Everquest Legends is...

So there is a new Everquest server coming out. I'd say a new ruleset but I think that is burying the lead a bit. It is radically different from the OG everquest: multi classing, adhoc zone instancing, class/race/deity changing at will, item and spell upgrades... it's a lot. Everquest legends - a grandiose title for a mediocre take on the game - in a nutshell my thesis is this: the devs are in over their heads.

They're launching in a state where class balance is all over the place, very few zones have been changed (5 out of around 100) intentionally, those 5 are the kind of rough pass someone could do in an afternoon on a private server. Spawn locations, quests, etc of the zone haven't been changed. They've either been given some new rare mobs with the new loot, or the loot has been added to the drop tables for existing mobs. One of them was releveled to provide a smooth level progression from the front to the back but just one of them. This is such a minimal amount of design work it's unreal. They've added new zones for two of the races that don't have home zones in this version of EQ but one of them they just put into a mid level zone.

They've made huge systems changes to the game but they haven't really figured out how they all interlock. And I'm frustrated by this. I was excited for a version of Everquest where I could attack raids and high end zones with just a couple of friends. What I've gotten is this weird version of everquest that clearly preferences solo play over group pay, but it has a monthly fee. And a box fee. And a cash shop. And paid expansions (of stuff that's been out for twenty five years). A game that you can play at your own pace, but they have weekly raid lockouts in place to stop you from progressing too fast. A game where grouping up for experience is slower than soloing because you kill faster than mobs respawn. A game where you can unlock all races, classes, and deities on your one character allowed per server, but then what does that mean for your character? What even are you then?

Communication with this dev team is bad too. They have a discord which is moderated okay, but the community is full of raging assholes - I have NEVER blocked this many people in my life. The hype poisoning is real. All communication is done via minimal patch notes (if that looks light for the final patch of a beta, it is), live streams, and occasional off the cuff comments. There's no real mention of the ethos they want to bring to the game over than what is available on the main site where you can buy the game. That is written in a way where two reasonable people can read it and have wildly different take aways from it. But aside from promising a roadmap which was delivered today it's silence. Silence and underwhelming patch notes. Speaking of the roadmap:

Launch:

• a race they've committed to having at launch
• in game maps for zones (which already exist elsewhere, they're reinventing the wheel for unknown reasons).

Summer:

• 4k scaling, which should have been in during launch with a modern release.
• Deity unlocks, one of the systems they are selling as being the special sauce of the game.
• Continued dungeon reitemization which doesn't fill me with confidence. It took them months to do 5 and they're at best half assed. Also should have been in launch - Noticing a theme?
• A single new zone. Yay?
• An in game shop item.

Fall:

• A single new zone, labeled as a mini expansion which might mean it actually has quests and story associated with it, but it's also rehashed EQ2 content so who knows.
• Holiday events (how is this even on a roadmap?!)

Winter:

• A paid expansion, that was first released 25 years ago. Wild.
• And the ability to restart your character in some form.

This isn't actually underwhelming, it's less than that. I cannot believe they're launching in this state. I don't even know if I have anymore to say - what's launching on the 28th, in 3 days is what I would use to pitch a game. What they have planned is mostly charging a second time for old content. This is crap. I'm disappointed and I won't be subscribing.