EverQuest

Rating:
Summary: Very Fun Game ... But there is better out there IMHO
Review: I am an addict. I LOVE RPG games. I started with Muds, and moved on to single player RPGs and then Massive Multiplayer RPGS. I greatly enjoyed UO when it came out, and enjoyed Everquest for 6 months. Now, however, I am spending 10s of hours per week on Asheron's Call. MY POINTS --------------- ONE: I love the "High Fantasy" aspects of Everquest. If you play an Ogre, you have to actually look down to see the elf you may be talking with. TWO: I also really liked the graphics in Everquest, but then i realized that eventually the characters all look the same since you cannot customize your appearance such as hair/eyes etc. THREE: If you are patient, and love to play cooperatively with others, there is nothing wrong with the game play. FOUR: The 2 things I liked least were the "Zones" .. which feel like a bunch of quake levels, and the lack of advanced quests. The quests are simple "Get [insert object name here] from [insert NPC character name] in [insert far away town name] and return to [you get the idea]" FIVE: Also, the different races offer too many advantages that tend to have all Fighters as ogres and all mages as elfs. I prefer a more level playing field and skill/XP vs just XP based character development. SIX: I must say the Everquest character development/combat systems are weak at best (far better then UO's, and noticeably worse then Asheron Call's)Simply put the char and combat system are too simple. It takes very little strategy in battles. Simply "hit as best you can then run." SUMMARY : Good Game if you like High Fantasy and you are patient, But Check out Asheron's Call as I think it offers more all round.(but you wont be able to play a troll or elf etc .. just human) -- TROG lvl 23 Ogre Shaman - Bristlebane -- Camber lvl 29 Sho War/Item Mage - Morningthaw

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent RP game and one of the best overall games.
Review: When reading the reviews I saw two things... a) a bunch of whining and b) very few praises.

I will suppose here, that very few of the whiners ever played games called "muds". These are the same basis as EQ but it is all text based.

For us die hard MUD Fans (Multi User Dungeons), EQ is what we have always been waiting for. We don't care how long it takes to lvl because we enjoy every single minute of the game!

Sure there are bugs and much room for improvement, but this is by far one of the most outstanding games i have EVER played.

It doesn't take dedication unless you expect to level fast. You can log on and play whenever you want.

And btw... no respectable mud or online game would have easy to play spell casters. They are difficult and made for people that WANT the challenge. Are you one of those that likes to give your characters the maximum stats and abilities ? So the game isn't fun to anyone but you? Or are you upset because you haven't fount any cheats to make life easer? =)

I enjoy this game, and it is addicting and can be expensive. I think it is geared more towards older teenagers and young adults then the below 18 crowd. And roleplaying is what it is ALL about.

There are many bugs, but i haven't seen a game put out YET that wasn't full of them. This game is being worked and reworked and soon updated.

So quit whining and either play or quit! The game is only what you make of it. =)

Blaidd

Rating:
Summary: Fun for about a week
Review: When I first played the game I found it very fun and interesting, but the more I played I realized I was doing the same exact things over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. It became mind-numbingly dull. I only managed to make it to lvl 5 before I couldn't take anymore.

The game has a great concept and the graphics look very nice. I enjoyed playing in a world full of other real people that I could actually interact with. The huge downside is that there is little variety to keep things fresh and interesting. I spent hours upon hours running around killing rats and snakes and whatnot. I would find a rat, hit the "attack" key and watch the battle unfold. Yeah, it was sort of cool the first few times, but after hours of doing this I felt my sanity starting to slip away.

Rating:
Summary: Everquest starts fun....
Review: Ok, bottom line, this game starts out fun, and addictive, ok that said and done I wanna tell you how it really is. Everquest is just what it says, a quest that just keeps going and going, now I know this may sound fun at first, but keep reading. after playing my character to lvl 19(takes forever, 2 - 3 months) I finally realised that the game is not changing, it never gets harder, its always the same, every enviroment is modeled after another, only changed a bit, the monsters are uninspired and it takes forever to get up lvls, as you can see above,(for those of you who don't know, a lvl is what you gain after getting enough experiance[which is what you get when you kill a monster] to surpase a limit which gains you a lvl and makes you better at fighting monsters.) The monsters have terrible AI(artificial inteligence) they wander about the world until you or someone comes into view, then they attack you! there is no AI in this game, a lvl 1 orc pawn will attack a lvl 20 warrior! How stupid is that? Does the pawn give any consideration to your supiriority? No, it is simply programed to attack whatever comes into view. The only thing that gets harder about EQ as you go along is how long it takes to get lvls. It can take you as much as 6 months to a year before you get up to lvl 50(the highest lvl you can obtain). Another thing is the price, which ALL online RPG's charge, you pay $40 - $50 to buy the game at the store, but it doesnt stop there, you have to pay 9.95 a month to continue playing. Now, if you have to pay $9.95 a month, why do they make you pay $50 to buy the game? they should make it $20 to buy the game, and they should lower the price of the monthly cost as the game gets old, but they don't, so you'll end up paying a ridiculous price for everything and in the end, realise it wasn't worth it. On the plus side, you get one month of play time free when you start to consider whether you want the game or not. Also the sound effects are pretty good.

Rating:
Summary: Newbie slant!
Review: I have played here only a week and am hooked! This is a great multi-player RPG - And I do mean multi-player - the game is designed to have characters work together in fighting the nasty critters - but where is the harm in that? You make new friends! You can swap tall tales, fall in love, be betrayed - it all comes down to ROLEPLAY. This is a great experience for players who truly wish to get into their characters.

The game also has stunning graphics, sounds, several classes/races, and is huge. Three continents! I admit it is not really for the casual player but for those of us who always wanted to go to Middle-Earth, or Midkemia, or any numerous other 'fantasy' lands, - this is a perfect venue - the only minor problem I have run into is the monsters spawn rather slow sometimes and there are lots of other people competing to kill that same critter you just oriented on.

You can also choose to PK here and there are servers aimed solely for that venue.

The best thing about this game is it has a little something for everyone - and the game just keeps finetuning! Thank you Verant for continually trying to better EQ!

Rating:
Summary: Not for your average gamer.
Review: While this game is an impressive technical achievement that manages to work pretty well for hundreds of users at a time, it haas a number of flaws that will ruin the game for many.

The game world is very detailed and the play is engrossing for many many hours, which is also the problem. In order to advance in this cyber-world, you need to be able and willing to devote HUNDREDS or THOUSANDS of hours to play it, far more than a casual player like myself cares to commit.

Less than halfway through the game ceases to be much fun and becomes tedious. In my opinion this is because the designers decided to concentrate on making the game difficult instead of fun.

Rating:
Summary: A good idea mangled by incompetence
Review: EQ is a great idea. I don't even mind the hack 'n slash nature of the game, because I spend that time chatting with other people and having a good time.

That is, when I can actually log on. Verant obviously had a good idea, but does not have the capacity to pull off a massive online RPG-esque game. The servers are down more often than they are up, and always at peak hours. When they are up, they are generally overloaded with players. Half the quests do not work, and the ones that do require a lot of effort with very little to show for one's efforts.

You spend more time sitting around waiting to heal/regenerate than actually playing. And if you are killed, you are severely punished with lost experience and levels. Glitch in the game that resulted in your character's death? Verant could care less. They routinely refuse to restore characters who are "killed" due to Verant's own bungling (most often occurs in server crashes; your character stays online though you can't log on, and the monster AI continues to work; the result of this equation is that your characters are killed even though you cannot log on to actually play).

Verant also routinely "tweaks" character classes: they lessen spell effects, eliminate types of armour previously available, limit the ability of your class to utilise its particular skills, and generally make your online gaming experience (when you can actually log on) a complete misery.

Don't give your money to Verant. Send them to the unemployment line and play Asheron's Call instead. It has a higher learning curve, and is a little bit quirky, but its potential is greater, and the technical support infinitely superior.

Rating:
Summary: A Complete Waste Of Time..
Review: This game is designed to keep you online as long as it can.The higher level you get the harder it is for you to kill creatures your level...and it gets worse until you get to the point to where you CAN'T fight alone.Money becomes useless because there isn't anything to purchase at higher levels.Most players prefer trading rare items over cash.Rare items that require hours of "camping" to obtain.The servers are over crowded causing frustration and a general bad attitude to alot of people.You have to wait in line for good items.You have to wait a long while after every battle to heal.You have to wait while the game loads to another section of the map. You have to wait while the servers are being " updated" 6 hours or more at a time.You have to wait...PERIOD.

The game claim's to be a RPG but what it boils down to is a Hack & Slash in a fantasy setting.I played the game to a very high level in hopes that something would make the game better but it never changes.Even with different Race/Class combo's the game is all the same.Also do not rely on customer service at all.The "guides" in the game are more harm than help..often banning players for personal reasons.It seems that they have taken a defensive stance against the players and believe everyone is dishonest and out to get them..expect to wait upwards to 5 hours or more for any reply at all (if you ever get one) All in all i would recomend some of the more thought out games that exist out there such as Ulitma Online or Asheron's Call.EQ just ate up my time and wasted alot of money.

Rating:
Summary: your in are world now...no you will be asimlated
Review: Lets face it ever quest is the best game of all time no game i have ever seen played or even herd of could match the injoyablity of this game.The control is great the posobiltys are endless you can do almost anything...such as you can get drunk you can fish you can make equipment,you can enchant ore.I admet it could be made better and thay are thats what the upgrades or for and as i said above this game is vary addictive.there are many classes and races to choose from and if you want theres many guilds to join,might i suggest the Crimson Horde on the bertoxsulus server yes i know my spelling sucks but im typing a lot faster than i used to...becase of ever quest yes.It my get boring after a while but by then you should have ganned a level and that seems to renew the fun.and dont pay any attentchin to that the game ending at level 50 well first thing is it will take you a long time to get to level 50 but even if you do theres thousands of quests to do and more is being made..so this game is a must have.

Rating:
Summary: This game is amazing
Review: This is a very very good game. Unlike other games, you have complete freedom to do as you wish. You can cross the ocean, Battle Orcs at Crush Bone or just get drunk at the local tavern. It is also an online based game, so things are never the same and you can interact with other people (duels, joining groups etc). This game also has amazing graphics and is a must buy. I must admit how ever, it was a bit of a hassel for me to install and the servers are sometimes out due to mal-functions or updates. But not all the time. But anyway, in my mind, this is a must buy.