Boring and Complex - Solo Players Not Allowed
I played a Barbarian Healer, which I was told was a bad combination, but it was a great combination if you play solo. A walking tank that can heal itself? You figure it out. I was walking through sections that gave wizard/warrior teams troubles. The world is beautiful and GPU-melting. You simply can't have enough graphics horsepower to run this game. Except for two major problems. The servers were constantly overloaded. Whenever I got into towns, my ping went through the roof, and I was waiting for textures to load. That is simply bu!!$hit for a game with a monthly fee.
There are sections that require a team to play. I had a hell of a time finding a reliable team that was actually interested in finishing quests. In fact, of my appx 50 hours of game play, I NEVER found a team that lasted more than an hour. Many times players would wander away or go offline, making it difficult to form any kind of strategies. The most powerful combo attacks in team play require teams to work...as a team. Imagine that. Basically, you are punished for playing solo, and many of the larger sections you CANNOT play as a solo. You have to have a team.
Sadly, the game is made for a group of people to play long-term together and running teamspeak on the side, each team member with specific roles. This is the AD&D way, but that doesn't necessarily translate well to MMORPG. Perhaps it should be faster to advance through the maps/plots as a team, but dedicated solo players should also be allowed!
And the puttering about with inventory, ingredients, stores, shops and such is a pretty lame way of doing things. I returned to my apartment to find that I had been gone so long that my rent was due, and couldn't enter my apartment till I paid my rent. Well, I was broke, and the remainer of the gear I could sell was...you guessed it...in my room. I became a beggar on the street, asking for money to pay my rent on my hovel! Who wants to pay a montly fee for a game like this?
I gave EQ2 this advice when I cancelled my subscription, and I hear they have added more solo adventures. Sorry boys, too late. I dumped that ho and picked up a sweet new thing called The Elder Scrolls Oblivion. After completing Oblivion in around 60 hours, I couldn't be more satisfied, I just wish I could have got my money back from EQ2...
-Conrad Zero
www.conradzero.com