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Fall is one of my favorite times of
the year--the transition
from summer to winter, the leaves painting the canvas of our lawns with
their
orange and gold hues, football in full swing and the stores setting up
their
Christmas displays. Yes, this truly is a wonderful time (although the
weather
here in California refuses to co-operate). Fall is also usually a time
of quiet
before the storm in the gaming world, as most developers are getting
set to
launch their hopeful blockbusters just in time for holiday shopping.
It’s this
time of year that often finds me feeling reminiscent and longing to
rekindle
the fires of a burning gaming obsession of years past. Normally this is
also a
fairly expensive time of year for me as well, as I re-subscribe to
several old
MMOGs only to play them for a couple weeks before I get pulled back
into my
current game. This year is shaping up to be similar to years past as I
return
to The Lord of the Rings Online and style="">   style="">EverQuest2, but with both games now
available to play for free, I may actually be able to keep enough cash
in the
bank to buy the wife a Christmas gift.

 

Nexon looks to steal some thunder
from the AAA boys with the
release of Vindictus, a beautiful
3D
title that takes place in the Mabinogi
universe. Check out our preview href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/vindictus/previews/sept2010">here,
and
let us know href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=53713">what
you think. The folks over at gPotato have also been hinting
at what they
have been up to as they work diligently on the next game patch for style="">Allods. If you are socially connected,
you can get up to the minute communications from the style="font-style: italic;">Allods team by
adding them
to your bevy of friends on Facebook.

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The concept of a fallback game is one we speak of from time
to time here at The Hammer, and one I’m sure most of you veteran MMOG
players have experienced on your own. My personal fallback game has
always been a variant of EverQuest;
the original kept the light on for me in my early days, while EQ2 has
done the same in the past few years. I have few regrets in regards to
gaming, but my biggest has always been that I never got to lose myself
in EQ2 and explore it completely.

With the release of EQ2X coinciding perfectly with the typical down
cycle of MMOGs, that odd time where we wait for new releases or new
expansions, it seemed like fate had finally intervened on my behalf.
Under the guise of researching and covering free-to-play titles I was
able to fully immerse myself in the goodness of EQ2X without having to
fear the threats of divorce that ended my previous love affair with the
game back in 2004. I did not squander this precious allotment of time,
dear readers; I took advantage of every second of it to bring you my
impressions of this new microtransaction-driven version.



EverQuest2 Extended
uses a separate launcher than the other servers and takes place in its
own little world called, appropriately enough, Freeport. I tried to
initially access it through the station launcher and grew frustrated at
not being able to find it there. If you’re like me, let me spare you
the frustration – head straight to the official site and grab the
launcher there. Install was a breeze because this new client only
downloads the bare bones of the game and fills in the other 11.2 gigs
in an as-needed fashion or in the background while you play. I noticed
almost no performance hits, but I did make it easy on the client as I
stayed exclusively in one area from level 1 to 20. I suspect that if
you are new to EQ2 and want to explore you may run into some issues.

The last time I played a brand new character I was forced to play
through the game’s original newbie area, Isle of Boredoom, or something
along those lines. (I may have made up the name; it’s all a bit fuzzy)
and was immensely pleased to find it has gone the way of the Dodo bird.
Admittedly, it may have been removed long before EQ2X came to be.
Selecting a Barbarian Berzerker I was given a choice of several
starting cities and, despite the temptation of some of the more exotic
sounding locales, I decided to stay true to my roots and begin my
adventure in New Halas. So, why did I chose a Berzerker you ask?
Excellent question, it leads right into the first discovery I made in
EQ2X.

Man, you’re like school on a Saturday…no class

Unlike the line from Fat Albert, EQ2X doesn’t have “no class” – but it
certainly limits their availability to those who don’t pay. I found
most of the more interesting classes were locked unless I decided to
jump up to a monthly fee or unlock them with Station Cash purchases.
The move is certain to ruffle a few feathers, but when one considers
the fact that EQ2 features some really cool classes, it makes a lot of
business sense. Now this isn’t to say they those available to the
free-to-play crowd are awful, I would have picked the Berzerker
regardless of what else was available, but most of the hybrids and
interesting casters are walled off. New players will still have plenty
of variety in their choices, and all the necessary group roles are
available.



With my class choice squared away, I set out to explore the frosty
environs and to get reacquainted with Norrath. What struck me almost
immediately was the excellent pace and flow of the quests, something
that carried through to every hub I was shunted to throughout the first
20 levels. Quest rewards were well itemized and when combined with
random drops they kept my ‘zerker one step ahead of the nasties I was
asked to kill. In fact loot was so plentiful that between items and the
overwhelming number of crafting materials and collectibles I came
across, I soon found my second major issue with EQ2X – bag space.

It’s in the bag

Inventory room is a pretty common conundrum for any MMOG, especially
for new characters, but EQ2X compounds the issue by only allowing
access to 3 of the 7 available bag slots to the subscriptionless.
Unlike the class and race lockdowns, however, bag slots can’t be added
ala carte, you must bump up to a gold or platinum to unlock them. You
can mitigate the dilemma a bit by using the item shop to purchase 3
huge bags, but you will still find yourself having to make some hard
choices of items to dump if you don’t remember to sell of the excess in
between quest hubs. One other item of note when it comes to items, if
you aren’t a paying player you will find certain items unavailable to
equip based on their rarity and quality – something that won’t bother
lower level characters as much as it will those above level 50.

If you wanna play you gotta pay

Monetization has become the single most important element in MMOGs
lately. While it has always been about making money, it becomes even
more critical in tough economic times. SOE has been among the best at
identifying and monetizing key features and elements in their games,
without skewing the balance of power to only those with deep wallets. I
purchased a mount pretty early on from the item shop and upgraded
myself to the silver membership level with a one time fee of 1,000
Station Cash ($10.00 USD). Both purchases made sense to me as I wanted
to move about a bit quicker and I wanted access to chat channels and
some of the other silver level features. While I couldn’t have obtained
the chat functionality any other way, I could have waited a few levels
for the mount because I also received one as a quest reward. I
guarantee that if you enjoy this game you will end up using the item
shop, and if you don’t like it you will be able to walk away scott free
– which is exactly what a well made free-to-play should be about.



The first 20 levels of EQ2X have been an absolute blast so far,
encapsulating the full spectrum of what makes EQ2 such a great game.
Combat, crafting, questing and community have all been top notch thus
far and I look forward to continuing the adventure. I would encourage
anyone who enjoys fantasy MMOGs to check out EQ2X, and don’t be a
stranger if you bump into a Barbarian named Medawky.

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