Everquest 2 in 2023 | New Player, First Impressions

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 พ.ย. 2023
  • Everquest 2, the 20 year old MMORPG that is the sequel to one of the Genre's most influential games of all time, Everquest. Produced by Sony online Entertainment later rebranded to Daykbreak games, what did they do right with Everquest 2, and also what went so wrong? How does the game hold up in 2023?
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ความคิดเห็น • 244

  • @Marauding_Llama
    @Marauding_Llama 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +34

    The newbie boat ride and newbie island will always be a fond memory for me.

  • @Daiska_Plays
    @Daiska_Plays 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +15

    Game has so much going for it. Even the crafting is better than most other games. I keep going back to it. Watching this is making me start it up again. It scratches an itch no other game can.

  • @Franka.1966
    @Franka.1966 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +9

    I love love love that the fighting skill animations in these oldschool games are *not* flashy fireworks.
    EQ2, LOTRO, Runes of Magic, R.O.H.A.N.: Blood Feud, Loong Dragonblood... ah, they are/were so chill and immersive.

    • @letheas6175
      @letheas6175 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      RoM was kinda flashy I feel like I remember.. then again I haven't played that in like.. 12 years or whenever it was popular, haha
      I really liked Warhammer Online in terms of simplicity (but effectivity) in it's look and art style, I haven't seen a game that nice in terms of setting and worldbuilding in a long time (although I like LOTRO in that aspect).

    • @Sheep101
      @Sheep101 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ROHAN was so good

  • @espeliini
    @espeliini 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +71

    Also, why WoW was so much more popular vs eq2 was the required hardware needed to play the games. You could basically play WoW with your calculator but you needed a relatively high end computer to run eq2 smoothly at that time and it really drove many players away from eq2.

    • @MaritimGamer
      @MaritimGamer 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      EQ2 was 100% harder to run by a large margin, but WoW was still fairly comprehensive for the time. I remember in mid 2005 it ran pretty crappy on my modest PC.

    • @newspin2477
      @newspin2477 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      I agree.. even on a good computer EQ2 didn't run great. From my memory, the engine used to create EQ2 was based on the premise that PC performance would evolve in the form of a single processor doing most of the work... instead graphics cards got better and we got multi-core processors, and EQ2 was never able to really utilize the power of the computers because of that.

    • @MidgetMalone
      @MidgetMalone 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      I played eq2, tried wow when it came out and soloed to 50. Was not for me. To easy.stayed with eq2 for a decade.

    • @ashn2
      @ashn2 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      EQ 2 at release could not be run effectly by any level of pc on the market, the top of the line pc's still had to run it at mid-level and it still had issues running it, that what hurt it so much otherwise WOW/EQ 2 would have been right on pace with each other.

    • @JosephBelcher2
      @JosephBelcher2 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      I can't remember my specs, but I had a high end Alienware and was able to run EQ2 at the highest settings without issue. IMO EQ2 was a lot more fun than WoW, but my 20+ Navy shipmates and friends ALL played WoW. :(

  • @matyasmalec107
    @matyasmalec107 4 หลายเดือนก่อน +12

    Absolutely agree w/ you about the grafics. The style somehow feels gorgeous to me nowadays.

  • @foxilator4778
    @foxilator4778 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    I played EQ2 fairly religiously from launch to 2009. The slower leveling during its earliest years was amazing. It gave you time to truly appreciate your current level's content, rather than just seeing it as a means to an end. It also built greater anticipation for the content you would be able to tackle later, and made early level gearing feel valuable, because those items would stick with you for potentially weeks, rather than mere hours.

  • @aaronjlaw00
    @aaronjlaw00 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +11

    The sound track for EQ2 was amazing!

  • @shmikal3464
    @shmikal3464 4 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

    you missed out on the level 20 armor questline by doing the agnostic dungeon :0 the questline is very cool, always made getting out of the starting zone and into your first major city exciting

  • @Malistrix
    @Malistrix 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

    I go back into this game every so often. And still to this day, my character, and house from 2005 is still waiting for me. The charm is still strong.

  • @GonzytheMage
    @GonzytheMage 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    this is a freaking awesome video. I remember playing this game hardcore for two weeks back in 2004 which is a shame considering EQ was what got me into MMOs in the first place.

  • @user-vd6lr9bj3b
    @user-vd6lr9bj3b 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +12

    fun fact Qeynos is just Sony Eq backwards but good video my dad also got me into MMOrpgs from everquest so its cool to see someone else as well.

    • @kevingumfory
      @kevingumfory หลายเดือนก่อน

      You are pronouncing it wrong. Its gayness

  • @Cookie5802
    @Cookie5802 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Thanks for the content bub, you did a fantastic job!

  • @lupo19fun
    @lupo19fun 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +12

    I played it from day 1 and totally loved the game.❤ Everquest 1 also. The guilds and group playing was the best. Good times.🎉😊

  • @Gasmurken
    @Gasmurken 10 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

    The main problem EQ2 had up on release, was that the computer you needed to be able to play it was not created yet. So you could say they were about 2-3 year ahead of time regarding computer specs.

  • @thefreshestdoug
    @thefreshestdoug 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    My man Waydot be swooshing through these MMO's bringing back all the hot takes

  • @SuperChaoticus
    @SuperChaoticus 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Those skelly sounds bring me back. They're the same sounds the skellies had in EQ1. My Necromancer main got very used to those cackles.

  • @BryceMousseau
    @BryceMousseau 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I want to add, Shift + Number combos definitely do work. I've got all my character with them

  • @Masquerademasque
    @Masquerademasque 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    the music is top tier. its amazing.

  • @truckstation527
    @truckstation527 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Great review

  • @Austinlow70
    @Austinlow70 4 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    This game was my whole life when i was a kid (7+). My grandad, my cousin, and I would do nothing but play it all day. We loved it and were addicted. (click something when it comes off cooldown is basically the game even at max level btw)

  • @andipajeroking
    @andipajeroking หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Playing games with your dad would have been a hell of an experience.
    Congrats ❤

  • @noname-xt2io
    @noname-xt2io 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

    brings back memories..i ended up going over to WOW because my friends played there. but i was a die hard EQ guy. it got overwhelming though...and WOW is starting to be the same way. so much stuff to do that you get paralysis

  • @BorgWolf359
    @BorgWolf359 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    I loved EQ2 when it came out because I played EQ when it released! I had tons of fun in these games! I still play WoW every now & then! FFXIV is my main MMORPG of all time! I may try to get back into EQ2! This brought back may pleasant memories with my friends!

  • @legendz411
    @legendz411 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Really like this content. GG

  • @mommeli
    @mommeli 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +9

    nice video. This game brings so good memories back. 1 of the best pvp mmorgs that i have played.

    • @RGBReact
      @RGBReact 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      battlegrounds was actually incredible

    • @hohenzollern6025
      @hohenzollern6025 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@RGBReact Man I loved Battlegrounds. Spent a lot of time building up level 80 toons just for BGs, because the level scaling favored 80s, and they had a lot of good gear content to chose from. All the cool kids BGed in the 80s bracket, and you'd see some exquisitely built toons, with old avatar loot and everything. Good times.

  • @hr1meg
    @hr1meg 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Everytime our guild would zone in to do a raid in EQ2 you have to go to your graphic settings and drop them all down. Also, a lot of healing was done while facing a wall so that the graphics wouldnt hit your PC so hard. LOL. I played EQ2 from release day until the Desert of Flames expansion. Tried DoF for 2 weeks, and was done. There was this whole "combat update" that SOE was doing which tasted too much like the old revamps of SWG. Our guild broke up, and 90% of us went to go play WoW in Oct 2005. I remember consolidating everything I owned, and selling every single thing. I then spotted a new player, chatted with them, and gave them 14 platinum. I wished them well, and was gone for good from EQ2. Ahh the memories. EQ2's music still gets me to this day. Played on Permafrost server.

    • @georgen5882
      @georgen5882 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      I don't know what combat update you are talking about. The base combat system was the exact same, the level cap increased and they added skills, but also added pvp. If you are talking the whole grouped mobs being locked while in combat, that should be a minor issue. Kill stealing was not rampant in EQ2 at all, not like EQ1. Sounds to me like EQ2 just wasn't for you in the end.

    • @mac3madmax
      @mac3madmax หลายเดือนก่อน

      What guild on perma

  • @jkman10
    @jkman10 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    4:12 "vag" memories

  • @OccamsEraserhead
    @OccamsEraserhead 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    My favourite gaming experience ever was EQ2 from launch until EOF. Especially when they launched the RP-PVP server. Venekor was the best server/community ever.

    • @Waydots
      @Waydots  6 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      My man, Wish I had the opportunity to experience that sounds awesome.

    • @SonnaxGG571
      @SonnaxGG571 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      For sure, remember the old days when Apollo where top pvp Guild and darklight Wood where full pvp 😍

    • @OccamsEraserhead
      @OccamsEraserhead 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      @@SonnaxGG571 Ahem. Pandemonium was the top PVP guild on Venekor.

    • @rs.sweden
      @rs.sweden 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Yea the pvp in DLW was crazy. So much fun. Alos the tower fightas in Ant/CL was good fun. Tons of people swinging, casting, roaring and smashing 😂

    • @Travybear1989
      @Travybear1989 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      I just wish the game had a half-orc race, there are just far too many human-esque races and the ones that aren't are too extreme for me.

  • @saintcadence3751
    @saintcadence3751 24 วันที่ผ่านมา

    You have a great channel man. As someone who has always had an interested in MMOs but never really played any until recently, you do a great job of explaining things and giving critique! I dig EQ2 for what I call the "ps2" graphics it has

    • @Waydots
      @Waydots  24 วันที่ผ่านมา

      Thanks for the kind words man :)

  • @maneleialga2085
    @maneleialga2085 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    El problema que hizo perder a EQ 2, fue que WoW salió en mas idiomas. Yo jugué a EQ y deseaba seguir (y lo hice mucho tiempo) en EQ2. Pero el idioma consiguió que muchos de mis compañeros de aventuras se pasaran a WoW. Nunca entendí por que EQ no pensó en traducir el que creo que es el mejor MMORPG que existió. Incluso, si lo hiciera ahora, creo que volverían muchos antiguos jugadores. Daybreak, por favor, traduce este juego, y de seguro recuperarías mucha gente. Saludos desde España

  • @calebfairchild3247
    @calebfairchild3247 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Started recently, honestly a super fun game

  • @Tyrael2k3
    @Tyrael2k3 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    I was playing EQ2 from launch for about 3 years non stop and it was a blast. I loved the group content (6 player groups btw) so much I had plenty of twinks to play in any level range and since leveling was so slow it even made sense to craft them gear. Came back for 2 TLE servers now (for the first few expansions) and it was very enjoyable since so many players were also there to experience the old content again! Unfortunately the normal servers are completely P2W and the numbers are so bloated it's hard to realize what item is better even..

    • @elbuenomalo
      @elbuenomalo 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      You can come back for ballads of zimara ! you will love it its for me the best expac since years really.

    • @Tyrael2k3
      @Tyrael2k3 3 วันที่ผ่านมา

      @@elbuenomalo Playing the origins beta now and it's awesome

  • @Rob-qs3xx
    @Rob-qs3xx 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    EQ2 was te best game to date that i have ever played. I wish they would make a third game.

  • @milat9287
    @milat9287 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    The levelling in EQ2 isn't so bad when you get a feeling for what to do to expedite the process. Once pushed an assassin from level 1 to 73 in a single day without a merc. I sure wish it was consistently slower though. Maybe if it was, I'd be able to find groups more consistently

    • @kevingumfory
      @kevingumfory 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Eq2 is so nerfed its pointless to play

  • @StorybooksInn
    @StorybooksInn 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    dont mind me, just bringing all your videos right now

  • @WinXP_SP1
    @WinXP_SP1 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

    In Guild Wars 1 you could have bot allies in your group to do missions or for exploring.

  • @OrrynUbert
    @OrrynUbert หลายเดือนก่อน

    Hail and well met! I greatly appreciate your perspective and shedding some light on EQ2. It is definitely a special game. Of course there are some things that are outdated but I feel that those player who give the game a decent try, much like yourself can tap into what keeps “veteran” players like myself. Are you still playing to this day? Take care and happy hunting!

  • @hungnguyen-hf5yx
    @hungnguyen-hf5yx 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    you missed out one thing I found missing in the modern mmo too, and hope you will like it. With modern pc you can easily run eq2 with 3 characters at the same time in window mode. Each can have a mercenary too. So easy a 6 character group. Since you are running window mode you can click all spells/abilities with no issue for all characters....... took some time to get the routine but basically later in the game I just feel Like I needed 3-5 spells to keep track on for each player which is pretty easy and the merc they handles them selfes. So you can probably run heroic dungeons with some hassle but you will make it, with the help of the 3 merc. Have fun.

  • @danielhudy8560
    @danielhudy8560 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Awesome video i actually never played everquest 2! Definitely has that nostalgia vibes. Wish prog servers had a trial period. Don't feel like paying membership to give it a shot. Also I would love to see you try Warhammer Age of Reckoning (technically Return of Reckoning now)

    • @elbuenomalo
      @elbuenomalo 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      you can try eq2 you dont have to pay sub. for running heroics in high end level you should have membership but till then u know if u like it or now it is a very deep game and you need to have fun seeing you toon growing up becoming more powerful etc

    • @georgen5882
      @georgen5882 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      I played warhammer online when it hit. That game had a lot of good ideas with the public events etc. It really could have been better, but there were just so many options at the time. I played with a friend and we had a blast while we played. Unfortunately suffered from lack of population even shortly after launch. I liked it, though.

  • @Alexander-wk4gl
    @Alexander-wk4gl 4 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    You missed heritage questlines too. The world really is amazing.

  • @wallstbet
    @wallstbet 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Any suggestions is wood elf good for invisibility or are the totems of invisibility so good that that spell is pointless?

  • @thefifthaceassociation
    @thefifthaceassociation 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I played this game for like 9 years back when it was big. Big part of the game is the population and community it had. Thats what you are missing out on. Some of the dungeons that would take dozens of players.
    Lorbros here, Hello Nagafen.

  • @noahmeeker3111
    @noahmeeker3111 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Started playing during the tail end of EoF and stayed around until Shadow Odessey, started playing again a year ago and I'm glad that i came back but should have sooner! Adder from Maj'Dul! (=

    • @hohenzollern6025
      @hohenzollern6025 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Ouch, you quit at TSO? Man that was definitely the beginning of EQ2's golden age. TSO, SF, then the peak at Velious, one of the best times in MMO history. During Velious you'd have a dozen instances of the overland zones for the Public Quests... sooooo many people!

  • @mikeythebold8299
    @mikeythebold8299 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Loved EQ2. Graphics if you had a good pc unrivaled at the time. Still stands up to newer mmos. Loved the crafting, and they made questioning more linear... Instead of just guessing what you should be doing.

  • @replicantmonk4310
    @replicantmonk4310 4 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    I was there on November 8th 2004...

  • @masiczobe6074
    @masiczobe6074 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Well done

  • @MoonsideResident
    @MoonsideResident 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    24:00 Did they change it where you can't fight on a mount anymore? Back when I played, I never dismounted when fighting. That was an option you had to enable and I never did. It looked really janky playing a melee character on a mount but they let you do it (at least back when I played).

    • @Scott-sm1bs
      @Scott-sm1bs 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      I remember this. I believe this was the time when there were advanced classes

    • @foxilator4778
      @foxilator4778 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      I haven't played since 2012, but if I remember correctly, there's a setting. You can hide mount altogether, hide in combat, or never hide.

  • @newspin2477
    @newspin2477 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

    With the combat... I don't intend to be "that guy" however, from what I recall the assassin is particularly dependent on positionals and/or being in stealth. from what I recall, cheap shot is the main stun that you can use and then you can go into stealth or run behind or whatever you need to do to meet the positional requirements to do good damage with that class. I remember it as being a little on the weak side when it comes to soloing.
    Oh man, that dungeon... cavern of the afflicted, that came out when I was actively playing the game... it was a really good dungeon. EQ2 had a lot of potential, but I think the spammy nature of the combat and the poor optimization meant it was never really going to be able to compete with WoW. The spammy nature wasn't inherently bad, but the servers couldn't consistently handle the data... there would be massive fluctutions in my dps on raid night based on the server lag the day, time, dungeon etc. I was playing.

  • @PotatoeJoe69
    @PotatoeJoe69 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Loved this game so much.

  • @elgido3207
    @elgido3207 5 วันที่ผ่านมา

    I spent a good 4 years playing this solidly. Sad to see so few players now. It really was bustling from 2004 to 2008 or so

  • @shaun7723
    @shaun7723 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    I heard the devs optimized the game around single core CPUs not realizing multi core CPUs were the future. I remember high end computers struggling to play this game at launch. 13:45

    • @newspin2477
      @newspin2477 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

      that's my understanding as well

    • @aceoyame2619
      @aceoyame2619 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Yep that was it. A lot of games did that. Intel had a roadmap back in the day that predicted 8 ghz+ single core CPUs so, that’s what devs optimized for

  • @Amizori
    @Amizori 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    FYI in the launcher incase you didn’t know give an option to download the full game and much quicker

  • @Shauma_llama
    @Shauma_llama 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I played EQ2 , and wished I could've experienced it as it was meant to be experienced. 🙂

  • @naDalous
    @naDalous หลายเดือนก่อน

    For how old this game is, it looks great!

  • @Robf8621
    @Robf8621 9 วันที่ผ่านมา

    never played this but EQOA on the ps2 was my childhood lol

  • @Postmann88
    @Postmann88 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Alright I first want to say that this was a great video and well put together, and I enjoyed it a lot.
    That said, it cracked me up when your criticisms of their monetization pop up method was interrupted by a TH-cam commercial.
    While I agree with you completely that it’s not a good method, the irony was just too funny not to share.
    Keep making great content and I will continue to close your pop ups too my internet friend! 👍🏼

  • @mightylotan
    @mightylotan หลายเดือนก่อน

    There's something I love about EQII graphics. I love playing occasionally. The skill bloat is what really annoys me though

  • @Dra6nheart
    @Dra6nheart 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

    The skeleton laugh is the skeleton laugh from EQ1.

  • @magdalenanurlaneva3580
    @magdalenanurlaneva3580 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    they better make everquest III soon... i'm dying to see the third game!

  • @zedorian6547
    @zedorian6547 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I enjoy my time whenever I decide to log in EQ2 for a while. Its not my mmo of choice for sure but the game has been enjoyable enough. I usually only hear about how bad it is from WoW or post WoW players and vice versa from the older mmo crowd. I personally like both systems but I do find that the rush to endgame classification tends to make me not as interested in the game long term wheras the journey usually keeps me coming back even if i dont pump 100s of hours into the game in one go. Eh, I’ll most likely be back soon even if my next foray will probably be to adventure in Vana’diel with EverQuest 1….I mean Final Fantasy XI!

  • @doctorfishopolisss
    @doctorfishopolisss 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Gotta do project 99 or project quarm EQ classic!

  • @baarthoos9799
    @baarthoos9799 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    You didn't fully use the potential of the tutorial on the Queen's Colony island, I boarded the ship to Qeynos when I was level 11 and had quite nice equipment, not to mention the great tasks that you probably missed. Everquest 2 is like a paper RPG session, there is no need to rush, and the game does not forgive mindless clicking and skipping the information we obtain. The plot of the assigned tasks and the development of threads are really well done, and the endings are often brilliant and surprising. I first played WoW for many years, but comparing both games, WoW is a primitive and simple game where from the very beginning you are created as the savior of the world, in EQ2 the player is just another adventurer, a "dust in the wind" who is often asked to help, but he can simply refuse and go to a tavern to get drunk. 🤔😉😏👋

  • @komradeklutch6215
    @komradeklutch6215 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +9

    EQ2 was and always has been extremely CPU intensive. A lot of the graphics require a CPU that isn't under complete task, so if you're running EQ2 and other programs behind it like a recording software, Google Chrome, Discord, steam, etc. It's going to bog down... Especially if you're running an older Gen i7 or lower

  • @Caliban_80
    @Caliban_80 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    It's not that you're trash at all. Assassin just happens to be maybe the most dependent on ability rotation out of all the classes. It's one of the most challenging classes to master.

  • @aceoyame2619
    @aceoyame2619 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    The graphics were actually better on launch as they had cpu based lighting and shadows but it was way too taxing so eventually they moved it to shaders which broke a lot of lighting effects

  • @doppl3GENGAR
    @doppl3GENGAR 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I miss EverQuest Online Adventures Frontiers on the PS2 💔

  • @MrSmithwayne
    @MrSmithwayne 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I have never had a problem with EQ2 on my 4 year old PC

  • @Lepa1794
    @Lepa1794 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

    i like this visiting other mmorpg series

  • @dennisblogg
    @dennisblogg 16 วันที่ผ่านมา

    Regarding the graphics. It's unusual to see a game that is kinda realistic. That makes it look better than it would otherwise.

  • @andrewaugustine1494
    @andrewaugustine1494 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Does anybody know which pve TLE server is most popular right now? And what xpac are they on? Thanks.

  • @Blackwater558
    @Blackwater558 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I agree with what you say about the graphics. The only thing that really bothers me are the missing shadows. They don't have to be high quality, a dark blob underneath the character would suffice for me, but even that is missing. That alone is very off-putting to me :(
    EDIT It seems in later areas shadows are actually present. Or maybe Waydot just had them deactivated at first and activated them later. It's interesting what an impact in immersion shadows have, at least for me :D

  • @solciversolciver2831
    @solciversolciver2831 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

    The game was made in the dreaded Dx8 era... I think Sony tried to update the extensions to Dx9, but that seemed to introduce more issues. Not for sure what it is now, but the base code is mostly Dx8 and MS re-wrote a lot of Dx functionality when they went to Dx10 and the introduction of independent GPUs (Remember, tt wasn't that long ago that graphics cards did not have independence from CPU rendering). So modern era games run on different extensions and api for graphic interface. Plus Dx8 was before the introdcution of GPUs that offloaded the rendering from the CPU. So EQ2 was (still is?) a CPU hog.
    There is a bad function with Dx8 and multi-core processors. Originally when multi-cores came out, you had a natural 'speed hack' going because the game would be split on the cores and only grab the info from the main core. So you where skipping all the processes from the other cores and the speed hack play was on. It was hilarious, you could run the full length of a zone in a couple of seconds.

  • @mikemullen2047
    @mikemullen2047 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I kind of see DDO and EQ2 in the same light as both have history of changing companies, microx, and just that they are old.

    • @mikemullen2047
      @mikemullen2047 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

      and that both freeze like that due to server sided coding, mainly math being processed in the game based on whats happening on the server you are on.

  • @isaacjacobs4397
    @isaacjacobs4397 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Man i miss this era of gaming. Guildwars was fun

  • @kennethcunningham8461
    @kennethcunningham8461 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    My experience was that’s it’s fun but when you get to the “endgame” the biggest obstacle is other players

  • @99LitOs
    @99LitOs 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I never played this. Would this be worth checking out? A couple of years ago i had a blast starting and catching up to Lotro.

    • @rs.sweden
      @rs.sweden 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Yea try it. I have played it back and forth for 20 years, i always come back to eq2. Come to Varsoon server and I hook you up to a good start.

  • @eligaller9190
    @eligaller9190 หลายเดือนก่อน

    EQ2 is getting a API update to dx11. Now (dx9)i get no more frames on a 3070ti than my buddy on a 750ti

  • @GamerTeah
    @GamerTeah 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I was excited for the birth of my nephew so i could teach him how to heal in eq2 i was going ot make him my little side kick. then right after he was born they came out with companions lol!

  • @viljakainu1548
    @viljakainu1548 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

    'Journey is half the fun' right? Ahhh, the memories, the frustrations. :) ... yes, that phrase is a weak in-joke.

  • @seanstuchbery
    @seanstuchbery 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    you had VAG memories😳😳

    • @Waydots
      @Waydots  3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      I've always struggled with that word LOL

  • @AaronCunnington
    @AaronCunnington 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

    The class synergy and healing mechanics in this game are S tier. I’ve played a LOT of MMOs and nothing comes close to EQ2 in this regard.

  • @ryanbeev
    @ryanbeev 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

    *fidgets cutely*

  • @M4ttNet
    @M4ttNet 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    Great video. The crafting and housing in EQ 2 is pretty much unmatched. You could just focus on that and spend hours.
    Regarding the visuals. EQ 2 is in fact stylized. Just not nearly as cartoony exaggerated as WoW.
    It helps to know the visual heritage of each game that launched within weeks.
    The original EQ was meant to take D&D High Fantasy (Think Baldur's Gate, Lord of the Rings, etc) into really the first big 3D MMORPG ever. So EQ is what 1999 (and subsequent release years of each content) could do to achieve D&D style high fantasy. EQ was mean to replicate a D&D style gameplay in a persistent work.
    EQ 2 was a stylized and up-res'd version of EQ. It in fact is quite a bit stylized away from EQ when you compare the two while keeping some of that original inspiration.
    Lot's of EQ players weren't a fan of EQ 2 and how stylized it was. Those same players absolutely hated WoW for context. I was among those but EQ 2's style grew on me and has surprisingly good visuals in certain areas that I think is a pretty charming mix of styles.
    WoW was the Warcraft game heritage style translated to 3D MMO. So think Warcraft 1 and 2 with it's old pixelated sprites, bright colors etc. You then saw the jump to Warcraft 3 where they tried to do that same style in a 3D RTS format. WoW then took that into the MMO space. So it's intentionally meant to be cartoony and be a throwback to it's original inspiration of old school Warcraft games.
    Personally I absolutely HATED the WoW style at launch. I hate it less now, but honestly not by much. I personally think even Everquest looked FAR better than WoW and EQ 2 I think looks even that much better. Nowadays I feel that way even more. That's because I prefer High Fantasy to cartoony fantasy. I personally don't think WoW aged better than even Everquest. I am actually still playing original EQ (played it all the way back in beta test and launch in 1999) and I've tried to play WoW a few times and I 100% think original EQ (for context I play on Project Quarm too which is a private EQ server that is very much like the original) has aged so much better than WoW. WoW looks even more blurry and too cartoony to me now than then. So despite many people holding the view that WoW's blurry graphics aged better, not everyone agrees. It's not an absolute truth.
    The absolute truth is that WoW's purposely crappy graphics PERFORMED better than either EQ or EQ 2. Which correlated to their far easier and friendlier gameplay appealing to a much broader audience. In this way I think EQ 2 was actually not worse than WoW. It was developed to it's target quite well.. WoW just targeted a whole new demographic expansion. Many people like me hated the things about WoW that the mass audiences loved... Quest grinding vs kill grinding. Constant rewards... Easier and more forgiving etc. All these was massive pluses to a whole big group and HUGE negatives to an existing MMO player base.
    It's interesting that game difficulty and challenge has come full circle in a lot of ways. Thinks like Souls games being so popular for being so brutal. Then what's one of the most popular modern WoW phenomenon's? WoW Hardcore, basically making WoW more challenging than it was even at launch. Ironically in a lot of ways that screams how good and correct the original EQ's model was and kind of wins the philosophical argument in the long run. EQ with it's corpse runs and EXP lost honestly is probably a much more balanced hardcore mechanic version than permadeath and would be immensely popular now in other MMO games. While criticized at the time for being too hardcore for new WoW era MMO players.
    The gaming playerbase has essentially evolved into the same sort of desires and challenges that EQ era MMO players were at in 1999.

    • @CB-py1xh
      @CB-py1xh 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      The WoW graphics were no doubt the most ugly contribution to 2000s visual game design.
      I was 18 years old when WoW launched and I despised its art direction.
      I coined a word for that visual direction back than for use in my conversations with other teenagers, that would translate into English as "warcraftiness".
      That bs became very popular back than after the beautiful fantasy art of the 90s.

  • @MoonsideResident
    @MoonsideResident 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    The super obvious head-tracking that the NPCs did on EQ2 always freaked me out, lol.

  • @justinbeard2024
    @justinbeard2024 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    One of the greatest MMOs ever

  • @MoonsideResident
    @MoonsideResident 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    8:45 This was my #1 grievance with the game and why, despite how much I liked so many things about it, I couldn't get myself to keep playing it. The combat was beyond tedious and boring and when I asked the playerbase about strategy and things like that, it seemed like the consensus was "Don't bother with the combo system, just press abilities as they come off cooldown." So riveting.

  • @willclark4449
    @willclark4449 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

    they should have made everquest next.

  • @Letsbrewthis
    @Letsbrewthis 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Many of your gripes with the leveling experience are just modern MMO design. They want you to get to the endgame quickly so you can play with the rest of the player base. World of Warcraft created the endgame rush mentality, every other game just tries to do the same. Really the only way to avoid this is to play one of the many horizontal progression MMOs

  • @hohenzollern6025
    @hohenzollern6025 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    This game puts almost no pressure on your GPU, it's almost all on the CPU. Made in the era of single core CPUs it was expecting the GHZ of a single core to get better, and planned for that. But then multicore happened, and GHZ stopped improving, and actually declined. A 3 GHZ dual core will outperform a 6 core running at 2.3 GHZ in EQ2. By a wide margin. They took a shot in the dark, to get the then GREAT grafics, and missed.
    Many people still play these games because they dont require new rigs to run. You can put together a top notch EQ2 computer for couch change. The one I used was in fact, free. Somebody else's outdated "junk".
    Newb areas will be pretty barren, but once you get to endgame there will be plenty of groups and raid guilds to play with. I gave up on EQ2 only because the direction it was going on class balance. They ruined certain classes because they could do their job too good, even though they couldnt do the job of other classes at all. For example... Berserker was designed around tanking large numbers of weak mobs. In that they were incredible, dare say, overpowered, but a single HARD mob could rek ya. So against that single hard mob, ya'd be better off with a Guardian.
    Day Break saw fit to make my beloved Zerk unable to do either well. So back to EQ I went. Much larger player base in the original as well, funnily enough.

  • @Scott-sm1bs
    @Scott-sm1bs 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    They need a stat revamp

  • @no-stresscat1519
    @no-stresscat1519 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I played EQ2 from beta all the way up until they switched from a subscription model to F2P. Unable to access parts of the game that were accessible before until you paid for it completely ruined it for me. The crafting was good, but I thought the crafting from EQ1 was better, where the components you picked had different effects on the end item (I used to craft arrows for my ranger that could hit stuff half a mile away). I also like the banking system in EQ1 where you could put 32-slot boxes inside 32-slot boxes and have unlimited inventory. Can't forget the EQ2 DING!!! when you leveled. I play FFXIV these days, and every time I level I still shout DING!!!

    • @no-stresscat1519
      @no-stresscat1519 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@rynejones8513 I know what I'm talking about played EQ1 when it came out in 1999, so you can go suck a spikey pair of Iksar kahunas.

  • @extremepostyo5242
    @extremepostyo5242 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Seeing the current state of mmo's its kind of sad wow took so much of the market. It would be interesting to see in an alternate timeline one of these older less popular mmo's be frozen in a time capsule at the time they actually released and unfrozen in current day with a subscription model.

  • @chrismacqueen4891
    @chrismacqueen4891 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Loved EQ2 back in the day but the same why I loved EQ1 and a few others was all about the social aspect. Just isn't fun grinding away solo forever and no friends or real groups.

  • @user-sm9mb6ms5j
    @user-sm9mb6ms5j 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Cool video, good to see somebody's experience with the game I spent so much of my life on. I was one of the die hard 1%ers of this game from launch until about last year.
    It's a game where the combat feels really smooth to me and the world is immersive, but it has been run into the ground since Sony sold it back in the day. It was the greatest MMO that never got traction imo, but now the monetization and content are just awful. They are just trying to milk the diehards that have been around for 20 years out of every penny they can before they turn the lights off. The raiding used to be fun and challenging but now the scripts for raid bosses are so vanilla and all that matters is how much gear you have. Everything is borderline tank and spank.
    The Inquisitor you saw that you thought was geared to the teeth was basically naked though, lol. It was likely somebody's alt that had just hit max level.

    • @Waydots
      @Waydots  6 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Thats unfortunate to hear and seems to be the main storyline for a lot of older games that have a small but extremely dedicated playerbase remaining... Find out how to milk every penny and then shut it down.
      As for the inquisitor LOL, well to my untrained eyes she looked pretty well geared 😅

    • @user-sm9mb6ms5j
      @user-sm9mb6ms5j 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@Waydots yeah easy to think that because the stat bloat is absurd. But they implemented a system where mobs have "potency mitigation" or "crit mitigation" and stuff like that so until you hit the threshold you do 0 damage to them. Because of that, stat bloat got WAY out of control. People do DPS in the trillions now.

  • @someguy4844
    @someguy4844 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

    a huge issue was eq2 release was performance, it ran like shit on even decent pcs. great graphics, that was a problem. i tried wow 2 weeks later out of frustration. never looked back

  • @wintersteale8869
    @wintersteale8869 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    I love the journey and games having loads of content. I am not one to power level through games. I played EQ2 for many years with a handful of friends. The main reasons we all quit playing was the slimy cash grab constantly thrown in your face, the ridiculous amount of abilities taking up half the screen and even with a lot of content when you make another character it becomes tedious repetitions and boring as all hell. I love the housing system, character creation options, mount mechanics and the mercenary system. I have never played WOW as the amount of money needed to actually play the game is disgusting. I quit LOTRO for that reason as well. I believe games should either charge you up front OR a subscription but not both. Having extra items and fancier outfits is fine but being locked out of content and/or mechanics due to a pay system is an extremely slime ball option by greedy devs that I refuse to participate in.

    • @MasterTeeee
      @MasterTeeee 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

      There are extremely popular private servers for most games, that are fan run, completely free, and normally have some interesting spins/additions to the retail experience. You should check some of them out. 🎉

  • @Faircraft3
    @Faircraft3 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

    :o the skeletons have the same laugh as the COD zombies

    • @hohenzollern6025
      @hohenzollern6025 6 หลายเดือนก่อน

      The EQ skelly laugh is iconic. if COD uses it, it's because the devs played EQ. There are mods to add the laugh to Skyrim skellies too.

  • @FenixWindail
    @FenixWindail 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I agree with everything you said in the video, however from my point of view the problem I'm having is more than the game, and the community... limiting the use of chat in my opinion kills a new player right from the start ' start... not being able to ask for anything in global or find parties without Allaccess is stupid... I understand that perhaps this was done to avoid goldsellers who can spam in the chat... talking about Allaccess yes... I also agree that the way they try to convince you to buy the subscription is atrocious... I don't like it either and it breaks my immersion, even finding online guides for the game isn't easy or they don't exist... usually when I play a new MMO I always try to find guides online to get an idea of how to advance and progress but in EQ2 I didn't find anything, btw Dungeon Agonists I find them fun (at the beginning) but then after a while they become boring and repetitive, but yes I agree that it is the best way to level quickly (obviously if you have an active XP potion).

  • @_XR40_
    @_XR40_ หลายเดือนก่อน

    I tried Everquest 2 about 5 years ago. There was literally no one there. I got to level 20-something before I ever saw another player - And he ran away without talking as soon as he noticed me....

  • @SodoMojo22
    @SodoMojo22 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Great review...tempted me to give it a whirl but the ability bloat is a complete turn off.