EverQuest II Reviews

Another fairly large batch of reviews for Sony’s EverQuest II crept up on the web over the past few days. The first is over at G4TechTV with an overall score of 4/5:

EverQuest 2 is an undeniably polished game. It will offer you months and months of new things to do and experience. The development team clearly did its homework and delivered a game that addresses many of the problems inherent in most online RPGs. If you’ve previously taken a pass on the likes of EverQuest because games like this seem a little too daunting it’s time to bite the bullet. It’s newbie-friendly, but it’s got plenty of content for hardcore players as well.

The second is at The Gamers’ Temple with an overall score of 86%:

If you enjoyed playing EverQuest and have not tired of the time commitment the game requires, suffice it to say that you’ll have a really good time with EQ2. If you’ve been curious about MMORPG games, then you should give EQ2 a try as it is very easy to get into and provides a good experience with the genre. You’ll also find that there’s no shortage of other players of the game, making it easy to find players to group with or even guilds to join should you decide to play the game for the long haul. You can view EQ2 as doing a very good job with streamlining and tweaking the original game model pioneered by EverQuest, so if this sort of game is not your cup of tea you won’t find enough here to change your mind.

The third is at GameShark with an overall score of 4/5:

Which brings us back to fun. EverQuest II is a brilliantly crafted work art in almost every respect. It just never became fun for me. It always seemed like I was supposed to be working for something, but I never figured out what that this was. Even grinding levels stopped being fun when each level seemed to bring me only a marginal valuable ability. Perhaps it was just me. Perhaps I just don’t grok. I’ll buy that and I would certainly recommend EverQuest II to anyone who enjoys MMORPG games. Just the graphics and music make this a game worth trying.

The fourth is at GamersInfo with no overall score:

Achievement is a big part of what MMOs are all about, and without long-term goals to work for people will lose interest. These goals are given value based on their rarity and the difficulty in achieving them. How a game makes obtaining that goal difficult is what can make the difference between a fun game and a tedious bore. EverQuest 2, through new game mechanics and design, has removed the more traditional (and boring) difficulty barrier, the time-sink, and replaced it with the requirement that the player be skilled at the game itself and in forming relationships with other players in the game.

And the fifth is at Jolt Online Gaming with an overall score of 8.8/10:

Everquest II is a highly immersive MMORPG that delivers pure escapism. The production values are absolutely superb and it’s also remarkably complete for a just-launched game of this nature. As you can tell from the screens, the graphics are delicious (and they look much better in motion) and these were taken using less than full detail settings. In fact Everquest II has higher resolution textures and can deliver full environmental shadows complete with specular effects and a draw distance of around a mile. Just don’t expect to run it at those settings for a year or two, and even then only if you have a top-end machine. By that time you can no doubt look forward to several new expansions and other episodic content, all costing a pretty penny. But if you’re looking for immersion above all in an MMORPG then we highly recommend you give EQII a look.