Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: EverQuest Online Adventures

Written by Matt Partington on April 02, 2003

Full Review: Abra-Cadabra! Watch your social life magically disappear!

I honestly never played too much of the original EverQuest on PC. I figured any game dubbed as EverCrack with hundreds of thousands compulsive players across the nation was a little too ambitious for my tastes. When I heard about EverQuest Online Adventures being released on the PlayStation 2, it really didn't interest me whatsoever. Now that I've donated nearly one hundred hours of my life to EQOA, I've found it as one of the most absolutely engaging, deep, and enjoyable experiences on the console. I never knew what I was missing.

As you may know, EQOA is a massive multiplayer online RPG with a constant, never-stalling world. Despite the game being an RPG, there's no story in EQOA; at least not much of one. EQOA is set roughly 500 years before the events of EverQuest, when the city of Freeport was just established and flourishing. Small narratives will take place throughout the experience, such as small towns getting taken over by other races and such. Popular non-playable characters (NPCs) will become missing, important items will be stolen, but truly nothing drastic. Regardless, the world of Tunaria is always evolving (this is the foremost reason you pay $9.99 a month to play the game). Even though it's subtle, SCEA does a great job of making additions to the gameplay such as extra enemies, added quests, and improving the overall experience. The client updates, which Sony Online Entertainment releases periodically, try to take all the major flaws of the game and fix them or make additions in order to provide an even better experience for their gamers.

The driving force behind the gameplay is competition; trying to reach the top level before others do. This will be done by grouping with friends and ravaging foes as well as completing quests. Leveling up (or УdingingФ) is no easy task; in fact it will take well over six hours to reach a new level when you're at the 20 or so mark (level 50 is the highest possible). Prior to level 25 you'll see an abundance of quests, but after that they aren't very common and when they do come up, they're anything but easy. The competition in EQOA is fierce, and each and every player is matched against each other when it comes to being the best one around.

There's 9 different races you can play as, which will decide your appearance and where your character will reside. You also can choose from 14 classes. Different classes have individual abilities and talents. Clerics for instance are healers, while shadowknights and warriors are УtanksФ (no healing powers, just heavy attacks). Wizards are magic casters, and there's also classes that are solid hybrid of all such as druids. Depending on what kind of role you want to play in a group will decide what class you'll prefer, but the options are limitless and each class is unique in their own special ways. Unfortunately, there's a major lack in individual character customization. You get a choice of six faces, five hair colors, four lengths; that's about it. Most of the time you'll be covered in armor anyhow, but it would've been nice to have some more options in terms of external looks.

What really separates EQOA from other MMORPGs is the huge role of communication. If you want to last a second in the game, you'll need to talk to people in order for them to assist you in various efforts. The EQOA community is a very friendly place, whether you be joining a new guild, meeting fresh faces or having someone aid you in finishing a task. To appreciate the game to its fullest, you'll have to talk to people, and if you don't then you're asking for a bore-fest. It's one of the most crucial elements in enjoying Online Adventures.

Leveling up is based off a simple experience points system. When you fill all five segments of your yellow XP bar, you reach a new level. Representing each yellow segment is a pink bar bellow the yellow one. A single quest may very well put you up another level, but like mentioned before, they're rare. Most of the time when you're in search of XP you'll be grouping together with people and fighting creatures while slowly but surely gaining XP. There's an unlimited amount of tactics you could use while hunting, but there's several ones that are obviously better than others (this usually involves picking the right classes to join in on your venture). While this might not seem important, it actually is for it might help make leveling up take an hour or so less if you are picky on who you choose to help you.

EQOA is played in both a first and third-person perspective, which is switched by pressing the select button. No matter which view you play in, you're going to experience some camera troubles here and there. The problem with first-person is that you turn far too slowly; I can't see why it'd be too difficult to make an option to decide how sensitive you want your character to look from side to side. First-person is also not very fun while in combat, as the swinging attack motion is cut out while in that perspective. Third-person really is only enjoyable when you're in the midst of fighting, since you can see the swinging motion. There will also be troubles with the camera movement in third-person while on hills, as it wants to swing to the right or left while you struggle to keep it straight. What do you do while fighting on a hill? Well, you can figure that one out for yourself.

In one word, the universe of Tunaria is huge. It would literally take days to travel to all the corners of Norrath. There's no in-game map, but the entire world is set into zones (territories). There's roughly 323 square miles of land to cover in EQOA. A zone can take anywhere from ten minutes to thirty minutes to travel across, and within very few territories are major cities. The largest towns are usually the home to a race, sometimes a specific class of a race. These specific towns or areas will have ledgers to sign. Ledgers are one of the most significant parts of traveling, as it prevents you from having to always walk to one place or another more than once. Instead, you talk to the coachman, sign their ledger, and you can coach to that particular village from other nearby ledger towns with only a short wait.

The environments in EQOA vary drastically depending on where you are. Halas is home to barbarians, set in the glacial tundra; Freeport is home to eastern humans in the middle of the desert. There's a massive difference between the sunny skies of the elf town Tethelin and the murky overcast of the dark elves home, Neriak. All of the 130 plus zones vary in their own unique ways from the people, to the ambiance and setting. This alone makes traveling alone or in a group interesting. You'd think that something so repetitive and simple would get tedious within a few hours Ц but that's not always the case. Finding new places and coaches is an accomplishment on its own merits, it's just as momentous as finishing a quest or hitting a new level.

Factions play a big role in EQOA in terms of traveling. Each race has certain places and areas that, if they wind up getting found in, will be killed on the spot by guards. This prevents you from reaching certain towns in order to show political status of certain races. Very few races can get into the dark elf city of Neriak; trolls and humans are the two major exceptions. On the flip side, dark elves can't enter any elf establishments nor most villages aside from neutral towns. This isn't permanent though Ц if you can't get into a particular place, you simply have to raise your faction with that area. You can do this by killing certain creatures or doing quests. (For example, if you kill gnolls, your Qeynos faction will become higher.) Although often it's so low initially that there's no hope of getting in.

At first glance, EQOA is anything but good looking. Lots of lines, flat textures, blocky models: it has it all. To be perfectly logical, this is a trade-off. You simply can't have a visual masterpiece while playing on a server with 5,000 other people. Yet what EQOA lacks technically, it does somewhat make up for with its art design. Like mentioned before, each place you visit is different than the next. From the forests to the deserts and swamps, it creates an awe-inspiring atmosphere that's both enjoyable and interesting. You'll begin to fall in love with some of the settings (one of my personal favorites is the hidden village of Chiasta), and forget all the shortcomings.

Regardless of how great the art design and architecture are, the game still does have major visual flaws. One of the biggest problems is when you look far into the distance, the background will somewhat fade out, then come back, then disappear again. Not till you get fairly close do objects such as towers or mountains begin to show texture and dimension. Many, not all, textures in the game are a bit too repetitive and flat. You could go on and on about the graphical issues in EQOA, but in the end they're all just a consequence of being able to play with thousands of other people at any given time (with no mandatory load times to boot).

Unfortunately, EQOA lacks any music aside from the track heard on the opening credits. Once again, the MMORPG structure of the game prevents it from having particular features such as music. EQOA has sound effects out the wazoo. I wouldn't go as far as calling them stellar, but they are plenty sufficient for the experience (as you probably won't be spending much time thinking about the sound effects anyhow).

EverQuest Online Adventures has an unprecedented depth and replay value that is far more extravagant than anything else on any current console. EQOA relies on the same things for replay value that most RPGs do: hidden items, leveling up, side quests, and so forth. Except Sony Online Entertainment has brought it to a totally new degree in terms of magnitude. It takes around 600 to 800 hours to reach the top level in the game, 50. Add 100 plus hidden spells, 100 plus hidden and rare items, new worlds to explore, and the ability to create more than ten totally unique character on each server and you've got one hell of an adventure in store for you. Not only that, but Sony is constantly adding new enemies and quests for your benefit -- EQOA gamers are a real lucky bunch. Not only that, but soon SOE will be opening the Great Unknown Ц a massive new piece of land that's currently closed off while under construction (it's essentially the other side of the world).

If you're looking for a PC EverQuest add-on, EQOA isn't one. This game has the same core elements and formula of the original, but it's its own game in the end. Nevertheless, both newcomers and veteran EQ'ers will enjoy this game alike (in fact, many big-time EverQuest fans are claiming EQOA as better than its predecessor). Sony already has plans to create expansions for EQOA, which is a definite plus for anyone involved with the game.