Quests and quest progress are recorded in a quest journal. You can keep up to 50 quests at a time, although if you amass that volume at once, your head will likely spin! The current selected quest’s primary objective will be displayed at the top right portion of the screen (very handy!)
There are two things that make questing more difficult. The first is a lack of mini-map for easier navigation. There is a compass to give you a general sense of direction, but when looking for specific locations I was frustrated by the larger map without access to a smaller one.
The second frustration I had was the vague nature of some of the quests. You are given a little information on what needs to be done, but a lot of what you need to do you just needs to figure out. While this may be part of the fun, if you get lost it just ends up just being frustrating.
Sometimes, especially early on, I would find items that were part of quests that I had not yet undertaken. This would have been frustrating, but quest items don’t actually take up inventory slots, so this was actually kind of helpful.
Speaking of inventory, you better learn to pack light. You have very few inventory slots, which may be expanded with the use of packs. Even with the additional slots, you run out of room quickly! You also have a bank, but there are limited slots in the bank account too. Micromanaging the inventory is a bit of a pain, it would be nice to have all your inventory available in one screen, but you have different windows for different sacks and bags that you open… a minor frustration, but still quite inconvenient!
One thing about EQ2 that I love is the fact that you can pick something up even with a full inventory after defeating a monster! These items will go into your overcrowded inventory, and will not be available until you make room… but that has saved me a number of times from having to rush off to sell something, or drop something else that I intended to sell or trade later on.
As you develop your character, you will be able to fine tune your skills to match your class. Classes are very well balanced, and there are no distinct “better” classes that I picked up on. There is a good focus on group play, making the MMO idea not just a fun concept, but a necessity for many quests.
