EverQuest Online Adventures: Frontiers

"Like fantasy? Like adventure? Like paying a monthly fee to play 1 very long game?"

Introduction:
This is the second EverQuest game for the PlayStation 2. It is an expansion from the first game that adds quite a few things to the game. As a MMORPG (Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Game), you must pay a monthly fee to continue playing the game online using either a dial-up modem or broadband. The reason you play it online is because everyone else that has the game can connect and play right along with or against you, while you chat and make friends.

Story: 5/10
There is no real story in the game, but you can find some lore on the game’s web site. You are, however, put into little scenarios for quests. For example, you might meet someone that says there has been some monsters that are attacking villagers at night and wants you to kill them.

Game Play: 9/10
There is a lot of game play here. You start off by creating your character. You have 10 different races to choose from and can pick 1 out of 15 classes for that character to be. After your character is created you are sent to Norrath, the game’s world, and put in a town that your race is from and in a guild’s building that goes along with your class. You then start doing quests and just like the game’s title says, there are a lot of them. There is not a whole lot of variety, mostly you have to go kill a monster or get some item from somewhere, but what makes it really fun is that you can do this with anyone around the world. As you’re doing all of this you gain levels and when that happens you are able to add statistic points to your character to basically, make them stronger. The highest level you can get to is 60 which might not seem like a lot but it will actually take a long time to get there. Now if you want to test your character’s strength, you can by using the new player versus player option, which means you, will battle against other players like yourself.

Graphics: 7/10
The graphics are okay. Everything is pretty smooth and detailed but they’re not even close to games like Final Fantasy or Resident Evil. The world you play in is huge and beautiful. There is almost every kind of environment you can think of, from icy landscapes to desert wastelands.

Control: 8/10
The control in the game is kind of complex that might take a little while to getting used to. There isn’t really any fast paced action so you can take your time with all the buttons. What makes it complex is if you don’t have a keyboard, which you can have to chat while gaming, is that there are lots of sub menus to go through if you want to chat or do special attacks or use healing items.

Music: 7/10
The world is a little quiet while you are exploring but when you get into a town or battle you are treated with some nice symphony music.

Replay Value: 9/10
The only replay value I could see there being is after beating the game, which will take a very long time, is to just create new characters and continue playing. There are lots of little things to do though, such as, making yourself your own weapons and armor and going fishing. Don’t forget all the quests.

Difficulty:
This game is hard by yourself but if you find a clan and friends to play with, it’s much easier.

Overall Score: 7.5/10, which must be an 8/10

Conclusion:
This is a great game if you can afford it. You have to consider you’ll need to spend a lot of time playing to really experience everything the game has to offer and you have to pay that fee every month.

Hail!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/15/04