EQ: Lost Dungeons of Norrath Review

A nice little dungeon of my own.

Lost Dungeons of Norrath is the latest expansion to Sony Entertainmentí¢â‚¬â„¢s

EverQuest, the biggest massively multiplayer online

role-playing game in the western world. The Lost Dungeons offer

48 new dungeons with plenty of new monsters and equipment for groups and raid

parties levels 20 to 65. But the Lost Dungeons is not just

any old expansion: it has also changed EverQuest in some profound

ways, some for better, some for worse.

The

gameplay in the dungeons is quite different from the usual EverQuest

experience. First off, you now have to complete a certain task for which you

receive rewards. Once the group leader accepts the mission and the group has

reached the dungeon, it has 90 minutes to complete the mission and get their

reward. This time limit makes gameplay in Everquest much, much

more intense than it used to be. No more ‘away-from-keyboards’ to take a bio-break

or get a cup of hot java – you just caní¢â‚¬â„¢t afford it.

Besides the usual experience points and loot, rewards give you “adventure

points,” which you can trade in for nifty, high-powered equipment. These

includeí¢â‚¬Å“augmentation” items that you can apply permanently to your

gear to give your character better primary statistics such as strength, stamina,

agility, etc. And thatí¢â‚¬â„¢s nice …except that the augmentations are too

powerful.

Sony has also taken a new feature from the ongoing development of EverQuest II and put it into the classic EverQuest: exclusive dungeons, generated dynamically on the fly. The game will create a dungeon for your group and for your group only. No fighting with other groups for a “camp” anymore, which is particularly handy for raids. Nothing is more frustrating than putting together a 40-person raid, just to get to the camp and find a party already there. Those days are over now.

The auto-generated dungeon is also tuned to the strength of your group: the

more people and higher levels in your group, the tougher the dungeon. Since

the dungeon is custom-tailored for your group, the experience rewards are great.

Higher level characters (50 and up) will not have seen experience this good

in the many months they’ve been playing before The Lost Dungeons

came out. This also adds to the intensity of the game, since people caní¢â‚¬â„¢t

randomly drop out of their groups anymore. If even one character leaves the

group, it becomes much harder to complete the mission, particularly at higher

levels. Unfortunately, an unintended consequence is that if someone drops out

because they lost connectivity or because they are just being a jerk, your remaining

group may suffer for it.

í¢â‚¬Å“Automatically-generatedí¢â‚¬?

also means that the dungeon content is sort of static and flat. The monsters

doní¢â‚¬â„¢t hold any surprises. Fights are usually well-controlled and predictable.

The dungeon layout is often simple, even primitive. Challenging gameplay and

creative environments are somewhat lost in the Lost Dungeons of Norrath.

One good thing about the Lost Dungeons is that certain classes

that were previously underappreciated are now in much greater demand, simply

because it is hard to complete the adventures without them. No party is complete

without a Warrior as a sturdy meat shield for the casters or a Cleric as a dedicated

healer and resurrector, or an Enchanter to mesmerize monsters when a party has

bitten off more than it can chew. Rogues are a definite must if the party also

wants to loot potentially trapped treasure chests.

But the big problem is that Lost Dungeons is just to generous,

giving out too much experience and astonishingly powerful items too easily,

and that makes the game boring and upsets game balance. It promotes idiots.

You used to be able to count on high-level characters to have enough real-life

experience to know what they are doing, but now there are Enchanters and Warriors

at level 65 who caní¢â‚¬â„¢t find their own butt in the dark of a dungeon. It

brings a frosty note into your group’s social dynamics.

Everquest has also been plagued for years now by an inflation

of uber equipment, and the new “augmentations” simply add to that

flood. Soon we will have level 2 Monks who doní¢â‚¬â„¢t even know how to use

the bank, but run around with “Kwai

Chang Caineí¢â‚¬â„¢s Invincible Staff of Butt Whoopery.”

The bottom line? The Lost Dungeons of Norrath revives some

of the excitement Everquest used to have, and the personal

dungeons address some of the most pressing annoyances of current online RPGs.

On the other hand, the Lost Dungeons are another step towards

nerfing the game to death. Sony has tried really hard to open EverQuest

to a mass-market by making it simpler and simpler. One has to wonder why; it

is putting off the dedicated hardcore players, yet hasní¢â‚¬â„¢t really succeeded

in creating a bigger subscriber base.