I have indulged in playing EQ2 over the last 4 days since its local release in Australia.
Let me tell you what I think ... actually before I do ...my kids think its great (I couldnt get the kids aged, 13 and 16, interested in the grind of Horizons)
... okay now, my thoughts.
no PvP ... fantastic !
Class selection ... once you select an adventure class, thats it ... you are committed except for subclasses .... no multiclassing.
Crafting ... OMG !! ... if you think Hz is complex with components, EQ2 is uber-complex. Many more components required for basic crafting and basic crafting skills only lead to the ability to produce basic components ... usable items come later. And the Eq2 crafting system is horribly bugged at the moment ... some really basic components are not yet available and some are disabled.
eg.
crafting my first spell in Hz ... dig sand, make brick, make shard, make spell with formula provided by trainer.
crafting my first spell in EQ2 ... buy formula book from merchant (first spell not available as default) ... check components ... requires 4 components ...
1) ink ... refined three times fromharvested component andconsuming basic components three times from merchant, (each refinement stage requires at least the consumption of two basic components as well as the primary material)
2) paper ... refined from three basic components, one harvested, two from merchant
3) quill ... refined twice from harvested component consuming merchant components
4) incense .. basic merchant component
Three different crafting machines required in an instanced crafting room.
Adventuring ... if you like lots of questing ... EQ2 has a whole lot more than Hz. No long walks between places, well at least in the starter zones.
Solo vs Grouping ... soloing is possible, but in the starter zone some quests are impossible without a balanced group of tank, ranged and healers.
Player community ... ARGH !!! EQ2 is not kind to those who want to RP ... the starting areas of the supposed "RP preferred" servers (only 2 world-wide so far)are full, of lamers and spammers ... there is a shout channel option in chat where a zone-wide broadcast message can be made FFS !! .... need some help grouping for a quest? ...just broadcast a shout message (as /shout or /ooc) ... geeze ! I'd expect a slightly better community environment outside the starter zones, maybe.
Vaults .... each player inventory has only five slots - an item takes up a slot. Multi-slot bags can be obtained (with effort) to turn a single slot into a multi-slot ... 6 items per slot = max 30 items. The "vault" is a bank with 8 slots, and 4 additional slots for transferring items between toons on the same account. If you think you've got it tough in Hz imagine the limitations of the EQ2 inventory/vault system.
If you loved the multiplayer Neverwinter Nights you'll love Eq2 (except if you must have PvP)
Graphics - comparible
Lag - comparible - EQ2 is definitely NOT lag free
Ok at risk of beingopinionated ... I wont be dropping Hz for EQ2 ... my first impressions of the EQ2 community are not good.
I accept my opinion is based on about12 hours of gaming time and in "newbie zones" but I know I definitely prefer what I have in Hz.