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EverQuest II General Article: Is New Halas Really New?
It has been said that developers have a very short window of opportunity in which to grab a player's attention and, most importantly, to keep it. To that end, MMORPG.com's Phil James has a review of the recently overhauled starter zone in Everquest II. Find out if Phil thinks the reworked starter zone in EQII is enough to capture and retain a player's interest.
By Phil James on August 30, 2010
First impressions count. Most of us have set foot inside that shop. You know the one where the owner sits behind the counter and glares at you for having the nerve to set foot inside his establishment, and woe betide anyone who dares to ask a question or touch any of the precious things of the shop. Usually, when I’m in a place like that, I find I’m the only one in there and I never come back.
As in real life, so it is with games. I’ve been known to judge a game, fairly or not, based on the first couple of hours, and judging by the many forum posts I’ve read I’m not the only one. So it’s important to hook players from the very beginning.
Earlier this year, New Halas, the latest starter zone for EQII, went live. SOE described this as the best new player experience – a bold claim. It’s not clear if this means it has everything that a newcomer to mmos needs to become hooked, or if it’s the best of all the newbie zones from any mmo, or if it means that it has the best levelling progression of all EQII’s zones. SOE is keen on pulling new players into the world of Norrath with the new free to play EQII Extended server, so I decided to investigate what new players would find upon washing up on their shores.
The first thing I noticed, although new players won’t really care so much, is the new UI. A lot has already been written about this so I won’t go into detail except to say that I like it. I like it when any mmo changes it’s look slightly, it’s like doing a bit of redecoration around the house; the familiar seems fresh again.
As is the case with pretty much all mmos, you start out right in front of your first quest giver. This NPC has nursed your character back to health after you have become shipwrecked following an Orc attack. EQII subscribes to the old-school variety of Orc. These aren’t misunderstood or noble savages; they are mad bad and dangerous to know. They are a second scabbard; somewhere else to store the pointy end of my sword.
Anyway, racial disposition aside, the starter area is pretty...well pretty. New Halas and its surrounding islands are frigid lands. Ice and snow is the theme here, and despite being predominantly white, designers have managed to make it look very striking without being bleached out. The only drawback I found was that I almost missed out on one or two quests as the quill marker over NPCs’ heads to denote the start of a mission was nearly invisible against the pale background.
It’s not just the scenery that looks good, the mobs have to be some of the best looking I’ve seen, particularly the humanoid ones (if you can ever consider an Orc to be good looking). EQII has come in for some flak over the years due to its visuals. On its release, you needed a pretty high end computer to be able to appreciate the scenery. Now, however, anyone with even a half decent rig can be wowed by some of the finest graphics that the devs have created to date.
The first quest hub is pretty small and a couple of quests are all it takes for you to become familiar with the lay of the land. Pretty much everything you need to learn to play the game happens here. SOE have added a few more tutorial screens that pop up when new aspects of gameplay occur. However, this doesn’t happen for all events so players who are brand new to mmos may find themselves clueless when it comes to things like banking. The info is all there if you are willing to speak to all the NPCs you find, but if a tutorial holds your hand a lot, it stands out at the times when it lets go.
The initial isle sets the trend for the kind of levelling you will expect to find. Progression comes fast and there is more than enough content here for you to out-level some of the quests. In fact, I don’t recall ever being given a quest that was above my level and by the time I had passed level 10 quests started being a level or two below mine. Staying ahead of the curve carries on throughout the whole zone. It is designed to take characters to level 20, but players should have no problems getting to the mid-twenties before reaching New Halas itself.
The initial island gives you your first taste of crafting with a simple quest to gather some materials and then form them into a trinket for you to equip. However, there is nowhere to craft until you get to New Halas. This could throw new players a curve ball, being introduced to an aspect of the game that they can’t work on until hours later. There is also the drawback of the difference between your adventure level and your crafting one. By the time you reach a forge or stove, you will be creating items that you have already out-levelled.
Outside of XP, other quest rewards come thick and fast. Before long, I had upgraded my beginners’ outfit with all new threads. And I have to say that here the graphics hit the spot again. There are some great armour models to be had here. I also received quite a lot of housing items which was great, however, as with the crafting introduction, this comes a little too early. I found the limited space I had was being taken over by furniture. Of course, how I could fit even one table or chair in my backpack stretches belief. If you have played pretty much any RPG over the years, you’ll be used to this kind of oversight when it comes to inventories.
Overall the new player experience strikes a pretty good balance. On the one hand there is enough information to get new players started out. If you are new to EQII but have played mmos before, you will be on the lookout for bigger bags, banks and mats for crafting right from the start. If you are brand new to online gaming, there is more than enough information in the tutorial screens to get you started and questing like a veteran. If you have already played EQII and are thinking of returning or even if you are rolling an alt, then New Halas offers a pretty speedy and smooth start on the path to level 90.
New Halas did nothing for me. I cancelled the same day I resubbed, but that's more EQ2 than just about the new zone.
EQNext should bring back honor to Norrath. Maybe they can build something into the lore about EQ2 and call the EQ2 period the "Time of Falsehoods" or something. An angry Rallos Zek rose up and defeated Bristlebane and brought back Norrath as is should have always been.
got to agree with reallynow. i was very underwhelmed with new halas. very unimaganitive. quests were paint by nubers standard mmo fodder, and new halas itself was a joke. I was expecting a magnificant city to rival Permafrost. however it turned out to be a few well spaced huts with some blue dwarfs in them :( hardly jaw dropping!!
I truly feel that sometime over the last couple of years someone, somewhere made the decision to stop really trying with eq2. i remeber being so impressed at the attention to detail that was put into the rise of kurnak expansion. however that was the last time that eq2 managed to impress me. the last expansion was awful when compared to ROK.
looking forward to eqnext as eq2's appeal has finished for me now
EQ 2 is a million miles wide and a half inch deep. thats the plauge of most MMOs currently.
Oddly, my biggest gripe with EQ2 was character facing. My characters always seemed to be standing at a 45 degree oblique angle, with the head pointed left over my shoulder, then the animation would have my character glance over to the right for no apparent reason. Darned if I ever could get comfortable figuring out which was was "forward."
You do know that EQ next is gonna use alot of the systems that EQ2 has but with better graphics as well as meshing more concepts that are seen in mmos today. Oh and an FYI they are shooting at the casual market. SOE is in this for money.
There is no ways omeone could give this review of New Halas and not be paid to do it....New halas is the same, if not worse in some areas, as all the other starter zones. I find it worse than the other starter zones. The story is worse. The quests are worse. Even the collections are worse. As said before the city of new halas is VERY underwhelming.
Well, maybe somebody in Sony management needs a kick in the pants, because EQ2 was Fail on so many levels. There is really little-to-nothing I'd take from EQ2 except what "not to do."
Heck, movement in EQ1 was more postiive and responsive than in EQ2.
Maybe gamers need a wake up call and see that there is no reason for a company to make a game for whiners that will bail the frist time something happens that they do not approve of?
New Halas did nothing for me. If I roll a new toons it will go to neriak. I hated the entire zone, it was pourly done. If they want that to grab new players they are going to have problems.
I still long for them to put in the queens colony or the freeport colony. The new starter zones well just suck, and being forced to roll toons there even made it suck worse.
I know why they did it they wanted to force folks to the new area and content, and a lot of folks really dont like it.
This times Millions
I like the Timorous Deep/Gorowyn starting area, even though Gorowyn itself leaves something to be desired. The Neriak and Greater Fay/Kelethin areas were ok, too. . I didn't really get that far into the New Halas starting area, but I wasn't feeling it.. I am just not into the ice-and-snow theme, I guess.
I really hated the original newbie islands, and I hated Freeport and Qeynos even more than that (too many zones!), but to each his (or her) own. I just know I was really glad when my warden had leveled up enough to not be spending too much time in Qeynos anymore.
I thought it was cool ''shrugs'' to each there own.
I think the review is well layed out actually with a good eye for the both bad design spots (no crafting tables but crafting introduction and too many house items when people still fight for inventory space). New Halas is a nice zone in my opinion, the atmosphere and graphics are nice, the quests have a good variety what to do. I prefer it over all the other ones. Taste difference is a nice thing. :)
New Halas is easily the most uninspired noob zones in EQ2. Timorous Deep was amazing as a starter zone and I find it hard to buy anyone finding Halas the 'best yet'. Neriak and Gfay have a great feel to them, and the attached cities are standout and different.Even the new zones at release were pretty good once you got to Qeynos or Freeport - at least they had a variety of locals and lore.
It's a functional starter zone sure, but that's where it ends. Big step down for EQ2.
Agree with the New Halas feel. The ice/snow theme isn't my favorite, and have yet to complete the whole area questline. (FYI - there is a shortcut to town from the first 'settlement' after the start area. You have to know it's there, but it drops you in the town proper.)
I have a fondness still for the original island setting for Q and F, and liked the distinctively different feel of the two major cities (now ghost towns), and would love to see those revamped and return.
Any alt I've rolled this past year it's Gorwyn over Neriak or Kelethin area. Although all the start areas are a bit boring for anyone that's played more than a handful of MMO's - it's the learn your character, get your gear time, run around kill 10x - so not very inspiring. Most MMO's get interesting about level 20+ or later IMHO.
ok, i played all of the "newbie" zones. And ich find New Halas nice but nothing came close to the good old Greater Faydark :)
<gets on her flameproof vest>
Actually, I came back to check out the beta of EQ2Ex and I don't mind the new areas at all. It's not earth-shatteringly different or new, or the bestest of the best, but it's not horrendously horrible either. I've played a hell of a lot worse. I'd give it a 7/10, with nothing I've ever played getting a 10/10 (nothing is perfect).
I've always seen EQ and EQ2 to change slowly and those changes tend to be fairly conservative. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but if you don't like EQ2's style, no reason to try it or keep playing it. The new areas are true to the genre.
The game is just too dated, and looks it age.
"It’s not just the scenery that looks good, the mobs have to be some of the best looking I’ve seen, particularly the humanoid ones (if you can ever consider an Orc to be good looking). EQII has come in for some flak over the years due to its visuals. On its release, you needed a pretty high end computer to be able to appreciate the scenery. Now, however, anyone with even a half decent rig can be wowed by some of the finest graphics that the devs have created to date."
Nope, you still need a high-end PC to run it with the eye-candy on, which is quite remarkable considering how old the game is. It's an obvious case of terrible programming. Furthermore, the game doesn't look particularly good, even on the highest settings. The textures themselves aren't too bad but the animation is poor, lighting is still weird and the terrain seems to lack that 'something' that makes the locations look decent rather than random objects plonked on random terrain.
I really think EQ2 has many aspects of the perfect MMO - loads of PvE content and features, an interesting world (except for the overrealm) but the graphics and engine make it unplayable for me.
New Halas was ok though the quest design was a bit uninspired. Timourous Deep is leagues better and is easier on the eyes. Felt like I spent more time swimming between the various islands and commuting back and forth between the underwater cave and the two quest givers on the beach in relation to the orc/elemental cave. It is better than the quest design in Kelethin at least, several of the 'solo' quests in that starter area were almost demanding a second person.
Looks wise..well Kelethin > Timourous Deep > New Halas. Can't say much about the other 'evil' starter area as I havent played though it yet.
Funny how Halas in EQ1 was awesome, but the Halas in EQ2 blows. I think maybe because EQ1 did not load you up with a laundry list of quests, but gave you a plausible ice village and there was danger immediately outside.
The danger sort of made you wary about stepping out, but was exciting at the same time. Nothing in EQ2, however, feels that meaningful. Too bad.
I do hope they get it right in EQ Next. They can always turn down the challenge factor, but I hope it starts with challenge. I'd rather be a noob unable to find a group in a dangerous zone than have mindless non-aggroing easy-mode mobs milling about.
No challenge = Lame
anyone else miss old school eq2?I had more fun with eq2 at release then I ever did now.I actually miss the old zones like starter island antonica and TS.Maybe it's nostalgia,but those had a much more eq feel then any of these new zones.I loved stepping into qeynos for the first time and getting my first apartment and seeing the city at night all lit up.I loved doing BB runs and grinding giants in TS with a good group.
Yeah, New Halas, for me....was totally underwhelming.
In my opinion, the very BEST starter experience is starting in Timorous Deep. Kelethin and Neriak are so difficult to learn your way around and New Halas just seemed....boring....to me. The quests in TD are great. Most have full voiceovers on NPCs, which you either love (I do) or hate (easy to skip), and the quest rewards in TD starting zone are measurably better than the other zones. I still don't understand that last bit...but trust me...they are.
I always suggest TD as a starting zone for new players. Besides, it's VERY easy to get around to ALL of them now, so you can actually go do quests in ALL of those areas and if your alignment is right, you can even jump over and do all the newbie quests in the zone you didn't start in anyway.
My only complaint about the starting area (and this is coming from a complete noob to the game as a whole, Silver membership) is that, exactly as was said in the article, I have a crapload of crafting items and nothing to do with them. My bank space is filled with furniture, and as far as quick leveling, I haven't reached New Halas yet and have been playing for 3 or 4 long sessions. Level 16 or 17 and no city with crafting or whatnot in sight for another few sessions. Ugh.
This thread is about EQ2, not EQ2X and no....they're not the same game, no matter how much someone (including SoE) tries to tell you they are. The game has so many restrictions that it is but a DIM shadow of EQ2, imo.
If you were playing EQ2, you woudn't have some of the issues you just referred to....no offense, but the bag limitations and whatnot for EQ2X are just STUPID. But so far as I know.....(I don't play EQ2X, I play EQ2) there are crafting areas in EVERY starting zone. So the crafting stuff that you have "nothing to do with," unless they also removed crafting areas in EQ2X (wouldn't surprise me, since everything else is so restricted and NOT like EQ2)....you should be able to use those things, you just need to find the crafting area.
Furniture...same thing. Go get your apartment or house in the city you live in....unless EQ2X also is keeping people from doing THAT. There's a quest by the housing. You'll get the house for free with the first week's rent paid.
You can get to most zones in the game from either a dock, or a spire, including New Halas which is a city IN a zone, not a zone name itself.
I think that the starter zone was fairly neat for what it is: a dated MMO that like the post above, is a million miles wide and an inch deep. I always had that thought that exact thing. EQ2 is huge, but the richness of content just isn't there. I've done a few low level instances, and while they are fun, it still seems bland.
Also, I had to call the grammar police because the few comments above totally slaughtered the English language. It's 'poorly' not 'pourly' and 'first' not 'frist.' </rant>
insanex
To be fair the article focuses on a new players experience in halas and EQ2X is where almost every new player is going to start the game now. The latest game update centered almost entirely on revamping that experience.
You have a point.
Well...I'm getting to that place where GW2 or TSW can't come out soon enough, because, even though I love EQ2 (the game itself) I really can't stand SoE and all of their stupid bullshit any longer. It's kind of the same as tolerating Blizzard's crap for 5 years. Now I've put up with SoE for almost 6 and I've pretty well had my fill.
The things I will hate to leave are the things that have always been fun...the collections, my houses, the high end zones that are so pretty, my guildmates that I've grown to truly be friends with, etc., etc. What I will NOT miss....is all of the screwing with the game that SoE does.
all that snow hurts my eyes. I wished many time while questing through the isle that my character could wear shades. The running back and forth got old fast.. especialy at the last 2 quest givers. the over use of furniture and jewelry for quest rewards was bothersome but they were good fortransmuting. The armor all looking so much alike was sad too.
Over all it did not live up to the hype but things rarely do.
I have been less than impressed with EQ2. Restrictions aside, they don't limit the game that much. I thought the crafting was some evil machiavellian plot foisted on the playerbase. I love to craft, but that system does not belong in a MMO.
Otherwise I did not find anything that separated the game from any of the other. Tthe graphics were sub par and I run everything at max resolution.
I tried all the starter quest areas and found then all to be wanting. Well I found the game to be wanting. Lotro makes this game look like it was coded by a bunch of rookies.
I am pretty darn good at reading between the lines,i would say many here are still bitter because Eq2 is not exactly EQ1.I was there when it was launched and it was ridiculous how bitter so many were that they were lsoing Eq1,time to move on people.
As far as complaining or trying to knit pick,unless you are comparing the game to the ONLY different game [FFXI]then it is as good or not better than the most populated game on the planet,so go figure.It does EVERYTHING the same as WOW if not better ,looks better has better crafting,it took Wow about 5 full years to fully capture all the same ideas as Eq2/Eq1,so before people go off complaining,they had better realize that 90% of the games are exactly the same as EQ2.
There was ONLY one game that actually had an eventful starter experience and that was Vanguard,seemed that it doesn't matter at all,since there is not a lot of people playing VG.All other games except a very small chunk ,start you off in some puny small village,with npc's waiting to hand out some useless boring quests.So as far as the MMORPG genre is involved,there is no such thing as an exciting beginners experience.VG had it,FFXI was challenging,all other games pretty mcuh group you into total boredom and super easy fights with literally no risk of dying,arows pointing directions or icons over top of npc's heads.
As far as the topic goes,New Halas is just the same old generic beginning that all games have.It is also very noob friendly,no risk of dying ,very easy fights.I would say New Halas is exactly like stating in Timorous Deep,the same kind of rewards for quests,the same sort of linear pattern.TD/Gorowyn at least had the high lofts,with lifts to take you high up into the city,New Halas is basically flat except for a few cliffs yo ucan dive off of using Feather Fall.
To be completely honest, I think you do a poor job of infering reasons into what people say.
For example: no one lost EQ1 when EQ2 released, because EQ1 was still there exactly like it was when EQ2 released. It seems like you are just looking for a reason to dismiss what people say.
Seeing that eq2 lost most of its playerbase in the first year after release I think it is easy to see that people just didn't enjoy the game. Seeing that they didn't return to EQ1 (as it lost most of its players also) I don't think they were to upset at losing EQ.
Everyone is always talking about how great EQ is. So I just tried it and quit after a few minutes. Its bad. Unoriginal, ugly, and boring. Severely dated.
EQ2 should be in a museum somewhere, not seeking new players.
Seriously... how many new starting zones are they going to add?
These "realistic" graphics really didn't age well. Ah well.
Indeed. I actually really enjoyed having to earn your way into Qeynos or Freeport after launch (also liked the class change system and its associated questlines... but that's another story). Then you finally get into the city proper and its omg huge... I guess at launch, EQ2's design was much more anchored in RPG gameplay, which SOE promptly began moving away from as soon as WoW hit the scene and they saw the $$$. I still remember the hours-long discussions that would take place in my guild at the time about how ticked off people were to see SOE changing the game they chose to play *because* it wasn't WoW to become something more like it.
I mean they make these massive cities that are, ostensibly, the capitals of each side... yet they're ghost towns. I think instead of adding new starter areas (and I agree Halas is far less inspired than previous ones), they should give an eye back to the two main cities and make some changes to give people a reason to go there again. They could be social centers, trade centers, etc... but they're just sprawling cities with no purpose other than Writs and a handful of other things. Such a waste of space.
Yeah I think a lot of these games need to shrink playing space as subs decline. Ghost games are not fun.
I used to love Eq2, but eventually I started playing wow instead since so many rl friends played it, and no one played eq2. But I always went back for a few months once in a while. But this new halas, oh dear, I hate to say this, but I did not like it at all. Eq2 has really fallen in my estimate, I still have my great memories but I think this game is dead to me now :(
I like the New Halas story arc. It was the first that had house items and unique armor as rewards. Then they just recently added the same armor to all the other noobie zones which is weird cuz who needs heavy fur in the grassy fields of Darklight Wood? The should have added unique armor that looks like it was made by dark elves. They did add unique dark elvish house items & a mount which was awesome (same for Timorous Deep & Kelethin).
I've heard rumors that they will revamp freeport & qeynos noobie quests to give better rewards as well & eventually make them starting zones again. Queens Colony needs to come back. It's too much a part of the lore just for them to yank it out. It just needs a revamp. It's possible, but I think they need moneys from the Extended crowd to make it happen. I hate to say it, but I'm sure they have gained a lot more revenue from the Extended Server.
If you want to judge a game by it's graphics/animations, then yes, EQ2 is not for you. I do have to say that the artwork & detail is still pretty awesome in this game compared to other games from it's era.
The crafting system is super easy if you know how it works. It's really grindy, but it's nice to play a game where you can feel like a true merchant, making stuff that people really want. The time spent on the grind is worth it. It sounds like you played on EQ2X where I would assume crafting isn't as important because people are buying their gear from marketplace.
Ya, you can get your house right up the hill from where you are questing, and get rid of most of the stuff taking up space. You also can get bags/boxes to put inside your bank slots. I didn't know that when I was first playing. That will increase your space a ton!
Yeah, the graphics is fine enough. But the coding isn't great, the games worst feature. I get worse performance in it than AoC, a lot worse in some zones (both games maxed out to compare). Neriak have been OK for a year but new halas give me 15 in FPS (Hexa core with 8GB ram and 480 GTX, never had problem in other games).
The crafting systems problem is 2 things: First you have to make a lot of unsellable junk to make something useful. The second thing as that you make the same thing as everyone else. You would think that a dwarf and an elf would make rather different swords. It id better than most games however.
EQ2 is a pretty good game, EQ2X isn't SOE is just too gredy to make F2P working.
They should optimize the engineand revamp the AA trees to make it better.
Besides thta is my main problem with EQ2 that they raised the levelcap too much. Before you actually did a lot of questlines, now you run through most zones in a very short time and that hurts the story.
Some of the quests are epic byut they also have a lot of kill X quests, someof them really stupid like when they forces you to kill 50 animals to look after book pages they have eaten to make a book. They should delete the worst ones as well.
I played the game for about 3 years until 2 months ago. I had fun most of the time. :)