Preview Body

Previewed: October 28, 2003
Previewed by: John Bowlin

Release Date: November, 2003
Genre: MMORPG
Players: Online
ESRB: Teen

EverQuest Online Adventures: Frontiers is sort of an expansion pack / Gold version of the game Everquest Online Adventures. If you don't already have EQOA, you should definitely plan to buy Frontiers instead of the original version because you'll essentially get this updated version at no additional cost. For fans that already have EQOA, on the other hand, you will be faced with the hard decision of deciding whether or not you like the game enough to shell out more bucks for a handful of extra features and a few new maps.

In theory, Frontiers is supposed to capture the complaints and suggestions of the fans from the first game and include those into the new version. This hands-on preview is based on the beta version of the game so some of it may end up changing after the full release is out.

The feature list of the new expansion seems pretty good:

New class mastery system
Redesigned and highly-detailed player character models, armor and “pets”
New playable race, the Ogre. These massive beings can be both brutal warriors and can wield powerful magic
A new cast of fierce non-playable characters to battle such as the Negas, Faun and Couatl
Hundreds of new items to acquire, barter, trade and sell
Challenging new quests to conquer
Expanded content for high-level characters – up to level 60
Special communications and travel features help people find each other in the game so they can spend more time having fun
New character class, the alchemist
3 new cities, 24 gigantic dungeons and a new continent brings the size of the game world to a gigantic 500 virtual square miles
Unparalleled character customization for players to create their own unique hero or villain
Persistent online game world with new content added regularly

On the graphics side, Frontiers offers some updated character models that look a little bit better. They have added some features like hats, eye-patches, glasses, beards, new hairstyles, etc. Running animations for the shorter races have been altered to be more realistic. Models and textures for many of the races, in particular humans, trolls, gnomes, and halflings have been improved. Unfortunately you still only have a choice of a few colors for skin and hair tinting instead of a full RGB range to choose from. Some new graphical features like more shrubbery and other flora and additional weather effects, like fog, mist, dust swirls, etc. have been added. None of the new graphical features are really that big of a "wow" factor to be worth shelling out more cash for, but they are nice touches.

In addition to the new graphics, Frontiers adds some new music to the mix. There are quite a few new battle music pieces and a number of new music pieces for the various new areas in the game. This is good because you spend so much of your time (practically all your time) fighting in EQOA. There is even some new music added to give you a hint of warning of danger, setting the mood appropriately for certain situations.

Frontiers does add some additional gameplay elements. The first of this is the new class, the Alchemist. This class allows you to cast spells and also create potions. The potions can be used in combat sort of like a Molotov cocktail with lots of different effects. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to test this class extensively during the beta, and it was undergoing a lot of changes so it's unclear how well balanced or effective this class will be at launch of Frontiers.

Another notable gameplay addition to Frontiers is the Ogre playable race. Ogres can be both warriors and also have some magic capabilities. The Ogre's starting city takes some time to learn how to navigate. Unfortunately while I did get a chance to play an Ogre for a while, many of the early quests were broken for my Ogre Warrior, but lets hope those get fixed before launch.

Lets not forget that Frontiers adds a new continent for play. The new area features two new cities Arcadin, a seaport, and Oggok, and underground maze-like city, home of the Ogres. There are several new monsters to fight, especially in the new areas. There is also a new area especially for high-level characters called the Plane of Sky. The new areas (that I got to see in the beta) are about on par with the areas in the original game. Nothing too new or fancy here but a well-balanced area to explore.

One of the big changes is the additional high-level progression called the class mastery system. You are now allowed to split your experience points up between regular advancement and class mastery advancement. You can then choose to spend your class mastery points on new unique abilities, some for class, race, etc. The new abilities can really help make upper level characters more unique because there are so many new abilities available. Also it helps distinguish the races since some abilities will be unique to race. Unfortunately this system was still getting tweaked quite a bit so it's still uncertain as to how this will all balance out in the final game. Additionally, the level cap has been increased to level 60 and caps on statistics have also been increased.

Are all of these tweaks enough to be worth buying the game again for existing players? I guess that is up to you as to how much you enjoy the game. And whether or not the new areas turn out to be "hot spots" in the game. Time will tell!

While we wait for more details on this amazing new game, check out our never-before-seen U.S. screenshots in our Preview Gallery.