EverQuest Online Adventures

"A streamlined cousin of the PC game, fills a big hole in the MMORPG world"

I won a free copy of the game at the metreon event so I have been playing it since Friday 2/8. I was a member of all 3 beta test phases as well trying out various race class combos with my highest being a level 20 Barbarian Rogue in beta 3.

The game has been getting very mixed reviews from critics, much like its PC brethren did. Back in 1998 EQ provided the first true 3D MMORPG to the U.S. market and managed to under whelm graphics whores while gradually increasing its fan base which is now at an all time high.

The PS2 version enters the market with similar results, although with the heavy burden of living up to the PC game and all its deep and reworked expansions as well as competing with the JPN only (as of this release) FFXI.

From the outset SOE has stated that EQOA is not designed for the EQPC player. It is geared specifically to the console audience, the ''casual gamer''. EQPC has shifted focus over the years to deal with 400,000 active accounts all striving for level 65 uberness, god slaying, dragon hunting and epic questing.

The gods, dragons and epics are back in EQOA, but with a completely new game engine in terms of graphics, game play and geometry. Set in 500 years in the past EQOA introduces players to the continent of Tunaria while the Ogres are still in self imposed exile and races like the Iksar are just dreams.

To the point EQOA does a nice job of presenting the world of everquest to PS2 owners in ''bite sized'' portions. All classes fall into 1 of 4 archetypes; casters, healers, tanks, melee. Gone are the ultra specific roles in EQPC that have been constantly tweaked and rebalanced over the years to satisfy player complaints of ''my class is pointless'' or ''rogues are over powered!''. One of the greatest features of EQOA is the entire game is balanced towards a 4 man group (with some high end encounter exceptions) Instead of trying to create the ''perfect group'' of 6 players with a cleric/chanter/warrior/wizzie/monk/bard. A tank of any type will do, as will any old healer can do just as well as a cleric. The classes are by no means identical, but they can perform their assigned task well enough. Rangers finally get ousted as a 'tank' and are instead melee damage dealer focussed. Paladins are no longer 'mini clerics' at high levels and 'mini tanks' at low levels. They are tanks with paladin specific spells, gone are the healing and rez spells from EQPC those are specific to all priests instead (shaman, druid, cleric)

This simplicity makes for a nice plug and play for those logging long hours and those in short play sessions. If you are hunting for a few hours replacements in your group are easy to be had, and those who have 30 minutes to kill before dinner have a much easier time finding a group, they wont resent you when you log out like EQPC because of the downtime you can create in the PC game.

Along with class balancing being more streamlined, spells and combat are also compressed, re tuned and frankly more balanced compared to the PC game. All classes now use ''power'' instead of ''mana''. No more ''timed mana less skills'' for warriors , rogues , monks etc... Everyone has what is essentially a spell list and all those spells/abilities drain the same blue bar of power. This helps balance enchanters nicely, gone is the need for mezmerize , haste and slow in EQOA instead keeping everyone's power bar refreshed is important, just like a healer keeping the hit points up.

The basic gameplay is very familiar to EQPC players but different enough that most PC vets will either turn away in revulsion or joyfully accept the changes. No corpses period. No losing levels on death. All classes can gate. Coach signing provide instant transportation. No zoning whatsoever. THe list goes on and on.

Some of these features may sound like they are making the game too easy, but the lack of corpses is a double edged sword. Its nice that if you die you don't need to run back to where you were, but since you return to your bind point you need to run back to somewhere if you want to lose that XP debt you just incurred. No zoning is fantastic, but the world is extremely large and much easier to get lost in than EQPC where zone lines help you figure out where you are.

The first thing most players will notice is the graphics of EQOA. Certainly improved over the 1999 version of Everquest (especially the lighting) people expecting Luclin type graphics are not going to get it. Face it the PS2 has 32mb video memory and you can only stretch that so thin. Most highly detailed games like Rygar and Devil May Cry have incredibly small levels. You could fit the entire game world of DMC and Rygar into a single zone of EQOA and have room to spare. There are about 36ish zones for the release, that should give you an idea about how large EQOA is.

The graphics are designed to represent a vast world for exploration and adventure where dozens of characters do battle in real time on the screen at the same time. As a result the textures are a bit weak and the character models don't have the detail of say a Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance. However there is a nice lighting model in the game and the particle effects contribute a lot to the game. The whole thing looks far better in motion than the screen shots show and EQ is all about a ''feel'' rather than a stylized look.

At its core EQOA is still a MMORPG , you start out wearing nothing and fighting rats with a rusty sword. The point of the game is to make friends, do quests, explore and level up so you can see bigger and badder things. It is not a story about a spikey haired teenager who must save the world from evil shadow people and kiss the girl in the process. EQOA is about your story, your friends, your guild, your battles things you do together.

That will make or break the game for most people. If you are the type that only enjoys ''beating'' others at games, or tormenting people with spam or playing with the flying cheat in SOCOM EQ is not designed for you. This is a co-op game designed around trust in your group mates and sharing the rewards of battle. Selfish players who hoard loot will quickly find themselves friendless and group less and probably blame the game instead of their own shortsighted actions. This again is nothing new to the MMORPG genre as thousands of players have committed some extremely selfish online acts only to find that it was not in their long term interests to ninja loot that uber weapon after all ;)

In short, I love EQOA, I feel like it was designed specifically for me, the player who some days is a casual 30 minutes and other days I have 4 hours to grind the XP. I am a ''want it all'' player , I want to raid, but I don't want to spend my whole week raiding. I want uber items, but I don't have 60 hours a week to quest for them. EQOA breaks up quests and just about everything else into bite size pieces, so you can take a chunk of that epic quest and get it done in 45 minutes, come back in 2 days and do another chunk. That is exactly what I wanted.

The game is not without its flaws, but once you are hooked they become minor annoyances and with a MMORPG you can always pester the developers hoping they will change them :)

Overall Score: 8.5

Graphics - 6.5

not the smoothest looking PS2 showpiece, the graphics excel in under the hood technologies. Probably the biggest ''world'' every created on a console, all streaming in real time, with nice edge anti aliasing

Sound - 5

Probably the weakest part of the game is the sound engine, then again I haven't heard a single thing on any MMORPG that was all that much better

Gameplay - 9

The streamlined class balancing, quest engine and battle interface take a bit to get used to , but I would never want to go back to declaring my race/class/level/gear/AA points etc... trying to shoehorn myself into a group like EQPC. Pick a class, any class and you are good to go, weapons help but you don't need an uber weapon just to survive. Still some lingering annoyances (like buddy invites getting blocked if you are typing) need work

Fun Factor - 9.5

the fact that I can solo if I need to is great, on the downside solo play is pretty boring. The game is addictive for a reason.

Replay - 10

With all the race class combos and promised expansions, this game will provide more hours of fresh content/experiences than any other console game ever released, that is not hopeful thinking, but hard fact. Whether or not you like it is obviously up to you

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/11/03, Updated 02/11/03