I'm a former EQOA player and I've been longing to return for a while - but little did I know the game was shut down last year. Which Everquest game would you recommend to someone who enjoyed EQOA? I haven't played either before. And a few questions: 1. What's the population like on both games? 2. Which one do you think has the better world to explore? 3. Which one has more freedom? (EQOA allowed players to turn into giant trees, mind control monsters for hours, and own pets twice the player's size - whereas a game like WoW wouldn't allow players to shapeshift/tame into anything bigger than the player) 4. Which one has a more "adventure" feel to it? Thanks guys.
1. Both games populations are solid. 2. This is subjective. EQ's world is bigger and less Theme park - EQ2's zones are big but are pretty linear (Mountains blocks 80% of the zones with only pre-made "paths" to advance through each zone). 3. Eq1 probably has more "freedom" in the way you described - but EQ2 is not bad either in this aspect. 4. Adventure? Probably Eq1 - because as I said it feels more sandbox as compared to EQ2 that feels more theme park. So I guess the answer to your question is Eq1 - Eq2 is Sony's equivalent of WoW.
EQ2 drops you into a very involved but also very linear questline from the get-go. That said, the first few times you play EQ2, the adventure feel is actually very strong. Precisely because they are more linear and scripted, the quests are more varied. You also can ditch the rather dull Gorowyn/Neriak/Faydark questlines and go check out some of the more involved zones from earlier in the game; there's some fantastic dungeon crawling (Stormhold, Nek Castle!),and lots of beautiful zones to explore that still contain relevant quests and content. Once you've seen it a few times, you're over it, but the first time it's a treat. EQ1 is more replayable and my game of choice, in the long run, but the zones are much more static and the emphasis is always on monster killing. Many of the game's zones are little more than museums and don't reward exploration in any tangible in-game sense (whereas in EQ2, you actually get experience just for discovering areas for the first time, and there are collectables strewn across the game world.) In many respects, it depends on your definition on adventure. I've no experience with EQOA so I have no useful comparison to make.
eq is also more of a puzzle (unless you use allah etc, and then it depends on other players figuring out the puzzles first) there arre thousands of quests and items still not discovered in everquest because of this, which adds some mystery. eq2 is a "prettier" game and more easily learned because of the directions, and quest npcs telling you what to say who to go to how to get there etc. what you enjoyed the most about eqoa will determine which game is more your style. from some i have seen from eqoa, eq seems teh option, but they might like different things about eqoa than you did.
I agree with most all thats been said, No game beats EQ1 in content, Smedly had no real part in the creation of EQ2 so it lost a bit of the Vision heh, EQ1 is deffinatly closer to what ive seen of EQOA but your asking on an EQ1 forum of course we are gonna say we Rock
Absolutely no competition here... EQOA is practically EQ1 in its spirit , only more Basic. EQ2 is basically like WoW. Go to X, Run to Y, deliver Z. No go to next territory do the same thing with new monster models... oh and like WoW, NOBODY wants to speak to each other, they just want to speak within their guildchats... In summary if you go EQ2, you will realise why almost no Original Everquest players remain there.
The graphics from EQ2 are closer to EQOA but newer. In terms of gameplay you're probably about halfway between both games. For content and gameplay, EQ1 is much closer. For mechanics EQ2 is probably a little bit closer. I only played EQOA for a short time, but if i can clarify please let me know.
