bean19
12-18-2006, 11:16 PM
I was not a fan of Everquest 2 when I played it after launch, but I bought the game some two years ago because the immense amount of voice-acting amazed me, and the low level game that I had played in the beta was very fun and rewarding. Unfortunately, the low-level game is not a fair representation of the full game. It is a bit like going out on a first date and later finding out that your initial impression was based on a pack of lies. So I approached this expansion with trepidation.
The unfortunate result is that Echoes of Faydwer is just more of the same. While Faydwer does add an immense amount of content to the game, a new fairy race (the Fae), and new crafting professions (transmuting and tinkering), the same core game exists and it's just as unfriendly to solo players.
It starts out promisingly. From levels 1-20, you can solo most quests and while you might die a few times, or have to think your way through certain encounters, the difficulty and pacing are great. You can get on and expect to beat several quests each night. However, once you get past level 20, though many of the quests are supposedly built for solo play, they actually require grouping due to the way they were designed. In many cases, mobs (NPC monsters for those not keen to MMO slang) are set very close to each other so that it is impossible to pull only one mob. In other places, the mobs that you are required to engage are surrounded by higher level mobs that roam in random patterns. The result is that most quests at this level are exceedingly easy if you join a group, or exceedingly difficult if you actually attempt to complete them solo. It's like the game designers built the game for couples who like to play the game together, as I've found that pairing (playing with one other player) makes these "solo" quests beatable, but still challenging. The designer's intent may be to encourage grouping, but what they accomplish is to simply make soloing impossible and grouping unsatisfying. This was true in the original game (anyone remember trying to fight level 21 undead drowned footsoldiers that are surrounded by roaming level 25 undead drowned protectors?), and it remains true in Echoes of Faydwer.
Additionally, the quest design seems to be designed to be frustratingly buggy and time-consuming. To complete a heritage quest (these are very long and lore filled quests that have great rewards and high difficulty that are designed for groups), we were asked to clear out all spawns of orc footsoldiers in order to spawn orc expedition officers. This meant that we had to wipe an area of all mobs before the mobs we needed would spawn, and we needed to do this multiple times as we had to get 4 of these special mobs to spawn total. It took about 15-30 minutes to get a single officer to spawn, and when they did, it would have to be one that we had not already defeated. This was all very easy as the mobs conned green to us, but it was also extremely time-consuming. It took us 3 hours to complete just this small portion of the quest. That's just one example though as I ran into several other quests that required that you take out a rare spawn that might not show up for hours or pick up a randomly spawning object that could take just as long to spawn. Beyond the frustration of having to wait forever in order to progress in the game, this is also immersion breaking. Why does everyone in our group have to loot a rare-spawning stone that will summon a bad guy when activated? Wouldn't one do the trick? Why do the officers only show up after the footmen are killed? None of it makes sense and the player is given hours to think about how silly these game mechanics are.
So if you disliked Everquest 2 because of it's group-dependency and frustrating quest mechanics, then you will still dislike Everquest 2: Echoes of Faydwer. If you don't mind grouping and spending hours waiting for rare spawns, then there are some additions in Echoes of Faydwer that are great.
The most positive change is in the city of Kelethin. People who have played Everquest 2 are no doubt familiar with the long load times players experience as they travel between the many zones that make-up the other two starting cities: Qeynos and Freeport. Kelethin has none of these problems as the entire city requires no loading and is simply part of the extremely large starting zone. You can move in and out of it without any load screens whatsoever.
The Fae are also quite a bit of fun. Their biggest play difference from other races is that they have wings. These are not just ornamental (though that is their biggest function). These wings also make it so that Fae players can slowly drift down when dropping from heights and that they thus avoid "falling damage". Jumping from the tree city of Kelethin directly down to the forest floor is great fun and also extremely time-saving.
Additionally, tinkering and transmuting hold a lot of promise. Transmuting allows players to turn rare gear they don't use into adornments. Adornments are basically small buffs that can be placed on top of any gear you already own to give it a supplemental buff. This is like enchanting in WoW except that you don't have to trust the enchanter to buff you as you can simply buy the result of their work instead of having to request their direct services. That is a nice touch to a fun system. Tinkering is much like tinkering in WoW. You can build mechanical objects that have various uses, some of them more helpful than others, but nearly all of them are amusing. Both of these new crafting professions are quite fun and well done.
The bottom line is that Everquest 2 remains a group-dependent game that hosts quests designed by masochists, but that the EoF expansion is a quality addition to this formula for those players that enjoy this type of play. If you are a fan of WoW, then this game is not for you. However, if you are eagerly awaiting Vanguard (an upcoming hardcore MMO that is extremely group-dependent), you will probably have a lot of fun with this expansion. Additionally, EoF also comes with the previous 2 expansions to the EQ2 Universe free of charge as well as the standard 30 day "free" subscription, so the expansion's $40 price tag is reasonable (to those who can put up with the poor quest design).
2 1/2 out of 5 Evil Eyes.
The unfortunate result is that Echoes of Faydwer is just more of the same. While Faydwer does add an immense amount of content to the game, a new fairy race (the Fae), and new crafting professions (transmuting and tinkering), the same core game exists and it's just as unfriendly to solo players.
It starts out promisingly. From levels 1-20, you can solo most quests and while you might die a few times, or have to think your way through certain encounters, the difficulty and pacing are great. You can get on and expect to beat several quests each night. However, once you get past level 20, though many of the quests are supposedly built for solo play, they actually require grouping due to the way they were designed. In many cases, mobs (NPC monsters for those not keen to MMO slang) are set very close to each other so that it is impossible to pull only one mob. In other places, the mobs that you are required to engage are surrounded by higher level mobs that roam in random patterns. The result is that most quests at this level are exceedingly easy if you join a group, or exceedingly difficult if you actually attempt to complete them solo. It's like the game designers built the game for couples who like to play the game together, as I've found that pairing (playing with one other player) makes these "solo" quests beatable, but still challenging. The designer's intent may be to encourage grouping, but what they accomplish is to simply make soloing impossible and grouping unsatisfying. This was true in the original game (anyone remember trying to fight level 21 undead drowned footsoldiers that are surrounded by roaming level 25 undead drowned protectors?), and it remains true in Echoes of Faydwer.
Additionally, the quest design seems to be designed to be frustratingly buggy and time-consuming. To complete a heritage quest (these are very long and lore filled quests that have great rewards and high difficulty that are designed for groups), we were asked to clear out all spawns of orc footsoldiers in order to spawn orc expedition officers. This meant that we had to wipe an area of all mobs before the mobs we needed would spawn, and we needed to do this multiple times as we had to get 4 of these special mobs to spawn total. It took about 15-30 minutes to get a single officer to spawn, and when they did, it would have to be one that we had not already defeated. This was all very easy as the mobs conned green to us, but it was also extremely time-consuming. It took us 3 hours to complete just this small portion of the quest. That's just one example though as I ran into several other quests that required that you take out a rare spawn that might not show up for hours or pick up a randomly spawning object that could take just as long to spawn. Beyond the frustration of having to wait forever in order to progress in the game, this is also immersion breaking. Why does everyone in our group have to loot a rare-spawning stone that will summon a bad guy when activated? Wouldn't one do the trick? Why do the officers only show up after the footmen are killed? None of it makes sense and the player is given hours to think about how silly these game mechanics are.
So if you disliked Everquest 2 because of it's group-dependency and frustrating quest mechanics, then you will still dislike Everquest 2: Echoes of Faydwer. If you don't mind grouping and spending hours waiting for rare spawns, then there are some additions in Echoes of Faydwer that are great.
The most positive change is in the city of Kelethin. People who have played Everquest 2 are no doubt familiar with the long load times players experience as they travel between the many zones that make-up the other two starting cities: Qeynos and Freeport. Kelethin has none of these problems as the entire city requires no loading and is simply part of the extremely large starting zone. You can move in and out of it without any load screens whatsoever.
The Fae are also quite a bit of fun. Their biggest play difference from other races is that they have wings. These are not just ornamental (though that is their biggest function). These wings also make it so that Fae players can slowly drift down when dropping from heights and that they thus avoid "falling damage". Jumping from the tree city of Kelethin directly down to the forest floor is great fun and also extremely time-saving.
Additionally, tinkering and transmuting hold a lot of promise. Transmuting allows players to turn rare gear they don't use into adornments. Adornments are basically small buffs that can be placed on top of any gear you already own to give it a supplemental buff. This is like enchanting in WoW except that you don't have to trust the enchanter to buff you as you can simply buy the result of their work instead of having to request their direct services. That is a nice touch to a fun system. Tinkering is much like tinkering in WoW. You can build mechanical objects that have various uses, some of them more helpful than others, but nearly all of them are amusing. Both of these new crafting professions are quite fun and well done.
The bottom line is that Everquest 2 remains a group-dependent game that hosts quests designed by masochists, but that the EoF expansion is a quality addition to this formula for those players that enjoy this type of play. If you are a fan of WoW, then this game is not for you. However, if you are eagerly awaiting Vanguard (an upcoming hardcore MMO that is extremely group-dependent), you will probably have a lot of fun with this expansion. Additionally, EoF also comes with the previous 2 expansions to the EQ2 Universe free of charge as well as the standard 30 day "free" subscription, so the expansion's $40 price tag is reasonable (to those who can put up with the poor quest design).
2 1/2 out of 5 Evil Eyes.