Originally posted by veritas_X 

Eh, I'm sorry but those are opinions, and very general ones at that. 

'Almost nothing worked?'  Really? 

I call bullshit, since I was there.  The professions worked fine.  Yes there were bugs, a lot of them, but to say the game mechanics were in the concept stage is a gross generalization and flatly inaccurate.  All 30-odd professions had their defined roles, they differed substantially from one another, and players were able to grind xp and complete their templates as they saw fit.  Additionally, crafting/resource gathering worked as intended from the start (with some bugs, mind you, but nowhere near the unplayable state your post seems to indicate).

As far as 'little to no content,' I have to laugh every time I hear someone say that about original SWG.  Well no shit, there was no quest content, BY DESIGN, as Koster specifically wanted to make an experimental sandbox game where the majority of the content was player driven.  Apparently that fact is still lost on a few people, lol.

 

No things did not work fine and the game was still in the concept stages.  The HAM system for example was a brilliant concept, but didn't work out very well, because it had not been flushed out into a functionally balanced mechanic.  It was very raw and just didn't promote solid gameplay.   That is why certain classes dominated pvp combat, but at the same time were a complete waste in pve combat.   

Every crafting career had recipes that did not function, called for materials that didn't exist or some other wackiness and it wasn't just a few things.  Combat arts that didn't work, were weaker than basic skills, etc  Carbineers did more damage to themselves than they did to mobs for example.  Yes things "worked", but it was very much still in the concept stages, because there was no balance, because there were so many things did not play as they were intended to by design.  Grouping a rifle, carbineer and pistoleer was a fruitless effort, because they all whittled away at different health pools which was rather useless.  Sure people could build templates, but there was so many things broken in the game.  Yes it was fun, but that was despite the broken mechanics of a game rushed to market.  Corpses were bugged out.  Classes were broken.  Characters would get locked out of the game for days. Houses would just disappear.  Harvesters stop functioning.  Crafting bugged, broken or missing.  Schematics would randomly change or disappear.  The engine struggling with more than 10 people in combat.  An unfinished galactic civil war system that has been overhauled more times than I can count.  Everything about the game was semi-finished and the "content" had not even been implemented.  No cities, space combat, vehicles, etc.  The first things players were begging for was a combat revamp and soe promised that was the first order of business.  If that doesn't show how unfinished the game was I don't know what does.

Even the "contenteless" concept people toss around as if this was how raph intended the game is misleading.  There are so many points of interest in the game that have nothing to them.  Nothing but a place to visit with zero to interact with.  No tools to build, interact or anything for players to "make" content with.   It is pretty obvious that the team had goals for these locations and other parts of the game.  Some had objects or npcs to interact with, but no hooks.   For example there is a spot on Corelia where Rebel NPCs and Imperial troops are fighting over some small fortified area. 

I'm fairly certain the game was intended to be more than what it was released as.  The team only had 3 years to put it together and they didn't even finished the foundation of the game.  Is it any wonder why they didn't get around to putting in content?  No, I don't mean quests either.  Luke Skywalker is sitting in the old jedi temple on yavin and only rebel characters were permitted to enter the area.  I'm sure there was something planned for that other than people getting to walk in and do nothing other than see a major cast member standing there. 

I have to laugh when people say swg delivered anything as intended at release.  It is obvious that the game was not finished on so many levels it isn't even funny. 

Originally posted by DoomsDay01

I have played EQ2 a couple of times and the same thing always gets me about that game. I do not like the fact that you have to purchase your spells from other players. Sure you can get apprentice versions from npc's but lets face it, without adapts most of the powers sucked and you could barely function for your class. The other part that really ticked me off about that was how overpriced the adapts where. Sure there were a few classes that could adapts cheaply but for most of the people playing it was very hard to afford your spells. It was a catch 22, people didnt want you in their groups if you didnt have certain spells at adapt levels yet these are the same people that put the adapts up for a level 10 person at several gold a piece.

Me and a buddy of mine went back and played  last year. he played a swashbuckler and I played a warden. It was night and day for the costs of our spells. He was able to buy adapts of every single power he had up to level 20 and none of them ever cost him more than 50-60 silver and that was when he was near 20 and heck, even when he was up in the 40's his costs still only got to a couple of gold per spell. My wardens powers were costing me several gold a spell before I even got to 10. there were lots of spells I couldn't buy simply because I couldn't afford them.

I hated this model when they put it in EQ1 after the first expansion. I dont mind having to travel around to vendors to get my spells and I dont mind if I have to do some quests to get them, but having them as random drops off of mobs so that people can sell them is just wrong. I had 2 chars that made it to around 60 and a couple that was in the mid 30's. I can honestly say that I never had more than 2 or 3 spells ever drop for my own class and as for master drops, I got 3 total master drops combined with all my characters and yes I know they were supposed to be rare but thats still crazy. Im sorry, there is just no way anyone can justify this type of spell drop system. I still remember my first character (a cleric) that saw his first adapt spell (a level 2 spell) that was selling for 10 gold. This was right at the start of the game. Nobody had 10 gold. Heck I was in the mid teens before I actually had more than 5 gold to my name. Sorry, I just can not play a game like that any more. I am surprised that I lasted as long as I did considering how bad I hated it in eq1. I will say though, I will never play another mmo that has that type of a spell drop system again. Its just not worth the frustration.

 

Low level adepts are highly overpriced.  I usually just by app4 spells or have someone craft the adept 3s for me.  The problem with adept 1s at low levels is there aren't a lot of low level people playing.  So the supply is pretty thin and hence the price is high.  At low levels you are best off just skipping them.  In fact for the first 20 levels or so it is so fast leveling up I don't really even bother upgrading all my spells.  I'll check the broker and buy app4s or I'll just use the app2.  I think it was around lvl 30 on my cleric that I finally started having people make some adept 3s for me.

Making adepts does take a rare and if you have the rare people will do it for you pretty cheap.  Same with making armor.  Course crafters can make app4s for very cheap.  A few common harvests that sell for coppers and fuel which is also pretty cheap.

John

Originally posted by socrates656

Originally posted by Meleagar

I played EQII for about a month. Frankly, the game was just ugly. All the avatars were ugly, and the world was ugly. WoW was much better looking and had artistic style and flair.   Being a casual player, it's not like either game offered me anything beyond that.

 

yeah. but thats because you are a casual gamer. You like the instant gradification games. You probably wouldn't even like the original Starwars Galaxies eather

You are funny. EQ2 is a super casual game now.

Originally posted by grandpagamer

Originally posted by Samuraisword

What an odd question.

Simply put, EQ2 sucks, and it's also an SOE product.

 

Coming from someone promoting the failed game Darkfall i find that a pretty good endorsement. 

This made me laugh.  ^5

I played EQ 2 long time ago, so not sure what has been changed since then. However these are reasons why I don't play it anymore:

1. SOE product. Not going to say anything more about this....
2. Avatar graphics were then poorly made. Same model was just retextured with different armours. Environment graphics looked okay.
3. Numerious expansion packs, extra services and paid to play content. It just started to feel like that each month I was supposed to pay extra money from new services, extra content or whatever SOE invented that month after my subscription fee.
4. SOE station exchange was launched around same time. And at time it felt like that they were deceiving all honest players and reward those players who were paying from gold.

Otherwise EQ2 felt very similar with WoW. Samekind quest, leveling and combat. So instead of EQ2 I did choose WoW.Thought I liked from housing and crafting in EQ2 - but they were very basic.

Originally posted by Resetgun

I played EQ 2 long time ago, so not sure what has been changed since then. However these are reasons why I don't play it anymore:

1. SOE product. Not going to say anything more about this....
2. Avatar graphics were then poorly made. Same model was just retextured with different armours. Environment graphics looked okay.
3. Numerious expansion packs, extra services and paid to play content. It just started to feel like that each month I was supposed to pay extra money from new services, extra content or whatever SOE invented that month after my subscription fee.
4. SOE station exchange was launched around same time. And at time it felt like that they were deceiving all honest players and reward those players who were paying from gold.

Otherwise EQ2 felt very similar with WoW. Samekind quest, leveling and combat. So instead of EQ2 I did choose WoW.

Sorry, but this is from the first 1-2 years. So much has changed since then. It's not even funny.

There were only 2 adventure packs released and are now made free since a long long time ago already.

Station Exchange caused luckily an uproar so they kept it to seperate new servers. Can't say it's a real success really.

Altho I hate Station Cash and the way it was stealth patched in. So far it indeed seems to be fluff crap. And they going to use it for Paid Character transfer services, expansion sale, char renaming (already in), character appearance change (already in) and such.

The game has more content and features then any other MMO out there to date.

The reason not more people are playing this good game (to answer the OP) is because SOE TOTALLY SUCKS at Marketing. Always have and always will.

Cheers

I believe Sony's plan was to capitalize on the popularity of EQ and to let its fanbase be the advertising for EQ II. Apparently they were wrong.

Originally posted by Guillermo197

Sorry, but this is from the first 1-2 years. So much has changed since then. It's not even funny.

There were only 2 adventure packs released and are now made free since a long long time ago already.

Station Exchange caused luckily an uproar so they kept it to seperate new servers. Can't say it's a real success really.

Altho I hate Station Cash and the way it was stealth patched in. So far it indeed seems to be fluff crap. And they going to use it for Paid Character transfer services, expansion sale, char renaming (already in), character appearance change (already in) and such.

The game has more content and features then any other MMO out there to date.

The reason not more people are playing this good game (to answer the OP) is because SOE TOTALLY SUCKS at Marketing. Always have and always will.

Cheers

What?  EQ1 is getting what, Their 16th expansion this fall? Sorry, I disagree with that statement completely. EQ2 has a long road ahead of them before they can match eq1 in content.

And SOE does not suck at marketing, that is one of their best abilities, what they suck at is game management. They dont listen to their customers and think they know what is better for their customers than the customers do. That is where they totally suck. Look at all their games, EQ1 and EQ2 is now EQeasy. Matrix is gone, SWG is a fraction of what it once was and not because of its age, Vanguard I wont blame on them as it was already in trouble when they got it. The rest of their games are just indicative of how the company handles game management, boring and uninteresting. One day, when they actually get people who really know how to run a game in management, we will see them come back to a higher status. Until then, they will remain as SOE sucks.

Originally posted by DoomsDay01

Originally posted by Guillermo197

Sorry, but this is from the first 1-2 years. So much has changed since then. It's not even funny.

There were only 2 adventure packs released and are now made free since a long long time ago already.

Station Exchange caused luckily an uproar so they kept it to seperate new servers. Can't say it's a real success really.

Altho I hate Station Cash and the way it was stealth patched in. So far it indeed seems to be fluff crap. And they going to use it for Paid Character transfer services, expansion sale, char renaming (already in), character appearance change (already in) and such.

The game has more content and features then any other MMO out there to date.

The reason not more people are playing this good game (to answer the OP) is because SOE TOTALLY SUCKS at Marketing. Always have and always will.

Cheers

 

What?  EQ1 is getting what, Their 16th expansion this fall? Sorry, I disagree with that statement completely. EQ2 has a long road ahead of them before they can match eq1 in content.

And SOE does not suck at marketing, that is one of their best abilities, what they suck at is game management. They dont listen to their customers and think they know what is better for their customers than the customers do. That is where they totally suck. Look at all their games, EQ1 and EQ2 is now EQeasy. Matrix is gone, SWG is a fraction of what it once was and not because of its age, Vanguard I wont blame on them as it was already in trouble when they got it. The rest of their games are just indicative of how the company handles game management, boring and uninteresting. One day, when they actually get people who really know how to run a game in management, we will see them come back to a higher status. Until then, they will remain as SOE sucks.

Ya that more content statement is way off.

Asheron's Call has had monthly updates which release new content since it was released. Last year they had their 100th update, so that's 100 patches each of which added content to the game.

People don't like EQII that's why there's not more people playing it, that simple.

Originally posted by durton

Originally posted by socrates656

Originally posted by Daffid011

Originally posted by socrates656 

Did you know you can craft better looking stuff then the items in the cash shop? Everything you get with the 15$ subsciption is actually better then what the cashshop provides. Hardly anyone even buys anything out of there.
 

It's to bad you havin't even played EQ2 or even seen the Cashshop, because you would see it's not as bad as you say. I mean seriously, how can you honestly know when you havin't even seen it for yourself? You have no idea what you are talking about, because your obviously pretty ignorant if you think that way, when you havin't even seen it. Now I see how Bush got in as a president. WoW

"It isn't that bad".  

This game has station exchange so players can sell items to each other for real cash (soe tried to push it on every servers, but player outrage stopped that)

The game also has loot cards that soe pushed down the players throats every few months.  Soe didn't make the mistake of asking for player feedback on this.

Now there is a cash shop that you say "isn't that bad" which is admitting is bad.

 

hahahahahaha thats awesome.  Sir you made my day.
 

Thanks, I Thought I'de bring some humor into the thread :D

Originally posted by qombi

Originally posted by socrates656

Originally posted by Meleagar

I played EQII for about a month. Frankly, the game was just ugly. All the avatars were ugly, and the world was ugly. WoW was much better looking and had artistic style and flair.   Being a casual player, it's not like either game offered me anything beyond that.

 

yeah. but thats because you are a casual gamer. You like the instant gradification games. You probably wouldn't even like the original Starwars Galaxies eather

 

You are funny. EQ2 is a super casual game now.

If you Read the post above. I quoted it to show I was responding to his comment about wow. I was comparing it to WoW. WoW is more of a casual game then EQ2. I am sorry I should have made that more clear in the reply.

Cheers

Originally posted by girlgeek

Originally posted by grandpagamer

Originally posted by Samuraisword

What an odd question.

Simply put, EQ2 sucks, and it's also an SOE product.

 

Coming from someone promoting the failed game Darkfall i find that a pretty good endorsement. 

 

This made me laugh.  ^5

yeah this made me laugh too.
 

his signature he has a picture of Dark Fall online... lmao

Originally posted by Guillermo197

Originally posted by Resetgun

I played EQ 2 long time ago, so not sure what has been changed since then. However these are reasons why I don't play it anymore:

1. SOE product. Not going to say anything more about this....
2. Avatar graphics were then poorly made. Same model was just retextured with different armours. Environment graphics looked okay.
3. Numerious expansion packs, extra services and paid to play content. It just started to feel like that each month I was supposed to pay extra money from new services, extra content or whatever SOE invented that month after my subscription fee.
4. SOE station exchange was launched around same time. And at time it felt like that they were deceiving all honest players and reward those players who were paying from gold.

Otherwise EQ2 felt very similar with WoW. Samekind quest, leveling and combat. So instead of EQ2 I did choose WoW.

 

Sorry, but this is from the first 1-2 years. So much has changed since then. It's not even funny.

There were only 2 adventure packs released and are now made free since a long long time ago already.

Station Exchange caused luckily an uproar so they kept it to seperate new servers. Can't say it's a real success really.

Altho I hate Station Cash and the way it was stealth patched in. So far it indeed seems to be fluff crap. And they going to use it for Paid Character transfer services, expansion sale, char renaming (already in), character appearance change (already in) and such.

The game has more content and features then any other MMO out there to date.

The reason not more people are playing this good game (to answer the OP) is because SOE TOTALLY SUCKS at Marketing. Always have and always will.

Cheers

Thanks for the intellegent reply. I can see what your saying here, and you probably are right about SOE being pretty bad at marketing. I've never liked SOE myself, but there games EQ2 and Vanguard are pretty good games IMO. I am surprised more people don't play them, and people would rather have WoW in their hands. But I guess the reason for that is because of SOE. Most of the answers on this thread have been mostly about SOE and how much they have been burned by them through customer support, or just general and drastic changes to their past games.

I don't blame how people feel about SOE, its too bad SOE were so bad to their customers. I guess alot of that is the result of what I see now in their games. (Just not as many people playing their games anymore)

Originally posted by DoomsDay01

And SOE does not suck at marketing, that is one of their best abilities, what they suck at is game management. They dont listen to their customers and think they know what is better for their customers than the customers do. That is where they totally suck. Look at all their games, EQ1 and EQ2 is now EQeasy. Matrix is gone, SWG is a fraction of what it once was and not because of its age, Vanguard I wont blame on them as it was already in trouble when they got it. The rest of their games are just indicative of how the company handles game management, boring and uninteresting. One day, when they actually get people who really know how to run a game in management, we will see them come back to a higher status. Until then, they will remain as SOE sucks.

SOE has the worst marketing of any game I've seen.  When the last eq2 expansion came out I went to my local gamestop and went in to preorder the expansion.  When I walked in the store there was a freaking pyramid of wow game expansion boxes advertising the wow expansion, there were wow posters on the wall, there was a sign on the check stand saying PREORDER WOW NOW!! 

I walked up and said I wanted to preorder the new eq2 expansion TSO, the guy was hmm let me look that up.  Ah yes it is coming out in 2 weeks.  So I preordered it.  When I went there to pick it up he was like I'm not sure what game this is, did we call you?  I'm like yes.  He went looking for it and came back and said we are all out I'm sorry.  I'm like I freaking preordered the game can you find someone with a clue.  He went back and found two copies... Nothing on the shelves, No promos, No displays, sales people that don't even know about the game....

Honestly if SoE is good at marketing then maybe I'm in the twilight zone where good means bad or something....

Vanguard is a pretty damn good game but if you went to a store and asked about it they probably wouldn't know what it was.  I mean VG has it's issues but for a PvE game it is really probably the best thing on the market if you like a deep game. 

Ok I'm done with venting.... 

Simple reason: It has item mall.

I was about to test its crafting system but after the item mall was setup I decided not to play.

Actually, this seems to be a huge issue with Gamestop in particular. I notice they ONLY carry PC games that sell. They have been phasing PC games out of the stores for alot in the past few years. It annoys the snot out of me personally. I have to go to Best Buy to see a good selection of retail PC choices and that is usually only the more recent stuff. May want to check them out though.

To be honest this is a great game i played it for 3 years. The item mall they put in to the game is NOT ruining the game since they are bound to 2 servers. And it lets others sell there toons once they quit. Most ppl dont play because  of the 15 a month or the fact that as i hear alot "its a WoW clone" Even though it was released way befor WoW lol. Sure its run by SOE the company that ruins all the games it touches but still a fun game.

Yes it is a fun game. I got TSO at best buy and agree that gamestop isnt the place go go for pc games. the one in my area has a few but i didnt see more than one copy of anything and the selection was small. but honestly even at best buy TSO wasnt on the shelves long, once what they had was gone i guess they never reordered.

My reasons for not liking EQ2 are as follows:

1. Hate the class system. It honestly feels like most classes are very similar. Troubador and Dirge felt very similar, Warlock and Conjuror felt too much alike. Wizard and Warlock felt the same, just with a different role. Paladin and Shadowknight felt too similar, and all the scout classes felt the same minus the assassin and ranger starting the fight(solo) with arrow attacks.

I played so many of the classes to 20+ and didn't feel like any of them were unique except the Monk and the Conjuror/Necromancer.

2. The graphics/art style. It's abysmal imo. I can't stand the graphics, there's nothing to look forward to on a cool factor, everyone looks the same and the armor/characters look atrocious. Note...this is MY opinion.

3. The beginning of the game was empty, there wasn't anyone to do quests with, all the times I tried the game(4-5 times) I couldn't ever find a group to do anything, very frustrating.

4. No matter how good my computer, I couldn't run the game worth a dang. I had a single core, could barely run the game. I had a dual core, game still ran like crap, I get a quad core, with top of the line video card and 4 gigs of RAM, the game STILL runs like crap. Every other game I play runs flawlessly. Honestly, I can't stand how badly the game plays, so I refuse to play it for this reason.(Yes, I did make sure "multi-core support" was checked.)

Those are my reasons. I'm sure its a great game, but thosew ere my issues with it, which to me, are very big issues.

Originally posted by DoomsDay01

Originally posted by Guillermo197

Sorry, but this is from the first 1-2 years. So much has changed since then. It's not even funny.

There were only 2 adventure packs released and are now made free since a long long time ago already.

Station Exchange caused luckily an uproar so they kept it to seperate new servers. Can't say it's a real success really.

Altho I hate Station Cash and the way it was stealth patched in. So far it indeed seems to be fluff crap. And they going to use it for Paid Character transfer services, expansion sale, char renaming (already in), character appearance change (already in) and such.

The game has more content and features then any other MMO out there to date.

The reason not more people are playing this good game (to answer the OP) is because SOE TOTALLY SUCKS at Marketing. Always have and always will.

Cheers

 

What?  EQ1 is getting what, Their 16th expansion this fall? Sorry, I disagree with that statement completely. EQ2 has a long road ahead of them before they can match eq1 in content.

And SOE does not suck at marketing, that is one of their best abilities, what they suck at is game management. They dont listen to their customers and think they know what is better for their customers than the customers do. That is where they totally suck. Look at all their games, EQ1 and EQ2 is now EQeasy. Matrix is gone, SWG is a fraction of what it once was and not because of its age, Vanguard I wont blame on them as it was already in trouble when they got it. The rest of their games are just indicative of how the company handles game management, boring and uninteresting. One day, when they actually get people who really know how to run a game in management, we will see them come back to a higher status. Until then, they will remain as SOE sucks.

We are talking about games released since 2004!!! Tjeez. And from that period, EQ2 provides easily the most content and features to date.

Ofcourse (and I sincerly hope) that games released in the end 90's like EQ1 has more content by now or it wouldn't be up and running anymore now would it?? But hardly any new player is going to jump on a heavily outdated game released 10 years ago.

SOE sucks at Marketing! Period!

Except of old EQ1 fans, hardly anyone here in Europe knows about SOE (including gamestores employees)! There isn't a single box of any SOE game available in the prominent stores.

Here in Oslo we got dozens of Gamestop stores and they have not a single SOE product in the shelves, while boxes from like WoW, FFXI, LOTRO (and its expansion), CoX, Guild Wars, etc, etc are prominent on display.

That's easy 100-200k potential subs for EQ2 out of the window. Extra subs they could have had along the years if they bothered to look outside their US borders!!

I definitely agree that EQ2 has by far the most content and overall features than recent mmos over the last 5 years or so.  Easily.  I don't play it anymore but I'll give it its due.

I will say, however, that they really failed to implement the game lore in a gripping or interesting fashion that makes you feel a part of the world.  The game ends up being, for the most part, just your generic quest lines that revolve around whatever current town or quest hub area you're dealing with and their problems with creatures and so forth.  No real overarching story or interesting tales, at least to me.  The books were about as much lore as you're going to get.  Some of the heritage quests were good though.

Originally posted by Guillermo197

Originally posted by DoomsDay01

Originally posted by Guillermo197

Sorry, but this is from the first 1-2 years. So much has changed since then. It's not even funny.

There were only 2 adventure packs released and are now made free since a long long time ago already.

Station Exchange caused luckily an uproar so they kept it to seperate new servers. Can't say it's a real success really.

Altho I hate Station Cash and the way it was stealth patched in. So far it indeed seems to be fluff crap. And they going to use it for Paid Character transfer services, expansion sale, char renaming (already in), character appearance change (already in) and such.

The game has more content and features then any other MMO out there to date.

The reason not more people are playing this good game (to answer the OP) is because SOE TOTALLY SUCKS at Marketing. Always have and always will.

Cheers

 

What?  EQ1 is getting what, Their 16th expansion this fall? Sorry, I disagree with that statement completely. EQ2 has a long road ahead of them before they can match eq1 in content.

And SOE does not suck at marketing, that is one of their best abilities, what they suck at is game management. They dont listen to their customers and think they know what is better for their customers than the customers do. That is where they totally suck. Look at all their games, EQ1 and EQ2 is now EQeasy. Matrix is gone, SWG is a fraction of what it once was and not because of its age, Vanguard I wont blame on them as it was already in trouble when they got it. The rest of their games are just indicative of how the company handles game management, boring and uninteresting. One day, when they actually get people who really know how to run a game in management, we will see them come back to a higher status. Until then, they will remain as SOE sucks.

 

We are talking about games released since 2004!!! Tjeez. And from that period, EQ2 provides easily the most content and features to date.

Ofcourse (and I sincerly hope) that games released in the end 90's like EQ1 has more content by now or it wouldn't be up and running anymore now would it?? But hardly any new player is going to jump on a heavily outdated game released 10 years ago.

SOE sucks at Marketing! Period!

Except of old EQ1 fans, hardly anyone here in Europe knows about SOE (including gamestores employees)! There isn't a single box of any SOE game available in the prominent stores.

Here in Oslo we got dozens of Gamestop stores and they have not a single SOE product in the shelves, while boxes from like WoW, FFXI, LOTRO (and its expansion), CoX, Guild Wars, etc, etc are prominent on display.

That's easy 100-200k potential subs for EQ2 out of the window. Extra subs they could have had along the years if they bothered to look outside their US borders!!

 

I love you Guillermo197 <3333 and i couldn't agree more :D

The game is called "Everquest" for a reason, it's not all about one giant story-line, it's about many many many stories and events that come together, both big and small. And I think this game handles that well.

If I want to jump into this game...what do I have to buy? I see the Shadow Odyssey expansion and it says it contains all the previous expansions but I assume I need to buy the game itself seperately. Is that the box with the elf pointing a sword at you on the cover? So those two are all I need?

I see there's a digital download but I'm one of those people that likes to have the disc and the manual.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
 

No, newest expansion pack = everything you need to play (and to unlock everything)