Cheap EverQuest: Shadows of Luclin (Software) (Windows XP, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows 98) Price

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Customer Reviews of EverQuest: Shadows of Luclin

EQ: Shadows of Luclin: A low point for EverQuest
Note: This review is ONLY about the "Shadows of Luclin" add-on to Everquest, and not the game itself.

After the triumph that was the "Scars of Velious," it was probably inevitable that "Shadows of Luclin" (SoL) was to be something of a disappointment. But instead, it was a crushing disappointment, wildly incomplete and buggy when it launched, and still bafflingly unfinished even today, almost two years later.

Whereas Velious gave us a three way war between the dwarves, giants and dragons, Luclin promised to plunge players into the ongoing civil war of the lost Combine Empire. But instead of the difficult (and game-changing) choices Velious offered, players for the most part could move between the two warring sides freely, and many players, even now, had no idea the two sides WERE at war. There are hints at it, but this much-touted aspect of the expansion feels perhaps 1/3 finished.

That feeling of things being unfinished permeates the whole expansion: There is a colony of gnomes in a cavern, including the teasingly named King of Above and King of Below, neither of whom speak, and who are surrounded by equally mute courtiers, except for a single historian whose dialogue has been broken for two years. Who are they? What are they there for? Where are their kingdoms? We may never know.

The storyline of the expansion, if you have the patience to tease it out of a dozen zones of all levels, involves the goddess of shadow, Luclin herself, keeping the Combine refugees trapped on the moon. One of them, the boss of the Grieg's End zone, even exhorts you to kill her in revenge for what he has done to him and his people when you defeat him. So where is she? Where is the Plane of Shadow? Not in the game, and SOE shows no interest in finishing this content. (One can speculate that all of this is linked to the departure of the game's lead developer, but whatever the cause, the fact remains that the expansion remains blatantly and frustratingly unfinished.)

The allegedly improved graphics engine that shipped with Luclin is nice, if you have a far more robust machine than their system specifications indicate. Even with a gig of RAM, expect a great deal of lag, even in almost empty zones, and look forward to models with strange proportions (male and female humans alike were given the male hands, with predicatable results) and some outright ugly new models. The announced every-weapon-style-gets-its-own-animation improvement never happened, and instead, the new graphics engine boasts fewer animated emotes than the original engine, and more of these are shared with other emotes.

The expansion does add a new race and class, and while the Vah Shir cat men are of only middling popularity, the beastlord is a popular and powerful class. (The Vah Shir city, Shar Val, is perhaps the zone that shows off the new graphic engine's problems the most, routinely grinding even the most powerful workhorse systems to a near-halt when running through the beautiful Arabian-inspired environs.) The expansion also features (adding it six months after release) the Bazaar zone that lets players trade with other players by turning their characters into Non-Player Character units, able to be shopped at like any merchant, even when the player isn't at the keyboard (although the computer needs to remain logged in to Everquest). While this disappointed some of the wheelers and dealers in the player community, this is inarguably one of the biggest selling points of the expansion.

If the Bazaar were located elsewhere -- or its technology used to create one on every continent on Norrath -- along with the player-purchaseable horses for sale there, and the beastlords were simply added to the game, along with the new Alternate Abilities (new abilities that characters level 51+ can buy with experience instead of just picking up character levels), there would be no reason to buy "Shadows of Luclin."

As it is, with this small amount of important content, I give this expansion only the most grudging recommendation. Better to pick this one up free in one of the regular Everquest compilation packs -- without a doubt, this is the low point in the history of Everquest.

great game do not buy it used it wont work
this is an awsome game if you are any kind of a rpg player youll love it. but i worn you dont buy it used it will not work it says right on the box cant be reselled. why once the game is regestered on soe.com it is there forever if you try to reregister it they will think it is a fake or a copy so ya the price looks good but it dont fall for it thnx