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Yes, I know I’m about four years late with the review.
EverQuest Evolution has been recently released, and for those who don’t know that is EverQuest: Classic, Ruins of Kunark, Scars of Velious, Shadows of Luclin, Planes of Power and Legacy of Ykeska all in one nice, tidy package. Best of all, the game retails for some $29.99.
When EverQuest was released, I doubt anyone thought it would become one of the most popular role-playing games on the PC, and pretty much coin the massively multiplayer online role-playing-game genre. With almost 500,000 paying subscribers, and as much as 100,000 playing at the same time, EverQuest is known to anyone relatively interested in videogames. Of course, all the negative controversy had a lot to do with it. Let’s see what all the fuss is about.
EverQuest lets you choose your avatar where you will take part of a living, breathing world filled with other players. Even in the original, there are tons of classes and races for you to be and there are skills for those races. Once you have your race, skill and abilities all set up, you continue to choose the religion.
When you begin, you are but an experienced lad in the world. Trust me, it isn’t smart to start fighting with someone who is twenty times or so more powerful than you are. At the beginning, even the rats can defeat you until you get used to EverQuest’s style. As you level up, you can tackle monsters and get more experience, and more power, etc. If you can find some good people to play with, you can tackle opponents together.
Play with some people long enough and you’ll form friendships with some of them. I noticed that many of them are true to their characters, although occasionally you’ll get that occasional “lol-er”.
Fighting is only part of the game since EverQuest features its own economy. The economy of the game mirrors real life. When an item is rare, the price for it goes insanely high, when there is too much of a particular item, the price lowers. Some people make a career of buying items and selling them for a profit, and others then buy the game money online with real cash. Although, keep in mind lazy players, that isn’t sanctioned by Sony Online Entertainment.
As with any online game, you can’t expect the visuals to blow you away. And keep in mind, that this particular version of the game is four years old. The world is massive and there are plenty of characters and enemies to find, but the visuals do show their age. Still, the hugeness of the game makes you forget its lack of visuals.
There isn’t too much emphasis put into the background music, although you’ll hear some of it sometimes. The sound effects on the hand sound awesome. You’ll hear every special effect, which all sound quite good. After a while, you’ll be happy that the background music is so limited because you can really enjoy the environmental ambience.
Fees and such:
EverQuest: Classic is no longer sold by itself. The game is included in EverQuest: Trilogy which also includes the first two expansion packs (Ruins of Kunark and Scars of Velious) for $17.99 according to EBGames.
EverQuest: Classic is also included in EverQuest Evolution which also includes Ruins of Kunark, Scars of Velious, Shadows of Luclin, Planes of Power and Legacy of Ykeska for some $29.99.
Macintosh gamers can experience EverQuest: Classic in EverQuest for Mac which retails for $49.99 and includes Ruins of Kunark, Scars of Velious, Shadows of Luclin, and Planes of Power as well.
You’ll need to pay $12.95. The first month you have your EQ account is free. The 3-month subscription rate is $35.85 ($3 savings) and a 6-month subscription rate is $65.70 ($12 savings). This fee lets you play all EverQuest expansions.
Also, you can subscribe to the Sony Online Entertainment All Access Pass which goes for $21.99 a month. This includes premium SOE content (EverQuest, EverQuest Macintosh Edition, PlanetSide, EverQuest Online Adventures, The Station Pass, and the upcoming EverQuest II).
Conclusion
EverQuest is an addicting little game that will suck a lot of time from your life. If you have escaped from it before, what are you waiting for? Sometimes I forgot I’m reviewing the game and got so into the world that I had to take forced breaks. All in all, its easy to see why so many people are playing this four years after its release. Of course, the steady expansion packs have helped things, (actually the latest one, Lost Dungeons of Norrath was just released).
Minimum Requirements:
Windows 98, 2000, ME, XP; 400Mhz Processor, 256MB RAM, GeForce 1 or Radeon 7200 or equivalent, DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card, 4x CDROM, 28.8kbps internet connection, 2.5GB free hard drive space
Recommended Requirements:
Windows 98, 2000, ME, XP; 400+Mhz Processor, 512 RAM, GeForce 3 or Radeon 8500 or equivalent, DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card, 16x CDROM, 56kbps internet connection, 3.0GB free hard drive space
Review written with help from official EverQuest fanatic, Johnathan Hernandez. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Sep 22, 2003
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