Everquest II: Desert of Flames review

Desert if Flames is the first expansion for Sony's popular MMORPG Everquest 2. I ordered the expansion via digital download and was surprised that it was ready to play within ten minutes; this was because my PC had been downloading the files for it for over a month in a similar way to Valve's Steam system. I've been really looking forward to seeing this expansion in action as Level 50 life in Everquest 2 does get kind of dull after a while.

New Combat

Desert of Flames brings tons of new content into the game. One of the major features is a new fighting system, the whole combat system as been completely rewritten. This meant I had to prepare myself to use a whole new batch of spells. This process can take hours for some and minutes for others. I took half an hour picking new spells and training upgrades no known as Master II Spells.

This wasn't a simple process as Sony has changed the system quite dramatically and it's easy to get confused over the host of new icons. One has to be careful not to make major mistakes when looking at this new combat system for the first time.

New Locations

This new expansion also gives use plenty of new zones and a completely new city called Mai;Dui. The city is a particularly beautiful one. You also receive ten more levels for playing both in trade-skilling (item making) and normal levels. There are many new raid zones too.

So far I don't have any real complaints about the stability of Desert of Flames. I've certainly not come across any show-stopping bugs. Of course, some bugs will become apparent over time, that's how these games work, but I'm not overly concerned.

You can walk around and get a good view of the city, the old zone system from Everquest I returns, where you don't have to press a bell or open a door to a zone, instead you just walk in.

Show and Tell

As I'm a very active player I wanted to go and make some quick discoveries, I'm not one to rest on my laurels. I quickly gathered new items so I could make new ones, but this system didn't work how I expected it to. Previously fuel components for the T6 (Tier 6 Stuff level 50-60) at T5 pricing were 9sp and the recipe book was pretty inexpensive too.

However in Desert of Flames you have to go to the new city and buy fuel for 42sp a throw. For many players this is very expensive and takes some time to accumulate. I was rather shocked by this development, now XP seems slower and trade-skilling has gotten so much more expensive. The upshot of this is that levelling to 60 will become a much slower grind for many players and a rather disastrous change for the large raid guilds.

To the more casual-player such as myself it's less of a concern as it will give me more playing time that I've missed, I haven't built any more experience for the last four months.

Monster Mash

Desert of Flames also brings many new monsters to the game, so many in fact that I haven't got time to mention them all in any great detail. What I can tell you though is that they're mean, very mean. Together with the new combat update this will take a long time to get used to as the way we fought them in the past isn't the way we have to fight them now.

One problem that exists now is that monsters that would leave you alone before this expansion now will attack, leading to many problems you just aren't used to dealing with. What happens is that monster 10 levels below you will attack whereas previously it was six levels below you. This is of special annoyance to casters.

Duelling

Another new feature is the way duels operate. You can choose to duel inside or outside of a town. You don't die if defeated, just fall down. There's an annoying here in the duelling system in that non-combatants can heal those players duelling, which can make for an unfair fight if your opponent has some friends watching to heal him.

You can also choose to fight in the arena where there are many different options. It really looks like a fun way of expanding your combat experience but I haven't tried out all the permutations yet. The only one I've spent much time with is deathmatch. Here I kicked a level 50 berserker four times and he got me once, hey it's okay, I didn't want to break him down completely.

You can bet on duels before the fight begins, both with money or items. When the fight is over the winning side receives the items and money. It's a fun addition and one that I've enjoyed exploring with people from my guild. Of course, you may not want to get into duelling and for that reason you can choose an option never to duel.

Mob Rule

Well I don't want to get bogged down in criticism as I really like Desert of Flames but the new mob lock system really doesn't work. It means that a guy can attack a mob, but the mob isn't locked to him, so all outsiders can then attack it. It means a level 35 can complete quests and will get credit for it just for hitting the mob the one time. For raid mobs it will be locked permanently, but not for solo heroic mobs. In my view this is a pretty bad decision by the developer.

But generally Desert of Flames features plenty of new stuff which is very positive. Yes there are some major changes that will take time to get used to, but on the whole my experience with Desert of Flames has been a very positive one. There are plenty of things I haven't explored fully yet such as voice emotes and of course, it's going to take months to explore all the new content.

Desert of Flames doesn’t offer a whole lot to lower level players as the new zones are all level 45 to 60, so it's best seen as an expansion for higher level players. It's a worthwhile and enjoyable expansion to Everquest II none-the-less.