Everquest: Shadows Of Luclin With Free Book "Tome of Lore"

List Price: $39.95 Discount Price: $25.22

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PC Gamer (1-year)

Customer Reviews:

Love it, unbelievable! [Posted on 2002-05-14]
All I can say is wow! Verant has done a great job with the new expansion to EQ, the new player models are amazingly eye-candyish. I was starting to get a little bored with the original eq graphics engine, ie. where there can be 10 different bp's that look exactly the same. No more! They actually have there own style now, yay! Along with just about everything else in Luclin. My pally looks extra ubber now, cuz he is =)

Now I can actually see paying the extra 3 bux a month for it, seeing has how there is a great new area to explore, and more great terrain to rome around in.

On the technical side of things, I didnt really notice a problem in the required specs, maybe if I had an older computer then I would be a little leary. XP 1800, 1 gig of ram, and a rusty old GeForce 2 MX 400 does the trick in luclin, I never notice a signifcant drop in fps playing a 1024x768.

If you are an avid EQ player, then i HIGHLY recommend that you purchase this is expansion, it is definately worth the [money].

Side note: If you play EQ on the Mithaniel Marr server, msg me sometime and we will go raid or quest or something =) My name is Kitheril Rengate.

So much hype about DAoC... yeah right! [Posted on 2002-05-22]
Everyone here who is disrespecting EQ in favor of DAoC make me laugh. I played DAoC and even have a level 43 healer and I don't think I'm the only person to say that DAoC gets boring fast. Small realms, not many different faces to choose from, all the armor looks alike (it's just how you dye it). The only classes I found interesting were Healer (Midgard), Bard (Hibernia), and Mentalist (Hibernia). But it's not enough to keep me interested.

In DAoC if you die, the worst thing that happens is you release, get sent back to your bind spot with everything on you, pay a few gold to get back your lost constitution and you're out some xp! This seems SO appealing to people who used to play EQ because you don't have the CR.

Imagine this though... playing with a group of people who don't worry at all about the consequences of really bad playing. They break mezzes, they don't protect the healer (in EQ you keep the cleric alive at all costs!), there are very very few good players in DAoC. It's a perfect place to go if you don't care about improving your skills and abilities.

If you want a game that you can just screw off, not worry about character development, it's a perfect game for you. If you die you're out in no time and you can log out of the game.

In EverQuest, playing well is something you must learn how to do. Sure there are high levels who can't play very well but from what I have observed (and I played on all 3 realms in DAoC) there is an overwhelming percentage of people in DAoC who do not care if they play well or not. They don't care about learning the strategies for a good group, they don't care if they get the group killed, it's no big loss for anyone.

In my experience with EverQuest people understand who can tank and who cannot tank. In DAoC everyone thinks they can tank! You try telling a rogue class (on any server in DAoC) that they are not to get agro and be prepared for them to rant and rant all day about how they can tank. People just do not understand their roles in DAoC. Of course I'm generalizing but aren't we all generalizing here?

Both games are interesting, and I was obviously very hooked on DAoC for quite some time, but DAoC is so limiting. When you do actually hit level 50 there's no where else to go. In EQ you can always work on alternate xp and work up your skills in other areas to make you a more effective player.

So, you people who tear apart EQ and make DAoC seem like it's the cure to everything. You are misleading people SO much! I'll stick to EQ!

A reasonable add-on, though system intensive [Posted on 2002-05-23]
Well, I've been playing EQ for a reasonably long time... about a year, perhaps. For an avid player, this is simply a must-have, just so you can journey to the moon with all your friends who are inevitably going to want to go. For anyone new to EQ, make sure you are "in" to the game, first, before purchasing this expansion.

HOWEVER, this addition is a HUGE performance hit on slow machines with slow processors and/or not enough memory. Though it sort of improves on past performance issues (like the graphics in Kunark), the texturing can sometimes make previously "fast" areas quite slow (eq. Qeynos and similiar cities will lag on slower machines). If you have a slower machine, use this expansion for the maps only and wait to turn on the extra options (esp. texturing) until you have a faster machine.

SoL, is a must have. [Posted on 2002-05-29]
I have 633 mhz, 256 mb RAM, and a GeForce 2 on my computer. I keep everything on high, seeing the game at it's best. And Lag? What is this lag you all speak of? Because lag is as rare as any rare spawn on the face of Norrath (And Luclin ;)! I keep on as many character models my computer can handle (which is about half of them) And the game runs just fine. I get a little lag here and there, mostly from being around a huge group of people, but other then that no problums. ^^

And what do people see in DAoC? Ive played it. I had fun with it for a little while, but it just gets old and it gets old FAST. In EQ, the choices for places to explore is almost endless, not to mention everytime I vist certain zones I just stand back and think "Wow". In DAoC... I see a castle...Woohoo a castle! This game is soooo cool now! Not to mention all the characters look the same. Oh! and the helms! I can't stttaaannnddd the helms in DAoC! Looks like my character is wearing a bowl on her head. Im stickin with EQ. There's no other online game that is just so different, in so many ways then EQ. Not to mention challanging!

A must have if you play EQ, or wish to start [Posted on 2002-09-30]
This expansion is well worth the money if you are a current EQ player, and is a *must have*. Even if you have never played EQ, and are considering trying it out, this expansion is highly desirable.

Don't worry about performance hits to your PC from the addition of Luclin. While Luclin is laggier than the original EQ release, it is much less than the first EQ expansion (Kunark). I attribute this to the richer textures found on the moon. Using my ancient computer (with no 3d card), you can play in Luclin with only minimal lag (most zones).

What makes Luclin so desirable is its convenience. In the Norrath (the old world), you had to travel long distances for everything. This made the game dull as you spent half your online time running around. In Luclin, almost everything is less than 4 zones away from the center of the moon. Banks, vendors, cites, and hunting grounds are all nearby.

Most importantly, bankers, vendors and guards in Luclin do not care (for the most part) about old-world faction. Dwarven vendors in Luclin will gladly sell to Ogres and Trolls. They don't seem to care what deity you worship, or what horrible things you did on Norrath. In Luclin, you start out fresh, free of any persecution (or favor) you may have faced in the old world.

Another huge convenience is the availability of some excellent hunting grounds (for all levels) that reward the player with excellent loot and experience. In the old world, the monsters that gave you the best experience also gave you the worst loot, and likewise, rich loot came from monsters that gave meager experience gains.

As for treasure, Luclin monsters drop some of the best gear you can get at the level you are hunting. In Norrath, you were hard pressed to find monsters you could kill that would give anything worthwhile for your level. To get suitable gear, you had to assemble a strong raiding party, trek to a dangerous, far-away zone, venture deep into maze-like dungeons, and then hope to win the draw for a rare item from a rare spawn that may appear once in several hours. That, or just save every copper piece you could gather, travel to a popular selling zone, and then stick around waiting for someone to offer items you need and can afford.

You can hunt solo at any level in Luclin. Monsters of the same level are slighly stronger than they were in the original world of Norrath, but not as overpowered as the creatures found in the Kunark and Velious expansions.

Having all 3 expansions, here is the breakdown of my online time spent in each:

Old-world Norrath - 80% for characters level 1 through 14, 3% for characters above level 15 (usually come here just to buy spells)
Kunark - 3% for characters level 1 through 16 (usually to buy spells), 5% for characters above level 30 (usually come here for quests), 5% for characters above level 50 (for experience or quest related raids)
Velious - 0% for characters under level 30, 30% for characters above level 50 (dragon raids mostly)
Luclin - 15% for characters under level 14, 65% for characters level 15+

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