{"id":654,"date":"2009-07-30T00:43:51","date_gmt":"2009-07-30T05:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/?p=654"},"modified":"2009-07-30T00:44:24","modified_gmt":"2009-07-30T05:44:24","slug":"my-third-venture-into-eq2-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xenopulse.com\/blog\/?p=654","title":{"rendered":"My third venture into EQ2: Part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Beginning<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reflect arrived at Hate’s Envy a bit dazed and confused.\u00c2 You see it the teleportation spell that brought him here had the ill fated side effect of selective amnesia.<\/p>\n

Reflect could recall his name so when the officer in front of him started barking information and orders, he knew it was to him the officer was speaking.\u00c2 He also knew he needed money, and that he could fight at least clumsily.\u00c2 \u00c2 He also knew the man in front of him was a dark elf, and that he was someone Reflect should impress.<\/p>\n

Thus he accepted his orders and proceeded to step outside the wooden palisade, which marked the safe area of Hate’s Envy, and began to punch at small creatures of stone.\u00c2 The officer called them elements, but Reflect thought of them as fodder.\u00c2 There were many more of the creatures than the officer asked Reflect to defeat, and many more kept appearing, a fact which unsettled Reflect.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Next up the officer wanted him to help reduce a growing wolf pack that was now surrounding the back part of the outpost.\u00c2 Reflect agreed, but before leaving saw another man beckoning him.<\/p>\n

“You going to kill some wolves?” He asked, and reflect nodded.\u00c2 “Good, good. If you bring me their hides I can rewarded you.\u00c2 Sound good?”<\/p>\n

Reflect nodded again, smiling.\u00c2 He could do one job and get paid twice.\u00c2 Money in his pockets, new equipment, and he was starting to recall more things he knew how to do.\u00c2 More ways to fight and defend himself.\u00c2 Yes, this would be a good day.<\/p>\n

The Quests<\/strong><\/p>\n

After my first two installments (1<\/a>, 2<\/a>) describing my most recent return to EQ2, the above was how\u00c2 the first few minutes of actual adventuring started for me, as Reflect.<\/p>\n

The voice overs from the quest givers was nice, it did add something to the game.\u00c2 I am not sure what that “it” was but it stood out, and when NPC did not have voices for everything it felt odd.\u00c2 This made me think of all the recent talk about Star Wars Old Republic being a fully voiced game, and how much work that is going to be.\u00c2 \u00c2 Not just for launch, but every time they add NPCs or quests.<\/p>\n

The next thing that jumped out at me, was the quest dialog system, it was simply and natural.\u00c2 It\u00c2 did not take me out of the game world and presented all the information I needed.<\/p>\n

The quest journal itself is functional; provides sorting of quests by name, current zone (I suspect that means which zone the current quest step is for),\u00c2 level , and category.\u00c2 Selecting a quest and you can read the quest text, objectives, and rewards.<\/p>\n

Alas after playing for while I reflected back on the types of quests I encountered and realized that there were only a few basic templates.\u00c2 \u00c2 At about 20 minutes of gameplay I was level 5, and had seen 4 basic types:<\/p>\n