EverQuest

Rating:
Summary: 50/50
Review: Everquest is a good game but it has its problems. The graphicsand the variety of sights are amazing. Even though it has it problemsthis game actually does have a quest system. If you like soloing or donot want to have to group with others to play, then this game is not for you. You can usually only solo effectively up into the 20s but that also depends on the class you are playing. Verant says they "support soloing" but refuses to say which class is best for it and as I mention later, the manual is not correct. The player concensus at the time for best soloable class is necromancer, magician or druid but with constant in-game changes this could change and has before. Customer support is horrible. 99% of the time the reply is "Im sorry I cant help you" if you actually receive a reply. The manual and "hint book" including the constantly updated version on your hard-drive is very wrong and inconsistant yet Verant/989 refuse to address several important issues. You are allowed to allocate extra stat points when creating your character, but most of the stats do not work correctly and have little or no effect. Verant's own PR person has made the comment "if he had his way the stat section would just be removed from the manual", due to many complaints and inquiries about this issue. The game box says there are 5 continents but there are only 3, 4 if you count Kunark, but that is only available with the expansion. Verant also continues to "balance" the game. This is the norm in all "virtual world" games. However Verant rarely does anything to bring power of underpowered things up and instead choose to lower the power on higher powered things. They also tend to do "stealth" changes to important game features without bothering to tell players. There are some very important game issues that did/do not work correctly and have/had been reported as not working since beta and have been either completely ignored or decided to be working "as intended" Many of the quests do not work correctly and role-playing is not very big at all in game. Overcrowding is HORRIBLE, and Verant seems very unwilling to do anything about it. On release the max number of people per server was quoted as 1200, then that changed to 1500, the last quote was 1800. There are currently usually at peak time well over 2000 people on most servers which causes a lot of conflict/aggravation between the players. Enough so a "Play Nice" policy had to be put into effect to address several issues caused by in-game crowding. Actually 1500 seems to be too many people to play this game as it was intended. Even with all of the down sides I have listed if you can ignore most of them you will enjoy this game for a while anyway. The reason I only gave it 2 stars though is because I didnt find out many things that were important until after playing for hours and hours. Im refereing to ingame mechanics that Verant refuses to "clarify".

Rating:
Summary: Don't Waste your money!
Review: I'm thankful I was given this game as a gift, because I would be seriously upset if I had paid money for this. First off, Sony was too cheap to actually give you all the discs you need to install this software and you have to spend hours downloading the rest of the program from their website. Second, you have to pay $12.95 per month to have the honor to play this game, NOT a small fee. And when you finally get to the point when you can play the game, it lacks direction and has akward controls. But don't worry, you'll be disconnected every fifteen minutes so you won't have to waste your time on this game.

What I don't understand is how Sony expects people to buy this game when you can purchase many other similar games (Diablo 2, Baldur's Gate) that you can play online for no additional cost (or play wihtout having to log on at all). Spend your money on something else.

Rating:
Summary: Commiting suicide has never been easeir!
Review: This game is unexplicably fun, it drives you insane when your character dies, it makes you go into tears when you acquire your spells. THIS GAME IS EVIL...First off you do one thing, kill, kill, and kill. Sure there are quests and of course tradeskills, but those two things are only possible by killing, and get boring and pointless. SO then you just end up killing everything, you keep going and going until it sucks your brain dry. DON'T buy this game...

Rating:
Summary: EverQuest:Great until lvl 20, then it gets soooo boring.
Review: this is really michael, mary anne's son, but that doesn't really matter. i only say that because hardly any girls play this game, if any. anyway, at first the game rocks. when you first turn on the computer you wish you could get on as fast as possible. when you turn it off, you wish you could play more, well, not really. it's addicting at first, but not THAT addicting. as i was saying, up until lvl 20 it's great and i think you level fairly fast if good at the game, but it took me 2 months and hundreds of hours of playing to get there, and i wanted to have more of a life. after all, i had a girlfriend and guitar lessons to spend time on... if you are a big RPG fan like me, you'll like it a lot the first two months. but be prepared to spend a lot; it costs $50 to buy and an addition 10 dollars each month after that, ignoring the first month which is absolutely free. and the downside is that if you cancel your account, you can't make another one so if you want to play again some months later you have to buy a new game cd. you must have LOTS of time on your hands, and it is challanging. if you are very good it's the best game in the world, but the problem is that i found the cooler, more fun classes to play were the hardest to be. my lvl 20 wizard gets killed so much, and it is impossible to solo, kill monsters alone, with him, while warriors, a very boring class, level fast and are easy to play with. all in all, buy this game if you love RPG's, otherwise forget about it.

Rating:
Summary: Give this game to someone if you dont want to see them again
Review: I'd say it's actually 3 and 1/2 stars but they don't have that option so whatever. When I first played Everquest I was an extreme newbie. I had never played a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game). It took me awhile to get used to it. Like a month or 2 maybe. Everquest is not very newbie friendly but once you get the hang of things it can be your best friend or your worst enemy. It can result in you dancing around the room and cheering in happiness having gotten your epic weapon after months of doing those massive quests. Or it can have you slamming your head against the keyboard as you get ready for another CR (corpse run as it's called in game) after dying once more and losing experience. However, I made GREAT friends playing Everquest, you can join unions of players called guilds and I still talk with some I met today (I recently stopped playing). EQ is extremely addicting, in other words if you're a husband than prepare to invest in large amounts of flowers and other gifts for your wife for neglecting her for several months.

The game is great fun though, but you need to watch your standing with the many different factions in the game. Killing a certain thing may give you good standing with some factions, but bad with others. There is a complex in game economy, including a zone called the Bazaar where more than 300 players can be found at any different time selling thousands of different items. I liked to go to that zone and stare at all the cool armor and weapons and stuff lol. The customer support people are all very nice. There's even a volunteer customer support program called the Guide Program for those over 18. I spent a couple of months in it before quitting EverQuest (had been playing for about two and a half years). The game can get boring however. Endless hours of camping (killing monsters and waiting for them to respawn to kill them again) can be tedious, especially if you keep dying. However, expansion packs keep the flow going with new zones, quests, items, and playable races and classes. The variety of classes and races in EverQuest includes classes such as Warrior, Wizard, Shadowknight, and Druid. As well as races such as Barbarian, Wood Elf, Troll, Human, and Dwarf. Sometimes you'll hear arguments being shouted in a zone and they sometimes can get nasty, that's what the Guides are there for, to handle those issues and issue warnings to offending players. But parents should keep in mind that this is an online game with real people and kids sometimes may hear things they're not supposed to hear.

But, all in all this is a good game and I recommend it for it's fun value and the aspect of making good friends like I did.

Rating:
Summary: A truly memorable game
Review: EverQuest is the kind of RPG that more old school gamers would want to play, but it is still very appealing to those who play the newer RPGs. It plays similar to the text-based MUDs that developed over the past few decades, but it is much deeper and enriched with eye-pleasing graphics and a fantastic player base (2000+ per server).

The base game world of Everquest is enormous. there are at least a handful of 'zones' (areas of play) for every character level. With the release of Kunark and Scars of Velious, there are at least 20 zones for high level characters alone. the character customization is very good: after choosing name, you choose race and class (some races cannot become certain occupations) and allocate statistic points. you can also customize the face of your character, but not the body (the equipment you wear further alters your look). finally you choose from a range of deities; necromancers have to worship the more evil deities while paladins and clerics worship the good deities....

Rating:
Summary: Great game!
Review: Well, it might not be the best game in the world but EverQuest has a lot of expantions, and a lot of people play it. If your looking for a good time and don't have a lot of money Sony's EverQuest might be the way to go!

Rating:
Summary: Great if you like MMORPG
Review: I really enjoyed this game when I first started playing it. It was easy to level. It was fun to see new stuff. The skills were cool, and the graphics were great.

However, it got to the point where it was taking weeks for me to reach the next level. I'm a casual gamer, and as such, I don't spend a large amount of time online. If you don't have that time to invest, there is no future in this game.

It also helped me come to the realization that I don't like massively multiplayer online games, for several reasons. 1. The people tend to whine and generally be rude. This is not a blanket statement as I have seen many players that are cool. 2. There is no end. There is no winning this game. I know a lot of people like this quality of the MMORPG, but I don't. I want a resolution that an MMORPG will never give me.

As for the customer service, the one review that was given saying there was no customer service is wrong. It is excellent. I only wish more companies had customer service where someone continuously read customers threads on the internet to take suggestions and to address concerns.

If you like MMORPGs, then you'll love EverQuest.

Rating:
Summary: For those that have too much time on thier hands.
Review: Everquest provided me with enjoyment throughout the lower levels of my character's life, but as time went on, reality set in. Basically it becomes a quest for money and equipment. You will sit in one spot killing the same monster over and over again for hours in hopes of gaining a bit of experiance points. Should you die, you lose experiance and all those hours of "camping" were for nothing. At higher levels it is impossible to play the game solo and gain anything from it. You will be required to make friends with people and hope they "allow" you to join a party in order to gain experiance and loot. As for graphics and the interface, I would have to say that they are fine. If you have alot of time on your hands, play EverQuest.. otherwise, look to the "other" online RPG.

Rating:
Summary: Customer Support - GREAT
Review: I read another review on here saying how bad the customer support was. Incorrect. The Customer Support in this game is astounding. They have a Game Master / Guide staff in-game 24/7, helping you with disturbances from other players, and more. PLUS, you can talk directly with Brad McQuaid, producer. He responds to personal e-mails very quickly. And, the EQ Staff is always trying to improve the game. All other aspects are great. Gameplay, Quests, Interaction, Graphics, sound is iffy, but still good. EQ is a great game for anyone, RPG fan or not.