Believe it or not, but when EQ2 came out, one of it's biggest problems was the system requirements. Back in the day you needed a very good PC to play this comfortably, while WoW could be run on a microwave oven.
Between a need for higher end gaming PC to run it with decent gfx, and Sony’s utter refusal to do ANY kind of marketing for the game (beyond /pizza, for those who remember that), Blizzard was able to snag people left and right. They marketed the sh!7 out of WoW, and they built it to run on most everything a step above a TI-83 calculator.
Yep, when they made EQ2 GPUs were still not considered the Primary power source for games and graphics. SOE Hedged their bets on that CPU was going to be what was the power house for Graphics in the futre so they made the game very CPU and Ram needy. Needless to say they lost that bet lol. So having a super powerful GPU was not that much of an advantage at that time.
Yep i struggled to run this on my AMD k6 processor and had to buy an extra stick of ram which barely helped. But playing WoW i struggled as soon as i met my first Rastafarian Troll and ran straight back to EQ2 and SWG which were available for one subscription price through Sony.
@Amadeus Luciiann yup I have been watching is Final Fantasy journey. Plus the violations that blizzard has atm really isn’t gonna make people want to play the game as much lol
Played this for years. When it first came out it would take ages to hit 50 (the level cap at the time). There was 2 main areas that had brokers, banks, crafting guilds etc etc. The main towns were where you would hang out and meet new people. Qeynos Harbour I do miss that place :P It used to cost 10 quid a month in subscriptions and you got regular expansions, and new zones. Then the game introduced guild halls where you could have everything you needed in them without having to bother going to town. The towns died and were empty in a very short time. So new players felt very lonely unless they were lucky enough to join a friendly guild. Then they decided to make levelling really easy and increased the level cap to 70. This was a huge let down and another blow to the long time fans of the game. The problem with making it so easy to level was you could have max level healers that didn't know the difference between single target heals, and group heals. Main tanks that didn't know how to keep agro and DPS classes that just couldn't DPS. So they would get yelled at by others and the community began to descend into the elites vs the casuals. In the early days of the game you could not get past level 20 unless you completed a special solo instance that would test your class. So you had to understand the various attacks you had and use them in a combo to win. Wish every game implemented this. In short, amazing design for the time, an amazing game that was killed by short sighted business decisions. Decisions that completely ignored the most important aspect of any online game...the ability to make in game friends and some cases... rivals!
EverQuest II holds the strongest nostalgia of any game for me. When the game came out, it was phenomenal. But it's just a shade of what it used to be now. It's player housing really is on another level though. You can build almost anything within the game, it's pretty crazy.
I was on when it came out phenomenal may be a bit of rose colored glasses. The performance was god-awful and still kinda. That engine is complete dog shit. I will agree tho, the class system, the races and questing was all better then wow. But wow would run on a fucking toaster with a DVD player glued on. Better performance lead to.more accessibility. That's why wow won out. I really still wish they'd update the engine. They eventually did it in eq 1, but I don't know if they feel it's worth it here.
@@Ankcientgamer While I agree that with the game being designed to be cpu focused rather than gpu focused (they banked on the wrong technology boom at the time), that doesn't really affect the gameplay, which is what I was talking about. The gameplay was phenomenal and at the time, the graphics were gorgeous. So I don't think I'm using rose colored glasses just because some peoples computers couldn't play it. I had to play this game for years on low graphics settings and I didn't care because of how fun it was.
Every few of years I log in my old characters in EQ2 then do a grand tour of the zones. I bask in the music and the nostalgia, then I promptly log out for a few more years.
@@brythkaltaris This has completely blown my mind, how did I play this game for YEARS and never realize this? Good factoid. Also @MixelPlx absolutely the soundtrack was the best and I would do all the heritage quests on all my characters. Remember the Nektolus Castle one where there are hidden notes and passageways?
@@JasonsOkatGames One of the few places left where you have to do an access quest to make it to en last room. First to boarheads, and then the Everling lockets.
@@kjellringstrom6217 You say "few places left"? Did they do away with most access quests? I know they simplified a lot of the game when it went free to play but it's been so long since I've done all those heritage quests. I kind of quit after playing again a year ago to max level because I hated how they did the scaling between expansions.
Only things you didn't really check out was crafting which has a mini game to determine quality and hiring npc mercenary companions. Honestly I loved EQ2 in the day. It's kinda got a bit of everything. It could really use a bit of combat rework and a fresh coat of paint but I could get back into it
Also the enemy that was talking in symbols is because you didn't speak it's language. Being around and finding different things in the world you can learn languages and the symbols will change to english
The only thing about reworks, is that devs don't ever seem to be able to not change things that don't need changing along with it. I still play it, and agree a little smoothing out would be great, but I know something else would change that I'd hate. That's why I'm sorta glad it's the same as it's always been. The power creep is awful though. Heal and damage numbers in the millions? I can't even tell when a new piece of equipment is good.
The crafting system was possibly my favorite part of EQ2. Much better than click, craft junk, click, craft junk ad infinitum until you have a high level skill.
EQ2 will always be my favourite game. Played thousands of hours, wasted years with this. Back then this was so intense, so much social interaction, great feeling of adventure. Such a mature and friendly community as well. Played both WoW and EQ2, and found EQ2 much better. By the way, you really only scratched the surface, this game has basically everything an MMO could have.
That's basically happens with everything now. The most hyped/advertised shit wins in the end no matter how good the competitors are. Twitch made this even worse. They are paying all these streamers to act jolly and positive when something big gets released. So much of that budget could also go into developing the game even more.
I wish I could check mine, I dont remember my password and my ex made the security question so they won't let me open the account lol It was super depressing and I think about them from time to time. Screw you SOE!
Fun fact: Heather Graham and Christopher Lee were prominently billed for their voice-acting roles prior to release, and you can still find portions of their dialogue within the game to this day.
You said to share our stories so (it's actually my Steam review I copy/pasted but it includes lore & legend): I started playing this game in like 2005. My friend got me into it while I was playing City of Heroes...quit that ♥♥♥♥ and went to EQ2 full-time. It was an absolute and complete mmorpg. There was nothing in the mmorpg genre that games were doing that this one wasn't already. This was originally Sony's baby, and you can definitely tell, for a 2004 game that there was a **** ton of money invested into it. You could spend hours doing one thing, only to realize your friend is already 2 levels ahead of you and that was like 6 hours of grinding. That's fine though, you just sold all those rares on the broker and made some hefty coin for you and your companion to share the spoils (if you so choose). Life as a habitual EQ2 Player: Once got into raiding, the competition was very hard, many guilds were extremely exclusive, raided 5-6 days a week. You have to work your way to the top of the scale, joining a mediocre guild that raids casually, then you look for a real raid guild, find out that they're not accepting warlocks at this time so you go to the guild that USED to be top dog but is now diminishing in size after a guild fall-out with drama, so they scoop you right up. Guilds like these had some of the best players in the game, but they just lacked in numbers, and their gear is remnants of old raids but they can still absolutely destroy ♥♥♥♥. Eventually you acquire second hand loot since all the fossils in your guild have acquired mountains of DKP so there is just no chance you're going to get a shiny item, but you also don't have to spend any DKP on the loot you do get because everyone already has it or better. OK -- The guild has now fallen apart completely and you see that the top server guild is recruiting your class. You apply, you get accepted, you are not a recruit yet because you still have to pass tryouts. They make you run Nizara with like 1 healer and it's an absolute punch in the ****, but say you somehow impress them and they invite you to guild, you're now a recruit for 30 days and if the raid is full, you'll probably be sitting for most of them. That is until you prove your worth though, but the trick is trying to make yourself look good in front of people who have nearly twice the stats as you. After a while you become an absolute god in the game. AFKing in the middle of the city with your weapon unsheathed to illuminate its wondrous glow. You come back to your computer in the morning with all the people sending you /tells riding your **** asking you "WOW Where is that staff from??!?!??! WHAT YOUR AA SPEC??? whats ur spell rotation????" Now this person is messaging you for advice every 30 minutes that they're online and you're like dude... "Let me show you." So you meet him in East Freeport, challenge him to a duel, wait for the count down: 5...4...3 (CASTS RIFT)..2...1... duel starts, this dude is up in the air, gets obliterated for 10k+ damage. The duel was over before it even started. He learns absolutely nothing except that he just got KO'd before even casting a spell. Eventually you get burned out and maintaining this godlike image for so long makes you feel more mortal than ever, so you retire. And then you spend the next few years logging into your account for 30 minutes every couple of months and just inspecting yourself. THEN they announce a Time-locked progression server, so you and the friend who got you into the game pack their PCs and link up in one room to take EVERYTHING we have learned and burn through the content as fast as possible and join a raid guild and volunteer as the main tank to lead your guild to a TLE-server first Prismatic disco. Then you just re-roll a healer and casually enjoy the game all over again, staring off into the cold shadowy remnants of a beautifully dying game. Also you can craft your own furniture for your house. I said.... you can craft your own furniture...for your house. Shout out to everybody on Mistmoore, I love ya'll. Also shout out to Neurology/Yoshiii, Calbiyum, Trumak, Bigron, Krisiun, Lanran, BIG shoutout to Talonis(Warlock) for showing me everything I knew, thank you LFG for providing us a forum to completely unfold our dramatic in-game and IRL issues, thank you Dadugansan...you were a terrible person to talk to but you were a min/max GOD and there isn't a ranger I've seen that did what you do.
Omg. THIS! Shout out to Kith Revelations, Daray, Wocto, (even BigRon had s stint with us) and all the years raiding, world wide first avatar kills. Not only did I have the time of my life, I am still married to Revelations conji, Laih. Without meeting him in game then in real life, my life would have been much less interesting. Game on! Pixi, Templar of Kithicor (then Butcherblock).
Reading this I just feel like all the enjoyment I've ever had out of games is a lie and the realization that games will never give me this kind of an experience is crushing my will to play games at all... k, sadness over lets play some games mindlessly and never talk to anybody cause people mostly suck. This comment section was an eye opener no joke though.
EQ2 definitely has my favorite player housing system in any game i've played. I spent SO much time on my house and it was just so cool to have a place like that where I could show off what I've collected. This game also definitely one of the best crafting systems, too. Unfortunately it seems like a really tough game for a new player to get into at this point...
@@Dereliction2 As a generally new player, the answer to both your questions is a solid "no." From my personal experience, I would say it's actually bloated with systems. I like the fact that it has so many, but it's difficult to figure out and there aren't a lot of indications on how to approach them. Tons of different systems layered on top of one another to the point that you have no idea what you're looking at, honestly. It's not easy to determine where to go and what to do, which is also fine, but definitely requires investment of time on the part of the player. Additionally, wikis and online resources aren't as comprehensive as some more popular MMOs (this isn't to say they're useless, just more difficult to navigate and sometimes lacking). Paying the sub appears to solve the population issue since most players that actually enjoy the game pay for it and are on the subscription servers. As for archaic, visuals have never steered me towards a game. It has a charming old school style of gameplay that I also wouldn't consider archaic. The UI is definitely hot garbage and shows its age, but I solved that through a UI mod. Overall, I really enjoy the game, but I definitely am struggling with figuring out the ins and outs. When the next Time Locked Progression server comes out, I'll probably join a guild and get all the info I need from people there.
@@anogredoctor Thanks, fantastic insight on it. Sounds like it could be amazing for the right player who has lots of time to invest. Undoubtedly that isn't the typical "new player" to the game though.
@@Dereliction2 Glad to help out. And yes, I'm not a typical new player as I have played in the past (for like... 3 days back in 2007) so I kinda knew what I was getting into. Simply put, if you have people to ask questions of and are willing to put the time in AND pay the 15 a month, you'll probably get a lot out of it, because there is a ton of content to it.
Oh man, same for me. Played at release until EoF. The Prismatic weapon quest line will forever be one of the most epic things I have ever done in an mmo. And all the contested open world bosses like Venekor and Vaz'Gok. So Memory. Very Nostalgia. Wow.
My roommate played this. They showed me the crafting system. When they tempered a sword you had to cycle between different actions, such as heating it, tempering it, and dunking it in water. Certain special actions would appear as well. You had to be very careful to make the iron stronger without breaking the blade. Looked very involved. Seemed both fun and grind at the same time.
The dynamic crafting system was one of the best parts of the game. In addition, there were many components that needed to be crafted before crafting the final item. The only other games at the time that had such dynamic crafting/gathering systems were Star Wars Galaxies, Saga of Ryzom and A Tale in the Desert (a non-combat game). Then in one patch, they completely dumbed down the crafting in EQ2 by eliminating the subcomponent requirements, probably because there were too many complaints of it being grindy and hard, and I ended up quitting one day after the patch, never to return. It was fun while it lasted though (similar to Star Wars Galaxies in that regard - fun until they ruined it).
@@DocSardo hey there:) i actually come back to EQ2. I was 20 years away and i have to say to you that now im a lv 100 Sage at it makes a lot of fun for me. 20 years ago i try to do some crafting but it was so complicated. You have now Apprentice and they research for you for rare recepts so in later game you re able to do some rare items at your own. It makes a lot of fun. I would look at that. Im Ajirr from Insane Asylum in Antonia Bayle Server Greetings
I remember how excited we EQ players were when this came out. The graphics were cool at the time, but sadly, the game was lacking the magic of the original.
I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU TO COVER THIS GAME AND THE ORIGINAL EQ FOR NEARLY A DECADE! So excited to watch this. I noticed you were playing EQII from Plink notifications, so it sort of spoiled the surprise, but I'm very happy that you're FINALLY covering this.
Yeah that's probably why it got cancelled cause it wasn't going to live up to the hype of all the players saying it looked sick af cause those are always the same dudes who cry about the game right away when it doesn't live up to the hype
EQ2 has more interesting stuff you missed, but that's only natural, it's hidden a bit deeper into the game. - You can find and do 'lore quests' which let you learn the languages of the creatures you fight. Those speech bubbles early on? They can be translated. Those lore quests also give a unique book which you can place in your house. AFAIK there's a couple hundred of them. - There's 2 "Alternate Advancement" paths for every class. They basically act as talent trees, however they are vastly more interconnected and interdependant, and much more interesting to engage with than the linear style used by most other games. - Crafting classes are wholly independant of your combat class. You can be a max level blacksmith as it were, while being a level 1 combat character. Crafting in itself is much more interactive than other games, and even has a minor element of skill involved, as well as its own skill bar. - Spells and abilities have various levels you can learn, rather than learning just the spell and be done with it. There also used to be a neutral faction alongside the two main rival factions, and there was a very long and really well done questline where you could 'betray' your faction and jump to the other faction, making a stop along the way at the neutral faction to get the quests done to gain reputation to join your new one. It's one of my abiding memories of the game. Sadly they seem to have removed this some time ago. There's also some inventive quests where you really need to sneak - Not as in, activate a skill and become invisible, but actually stay out of sight and in the dark to get some information you need to finish the quest. Sadly this is marred by the invasive cash shop and aggressive monetization, which do impact the progression greatly. Bots and other events have also massively affected inflation on the fixed servers, which went so far out of hand that even low level items on this game's auction house cost so much that if you were to grind cash for it on a max level character, you'd still need dozens of hours to buy a starter weapon. Crafting supplies have especially gotten insanely out of hand. On a technical level the game was also doomed from the getgo, as the engine programmers assumed that CPU's would stay single-core affairs and would reach speeds of 20GHz (yes, 20) by 2010, which they based their ongoing development on of graphical improvements. However, since speeds started to stagnate after 2005 and multicore CPU's made their entry in 2007, the technical side of the game has pretty much stagnated and can never be fixed without a full refactor which would take a lot more time and people than Daybreak is willing to invest. Still, i have mostly positive memories from the time i played. Even without player housing and dungeons it had a lot of unique aspects which competitors never bothered to copy, even though they were a lot of fun to engage with.
god silkroad, i remember being that 13/14 year old kid looking around online for free to play mmo's, at the time it was silkroad and knight online, i had 0 idea what i was doing but i still had a blast playing both of those.
meh... That was one of the many Asia grinders popping up that I tried and uninstalled quickly back then... After having played DaoC, WoW and Guild Wars (1) for as long as I had, those things were nothing enjoyable...
I actually love the graphics in EQ2. The lighting, shadows, and bump mapping really brings out the world in this game that I still find lacking in modern MMOs.
@@victorbergdahl8267 I remember being in a guild mates house to bay a thing from hes salesman crate when i run i to one of those. I typed in guildchat that he owed me new pants. Lots of LOL ensued.
I've played many MMO for 20 years and my favorites memories are playing EQ2. There were something amazing about doing open dungeons with friends, heroic quests line, mythical quests on the pvp server Nagafen. The lore, music and design of zones were interesting, exploring different area felt special (nektropos Castle, Unrest). You could die in EQ2 at low levels. After WOW, all MMO became easy and silly in my opinion. In EQ2, you needed to build a group, you would group with decent players with good attitude. Some content even early on needed a good group synergy, and a proper execution. How to pull, where to position yourself, watching for roaming and keeping in mind respawn timer. Also having a 'secondary tank or main assist' in addition to a regular 'tank' was a thing, and that was pretty important how the game was played.
I played it when it came out and kinda remember it to be a buggy unstable game (and very CPU demanding), but still loved it. Though, it never hooked me like the original EQ.
I love the UI in EQ2. Its very very customizable I can understand how for a new person it's definitely not intuitive. You really need to use the customization to make it how you like it. You can also download other peoples UI setups and even totally new UI's.
This was my first MMO, i played it so much as a kid. It will always have a special place in my heart, even though i havent played it since it went F2P.
Everquest (original) was and always will be the best ever MMO. At the time it dropped, man that game had me immersed. I admit i was massively addicted to it. And still love it. It needs a remake
a team of modders are currently porting EQ 1 to unity engine ... the legit game is getting a UI upgrade in april ... and if the unity project is successfull you can bet your ass daybreak will buy it
No game since EQ (original) has given me the same sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. It was awe inspiring when it came out. Played it for 100’s of hours. So did my friends and my mom! Nothing will ever beat the sense of accomplishment as a 10 cleric complete heal circle to keep a tank alive during a raid.
Man I spent years on this at launch Memories So much to the game My favorite was the rogue classes had a tracking ability where they could track monsters as well as players for pvp
You should have started in New Halas if you wanted to see people (good) or Darklight Woods (evil) You can rent a house for 5 silver at level one if you want by heading into the "city" and then going back to the starting area.
I still play EQ2, it's still one of the better games, where skill really makes a difference .. WOW is like the kids version of EQ2... The level of detail in EQ2 is beyond bonkers.. worth spending more time on it
Reminds me of my days playing Ultima Online. First on Chesapeake, then came Europe. Working my way up from a humble noob to a 7GM tank mage and being among the Top X Lords on the server (shout out to players like "Kishore", "X Lord X" and others, who inspired me back then). Then I played on private servers like Novus Opiate. I am 37 years old now. I started playing UO when I was 13 and I quit due to life circumstances when I was 23 years old. Never before or after again has a game had that much depth, community feeling and a sense of adventure for me.
One thing you missed was its excellent crafting system. One of the best there is. A lot of that furniture in the player housing was for the most part crafted.
This brings back so many memories. This is to this day my mom's favorite game. I played this a good deal when I was young but I never left the "Tutorial Island". Everytime I did I got overwhelmed and just made a new character that was a different class and did it all over again haha. Good times.
That bar that keeps popping up is the heroic opportunity you have to do the spells that corespond’s with the icon it is showing. It will not always be your turn, but if it is your turn your spells will flash on the ones that need to be cast
I remember playing this game during the Dreaded Tuesday night maintenance shutdowns of WoW during BC. I really liked the unique combat circle that pops in combat where a party can take advantage of another member's attacks. For example a mage attack opens one opportunity attack that one of the warrior or rogue can take advantage of and vice versa. Was very unique for the time!
I remember spending over 5 hours in a dungeon because you could not use the map and it was a literal maze, filled with puzzles and things like that, took place in some haunted castle. At least I got that fishbone earring
You can play WoW Classic for a better artstyle and a bigger playerbase. ... Well, and a monthly fee, but there's a reason why it was the most popular mmo back then.
1. You need to toggle your auto attack unless you bind it to clicking. 2. You should read quests sometimes speaking to random npcs can give you secrets/hidden quests (newer quests are often voice acted though) 3. Combat does get faster later, but this game REALLY shines lvl 15 in your dungeons and things like that with 4 to 5 friends. 4. I agree the combat animations could use some updates, but really it does get a lot more fun 5. I think their are quite a few redundant abilites so I do think they can be kinda tossed aside. 6. Give this a try streaming sometime with a bunch of new players in zones and things like that. Late game truly is amazing.
I played EQ2 back in the golden years (Vanilla - Sentinel's Fate). By far the BEST community of an MMO I've ever experienced. FF14 isn't far off though. What I loved about EQ2 was the in depth crafting, complex and comprehensive player housing and (at the time) fantastic class mechanics. Minus good PVP, EQ2 had pretty much everything you could ever ask for. Shout out to any players from old school Oasis or Najena servers.
This was the game my dad and I bonded over. I will always have fond memories of him power leveling me when I was a kid, and using the game as a way to teach me how to read (Because I was a -very- late bloomer with reading.) I loved just about every aspect of this game, but I feel that I'm bias because of those memories. Qeynosians suck This post was made by the Freeportian gang
thinking of picking this up as a family in 2021, i played eq1 but i think its too old. i got kids 6, 10, and myself. what do you think worth a shot? got them all laptops for Christmas want to do family gaming MMO style
I remember when this came out. The tech was just too advanced for most rigs at the time. It was a weird situation where it was actually too good for it’s own good. WoW was not the better game, but even cheap rigs could run WoW smoothly. That’s why WoW won the battle.
Exactly. You only scratched the surface. I spent 7 years in this game, nothing compares, no matter how streamlined. I had my house in Qeynos; with a beautiful courtyard. What happened was that the game got too easy to play, trying to be WoW, which really destroyed the game. And the music in EQ was amazing, as was the mounts - I had over 20 in the end. I just loved this game.
I started playing probably a week ago and a few things I noticed about your impressions, -I do feel the need to mention (i did it too at first) that you can just left click to interact with everything lol -Idk what server you were playing on but yeah right now they started a PvP server the day before so quite a few are doing that atm, but there really is only like the 2 or 3 servers that have a bigger population, and then the progressive server that is progression content wise. (also I am pretty sure steam doesn't track non steam EQ2 players still, since quite a few of the people I have talked to use daybreaks download instead of steams) -The UI is pretty bland I wont lie, but but everything is pretty straight forward and is a bit of customization (some mods out there too) -no borderless window really does suck, though I found a mod/download that basically forces it -yeah graphics aren't the best thought it doesn't really bug me since I was big into SWG too (terrain and such always be bad but players look good :P lol), same with combat (though its hardly outdated, just doesn't look smooth/polished like modern mmos) Things I found enjoyable so far are -the Mentor system (decrease level at any point so you can level with a lowbie or kill rares to get the drops to basically crush for materials, etc etc) -Housing, its just great, so much you can do and add (closest I will ever get back to SWG) -Combat, yeah its not the prettiest, but it really reminds me of a less polished FF14, idk I am Brigand and had plenty of buttons by 10 alone lol -Talent trees, for everything pretty much, racials, class "alternate advancement" ones that gives 350 points (by the end) to use across 5 tabs of talents (1-2 point talents normally), then a prestige page with 2 more tabs for combat, tradeskills have 1 tab but then you also have the prestige tradeskill talents with 2 tabs of stuff. Things most games anymore are too lazy to do. -collections, just nice to have -mercenaries, whether you want to have help while questing or doing dungeons (specially lower level), these followers can be great -Tradeskills, pretty involving, different quality matts can produce better items (bags more slots etc), and depending on other things you can create more basic versions of items or have better quality items like handcrafted > mastercrafted > MC fabled > MC legendary for example. and of course has its own leveling -Players, the people are just friendly (least with me), finding a guild wasn't too hard as one of the members was in the zone leveling and chatted with me a bit, mentoring makes things great since they are able to get down to your level and just do stuff with you, and they are just excited to see newer players. -Housing, but for guilds, so even bigger and better, hard to really convey but the guild I am in its massive, and has so many handy things in it whether buffs, crafting areas, teleporters to the world, vendors, bank access, etc its really cool. haven't messed with dungeons or raids yet since I am still leveling since I never played eq2 before really since I was so entrenched in SWG or WoW after that, but I am rather enjoying my time so far, whether I stay with it longer term we shall see, but I am having a good time.
I miss EQ so much, My first MMO was UO but then My father got me into EQ with his old D&D group from when he was in school, so of my most favorite memories were in EQ 1. I wish there was more of a population for EQ2. Hopefully Pantheon brings back that Nostalgia if it ever releases haha
The nostalgia! I almost remember the whole map of Antonica, the leveling zone for 10-20, i was roaming those lands for months just exploring and farming resourses not caring about leveling up just having fun at the age of like 10 xD
Eh, you know about project 1999? It's literally like going back to Everquest AS YOU REMEMBER IT - people and ALL. It's literally just as awesome as it was in 1999, no joke. It's high pop, too. Like, there's a fkton of people playing, and it's awesome. The druids and wizards have created a Taxi guild, 24/7 ports for a plat or two (or free if you're new). I enjoy it more than WoW.
The froglok were actually not available at the launch of the game. A guild had to successfully complete the raid dungeon called Spirits of the Lost in order to unlock the froglok race for everybody on their server. So some servers people were able to play as frogloks before other servers.
I played EQ, DAoC, WoW, LotRO, EQ2, and other MMOGs, and I still like EQ2 the best after 21 years of playing. There are newer, fancier games but none of them have the depth of EQ2. The game does have its drawbacks but so far no other game has been able to win me away from EQ2 and heaven knows I've wanted a game to do that when things got wonky with EQ2, which is fairly often. Server stability is the major issue. For example, yesterday the game was down for about 6 hours due to some glitch. I have about 7 MMOGs ready to play, on my computer, and all I could do was keep checking to see if my server was back up. I could have played LotRO (I have 2 lifetime memberships), FFXIV, ESO, GW2, etc., but all I could focus on was EQ2 because my characters on EQ2 are like family whereas my characters, on other games, are just that--characters. For those of us who love to craft and decorate, our characters take on personalities through their building and decorating. Our adventuring is all about finding new materials, recipes, house items, and crafting achievements. But those who like fighting have ample ways to slay and hack through 120 levels. There are quests, agnostic dungeons, solo dungeons, heroic dungeons, fabled dungeons, raid zones, and more to keep a player busy. And EQ2 has an in-depth lore to go with the quests for both adventurers and crafters. It literally has something for every type of play style which is why it has players from youngsters all the way up to elder seniors.
I have so many memories of play EQ2.. World first Mutagenic outcast was the highlight of my gaming career. Thousands of hours of fun. i wish i could capture that feeling again :(
There is an old school MMORPG called Silkroad it came at the time of WoW too i remember playing because i couldn't afford paying for WoW back then. Maybe try it it got some ideas that I still couldn't find it today in any MMO.
@@LovelyAngel1337 I remember trading and Hoping no thieves around or asking Hunters to defend me and talk all the way long from cities etc and this was social interaction at its best which 99% of MMOs now don't have , and I would pay anything to have these interaction again, like finding the secret passage from Hotan to smk was one of the best things that happened for me and my friends while we were running from real Thieves not Npc ofc.
I played this a bit at launch & at the time the graphics were INSAAAAANE. I remember you could open up a store but in order for players to buy things you had to stay logged in, so I'd keep my character logged in all night while I slept & every time someone bought something from me, it would play that bag of coins sound effect. It'd wake me up but it was exciting to know I was selling stuff lol. Fun times.
Ever since I saw Overlord I've wanted the system they have in that fictional game. Guild halls that are basically dungeons guilds themselves arm with traps and monsters/NPCs they have tamed, hired or created. The pyramid reminded me of that.
EQ2 has guild halls too, they are huge. I remember the day they were introduced, just over 10 years ago. Everyone was hyped, and some of the PVP guilds quickly realised that you could enter the enemies guild halls, which was a bug and something you weren't supposed to be able to do. It was carnage until they hotfixed it lol.
Great game when it came out, when everybody was new and all exploring, there was so many people back then. Really great quests from solo to raids. There were people who only decorated houses in the game and had no adventure experience at all. I made life long friends through this game. No game has captured me the same as this did back in the day. I'm still a paying supporter and log in every few months to check on the guild I am leader of. Hardly anyone is ever on and there are not too many servers left. The Time locked servers was a good idea to bring people back but just like in the later years of EQ2, people raced to get to the end and then went silent until the next planned expansion release. You cant beat the excitement of of its first 3-4 years but I'm still looking
They banked on the EQ1 fan base following it over to the Newer shiny EQ2. Many of us did check it out on launch day but quickly many of us missed our old EQ1 characters and adventures and went back after 2-3 months or switched to WoW.
EQ2 has a massive list of unique things compared to other mmos. Although its important to mention you make the combat seem really slow when in reality its super fast and often considered over complex for some people. You also have your personal torch on which is a button that lights up the immediate vicinity. Really horrible on the eyes if you arent in a very dark place
Back when EQ2 launched they had a pretty awesome quest line system built in with each class. You would start out as a castaway on an island after being ship wrecked, and you would do a quest line to level 10. At which point you would leave to your main city and do a class specific quest that would let you try out each subclass, like Ranger for the scouts. You would then decide what you wanted to be and at level 20 you would do another class specific quest that would let you pick the final version of your subclass. It was fun and added some immersion to your character, you could even do a long quest line to betray your faction to join the opposing faction. They removed it after WoW got popular because WoW didn't have it so that must of been the reason why people didn't like EQ2, right?
Best game I’ve ever played. Combat is amazing for tab target, and the skill ceiling is huge. Great vibe, great playing, and I’ve never felt overly forced into a grind. Spent most time on open world dungeons and instances.
Honestly, maybe 1% of EQ2 players use the default UI. A website called EQ2Interface.com has had countless custom UI's to choose from since the game's launch, some of which are still constantly updated and supported as new features are created in the game. It also offers maps that players themselves have created and tweaked that is fully compatible with the game itself. Because of this, there was never really a need for EQ2 dev's to rework the standard UI, because everyone really downloads and uses their own custom UI based on their needs (crafters, raiders, etc). Also, you probably did not see any players just because you were in old zones, which are also massive in size. Enter any zone and hit / and you can see how many players are in that zone. You can also type /who all 100 and it will show every player in every zone who is level 100. or /who all barbarian and it will show every player in every zone who is a barbarian.
The graphics are a bit dated (though they look much better than this, I think he had it on lowest settings), but I am having so much fun in EQ2, that I don't even notice. It is the best mmo I've ever played, and I've played most. The mechanics, the quests, the insane amount of fun content, the crafting. It has much more character development and fine tuning and dept than WoW, the dungeons are not just brainless kill, but has fun puzzles etc. The raids are really great. Give it a try peeps, you might love it! PS. He missed many huge features, one being Alternate Advancement. It's a huge system that you put points into, improving your char's defensives, offensives, craft and harvest. I wish he would have given it more time, he only played the first 5 levels, it really tells you nothing about any game.
I recently started playing EQ2 after I finally gave up on WoW. It's a lot of fun. I have a hafling Bard singing me buffs as I do quests. I have a house in a city and my guild has a guild hall. Getting through the auction house, your spells, action bars and crafting recipes is the biggest drawback imo. The amount of spells thrust on me as I leveled was crazy as well. Someone messaged me on my 4th day playing out of the blue and asked if I wanted to do something. I told them I was new and they ran me through a dungeon and power leveled me then gave me armor and weapons. The reason was they liked the guild I had joined. I never experienced that amount of generosity in WoW from a total stranger before. I feel like there's something to a game that has people like that.
EQ2 also has guild halls that can be decorated like player-housing if not more-so. The Alternate Advancement skill trees are something like WoW classic's meets Path of Exile imo. And I can't be certain but it does not seem to me like TheLazyPeon spent a lot of time moving or resizing his UI windows. I think that EQ2's current UI is much more flexible and optimizable than today's WoW. The game still has its downsides, it's old. If a large MMO loving community was to find itself on EQ2 for the first time I think they would find themselves having a lot of fun. Its a very deep game mechanically and I would love to see what people would create chasing the metas. If you find yourself on EQ2 for the first time I think the best thing to do would be to seek out a friendly guild to learn from. Politeness and manners seem to go far in the community too, were talking about an older generation of players afterall. I would love to see the geniuses of the WoW community have fun with this game, but it would be such a shame to see some of the toxicity come with it to a pristine world and culture.
EQ and EQ2 raids have always been better than those of WoW. WoW in general is aimed at the ADHD, gotta have it ALL NOW, and with as little effort as possible crowd. EQ2 raids were 24 players. EQ1 raids were 72! AND we didnt have voice chat for those raids either. People showed up knowing their job for the raid, and what to do/expect for that raid. WoW, they had voice chat and only need to roll face across the keyboard once, and they all walk away winners. That was WoWs draw: easy dopamine fix.
I played everquest2 for a couple month a couple years ago and the server I was on was fairly populated. I know the progression based server has a pretty good population. Though the original everquest will always be my go to MMORPG. Was great to see you do a first impression of everquest2
This game was amazing back in the day. So much content, Heirloom quests were an absolute blast and would take days to complete, the mix of open world-dungeons and instances dungeons was awesome and don't forget the collection quests.
I really do think the formula of EQ2 is almost perfect. I wish either more people played it or a dev company was brave enough to tackle making a spiritual successor to EQ2.
@@gobzdzilla I remember being amazed at the graphics playing the beta on my dad's computer. Going from EQ to EQ2 was such a big leap. Trolls still look just as ugly as they did back then though haha.
one of the features I liked about EQ2 was the mentoring system. In it a higher level player can mentor a lower level player by switching down to that lower level. The higher level player would have all of the skills and spells he or she had at the higher level but he or she would utilize them at the lower level, even if the ability or spell did not exist at the lower level. Another great feature of the mentoring feature was the enhanced speed of gaining experience points for both players.
After playing EQ2 for years I tried Wow, it felt so shallow in comparison. The symbols above their heads are languages you have to learn via quests to understand. The crafting system is brilliant, WoW barely had any crafting and hardly any MMOs since have had anything even close. The raid dungeons were brilliant I spent countless evening with my guildies crawling through them with my favourites being deathtoll, labs of Lord Vyemm and Veeshan's peak
EQ2 was so much better than WoW at launch IMO... I spent a ton of time in EQ1 and switched to EQ2 at launch. Tried to get into WoW but it just couldn't catch me like EQ2 did. The main reason it didn't do as well as WoW was primarily the system requires. This game needed a VERY good system back in the day and WoW basically was able to run on the same systems that were already playing EQ1, so WoW had to be the answer unless you could afford the hardware. By time the system requirements weren't an issue, WoW already has it's grip and huge news stories about it's massive player base... EQ2 never had a chance at catching up. As for the UI I disagree here, it's insanely customizable and very good, but likely you would have needed more time with that game to figure that out. You also missed out on the incredibly robust crafting system in EQ2. Thanks for the review my friend!
@@gobzdzilla Neither of you is. A few devs (and I do mean A FEW) that worked on EQ2 are also involved in AoC. The vast majority of the team did not. Pantheon was started by Brian McQuaid of EQ1 fame, who had nothing to do with the second game.
Long time EQ2 veteran here with just some added notes, DarqUI and ProfitUI add ons are available to change the UI to something better or more comfortable. Additionally, there is also an add on available for the borderless but new players won't know this of course. The big problem with this game since around 2010 or level 100 has been population so was not surprised that was a listed con. The gameplay from level 100 and below is significantly different than the gameplay from 100 and above and EQ2 kind of loses its touch with players at this point. I think this has something to do with the transfer from SOE to Daybreak Games possibly along with massive stat bloats rendering lower level content trivial but who really knows. Glad you checked it out though! Hope they bring it back to the way it use to be or come out with an EQ3 of some sort with similar experiences.
Asheron's Call was my first MMO, and I still think of it as the Gold Standard that no other MMO has managed to live up to. That was the pinnacle of Sandbox MMO in my opinion, and I still dream of someone making a modern version of it.
Funny - a small EQ UA-camr I watch started playing EQ2, and I joined up with him to play the game again. Most fun I've had on an MMO in a while. EQ2 was hit and miss, and it was pretty awful when it came out; but, it really hit its stride around the Echoes of Faydwer expansion and had like 3 or 4 solid expacs in a row. EDIT: Yes, EQ2 still has the best player housing in the industry. There's a huge amount of variety of sizes and plots, and guild halls are just as customizable. As far as the combat, it's a lot more fluid once you understand how it works.
8:35 That balloon above their heads is them speaking in their language. You can learn different languages. Not really useful, but neat for flavor if you're a lore nerd like me.
So nice to see my favorite game of all time get featured. EQ2 was an MMO player's dream when it released. High fantasy, open world, so many things to do. It was easy to get sucked in. Its peak was 2006/2007 with KoS, EoF and RoK - three expansions released in 20 months. After that it began a slow descent - a low population forced staffing cuts, which forced design cuts and creep toward pay to win. New concepts would just be layered in over old ones until you felt like you needed an engineering degree to figure out character development. You mentioned the 15 million damage that your character was doing as a Free-to-play level 100 toon. In the current expansion, end game players are doing probably 100,000x that amount (and no that is not a typo). Your video touched on some of the high water marks of the game. The starter zone you were in would take you through a series of quests and zones that feel tight and well-paced. Those paintings are of places in game - for example Baubleshire - that you would have eventually gone to. Lots of overland quests and dungeons to crawl through too. The player housing was always a fun distraction and as you saw it can really bring out the creativity in some players. Obviously you didn't stick around to see raiding but EQ2 raiding was always top notch too. I had two separate stints as a pretty hardcore player, from launch until 2010 and then again from 2016-2020. I saw the declining game but still loved it anyway - and especially the community. Blood of Luclin, which is the expansion before the current one, was so awful that I had to walk away at that point. The game is .. not dead, but headed toward life support. Modern expansions are just bare-boned quest lines followed by content which is gated by time or items. Character development is heavily dependent on RNG, and many of the most powerful items must be bought, either as a claimable reward for purchasing the $140 'Premium' version of the expansion or by straight up buying loot boxes. The game is kept afloat largely by a small community of whales who spend gobs of money to advance their characters. Pick-up grouping is dead and you correctly noticed that no one plays at the lower levels. You may not have seen another adventurer outside a city until you hit the current expansion. Even the whales are drying up, it seems - the raider's progress website shows far less activity in this expansion than prior ones.
It's really hard to judge this game based on just logging in now and playing for a few minutes. I spent years and years in this game and absolutely loved it.. the community was great there was endless content and play styles it was a casual players dream so many things you could do solo but also fun to play with others, but also you could go hardcore if you wanted. Yeah it's janky sometimes and had soo many features and zones that some of them just didn't work and others were great. I spent like a year collecting as many of the in game books as I could you make a library in my player house and still never got them all. Player housing was unmatched by any other MMO.
@@torchlight3173 you misunderstood me. I played EQ2 for about two years back in the day, but it shouldn't be running anymore, it's a dead game and it's sad to see it in its current form.
I played EQ II for thousands of hours. The game had the best and most complicated crafting process and was so much fun. There have been a few other MMOs with great crafting, but unfortunetely they are very few. I hope you enjoy life in Thailand - I live there too.
Played this sooooo much back In the day... PvP was so broken and awesome! Mastered out Swashbuckler conj monk warden and ranger just rolling around as an overseer gank squad.. good old days.. haven't played an MMO since that has captured my attention as much as EQ did.
Both EQ2 and Runes of Magic had some pretty solid ideas that made them fun to play. They just came out so long ago that they are extremely outdated when it comes to combat, graphics et cetera. I'd love to see an EQ3 or Runes of Magic 2. A modern interpretation of these games would be fun to play.
@@xalderin3838 Yes we all seeing it happening with all big streamers going for FFXIV, and I think the next ffxiv expansion is the last shot to kill WoW?
@@babli44 I wouldn't say last shot. There's plenty of new mmorpgs coming out. And previous ones had the potential to do it. The only thing we need for one of the potentials to kill WoW, is for the Devs to not screw up. Which tends to happen one way or another, eventually. For example, SOLO has great potential. Unfortunately, it's going to depend on what the Devs do to it, and if they turn it p2w. Aside from that, FF XIV will definitely have more expansions in the future. They have Plenty of races and classes they can add. Though, tbh, once VR takes control of MMORPGs, non VR MMOs won't be able to compare or compete very well. But we still have 5-10 years for that. Maybe 15? XD
PVP in EQ2 was amazing, one of the best MMOs for PVP. So glad to see there's s new TLE PVP server being released in a week or two. For anyone down to experience true open-world group-orientated PvP you should definitely check out the new Tarinax server.
You can play in borderless windowed mode. Google "eq2 make full screen" and get the make full screen program from eq2inteface. Then start eq2 and make It windowed and double click the title bar to make it "full screen". The run the make full green program and choose the Everquest 2 executable from the running applications list. Boom. Full screen in windowed. You generally only have to do this once but if it ever stops doing it just repeat the process. Also the lighting and shadows part of the graphics engine weren't great and don't scam with new graphics capabilities. Set shadows to medium and tone down some lighting options and it won't look so crazy in some areas and will run better.
![ОТЕЦ WOW'а - EVERQUEST. История и актуальность в 2023-м году. [почти ЭксгуММОция #6]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hOshHyaCaL4/mqdefault.jpg)
![ОТЕЦ WOW'а – EVERQUEST. История и актуальность в 2023-м году. [почти ЭксгуММОция #6]](/img/tr.png)
8-10 years later your pyramid of doom manages to jumpscare 1 more soul.
GG pyramid guy, gg.
make that 2
Ya, it literally scared the pants off of him XD
@@deanxile bruh how, it was the laziest attempt. It just showed up and did a little dance.
@@Shazoo1997 cuz you didn't expect something like this from 10 year old game
I hope they find out
Believe it or not, but when EQ2 came out, one of it's biggest problems was the system requirements. Back in the day you needed a very good PC to play this comfortably, while WoW could be run on a microwave oven.
Yup One if its key features was having a pc to run it lol. But look at us now. Its basically turned into what wow was years ago, A low end game xD
Between a need for higher end gaming PC to run it with decent gfx, and Sony’s utter refusal to do ANY kind of marketing for the game (beyond /pizza, for those who remember that), Blizzard was able to snag people left and right. They marketed the sh!7 out of WoW, and they built it to run on most everything a step above a TI-83 calculator.
Yep, when they made EQ2 GPUs were still not considered the Primary power source for games and graphics. SOE Hedged their bets on that CPU was going to be what was the power house for Graphics in the futre so they made the game very CPU and Ram needy. Needless to say they lost that bet lol. So having a super powerful GPU was not that much of an advantage at that time.
Yep i struggled to run this on my AMD k6 processor and had to buy an extra stick of ram which barely helped. But playing WoW i struggled as soon as i met my first Rastafarian Troll and ran straight back to EQ2 and SWG which were available for one subscription price through Sony.
@Amadeus Luciiann yup I have been watching is Final Fantasy journey. Plus the violations that blizzard has atm really isn’t gonna make people want to play the game as much lol
imagine if that was your house you made 10 years ago and its on youtube now out of nowhere lol
is it yours ? ;p
Lol!!
U made it?
My house is in the hall of fame but he didn't view it. I still play to this day.
😂
Played this for years. When it first came out it would take ages to hit 50 (the level cap at the time). There was 2 main areas that had brokers, banks, crafting guilds etc etc. The main towns were where you would hang out and meet new people. Qeynos Harbour I do miss that place :P
It used to cost 10 quid a month in subscriptions and you got regular expansions, and new zones.
Then the game introduced guild halls where you could have everything you needed in them without having to bother going to town. The towns died and were empty in a very short time. So new players felt very lonely unless they were lucky enough to join a friendly guild.
Then they decided to make levelling really easy and increased the level cap to 70. This was a huge let down and another blow to the long time fans of the game.
The problem with making it so easy to level was you could have max level healers that didn't know the difference between single target heals, and group heals. Main tanks that didn't know how to keep agro and DPS classes that just couldn't DPS. So they would get yelled at by others and the community began to descend into the elites vs the casuals.
In the early days of the game you could not get past level 20 unless you completed a special solo instance that would test your class. So you had to understand the various attacks you had and use them in a combo to win. Wish every game implemented this.
In short, amazing design for the time, an amazing game that was killed by short sighted business decisions. Decisions that completely ignored the most important aspect of any online game...the ability to make in game friends and some cases... rivals!
EverQuest II holds the strongest nostalgia of any game for me. When the game came out, it was phenomenal. But it's just a shade of what it used to be now. It's player housing really is on another level though. You can build almost anything within the game, it's pretty crazy.
I was on when it came out phenomenal may be a bit of rose colored glasses. The performance was god-awful and still kinda. That engine is complete dog shit. I will agree tho, the class system, the races and questing was all better then wow. But wow would run on a fucking toaster with a DVD player glued on. Better performance lead to.more accessibility. That's why wow won out. I really still wish they'd update the engine. They eventually did it in eq 1, but I don't know if they feel it's worth it here.
@@Ankcientgamer While I agree that with the game being designed to be cpu focused rather than gpu focused (they banked on the wrong technology boom at the time), that doesn't really affect the gameplay, which is what I was talking about. The gameplay was phenomenal and at the time, the graphics were gorgeous. So I don't think I'm using rose colored glasses just because some peoples computers couldn't play it. I had to play this game for years on low graphics settings and I didn't care because of how fun it was.
Every few of years I log in my old characters in EQ2 then do a grand tour of the zones. I bask in the music and the nostalgia, then I promptly log out for a few more years.
I'm kind of sad he didin't touch on the crafting side of EQ2 as well. there's 120 levels of different things you can craft
I hope EG7 implement changes for the better.
Nostalgia trip right here!
Always loved the Heritage Quests and the Soundtrack they made for EQ2
This game and EQ and pretty much all EQ games. Especially, EQOA for PlayStation 2 are
Qeynos spelled backwards of SonyEQ
@@brythkaltaris This has completely blown my mind, how did I play this game for YEARS and never realize this? Good factoid. Also @MixelPlx absolutely the soundtrack was the best and I would do all the heritage quests on all my characters. Remember the Nektolus Castle one where there are hidden notes and passageways?
@@JasonsOkatGames One of the few places left where you have to do an access quest to make it to en last room. First to boarheads, and then the Everling lockets.
@@kjellringstrom6217 You say "few places left"? Did they do away with most access quests? I know they simplified a lot of the game when it went free to play but it's been so long since I've done all those heritage quests. I kind of quit after playing again a year ago to max level because I hated how they did the scaling between expansions.
Only things you didn't really check out was crafting which has a mini game to determine quality and hiring npc mercenary companions.
Honestly I loved EQ2 in the day. It's kinda got a bit of everything. It could really use a bit of combat rework and a fresh coat of paint but I could get back into it
Also the enemy that was talking in symbols is because you didn't speak it's language. Being around and finding different things in the world you can learn languages and the symbols will change to english
It is still really really fun. Lots to do, come re-visit :)
The only thing about reworks, is that devs don't ever seem to be able to not change things that don't need changing along with it. I still play it, and agree a little smoothing out would be great, but I know something else would change that I'd hate. That's why I'm sorta glad it's the same as it's always been. The power creep is awful though. Heal and damage numbers in the millions? I can't even tell when a new piece of equipment is good.
The crafting system was possibly my favorite part of EQ2. Much better than click, craft junk, click, craft junk ad infinitum until you have a high level skill.
I was going to ask, does EQ2 still have the QTE style crafting system? That was what really made it stand out for me; even FFXIV's doesn't compare.
EQ2 will always be my favourite game. Played thousands of hours, wasted years with this. Back then this was so intense, so much social interaction, great feeling of adventure. Such a mature and friendly community as well. Played both WoW and EQ2, and found EQ2 much better.
By the way, you really only scratched the surface, this game has basically everything an MMO could have.
Except players?
@@darrenjones3080 brutal
Loved the game back in 2007 when we used to do raids every weekend. Was on Permafrost server.
@@darrenjones3080 30k is not great but not terrible.
That's basically happens with everything now. The most hyped/advertised shit wins in the end no matter how good the competitors are. Twitch made this even worse. They are paying all these streamers to act jolly and positive when something big gets released. So much of that budget could also go into developing the game even more.
I played so much EQ2 back in the day, one day i just stopped. I check in now and then to make sure my dudes are still there and they are.
What server is that? I thought all were ghost towns
@@houserental5424 he meant dudes as in characters
I wish I could check mine, I dont remember my password and my ex made the security question so they won't let me open the account lol It was super depressing and I think about them from time to time. Screw you SOE!
Fun fact: Heather Graham and Christopher Lee were prominently billed for their voice-acting roles prior to release, and you can still find portions of their dialogue within the game to this day.
My favorite voice acting in the whole game was the girl who introduces The Queynos Claymore. :)
You said to share our stories so (it's actually my Steam review I copy/pasted but it includes lore & legend):
I started playing this game in like 2005. My friend got me into it while I was playing City of Heroes...quit that ♥♥♥♥ and went to EQ2 full-time. It was an absolute and complete mmorpg. There was nothing in the mmorpg genre that games were doing that this one wasn't already. This was originally Sony's baby, and you can definitely tell, for a 2004 game that there was a **** ton of money invested into it.
You could spend hours doing one thing, only to realize your friend is already 2 levels ahead of you and that was like 6 hours of grinding. That's fine though, you just sold all those rares on the broker and made some hefty coin for you and your companion to share the spoils (if you so choose).
Life as a habitual EQ2 Player: Once got into raiding, the competition was very hard, many guilds were extremely exclusive, raided 5-6 days a week. You have to work your way to the top of the scale, joining a mediocre guild that raids casually, then you look for a real raid guild, find out that they're not accepting warlocks at this time so you go to the guild that USED to be top dog but is now diminishing in size after a guild fall-out with drama, so they scoop you right up. Guilds like these had some of the best players in the game, but they just lacked in numbers, and their gear is remnants of old raids but they can still absolutely destroy ♥♥♥♥.
Eventually you acquire second hand loot since all the fossils in your guild have acquired mountains of DKP so there is just no chance you're going to get a shiny item, but you also don't have to spend any DKP on the loot you do get because everyone already has it or better. OK -- The guild has now fallen apart completely and you see that the top server guild is recruiting your class. You apply, you get accepted, you are not a recruit yet because you still have to pass tryouts. They make you run Nizara with like 1 healer and it's an absolute punch in the ****, but say you somehow impress them and they invite you to guild, you're now a recruit for 30 days and if the raid is full, you'll probably be sitting for most of them. That is until you prove your worth though, but the trick is trying to make yourself look good in front of people who have nearly twice the stats as you.
After a while you become an absolute god in the game. AFKing in the middle of the city with your weapon unsheathed to illuminate its wondrous glow. You come back to your computer in the morning with all the people sending you /tells riding your **** asking you "WOW Where is that staff from??!?!??! WHAT YOUR AA SPEC??? whats ur spell rotation????" Now this person is messaging you for advice every 30 minutes that they're online and you're like dude...
"Let me show you."
So you meet him in East Freeport, challenge him to a duel, wait for the count down: 5...4...3 (CASTS RIFT)..2...1... duel starts, this dude is up in the air, gets obliterated for 10k+ damage. The duel was over before it even started. He learns absolutely nothing except that he just got KO'd before even casting a spell.
Eventually you get burned out and maintaining this godlike image for so long makes you feel more mortal than ever, so you retire. And then you spend the next few years logging into your account for 30 minutes every couple of months and just inspecting yourself.
THEN they announce a Time-locked progression server, so you and the friend who got you into the game pack their PCs and link up in one room to take EVERYTHING we have learned and burn through the content as fast as possible and join a raid guild and volunteer as the main tank to lead your guild to a TLE-server first Prismatic disco.
Then you just re-roll a healer and casually enjoy the game all over again, staring off into the cold shadowy remnants of a beautifully dying game.
Also you can craft your own furniture for your house.
I said....
you can craft your own furniture...for your house.
Shout out to everybody on Mistmoore, I love ya'll. Also shout out to Neurology/Yoshiii, Calbiyum, Trumak, Bigron, Krisiun, Lanran, BIG shoutout to Talonis(Warlock) for showing me everything I knew, thank you LFG for providing us a forum to completely unfold our dramatic in-game and IRL issues, thank you Dadugansan...you were a terrible person to talk to but you were a min/max GOD and there isn't a ranger I've seen that did what you do.
Omg. THIS! Shout out to Kith Revelations, Daray, Wocto, (even BigRon had s stint with us) and all the years raiding, world wide first avatar kills. Not only did I have the time of my life, I am still married to Revelations conji, Laih. Without meeting him in game then in real life, my life would have been much less interesting. Game on! Pixi, Templar of Kithicor (then Butcherblock).
Well that was an interesting journey I had read
Reading this I just feel like all the enjoyment I've ever had out of games is a lie and the realization that games will never give me this kind of an experience is crushing my will to play games at all... k, sadness over lets play some games mindlessly and never talk to anybody cause people mostly suck. This comment section was an eye opener no joke though.
@@sindri1447 I feel ya.
Holy shit, I wish I could've been there when this game actually had players, it sounds like it was tons of fun...
EQ2 definitely has my favorite player housing system in any game i've played. I spent SO much time on my house and it was just so cool to have a place like that where I could show off what I've collected. This game also definitely one of the best crafting systems, too. Unfortunately it seems like a really tough game for a new player to get into at this point...
Tough because it lacks a player population? Because it's archaic?
@@Dereliction2 As a generally new player, the answer to both your questions is a solid "no."
From my personal experience, I would say it's actually bloated with systems. I like the fact that it has so many, but it's difficult to figure out and there aren't a lot of indications on how to approach them. Tons of different systems layered on top of one another to the point that you have no idea what you're looking at, honestly. It's not easy to determine where to go and what to do, which is also fine, but definitely requires investment of time on the part of the player. Additionally, wikis and online resources aren't as comprehensive as some more popular MMOs (this isn't to say they're useless, just more difficult to navigate and sometimes lacking).
Paying the sub appears to solve the population issue since most players that actually enjoy the game pay for it and are on the subscription servers.
As for archaic, visuals have never steered me towards a game. It has a charming old school style of gameplay that I also wouldn't consider archaic. The UI is definitely hot garbage and shows its age, but I solved that through a UI mod.
Overall, I really enjoy the game, but I definitely am struggling with figuring out the ins and outs. When the next Time Locked Progression server comes out, I'll probably join a guild and get all the info I need from people there.
@@anogredoctor Thanks, fantastic insight on it. Sounds like it could be amazing for the right player who has lots of time to invest. Undoubtedly that isn't the typical "new player" to the game though.
@@Dereliction2 Glad to help out. And yes, I'm not a typical new player as I have played in the past (for like... 3 days back in 2007) so I kinda knew what I was getting into. Simply put, if you have people to ask questions of and are willing to put the time in AND pay the 15 a month, you'll probably get a lot out of it, because there is a ton of content to it.
EQ II was my very first mmo I invested thousands of hours in, this takes me back.
Oh man, same for me. Played at release until EoF. The Prismatic weapon quest line will forever be one of the most epic things I have ever done in an mmo. And all the contested open world bosses like Venekor and Vaz'Gok. So Memory. Very Nostalgia. Wow.
I never played EQ2 but I did play a lot of EQ. Now there was an unforgiving game compared to today lol
Same here.. back in the 90's Ever quest totally ruled.
Mine was EQ1, started in 1999.
same... o.o
My roommate played this. They showed me the crafting system. When they tempered a sword you had to cycle between different actions, such as heating it, tempering it, and dunking it in water. Certain special actions would appear as well.
You had to be very careful to make the iron stronger without breaking the blade. Looked very involved. Seemed both fun and grind at the same time.
The dynamic crafting system was one of the best parts of the game. In addition, there were many components that needed to be crafted before crafting the final item. The only other games at the time that had such dynamic crafting/gathering systems were Star Wars Galaxies, Saga of Ryzom and A Tale in the Desert (a non-combat game). Then in one patch, they completely dumbed down the crafting in EQ2 by eliminating the subcomponent requirements, probably because there were too many complaints of it being grindy and hard, and I ended up quitting one day after the patch, never to return. It was fun while it lasted though (similar to Star Wars Galaxies in that regard - fun until they ruined it).
@@DocSardo hey there:) i actually come back to EQ2. I was 20 years away and i have to say to you that now im a lv 100 Sage at it makes a lot of fun for me.
20 years ago i try to do some crafting but it was so complicated.
You have now Apprentice and they research for you for rare recepts so in later game you re able to do some rare items at your own.
It makes a lot of fun. I would look at that.
Im Ajirr from Insane Asylum in Antonia Bayle Server
Greetings
@@elbuenomalo Some like it rough others want it easy. Good for you it went your way. Those of us who loved it as it was left.
I remember how excited we EQ players were when this came out. The graphics were cool at the time, but sadly, the game was lacking the magic of the original.
Story of ffxi and ffxiv
@@ronnieriosstayshredded7410 i mean ffxiv is one of the most popular mmos
@Amadeus Luciann how long did you play ffxi
@derp derpin I love XIV and just resubscribed just speaking the truth
I don't agree at all, showing up for raids in a new zone with 24 people was magic. Also the music in EQ2 was incredible.
I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU TO COVER THIS GAME AND THE ORIGINAL EQ FOR NEARLY A DECADE! So excited to watch this. I noticed you were playing EQII from Plink notifications, so it sort of spoiled the surprise, but I'm very happy that you're FINALLY covering this.
that cancelled everquest game with the destructible environment looked sick af im sad it got cancelled
Agreed.
you got canceled?
@@nicolasfaryalha3176 whoops, fixed my error lol
Yeah that's probably why it got cancelled cause it wasn't going to live up to the hype of all the players saying it looked sick af cause those are always the same dudes who cry about the game right away when it doesn't live up to the hype
That was EverQuest Next, looked so promising! : /
EQ2 has more interesting stuff you missed, but that's only natural, it's hidden a bit deeper into the game.
- You can find and do 'lore quests' which let you learn the languages of the creatures you fight. Those speech bubbles early on? They can be translated. Those lore quests also give a unique book which you can place in your house. AFAIK there's a couple hundred of them.
- There's 2 "Alternate Advancement" paths for every class. They basically act as talent trees, however they are vastly more interconnected and interdependant, and much more interesting to engage with than the linear style used by most other games.
- Crafting classes are wholly independant of your combat class. You can be a max level blacksmith as it were, while being a level 1 combat character. Crafting in itself is much more interactive than other games, and even has a minor element of skill involved, as well as its own skill bar.
- Spells and abilities have various levels you can learn, rather than learning just the spell and be done with it.
There also used to be a neutral faction alongside the two main rival factions, and there was a very long and really well done questline where you could 'betray' your faction and jump to the other faction, making a stop along the way at the neutral faction to get the quests done to gain reputation to join your new one. It's one of my abiding memories of the game. Sadly they seem to have removed this some time ago. There's also some inventive quests where you really need to sneak - Not as in, activate a skill and become invisible, but actually stay out of sight and in the dark to get some information you need to finish the quest.
Sadly this is marred by the invasive cash shop and aggressive monetization, which do impact the progression greatly. Bots and other events have also massively affected inflation on the fixed servers, which went so far out of hand that even low level items on this game's auction house cost so much that if you were to grind cash for it on a max level character, you'd still need dozens of hours to buy a starter weapon. Crafting supplies have especially gotten insanely out of hand.
On a technical level the game was also doomed from the getgo, as the engine programmers assumed that CPU's would stay single-core affairs and would reach speeds of 20GHz (yes, 20) by 2010, which they based their ongoing development on of graphical improvements. However, since speeds started to stagnate after 2005 and multicore CPU's made their entry in 2007, the technical side of the game has pretty much stagnated and can never be fixed without a full refactor which would take a lot more time and people than Daybreak is willing to invest.
Still, i have mostly positive memories from the time i played. Even without player housing and dungeons it had a lot of unique aspects which competitors never bothered to copy, even though they were a lot of fun to engage with.
Great review dude, i just want to start playin this game, whats your opinion , its worth to start playin right now ?
You should go back and check out Silkroad Online in its current state that would be a fun nostalgia ride!
What's it like right now? I loved the aesthetic of that game
Oh my talk about nostalgia now. I played silkroad over 10 years ago, likely more
god silkroad, i remember being that 13/14 year old kid looking around online for free to play mmo's, at the time it was silkroad and knight online, i had 0 idea what i was doing but i still had a blast playing both of those.
I have so many memories from silkroad...ahh the days. There are still private servers up. Origin online is one of the more popular ones.
meh... That was one of the many Asia grinders popping up that I tried and uninstalled quickly back then...
After having played DaoC, WoW and Guild Wars (1) for as long as I had, those things were nothing enjoyable...
I actually love the graphics in EQ2. The lighting, shadows, and bump mapping really brings out the world in this game that I still find lacking in modern MMOs.
15:23 best reaction, kudos to the editor for including it
Hahaha! I remember crying over that jumpscare back in the day when i was like 10 lmao
@@victorbergdahl8267 I remember being in a guild mates house to bay a thing from hes salesman crate when i run i to one of those. I typed in guildchat that he owed me new pants. Lots of LOL ensued.
I've played many MMO for 20 years and my favorites memories are playing EQ2. There were something amazing about doing open dungeons with friends, heroic quests line, mythical quests on the pvp server Nagafen. The lore, music and design of zones were interesting, exploring different area felt special (nektropos Castle, Unrest). You could die in EQ2 at low levels. After WOW, all MMO became easy and silly in my opinion. In EQ2, you needed to build a group, you would group with decent players with good attitude. Some content even early on needed a good group synergy, and a proper execution. How to pull, where to position yourself, watching for roaming and keeping in mind respawn timer. Also having a 'secondary tank or main assist' in addition to a regular 'tank' was a thing, and that was pretty important how the game was played.
Used to love this game it was incredible when it came out.
Still is tbh, I am re-visiting at the moment, so much fun. Makes me so sad that WoW "won".
I played it when it came out and kinda remember it to be a buggy unstable game (and very CPU demanding), but still loved it. Though, it never hooked me like the original EQ.
@@Cynosureepr Yeah true. Crossing my fingers for Pantheon, if it ever releases...
@@pupax2000 Same, wow was and is shit in comparison. Eq2 is easily the deepest and most polished mmo thats ever been created.
I have so many good memories playing this game. Preferred it to WoW.
I love the UI in EQ2. Its very very customizable I can understand how for a new person it's definitely not intuitive. You really need to use the customization to make it how you like it. You can also download other peoples UI setups and even totally new UI's.
Hi there:) what do you mean with UI?
Im playing again hehe since 20 years break
This was my first MMO, i played it so much as a kid. It will always have a special place in my heart, even though i havent played it since it went F2P.
Everquest (original) was and always will be the best ever MMO. At the time it dropped, man that game had me immersed. I admit i was massively addicted to it. And still love it. It needs a remake
I was devastated when WoW came out and decimated my Guild
a team of modders are currently porting EQ 1 to unity engine ... the legit game is getting a UI upgrade in april ... and if the unity project is successfull you can bet your ass daybreak will buy it
No game since EQ (original) has given me the same sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. It was awe inspiring when it came out. Played it for 100’s of hours. So did my friends and my mom! Nothing will ever beat the sense of accomplishment as a 10 cleric complete heal circle to keep a tank alive during a raid.
Man I spent years on this at launch Memories So much to the game My favorite was the rogue classes had a tracking ability where they could track monsters as well as players for pvp
You should have started in New Halas if you wanted to see people (good) or Darklight Woods (evil) You can rent a house for 5 silver at level one if you want by heading into the "city" and then going back to the starting area.
Crafting system is unique and very deep. One of the best IMHO.
can you do a revisit of LOTRO? I'm sure many ppl would be interested because the new lord of the rings mmo got cancelled
He did more than one revisit of it, if you're interested tho I want to check it out. We can level together maybe?
@@sherazaadabdulla2694 what server?
@@Destroymaster100 you going eu I still did not play it lol I have it installed tho
@@sherazaadabdulla2694 haha, i decided to play star wars the old republic, downloading and installing right now, its free check it out. MMORPG
@@Destroymaster100 I'm actually going would guild wars. Goodluck with your journey
Since you mentioned it... Oh Wildstar, you did not deserve that fate.
Still my favourite mmo such a shame.
:'(
It is being made again by a small dev team its taking a long time but it might be back some day on a private server.
@@elcapitanortz I was just gonna ask if they have a private server that game was good as hell
It deserved that fate. It bit more than it could chew
I had a grin on my face as he ported to the Pyramid of Doom
I still play EQ2, it's still one of the better games, where skill really makes a difference .. WOW is like the kids version of EQ2... The level of detail in EQ2 is beyond bonkers.. worth spending more time on it
Ah, this brings me back to my dilemna in 2005. EQ, WoW, EQ2, Guild Wars, Lineage II, or City of Heroes. Good times T_T
Or if you were a broke kid, just guild wars :[
that jumpscare tho hahah
Reminds me of my days playing Ultima Online. First on Chesapeake, then came Europe. Working my way up from a humble noob to a 7GM tank mage and being among the Top X Lords on the server (shout out to players like "Kishore", "X Lord X" and others, who inspired me back then). Then I played on private servers like Novus Opiate. I am 37 years old now. I started playing UO when I was 13 and I quit due to life circumstances when I was 23 years old. Never before or after again has a game had that much depth, community feeling and a sense of adventure for me.
City of heroes had a "create your own dungeon" kind of feature. But it certainly was rare (and still is) to see.
dungeons and dragons did this aswell and you also can write your own storys in that dungeons
I think you mean City of Heroes *has* one.
What Shift is trying to say is you can still play CoH through Tequila. It's functioning as it did before the company cancelled it.
One thing you missed was its excellent crafting system. One of the best there is. A lot of that furniture in the player housing was for the most part crafted.
This brings back so many memories. This is to this day my mom's favorite game. I played this a good deal when I was young but I never left the "Tutorial Island". Everytime I did I got overwhelmed and just made a new character that was a different class and did it all over again haha. Good times.
That bar that keeps popping up is the heroic opportunity you have to do the spells that corespond’s with the icon it is showing. It will not always be your turn, but if it is your turn your spells will flash on the ones that need to be cast
I remember playing this game during the Dreaded Tuesday night maintenance shutdowns of WoW during BC. I really liked the unique combat circle that pops in combat where a party can take advantage of another member's attacks. For example a mage attack opens one opportunity attack that one of the warrior or rogue can take advantage of and vice versa. Was very unique for the time!
I remember spending over 5 hours in a dungeon because you could not use the map and it was a literal maze, filled with puzzles and things like that, took place in some haunted castle. At least I got that fishbone earring
Nektropos Castle ;-) I'm surprised there was no map, unless this was when it first came out. There is a map for it.
this actually looks pretty fun, the character options and pacing I mean
You can play WoW Classic for a better artstyle and a bigger playerbase. ... Well, and a monthly fee, but there's a reason why it was the most popular mmo back then.
@@FlameJackstar wow sux, a simple settings will prove how much better eq2 is visually
Halls of fate server has the biggest playerbase. Everyone is super helpful.
@@Alexander-wk4gl nah kaladim is bigger
If you liked classic Might and Magic series you will enjoy Everquest.
1. You need to toggle your auto attack unless you bind it to clicking.
2. You should read quests sometimes speaking to random npcs can give you secrets/hidden quests (newer quests are often voice acted though)
3. Combat does get faster later, but this game REALLY shines lvl 15 in your dungeons and things like that with 4 to 5 friends.
4. I agree the combat animations could use some updates, but really it does get a lot more fun
5. I think their are quite a few redundant abilites so I do think they can be kinda tossed aside.
6. Give this a try streaming sometime with a bunch of new players in zones and things like that. Late game truly is amazing.
I played EQ2 back in the golden years (Vanilla - Sentinel's Fate). By far the BEST community of an MMO I've ever experienced. FF14 isn't far off though. What I loved about EQ2 was the in depth crafting, complex and comprehensive player housing and (at the time) fantastic class mechanics. Minus good PVP, EQ2 had pretty much everything you could ever ask for. Shout out to any players from old school Oasis or Najena servers.
This was the game my dad and I bonded over. I will always have fond memories of him power leveling me when I was a kid, and using the game as a way to teach me how to read (Because I was a -very- late bloomer with reading.) I loved just about every aspect of this game, but I feel that I'm bias because of those memories.
Qeynosians suck
This post was made by the Freeportian gang
I had the exact same experience. I remember my dad teaching me the game in 2010, I am 18 now and I still play to this day.
thinking of picking this up as a family in 2021, i played eq1 but i think its too old. i got kids 6, 10, and myself. what do you think worth a shot? got them all laptops for Christmas want to do family gaming MMO style
I remember when this came out. The tech was just too advanced for most rigs at the time. It was a weird situation where it was actually too good for it’s own good.
WoW was not the better game, but even cheap rigs could run WoW smoothly. That’s why WoW won the battle.
That and the massive advertising campaign.
I remember this.
WoW won the battle because the battle in the game feels good, always have.
@@doushi7006 We're all entitled to our opinion.
I felt EQ2 was the better game at release. It was just too taxing on the average rig at the time.
@@tizodd6 you are right, you are entitled to that opinion.
Exactly. You only scratched the surface. I spent 7 years in this game, nothing compares, no matter how streamlined. I had my house in Qeynos; with a beautiful courtyard. What happened was that the game got too easy to play, trying to be WoW, which really destroyed the game. And the music in EQ was amazing, as was the mounts - I had over 20 in the end. I just loved this game.
I started playing probably a week ago and a few things I noticed about your impressions,
-I do feel the need to mention (i did it too at first) that you can just left click to interact with everything lol
-Idk what server you were playing on but yeah right now they started a PvP server the day before so quite a few are doing that atm, but there really is only like the 2 or 3 servers that have a bigger population, and then the progressive server that is progression content wise. (also I am pretty sure steam doesn't track non steam EQ2 players still, since quite a few of the people I have talked to use daybreaks download instead of steams)
-The UI is pretty bland I wont lie, but but everything is pretty straight forward and is a bit of customization (some mods out there too)
-no borderless window really does suck, though I found a mod/download that basically forces it
-yeah graphics aren't the best thought it doesn't really bug me since I was big into SWG too (terrain and such always be bad but players look good :P lol), same with combat (though its hardly outdated, just doesn't look smooth/polished like modern mmos)
Things I found enjoyable so far are
-the Mentor system (decrease level at any point so you can level with a lowbie or kill rares to get the drops to basically crush for materials, etc etc)
-Housing, its just great, so much you can do and add (closest I will ever get back to SWG)
-Combat, yeah its not the prettiest, but it really reminds me of a less polished FF14, idk I am Brigand and had plenty of buttons by 10 alone lol
-Talent trees, for everything pretty much, racials, class "alternate advancement" ones that gives 350 points (by the end) to use across 5 tabs of talents (1-2 point talents normally), then a prestige page with 2 more tabs for combat, tradeskills have 1 tab but then you also have the prestige tradeskill talents with 2 tabs of stuff. Things most games anymore are too lazy to do.
-collections, just nice to have
-mercenaries, whether you want to have help while questing or doing dungeons (specially lower level), these followers can be great
-Tradeskills, pretty involving, different quality matts can produce better items (bags more slots etc), and depending on other things you can create more basic versions of items or have better quality items like handcrafted > mastercrafted > MC fabled > MC legendary for example. and of course has its own leveling
-Players, the people are just friendly (least with me), finding a guild wasn't too hard as one of the members was in the zone leveling and chatted with me a bit, mentoring makes things great since they are able to get down to your level and just do stuff with you, and they are just excited to see newer players.
-Housing, but for guilds, so even bigger and better, hard to really convey but the guild I am in its massive, and has so many handy things in it whether buffs, crafting areas, teleporters to the world, vendors, bank access, etc its really cool.
haven't messed with dungeons or raids yet since I am still leveling since I never played eq2 before really since I was so entrenched in SWG or WoW after that, but I am rather enjoying my time so far, whether I stay with it longer term we shall see, but I am having a good time.
I finally found a game that let's me play the pepe meme.
I miss EQ so much, My first MMO was UO but then My father got me into EQ with his old D&D group from when he was in school, so of my most favorite memories were in EQ 1. I wish there was more of a population for EQ2. Hopefully Pantheon brings back that Nostalgia if it ever releases haha
The nostalgia! I almost remember the whole map of Antonica, the leveling zone for 10-20, i was roaming those lands for months just exploring and farming resourses not caring about leveling up just having fun at the age of like 10 xD
Eh, you know about project 1999? It's literally like going back to Everquest AS YOU REMEMBER IT - people and ALL. It's literally just as awesome as it was in 1999, no joke. It's high pop, too. Like, there's a fkton of people playing, and it's awesome. The druids and wizards have created a Taxi guild, 24/7 ports for a plat or two (or free if you're new). I enjoy it more than WoW.
@@ObscuredByTime Shout out fellow p99'er
@@koalanectar9382 I confess I don't actually play anymore because it was taking over my life ala 1999, lol.
The froglok were actually not available at the launch of the game. A guild had to successfully complete the raid dungeon called Spirits of the Lost in order to unlock the froglok race for everybody on their server. So some servers people were able to play as frogloks before other servers.
That’s actually a really interesting idea.
You would be amazed how many dungeon groups etc there are at the higher levels...it is actually rather populated.
I played EQ, DAoC, WoW, LotRO, EQ2, and other MMOGs, and I still like EQ2 the best after 21 years of playing. There are newer, fancier games but none of them have the depth of EQ2. The game does have its drawbacks but so far no other game has been able to win me away from EQ2 and heaven knows I've wanted a game to do that when things got wonky with EQ2, which is fairly often. Server stability is the major issue. For example, yesterday the game was down for about 6 hours due to some glitch. I have about 7 MMOGs ready to play, on my computer, and all I could do was keep checking to see if my server was back up. I could have played LotRO (I have 2 lifetime memberships), FFXIV, ESO, GW2, etc., but all I could focus on was EQ2 because my characters on EQ2 are like family whereas my characters, on other games, are just that--characters. For those of us who love to craft and decorate, our characters take on personalities through their building and decorating. Our adventuring is all about finding new materials, recipes, house items, and crafting achievements. But those who like fighting have ample ways to slay and hack through 120 levels. There are quests, agnostic dungeons, solo dungeons, heroic dungeons, fabled dungeons, raid zones, and more to keep a player busy. And EQ2 has an in-depth lore to go with the quests for both adventurers and crafters. It literally has something for every type of play style which is why it has players from youngsters all the way up to elder seniors.
Peon should do a EQ Project99 Review.
I have so many memories of play EQ2.. World first Mutagenic outcast was the highlight of my gaming career. Thousands of hours of fun. i wish i could capture that feeling again :(
You must have been in NPU because we got US first MO in Saints of Norrath.
There is an old school MMORPG called Silkroad it came at the time of WoW too i remember playing because i couldn't afford paying for WoW back then.
Maybe try it it got some ideas that I still couldn't find it today in any MMO.
omg jeeeez.... silkroad... ew
ideas like having to bot 24/7 to reach lvl cap in months time :>?
I never grinded more in a game than in Silkroad. Damn.
@@LovelyAngel1337 Yea i know this shit too but I remember when no one got a bot in this game in 2004-2006 or 2007 good times.
@@LovelyAngel1337 I remember trading and Hoping no thieves around or asking Hunters to defend me and talk all the way long from cities etc and this was social interaction at its best which 99% of MMOs now don't have , and I would pay anything to have these interaction again, like finding the secret passage from Hotan to smk was one of the best things that happened for me and my friends while we were running from real Thieves not Npc ofc.
I played this a bit at launch & at the time the graphics were INSAAAAANE.
I remember you could open up a store but in order for players to buy things you had to stay logged in, so I'd keep my character logged in all night while I slept & every time someone bought something from me, it would play that bag of coins sound effect. It'd wake me up but it was exciting to know I was selling stuff lol. Fun times.
Seeing this pop up gave me flashbacks of group debt. I still have PTSD.
Ever since I saw Overlord I've wanted the system they have in that fictional game. Guild halls that are basically dungeons guilds themselves arm with traps and monsters/NPCs they have tamed, hired or created. The pyramid reminded me of that.
Check out Peria Chronicles if it ever releases
EQ2 has guild halls too, they are huge. I remember the day they were introduced, just over 10 years ago. Everyone was hyped, and some of the PVP guilds quickly realised that you could enter the enemies guild halls, which was a bug and something you weren't supposed to be able to do. It was carnage until they hotfixed it lol.
Great game when it came out, when everybody was new and all exploring, there was so many people back then. Really great quests from solo to raids. There were people who only decorated houses in the game and had no adventure experience at all. I made life long friends through this game. No game has captured me the same as this did back in the day. I'm still a paying supporter and log in every few months to check on the guild I am leader of. Hardly anyone is ever on and there are not too many servers left. The Time locked servers was a good idea to bring people back but just like in the later years of EQ2, people raced to get to the end and then went silent until the next planned expansion release. You cant beat the excitement of of its first 3-4 years but I'm still looking
My friend's step dad became my friend's step dad because of EverQuest. That's how he met my friend's mom. Lol
They banked on the EQ1 fan base following it over to the Newer shiny EQ2. Many of us did check it out on launch day but quickly many of us missed our old EQ1 characters and adventures and went back after 2-3 months or switched to WoW.
EQ2 has a massive list of unique things compared to other mmos. Although its important to mention you make the combat seem really slow when in reality its super fast and often considered over complex for some people. You also have your personal torch on which is a button that lights up the immediate vicinity. Really horrible on the eyes if you arent in a very dark place
Back when EQ2 launched they had a pretty awesome quest line system built in with each class. You would start out as a castaway on an island after being ship wrecked, and you would do a quest line to level 10. At which point you would leave to your main city and do a class specific quest that would let you try out each subclass, like Ranger for the scouts. You would then decide what you wanted to be and at level 20 you would do another class specific quest that would let you pick the final version of your subclass.
It was fun and added some immersion to your character, you could even do a long quest line to betray your faction to join the opposing faction. They removed it after WoW got popular because WoW didn't have it so that must of been the reason why people didn't like EQ2, right?
The starter ship/island and the betrayal quests both still exist in EQ2 to this day.
It was removed for some time but they did put it back.
"Brig- Brig-and. I've never been able to read this word."
The feels...
Best game I’ve ever played. Combat is amazing for tab target, and the skill ceiling is huge. Great vibe, great playing, and I’ve never felt overly forced into a grind. Spent most time on open world dungeons and instances.
Always played as the froglock when this game was new. Still use the minis from some Everquest expansion packs in our D&D games sometimes.
Froglok was an expansion race
Honestly, maybe 1% of EQ2 players use the default UI. A website called EQ2Interface.com has had countless custom UI's to choose from since the game's launch, some of which are still constantly updated and supported as new features are created in the game. It also offers maps that players themselves have created and tweaked that is fully compatible with the game itself. Because of this, there was never really a need for EQ2 dev's to rework the standard UI, because everyone really downloads and uses their own custom UI based on their needs (crafters, raiders, etc). Also, you probably did not see any players just because you were in old zones, which are also massive in size. Enter any zone and hit / and you can see how many players are in that zone. You can also type /who all 100 and it will show every player in every zone who is level 100. or /who all barbarian and it will show every player in every zone who is a barbarian.
The graphics are a bit dated (though they look much better than this, I think he had it on lowest settings), but I am having so much fun in EQ2, that I don't even notice. It is the best mmo I've ever played, and I've played most. The mechanics, the quests, the insane amount of fun content, the crafting. It has much more character development and fine tuning and dept than WoW, the dungeons are not just brainless kill, but has fun puzzles etc. The raids are really great. Give it a try peeps, you might love it!
PS. He missed many huge features, one being Alternate Advancement. It's a huge system that you put points into, improving your char's defensives, offensives, craft and harvest. I wish he would have given it more time, he only played the first 5 levels, it really tells you nothing about any game.
I completely agree with you, wow just didn’t do anything for me.
I recently started playing EQ2 after I finally gave up on WoW. It's a lot of fun. I have a hafling Bard singing me buffs as I do quests. I have a house in a city and my guild has a guild hall. Getting through the auction house, your spells, action bars and crafting recipes is the biggest drawback imo. The amount of spells thrust on me as I leveled was crazy as well. Someone messaged me on my 4th day playing out of the blue and asked if I wanted to do something. I told them I was new and they ran me through a dungeon and power leveled me then gave me armor and weapons. The reason was they liked the guild I had joined. I never experienced that amount of generosity in WoW from a total stranger before. I feel like there's something to a game that has people like that.
EQ2 also has guild halls that can be decorated like player-housing if not more-so. The Alternate Advancement skill trees are something like WoW classic's meets Path of Exile imo. And I can't be certain but it does not seem to me like TheLazyPeon spent a lot of time moving or resizing his UI windows. I think that EQ2's current UI is much more flexible and optimizable than today's WoW. The game still has its downsides, it's old. If a large MMO loving community was to find itself on EQ2 for the first time I think they would find themselves having a lot of fun. Its a very deep game mechanically and I would love to see what people would create chasing the metas. If you find yourself on EQ2 for the first time I think the best thing to do would be to seek out a friendly guild to learn from. Politeness and manners seem to go far in the community too, were talking about an older generation of players afterall. I would love to see the geniuses of the WoW community have fun with this game, but it would be such a shame to see some of the toxicity come with it to a pristine world and culture.
Back in the day, EQ2 raids were really epic! In it's hay day, it was far better than WOW ever was!
EQ and EQ2 raids have always been better than those of WoW. WoW in general is aimed at the ADHD, gotta have it ALL NOW, and with as little effort as possible crowd. EQ2 raids were 24 players. EQ1 raids were 72! AND we didnt have voice chat for those raids either. People showed up knowing their job for the raid, and what to do/expect for that raid. WoW, they had voice chat and only need to roll face across the keyboard once, and they all walk away winners. That was WoWs draw: easy dopamine fix.
I played everquest2 for a couple month a couple years ago and the server I was on was fairly populated. I know the progression based server has a pretty good population. Though the original everquest will always be my go to MMORPG. Was great to see you do a first impression of everquest2
I played eq for years, miss playing my bad ass druid kiting 100 mobs
This game was amazing back in the day. So much content, Heirloom quests were an absolute blast and would take days to complete, the mix of open world-dungeons and instances dungeons was awesome and don't forget the collection quests.
I really do think the formula of EQ2 is almost perfect. I wish either more people played it or a dev company was brave enough to tackle making a spiritual successor to EQ2.
@@sillyredsheep2421 graphically the game is now an eyesore, but the amount of fulfilling content in that game is unreal. So many cool quests .
@@LilSeizures graphically it was awesome in 2004. It did age terribly though.
@@gobzdzilla I remember being amazed at the graphics playing the beta on my dad's computer. Going from EQ to EQ2 was such a big leap. Trolls still look just as ugly as they did back then though haha.
@@LilSeizures hahah, trolls are timeless ugly, yeah.
i came here after learning that this was the game the the creator of log horizon played and got inspired from
I remember when Everquest Next was announced, that would be the best MMO ever... but then, it got cancelled, it was very sad...
one of the features I liked about EQ2 was the mentoring system. In it a higher level player can mentor a lower level player by switching down to that lower level. The higher level player would have all of the skills and spells he or she had at the higher level but he or she would utilize them at the lower level, even if the ability or spell did not exist at the lower level. Another great feature of the mentoring feature was the enhanced speed of gaining experience points for both players.
After playing EQ2 for years I tried Wow, it felt so shallow in comparison. The symbols above their heads are languages you have to learn via quests to understand. The crafting system is brilliant, WoW barely had any crafting and hardly any MMOs since have had anything even close. The raid dungeons were brilliant I spent countless evening with my guildies crawling through them with my favourites being deathtoll, labs of Lord Vyemm and Veeshan's peak
bro keep coping, there's a reason wow was successful while eq2 flopped hard :D
EQ2 was so much better than WoW at launch IMO... I spent a ton of time in EQ1 and switched to EQ2 at launch. Tried to get into WoW but it just couldn't catch me like EQ2 did.
The main reason it didn't do as well as WoW was primarily the system requires. This game needed a VERY good system back in the day and WoW basically was able to run on the same systems that were already playing EQ1, so WoW had to be the answer unless you could afford the hardware. By time the system requirements weren't an issue, WoW already has it's grip and huge news stories about it's massive player base... EQ2 never had a chance at catching up.
As for the UI I disagree here, it's insanely customizable and very good, but likely you would have needed more time with that game to figure that out. You also missed out on the incredibly robust crafting system in EQ2.
Thanks for the review my friend!
The guys who made this are now working on Ashes of Creation.
A few are. Intrepid hired from all over.
Only a handful, most of the studio has absolutely nothing to do with this game.
I thought they are doing Pantheon. I mean we're probably both right.
@@gobzdzilla Neither of you is.
A few devs (and I do mean A FEW) that worked on EQ2 are also involved in AoC. The vast majority of the team did not.
Pantheon was started by Brian McQuaid of EQ1 fame, who had nothing to do with the second game.
Long time EQ2 veteran here with just some added notes, DarqUI and ProfitUI add ons are available to change the UI to something better or more comfortable. Additionally, there is also an add on available for the borderless but new players won't know this of course. The big problem with this game since around 2010 or level 100 has been population so was not surprised that was a listed con. The gameplay from level 100 and below is significantly different than the gameplay from 100 and above and EQ2 kind of loses its touch with players at this point. I think this has something to do with the transfer from SOE to Daybreak Games possibly along with massive stat bloats rendering lower level content trivial but who really knows. Glad you checked it out though! Hope they bring it back to the way it use to be or come out with an EQ3 of some sort with similar experiences.
Asherons Call was my favorite MMO ever, and it can out around this time
I loved that game.
Asheron's Call was my first MMO, and I still think of it as the Gold Standard that no other MMO has managed to live up to.
That was the pinnacle of Sandbox MMO in my opinion, and I still dream of someone making a modern version of it.
Oh, that's a name I haven't heard in a while. That was a fun game.
I know Turbine had a server up for this until just a few years ago. Did it ever resurface, somehow, again?
@@Dereliction2 Yes it did resurface kinda, with the rise of private servers.
Funny - a small EQ UA-camr I watch started playing EQ2, and I joined up with him to play the game again. Most fun I've had on an MMO in a while. EQ2 was hit and miss, and it was pretty awful when it came out; but, it really hit its stride around the Echoes of Faydwer expansion and had like 3 or 4 solid expacs in a row.
EDIT: Yes, EQ2 still has the best player housing in the industry. There's a huge amount of variety of sizes and plots, and guild halls are just as customizable. As far as the combat, it's a lot more fluid once you understand how it works.
8:35 That balloon above their heads is them speaking in their language. You can learn different languages. Not really useful, but neat for flavor if you're a lore nerd like me.
And you can only pick up certain quests if you speak the questgivers language. Very cool imo.
So nice to see my favorite game of all time get featured. EQ2 was an MMO player's dream when it released. High fantasy, open world, so many things to do. It was easy to get sucked in. Its peak was 2006/2007 with KoS, EoF and RoK - three expansions released in 20 months. After that it began a slow descent - a low population forced staffing cuts, which forced design cuts and creep toward pay to win. New concepts would just be layered in over old ones until you felt like you needed an engineering degree to figure out character development. You mentioned the 15 million damage that your character was doing as a Free-to-play level 100 toon. In the current expansion, end game players are doing probably 100,000x that amount (and no that is not a typo).
Your video touched on some of the high water marks of the game. The starter zone you were in would take you through a series of quests and zones that feel tight and well-paced. Those paintings are of places in game - for example Baubleshire - that you would have eventually gone to. Lots of overland quests and dungeons to crawl through too. The player housing was always a fun distraction and as you saw it can really bring out the creativity in some players. Obviously you didn't stick around to see raiding but EQ2 raiding was always top notch too.
I had two separate stints as a pretty hardcore player, from launch until 2010 and then again from 2016-2020. I saw the declining game but still loved it anyway - and especially the community. Blood of Luclin, which is the expansion before the current one, was so awful that I had to walk away at that point. The game is .. not dead, but headed toward life support. Modern expansions are just bare-boned quest lines followed by content which is gated by time or items. Character development is heavily dependent on RNG, and many of the most powerful items must be bought, either as a claimable reward for purchasing the $140 'Premium' version of the expansion or by straight up buying loot boxes. The game is kept afloat largely by a small community of whales who spend gobs of money to advance their characters. Pick-up grouping is dead and you correctly noticed that no one plays at the lower levels. You may not have seen another adventurer outside a city until you hit the current expansion. Even the whales are drying up, it seems - the raider's progress website shows far less activity in this expansion than prior ones.
what a timeless classic
It's really hard to judge this game based on just logging in now and playing for a few minutes. I spent years and years in this game and absolutely loved it.. the community was great there was endless content and play styles it was a casual players dream so many things you could do solo but also fun to play with others, but also you could go hardcore if you wanted. Yeah it's janky sometimes and had soo many features and zones that some of them just didn't work and others were great. I spent like a year collecting as many of the in game books as I could you make a library in my player house and still never got them all. Player housing was unmatched by any other MMO.
*Some old games still exist and they shouldn't. Other old games don't exist anymore but they should. Sad is life.*
So basically somethings are things and somethings aren't things in life.
Deep af
@@torchlight3173 you misunderstood me. I played EQ2 for about two years back in the day, but it shouldn't be running anymore, it's a dead game and it's sad to see it in its current form.
Kind of like how Rothbardianism is still around today, but really should have died out back in the 90s.
:P
I played EQ II for thousands of hours. The game had the best and most complicated crafting process and was so much fun. There have been a few other MMOs with great crafting, but unfortunetely they are very few. I hope you enjoy life in Thailand - I live there too.
I really enjoyed my time playing it for a couple months.
Played this sooooo much back In the day... PvP was so broken and awesome! Mastered out Swashbuckler conj monk warden and ranger just rolling around as an overseer gank squad.. good old days.. haven't played an MMO since that has captured my attention as much as EQ did.
I hope they do more stuff with the Everquest IP.
when this came out, it looked CRAZY! no computer was able to run it near max...
"no mmorpg has allowed me to be a frog humanoid"(coughs in aura kingdom a few years back where you could be a frog humanoid)
aura kingdom is 2014 but this game is 2004
@@gamingch4538 all i was saying is that he did play a game where u could be a frog humanoid when he said he didnt lol, who cares about dates
Not actually Aura Kingdom, but Eden Eternal that had the frog race
Starting this game in 2023! pretty excited actually. Played ffxi and osrs so old school feeling games aren't new to me
Yes! You finally did it! Thanks Peon!
Sadly he'd done such a poor job, respect for doing it though!
Both EQ2 and Runes of Magic had some pretty solid ideas that made them fun to play. They just came out so long ago that they are extremely outdated when it comes to combat, graphics et cetera. I'd love to see an EQ3 or Runes of Magic 2. A modern interpretation of these games would be fun to play.
I think the only game that could kill WoW if done right is an EeverQuest 3
They tried with EQ Next, but gave up. Sony then sold off the rights to all their MMOs, so the chances of seeing an EQ3 are almost nil.
It looks like FF XIV may kill WoW, if blizzard keeps going the same direction it has been.
@@xalderin3838 Yes we all seeing it happening with all big streamers going for FFXIV, and I think the next ffxiv expansion is the last shot to kill WoW?
@@babli44 I wouldn't say last shot. There's plenty of new mmorpgs coming out. And previous ones had the potential to do it. The only thing we need for one of the potentials to kill WoW, is for the Devs to not screw up. Which tends to happen one way or another, eventually. For example, SOLO has great potential. Unfortunately, it's going to depend on what the Devs do to it, and if they turn it p2w.
Aside from that, FF XIV will definitely have more expansions in the future. They have Plenty of races and classes they can add.
Though, tbh, once VR takes control of MMORPGs, non VR MMOs won't be able to compare or compete very well. But we still have 5-10 years for that. Maybe 15? XD
@@xalderin3838 True! I started playing SOLO yesterday, already max level. Actually its fun!
PVP in EQ2 was amazing, one of the best MMOs for PVP. So glad to see there's s new TLE PVP server being released in a week or two. For anyone down to experience true open-world group-orientated PvP you should definitely check out the new Tarinax server.
I'm a 17 year vet, and seeing this makes me laugh a bit Lol xD
@Amadeus Luciiann Nope, this is where met my fiance, and me and her still play to this day!
You can play in borderless windowed mode. Google "eq2 make full screen" and get the make full screen program from eq2inteface. Then start eq2 and make It windowed and double click the title bar to make it "full screen". The run the make full green program and choose the Everquest 2 executable from the running applications list. Boom. Full screen in windowed. You generally only have to do this once but if it ever stops doing it just repeat the process.
Also the lighting and shadows part of the graphics engine weren't great and don't scam with new graphics capabilities. Set shadows to medium and tone down some lighting options and it won't look so crazy in some areas and will run better.