The box
I bought the boxed version of “Desert of Flames”, the first expansion. It includes the expansion and the original game but not the two mini-packs that were released along the year and that you can only buy (and download) separately. The game comes in two dvds. I found this quite surprising since the installed client only takes around 4.6Gb on the hard disk, uncompressed. That would be more than enough to fit on a single dvd and I cannot understand why they decided to use two instead. I even tried to browse them manually but they contain just the game and a DirectX installer. This is also disappointing because the dvds don’t even include the optional voice packs and that’s another 800+Mb to downlad that could have been easily avoided. It really makes no sense.
In the box there’s also a map of the isle added in the expansion. This reminds me how much I’d love more “offline” content. It’s an aspect that this genre never considers but I think there could be a good potential. Instead of manuals that noone reads and that become obsolete after one month, I would really love to see some worthwhile content that I can dig when I shut down the pc and want to pass some time in a different way. It would be a great idea to add lore books and atlas with the boxed games. We are slowly moving toward the digital download and this material could easily be converted in pdf, but I think it would really add a significant value to the boxed game when you can obtain “books” you can read, maps and other (useful) “gadgets” that aren’t strictly tied to the electronic material. Instead of outsourcing this work to external compaines this should be something directly connected and parallel to the game development. I think everyone would simply love to have lore books to read or atlas books with professional, detailed maps for all the zones.
I don’t even think this should replace the strategy guides as a “walkthrough”. These lore books and atlas should just provide a “roleplay insight” on the game. Describing the zones, the stories. But not directly explaining the quests, items etc… They would plug right between the layer of the actual game and the fictional one, adding depth to both and functioning as a bridge between one and the other. Then this idea could also be expanded to include letters and articles from the development team, design ideas, explanations and so on. I’d so love this. It would be a huge incentive to the box sales and the material could be then also be offered separately, to get then bundled and released with the next expansion.
User Interface
As I already wrote I liked the UI and didn’t feel disappointed about it. But then there are also a number of little quirks and limitations that could use some work. You can detach and create new chat boxes and you can customize the channels, fonts, toggle visibility and so on, but the control isn’t complete and it leaves you wishing for more. These are some examples I could remember about the chat box:
* The possibility to move the scroll bar on the right side of the window so that if the chat box is near the right of the screen the scroll bar wouldn’t get in the way.
* Each new chat window you open also retains the “input” box at the bottom where you can type. If for example you use a chat box just to monitor the combat the input box will take space that isn’t really needed. So an option to turn it off would be useful.
* The possibility to set after how much time the fade in/out effect of the chat box triggers when the chat box has been inactive for a while.
* Another limitation that I find in every game and that I cannot understand is about filtering the combat messages that do not involve your charater. It would make sense, but this is an option missing in every game. You can filter the attacks/spells of enemies or friends, but you cannot filter things that are about YOU. You can filter for example ALL enemy spells or ALL friendly spells, but you cannot tell the UI to just show spells that are being casted ON YOU, or on your target. So it’s basically impossible to set the game so that you can see what matters to you without also having to deal with extra spam coming from all that happens around you. I don’t care, for example, if “x” is healing “y”. But I would like to see a message if “x” is healing ME. Or if it is launching a fireball at me without also getting messages for all the fireballs that he throws around. I can understand that this probably is hard to implement on the server (since it seems that it just binds together default chat channels, without sending dynamic, custom messages) but this could be easily doable through the client.
* An option to change the size of the fonts in the chat bubbles (that also flicker awkwardly on the screen in some cases where who speaks is behind you).
Another part that could use some improvements is the hotbar:
* The icons are quite ugly and uninspired, lacking an actual good and consistent style that could be also appropriate for the setting. They look too generic.
* What bugs me the most is that the “fade” effect on the icon when you finished to cast a spell and are waiting for the recast time is too dark. It’s really hard to distinguish at a glance the status of the recast timer.
* I noticed that I CAN queue spells but there’s no apparent way to see what I have queued or if there’s something queued. WoW in the same situation highlights the borders of the icon, so you can see clearly if an action is still waiting to be triggered or if you aren’t issuing any particular command. EQ2 could also use something along those lines, with graphical marks on the hotbars to clearly show queued spells and styles.
* A good idea that the (any) game could borrow from Ultima or Shadowbane is the possibility to drag an icon and drop it anywhere on screen. Bypassing the hotbars. This would be a really nifty functionality that I’m sure many players would appreciate.
* I had problems tracking the active effects on my target during combat. I play a “defiler” and my class has some debuffs and DOTs. Similarly to WoW I can see the active effects in the target window but all my debuffs look EXACTLY the same. They are all dark green on red and it’s basically impossible to distinguish one tiny icon from the other. This is a part that could use some work. The active effects that are frequently used together should be always easily recognizeable one from the other so that I can see at a glance which effect I need to recast. It would be a good design principle that would help to keep the game playable instead of confusing. Trying to recognize one icon from the other isn’t all that “fun” and it shouldn’t be an actual mechanic of the combat. It’s just the UI getting in the way and doing its duty poorly.
* Add the name of the zone the character is currently exploring directly on screen, clearly visible instead of having to bring up the map window. It could be easily bundled with the compass, for example.
By the way, why the introduction movie is so demanding on the hardware? It stutters when I watch it and I can see the CPU usage to the max. It’s quite odd since it’s just a movie and considering I have a rather good CPU. And since I’m going after the detail: why the “credits” page shows a point of view of the scene stuck inside a tree? It wasn’t possible to choose a better point? Odd.
Sound and music
Well, I don’t really have much to say. The quality is average, not too bad, not amazing. The musics remind me of the first EverQuest and while they aren’t anything amazing they still fit nicely. The sound system also gives you lots of options as it was for the graphic engine. You cannot tweak the volume of each sound type separately but there are insteresting options like the possibility to add varying pitch to the sounds or a slider that regulates how much variance you want (at the expense of more memory/cpu cycles). You can set the music to loop or play only once, as when you enter a new zone. It would be nice to even flag various locations in a zone to trigger short sound pieces but the options are satisfying enough anyway.
The sound quality (meaning the selection of the sounds, not the technical quality) is varying as for the graphic. Sometimes there are nice environmental sounds that bring some places to life, I was also positively surprised by the sounds of the steps. In other games there’s only one sound repeated over and over that everyone finishes to disable because it is too repetitive and annoying. In EQ2 the steps change depending where you walk. There are different sounds for the sand, wood, stone, grass etc… And you also hear different sounds if for example you walk on a road instead of the grass nearby. This shows a care rare in this game.
Then, in other cases, the sounds are quite dull and monotonous, in particular during the combat. I dislike how the spells sound as I dislike how they look (the particle effects indigestion). Sometimes it seems like hearing a bunch of dissonant gongs, bells or odd sci-fi effects that I didn’t find appropriate. As I said the environmental sounds can be nice, the game can have lots of atmosphere but in some of the case it’s like it is not cooperating.
The NPCs are supposed to have voices. I say “supposed” because only a minimal part of them seem to have voices. I’m still finishing to download the optional voice packs but I have the suspect that the situation won’t improve too much. I was expecting 100% of the text to be also dubbed but now I doubt it is. The voices, as the rest of the game, are of a varying quality and the game does a very, very bad work to reproduce the voices of the fantasy races like ogres and trolls. It really feels like a bad b-movie. The voices can enhance a lot the game and I believe they could have a lot of potential if used in the right way (along my idea to shift back the focus on the real “story”), but in EQ2 this potential isn’t used. The voices add very little to the game and you don’t lose much if you don’t have them. There’s little to no acting and in some cases you wish to not have heard the dub. Finding a voice that you would consider appropriate for the character that is speaking is more like an exception than a rule, sadly.
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Hmm, other notes? I had some problems redefining the controls. I could set the keyboard and mouse options as I liked (and again there are many options available) but the game just didn’t seem to consider what I set. It kept using the default bindings completely bypassing my configuration. I actually managed to solve the problem by deleting all the .ini file in the main directory but it was quite odd since I just installed and run the game right away (the problem could have been because I created the first character, then quickly deleted it and recreated with the same name).
I’m currently level 9. I have the combat experience turned off because I’m outlevelling content that I want to see and there’s a bazillion of quests everywhere that I WANT to do. Most of the last level not only I didn’t receive exp from the combat, but I also stopped questing and I STILL dinged a level just by running around and discovering new places (which also gives you some exp). So I’m still just running around gaping at the places. As I said the quality of the art is varying, but I’m finding the game also quite satisfying to explore. The world is not contiguous as in WoW and this leads to a “double-face” result. From a side the exploration is frustrated because you bump into invisible walls and because it’s really hard to figure out how the game world is connected together, from the other the smaller zones allow for more variance between the various places. I still have seen very little about the game so I don’t know how it will shape out throughout all the zones and levels, but for now it was quite interesting (and again the highs and lows). As I wrote in the previous comments this game feels more labyrinthine compared to WoW but this isn’t a bad decision since, from what I’ve seen, EQ2’s engine renders big, open spaces much, much worse than WoW. So it’s actually good that it focuses on what it does better. I’m quite worried because there’s always the engine as a limit to what the zones can offer. Too much complexity and the game would really become totally unplayable.
I dread what they can do with the upcoming expansions. I don’t really want to run after the game continuously trying to upgrade the hardware to keep its pace. EQ2’s engine is already so heavy that it won’t run with maximized options even in ten years. I’m not joking since the requirements can rise exponentially as you rended more high detail characters instead of relying HEAVILY on a variable the Level Of Detail. I know that SOE built the engine to support the game in the longer term, but the problem here is that, while the games won’t run fluid still for a long while, its graphic quality is already varying with highs and lows and I don’t think it will remain convincing for long. It seems like putting the cart ahead of the horses. EQ2 isn’t developed for the current generation, but it may suck for the next one. It’s not a really promising future if you put things in this perspective…
Hmm… Overall I have to admit I’m having fun and enjoying my time. The game still looks really rich and filled with new things to discover. I know *exactly* where its appeal is and why it was able to capture it, but the truth is that EQ2 isn’t really using this potential. It’s just hinting to it. I would hope for Vanguard but then I’m even MUCH more skeptical toward it. What I’d like to see, and that I’m sure I’ll be deluded still for many, many years, is a “simulation”. Something closer to an enriching world where you really can feel immersed. I miss this aspect so much and I still STRONGLY believe it’s something possible to achieve in this genre and worthwhile pursuing. I’m sure that a game moving in that direction instead of just game-y, artificial gameplay would be hugely successful and could even go to notch WoW’s predominance (but then SOE seems more interested to leech than actually compete, heh..). I’m having so much fun in EQ2 right now because it feels richer and more varied, because I’m discovering things while the combat is still only one of the aspects.
I know that these feelings won’t last forever and that soon the discovery will come short and what will be left will be the endless monster bashing along with some functional quests. But EQ2 let a glimpse of an undisclosed potential. Even that tiny glimpse is giving me so much fun. If I’m liking EQ2 IS NOT because it’s at 99% traced over WoW. But for that 1% that feels different. But SOE is too blind to see that.
I’m not looking for another time sink or another facy whack-a-mole. I’m looking for a “world” where I can really be part of and that isn’t restricted to an evolved combat game. I’d like to see an enriching experience that gains more life and breadth, that is able to offer more interests than just one. Overinflated and stretched.
I still love mmorpgs. But I love them for what they aren’t already.