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Tomorrow marks the 6 month anniversary since EverQuest II launched. Since that time there have been over 80 content updates as well as Sony releasing their first adventure pack “The Bloodline Chronicles”. The result has been a lot of new features added to the game such as in-game mail, mentoring, and offline selling. Tons of free content has been added including 100’s of new spells, 10 new zones, and over 1,100 quests. While adding a lot of new content to the game, the development team has also been busy working on fixing bugs and changing many aspects of the game, such as removing the interdependencies between artisans and making soloing much more viable.
The game has changed a lot and it was my intention to write a review of the current state of the game. As I was writing the review I kept seeing the same thing over and over again. While this is the way it is now things are in the process of being changed with the rebalancing currently happening on the test server. Yesterday Moorgard posted about how the spell system is going to be changing as part of that. In fact there are so many aspects of the game that are going to be changing that I have decided to postpone my review until after these changes go live. As a result I have decided to just write this commentary on the game.
First off I think Sony had the best launch they have ever had with EQ2. Many people had concerns and wanted to see stable servers and a playable game. On that Sony delivered. I also think players understand that there is always going to be some tweaking of the game in the months that follow. However given the amount of game play changes we have seen in the past 6 months it does beg the question, was the game released to early? On that count I have to say it was. I mean here we are at the 6 month mark and they are now just getting to balancing the archetypes /classes as far as dps, healing, damage taken, etc as well as adjusting mobs so that encounters are challenging. I thought the reason for going with the archetype system in the first place was to avoid having to do class balancing later?
By making so many changes to the game Sony has alienated some of its player base. Gamers want to see a game released that has its core systems tested and balanced before the game is released, not after, especially from a veteran game company like SOE. I am sure some of the changes have been in response to Blizzard’s highly successful first entry into the mmorpg genre World of Warcraft. However a lot of the changes are simply changes to game mechanics that just did not work and should have been identified and changed in a longer beta testing phase.
While I personally would have liked to have seen many of the changes addressed in a longer beta, I have still enjoyed playing EQ2 these past 6 months. Maybe the reason a lot of these changes have not bothered me is for the first time, I am not rushing to the end game and trying to be uber. Instead I have been focusing on the journey and having fun. Over all I have liked the changes I have seen. The game today is far more casual friendly then it was at release while still allowing more hardcore players lots to do. It’s also encouraging to see Sony not afraid to make changes. I get the impression they really do want this to be an awesome game and are working hard to get there. It’s the reason I am willing to stick with it as I feel EQ2 is a good game that has the potential to be great. Looking back, EQ never really hit its stride until after the release of Kunark and I think the same is going to hold true for EQ2. Balancing of the archetype’s and looking at dps, healing, agro, spells etc is a big part in taking that step. After they get this done there are two areas of the game that I think should be addressed in order for EQ2 to achieve greatness.
Community
One of the things that made EQ so great was the relationships and community that developed. Some say it was the magic glue that made people overlook other negative aspects of the game and keep playing. I have to agree. In EQ2 this is lacking and I think the reason for it is that grouping does not work the same way. Let me explain what I mean by that. In EQ groups would form and people would play in those groups for hours. Even pick up groups would form and people would come and go from the group but the group over all would stay there for hours sometimes the entire day. The result was people had a chance to get to know one another and form friendships. In EQ2 there just simply is not that kind of mechanic in place. Groups form to take out a named spawn or something for a quest then quickly disbands and everyone goes their separate ways. Now some have blamed the recent changes to allow the overland zones to be changed from mostly group content to solo/duo. I think it’s important that the game support both solo play and group play. So this decision in and of itself I don’t think is the core of the problem. The problem is the game does not reward players for staying together for longer periods of time like it did in EQ. I think it’s good that EQ2 has gotten away from camping spawns for exp or items however in doing so they also removed the mechanism that allowed people to chat and get to know one another. I wish I knew what the magic answer is to allow people to stay together for longer periods of time. Having people come and go from the groups while not actually camping a spawn. What I do know is that without this I don’t think EQ2 will move from being a good game to a great game.
Uniqueness
One of the key concepts in playing mmorpg’s games is developing your character. As a result people want their characters to be unique, to stand out and be different from others. EQ did this by having racial armor. A barbarian warrior had a different look then an ogre warrior wearing the exact same armor. However other then a different face a barbarian warrior looked exactly the same as another barbarian wearing the same armor. EQ2 should have taken this to the next level by allowing those 2 same warriors to customize their armor to look different from one another. Instead EQ2 took a giant step backwards. Now all races look the same in a certain type of armor. The variety and choice of looks and armor for a given level range is meager. This is very disheartening to say the least.
The background story for EQ2 is this cold war between Qeynos and Freeport. At the very minimum I would have at least liked to have seen a difference in armor between the two sides so that while out adventuring simply by looking at the person you could tell if they where Qeynos or Freeport aligned. Another thing that could be done is introduce crafted dyes that allow players to tint their armor. By doing this Sony still keeps control of what colors can actually be used unlike the system in EQ where anything was possible. Another cool thing would be the ability to modify shield graphics to indicate your guild or city alignment. Introduce cloaks, allow other armor pieces to be hidden or shown like helmets are. These are some of the ways players could help make their characters look more unique.
I am sure part if not “the” reason for doing what they did was performance. Having a bunch of different armor and textures that have to be rendered in game would be a huge hit to performance at the level of detail they are going for in EQ2. One has to question the logic in going with such advanced graphic detail if it means reducing the amount of unique armor players have to choose from and ultimately makes everyone look the same as everyone else.
Conclusion
EQ2 is a good game that has the potential to be great. Sony does seem responsive and committed to seeing EQ2 be the best game it can be. I think if they can solve the 2 problems above, it would definitely be a big step in the right direction.
Vanguard
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