Rating: 
Summary: Way Better then the first!
Review: THIS GAME ROCKS!!!!!!!
Only Grip is that you should have the top the line nvidia card with 2.0+GHz processor and 1Ghz of ddr ram to get the SUPER BEST Graphics! But if you have the min req you will still have a Great time. When I play I get lost in the game and lose track of time. If you love AC1 then you will Fall head over heels for this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Game is fun, but unbalanced and laggy
Review: If you don't like negative reviews, quit reading here now! I'm serious - go to the next review. If you want to hear about a player's experiences after playing a month of the game, read on...Asheron's Call 2 has alot going for it. A great history and story, and monthly content updates that keep the game fresh. Player customization is extensive and the world is big enough that you can go places and not see anyone else or overcrowding.
I've been playing the game for about a month now and have enjoyed playing it (when it is 'playable'). Grouping options are very well done, and the integrated storyline with the game (via the occasional exploration of vaults, or the many numerous quests) draws you into the story of Ahseron's Call. However, some serious issues exist with the game that make it feel like it wasn't adequately tested. Occasional server crashes will dump you out of the game, and cause a loss of any experience or goodies you may have accumulated since the server last saved your character. Sometimes only parts of the game don't work correctly, such as failures in the chat system, or portions of the game world failing to work correctly. Lag is a serious issue with this game, and the game client (your computer) doesn't like it when a packet is lost or data is slowed. I am on a cable modem and have played (and am playing) multiple online games and have never had a problem with lag, but about half the time I play in AC2, there is some portion of the game engine that is laggy. Lag will manifest itself in AC2 as very slow frame rates to complete computer lockups. Your heart will just sink when your in a major battle and the game 'locks' as it waits for some data from the server. There are times when your don't want to examine things in the game, because examining stuff may lock the game up (sometimes for up to half a minute) while it is waiting for data from the server. Some areas of the game could of been better thought out and balanced. The looting system especially leaves alot to be desired. When you kill a creature, you have to pick up the loot from the creature one item at a time. Coupled with the examination and item issues listed above, it can sometimes take forever just to pick up a few items off a dead creature. Several player classes in the game are very popular, while some of the classes are completely ignored or underpowered. An example is the Lugian Tactician - this class is way overused and overpowerful in the game. I expect Turbine will be doing a rebalancing act on some of the characters soon. Expect to see a few specific character types in the game at the higher levels. I have temporarily cancelled my account with Turbine until they can get some of the more serious issues here fixed. If you want to buy this game, I'd proceed with caution. As player load increases, these issues will probably only get worse. In most MMORPGs, the game isn't fully ironed out until a few months after release. Maybe after a few more patches and a few more months, Turbine might get the balance of the game right and the nagging technical issues resolved.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring Game ...
Review: Hi, I'm a newbie at this game genre. The only other Role Playing Game I've played is Morrowind which isn't online. I had a lot of fun playing Morrowind. It was easy to learn and it kept me up for many late nights of game playing. Eventually I got bored with the lack of good character interaction so I decided to try AC2. I've been playing AC2 for a couple of days now and unfortunately I'm bored to death. This game hasn't gotten its hooks into me the way that Morrowind did. I know I need to do more reading on how AC2 works but at this point I'm really questioning whether its worth the investment of my time. I bought this game to have fun. If I wanted to study I would have signed up for a distance education course. Anyway, to sum it up, for newbies like me this game isn't very engaging. Also, many people are talking about how "fantastic" the graphics are in the game. I don't get it. I've got an ATI 9700 Pro running on a 2.5ghz machine with 512mgs of 1066 rdram. I've installed the game's high resolution graphics and set every grahics option to "High". In my opinion the graphics are "ok". Personally, I felt the graphics for Morrowind were much better.
Rating:
Summary: All you have to look forward to if you buy this is...
Review: ... the cool box art. Because someone forgot to include a game. I was a beta 0 player for AC1 and played it for over 2 years as well as 3 of my friends and had very high hopes for its sequel. We all played Asheron's Call 2 beta for at least a month and we all came to the same conclusion.
We could not have been more dissappointed. How could 3 years of constant feedback and play experience of thousands of players be ignored in order to created a severely stripped and dumbed down Everquest/DAOC clone? We expected them to add the present complexity of Asheron's Call with better implemented items, quests and details. (AC1 had hundreds of some of the most well designed dungeons ever) In the original there are 3 main classes with very different feels of play, each can be tweaked and modified by taking additional skill to match with the primary attack skill giving an extremely varied style of play as well as strengths and weaknesses. This had limitations that we all expected AC2 to address but that never happened- they actually ruined the highly tuned and balanced mechanics that took 3 years of evolution to create.
AC2's 3 classes for 3 races feel remarkably similar to play, so similar in fact, the only 2 things to really distinguish them is speed of attack and range. Not to mention spell variety, AC1 had hundreds AC2 fewer by a factor of 10 or more. We expected them to build on the stunning graphics engine Turbine has been working on for the past 3 years as well as increase the number of variations as far as character design is concerned. They did deliver on the graphics engine, some scenes are just downright breathtaking. But everyone looks the same. In AC you had easily 90 different facial designs to choose from, add hair color and race to variations and everyone had a distinct different look.
I could pick friends out of a crowd in AC without clicking on them- I can't do the same with AC 2 where you would expect more customizations to be available considering there are 3 races. We expected improved and more varied NPC and enemy AI and a vast world with almost limitless exploration. AC was massive for its time; you could literally run for hours from one area to another without dealing with zones(or take portals), if you could see it you could usually go there. The world felt real because so much detail went into the lore of the land and quite a bit of the world was built around it. Many early players can remember dodging blasts of magic from the Immortal Lord Rytheran in the Mage Academy, to wandering the hidden nest of the olthoi nobles in the Lair of Death to the stunningly complex design of the Disaster Maze or battling legions of undead (well it was a legion at the time) for the legendary Sword of Lost Light... All of it, gone in AC2, and nothing much to speak of in its place. More islands to work with but the world feels so much like a sand box or a beach resort- More of a graphic demo shipped with the dx8 sdk than real terrain from a real game. Lore and Trade PCs are to be generated by the players, which there are so few of because well... there are no lore and trade PCs. Indeed in AC I remember a player filling the tradesman role, (Julia Child) but that's it, Only 1 player dedicated 100% of her time to playing the role typically allotted to computer management. There are no hero's because player interaction is so stunningly behind the times in comparison to say DAOC or Everquest. The entire concept feels like a failed experiment that should have been tested large scale before implementation. I hope everyone else takes notice. It failed. Additional player participation is always good but the economy shouldn't be completely player based, we can't be in game all the time, we can't automate our avatars to perform routine tasks of mining, crafting and selling and until that's available AC2's present structure will be a failure. Feature wise such as storage, horses, transportation spiffy character costumes, and weapon designs all lacking. I could go on and on as to how bad this game really is in comparison to everything else out there including its 4 year old predecessor but I will stop here. To sum it up this game lacks the incentive to move, to exchange, to interact, to play.
It's a waste of time, and money to venture into a Dereth till the damage has been repaired. Till then, Asheron can leave a message. update June 2003 after a trying out one of them fangled trial accounts- This sucker still isn't fun at all.
Rating:
Summary: Most people's complaints are already obsoleted
Review: The first patch came out two weeks ago, and tackled people's biggest complaints. NPCs were added, an epic quest was added, fellowship looting options were added, and there are a lot of new things to do and see. There aren't many legitimate complaints left. Most people who are still comlaining about the game are AC1 fans who wanted this game to be just like AC1, but it isn't. It's an entirely new game. It's easier to learn, which makes people call it "dumbed down". Sorry, but I don't consider easy-to-use user-interfaces to be a bad thing. These people are used to interfaces with hundreds of pointless buttons and complex interfaces that you must read the manual to understand. The complexity in AC2 is in how you use things, not in which button you press. It has the same level of overall complexity, but you can work into it gradually rather than being bombarded by things the first minute you start. So what major complaints are still left? The game is still a resource hog -- even a top-end machine will probably need to play on "Medium" setting. But it looks mighty nice on Medium or even Low setting, so no big loss. The other thing is that there are still not enough high-end quests to keep me happy. But each monthly update brings a big batch of new things to do, so by the time you read this, there may already be a bunch of new quests in place. Anyway, this is an addictive, beautiful, accessible game. Don't let the whiners convince you otherwise.
Rating:
Summary: Best investment in MMORPGs today..
Review: The basic game is great. The graphics are wonderful. The development team is my favorite- they patch every month adding new content for FREE. Not 123491287 expansion packs. There may perhaps be 1, for housing. But you get a lot each month. In december they added a TON of low-end quests. Its a good game now, but in a few months it will be great.
Rating:
Summary: It was.... painful
Review: After forcing myself to spend 5 hours over the span of two days playing this game, I found myself looking forward to getting teeth drilled. First of all, the game has been out for a month, and the servers are empty. (and I MEAN empty, during the 5 cursed hours I subjected myself to this game, I ran into 2 people) Second of all, everyone is the same anyway. You have so few options to customize your character (3 races, 6 classes, very limited weapons and minimal character customization.) Now this is coming from someone who enjoyed 2 years on a MUD and 4 month in DAOC, this game was half done. The graphics are stunning, but the game lacks any real depth. They needed to spend another year adding content and races and enemies. The world is empty, and there are a handful of the same critters everywhere for you to kill.
Rating:
Summary: Game isnt worth buying
Review: AC2 is a major disapointment. Game is way to simple. Way to unbalanced and way to high reqs. Dont even try this game unless you have the most up to date computer and have high speed connection. 56k you pretty much get a few other people on your screen and you are dead from lag. I gotta say the first patch wasnt a good thing for turbines rep. daoc had more. anyways this game doesnt provide enough. you will be bored after one week for sure. you will be pleased with graphics but disapointed in the game.
Rating:
Summary: Good but is it new
Review: I played AC2 beta after playing Asherons Call, Dark Age of Camelot and Anarchy On-Line. I was expected a lot of new expierences. The graphics were brilliant and yes you can build new towns/buildings. But alas apart from that nothing much has really changed. It is still the point and click combat of the previous menchioned game, so nothing new there. So it cuts down the thrill of the combat which you find in first person shooters. It's more money that AC1 and most people I know have said they will not bother with AC2 and go back to Asherons Call due to it costing less, for pretty much the same experience. But I recogmend looking at a game called Plantet side if you are into on-line gameing and are looking for something with a bit more that point and click.
Rating:
Summary: Very Disappointing
Review: In a nutshell this is not what I expected after playing AC1 for quite sometime. Granted the graphics are outstanding but this does not make up for the lack of gameplay. Basically there is nothing more to do than run around, hack and slash, run around then craft some items to break the monotony. Thats all there is to the game.
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