I’ll admit it, I’m all hyped up about EQN. I’ve played EQ off and on over the years, and picked up EQ2 before it launched but quit shortly thereafter… despite that, I still hold a nostalgic place in my heart for Norrath and its environs. This game looks like a whole bundle of fun all wrapped up in shiny paper, with sparkly ribbons to boot. Norrath remains one of the most compelling game worlds I’ve played in, and on top of that, I get what looks like Terraria styled smashing and exploring? Count me in – I’ll definitely be keeping my eye on this upcoming beauty.
Family and health issues have kept me away from LoreHound, and gaming in general, for quite some time, but things seem to have finally settled back down and the announcements about EQN have spawned a nostalgic desire for Norrath, so I decided to celebrate my return and scratch that nostalgic itch by giving EQ2 another try.
Click the little button to read more about my return to Norrath.
And I’m actually having fun! I really didn’t expect that. It’s a completely different game than the one I remember, logging in was quite the experience as I heard a constant whine from all the error pings that cropped up due to my vastly outdated character. When the popups and alarm bells finally ceased, I was standing naked in the middle of a vast plain I didn’t recognize, with hotbars full of random skills I couldn’t use and macros that no longer worked.
Time to make a new character. :)
So I popped back to the character generation, and was I in for a load of new shocks. No more questing to change class – you pick your ultimate class right away! No wonder my characters were so messed up, they were on the old system so had skills that no longer existed. No wonder the logging in experience had seemed a tad familiar – it was akin to logging in to a modded Morrowind save game that had had its saves removed. There were new races, and when I finally finished up creating a character, I discovered there were 4 starting cities!
I miss the old starting newbie island and ship wreck, and am sad to see it go. But I do enjoy seeing multiple starting cities. It means I can indulge my altoholic tendencies and have multiple new experiences.. not to mention the old zones still exist as well, so there really is just a ton of content waiting to be explored. I will continue writing about my return to Norrath as I go, so stay tuned!
Just to sneak in some actual crunchy news before I go – This seems like an auspicious time to return, as there’s buzz about a new expansion being released in the next few months. The recent producer’s letter is rather vague, so I dug around a bit for more details and discovered that the heroic characters being mentioned are characters that start at 85. I’m not sure how I feel about that, ok, I am very sure I don’t like that – but I am aware that my crusty oldschool soul is very unpopular in the current gaming market. So here’s to hoping it’ll be executed well!
