Rating: 
Summary: Agree with previous, but with high hopes
Review: I agree with the previous poster, that the EverQuest world has passed its peak, and went straight downhill after the Shadows of Luclin era. The game had the great roleplay feel, having to rely on other players for many things, such as the creation of armor to traveling via port. The game has recently been geared toward the more casual gamer, making everything easier. Everyone has become Experience obsessed, crowding into Planes which have no dungeon type of feel. Places where anyone can get to any "camp" and sit there killing things in the same spot, for hours. The feel of the "dungeon crawl" is lost to the ages. Raids are completely robotic, you do your same old little job, all the time, every time, without question or complaint. Overall, the old great roleplay feel is dead, and everything is completely impersonal and driven by the profit motive. It is no longer the fantasy world, it is a fantasmal recreation of the real world. EverQuest II, however, seems to be working on recreating, and improving on, the old world. Some of the key members of the developement team of EQ1 are working on this new game, and opting to take out both the Planes and Luclin in a cataclysmic, unidentified event that shook the world. So that's two down, what about the other expansions? Well, the older continents have now been lost, the oversea route now blocked by permanant tempests. So we are back to the original world, but what of the start? You start the same as everyone else, without a class. You begin your journey in either Freeport or Qeynos. Freeport has become a haven to the shady folk, most evil or naturally mischievious beings opting to live out their lives there, under Lucan D'Lere, their leader since his days in the Militia of EQ1. Qeynos, on the other hand, it the haven for the light, all valorous or good-hearted flocking to its gates under Antonia Bayle. Shortly after you begin to test your skills, you are given the choice of class. You can pick from several classes, later having the option to become a sub-class, and even later getting a specialized class. This continues the implementation of roleplay, as it follows your characters particular path of developement. And with Luclin and the Planes gone, instant travel is also gone, and it is back to the old ways, in more ways than one. Overall, this game seems to be bringing back the best of the old, with new twists on the gameplay that should add a more dynamic sense of character to each player.
Rating: 
Summary: Everquest 2 a new beggining !
Review: I have been playing everquest since release after beta. As all of you players know it started out fun every character was (after all the patches to fix them up) equal. Every Character had a role. SOE Knew this but for a good MMO to keep up you would need new things so they introduced new expansions crafting etc. The bad thing about it that old eq was only used for Noobs to start out and when venturing to about the 20th level they could go to the moon and level there. It was a good idea but failed in grping participation. A lot of people were scattered around eq there wasnt a friendly enviorment expet the guilds. Though Eq2 is soon out and i have made a lot of research. They are making it so that you have to explore the worlds for yourself class balance, everything. New graphics will be amazing and above all the AI. In Eq 2 if user friendly both for the hardcore players and for the less frequant players. Meaning that there are a lot of things to do. I think you should read about it before jumping in conclusions. eqii.com is a starters !
Rating: 
Summary: Will Be Awesome
Review: I have listened to many reviews on this website and have found that many people have been hating the fact that there will be 2 cities. For those of you who don't know, it's called a storyline There has been 500 years passed since the first eq game and an age called the age of clatyclysms. All cities were destroyed and even the moon exploded. Only two cities had the idea to rebuild their home, Qeynos and Freeport. Well, if they were the only ones doing this and one was good the other was evil, I guess you wouldnt sit around your city's old ruins for the rest of your life, you would have to join one. EQ2 is a freeport/qeynos war. Freeport led by the always-known-to-be-evil Sir Lucan D'Lere. Qeynos being the good side led by the good looking Antonia Bayle. Pick your side Everquest2 will be a better game than everquest with improved graphics, cities being a major part of the game, and a wide varity of races and classes. Everybody here is comparing it to everquest1. EQ2 IS NOT EVERQUEST. It is not even considered a sequel sometimes to the creators, it is a parrelell universe with the history, zones (with some new ones, and some old ones left out from when they were destroyed), and races of everquest, but it is COMPLETLY DIFFERENT.
Rating:
Summary: Sure to please
Review: I have played EverQuest continuously since the open-beta some four years ago. I believe I have the qualifications to make a comment. ;) "A Gamer from New Jersey" paints a pretty jaundiced picture of EQ. I suggest that if you find grouping a pain, than you shouldn't review a game that is fundamentally designed to be social and group-oriented. Soloing in Everquest is like removing a philips-head screw with a flat-tipped screwdriver; not a problem with the tool, but with the mechanic. Everquest has evolved and expanded into a rich and almost unbelievably nuanced game for the fantasy roleplayer, old-school or new player alike. Sony Online Entertainment has taken the fruits of their unequaled MMORPG experience and combined it with the latest of cutting-edge graphical technology. For the *social* role-player (anyone who is not social should probably stick to first-person shooters) this new rendition of Everquest is sure to please.
Rating:
Summary: Different from the original
Review: I have read many reviews about the 'sequal' to the MMORPG to Everquest. It looks like Sony is making it very differnt from the original game. It looks like a game I could very much get into. The only problem is you won't be able to transfer your current toon into EQ2 because of the vastly differnt leveling and classing system. That will make it hard for all of us that have been playing EQ for a while and have high level characters. It's either give up all that work, AND your friend, or play both. When this is realeased, I'll have to make the decision, but I'll probably end up playing both.
Keeping my eyes on this game to see how it goes and hopefully it will turn out to be just as entertaining as EQ was.
Rating:
Summary: Everquest II
Review: I have seen Many Screenshots and Read previews about it and It sounds awesome except for one thing. You CAN'T transfer your Characters from The first EQ to this game, For this Reason, I think tons of people will not buy this game, Unless they have never started playing EQ before this Game Comes out. Personally I might not buy it for this reason.
Rating: 
Summary: Only for people with a lot of time!
Review: I played EQ for over three years...awesome in the beginning, lots of people in all the zones , you could log on and find a group right in your own home town. That was then, now you can go to zones and be the only one there. Almost all the major cities are completely empty, almost entire continent is barren except for the new zones. You have to invest a lot of time in order to make enough "friends" to find and group with when you start. Solo play is very difficult at higher levels. Everyone gets a solo strategy, and can do well at it but the game gets repetitive that way. If you only have an hour or so to kill a night then EQ is not your game. I wish they would make it so people can log on and play around for an hour and advance your character solo, and if they want offer some more enticements to make the game more "groupable" but they do not. I found myself getting a character that I could solo with, but did not have much to offer a group and therefore was stuck in that mode. Good to luck to all you people with more time on your hands, I wish I had more time to play and group the game would be more fun, but to those who do not have much time (which is a good thing actually) find something off the shelf like Neverwinter Nights that you can turn/off like a switch and not spend the entire night looking for group (LFG) lol.
Rating:
Summary: Anything SOE releases will suck
Review: I played EQ from first day of launch for over 3 years, and am beta testing EQ2, and it's gonna suck. EQ was a good game at first, but continuously was made worse thru an increased forced grouping philosophy imposed by SOE, which they continue to encompass in all their games including EQ2.
EQ at first was friendly to both casual gaming soloers and hardcore group oriented players, but the original designer quit and the vision was lost.
Many people don't want to play a game where they are forced to play a certain way and where dependency on others is mandatory. That type of design hurts all casual part time players. The other problem with SOE games is the horrible customer service which exists with all their products. They depend heavily on volunteer players as guides, who handle the bulk of customer service issues, which leads to corruption and favoritism.
Any game that utilizes players as pseudo staff, will be flawed. SOE doesn't even monitor their paid GM staff well. They fired a GM from EQ who was backing up characters and selling the items on Ebay and giving them to his guild friends. They only caught him after some players reported it.
If you allow the staff to socialize with the playerbase, it will lead to corruption and favoritism. I have been beta testing Horizons also and must say that it looks much more promising than EQ2.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent game, If you have the time and patience...
Review: I played the first EQ for 2 years on and off. Eventually it became more of a process then a game and I swore it off, told myself I'd never play another MMORPG again... and then years later a friend introduces me to EQ2. I Believed I'd hate it as much I'd grown to hate its predeccesor, however this was far from the truth. As soon as I started playing I fell in love with it, the amazing amount of detail, the astounding amount of spoken diologue, the actual feeling that I was part of a beautiful and rich world.
If you've got the computer for it, the graphics are nothing short of amazing... unfortunalty if your machine is a bit older the game will look worse then EQ1, full of bland textures and characters that look like featureless plastic figures running around. In a sense, the graphics are one of the best and worst aspects being they can either make the game that much more impressive or make it impossible to play... its clear the developers had the future in mind by setting the bar so high.
Also, the music is very fitting and enjoyable, although a bit boring after long periods of time. The sound effects work well enough, nothing amazing but nothing dramatically bad. If your not fond of the in game soundtrack, there is a player made music pack of varius songs that may fit your liking more appropriately as well if you'll willing to look for it on Sony's offical player boards.
Gameplay is what keeps you coming back to the game. In this games case it may be what pushes you away: The game is by no means short or easy. In one hand there will ALWAYS be something for you to do... on the other this makes the game seem overwhelming at times, especially to people with short amounts of time to play or more casual players. If you don't have alot of free time, this isn't the game for you. Many mortal flaws that plagued the first EQ have been either eliminated or atleast now minimal. Powerleveling is now impossible as you can only buff members of your group, and can only group with people either 6 levels above or below you. This can also be a flaw for people who have higher level friends, being its impossible to do anything meanful with someone higher or lower then 6 levels. There is currently a Mentoring system soon to be incorporated that should help bring that problem to a curb. Also theres diffrent ways to decide loot and looting rights in groups as well as no longer needing to worry about losing corpses when dying. Every piece of equipment now has a level range, meaning it cant be worn on low level characters. Also just about every piece of nice equpipment must be "attuned" meaning once you've attuned it only the character who did can wear it... This will no doubt put a hold on inflation and characters becoming too rich or great items becoming too common.
This game IS very group oriented... soloing is very possible, and a good way to pass the time when seeking a group... however it still isn't as efficient. Many rewarding quests require groups... it is POSSIBLE to get to 50 without grouping... doesn't mean it will be fun or easy though. Personally I feel that If your paying per month to play a videogame online, you might as well play with other people.
So far I've gotten three level 20+ characters and in my experience this game has GREAT low level content... there is no shortage of quests or things to do. I've heard there are glitches and unfinished content currently at higher levels but as the main player base gets higher, the higher content will be improved, so unless you have all the time in the world to level up this shouldn't be a problem.
Many people complain that WoW is better. I won't say either is better, but I will say that WoW is not for me. WoW is a more lighthearted, silly, and cartoony world. EQ2 seems to be more of a serius fantasy setting akin to Lord of the Rings. Their both nice MMORPGs... EQ2 just seems so much more impressive to me. I could go on for pages about this game, however I believe anyone who enjoys fantasy RPGs who has a good bit of free time, a good bit of patience, and enjoys playing online games with others will find a greatly enjoyable experience with EQ2.
Rating:
Summary: You've may have heard this!
Review: I'm impressed by the graphics of EQ2, but after playing up to about level 20, I got bored. I was disappointed by the removal of many special and quirky features of various races. People who played high level druids or bards or enchanters in EQ1 will be very unhappy with EQ2. Forget about kiting, chain casting pets, or even spirit of wolf (now nerfed to uselessness). Cleary there was an attempt to make this game easier to play for everyone, but much less interesting for the expert.
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