EverQuest (Mac)

List Price: $39.99

Accessories:
PC Gamer (1-year)	ATI 100-435317 Radeon X800 XT Mac Edition for G5 256MB AGP Video Card

Customer Reviews:

The Peaks of Online Gaming [Posted on 2004-10-10]
Now, let me just start off this review by telling you that this is my experience of the game. I actually play off and on, believe it or not. I think the addictive quality of this game is somewhat overrated. I think some of that pertains to the fact that levels and skills do take a few hours just to evolve and that to do that, you'll be sitting down for quite awhile. However, it's not something I was just anticipating all day and all jazzed up and anxious to play. It's just an interesting experience, really. Something worth spending the time to level up.

Anyway, to speak of the technical specs, the graphics are fairly good for the time period. The new graphics engine in the Luclin expansion brings things up to somewhere between PSOne and PS2, if that's a fair measure of relativity. The music ranges from orchestrated and inspring(mostly in main PC zones like POK) to goofy and in broken MIDI sequences, depnding on what part of a continent you're on.

Speaking of continents, the game world of Norrath is pretty huge. So far consisting of 5 seperate continents and an entire moon to explore(not to mention below its surface) it takes a while to remember routes and tunnels, considering a mapping system doesn't actually exist(though a coordinate system does). For those types of things however, there are lots of sites that have done the mapping out in illustrations for you.

Character creation and development is very VERY vast. With about a dozen races AND seperate classes to choose from, it's fun and challenging to make a good combination that will get you by in the game enough to level up quickly and gain certain skills. Another interesting quality about this is that not all races can be of a certain class, and vice versa. And it never really feels very restricting even knowing that. Finally, the capacity for skills and spells one can learn and develop is nearly endless. Just as race and class restrictions apply, so do spells and skills. It's hard to find any Warrior that would need the Sneak skill, so everything is pretty self-explanatory.

Interaction is a plus too. You are playing with the Macs of the world, right? And unlike one of the previous reviews where people hardly find anyone else on line, contrarily I find alot of people everyday who want to join my group. But that may just be relative to the PC version. Also, you have an option to make your character a roleplaying character, effectively launching her into made-up storylines and forming relationships with other players. The one problem I've had with this is that for one, if you're roleplaying, you rarely get a chance to get experience unless it's part of your storyline. Two, when it finally comes to fighting and grouping, noone can tell what your class or level is because the roleplaying option only allows others to see your name and guild. On the other hand, you could just do it the easy way and roleplay without selecting the roleplay option in the options menu. The point is, you control how you want to experience the game and roleplaying is a fun, creative way to do just that.

And finally a word about the bugs in the game. I'm surprised so many people cut down their review ratings just because of this. I've found the game to be near flawless in its execution. The only bug I've experience constantly is lag, from using too much memory by utilizing the new Luclin character models for some races. You can modify which new models you want to keep and which you dont by race and gender. The more I used, the more lag I received. But that seems logical, seeing as how I'm running just under the game's system requirements anyhow.

Overall, this game is very well made. There's almost endless variety of things to do and a truly endless variety of ways you can shape your experience while playing. Soloing sucks, but when you get to grouping and socializing, you'll have the most fun and get the most experience. However, I'm not as addicted as other people claim. Personally, I don't find it all that riveting to play it for more than 2 or 3 hours. But then again, that's just me.

Try it for free if you're not sure [Posted on 2005-06-08]
You can get a free 30 day key (and a free download, if you don't mind the 2GB download).

I can't provide a pointer here, but if you google for "everquest macintosh free key" you should get our server forums at the top that has the post with instructions. You should get a response in just a couple of days, and get a chance to try the game for free.

There are also forums there, where you can ask questions, talk with people playing, etc.


There are many of us still playing and enjoying the game. If you're tired of Warcraft and want to try a game that's more engaging, if you miss your EverQuest days on PC, or if you have a Mac and are tired of the twinked, overcamped, spawn race, farmed, exploited game that is the PC EQ world.... you should check us out.


We only have up to Planes of Power (original EQ, Kunark, Velious, Luclin and PoP expansions), but arguably that is one of the last solid EverQuest expansions.

Many of the original issues at launch (Hollowshade War script, tier2+ pop not being accessible, spells not being available) have been fixed.

We have a part-time coder, a part-time GM (although she's more absent than we'd like), a guide program (volunteers who run quests/events and answer questions), and a tech support rep who goes above and beyond the call of duty for us.


If you have a Mac, give us a try -- it's free, and we're arguably the best online gaming community you will find anywhere.

It's the Mac Community [Posted on 2005-06-09]
The biggest selling point for EverQuest (Mac) is that the server and system requirements are Mac only. I don't know if it is due to the restriction of the community size, or if there really is a personality difference between Mac and PC gamers, but the EQMac community is far more helpful, friendly, and family-oriented than the PC only or even the mixed communities like WoW and Shadowbane.

I gave WoW a shot, but the lack of content at the high-end, the terrible spam and juvenile language in the chat channels drove me away. I find the rich, depth of content of Everquest and the more mature environment of the Mac version far more preferable.

Be warned, though. Everquest is a "harder" game than WoW or Shadowbane. It will take you longer to level, and even getting to the top zones in the game takes years of work with a committed guild. The game is less populated, so finding groups is more of a challenge.

Needless to say, I love the game. I have been playing it since the Beta in early 2003, and see no signs of quitting. No other game I have has lasted as long.

Build Maplewood  [Posted on 2005-06-09]
This game far exceeds anything i ever played online. And unlike other games this one does not grow old and gets discarded like other Computer games in the Past has.

The Server is small but growing. Bugs use to be several bugs. But many of them has been addressed and Fixed. (their a few outstanding Issues but we have confidence that they will be address soon)

If you enjoy Fantasy settings or ever Play Dungeons or Dragons give this Game a look it now. You May be surprised

Take a look it free to test out the waters And can get the Info for your free Keys At EQMAC.COM (Also a good place to learn more about the Game)

Lousy Support [Posted on 2005-09-13]
Never could get the game to run properly. Months of technical support contacts who could never figure out what was wrong. Wouldn't even refund my purchase price. SONY sucks. Will never buy another product from them. Good Luck with this one.

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