THE HUB

OMG!!!

FEATURED MEMBER

elementxstyle

elementxstyle

GP Design shop.

QUICK POLL

What's the next big game coming this year?

ASK THE PROS

THE GAMEPROS

FREE NEWSLETTERS

Sign up now to receive weekly or daily updates on your favorite games, stories, and more!



PS2 | RPG | EverQuest Online Adventures

Boxart for EverQuest Online Adventures
EverQuest Online Adventures 36 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 4.0
  • SOUND: 3.0
  • CONTROL: 4.0
  • FUN FACTOR 4.0
  • AVG USER SCORE 3.6
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 3.7

Review: EverQuest Online Adventures

Review by DUNJINMASTER | 02/10/2003 | 15:21:15 PM PST

Kiss that social life goodbye?EverQuest?s come home to consoles, and it wants your undivided attention.

You may think you?ve spent a lot of time with your PS2. You may even think you?ve put in long hours each day playing PS2 games. Well, Sony Online is about to show you what addiction means with EverQuest Online Adventures, the first MMORPG for American consoles.

Sony?s Online Adventure
Chances are you?ve never played an online game quite like this one. In EQOA, you take on the role of a level 1 adventurer in a massive world (over 300 square miles) filled with bad guys, good guys, and phat lewt. Your task is to take your newb and bring him or her up in fine EverQuest tradition by killing tons and tons of monsters, exploring strange places, completing quests, and collecting powerful items. While you do this, so do thousands of other players in a game world that continues to turn 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Those of you familiar with EQ will find a lot of fascinating differences, but the game is very friendly to new players as well. EQOA is set in Norrath?s past, hundreds of years before the PC version, so fans will be able to visit popular hotspots before they were big. You can stop by Befallen back when it was a trade destination (before it became a haven for undead), stomp out the gnoll fort where they?re planning to take Blackburrow from the dwarves, or see what the Solusek Ro region was like before the god of fire torched it into Norrath?s largest desert. For EQ fans and newbies alike, there?s almost no end to the adventure to be had, and those who dig beyond the hack-n-slash will find a deep history to explore.

How the Quest Is Won
EQOA looks and plays like a stripped-down version of EverQuest; every class has a number of abilities (spells or special attacks that cost Power to use) and various restrictions on weapons and armor. Warrior-types are quite good at taking hits in combat, while melee-types dish out damage but can?t take it as well, priest-types heal and buff, and spellcasters lay down the big nukes. Controls for attacking, casting spells, and movement are simple and work well, though the inventory and character menus are a bit clunky for use in the heat of battle. EQOA?s gameplay is simple compared to EQ?s; there?s little to do but hack-n-slash with no trade skills, languages, or other pursuits. The game?s presentation is similarly simple with huge, wide, basic environments filled with highly detailed character models and decent sound effects. There is little to no music to speak of, though, and the chirpy sounds in the menus seem a bit off considering the setting.

A PSW on the PS2
If you?re an RPG fan with tons of free time and patience, or if you?re an EQ fan dying to see what Norrath was like hundreds of years ago, EQOA is a great time. Find some friends and explore, level, and kill tons and tons of monsters. There?s never been anything like it for consoles in the U.S., so enjoy this nice little taste of the future.