The freeport revamp ripped the heart out of freeport. Starting suburbs now turned into instances, and players housing was forcibly moved to another location in the city.  there is a thread 11 pages long about how the revamp to freeport has taken away more options than it had. 

To call this an xpac, ahem with 0 content other than they added a design your own dungeon, and the beast lord class. 

I got invited to beta 3 days before the xapc went live, and all I have to say is wow I was happy I did because I canceled my pre order for the xpac for me and the wife.  It is not worth the price.  It is the first xpac that I have never bought for the game. Quite frankly I am done with eq2.  

Eq2 has turned into all the other free to play games with the shop driving the content, now what quality of the game that we did have remaining will go out the window and it will just be another crappy free to play game with a cash shop.

In my opinion, the revamp of Freeport looks pretty awful. 

As for making it one large combined area... yeah that's cool as long as performance isn't too greatly affected.

However, what made Freeport great to me, my favorite city in the game from the earliest days, is the gritty and dirty and very lived-in "feel" it had. It was always the most believable of the cities to me, with the most personality. 

That's been pretty much wiped away with this new paint job.

Again, my opinion.

Then they should be clear about it and relative scoring like in school is irrelevant. If the scale goes from 1-10 then 5 is an average score and thus a decent game.

Since EQ2 is delivering features rather than content through expansions, I think the review is fair to count and review some content delivered recently as basically being the content portion of AoD (and free).  On some levels, I don't mind a small player population because smaller populations usually form tighter communities, but I play on Freeport so population issues don't really exist for me.  

I think the dungeon maker is the single biggest thing in this expansion - the box that this feature has opened is overflowing with potential value and fun.  Consider that SOE recently announced that players will be able to take their characters (rather than the avatars) into the player-made dungeons, and then consider the amount of new dungeon-maker content that has been put up in just the last few weeks (dozens of new items and tools for dungeon makers to use).  This feature is in its infancy, and I can see it evolving in 2012 into something that really makes EQ2 stand out among its peers.

The business model doesn't bother me - it allows some people to pay less for the game if they aren't using some features - it lowers the barrier for entry into the game.  Very nice.  

Originally posted by elocke

Originally posted by Timace

still eq2 has 100x more depth than swtor IMO. [Mod Edit] 

And yet at least in SWTOR I have epic storylines to reward me for my time spent there as opposed to EQ2 where I really feel like a fly on the wall and not important at all to the world of Norrath.  I'll take SWTOR any day over EQ2.  Only thing EQ2 does right anyway, is the guild system.  Guild leveling and guild housing is great.  The rest, not so much.

I like EQ2 for the playtime it gave me after I grew bored of WoW but now that something better has come along, it just makes EQ2's wrinkles really stand out.

Epic storyline?   Look around you man, open your eyes.  Just because they story tells you you are saving the world and there are voice over to the text does not mean you are making a difference in the game.  A person would have to be dellusional to think that they matter on their swtor server.

Originally posted by wormywyrm

Originally posted by elocke

Originally posted by Timace

still eq2 has 100x more depth than swtor IMO. [Mod Edit] 

And yet at least in SWTOR I have epic storylines to reward me for my time spent there as opposed to EQ2 where I really feel like a fly on the wall and not important at all to the world of Norrath.  I'll take SWTOR any day over EQ2.  Only thing EQ2 does right anyway, is the guild system.  Guild leveling and guild housing is great.  The rest, not so much.

I like EQ2 for the playtime it gave me after I grew bored of WoW but now that something better has come along, it just makes EQ2's wrinkles really stand out.

Epic storyline?   Look around you man, open your eyes.  Just because they story tells you you are saving the world and there are voice over to the text does not mean you are making a difference in the game.  A person would have to be dellusional to think that they matter on their swtor server.

Where did he say that his character needed to make a difference on the server?  He's specifically talking about the ROLE that his character plays in the game being heroic.  And he's 100% correct.  You do feel as though your character is much more important in the total story in TOR than other themepark games.  

Reading comprehension ftw.

Originally posted by wormywyrm

Originally posted by elocke

Originally posted by Timace

still eq2 has 100x more depth than swtor IMO. [Mod Edit] 

And yet at least in SWTOR I have epic storylines to reward me for my time spent there as opposed to EQ2 where I really feel like a fly on the wall and not important at all to the world of Norrath.  I'll take SWTOR any day over EQ2.  Only thing EQ2 does right anyway, is the guild system.  Guild leveling and guild housing is great.  The rest, not so much.

I like EQ2 for the playtime it gave me after I grew bored of WoW but now that something better has come along, it just makes EQ2's wrinkles really stand out.

Epic storyline?   Look around you man, open your eyes.  Just because they story tells you you are saving the world and there are voice over to the text does not mean you are making a difference in the game.  A person would have to be dellusional to think that they matter on their swtor server.

I never said make a difference in the game, I said feel important or heroic for lack of a better term and SWTOR does that in droves, per character.  I'm level 48, and every quest I pick up now has the empire gushing about my past exploits and how I've helped the Empire conquer the galaxy.  I've also been reprimanded for some of my darkside choices, killing off certain important idividuals instead of capturing them, etc.  It is totally engrossing, immersive and just plain awesome.  Make me want to keep playing and then roll a new character and experience his/her story.

As much as I liked EQ2 before, it now pales in comparison because in EQ2, you don't matter, at all.  There is no remembering what your character did for Freeport, no narrative that spans the entire game, every quest is a mirror image of a quest in a previous zone, it just lacks any soul when it comes to story.  The very cool epic weapon quest line, is soon forgotten once you need to upgrade it to a spell, after you get the spell, it's like it never happened.  In SWTOR, I can still remember and am reminded every so often about my dealing on the starter world Hutta, and my exploits on Dromund Kaas afterword.

Like I said, the only good thing about EQ2 is the housing, guild system, and collections.  The rest, to me at least, just seems trivial now.

Originally posted by Banquetto

Is this a review of the "Age of Discovery" expansion or of Everquest 2 as a whole? It seems to bounce back and forth between the two.

Regardless, I can't see how EQ2 could ever be rated 8/10 for gameplay. I've wanted to like EQ2 for a long time, taken a number of stabs at playing it because it's such a massive and interesting and sprawling game. But the fact is, it has the worst implementation of the "tab-target, autoattack and skill bar" model of MMORPG combat I have ever seen. Just awful. Dozens of barely distinguishable skills on 10-20 seconds cooldowns, so combat is quite literally "faceroll" - you target the enemy and then hit 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-0. Hopefully that kills it, and skill 1 will be cooled down ready to pull the next mob.

No reactive skills. No decision making. Just slide your finger along the keyboard hitting each skill in turn.

It is absolutely light years behind WoW, LOTRO, Rift, WAR, SW:TOR, every other similar combat system I have ever seen. Such a pity.

 

You must have been playing a ShadowKnight, or another game.  There are plenty of classes whose gameplay involves more than facerolling.  Try a scout, or one of the enchanters, or..<insert class>.  Most of the classes have limited skills up to around level 30, then after that the more complex, class-defining abilities really start to happen.  After level 50, another heavy layer is added.  Its designed to become more complex as encounters, mobs, and dungeons evolve.

Its far more than facerolling, buddy, and anyone who has really played the game past the intro zones would know that.

Originally posted by Telondariel

Originally posted by Banquetto

Is this a review of the "Age of Discovery" expansion or of Everquest 2 as a whole? It seems to bounce back and forth between the two.

Regardless, I can't see how EQ2 could ever be rated 8/10 for gameplay. I've wanted to like EQ2 for a long time, taken a number of stabs at playing it because it's such a massive and interesting and sprawling game. But the fact is, it has the worst implementation of the "tab-target, autoattack and skill bar" model of MMORPG combat I have ever seen. Just awful. Dozens of barely distinguishable skills on 10-20 seconds cooldowns, so combat is quite literally "faceroll" - you target the enemy and then hit 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-0. Hopefully that kills it, and skill 1 will be cooled down ready to pull the next mob.

No reactive skills. No decision making. Just slide your finger along the keyboard hitting each skill in turn.

It is absolutely light years behind WoW, LOTRO, Rift, WAR, SW:TOR, every other similar combat system I have ever seen. Such a pity.

 

You must have been playing a ShadowKnight, or another game.  There are plenty of classes whose gameplay involves more than facerolling.  Try a scout, or one of the enchanters, or...  Most of the classes have limited skills up to around level 30, then after that the more complex, class-defining abilities really start to happen.  After level 50, another heavy layer is added.  Its designed to become more complex as encounters, mobs, and dungeons evolve.

Its far more than facerolling, buddy, and anyone who has really played the game past the intro zones would know that.

 

One things for sure hes never played an inquisitor or a defiler.  I was not even got to post but after rereading that bs i have to call him out on it.

Not sure if this is a review of EQ2 as a game or the "expansion".

As a game it is the hidden gem well worth a 9.  

As an expansion... hardly a 5 when you consider past expansions and all they offered.  This was a feature pack that hardly had any beta testing and has been riddled with bugs especially with the FTP model being morphed into the existing Live gamer model.  It took almost 2 days just for the players to be able to play it once it went live and there has been hot fixes almost every day because of the lack of beta.  There are neat features, but nothing game changing, or adds to the core game experience except extra easier mode things.  Still not sure what we are discovering in this new "Age of Discovery" XPac...?

Our family waited till x3 station cash and purchased it for $10 with change left over... for that a good value... $40 no.

Community - 10! No doubt, it may be small, but you won't find better peeps anywhere.  Maybe small, but it is good and solid, just need a good guild regardless of server.

Biggest disappointment has been the amount of bugs lack of completing the last expansion that is promised to come out now until 2013... and how many subs till then?  

Customer service and account status is really what is going to kill them now though.  SOE used to be extremely awesome at this.  Now it's all foder, and long time players especially the All-Access folks are just screwed.  Very disappointing.

Until they can fix account stuff and rearrange the priority to long standing players the game will have no longevity and the game will fall into a dismal state that really makes me sad discrediting more of the SOE titles the way SWG did hugely a long time ago :-( Another lesson not learned.

Every other day we see new station cash stuff for sale over bugs fixed or new content that was promised long ago...  The game has been losing direction over lots of fluff.  The people who have been providing the game with income over the years are no longer apparently listened to this idea that the new ftp model will provide more income.  Perhaps it will upfront.  But the ftp model has been active for a year now Freeport, and managed to fill an entire Single server.  This isn't going to add a much higher active pop.

Unfortunate, EQ2 is THE diamond in the rough.  A game that has literally almost everything.  It's now either too easy (which leads to boredom fast) or too focused decorating like Sim City online... and that went super...

Im subbed to EQ2 and TOR (as well as LOTRO), all are good games but different experiences.  TOR may have the epic storyline and give you a heroic perspective, but that is about it.   You cant explore.  There is no real crafting, no player housing, no space exploration and the list goes on.  I am level 24 on TOR but havent logged on since early January. To me, the 'epic' storyline is too linear.  Hell, I can even turn myself into a dark jedi. 

EQ2 while older and definitely showing its age, is a more mature full fledged RPG that contains content that cannot be beat.  Yes the quests are kill X of Y things, but TOR has it too.  Fix six pipes, plant 5 bombs, its all the same.  I dont see it as a problem, but more a staple of current MMOs.

EQ2 calls to the MMO player who longs for the journey over end-game, doesnt care about PvP, and wants to get lost in the lore.  I have yet to find an MMO to compete with what EQ2 offers.

I eagerly await the Secret World, and Guild Wars 2.

I just dropped $40 for this expansion (which I'm sure is geared toward very high end players), and I haven't played in quite some time (still in pre TSO gear).  I've since heard that, unlike the previous seven or eight expansions, the previous expansions aren't included.

I basically wasted $40 for an expansion I can't even play, and am going to have to spend more money on previous expansions.  I decided to start back up on EQ2 because I used to be very big into it (between my wife and I we have about 6 level 80 toons and about the same number of level 80 tradeskillers).  

If this rumor is true I'm going to be grossly disappointed and probably won't activate my account as well.  I hope they offer some type of refund to (previously) hard-core players who have been deceived.  They never specified that the other expansions were not included, and after playing since launch it never crossed my mind that I would be until I was surfing the web while AoD loaded in the process of getting excited.  It's not like it costs them extra money to include the extra expansions, their R&D costs have already been recovered and the cost of a couple extra DVDs is very minimal to keep happy customers, esecially when they are making a fortune off of their in-game items for sale for cash.  

Originally posted by BWDuty605

I just dropped $40 for this expansion (which I'm sure is geared toward very high end players), and I haven't played in quite some time (still in pre TSO gear).  I've since heard that, unlike the previous seven or eight expansions, the previous expansions aren't included.

 

I basically wasted $40 for an expansion I can't even play, and am going to have to spend more money on previous expansions.  I decided to start back up on EQ2 because I used to be very big into it (between my wife and I we have about 6 level 80 toons and about the same number of level 80 tradeskillers).  



If this rumor is true I'm going to be grossly disappointed and probably won't activate my account as well.  I hope they offer some type of refund to (previously) hard-core players who have been deceived.  They never specified that the other expansions were not included, and after playing since launch it never crossed my mind that they would not be until I was surfing the web while AoD loaded in the process of getting excited.  It's not like it costs them extra money to include the extra expansions, their R&D costs have already been recovered and the cost of a couple extra DVDs is very minimal to keep happy customers, esecially when they are making a fortune off of their in-game items for sale for cash.  

 

 

 

Originally posted by BWDuty605

I just dropped $40 for this expansion (which I'm sure is geared toward very high end players), and I haven't played in quite some time (still in pre TSO gear).  I've since heard that, unlike the previous seven or eight expansions, the previous expansions aren't included.

I basically wasted $40 for an expansion I can't even play, and am going to have to spend more money on previous expansions.  I decided to start back up on EQ2 because I used to be very big into it (between my wife and I we have about 6 level 80 toons and about the same number of level 80 tradeskillers). 

 

im sorry you had unpleasant surprise that expansions are no longer bundled

SOE hasnt bundled expansions in over 2 years

only one expansion is needed for progression,  Destiny of Velious,  available for 20.00 direct from SOE

DOV is worthless until you are level 86 - no need to buy content otherwise

I basically wasted $40 for an expansion I can't even play

you can start using AOD now

AOD features are for *all levels* except for the 20AA increase which you wont care about unless you already have 300 AA

 AOD is a feature expansion, giving you access to

- mercenaries

- Beastlord (a new class)

- dungeonmaker (players will be allowed to play their own characters in a few weeks)