EverQuest Online Adventures impressions

Sony's EverQuest Online Adventures is in stores today, making it the first-ever online-only console game released in North America. Based on the extremely successful EverQuest game for the PC, EverQuest Online Adventures is like a streamlined, faster-paced version of the 1999 original. Read on for our impressions of how the game has shaped up now that it's up and running.

We were eager to jump into the game's world of Tunaria to see how many other players we could find, and we were impressed to see that many of the game's starting cities are already filled with a dozen or more players. Currently, there are four separate servers running EverQuest Online Adventures (players may choose to create their characters on any of these), and each one can accommodate approximately 3,000 players, so the game appears to be filling out nicely. Some of the early adopters are quite obviously beta testers, as some have relatively high-level characters and are speaking as though they've been playing for a while already. However, many of the early adopters are evidently experiencing massively multiplayer gaming for the first time.

We experienced little to no lag playing the game over a broadband connection, though we have yet to test it over a telephone line. EverQuest Online Adventures is playable using just the Dual Shock 2 controller, which lets you communicate with other players by means of a number of chat macros available from a breakaway menu. However, the game also works with USB-compatible keyboards, which allow players to chat much more readily. We've already spotted numerous players in the game asking each other for help and advice, joining hunting parties with each other, or just socializing.

In addition to requiring the PS2 Network Adapter, EverQuest Online Adventures needs a sizeable 3MB on a standard 8MB memory card. The game is sold at full price for about $50 and includes 30 days of free online play, after which players may continue on for about $10 a month. Discounted rates are available for those who order larger chunks of playtime in advance (up to an entire year).

While EverQuest Online Adventures is hardly the best-looking game available for the PS2, the experience of playing it is quite different from that of any other game available for the system. The gameplay heavily revolves around slaying monsters, gaining levels, and finding loot, and engaging in these activities with other players can be unusually entertaining. Though some of the mechanics and particulars vary greatly from the PC version of EverQuest, the PS2 game seems to have a similarly addictive quality to it.

We'll have a full review of EverQuest Online Adventures soon.