No Rest Till New Halas

Not quite two weeks ago, Scooter declared that she was a bit bored with the MMOs we are "currently" playing and set out to find a new experience. We did a little research on different F2P games out there, since we plan to check out some of the new games coming out in the spring, and this is really just to tide us over until then. Unless, of course, something really draws us in. After looking at a few games, like Allods and Aion, we settled on EverQuest II.

I suppose you could call this a bit of a "Nostalgia lane" piece, though other than a plastic figurine of a High-Elf that a friend bought at a garage sale and gave to me, I have no previous connection to EQ. We haven't played very much to be honest, but I'm already considered "experienced" by Raptr. I think that's more an indicator of how old the game is than that few still play. We picked the RP server, Antonia Bayle, partly because I've had good experiences with RP servers ever since Rift, and partly because it is frankly the most heavily populated server. In the few places we have been so far, there seem to be quite a few players out and about—doing quests, I assume.

It's A Lot Like . . .

I'll probably get a ton of crap for this, but as a player who cut his teeth on World of Warcraft, this is a lot like WoW. It would be far more accurate to say that WoW is like EQII—though they were in development about the same time period and were released less than a month apart. OK, OK, if WoW is Zeus, then Everquest II is like, Poseiden, and EverQuest is Cronus, the father of both. Or put another way, if Everquest is the English of Shakespeare, then EQ2 is modern British, and WoW is American. "They're related," is what I'm saying. But more like cousins than brothers.

Jimbuire & Merewyn

Having said that, I think in many ways, EQ2 is what WoW might have ended up like if Blizzard hadn't listened/catered to millions of people in simplifying the game. Of course, that's as someone who had only played a relatively paltry 17 hours or so, and have yet to reach level 20. Even with the option to create a level 85 character (at no apparent expense), the questing and accumulation of XP seems appropriate to the area we started in; unlike WoW, where immediately following Cataclysm, we quickly out leveled the areas we were trying to quest in.

Taking the Plunge

With all the expansions the game has gone through, there are quite a few options on race and class. Because some races and classes are aligned good or evil, not all classes (professions?) are available to all races. However, there is an equivalent class of the "correct" alignment, so the options are still pretty side open. Despite choices like Ogre and Ratonga, Scooter and I played it relatively safe with Wood Elves. I picked the Fury class, an elemental cleric (for healing), and Scooter went with Swashbuckler, a melee Scout.

For some reason, the option of starting near Kelethin (the home of the Wood Elves) was not presented to Scooter (who finished her character creation process first) and we ended up in the icebound north, near New Halas. This was fine, since we had no experience with the game, but we're already getting tired of the relentless white of the tundra landscape. My favorite zones in games are woodland (like Elwynn Forest or Grizzly Hills in WoW, or Silverwood in Rift). Snowy woodlands are cool, too; but not endless snowpack.

Jimbuire

The conversations that start quests are an interesting variant. I like that you can be sarcastic or even a bit mean to the quest giver, and your words hold true, unlike certain games' voiced dialogue. I do wonder if the dialogue will have an effect in the long run. The basic movements and combat are comfortably familiar, though it's odd for me to stand still to cast spells after getting used to the more—mobile—combat of TSW and GW2. I like that gray mobs (that give no XP for kills) become non-aggressive, making travel easier, even on foot. That said, there is a lot of running back and forth from the quest hubs to the questing areas, and if you miss a step in one quest chain, you'll end up going back through areas you've already been to for another. Character progression (abilities / specialization) is comparable to other MMOs, but the Alternate Advancement (AA) system seems like it was cobbled together over several expansions rather than designed to mesh smoothly.

The SOEmote system that applies the player's facial expression to the avatar is amusing, but it doesn't capture my eyes very well due to the screen glare on my spectacles. Also, I tend to go a bit stone-faced when playing games, so it would take some concentration to use the system effectively. Scooter and I just turned it off.

How Long Will We Sojourn Here?

We haven't even gotten into the housing potential, which I know is a big part of EQ2's appeal to a lot of folks. I did get lost in the housing system the other night, popping out in Qeynos and taking almost an hour to figure out how to get back to the zone Scooter was in.

While EverQuest II has been a pleasant experience overall so far, little niggling things make me wonder how long I will stick around. Right now we are Bronze Level (F2P). Upgrading to Silver (B2P) doesn't seem to unlock the sorts of things I wish it would, like the slider that adjusts how much XP goes to AA or being able to send mail. [EDIT: I know about the shared bank space.] Given the great experiences I can have in GW2 and TSW (or even Rift) without committing to a monthly subscription, paying rent for Quality-of-Life and User Interface options is not something I am willing to do. And the frequent reminders that I could upgrade (for a nominal fee), while not irritating to me as it is to some, certainly is not endearing the game to me.