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Well, I've been in beta for a while now, and now that they've told me that I can talk to you about it, I figure that's exactly what you folks want me to do.
The bulk of my experience I'll tell you about today will be what is found on the Isle of Refuge, as that is where I've spent a great deal of time. That might sound odd given the length of time we've had to beta so far, but I think it speaks to how much can be done on the island itself. It also speaks to how busy I've been lately  .
We've all seen the videos of the tutorial, and I'd imagine anyone who has really been following EQII could walk through it without blinking an eye. It's an aspect of the game we are bound to overlook, and I guess that should be expected. Most of us aren't typically in need of a tutorial for these types of games.... a quick glance at the keyboard layout and off we go. But SOE has done a fantastic job of creating a very user friendly, very immersive tutorial that will draw the average gamer in with both visuals and gameplay. It's far more impressive than, say, the SWG tutorial was. I would hardly look at it as a "feature" that makes me want to play EQII, but it should accomplish a couple of things: 1. cut down on the number of easy to answer questions that always pop up when new players enter a game. 2. allow those of us who are looking for a RPG experience to spend time in a tutorial program without having the immersion completely removed from the game. The tutorial in EQII actually adds to the feeling that you are in a living world, at least more so than what you would see in previous games. It's short, it's simple, and it works. (and you can skip it if you need to ).
Once you arrive on the island, you select your archetype. As most probably know, I've been playing a High Elf fighter; one that I plan on taking down the Crusader/Paladin path. I was quickly given a quest to kill a few goblins and report to another NPC on the island. Within minutes, players will realize that the entire "noob" experience in EQII is based around quests that progress through combat encounters. A series of progressively harder "goblin invasion" encounters are used to move the storyline forward until the player eventually discovers the source of the invasion itself.
This is typical of your experience on the Isle of Refuge: you'll be doing several series of quests, some branching and some quite short. This will end up equipping your character quite nicely, while at the same time giving you a fundamental understanding of how all the game mechanics work. You'll start out using your combat arts as you solo through the basic quests, then group together with other adventurers and work with combat chains and heroic opportunities as you take on the more difficult content.
There are several different types of quests on the Isle of Refuge, and they are somewhat indicative of what you will see in the rest of the game. Some quests will have you killing a set number of enemies (basic kill tasks with a story behind them), some will have you collecting items from an enemies body, some will have you adventuring around the island to locate various items found in the game world. The Quest Journal and Quest Helper (a little window that reminds you of the next step in a given quest) prove to be invaluable, even at early levels. It makes things much simpler.
You'll also find many interface changes that aid in all of this exploration and questing. You'll have waypoints at your disposal, a relatively detailed terrain map (nothing too revealing, but definitely useful), target indicators, etc. At this point, everything comes together quite smoothly and the visual presentation is quite slick. Early on there were some graphical and rendering bugs, but those have been cleared up for the most part and the game looks and runs absolutely fantastic. You've all seen the screens, but the game really comes alive in motion. Of particular note, the water graphics are simply amazing. They've been cleaned up tremendously over the past few weeks and they are looking tremendous.
The Isle of Refuge is populated with a pretty impressive number of different mob types for being a relatively short portion of the game. You'll find various types of goblins (being the main target of your noob-aggression), but you'll also see a lot of various types of wild life. You'll see deer and bears in the wooded areas, and in the island's bays you'll have various types of crabs, fish, and other underwater mobs. There is enough variety here to make the first few levels feel much different than the typical MMORPG experience. And thankfully, no smashing rats or bats until you reach the Cities themselves .
You'll also find a wide range of NPC's on the Island. To my knowledge, each of the races is represented in some way. You'll find a lot of typical NPC's on the island: guards, merchants, etc., but SOE has also included a liittle bit of humor with some others. I visited some refugee hostages on the Island during one quest event, and the dialogue they've created for these NPC's is fantastic. There are 6-9 of these little guys running around being whipped by goblins, and it's tempting not to save them at all just because they are so funny to listen to while they are being tortured. There are little bits like this in various parts of the game that just make the presentation feel "complete."
I encountered a lot of different play styles on the Isle of Refuge. You can burn through the Isle and all of its content in just a matter of hours (or minutes, really) if you choose to do so. Really, all a player needs to do in order to get to Freeport/Qeynos and be in good shape is advance to level 5 or 6 and be done with it. But you will also be rewarded quite well for progressing through all of the quests. The items you receive will be quite useful, and they've put quite a bit of effort in making the content itself fun. It really accomodates both play styles. If your intent is to level quickly and get on to the higher end content, you can do so. If you're actually looking to immerse yourself in the content of the game and search out every inch of the island, you'll find you are rewarded for the efforts.
As I mentioned earlier, I progressed through the Isle of Refuge quite slowly. The first time I passed through the Island, I was in San Diego. Onyx and I ran through the Island in a little over 3 hours and moved on to Qeynos without a second thought. This time around I made sure to complete all of the Island quests before taking the ship to Qeynos. When one eventually decides to make the journey to one of the Cities, you simply speak to the ambassador of your city and then head on off to the docks.
For as complete and polished as the Isle of Refuge is, the real experience definitely begins when you enter the real world. Forget what you've heard regarding the size of cities and their suburbs, because words can't describe how well built they are. Each of the outlying suburbs is probably just a bit bigger than a typical city zone in EQLive, and they all connect in some way to multiple adventuring zones and back to the central city itself.
I had a bit of a problem earlier today as I left the Isle of Refuge, as my character got bugged and everyone in Qeynos thought that I was a citizen of Freeport. Fortunately some nifty GM work took care of that and I was able to complete my short series of citizenship quests for Qeynos. These quests grant the player access to the city itself. While you can explore the suburbs at any point in time, the guards will not allow you to enter your actual city until you have completed the citizenship quest.
So, now that I've talked about the general presentation and stuff, I suppose it's time to get down to the actual mechanics of the game; what works and what does not.
Combat so far has been very good. You're given quite a few arts and things are generally fast paced, particularly in group encounters. There is a combat que system in place right now, and as it stands it is a bit slow. I liked the old system better (if you chose an art that was not yet available, you simply got a message that said "this art cannot be used at this time."). The que system doesn't seem like it has been completely tweaked yet, and it has just been implemented recently, so I'm willing to wait and see. It could become very useful if implemented properly.
The encounter locking and all of the closed set rules come through flawlessly. Things are looking great so far. Combat still feels seamless, and you won't find yourself thinking about the new "rules" 99% of the time. Grouping, at least for me, has been very rewarding and has been accomodated well by the game's mechanics. Lots of rewards for group players in terms of exp and the types of content they can take. Group leaders can set all of the loot rules, as I'm sure you are familiar with. I haven't had a chance to test them all, or the frequency of stuff like lotto wins, but so far so good. The different options are easy to use and make things fairly simple for groups. The way loot is distributed for quests is also well done, as players simply end up with the item in their inventory or are given credit for it in their Quest Journal if they have the quest already.
I really can't say too much about character stats at this point. I don't really know if I'm having a "difficult" time as a High Elf fighter because I have no one to compare myself to right now. I will say that it's certainly been a fun combination, and there has been nothing that would discourage me from making this choice during release. The resists are in place, but again, I haven't experienced much that would really tell me how they impact my character.
Instancing is working well. The instanced "noob" areas are full already and there is definitely the opportunity to meet others in game; none of those fears about being "in your own little world" hold true so far. Each of the noob instances I've been in tonight have had multiple "zones" up. You simply choose which one you would like to enter as you zone through. I've spent a lot of time in the past few hours running through Oakmyst Forest, watching other groups of players hunt the various wildlife there.
Since I was exiled from my city for most of the day, I got a chance to explore one of the outer areas of the city... the zone "Antonica." To say that the outer zones are large would be an understatement. Antonica actually reminded me quite a bit of DAoC and its seamless world. It certainly seemed far larger than anything from EQLive. That may be because it was not sparsely populated as well, though. The size of the zone is complemented by the various towers and aqueducts that are found decorating the countryside. Mountains loom in the background, as the massive (and I mean massive) Qeynos gates create a fantastic photo op for those refugees who find themselves fresh off the boat from the Isle of Refuge. There are various roaming mobs, both grouped and in by themselves, throughout the landscape. Unfortunately I didn't have the time to find any of the instanced areas or other zones that may break away from Antonica, but I'm sure you'll hear more about those as our freedom to discuss higher levels is granted.
I'll be bringing you more info as I progress through my levels. I'm currently level 7, making a strong run at 8 . As I get deeper into the game, I'll be able to explain more about how well combat is coming together and other juicy stuff that I'm sure you are longing for. Right now, I can really onlly focus on how the fundamental changes are working out and how the game is coming together in terms of presentation.
Right now the game is good... very good. The presentation is spectacular, and the content is more than enjoyable. If you like the world of Norrath, and you like PVE, you'll be in for a treat. Actually being able to walk through the game world and see how things are coming together has reinforced what I saw in San Diego. Now that I've had a chance to sit down and absorb the game for a few weeks (sorry about the two weeks I was away ), I can say that my opinion has not changed. The game is not perfect, but it is darn good... and it is already the best I've played since EQLive's glory days.
More to come...
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