This absolutely honors the original: "Brad McQuaid" Legacy of Early Everquest and Vanguard: Saga of Heros.

This game is a very modern take on those games. It still has punishment mechanics for added risk vs reward just like those games in the early years. But from the word go all classes currently in game are well defined and have specific roles. Mobs slowly gain complexity and script as you level, and the death penalty early on is not terrible.

At the time of this review only a few zones are available in game. They are well designed and feel good. Crafting is important. Balance is pretty decent with the currently included classes. We have Druid awaiting imminent addition and likely Bard shortly after.

If you ever enjoyed Everquest, Everquest 2, Vanguard: Saga of Heros you will fit right in here. You absolutely owe it to yourself to experience this half nostalgia half new era MMORPG.

I will update this review at 100, 500 and 1000 hours and every 1000 hours after that until it exits "Early Access".

My only request is that they add a "Ratonga-esk" Race to the game and allow it to be a bard. Triphonic shall live again!

**100 Hour Review**

*It's just difficult enough. Not a cakewalk but not nails on the chalkboard annoying if you catch a less than optimal group while out xp'n.

*Experience is earned through a bit of a grind, but you are not subjected to yesteryear terminal online level grinding.

*Every class in a group has a very specific primary and secondary job. Sometimes even tertiary. It feels really polished for an early release or even pre-launch Beta.

*The balance is pretty good for early release.

*Both soloing as a cleric and a shaman from 1-12 was comfortable and enjoyable.

I do not have any reason to believe these two classes are in the bottom half of more difficult to solo with at least in the 1-12 content currently in game.

**It is imperative that you choose your crafting skills wisely. During this early release there is no mechanic to change your professions, and if the developers stick to the current regime this will continue to launch.

On my cleric I choose armorer and provisioner. Not a terrible choice but self sufficiency if you are solo is something to be aware of. Whereas on the Shaman I did leather working and alchemy. Great to equip, and supplement my shaman and turn some coin otherwise.

***The starter areas are varied and plushly populated. This can create challenges depending on the population of your server as you extend into the dark to more volatile and social areas without a group. Even during the highest population times I had no issued having more mobs than I could kill alone.

100 hour re-review verdict: This game is worth every penny of 39.99. It stays true to form of Vanguard, and Everquest. And yet it is still new, fresh and has a slightly hidden twist. The "Perception" system which is a part of a complex flagging system utilized in emotive text and choices matter conversations with npc's will alter your path and change what content if any you will receive. A living rpg element that has not really been seen in MMORPG's since the warhammer fantasy era mmo. While most things are pretty close to 1.0 launch level this system seems to be just coming online. A few developer talks on twitch and a few forum posts are all we have to go on currently. I think it is a great way to make us interested in the core lore, and living story of Terminus the world we will be occupying with playing this game.

Also. There are basically ratongas already in this game. Not available or planned to be available as of yet. But having seen the models in combat in the caves I was very happy. Now my next wish would be for a race of froglokish type humanoids that also come from the swamps.

Also Also... If you played everquest or everquest 2 and remember Greater Faydark... The city in particular you will want to go and check out the city in the Elf starter area. It is amazing.

TL;DR Initial Review 7.0, Definitely worth the $39.99
TL;DR 100 Hour Review: 8.5 Buy it now! This is amazing for $39.99
TL;DR 500 Hour Review:
TL;DR 1000 Hour Review:

This was a great game, but then expansion after expansion of watering it down for the casuals, and alt -o- holics brings us to current day strategy of smedley bucks and conning everyone to buy into everquest next.

* Honestly closing in on 20 years with the original everquest and eq2 coming up thru the years I have to say that once daybreak was incorporated and SOE , and Smed were gone Kander and Gninja, even Holly and others went to extensive lengths to continue to bring us a playable game. Returning to the roots of what made everquest great and killing the alt o holic syndrome of casuals in order to make it thru actually truly epic story arcs has been amazing. The raiding has returned to the pre TOV era level of scripting and design and you find yourself actually having fun while experiencing some challenge other than random fail conditions cause that one guy, or worse yet zones and zones of turn and burn. While contested content is highly lacking it seems given the age of the player base and the ability to spend forever camping some things that would end up contested it was sadly the right move to stop focusing on such content esp given that this is normally the primary target of automated botters. Most certain the markets in game on the remaining servers are much healthier, and with the introduction of a free trade server that there are very very very few no trade items it also makes getting your hands on the impossibly rare possible.

All in all I have to say the first 10 year story arc was amazing. Sure every xpack was not a winner and focus was shifted to what the folks in charge deemed important based on their imagined bottom line. But post SOE and with the developers actually being apart of the entire company's day to day operation things have improved dramatically. It's unfortunate that it took the circumstances it did not just at formerly soe but other popular and now sunsetted mmo's to finally take care of the real subscription base that will keep your company in business for decades. With that focus and the real player in mind content has balanced within the realistic confines keep most busy and most happy compared to the relatively recentl past. Only good things ahead thanks to Kander and Gninja.