I've decided i'm going to post my impressions of Everquest 2.

I noticed that it was on the cheap recently (including all expansions/content which i have to admit is impressive. or sad.) and decided to just 'what the hell' and buy it outright without trying any trial.

before i had even gotten into the game i was already annoyed/frustrated with the utterly abysmal launcher/downloader. i am on a pretty fast connection and im a tech head so my computer is always clean as hell inside and out and my connection speeds are always pewpew but this downloader program had taken me about a good 2 days to download very little.

i then realised that seeing as the downloader was the single only way to get patches, i had no way to back them up either. i now have to backup my entire EQ2 directory (thats near 10g) just so i dont have to go through that again.

and this all before i had even logged into the game once.

once into the game i had to create my character. altho i was initially impressed by the options available, i quickly realised that no matter how i tweaked the various options my character still looked like rubbish. like some sort of barbie and ken doll.

i ran through all the quests on the trial/newbie island which was good and they generally always clearly directed you to where you need to go. they then sent me to my main city. and once there.. nothing?

no quests directing me to the nearest n00b zone. not even a fed-ex quests showing me where various things are. i found myself an inn after wandering around like a lost kid looking for his parents. and still now, i have spent 95% of my time in the game running around the city.. not even sure where to go or what to do.

i also couldnt help but notice how 'clunky' everything feels. just animations and combat mostly. very rarely do you see a direct HIT as such, its just two people swinging at each other not actually connecting and occasionaly you will see numbers float above them to give you some indication they are indeed in combat.

crafting was.. interesting. and by interesting i mean i had no idea what the hell was going on. i had my crafting tab open, i was making something but i had bars and buttons and all sorts of rubbish.

and lastly, it was incredibly incredibly lonely. so far after a few days play i have seen 2 people. tops. i can see that maybe everyone is in other citys/areas? but i aint paying a sub to run around by myself.

i understand that EQ2 has a lot of depth; my problem is that things that have depth need to have decent tutorials and hand holding to get you used to the whole thing. the ocean has a lot of depth but you just dont dive in and swim to the button, you fucking learn to fear and respect that deep dark blue.

so yes, after all this im not sure i will go back to EQ2. unless someone reads this and can tell me about some good bits i may have missed? and if anyone does actually read all this - you deserve a medal.