I didn't play this game during its inception, and prior to lately the only time I played it was for a very short period during a steam free weekend over a decade ago. I started playing just looking to scratch an MMO itch and it's pretty great. I can see why it survived. For the first few hours I knew I liked it but couldn't put my finger on why. Then it really hit me. Everquest is familiar in all of the ways I never usually see. This is all from a F2P perspective. I would pay $5 for a monthly subscription to just Everquest, but I'm not interested in the other games so $15 doesn't feel worth it.

First is the aesthetics. It looks closer to what a 3D Elder Scrolls Arena would look like than Morrowind or later games in that series. I think the D3D9 style really is just that. A fantastic style. Things have flashy effects. You can play in first person, third person or isometric. The music and sound effects are charming. The character designs are interesting. The whole vibe is just right.

Gameplay feels like an MMO, which is a good thing because it doesn't feel too grindy or restrictive. I spent a long time in Gloomingdeep, but I didn't actually have to. You can walk out into the world at any time and just start questing at the level 1+ spots. Things like tradeskills provide interesting options and variety. Some quests are fetchy, some are about combat, some are about the tradeskills, and then you have the bigger MMO stuff like raids. One thing I really love is the dialogue system. To talk to an NPC you first hail them, and then you can type or click on words in the game chat box to engage. It reminds me of Wasteland, and it's a very little-used mechanic that's great when done right. I also noticed the faction reputation system. Very neat to feel like I'm impacting how I'll interact with parts of the world.

As for new player friendliness, I solo'd my way through Gloomingdeep for the most part, except for the extremely friendly strangers who provided healing and a neat weapon. The tutorial area really gave a great overview of everything that I could expect for at least a little while, and it provided some room to level and learn the systems before I stepped out into Norath. The first areas I saw outside were interesting, and there was a great variety of interesting things to do in the first city area I came upon. I know it's a fetch quest, but I spent 10 levels in Gloomingdeep fighting kobolds. I did a quest where I delivered a few different love gifts to the most indifferent NPCs ever written, and I was rewarded for my extremely easy efforts after what felt like fighting through a dungeon from the start. Yeah it's a fetch quest, but that's not a bad thing when it's funny or interesting.

Long to short, it's a good game. Will keep playing, recommend more people to play.

The one that started it all!

Amazing game, returning player after 20 yrs off! Game is still a ton of fun. Lots to do, so much content as the game has been around forever. lost of new quests added. Still a suprising amount of people playing. I found a guild fast, and had friends to grp with. Getting a full grinding grp can be hard though. Highly recomend you just have to get past the graphics.