Hi Hive Gamers
This is my entry for the HIVE gaming Contest - The game that marked me the most.Im going with the MMORPG Everquest 2.
Collecting footage and screenshots for this post these last couple of days has been alot of fun,a nostalgia filled trip down memory lane back to the game that started my obsession with online gaming way back in November of 2004.
In the video above I have used footage from the main characters I have played over the years.We see Dwarven Warriors and Shaman, High Elf Druids ,Human Wizards, Wood Elf Monks and Barbarian Berserkers.I edited this footage to a song called "Where The Truth Lies " which was the intro music from an 1990s cartoon called Prince Valiant.I felt the epic songand epic high fantasy footage went together perfectly.
When the intro to the video ends we find ourselves in one of the games starting zones, Oakmyst forest playing a Dwarven Berserker named Thorinn...
I used this character to wander around some of the low level starting zones I am most nostalgic about and while doing so I talk about my history of playing the game and why it made such an impression on me.
(Oakmyst Forest flora and fuana)
I started playing this game back in the winter of 2004.It was the first ever online game I had played.I have always been a huge fan of everything High Fantasy , Tolkien, Dungeons and Dragons , GRR Martin.So taking my first steps into an online world of monsters ,myth and magic was incredibly exciting.To this day no game has ever gave me the same sense of discovery as those early days of EQ2
(A Unicorn in Oakmyst, I feel bad every time I kill him for his loot :( )
(Grubdigger the bear, the big bad boss of Oakmyst that can take out low level players in one shot)
My favorite zones in the game are the Catacombs under the city which are accessed by sewer grates.
I still to this day think that these catacombs are some of the best designed zones in the game and the best catacomb themed zones I have seen in any rpg to date.
These rat and corpse infested tunnels have many quests and descend multiple levels below the city...
They are home to a gang of Ratman rouges which will backstab you as soon as look at you as well as much fouler things...
The city zones in the good aligned city of Qeynos are also something I have always found highly impressive.The medieval era high fantasy architecture looks right of a Tolkien or GRR Martin book.
These zones offer player housing , merchants and the broker/marketplace where players sell their wares to each other as well as crafting houses and various quests from other inhabitants of the city.
I am also very nostalgic for the first overland zone in the game,Antonica.Its in this zone that we take our first steps outside the starter zones and into the wider world of Norrath.
(The coldwind lighthouse can be seen from all over the zone)
(A gryphon station used for fast traveling around Antonica)
(A rotstuffed Scarecrow in the cornfields...this is a great exp grinding spot for characters in there mid teen levels.The sound of their laughter will forever be in my memory)
(Geralt the Assassin shoots a bear in the eye in the Antonican hills...pesky bears! )
One of my favorite quest lines starts in the hills behind the scarecrow field...A hidden little graveyard....a mysterious mage.....talk of lost treasures from times long passed....The voice acting here is brilliant,I made sure to add it in the video above.
Antonica is also where we find the entrance to the first Dungeon in the game.Blackburrow,stronghold of the Gnolls!
Another thing I get real nostalgic about is the original raid zones.I remember being hugely excited the first time my guild raided the valley of the undead to kill the Arch Lich Udalan.
Fighting an undead army is always fun...
Time to wrap this post up before it gets to long..thanks for joining me in this tale of Dungeons...
Dragons...
Monsters...
Magic...
And Mythical Heros!
My final thoughts are that if you haven't ever played this game before its well worth checking out for every RPG fan.Play on a progression server to relive the game in its early days.
I will leave a couple of videos here I filmed in the early days of the progression srvers.
Lord of The Rats...A low level Elven Warlock clears out rats in the catacombs...
Drogon and Yoda fight undead Stormlords in Stormhold,one of the best designed Dungeons in the game.
Thanks for giving me a reason to relive these memories :)