EQ2 Check this out!Follow

I was looking at my EQ account the week before "IT" happened and noticed that I had EQ2 activated. I had no idea why and thought... "what the heck. Ill go check it out if its free." I had thought about moving to EQ2 when it came out but was to into EQ to desert it. I heard about the graphics being so nice and how it was geared more to those that like to do tradeskills but still I held fast. Until 2 weeks ago.

I logged in on both accounts, made a wizard and a fighter and went into unknown lands. Well right off I was in trouble. I thought I was going to grp with myself yet I could not see my other toon. Both were in the same zone and standing very close to the other but saw nothing. So I played the fighter a bit killing little crabs and so on. Then I moved my wizard and BAM! She zoned into some sewer looking place. Now with both toons in different zones I was in real trouble. I lvl'd the fighter to 7 and then played the wizard trying to get her back to my fighter. Well that was a quest in its self. lol It took me forever to get her back to the same zone and by then she was lvl 12. In this time, I did figure out some things like gathering skill, foraging, mining and a few more. I did notice that if you run long enough the mob will stop coming for you. Im not sure if this is the same at higher lvls but was for me at lvls under 17.

I noticed right away that zoning was not the same. I had NO idea how to zone or where to even find another zone. This did bring back memories of my first day in EQ when I ran out of FP and all of a sudden the sceen did something weird and I had no idea what I did. I thought game was broken or something.

Now this free version is a limited account of course. You cant use /ooc or the chat channels. You only have 4 classes to choose from and get 2 bags and 2 bank slots. Well without having /ooc or chat channels you are pretty much on your own. SO I did it! I upgraded to the Silver account. And within 10 mins I joined a guild and could ask much needed questions.

Now in EQ2 you dont zone the same as in EQ. The map is not even close to the same. Zones are a bell or a world globe not a line on the map or a whole area of a zone. The map doesnt show you where the zones are. If it does I havent figured that out yet at least. But the graphics! Oh the graphics! They are awesome! You move like a person. NPC's actually talk to you! NPC's with a quest will have a feather above their head so you can spot them easy. When you hail them they will tell you the quest they offer. You have options of responses to give back. And once you complete the quest the NPC you need to speak to at end will have a book above its head.

I had a guildmate & his friend help me with a quest for a mount that was to take about 2 1/2 hrs and wound up taking over 4 but we had a blast. The friend had many different "mounts". He even had a flying carpet!

You know how when you would try to climb a ladder you kept falling off if you didnt line it up just right? Well in EQ2 you not only move up a rope ladder almost like a real person would you dont roam so much. Now I use the camera views when I play so I see more of whats around me and this helps for climbing as well. But the way a toon moves is really cool.

Oh I forgot to tell you about spells. WOW the spell graphics are so nice! Plus you get spells every time you lvl. They just go to your knowledge book. You dont have to carry a bunch of spells with you for the next 2 or 3 lvls. You also get special skills at lvl. And the WAY you cast is sooo much nicer than EQ. Its kinda like twisting a bard song back when bards twisted. You just click on this spell and while it is casting you click on the next one you want to cast and then it will cast and you do this for up to 4 spells. Each spell will automaticly cast once the last one is done. They do have a timer on them but its not very long and they do take time to cast but not as long as so many of EQ spells. Least not at lvl 16 for my wizard.

I havent had enough time to really get a feel for the whole game yet but from I have experienced so far has been so much fun! The graphics are beautiful. There is alot of things I wish EQ had and a few I wish EQ2 had that EQ has. But all in all I give EQ2 the thumbs up!

All said and done... once the SOE sites are back up, go check your account info to see if you have EQ2 activated. It seems its some kind of vet reward. And if you have it go try it out!

EQII did a free week promotion about two weeks ago.

If you want to check the game out, just download it. EQ2X is free but is heavily restricted, requiring additional character slots, factions, bag slots, etc to be purchased with station cash. EQ2X is also restricted to a single server from what I understand. If you want to play the full game, you can still go buy it and pay the normal subscription fees.

If you want I can send you a RaF trial which will give you access to the full game up until Rise of Kunark, with a few restrictions. Unfortunately the RaF does not work with existing station accounts, so you would have to create a completely new one.

The big thing for a lot of EQII players is that they don't have the type of schedule where they can commit large amounts of uninterrupted time to a game. Also, the community is far better than WoW and Rift.

You figure out who the obnoxious eq2 players are by simply looking at eq2flames.com. Jot down their names and put them on ignore if they are on your server. Then you'll have a 99% chance of having a clean community...until they log in their alts.