So I’ve been back in EQ2 for a whole week now.  I started last weekend with just getting the game reinstalled and searching for a UI I liked.  I really got into playing on Monday night and had chosen a Gnome Illusionist to play.  I decided to start in Greater Faydark because all of it was new to me.  So I mess around for a night or two and get my Illusionist up to 13 or so.  Around mid-week an MMO gaming buddy of mine from my WoW guild messages me.  He was keeping tabs on me via the blog, and decided he was burnt out a bit on WoW raiding.  So we joined up and made some new level one characters.

Now you have to understand, I traditionally play a healer type in every MMO.  But considering that I have two mid-level healers on Guk, I wasn’t too keen on starting another one on Kithicor.  Since my friend had opted to start a Fury, I decided that I would go with a fighter type since we’d be duoing mostly.  So I now have my first Berserker!  My friend and I played on Thurs through the weekend, and ended last night right at level 22.  We’ve put in a fair amount of hours, but we’ve played at what I consider a more “casual” pace.  We’re enjoying the quests, running around exploring and seeing things, and spending time in the city at the broker and our inn rooms.  The levels just seem to be rolling in and that’s great.  And as of tonight, another friend is joining us so we’ll now have a trio:  Berserker, Fury and Warlock.  It will be interesting to see how well those three work together.

So what do I think of EQ2 after having been out of it for the last 14 or so months?  Well, it brought back a lot of memories from playing in the summer of 2006.  The things I enjoyed then are still around, and I actually can’t wait to get back to some of the zones I spent a lot of time in (Enchanted Lands, Zek, Feerrott, Sinking Sands, and Everfrost).  Here are just my quick, first week impressions of being back in EQ2:

1.  Graphics:  wow!  I had forgotten how nice the game really looks.  I can play the game on “Quality” settings without really any impact on performance, and it’s nice to jump up to “Screenshot” settings now and again to really see the eye candy.  I did that just last night and went to look at some non-aggro mobs up close.  Boy, the detail level was just incredible.  There are apparently newer models for player characters now which is nice, as the original ones weren’t great at all.  From spell effects to mobs to dungeons and armor, I can really say I’m just impressed again by the quality of the design and look of the game.

2.  Quests:  they call this EverQUEST for a reason.  I definitely did tons of quests last summer when I played - probably several hundred on my main templar although I’d have to check the exact number.  And this time is no different.  Everwhere you look there are quests.  However, there don’t seem to be quite as many in the Faydark as there were in old-world Qeynos.  Between the Qeynos sub-districts, the dungeons underneath, the city, and  Antonica - there were so many quests you could never hope to do them all (believe me I tried!).  The quest progression through the Faydark is nice - you are lead through the starter area and out to an outpost near Kelethin.  We quested up to around level 17 or so, but then there seemed to be about a 3 level gap in quests.  We were left looking at some red Crushbone quests (25-28), or having to venture to Butcherblock and start level 20 and 21 quests.  So we did some collections for a bit to give us an xp boost, and were able to head on in to Butcherblock.  All in all - nice quests and plenty to keep you busy.

3.  Combat:  I got back into the combat system much more quickly this time than I did last summer.  It’s about the same as I remember, and it wasn’t long before I was back in the rhythm of things.  Mobs sometimes still seem ultra-fast, and there is still a bit of that “everything on rubber bands” kind of feel, but overall it’s been good.  We haven’t gotten into HOs much (since with two you are very limited), but I can remember those being pretty nice when we played last year with 4-5 people of the different archtypes.

4.  Overall Atmosphere:  I really like the “feel” of EQ2 being high fantasy.  WoW is a fun game and I had a blast playing it, but the feeling and atmosphere of EQ2 is completely different.  So it’s been a nice change and strangely enough, I felt like I had come home a bit.  The community has been nice (if a bit sparce in my area of the world) and we’re having fun enjoying a more laid back approach.  Overall this rates close to 5 stars for the overall experience in the first week.

Well, those are my impressions and thoughts after having been back in for a week.  I have a feeling I may be in EQ2 for the next few months for sure, and that’s a good thing!  I’m off to log in and see what trouble we can get into in Crushbone tonight. 

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 29th, 2007 at 6:10 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.