EverQuest Online Adventures

"Ugh..ugh..ugh!!"

Everquest is quite known in the PC world. Nicknamed “EverCrack”, the MMORPG (massive multiplayer online RPG) is known to be very addictive and the world to be immensely huge. A PS2 version of Everquest was eventually released (Everquest Online Adventures) and I was curious to see if any of the stories were true. I played the game quite a bit and here I am to return the results.

Graphics: Ugh, where do I begin? To be blunt, the graphics are horrible. It looks like it’s one of the first games that came out on the Playstation (not PS2)..even that feels like giving it too much credit. Everything looks choppy and pixilated, from your character, to the trees, buildings, enemies, etc. All the magic spells look the same. Whenever you perform a spell, usually all you see is some corny lights fly around that look like that came from some B-rated movie. Your minions look really bad as well. All the dungeons are pretty bland as well. I heard that the reason for the poor graphics is to make the game run smoothly without any, no matter what connection you are on. Still though, that doesn’t really change anything with the graphics. I usually don’t really care about graphics but I wish they would at least look like it’s a game for the PS2. (Rating: 2.0)

Sound: Ah, the audio section. I was hoping that this game would have some variety of music. Music? What music? There is only one song that plays in the game, and that is the battle theme. You have the wonderful choices of whether you want Song A or Song B to be your battle theme. The battle theme is very boring, unoriginal, and sounds like someone took a min. to make it. Fortunately, we have the option to have no battle music at all. I wish there was more music in this game! All of the music is in the race select screen, and we aren’t even really paying attention to it there. There aren’t many sound effects either. You will hear the occasional grunt and swords clashing, along with some weird magical spell sound. That’s it. Oh wait, there are birds chirping too! Wahoo. (Rating: 0.5)

Gameplay: Even with the crappy audio and horrible graphics, I would still play a game for a very long time if the gameplay was awesome. Does Everquest have good gameplay? Sadly, no. I can’t see how people can get addicted to this game. That’s another thing. The nickname “EverCrack” is true to the game..for about a day or so. The only time I was really addicted to this game was the first day I played it. After that, it felt like a struggle to play. Where should I begin?

Before you start the game, you select your race and class. The variety of races is nice; I will admit that. After you pick your race, you choose how your person will look like. I’ve heard people in message boards raving and ranting on how much variety there is when you choose your characteristics. There is almost no variety. I think there are 5 different choices in each section (hair, eyes, etc.). Early wrestling games have better creation options than this. Afterwards, you choose your class (the variety is great here too..no I’m not being sarcastic!) and distribute your points. You will then be placed in a certain guild, depending on what class you chose. Now, on to battles.

Battles in this game are extremely boring. Whether you’re a magic user, or a melee person, or a little of both, it is boring. If you are a melee player, all you do is hold a button down until the enemy is dead when you’re in battle. That’s it. There are no tricks to battle, like evading, and other junk. Enemies apparently have a 100% hit rate because I have tried dodging some attacks but I failed. Now, if I wanted to hold a button for a long time, I would go to that one website to see how long I can hold a button down. For magic users, you would just be doing some spell every once in awhile and attack. Seeing that the spells have almost no variety at all, this isn’t really different from attacking with a melee player.

Leveling up is quite the task in this game. At first, it isn’t too hard to level up. However, when you hit around the 20s, leveling up is labor. It isn’t fun anymore. Holding a button down for even more time..woo! At first, I was thrilled to see that it would be quite difficult to level up, but seeing that the battle system is really boring and requires holding down a button most of the time, it didn’t take me too long to just quit the game and play something more enjoyable.

There are quests that are available to your characters from your guild and some random NPCs. The quests are boring and once again have no variety in them. They are mostly “get me this item by killing a certain monster and bring it back” or “kill a certain monster”. That’s it. You get more quests as you level your character up.

The world is HUGE in EQOA. I remember running in one direction for at least 30 min. and it looked like there was no end. There are some other towns that are pretty far away from where you start in, so going on a journey to one of them feels kind of cool. Sadly, to travel around the world, your level has to be quite decent so you won’t die along the way. Having a high level requires leveling up. Leveling up..you know how that is. It is very frustrating to level up if you’re on your own. You have to be in a party to get a lot of exp. In other words, the game forces you to co-operate with others to make your life easier. This is a good thing, but still, even in a party, leveling up is boring. Now you have more people holding down the attack button while attacking the enemy!

Want to run away from a battle? Good luck! Enemies will chase you to the end of the earth and somehow connecting a hit even though you’re 5 meters away from them. Did I mention that they tend to be faster than you? Consider yourself screwed if you try to run.

Overall, EQOA’s gameplay is not fun at all and I’m really disappointed. (Rating: 1.5)

Replay Value: EQOA lives on replay value. Obviously, you won’t be hitting high levels the first time you play. MMORPGs are supposed to be long. Seeing that I really disliked everything in this game, I don’t see how one can play this game for a very long time. 10 bucks a month is a rip-off for a mediocre game like this. Unless you love this game, I can’t see myself replaying this game..especially knowing that I have to pay to play. (Rating: 0)

Overall: I started this game with a positive attitude. I TRIED to like this game, I really did. I even hanged around until I was level 20, seeing if anything would change. Sadly, it stays boring throughout the whole trip. I was really excited seeing that there would be a MMORPG on the PS2 but EQOA didn’t satisfy me at all. I think this is one of those “love it or hate it” games. If you really have to try this game, go to a friend that has it or get the demo. By all means, do not buy it. (Rating: 1.0)

Graphics 2.0
Sound .5
Gameplay 1.5
Replay Value 0
Overall 1.0

Reviewer's Score: 1/10, Originally Posted: 11/11/03