MMORPG.com writer Chris Higgins takes a look at the first 20 levels in SOE's classic MMORPG EverQuest II, focusing in on the game as someone completely unfamiliar with the EverQuest franchise.

Having never played either Everquest or Everquest 2, I decided to try this game and see how I liked it compared to other games on the market. I am not going to focus on the end game, but will instead focus my attention on the first 20 levels, more than enough for a new player to decide whether he or she likes the game over their first few weeks of play.

I logged into Everquest 2 and was presented with the character creation screen. You first have to select the race for your character. There are good, bad, and neutral races which consist of all your standard races from legends and lore. There are also a few in there that I had never seen before: a Frog race called the Frogloks, a rat race called Ratongas and others.

Read A Noob's Look at EQII.

I thought it was a fair writeup for someone that is new to this game.  I agree there is a level of hardcore that comes with this game and for me that is what I liked about it.

I do not currently play EQ2 but I still consider it to be one of the best on the market.

I just wish the graphics didnt look so clayish...:)  For some reason graphics play a big part in games for me and for me there were times I would say to myself....damn these graphics look great in this game and other times I was like....WTF..my guy looks like a clay model and my armor looks cheesy :)

Overall good 1-20 writeup.

Good write up. I agree with alot of points. i played EQ2 a while back and thought it was a good game, but couldnt get over the "claymation" art style. Felt like i was watching Rudolph the red nosed reindeer for the 100th time.

(AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH raise plunger in slaute to Chris Higgins)

How is the game not casual friendly?

Anyone can solo from start to level cap, easily no less, with plenty of leftover content to spare. I have two level 80 characters and soloed them both to max level.

Excellent PvP? Are you serious?

EQ2 PvP is the some of the most flawed PvP to ever grace an mmo. There is plenty of readily available documentation to confirm this, showcasing the many gamebreaking elements to the system.

Out of group healers, as one example, were the bane of the PvP system for years (nothing more fun than engaging an enemy opponent that is your level and having his/her 60th-80th level friend healing him from out of the group). Heck, some problems that were hampering the system years ago still exist to this very day.

Innovative Gameplay is a con? Although I disagree about the gameplay being innovative in any way, shape or form. It is the very definition of standard mmo fare.

Hard to find specific quest npcs? No, no it isn't at all. You can plot waypoints that lead you directly to them.

Hard to get back to Freeport? You have an ability that instantly ports you there.

All mounts are not 45p, there are much cheaper ones at the same vendor, you didn't look very hard.

Lots of statements in this article that are false or outright misinformation, disappointing, but not out of the ordinary for this site.

how in the world is "so much to learn" a bad thing?  aint that the whole reason to play a new game....get a slightly new experience.

and the PvP were thrown on top of the game....guess because they heard it were popular in WoW or something

nice write up, but have to disagree with the not for the casual con... its very casual.

Considering that it only covered the first 20 lvls it's not suprising that there are some misconceptions, it only takes about 4 hours to quest your way to that lvl. The game is not even a reflection of what it once was due to the mutiple class, crafting, combat reworks, although it is a good game. I played four years give or take and only recently became tired of it after the last expansion when they introduced the shard grind. At that point it was running the same dungeons to complete the same shard quests over and over again, and to top it all people only wanted to run a few of those dungeons.

Really, EQ2 is a great game, but not for PvP.  PvP is an afterthought in EQ2, just as it was in EQ.

I wish the author of this blog had tried on a PvE server first, and gotten a real feel for the game that way.  And the first 20 levels in EQ2 go by so fast, you don't really get a feel for the game.

Yes, the graphics could be more colorful, but they deliberately went away from the cartoon-like graphics of EQ and WoW.  An overhaul now wouldn't be productive of their time.

I've played both WoW and EQ2, having done stints in both games twice.  And EQ2 is just better to me.

As this was written from a noobs point of view, i think the article does a fantastic job.  Especially the part about picking a necro on a pvp server.  Its amazing how somehow just by random chance you picked the most broken class for pvp in the entire game.  It just amazes me you didnt pick shadow knight instead:  "wow eq2 pvp is surprisingly easy and requires no skill at all..."  or a ranger "eq2 pvp physics are amazing and strange and impossible, i can zip around maps, run up walls, hide on top of tents, and evade hundreds of players and requires no skill at all, i feel like im hacking the game"

but as a noob, you really showed no clue what was going on around you.  first of all there are tons of people locked in tier 2 who have been lvl12-20 for months already building aa up and if you just race straight to 20 their level 13 character will be able to put you to the res screen before you even know your being attacked.  Some of them have already payed for aa runs that gave them more then they can spend and now are just leveling up on pvp to collect tokens for gear.  As a new player you should have locked immediately and stayed 10 until you had your mc gear and enough aa to carry you through.  how is a noob to know all this???

pve server is probably what you should have been writing about. pvp is not why eq2 was built and not how the primary game functions.  pve has some pvp components in arenas and dueling, and is way more representative of the developers efforts in putting together an mmo.

Now I like pvp, but you definitely play that in a very backwards way compared to the regular game.  Right now there is like 2 pvp servers left, the rest are all pve and the more likely place for new people to get into this game and find out all the amazing things it has going for it.

Chris, Chris, Chris...

EQ2 PvP is notorious for being very hardcore.  Only hardcores play there.  If you want to see the casual side of EQ2, go to a non-PvP server.  The game is much more relaxed, you can learn the world, the quests, and the way things work.  Then, after you know what you're doing, you go back to the PvP servers and fix what you were screwing up.

First, you bypassed a load of quests in Freeport by going out into the Commonlands.  Sort the quests by Current Zone and you will see where that quest gets done.  If it isn't in Freeport, you probably want to hold off until you're done with them.  Also, there are a lot of subzones (look at the map of your current zone while in a Freeport zone, zoom out one level, and it will show you the whole of freeport.  Those zones are relatively safe, have guards who will attack enemies, and genearlly are good for players looking to level up a bit before they tackle active PvP zones.

Second, learn how to use the Mariner's Bells.  Belling to other zones is safe, fast, and makes it a lot less likely to die to random PvP because the guards in most non-capital cites don't like ANYONE fighting.  You can get to safe questing zones fairly simply using them.

I could go on and on, but honestly, anyone playing a new game who DOESN'T read the forums, websites and lore areas attached tot hat game deserves what they get.  Gone, by a long time, are the days when you could jump into a game feet first and expect to have a chance at learning it on your own.  Use the resources out there.  They are many.

I won't chide you on your lack of addons, too.  Just one would have made your life much easier...  Ah, well.  Expect any game that allows addons to defacto require them.

I loved the pvp in EQ2, yeah it is brutal, hardcore and unforgiving if you are slipping and that's what makes it so great. The big problem though is that it is an zoned game, and pvp and zoning are two things that do not work well together.  I wish a game like WoW would have adopted a pvp system like EQ2.

Oh another totally awesome part of the pvp EQ2 experience. Tanks can taunt other players... as in force them to target you.  I loved playing a guardian with my old gaming crew back when Nagafen first came out.

Originally posted by Dracondis

Gone, by a long time, are the days when you could jump into a game feet first and expect to have a chance at learning it on your own.  Use the resources out there.  They are many.

I won't chide you on your lack of addons, too.  Just one would have made your life much easier...  Ah, well.  Expect any game that allows addons to defacto require them.

Agreed, and well put.

As for the addon, I assume it is EQ2Map? The best map addon I have ever seen in any mmorpg, period.

And im sure all of these things he didnt do are covered under the the title of  "A Noobs Look...."

My question would be, just how useful is it to have games written about and discussed from the point of view of people who dont know what their doing?

also is there comparison articles for wow and aion, or maybe eve?  heh a noobs look at eve... "stupid joystick wouldnt detect?!"

Lol I left this game 2 years ago because it was getting too casual................

I accept the opinion of the writer, which I trust is genuine, but having played WoW (on top of dozens others) I don't understand what part of the game he finds hardcore.
The hardcore features are gone long time ago, to be fair if you can play WoW, you shouldn't have any problem whatsoever with this game.

The only real difference from WoW is that this is still a game to be played in group, the quests alone don't give you enough XP to level fast like in WoW, you need to do dungeons with a group in order to level faster.
Unfortunately I am aware that at the moment is very difficult to find groups at a low level, so maybe this make it looks like this game is harder than actually really is.

I just did something I swore I would never do again..

My wife and I quit playing EQ2 after the Station Cash fiasco, we both swore we would never return...

5 MMOs and a lot of money later we have returned...Not because the other games were too hard or too boring, but because EQ2 is very solo and duo friendly. We don't have time for raiding, don't like PUGs much and are members of a small guild...It's perfect for us...yes the game is easy...Almost like the PlaySchool of MMOs, but it's still exciting, rewarding and fun...

it's going to take me weeks to remember how to play it right...but even that's parts of the fun

Originally posted by ste2000

Lol I left this game 2 years ago because it was getting too casual................

I accept the opinion of the writer, which I trust is genuine, but having played WoW (on top of dozens others) I don't understand what part of the game he finds hardcore.
The hardcore features are gone long time ago, to be fair if you can play WoW, you shouldn't have any problem whatsoever with this game.

The only real difference from WoW is that this is still a game to be played in group, the quests alone don't give you enough XP to level fast like in WoW, you need to do dungeons with a group in order to level faster.
Unfortunately I am aware that at the moment is very difficult to find groups at a low level, so maybe this make it looks like this game is harder than actually really is.

Same here, the bulk of the game, the leveling up, is so ridiculously easy... then you are thrust into a hardcore raiding end game, sounds familiar? yeah, it sucks.  EQ2 at one time was an awesome grouping game the whole leveling experience...  now it is solo till you raid.

The PvP server helped me enjoy the game for a bit longer after it had turned to the darkside of MMOGs, what I call MSOGs (massive single-player online game), but the pvp had so many flaws... the biggest being how easy it was to get away, almost every class had a group teleport, and the zoning of course made the pvp very frustrating.

Errr... EQ2 has 24 different classes to chose from, not 13... even with the grayed out options for an evil character it is quite plain to see from the class select screen.

I guess noob in case of this writer means he is really bad at counting?

@,@ 

bah typo

Hah, Amatal beat me to it!  I was stumped on that one too... although technically he was close, as there are 12 classes in the game and 24 subclasses.

But really, overall I thought the 'noobs look' / review was decent.  What bothers me the most is the sidebar 'cons' that are listed:

Can get repetitive
Not Casual Friendly
So much to learn
Innovative Gameplay

Every MMO gets repetitive - technically all games can, since you'll always be limited by the system in place.  Nonetheless, I agree to some extent - I would say tradeskills are fun to mix it up, but ever since they made it so dumbed down from the original system, I've never been able to get back into it (not to say the current tradeskill dev hasn't been doing a great job).

Not casual friendly?  Again, a PVP server was chosen - PVP in general isn't very 'casual.'  EQ2 is exceptionally casual, unless you plan to do any of the end-game - and a look at levels 1-20, that's not a concern.  As noted previously, a large number of classes (especially summoners) are completely self-sufficient, able to breeze to level 80 solo.

How is so much to learn a bad thing?  It's an accessible game, being able to jump right in - although you wont necessarily very good right from the start.  But at least having a lot to learn keeps it interesting and lets you feel like you have some progression.

The one that really gets me though - Innovative Gameplay!?  Why is this a con?  I don't even know how to respond to that one...

So aside from those 4 items, I think it was a pretty fair look - and it's always interesting to get the perspective of a new player (as I think I initially had some of the same thoughts, which have changed over time).  I always thought the 'tutorial' / hand-holding ended too abruptly for such a vast world too; although if you try the newest noob zone (Timorous Deep), that will take you all the way up from 1 to 20 until it lets you loose on the world.  Would be good to get more input like this to give to the devs to hopefully improve the experience!

My recommendations - start again on a PVE server.  I bet any number of current players would be willing to help.  There are tons of out-of-game resources you can use too; www.eq2i.com is a great starting point.

Good work Chris.

A terribly misleading article.

To title it a look at EQ II from a noob's perspective and then in the body explain you start on a PVP server is horribly misrepresenting what EQ II really is about.

Level 15s on mounts have been a complaint since the beginning. Not finding your way around is not a fault of the game, but a lack of knowledge on your part of using the excellent updated map system and waypoint system (as mentioned before; Alt+W).

The level range comment you made of four levels only applies to the zone you were in. The higher the tier of the zone, the wider the level range allowed to attack you.

I don't know why you expected your spells/abilities to automatically upgrade themselves.  Does WoW hold your hand this way too? If so no wonder there are so many casuals/kiddies that play it. Each level you only get the basic ability. You always need to upgrade it to at least adept level, mastercrafted if you can harvest the rare needed or buy if you can afford it already made from someone.

Learning the hard way that 1 item of treasured value and below not attuned to you and not knowing about rules of lost coin on the pvp server is a fault of the player not reading the rules before they play. They are readily available in the knowledge base / help articles and the pvp forum.

I think the biggest mistake the OP made was rolling on a pvp server. EQ2 was never meant to be a pvp game it was only tacked on so the devs could say "we got hardcore pvp like all these other mmos" . What I like most about eq2 is all the lore that is available in the quests and just lying around the game world. Yes you can definitely race to the top solo if you like but I think you miss the whole point. Try actually reading or listening to everything the npc questgivers say. Read all the scrolls and books laying around the game world and explore all the nooks and crannies in all the zones. I do my utmost to complete every quest I get even if they are grey to me just to see how the storyline advances as you complete each step in the quest chains. That in  my opinion is how the devs envisioned the game being played otherwise why woud they have put it into the world?  Why not just have npcs give out two sentence "go kill 20 rats for 2 silver and 100 xp" quests with no ryme or reason like most other mmo's do?

Well I guess I'm in the minority but I still think eq2 is the best pve game out there as long you are willing to stop and smell the roses along the way.