
Today death is just another form of teleport where you gotta pay for it with a few gold to repair equipment.
Oooooooh, what I would give now to play that kind of game. Or during its glory days.
You know, probably MMORPG developers realized that they could not make good money appealing only the percentage of population that's masochist...
Death should be feared, the enemy should be feared, everything should have a risk involved, otherwise when you 'win' then theres no feeling of achievement. EQ1 gave a great sense of achievement, I still remember jumping off my chair, squealing like a schoolgirl and hopping around my room like a maniac when the guild I was in got the server first on killing Emperor Ssra in EQ1. Name another game that can get that sort of feeling and I'll play it.
If someone doesn't like a game, and that person posts their opinion and gives reasons for that opinion, it is a GOOD thing. Just like if someone likes something about a game and posts those reasons, that is also a GOOD thing.
The great thing about public forums is that it helps people who share similar tastes to learn from each other's experiences. On these boards, I have learned that, because of the features I value in a game, Tabula Rasa is not a game I would enjoy.
On the other hand, I have learned that there are many different ways to enjoy a game like WoW, and I have been able to share a lot of experiences, both good and bad, from CoH.
There was a dark moment when I chose to ignore the "haters," and I bought and played Vanguard. It was awful, and I became a hater myself.
If you come here hoping to find a bunch of people who agree with everything you believe, you are here for the wrong reasons.
If you come here and try to separate the well-reasoned comments from the actual trolls and the fanbois who only regurgitate the devs' PR, you will find the forums a valuable tool in your MMOG decision-making.
When it came out it was seen as forcing people to play a specific way and no-one played it, it oculd even be argued it was no small part of the sucess of WoW.
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The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
I'm curious to know what your favorite MMO is Usualsuspect. I think your critiques of EQ2 are valid ones, but as has been stated above, there are few games that do not share the same drawbacks. From your original post, I would think Ultima Online (back in the day) or Eve would offer you more challenge.
Let's face it, if you really want to play a game where the more intelligent, creative, focused player always wins, you're pretty much limited to chess.
My favorite MMO was original EverQuest, but I've enjoyed a lot of others. Anarchy Online, Asheron's Call 2, D&D Online, LOTRO, Matrix Online, Planetside, to name a few. I've never stayed in any of them for long, as they all lack that spark that made me want to keep playing.
Anarchy Online I got a Doctor to 180-something, but then realised there was little to do but PvP and kill the Tarasque, and I'm not a fan of MMO PvP. LOTRO I got a Minstrel to max level, did all the available raids, but didn't see much happening with content so got bored there - especially didn't like it when they dropped raids down to 12 members. DDO was fun the first time around, but theres a lack of players there now which makes levelling very hard. MxO died a death but was kinda fun, and Planetside was fun until they put the Mech things in there.
Nothing has come close to the grouping and gameplay style of EverQuest though, that was a true MMO in the sense that it really was a Massively Multiplayer game. 40+ people working together against insane odds. Massive and Multiplayer. Something developers seem to have forgotten now. Nowadays games are Community Singleplayer.
Didn't think much of EVE, I really didn't like the skill system. It felt like a way of keeping me paying money for months on end. I mean, I'm supposed to wait 20+ days for a single skill to go up a level, and I don't even need to log in to do that? So I'm playing to do what exactly? Hmm.. Yeah, not impressed.
Im in the same boat as you OP. Im bored with WoW. ive played mmo's since EQ and my first 3 year + /played MMO was DAoC.
Ive tried every F2P MMO and just about every P2P MMO.
I only started playing EQ2 a few weeks ago and have leveled a wizard to 36.
The only thing that keeps me from having that carefree, I dont care about leveling attitude, is the fact that it has been out for so long already.Aside from that I have enjoyed every minute of my time so far in game.The community really shines in this title.I have never been called a newb or chastised for asking a simple question in general chat, you dont see people arguing or flaming each other.
EQ2 is not the next big thing nor will it ever be. Is it a solid MMORPG expierence that offers all the bells and whistles you would expect to find in a MMO? YES. Are the graphics better than almost any MMO to date? YES
Ultimately its up to you to decide if you want to play. But if you do find the game that is better than EQ2 and isnt WoW let me know
When it came out it was seen as forcing people to play a specific way and no-one played it, it oculd even be argued it was no small part of the sucess of WoW.
Valid points all i may say..but..(there had to be one didnt thereThe main reason why noone played the game, IMO was the fact the game was so undercooked back in the day,even when i first logged in i wondered wth i'd bought,yup there where corpse runs (coming right after SWG this was a novelty) group debt etc but the thing is it made you think about your actions when grouping becuase everyone suffered if you cocked up,IMO it made you learn your class a little better and its role in the game.
I miss the old days of EQ2 but i'm a realist the game now is as it will be till it shuts down whenever that maybe and hey i like it but i just preferred it back when i started.
Didn't this game bomb at release because it was seen as too hardcore? DP, forced grouping long er quest chains with lower reward?When it came out it was seen as forcing people to play a specific way and no-one played it, it oculd even be argued it was no small part of the sucess of WoW.
Valid points all i may say..but..(there had to be one didnt thereThe main reason why noone played the game, IMO was the fact the game was so undercooked back in the day,even when i first logged in i wondered wth i'd bought,yup there where corpse runs (coming right after SWG this was a novelty) group debt etc but the thing is it made you think about your actions when grouping becuase everyone suffered if you cocked up,IMO it made you learn your class a little better and its role in the game.
I miss the old days of EQ2 but i'm a realist the game now is as it will be till it shuts down whenever that maybe and hey i like it but i just preferred it back when i started.
Another common reason was its hefty system requirements. Many couldn't run it well enough to be playable. SOE was forward thinking in terms of the technology being scalable as hardware got better. But they seemed to overestimate what the average gamer's PC would be capable of at launch. Even at the low-end, it was a resource hog. I remember spending *hours* in the graphics settings tweaking everything, trading off one thing for another to get it to look as good as possible while maintaining playable frame-rates.
Several people I know personally really *wanted* to play the game. They pre-ordered, ran out the day it came out and were absolutely ecstatic as they installed it. They loved the way it was at launch - death penalties and all. They just couldn't run it above anything but almost the lowest settings, and even then it ran really poorly.
Beyond that, I don't doubt that the harsher gameplay environment intimidated some people. I mean, isn't that pretty much what kept MMOs such a relatively "unknown" genre (EQ notwithstanding) for as long as they were.. 'til WoW came along?
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
There is a lot to like about EQ2, though. I'm not a fanboi, so I won't write a book about it, though.
My biggest issues with EQ2:
It's not really 'fun'. Better to say, it's not really as fun as it could/should be. I dunno, but it feels like someone 'sucked out the feeling' (Superdrag reference 1).
I've been in and out of the game since launch, and it's really a tough game for me to try to get into or really feel like I want to invest in it for the long-haul. Perhaps it's the 'end-game' of EQ2 that really does't create that 'drive' or any type of sense of urgency.
Maybe it's the fact that there is really no true PvP system in EQ2. Not that I've seen or heard from. Let me rephrase... not one that generates that 'love/hate' spin on the game between the two factions. Not one that gets the competitive juices flowing, so to speak.
Playing EQ2 reminds me of plaing WoW on a PVE server. 'Blah'. It made me feel like I should've just gone and picked up a good stand-a-lone RPG and tried to multi-player it a few times a week. While I could 'take time to appreciate the lore without worrying about being ganked', the lore begins to get tiresome and watered down after about the 8,000,000th quest.
Like i said, EQ2 does a lot right... but it doesn't really give 'me' anything to look forward to 'end-game' AND It doesn't really do much to get me excited about/looking forward to logging in to play the game.
...
I realize that EQ2 does provide a game to 'casual' players, however. There lies the value and/or market, imho.
The plus side of EQ2: seems to be less 'kiddie's' playing. That is a good thing, imho. When I say 'kiddie', i don't mean any particular age-group. I mean the type of person that actually enjoys 'Barren's Chat' and the finer qualities of Chuck Norris, Dirge, Your Mom, and d00d, j00 r teh sux0r, I r teh 1337.
EQ2 offers an alterantive way of leveling, too. The collection system is nice. It's EQ's way of saying 'hey, we know you're gonna have to kill a ton of 'typeX' mobs on your way to cap, so let's give you some 'mini-content' while you're doing it. Exploration XP is nice, as well (other games offer this, but EQ2 seems to give more... from what I've seen).
Anyway, this wasn't intended to be a 'flame EQ2 post'. But I do think I was disappointed like the OP was.
Well, EQ2 is a WOW clone and WOW is a EQ1 clone. Thats how the market works.
It's not really a bad game except for the PvP and they put in many nice features even though the quests get a bit boring some times, and i hate "go kill 20 of that monster" kind of quests
But the ROK items are unbalanced, like in many other MMO expansions. To bad actually, totaly wrecks the already unbalanced PvP servers.
Ill stick to it a while more, might stop once Conan hit the shelves though. Or Guildwars 2.
EQ2 launched one month *before* WOW existed
Both EQ2 and WOW heavily borrowed from COH and EQ1
EQ2 fan sites
There is no doubt...the game has it's issues. The engine runs like it is old...but luckily can be tweaked...but, I should not have to tweak that much...
The quest system is really quite fun if the person pays attention. The SOGA model system made the character visuals great to play, the combat system is fun if a person takes the time to learn it properly.
I think all these minor points show one major thing. The game needs more attention than say WoW or LOTRO. You have so much to do, that you can feel inundated unless you approach the game correctly. Nothing is ever handed to you on a platter.
And with the new features coming (Guild Halls and a special voice chat system that will allow you to even use your cell phone to talk with your guild..)...it makes the game a more community based , group oriented adventure...(even if you can solo to max...)...and major efforts are being made to fix their hardware problems, with regular updates from the devs on their personal blogs..
But, everyone has different opinions...
Good luck finding what you want, luckily EQ2 has kept my attention for quite a while, and always proves to be fun each time I log in..
Later