Everquest II: Prima Official Game Guide

by IMGS Inc.

EverQuest II Choose Your Path Over 50 full-color, highly-detailed maps with NPC, Mob, and zone locations Over 300 quest listings Complete Skill, Spell, and Combat Arts lists Equipment lists through... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0761545026
• ISBN13: 9780761545026
• Release Date: December 2004
• Publisher: Prima Games
• Length: 335 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 8.6" x 11.0"

Customer Reviews

Excellent reference

This is an excellent companion for anyone starting EQ2. Maps, quests, and much more useful reference info is included. Unlike the old guides I'd seen for EQ1, the maps are actually useful and include where to find certain mobs and NPCs. Although Sony has historically been difficult in allowing print books to be published with maps of Everquest zones, it looks as if they've lightened up on their requirements, giving the player customers actual useful information for a change. Also, the book is extremely well organized and written making it a constantly consulted desk fixture. This book won't be as much use to you if you're above level 25-30 and looking for help in finding your way around new zones. Let's hope they continue the trend and make another guide for the higher level players.

One of Prima's best

This guide is easily the best investment any EQ2 gamer can make. On the whole I tend to find Prima's guides to be slightly awkward and unattractive. But this is definitely the exception to the rule. I only wished I had this guide by my side weeks before when I was wasting hours upon hours finding my way around in this massive world and calling for help constantly for the location of stores and NPC's. A good section of the beginning of this book is a beginners guide and a walkthrough of the newbie Isle of Refuge. Any old EQ gamer won't really find anything new or helpful here. In fact, anyone not entirely new to MMO's could probably do without those pages. However, the rest of the book is absolutley essential. The maps are very accurate (for now at least, until SOE decides to make changes) and the Spell lists and Armor/Weapons charts are top notch. This guide has raised my game immensely. I'm completeing quests quicker and I'm leveling faster. From a standpoint of style, this guide is above and beyond any other that's on the market today... including Prima's other guides. In fact, I was considering picking up the matrix Online to try out, but after seeing how relatively unattractive and uninteresting the Prima book had presented it, I decided not to. This guide is well designed and laid out, and easy to read, not to mention one of the best looking guides to come from Prima in years. For the folks at Prima, give your EQ2 team a big 'Thank You' and tell your other teams to get on the ball.

One of the best guides

"EverQuest II: Prima Official Game Guide" is one of the best commercial guides I have ever seen. I find most guidebooks, and especially those from Prima, very poor. They are inaccurate and seem to condescend to the reader. Online guides, fan sites and forums always seem to have better content and be more up-to-date. I received this - a gift from my wife who knew how excited I was to start playing Everquest II - with about the same enthusiasm as receiving a bar of soap. (She thought it was a comic book set in an everquest genre.) I was pleasantly surprised how good the guide has been. The book has been very helpful in getting up and running in the game. Everquest II is very complicated and a bit daunting to start playing especially as I only play a few hours a week. The maps are especially helpful in getting oriented. Yes, all guidebooks are spoilers, but while there are a lot of quest walk-throughs there are plenty more to discover. Also, the guide doesn't have much content for characters over the mid 20's - leaving a lot of game for you to discover. I think the guide really helped get my head "into" the game.

Wow

It seems that Prima guides have definately turned a corner in a good direction. I played EQ a long time ago, but had moved on to other games in between. It was very helpful to have this guide so I could find my way around quickly and easily. I only play for a couple hours a night, and the guide really does help me maximize that time. Maybe they'll come out with an expanded guide that goes past lvl 30. ;)

A great guide in general

I'm sorry that some people feel Prima has ruined the startegy guide industry but I think that of all their guides this one is perhaps one of the best, not the worst. I don't see how anyone could look at this guide and think it wasn't made by people who love videogames, and who love EQ. I recently purchased the eguide version for $10 at the official Prima site. It's the exact same thing as the print guide, in PDF format. All 336 pages. So that is what I'm basing this review on right now because the content is identical for the most part. First, although there is a large section dedicated to "the basics" a lot of the information will still be extremely helpful to new EQ or MMO players. Not all of us have been playing EQ Live for the last five years. EQ2 was my first foray into the world of MMO's, personally. There are many things in the basic sections of the guide that give a lot of insight into the game mechanics and fundamental ways in which things work, like the economy, crafting, magic, armor, classes, jargon, and so forth. Yes, you could figure out most of this on your own but for someone who only has a couple hours a night to play, this guide speeds up the learning process and makes the play time more enjoyable - and that's what really important. I don't really feel that it destroys the magic of the game in any way - in fact it increases it, by removing some of the hampering frustrations/confusions due to details left out of the manual. Second, and more importantly, the quest listings are extensive and well documented, and well laid out. The guide only goes to level 30 (by which point we'd hope most players get a grip and are comfortable on their own anyhow). It isn't trying to direct players if they don't want to be directed, it's simply pointing them in the right direction if they (like me and most people who work for a living) don't have the six hours a night to pour into the game looking for obscure NPC's and locations using the game's subpar journal/map/waypoint feature. I give it four out of five because of course it isn't perfect. There are some mistakes and the print guide will certainly have more, but I suspect the publishing delay is an attempt to make sure the print version is as up to date as it can be. Yes, if you buy the guide six months from now there will be many discrepancies - but my bet is that most people buying the guide are buying it NOW specifically for that reason - they want to get ahead early and while it's accurate. Also, it would have been nice if the quests had been laid out in order of difficulty for each section, rather than simply alphabetized. This would have made it easier to do the easy ones first, gain the experience, and then move on to the harder ones. Yes, you can use the game's journal to tell which will be difficult, but if the guide had done that it would have made it that much more intuitive. Overall a really great effort and Prima should be proud of having taken on such a massiv