i LOVE eq2. its my MMO of choice. played it the 1st day it was released and i go back to ot for a few months every year.

Originally posted by Wizardry

To login on a level 90 player is imo a waste of time,why bother?If you enjoy the classes and game ,then you might as well shelve that 90 and make a new player.

I enjoy EQ2 but I agree

I never cared about gearing up - rather explore different classes

Originally posted by elocke

This game has a ton of great aspects and a ton of horrible ones.  Sadly the horrible ones are game breakers and made me unsub.

1.  I hit level 90 and found I couldn't do the SOLO content in the new Velious areas due to AA's not being high enough(mine were at 177 when I hit cap), this wierd critical mitigation stat requirement for the zones and the level gap is STILL there even at level 90 because the game is so gear oriented it's disgusting.

for what its worth,

much of that changed last week

http://eq2wire.com/2011/09/30/september-30-2011-update-notes/

update removes the need for Critical Mitigation from Velious overland zones

Originally posted by holifeet

It's one of the better MMOs on the market, but I find myself struggling to comprehend how it can get a score of 8/10 for innovation. It doesn't really do anything significantly different from the rest of the genre, but I'll say it does do it with a bit more variety.

I agree EQ2 is not great for innovation but there are some things

- collections, first mmo to them

- appearance slot gear, first mmo to have this

- mentoring, 2nd mmo to offer this feature, and many mmos still dont offer it

- upcoming "design your own dungeon" in november  (but you cannot play your own character)

Originally posted by dagon3

You forgot to mention the housing and guild halls. Has to be the best game out there for decorating and owning multiple houses. There are over 98,000 items in eq2 according to mmo database, its just a very in depth game , they also now have outside areas you can purchase to build your own house on ect.

Well so far im enjoying it .

 

 

I agree on this part ,however SOE managed to ruin that as well by offering the best through cash shop only.You can't get any more lame than selling items that cannot be attained by any other means.

Guild halls are done pretty decent ,however in ROM we had some decent sized guild halls that also acted as a pvp base,so EQ2 could do alot better,they seem to do everything half way.Yes i know most games don't do guiuld halls even half as good,but i don't base it on other crap,i base ideas on what they could be doing.

Originally posted by Wizardry

Originally posted by dagon3

You forgot to mention the housing and guild halls. Has to be the best game out there for decorating and owning multiple houses.

SOE managed to ruin that as well by offering the best through cash shop only.You can't get any more lame than selling items that cannot be attained by any other means.

sadly I agree - the best player homes are station cash only

SOE added a housing leaderboard last month, allowing players to rate different player homes

- they should have taken it one step farther with rewarding top rated house designers w new homes

Originally posted by Golelorn
...

Its fun for a few weeks, then one just realizes its the same old stuff just a different level. On top of that one is passing up all the lore and dungeons, because it takes a group to experience the content. This game could be fun if the devs got their heads out of their butts and adjusted content to the actual dismal population.

...

They appear to not have thier "heads in their butts" as they are attempting to address this problem with mercenaries.

The community of this game has always been one of my favorites, and if you flag yourself for RP on an RP server and stay in character yourself others will usually follow your lead.   Be the change you wish to see and all that, really does work on mmo's.

Originally posted by Nadia

Originally posted by elocke

This game has a ton of great aspects and a ton of horrible ones.  Sadly the horrible ones are game breakers and made me unsub.

1.  I hit level 90 and found I couldn't do the SOLO content in the new Velious areas due to AA's not being high enough(mine were at 177 when I hit cap), this wierd critical mitigation stat requirement for the zones and the level gap is STILL there even at level 90 because the game is so gear oriented it's disgusting.

for what its worth,

much of that changed last week

http://eq2wire.com/2011/09/30/september-30-2011-update-notes/

update removes the need for Critical Mitigation from Velious overland zones

Well that bites, just unsubbed, but anyway, I'll come back in November with the expansion as I'll have a whole new class to play, more interesting game systems to play with like player made dungeons and all the collectable type mini game stuff going in.  Really wish they would overhaul the crafting system so that I could literally do it in less time and maybe have more quests throughout the whole crafting experience as opposed to just at the start of each tier.

I'm shocked that anyone could give the aesthetics or innovation of EQ II anything over a five of ten. Honestly, what they're dealing with is standard at best, and less than subpar at its worst. As far as MMO's go, this game is definitely right in the middle for what it offers: it isn't good, it isn't terrible, but it's found a nice spot between quality and crap in which to call its own.

"Little innovation, even from its outset"

Yet innovation gets an 8/10.

There are numbers besides 7, 8, and 9 that you can use to more closely correlate with the garbage you're spewing.

Originally posted by someforumguy

Originally posted by RJEclipse

Originally posted by someforumguy

After reading this, I was looking for page 2. Because somehow the writer fails to mention crafting and housing. Which are major selling points for many EQ2 players.

Not to mention how AA isnt just a mix of talent trees. The fundamental difference with talent trees or other comparable alternate advancement systems in other games, is that you as player can chose how much xp is going to lvling and how much xp is going to AA. So you can even put 100% XP into AA. So fleshing out AA without lvling.

Then there is no mention of the mentoring system. Another very important feature for anyone who likes to group (like the writer). It makes it possible to always group with your friends regardless of lvl difference. The bonus xp that it gives makes it another incentive.

The write up is very shallow and incomplete, written by someone who only mentions what he/she is interested in.

 

 

I didn't mention housing since it's been there since launch, I believe, or at least since before the previous review, the same goes for mentoring (I remember mentoring my lowbie friends back in '05 or '06), though I agree both are great features and a source of a lot of fun.

As for crafting, I have no real knowledge base when it comes to crafting in any MMO. For this reason I tend not to comment on it, because I'd rather leave it blank than go off on a tangent on something I know nothing about. This being said. I should probably start looking into it in various games to get a feel for the different crafting systems so I can comment on them in the future, so I thank you for the motivation :)

You dont really give a reason to not review certain features.  Housing and crafting has changed too, just like pve content. More recipes have been added and every toon can now be the owner of more then 1 house. There are also new types of housing. It is quite obvious that this would be a big deal for players that like EQ2 housing.

If you leave out features on purpose in your review, then you shouldve at least mentioned why. The way it is now, its not really a re-review. Also, anyone who just checks the most recent review of a game, wouldnt even learn about the existence of the features you left out.

EDIT: I just realised that it makes no sense to give a score to a MMO if you only review part of the features. Then what is the score really about?

 

You make a good point, and I'll definetly delve into crafting and other features I may not know much about to give an interpretation, or at least explain why I have left an interpretation out. 

Originally posted by AZAlex86

"Little innovation, even from its outset"

Yet innovation gets an 8/10.

 

There are numbers besides 7, 8, and 9 that you can use to more closely correlate with the garbage you're spewing.

 

As I explained above, I found little innovation to the genre, but innovation within the game since launch.

Originally posted by elocke

Originally posted by Nadia

Originally posted by elocke

This game has a ton of great aspects and a ton of horrible ones.  Sadly the horrible ones are game breakers and made me unsub.

1.  I hit level 90 and found I couldn't do the SOLO content in the new Velious areas due to AA's not being high enough(mine were at 177 when I hit cap), this wierd critical mitigation stat requirement for the zones and the level gap is STILL there even at level 90 because the game is so gear oriented it's disgusting.

for what its worth,

much of that changed last week

http://eq2wire.com/2011/09/30/september-30-2011-update-notes/

update removes the need for Critical Mitigation from Velious overland zones

Well that bites, just unsubbed, but anyway, I'll come back in November with the expansion as I'll have a whole new class to play, more interesting game systems to play with like player made dungeons and all the collectable type mini game stuff going in.  Really wish they would overhaul the crafting system so that I could literally do it in less time and maybe have more quests throughout the whole crafting experience as opposed to just at the start of each tier.

 

I wish that had been in earlier too. When I got to Velious I got owned instantly by a badger; it was pretty embarrassing. I ended up getting guild help as I went through Velious, and, while I enjoy grouping a lot, it was a pain when no one was around to help

Originally posted by AZAlex86

"Little innovation, even from its outset"

Yet innovation gets an 8/10.

 

There are numbers besides 7, 8, and 9 that you can use to more closely correlate with the garbage you're spewing.

That's exactly what I was thinking. Shouldn't something that delivers little innovation, even from the outset, place somewhere around one through three on the ten point scale?

I'm playing and mosting enjoying the game on the FTP server. This is my third time getting into the game since launch. My main problem with the game has always been that I have very little sence of where I am in the world. Every zone i've ever been to just feels like a large "map", and with the click of a bell or whatever i'm on some other map. I'm eagerly awaiting EQNext as I believe they are going for a more open, Vanguard'ish world.

Originally posted by teakbois

Originally posted by Razeron

Shame it's owned by $0E, because EQ2 is a fantastic MMO in it's own right.

 

I don't play, nor will I ever again but the review is pretty spot on. Though the game itself could certainly benefit from a new parent company and graphics engine.

 

See this makes absolutely no sense.

 

EQ2 is great because of, not in spite of, SoE.  The only game with as much effort behind it at this point is Rift.  If SoE did not own EQ2 it wouldnt have half as much content as it does now.

 

Agreed, the game is positively huge & SOE is adding to it constantly even between expansions.  I've been playing on & off for 5 yrs. 

I'm playing EQ2 since 2005 now, had a break of about 1.5 years in 2007 but since I'm back in 2009 ... the changes and additions have made it much more enjoyable for me. EQ2 works well now for casual players like me - and I don't mind that there are a lot of things for hard core players, raiders and such I can't access. I think they did a really good job in offering content to both types.

Overall I agree with the review but I think it misses a few important things.

For example the PvP zones are on an extra server so player from every server are transfered at the same server for the PvP session. That helps a lot to have people available for fights from what I heard.

Another thing is the addition of Chronomages, so now you can go to these and have your level for as long as you choose lowered (including skills and such) - so you can go with lower levels and have the challenge while doing content you've already outleveled. And you can switch off leveling gain, which I even as a casual do, I enjoy funnelling my XP just into AA while not gaining levels because one levels fast in EQ2 nowadays, there is so much content and XP to get. And no, that is a good thing, because it is not a grind anymore, but you decide how fast you want to level, you can go back with the Chronomages and you can slow it down or have it full speed. And having a MMORPG where you voluntarily switch off leveling because you enjoy just PLAYING - I think that is awesome.

Or there is a very extensive housing and decoration system, now you can have several houses at the same time, there are skyffs, libraries, theaters, floating islands etc etc. - and there is a "publishing" system, so one can in a central menu see what is offered by players to look at and rate, what other players have rated the plate - and just teleport there to have a look oneself. And there are extremely creative and beautiful houses out there. Since player can now even craft window, floor and wall tiles too it is amazing what people come up with.

And I like the new shader engine, how they rework the textures. From what I heard they are going over Qeynos and Freeport now to make them a single zone too while revamping all for the new graphics engine? Very much looking forward to that.

Other smaller recent additions I liked are the Freeblood player race (vampires) and the new map system where the map is shaded as indicidation what area to go according to the quest you have selected. I prefer that over the EQ2Map plugin actually with specific points. Not completely clueless, but more of actually searching still.

My currently -best MMO ever- and -how you can hate SOE but love their products- award winner..

soon to also be -fallback MMO of the Century- assuming SWTOR will turn out to be peopleswise WoW 2.0..chances of which are sadly, but logically, high..

Can anyone comment on how the population on the EQ2 LIve servers is in comparation to the Extended server?