EverQuest: Planes of Power

List Price: $9.99 Discount Price: $3.45

Features:

• ESRB Rating: Teen
• Genre: Strategy
• Mission: Get ready for more in this pack that includes EverQuest game and Planes of Power expansion
• Platform: Windows 98/Me/2000/XP

Accessories:
PC Gamer (1-year)	Games for Windows: The Official Magazine	X3D TECHNOLOGIES X3D Gaming System (Windows)

Customer Reviews:

Don't listen to some of these [Posted on 2003-08-06]
Whoever said that you can't go into POK before 50, is lying. Flat out lying. You can get into pok at level 1. Plane of tranquility is at level 46, and as of a month ago, Plane of nightmare, innovation, disease, justice, can be accesed at 46. Valor, Storms, Decay, Torment can be accesed at 55. HoH and bastion of thunder are accesed at 62. If you don't have a level 46 plus character, buy this expansion solely for the ease of travel. No more taking the boat from butcherblock to freeport !

First Of The Post-Verant Letdowns [Posted on 2003-08-22]
"EverQuest: Planes Of Power" was obviously designed to cater to "Uber-Guilds," an expression used in the EverQuest online community to denote player guilds which are rather advanced in skills and prior experience, and large in numbers. The single adventurer, as well as the casual gamer or relative newcomer, will find little to no content whatsoever which is available to them in this expansion pack (past a certain point). It is all about groups and large scale raids. Solo gameplay in the "Planes of Power" zones is next to impossible, and that is appparently by design. In fact, several player class abilities were "nerfed" by Sony just prior to the release of this expansion, ostensibly to "better balance the classes." It is far more likely that those "nerfs" were enacted to prevent any possibility of traditional solo classes (such as Wizards and Druids) from being able to do any effective soloing in the new zones.

Another problematic feature of this add-on is the overpowered "gear" that one can obtain from the high-end encounters featured in "PoP." Introducing too much "uber gear" to an MMORPG game is precisely what ultimately ruined "Diablo 2" when the "Lord of Destruction" expansion was released. For many gamers, the focus becomes shifted away from roleplaying and game content, and instead toward greed for items which they can strut and show off to other players. It also tends to make player characters who *can* manage to obtain those items a bit too powerful, which hardly seems to fit in with Sony's highly questionable assertions... that several prior ability nerfs were done to "better balance the classes." If anything is true about "Planes of Power," it's that it is decidely UN-balanced in the extreme.

Painfully short on game content, all too few and sloppily written quests, overly lengthy encounters and a generally poor payoff in the "Plane of Time" endzone are what one can expect from this mediocre expansion pack. Whilst it is a "must have" for all EverQuest players, it hardly stacks up well against prior expansions such as "Scars Of Velious" or "Shadows Of Luclin" so far as actual depth, atmosphere and overall content is concerned. This is also the first EverQuest expansion set which the original game designers (Verant International) had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with, and it shows. Moreover, "Planes Of Power" is an expansion pack which 99% of all players will never see the bulk of, due to their being unable to assemble the "muscle" required to fully explore the additional zones and adversaries. Not being able to see three quarters of a game you pay for is rather disappointing (to say the least), so unless you already belong to a highly-skilled player guild, do not expect to progress past a very superficial point in this add-on to EverQuest.

Lastly, "The Planes Of Power" tends to look and play more like a Sony PlayStation 2 game than an add-on for a classic PC based MMORPG. Storyline depth and roleplaying content has been replaced in favour of eye candy, overpowered enemies, and ridiculously and unnecessarily overpowered items designed to appeal to player egos. "PoP" is not entirely without merit, but depending on what you look for in a roleplaying game, you may be disappointed overall. Defenders of this add-on have often said to me "Well, Sony knows what sells, that's why PoP is the way it is, and that's the bottom line." Naturally, I have no problem with manufacturers of PC games making a profit on their merchandise, but I see no reason why profits and product integrity need be mutually exclusive concepts.

Thumbs down overall, but a necessary add-on for all EverQuest players.

EQ: Planes of Power: Where do we go from here? [Posted on 2003-11-27]
Note: This review is ONLY about the "Planes of Power" add-on to Everquest, and not the game itself.

In many ways, "Planes of Power" (PoP) is one of the best of the Everquest expansions, raising the level limit, bringing in more planes (extradimensional homes of the gods) than in the rest of the game, spectacular new enemies to fight and a single overarching storyline that spans 19 levels and puts the most powerful characters in a battle against the forces of creation, freeing Norrath's equivalent of Prometheus, the god who gave magic to mortals and who was imprisoned by the others for his crime in a place no one would ever be able to find him ...

This all sounds pretty good, but for an expansion not designed to be the finale for the most successful American MMORPG, it has painted the rest of the game into something of a corner.

For starters, where does the game go once players have gotten more power than other (enough that some players are now soloing dragons that normally up to 30 people to kill) and have defeated almost all of the gods? Fighting a really, really, REALLY tough orc who happens to be as tough as the God of War strains credulity -- more than that, it's just plain silly.

Secondly, the expansion also includes the Plane of Knowledge, a plane every level 1 character can reach by clicking on the bookstand outside starting cities. And because all such cities are included (along with a few other locations in Kunark, Velious and Luclin), travel distances in the game are all but a memory. Instead of evil characters having to suffer the consequences of their evil, all characters may now use the factionless Plane of Knowledge as a home base without consequences, and may skip past barriers to go anywhere they want, almost at will. While this is inarguably a convenience, part of the appeal of Everquest was its wealth of content. PoP turns EQ into a Readers Digest version of Norrath, with players able to skip between the highlights, and now any zone more than two zonelines away from Knowledge is a back water where many players simply will not go. The game has been forever changed, and this is one genie unlikely to ever be put back in the bottle.

As for the content itself, it's good. It uses existing lore, draws us into the ongoing story of the game, and the planes are often real eye-poppers (the Plane of Innovation, with its magical clockwork robots run amok and the fleshscape of the Plane of Disease are two of the show-stoppers).

None of it other than Knowledge can be accessed by characters under level 46, and the other planes require further levels, characters to succeed in certain quests, characters to have beaten certain raid bosses (in events involving dozens of other characters) or all of the above. The vast majority of the player base will never see at least six of the zones in PoP. While most of the previous expansions had zones similar to this, they were usually a mere one or two per expansion (Veeshan's Peak in Kunark, Sleeper's Tomb and the Plane of Mischief in Velious, Vex Thal in Luclin), and six zones are an awful lot of content for players to pay for and never use -- essentially subsidizing the content for the most powerful guilds.

For what it is, PoP is enjoyable, and a lot of fun. But much of it feels like well-meant mistakes. Game balance is changed forever, much of the older content is sinking into obscurity, and Everquest's great system of faction that made player characters part of a world where actions matter is more or less irrelevant now.

"Everquest: Planes of Power" is a lot of fun (especially if you enjoy raiding), but it's hard to see how the game can continue on much longer in any recognizable form after this.

Recommended for the great deal of utility Everquest players will get from the expansion, especially players with characters level 46+.

Probably the worst thought out Expansion to date [Posted on 2004-01-04]
This is quite possibly the worst thought out expansion to the game to date. The addition of character flags has effectively cut off 80 percent of the players from even accessing the upper planes. Come play our game with your friends! Oh wait you can't because you can't get into the same zone with them..so sorry!
This addition and the relative decimating of older zones in the game by the additions of higher levels, overbalanced players and spells, and bad experience modifiers has cause this game to become even more elitist than it previously was. Add to that the rediculous twinking and destruction of game balance in general through overpowered drops useable by anyone, and rampant exploits/powerleveling and you have a wonderful game to be enjoyed by any 10 year old haxxor who has no regard for others.

The end of an era [Posted on 2004-10-22]
First off, my ratings are based on EQ as a whole. The greatest game ever created as far as I'm concerned. Once POP came out it made travelling too easy. I enjoyed the game when it was a vast, mysterious land, and I'm just talking about ther original continents. The books ruined it for the team servers. Back in the olden days it would require great effort for someone to make a toon to pk with and travel up to Qeynos and wreak havok in the outlying areas. Once the books came out it ruined the team servers as far as I'm concerned. I still have had more fun playing EQ over any other game. Hopefully EQ2 will bring back some of the challenges of the early game.

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