EverQuest = Addictive. That's All You Really Need to Know....
Written: Oct 06 '01 (Updated Apr 23 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: totally online, addictive, great gameplay, some more stuff...
Cons: sound, addictive, addictive, addictive
The Bottom Line: Addddiiiiiiicccccttttiiiiiiivvvveeeeee.....
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| Plat_Ryda's Full Review: EverQuest for Windows |
[Note: Some of this information is incorrect (like the number of starting races, or the number of continents) because this is a review of plain, normal EverQuest. None of the expansion packs were included in this review. Those will be reviewed later, when I get off my butt and get to work.]
I know it sounds so cliché, but it's so very true this time. Before you start to play EverQuest, just tie up all those loose ends in your life, like “family & friends.” Seriously. I so wish I was kidding here. It's not even funny. Seriously. Really.
*Ahem*
EverQuest actually seems more like an experience that a game. The fact that EverQuest is played online gives the game a much more…authentic feel than many other games (like Baldur’s Gate). It’s like an experience because you interact with people just like you – you learn to cooperate with them, make friends (or enemies) with them, just talk with them, and much more all while journeying along on this endless adventure. A lot of people say EverQuest is more like a “graphical chatroom” than an actual game. You know what I say to that? Well, actually, I can’t tell you what I say to that because it’s far too vulgar, but…uh…to fill up some space I’ll say: EQ does have many aspects that make it seem like a chatroom to some people, but there’s just so much more to it than that – the actual adventure. Travelling from continent to continent, battling enemies, seeing new places, risking life, and more.
Now, remember what I said about it being more like an experience than a game? Well, take the “chatroom” part and combine it with the “adventure” part. “Chatroom” + “adventure” = “adventurous chatroom!” No…no…wait…no. I meant that when you combine both aspects together, THAT’S what makes EQ like an experience. I just kinda messed it up in that transition phase….eheheh.
When you start playing EverQuest, you first have to make your character. You can choose from 12 different (fantasy, mind you) races and 14 different classes (a class is like an occupation, but there’s a lot more fighting involved). It should be noted, though, that not every race can be any class. So, you can’t be a Troll Wizard, or an Erudite (the “High Men” of the game) Warrior, or something like that.
After you choose a race and class, you choose your character’s name, the (fantasy) god they worship, and how to divide their Ability Points for their class’s abilities. So, you wouldn’t your Ability Points into Intelligence if you were a Warrior, or Strength if you were a Magician, etc (if you DO place your Ability Points stupidly like that, please, give me an e-mail with your character name and server so I can laugh at you for a while).
After that, your character is “magically transported” into the world of Norrath. You can start on one of three continents depending on your race and class, and in those continents you can start in one of many, many cities. After that, you’re ready to go off and your adventure.
Like most RPGs, EverQuest has a “level up” system. For your character to become stronger (and get use better weapons, equipment, and get better spells), you have to level up. You start out at level 1 (obviously) and can level up all the way to level 60. You can’t go beyond 60 (although some monsters do).
To level up, you have to fight monsters and complete quests. You can either fight monsters solo, or hunt them down in a group (believe me, grouping is MUCH more fun, although many times your group is consisted of you and a bunch of idiots). Like I said, you can also complete quests that (usually) not only give you experience that helps you level up, but you also can get money and a reward like a weapon, cape, robe, boots, etc.
Besides all that, you can really customize your character by doing things like roleplaying (if you want, not too many people do because a lot of players just laugh at you when you roleplay : ) and by choosing which trade(s) they will delve into. Your character can choose from a wide variety (ehh…sorta) of trades, such as Blacksmithing, Jewelcrafting, Tailoring, Brewing, Baking, Fletching, Tinkering, and…um…some other ones… **Ahem** By choosing a trade (or two, or three, or 40 BAJILLION!), your character can make items for themselves instead of buying it. Cool, eh? The only problem is that making the items usually costs about 10,000 times more than just buying the thing. Pfft (No, I’m just kidding : ). But the satisfaction of wearing a shirt you made yourself surely beats out just buying one, right? Ha! Tell that to your bank account.
OK, enough with the chit-chat. Since I’ve already bored many of you to the point of exiting the site and sending me e-mail threats, I’ll go on to discuss what all you twitch-gamers (read: 97.65% of you) want to know – graphics. And I’ll throw in the other technical stuff for the hell of it, too.
EverQuest is an incredible-looking game. It’s also a very angular-looking game. But, I’ll hit that part later.
Because EverQuest is about a huge, fantasy world that has all these sights to see, dungeons to explore, cities to go to, people to meet, etc., the graphics were created to prove that. And they do. EverQuest is quite an amazing game to look at while travelling its world of Norrath. Filled to the brim with enormous monsters, deep forests, vast oceans, and much more, many times while playing the game you’ll say things like “Whoa! Look at that!” The attention to detail in EverQuest’s environments and characters can be quite spectacular, not to mention all the shades and colors included.
Then there’s the unfortunate side of the graphics, the very unfortunate side – the game is REALLY angular. Like, so angular it’s not even funny. Well, actually it is, but that’s beside the point. The environments aren’t really what I’m talking about here, they’re still angular, but not as much as the characters. Don’t know what I mean by angular? Picture this type of character head: instead of a normal chin, the characters have two straight lines that meet and form an edge. Now, picture the same kind of thing for every other part of the body. Now do you understand? Good. You learn something new every day, eh? Hahaha. Haha. Ha. Erm…nevermind.
The sound in EverQuest is decent, at best. The sound effects are pretty cool, with thunder and lightning and roars and fire and your usual fantasy game stuff. The music, though, is nothing for Verant and Sony to be proud of. Instead of what could definitely be achieved by a computer game (awesome music with an orchestra-like sound), we have crappy, tinny, and overall weak MIDI garbage. Blargh. Most of the time while playing the game I just mute it and listen to a CD. Yes, it can be that bad.
The default control system is pretty confusing for the first few hours of play. But you get used to it and since you’ll be playing the game for 19 hours a day, 7 days a week (5 hours are left over for eating, going to the bathroom, and possibly sleeping) it really doesn’t become an issue. The game uses both the mouse and keyboard, although almost everything in the game can be done somehow without the use of a mouse. The great thing about EverQuest’s control scheme is that it basically allows for complete customization. You can move all the keys around to your liking and there are even hotkey boxes where you can put some of your most-used commands. The hotkeys allow you to just execute a command with the click of a mouse button, or press of a number key, instead of having to type out the command.
The gameplay in EverQuest has a ton of variety and keeps you playing for HOURS AND HOURS AND HOURS on end. No joke. You won’t be able to stop playing (too true, too true). There’s just so much to do and the fact that you’re constantly interacting with people just like you (or not) that just becomes so addicting. Of course, there are aspects of EverQuest that quickly become a pain. Since Sony and Verant wanted to make the EverQuest fantasy experience as “realistic” as possible, you’ll have to put up with things like excessively long boat rides. All you “hardcore RPGers” out there are probably laughing and saying things about how true RPGers can handle things like that, but I don’t care. NOBODY WHO HAS PLAYED THE GAME CARES! You’ll see when you play the game. No matter how “hardcore” of an RPGer you are, when you have to ride on a boat for close to two hours (sometimes more), doing nothing but waiting, you really won’t give a flying shiz about your RPG merit.
There’s also the fact that the game is BUGGED OUT. No, just kidding. No, I wish I was. Really. The game has a lot of bugs, especially if you don’t “feel like” downloading some of the optional patches or haven’t gotten the new expansions yet. What are some of these bugs? Monsters becoming invisible, making you unable to attack them. Your corpse (when you die, your corpse with all your items on it stays where you die and you have to go loot it in time) becoming invisible. Falling “through the world” for tons of damage and then becoming unable to get to your corpse. Walking around and falling “through the world” for no damage at all, but being stuck under there for hours. And more. Yes, it’s bad, very bad. But there are people who can help you out when you get bugged like that, and also, the game is just too enjoyable to let things like that bother you. OK, that’s a lie. The bugs constantly bother people, but since the game is so enjoyable, they just put up with them until they get fixed. Seriously. The game is that darn good.
And that’s (finally!) the end of this review. I hope that at least 3 of you were able to actually read the whole thing. That would make me feel special. Anyway, to sum this whole, long, and un-informative review up – EverQuest is an excellent game. You seriously won’t be able to stop playing until you’re forced to. Just buy it and you’ll thank and threaten me at the same time.
Overall Rating - 9.4
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Plat_Ryda
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Location: USA
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