EverQuest

The Good
"EverQuest" is quite an experience. A standard sword-and-sorcery hackfest, it delivers 3D mages-and-maces goodness over a huge, twice-expanded world. Exploration of the entire Everquest universe would take weeks; the selection of monsters, spells, weapons, armor and magical items is immense.

EverQuest is also a well-balanced game, offering relatively steady progression through various levels of nasty monsters, and is extremely player-friendly; no cherry-picking PKers will ruin your game here (unless you want them to.) An imaginative and very effective addition is the EQ "party" system whereby players are encouraged, and derive significant benefits from, acting as a team. Parties are easily set up and disbanded as needs dictate, and the resulting cooperation enhances the game experience and play balance a hundredfold.

The Bad
It's soooooooo slooooooooooowww.

Progression through each level, assuming you play more or less by the rules, takes hours, hours, hours and more hours. This is especially frustrating because the game lacks a substantial number of really interesting quests for characters under level 20. So if you want to advance to the point where you'll be doing really cool things, you're looking at literally days of gameplay fighting the same monsters over and over again.

Like it or not, most EQ gameplay is essentially a math contest; you engage a monster in combat and if your (average damage inflicted per minute/monster HP) is higher than (average damage taken/your HP) you will win; if not, you'll lose. Defeating a superior monster is essentially impossible, and tricks that allow it to be done are usually removed from the game by its makers. Consequently, the monsters you can fight at any given time are limited; anything more than 2-3 levels higher will kill you with ease, and anything 2-3 levels below will give no experience. Since any level advancement after the first few levels requires you kill SCORES of monsters, you'll find much of your gaming experience consists of fighting a predictable battle, resting, fighting the same battle, resting, ad nauseum. Group play allows for killing slightly higher-level monsters but doesn't change the overall pattern of play.

In short; if you want to get something out of EQ, you need a lot of time.

The Bottom Line
The best online RPG out there, but awfully time-intensive and not as deep as some would like.

The Good
I liked the good graphics and the mediocre spell casting. I also liked the fact that the CD makes a very nice coaster.

The Bad
I hated the downtime. THere was no such thing as logging on for just an hour..you had to log on, walk a great distance to fight a monster, spend more time gaining levels, and then there is the added fact that you are likely to die while fighting. When you die, you start off where you last binded your self too..and you have a limited amount of time to recover your things before they become lootable by all..so all in all, you are looking at spending about 2 hours on doing something that is very simple.

The Bottom Line
If you want to impress friends at a party, bring a bunch of EQ CDs and use them as coasters..that is about the most fun you will have with this game

The Good
D'oh it's Everquest! There are only two reviews and not that much stuff on it on Moby Games because everyone who has it is playing it right now! It is the hugest online game ever created. More than 600, 000 people play it and there are limitless possibilities from creating a character type to making a dent in the world! I would like to go into more detail, but it would take a loong time to explain it all. The Basics are: You make a character, and depending what race you are, you start off in a different city. There is no real point; you do what you want; sell stuff on message boards, chat, adventure or make a name for yourself. Just don't fight around a city, or you'll be killed witout haste by a guard, and you don't want to fight them. So, stock up on the caffeine (either Coke or Coffee) and get ready to put in at least 10 hours a week. Note that there ARE quests you can accomplish, however.

The Bad
You have to pay $5-$10 a month, and when you get killed you'll have to find your body to get your items back, which no one but you can take.

The Bottom Line
HUGE RPG where you do whatever you want, all over the internet, all for a small price.