EQ2 Beta Impressions - Part 1

[Kazaba]

Overall I like it and am going to buy it

Things that seem to be pretty popular with most people -

The Graphics -  Qeynos is beautiful, Freeport feels like you are walking through a dangerous slum.  In other words they nailed the look and feel to both.  The outdoor zones look great.  The sky is somewhat mediocre unless the shattered remains of Luclin (they look mighty cool).  Underground zones are creepy.  Blackburrow looks like Blackburrow with the gnolls having 500 more years to breed.  Overall I'd give them an A

(BTW I run the game at the "balanced" or "High Performance" setting.  As an aside if I bump it up to the "High Quality" Setting the performance degredation is noticable.)

Quest System - Some people complain that it's hard to find quests.  I personally think they are crazy as I'd done over 150 "quests" by level 15 (which took me less then a week playing 5 or 6 hours Friday, Saturdsy and sunday and 2-4 hours on weekdays).  Most of the "quests" are one of three types 1) Fed Ex Delivery 2) Slay X # of Y critter because they are terrorising the locals/eatting all the crops etc. and 3) go explore and find a certain place.  They really amount to "tasks" like the OoW task system, but with much better balance and rewards.  Basically quests give the experience grind a bit of focus and reasoning.  Instead of going and killing 100s of critters for no apparent reason like you do in EQ 1 your going and killing them because someone gave you a (usually) good reason to do so.  Also almost all quest drops are not actual drops, they just update your journal, so no hauling 50 batwings or whatever around.

Most quests are given to you by talking to NPCs.  Some are given by drops that can be examined.  Some come from books that you can buy.  Still others come from examining objects in the world.  So there's a lot of sources out there.

The more detailed and time consuming quests are your "Hallmark" quests.  Some of these can be gotten early by talking to the appropriate NPC, but all will appear in your journal automagically when you are a level away from needing them to level.  These quests are more detailed.  I enjoyed the citizinship quest a lot and enjoyed my class quest as well.

Overall - A- to the quest system, as long as new quests keep poping up this system will be pretty good, although I hope there are some more creative quests out there as I move along


Things with Mixed reviews, that I like -

Locked Combat - I'm a fan of locked combat.  Once you've engaged a critter or an encouter (more about encounters later) you cannot recieve help from outside your party/raid until combat is over or you yell for help (of course the mobs can get help so beware of wanderters and respawns as per normal).  If you yell for help you won't get experience or quest drops from anything you are still fighting.  The pluses to this is that K-stealing, and power leveling are impossible.  Of course some people probably think of those as minuses.  

The real downside is that casual help is out the window.  If you are walking through a newb zone and see a newb in a close fight you can't just toss them a heal unless they give up on the fight.  Also, just because you can't K-steal a mob doesn't mean you can't be a jerk and pull a mob that another player or group is obviously preparing to engage.

Linked encounters/Con system - Some critters are linked together, in other words if you pull one of them, you're getting them all.  This makes actaul combat more exciting (at least to me - in EQ one the best way to grind with a group was to have one mob being killed and the next one brought in to camp just as the other one died, that's not going to happen in 2), although it lessens the strategy on pulling.

The con system  - Is somewhat like in one, but there are some big changes.  First of all whenever you click on a mob underneath its name will be "Group" or "Solo."  This does not mean that the mobs are in a group or solo (if mobs are linked in a group, all members of the group will highlight when you click on one), but that the mobs are tuned to be fought by a group or solo.  Defeating mobs/encounters tuned to be fought by a group gives bonus experience.  Secondly the colors are a bit different.  Grey is the same as green in EQ 1- the mob is way below your level and gives no experience.  Green is similar to light blue in EQ1, quite a bit lower level then you, but gives some experience.  Blue, White and yellow are the same as in EQ 1.  Orange is in between yellow and red (which is the same as in one).  The final difference is up and down arrows.  Mobs will have 0-3 arrows above there names pointing either up or down.  The more up arrows they have the harder they are for their level and the more down arrows the easier. It makes a big difference.  A Green mob with 2 up arrows will be as hard or harder then a yellow mob with no arrows.  Basically the game points out undercons or overcons to you.  It sounds pretty complicated, but you get used to it quickly.
 Overall - I like both the con system and the linked mobs.

More to come

[Airelyn]

Sounds cool Kaz,  Thanks for the great review I can't wait to give it a shot myself :)

[Airelyn]

Ok folks EQII ships out to stores November 8th!  I'm excited to give it a try :)

[Aiola]

I will be seeing you on EQ2, i have pre-ordered it and am awaiting it's arival in store (due 20th Nov from what i was told herein Aus). I can't wait to try it out. Hopefully i will keep the name Aiola ... not sure of how the servers are going to be set up ... anyone know this, we should try and get a mini force going and start up on the same server :)

Look forward to seeing you on EQ2, by then i should be on hols from Uni, just not sure what work is going to ask me to do during my break   :rolleyes:

When i pre-oredered i got a Starter Kit which allowed me to play with the char creations and that's about it, but they look soooo funky  :cool:  I am looking forward to the new EQ

[Dwammer]

I haven't seen them announce names for servers yet or how they plan to impliment it. Right now, it's just Beta 1-40. I think it'd be in their best interest to use the same names as the EQLive servers but Sony isn't always noted for doing the obvious.

[Yampus]

I am probably going to buy this. If I like it I will cancel my EQ account and sell Yampus off, or give him to a good home :) Any suggestions on that?

[Saiferus]

hey i got a question did they put something in so you can play with thou zombie friends of mine that out lvl me every week but still allow me to group with the gimp little druid on my heels (trys shaking myrran off his ankle)?