To DVD or not to DVD, that is the question …

Sony Online Entertainment has released two versions of EverQuest II, the box set and the DVD Collector's Edition. The game is the same – same controls, same gameplay, same graphics and sound. Because of that, the review that was written about EQ II stands, and is present below. However, that review will be prefaced with the advantages of purchasing the DVD edition of the game, most of which are highly cosmetic in nature and not in-game.

For example, the DVD edition comes in a metal case, which is a wonderful box to store the game or other items. Instead of a 9-CD installation (and this is the best news of all), the game is installed from two DVDs. There is also a bonus DVD with game trailers and behind-the-scenes footage, as well as a soundtrack CD.

But wait, there’s more …

There is also an exclusive art book and a cloth map of Norrath’s Shattered Lands, as well as a poster with the signatures of Christopher Lee and Heather Graham – who portray the leaders of the two main factions in Freeport and Qeynos. Inside a velvet bag is a collector’s edition gold coin. And all accounts registered with the DVD keys receive a special in-game decoration for their home, a baby dragon. The dragon doesn’t do much other than walk around, sleep and look cute. There is a mini-control panel for the dragon, but these are for feeding, petting, tickling, telling jokes and other household pet commands. Ok, maybe your puppy doesn’t breath fire on command, but it is a harmless pet, nonetheless.

There is also a 128-page art book that features a lot of the concept art from the game. It is a nice addition and certain to please fans of the game.

Ok, got all that? The DVD Edition is a great way to streamline the installation process and smooth the transition into the Shatter Lands of Norrath. All that said, on to the game review …

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The world of Norrath has been shattered and lies in ruins. Evil has overwhelmed the lands and all that once was familiar has been torn down, save for the cities of Qeynos and Freeport. They remain strong, more focused and at odds with one another. Like Athens and Sparta, they are at disparate ends of the spectrum, but they are united in one aspect – both are calling forth warriors and artesians to go forth and reclaim the glory that once sparkled like a shining jewel in the crown of the lands of Norrath.

Make no mistake about it – EverQuest II is not the original title. It may take place in, essentially, the same world, and feature some elements that rolled over from the original title and its many expansions, but this Norrath is brand, spanking new. Sony Online Entertainment is responsible for this new vision and while the game does not truly break a lot of new ground for MMOs, what it does have is a lot of content, an amazing crafting system, and great combat elements.

There are a few flaws, which stand in the way of this being the consummate massively multiplayer online gaming experience, but when you look at the depth of the game, the challenge and the immersive factors, few currently on the market can top this experience.

Little wonder that with 72 hours of launch, there were in excess of 130,000 code keys registered and the number of servers doubled. While EQ II will have a serious challenger quite soon, it is an amazing journey well worth experiencing.

EQ II has a ton of quests available, from simple delivery missions to more complex instanced dungeon areas. Clans, at certain status levels (you gain status by running certain quests), will also get quests. While some of the areas are well camped, as the population ages, this should become less of a problem. Also, for the most part, as certain zones become crowded, the servers cook up another zone.

There is a drawback to that though – which is likely a bug in the game. A player has, on occasion, died and hit the button to select his resurrection area and wound up in a different zoned area other than the one his or her party is in.

Rather than toss all of the elements into a series of long paragraphs, it was simpler to break it down into different areas.

Character creation …

What to pick, what to choose? The game has 15 races, plus one unlockable race (frogloks), and while some can either be good or evil, others are one or the other. Choosing an alignment indicates where you start (good go to Qeynos; evil go to Freeport).

When it comes to your character, there are roughly 16 areas of customization, with most centering on the head. The adventuring class is broken down into four areas – fighter, scout, mage and priest. Each of these branch into three specialty classes at level 10 (for scout it would be predator – which leads to ranger, rogue or bard). At level 20, you further specialize. A cleric could go the path of druid at level 10, then to fury or warden at level 20.

Everyone begins in the tutorial region known as Refuge Island and after you complete certain tasks you are eligible to leave for the city of your choice, either Qeynos or Freeport. There you must complete a citizenship quest to gain access to the other areas of the city. And yes, at a higher level you can do a betrayal mission, which will enable you to transfer your character to the opposite-aligned city.

Combat …

While EQ II uses the line of sight item in combat (if you can’t see it, you can’t attack it), it also has at the core a bonus damage system known as Heroic Opportunities. Each Heroic Opportunity has three phases – the starter, the advancing trigger and the finishing move. The starting move does no damage but initiates the combo sequence. If a member of your team hits a special move before the person who initiated the combo advances to the final combat move (this is all shown onscreen by way of a wheel), the combo can be interrupted and the HO lost – well, maybe. One class can trigger the HO with the starter move and have it advanced by other classes with the final advancement leading to a finishing move in which each of the participating classes can trigger their part for a huge bit of bonus damage. But in order for that to happen, certain moves are required.

Each move, or special attack, has an icon associated with it. Knowing and understanding which icons apply to which skill is key – although SOE offered help in terms of flashing icons on your hotbar.

As each player levels, new skills are acquired depending on class. At game entry you pick a generic class (fighter, scout, mage or priest) and then specialize a little bit further at level 10. At level 20 you can specialize even more. For example, a fighter may go brawler if he or she completes their training quest. Then at level 20, they can specialize by going the route of monk. Each skill class offers bonuses to the base make-up of a class. A barbarian enters the game with 25 strength and 15 agility. To pursue the class to brawler will add +3 to strength and +5 to agility, and then at monk level he or she will receive +2 to strength and +5 to agility. All these numbers, combined with armor, weapons and buffs combine to determine the output damage an avatar is capable of doing. Working to the class strengths will also increase damage output.

Death does happen, and when you die, you drop a spirit shard. Debt from the death experience is charged against experience you will earn as you move forward; it does not detract from the experience you have already gained. Recovering your spirit shard will reduce the amount of debt you have. Time will also work that off. And should members of your team die during a battle, you will share the debt xp.

Thrown into the mix, at certain levels you receive traits – which customize your character even more.

Crafting…

The game’s crafting system is akin to the combat system, but rather than being offensive, you have to counterpunch the problems that occur. While some games would offer players the macro-grind (create a macro to create items, then walk away and come back hours later to see how you have progressed), EQ II has moved away from that by using a random mishap system. As you craft an item, randomly generated mishaps occur. There are several pages of counterskills for those mishaps, and they can usually be broken down into sets, which are consistent for each of the crafting stations found in the game. If you walk away and fail to counter the mishap, you can take physical damage and it is possible to die.

Also, each item you make is comprised of various components – some you can make, others that you may buy. The items that are used to create the components can be substituted for other items, and depending on the items you use, you can increase your odds of crafting a pristine resource. The better the resources (there is failure and then four levels of quality), the better the chance is to create a superior item.

You buy or find recipe books; craft up your skill and at level 10 decide what professional class you will pursue from one of the three offered. Just like the combat/adventurer rankings, at a certain level you specialized even more.

Many of the resources for crafting can be found in the outlying areas, but you must have a certain skill level in order to harvest those in different areas. For example, in order to harvest in Antonica (areas of harvesting include mining, lumberjacking, trapping, fishing and gathering), you must have a skill level exceeding 40. You increase the skill by using it in the lower hunting areas.

This creates some congestion as you will find a group of players dashing about in Oakmyst Forest or the Forest Ruins, harvesting for crafting components or to increase their abilities.

When a player reaches a certain adventuring stage, new skills become available for their class. Those skills are at the apprentice one level. You can buy apprentice II skills from trainers and scribes but from apprentice III and up, you have to turn to crafters (scholars) for the scrolls. SOE has insured that crafting is a viable and strong element of this game. Brokers can be used to sell and one can expect some healthy price competition as more players move into the crafting area.

Graphics and sound …

The game does have a few graphical glitches, which were apparent on machines with both an Nvidia Utra FX card and 6800 card. Some mobs are invisible and you may have a hard time targeting them. This not only applies to mobs you are fighting (which also, sometimes, walk into the walls of zoned dungeon areas), but also to NPCs you have to find for quests. By way of example, you can pick up a delivery quest in Baubbleshire for the inn in Graystone Yard. When you enter the inn, the bartender (the NPC you deliver the quest item to) is not there. However, if you stand in the doorway, you can see him and target him for the ‘hail,’ which allows for the interaction.

While the graphical settings for this game are numerous and beyond the capability of most machines, those with higher-end graphics system will be able to see the amazing detail and beauty of this world. The water effects are some of the best in an MMO to date, the lighting and shadows are phenomenal and intricacies of armor are amazing. The creatures of the Norrath landscape are stunning to look at and the fight animations are superb.

Back in November of 2002, Asheron’s Call 2 emerged and raised the bar for the massively multiplayer market in terms of graphics. Lineage II (April 2004) raised that bar several notches. EQ II takes up a notch even further. The environments are stunning, the character creation is excellent and the special effects are eye-popping.

When it comes to the robust sound track (there is a reason for all those installation disks), EQ II is in a league of its own. Having NPCs talk to you, even though there is a lot of repetition should you approach them several times, speaks to the core of the immersive nature of this game.

Controls and options …

The game can be reset through the options menu for any keyboard configuration the players want. This is relatively easy and the interface, which very big, is fully customizable. You can turn off elements that appear in the chat boxes, reconfigure keys, and have more than one hotbar open at once. The game movement is keyboard driven. Targeting can be a bit of a problem at times. The default auto-target nearest is Tab, but this can be slow at times and it appears hit and/or miss. Hit tab and your attack key on one occasion and your avatar will turn to face the enemy and battle. Hit it on another and you will go into combat mode, but get the message you can’t see your opponent because it is behind you and your avatar does not auto-turn on this occasion.

Overall …

EverQuest II lacks PvP (player-versus-player) of any kind. The developers have said it will not be part of this game. That is a shame. At the beginning you are asked to choose between evil and good alignment, but if there are no consequences for choosing a side, it seems there is little to be lost or gained by choosing either of them. A dueling system, or contended lands would be good. However, that is in the area of elements wished for, not elements the game has.

EQ II is immersive, has one of the best crafting systems in the MMO genre, and while it bears elements used by other games – like the ability to increase skills by using them – the game still is fresh, and exciting. It is a real treat for the eyes and ears. The guild system is rock solid. There is much to do and much to see in this game. The system requirements are a little steep, but the bar for PvE MMOs has definitely been raised. 

Gameplay: 8.9
The game has some glitches and there is the loading time from zone to zone, the timing of which depends on your system’s specifications.

Graphics: 9.3

There are a few flaws with clipping, and you will see different items in relationship to the video card and RAM you have, but this is an amazing world. The animations and emotes are detailed and well rendered, and the special effects are eye popping. This is a game that pays attention to the tiny details and as a result, the whole world comes to life.

Sound: 9.5

While the game has some repetition, this is truly the best sound system in any MMO game – mainly due to the numerous NPCs that actually have voices.

Difficulty: Medium
The game is about challenging yourself, whether in combat or in crafting. Because the mobs are all color-coded, along with your weapons, skills and armor, you can get a pretty good idea what you can and cannot take on.

Concept: 8.8

The depth of the crafting system is amazing, and the game sports a very good clan system. The game also has a lot of content and customizing your avatar as you move along offers a somewhat unique experience. But those items aside, EQ II does not really tread a lot of new ground. This is a superbly enjoyable game, with some nice innovations, though.

Multiplayer: 9.4
EQ II forces grouping as you progress into the game. While you can make a living off killing mobs that con (/consider) lower in level, to tackle the bigger zones (like Firemyst Gully and such) you will need to be part of a group. Is this bad? No. This is a massively multiplayer game. The interaction of crafting in this setting is also well done and the guild system, with levels and status, is solid.

Overall: 9.2

This is an amazing bit of eye candy, and it backs it up with a lot of content. Forced grouping, and lack of PvP of any kind are some of the deterrents to a higher score, and the game has a few visual bugs (invisible mobs and mobs that despawn during the course of a fight and respawn back where they started from) that need to be alleviated. Those mistaking this for EverQuest Live had best wipe that image from their minds and try experiencing the new world of Norrath. EQ II is immersive, and certainly challenging as well as entertaining. For a strictly PvE game, EQ II is a tasty entry in the MMO genre.