Everquest II: Echoes of Faydwer

Reviewed by Maggie MacDonald
April 5, 2007

Developer: Sony Online Entertainment Publisher: Sony Online Entertainment Website: Click Here Platform(s): PC ESRB Rating: T for Teen Review Rating: 5 out of 10

Screenshots of Everquest II: Echoes of Faydwer. Courtesy of SOE. Click image to enlarge.

As a long time gamer, I ripped open the package for the Everquest II expansion quite eagerly.  I fondly remembered long evenings a decade ago, running through mountains and forests in the original Everquest, while chatting with friends that I had acquired from around the world.

It’s been ten years since I played the original game, so I expected a lot of improvements in the interface, game flow and creativity.  This expansion was something of a disappointment.

Game startup:
It takes quite a while to get into the game each time you turn it on.  Every time you play, you need to click on the terms and conditions agreement.  You then click through four splash screens.  Then you wait for your character to load, the zone to load, the zone characteristics to load… And eventually you’re set.

Graphics:
The screen is filled with nearly stick-like characters on a flat background.  Character movement is stiff and unnatural, as are the NPCs that populate the game.

Questing:
After your opening newbie quest, you have to play the “check with every NPC in the vicinity” game to find the next quest cycle.   There’s very little information given (or clues) as to how these quests are to be accomplished.   I got 2.5 quests in before I hit an impasse.

Things to do other than hack and slash:
Everquest has come a million miles in the “trade skills” category, the things you do other than run around killing monsters and looting corpses.  There are lots of little things lying around to get picked up and examined, Do So!!  Wander down inside the trade skills building.  There are workbenches for each category of trade skill.  In very little time I found myself crafting things that were useful and fun. There was very little frustration on that part of the game.  You can also just practice other skills. I fell in the “bay” next to the newbie area and found myself improving swimming skills by just moving around in the water.

Do you like old style graphic games? Then Everquest II is for you.  If you are more accustomed to the modern games like World of Warcraft or Silk Road, this game is very counter intuitive, and quite annoying in the lack of user friendly tips.  Even the players had no idea where to find information on the game (when you can get them to answer you at all).

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