Park / EverQuest the Resort

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  Comment System Offline

  comment below

  posted 4 years ago

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  Liampie Offline

  I'll go through the areas one by one writing down my thoughts as we go.
  
  The entrance area doesn't have a recognizable theme, but fortunately I'm a fan of the generic LL look so I'll give this a pass. I think the entrance is fairly good looking, with nice organic path spaces. Towards the rear of the area it looked like you couldn't wait to get to the next area, so the quality is a bit stretched thin here.
  
  The first big area we encounter is Marthala: The Golden City. This is what an EverQuest park looks like in my mind! The landscaping leaves something to be desired, but again, as a fan of LL chaos I'm enjoying it. The coasters, Water Thief and Palace Guard, tie the area together. Although an actual recognizable palace would've been neat the names on their own are a nice bit of world building. Layouts are straightforward, but very nice. Yellow for the one coaster is a bold choice that I admire a bit. The rear half of the area, around the top spin, doesn't have much going on but it's one of the most pleasantly composed areas on the map.
  
  I wish you were more transparant with the naming of your areas because I don't know what the area I'm moving into now is called. I'm starting to spot some resort features (nice pools and ponds!), but also another wooden coaster, that looks moderately spectacular with its entrenched loop, but surprisingly turns it up to eleven with its hidden underground launch section and switchbacks. The second half of the coaster isn't as aesthetically pleasing as the first but I like the adventurousness. I don't know if that's a word. Shoutout to the nice bit of landscaping with the parallel bridges as we move to the next area - the only sign in sight is Italian eatery which I doubt is the name of the area. Some investigation doesn't help me but I did figure out that the centre area of the map is a collection of restaurants and bars, which is nice.
  
  This next area starts very meh. The big ride here is the adventure ride, and although it has some effects and things, it's too obscured by foliage and lacking a narrative for me to like it. Moving on, we hit three of the biggest rides of the map. A Helm's Deep show which (using the other save) looks quite cool. The log flume 'Odyssey of the Forest God' is a bit weird with this name and how it sits on an island surrounded by path, but it has a nice unique layout with some nice interaction bits. The third ride, and for me the highlight of the map, is the floorless coaster Maia.
  
  I love how the lifthill of Maia overlooks the Marthala area, it's somehow quite immersive and I can picture myself there - despite this not being a realism kind of a park. The coaster itself starts off promising. Away from path and theming in a sea of trees, this easily could've gone wrong, but I think the way the rockwork fades in from the foliage to highlight parts of the coaster is in my opinion one of the best moments in this park. The cobra roll and zero-g-roll look good too, but this part of the ride is sadly marred by long underground stretches. A recurring flaw in old school parks sadly. Still, the area around the station reminds me of early natelox work and that's never a bad thing.
  
  I think what's interesting about EverQuest: The Resort is that it's an averagely good LL park, and we rarely get those anymore, even relativly speaking with LL parks being rare in general. Most of us who still play LL are quite skilled, or we're outright inexperienced. The middle category is gone. It's very nice to see a 'new' park in this tier again. It's very motivating and makes playing LL seem a bit more accessible again - just starting at natelox, RRP and Coaster Ed parks is inspiring as much as it is intimidating. That's not to say that this is a park made without skill, because I've been trying to mimick this look for years and I can't. I think you need the proper old school LL DNA to build like this. Anyway, this is a tier below some of the other late EverQuest parks (which are great to me) but it's a good silver quality park for me. That would be a Runner-Up in 2006, Prince.

  posted 4 years ago

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  csw Offline

  There are some pretty cool things in here. The adventure ride was lots of fun - I love adventure rides like that. My favorite parts were the entrance area and the dueling woodies. I also like the hotel area in the middle - the pool and umbrellas are sublime. The age of the park shows with the sea of trees and seemingly aimless building design in some areas but overall this still holds up decently. 

  posted 4 years ago

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  Cocoa Offline

  hah, this is some pretty old school LL in every sense of the aesthetic. If you asked me what sort of releases I expected to see this year, it would never have been this...

   

  as an LL park released today, I think it fares as a fine silver. but I can understand this park in the context of the parkmaking it was born out of, with chaotic foliage and big wooded layouts and maybe a bit less focus on path flow and building purpose. so its still really nice to see, a real treat. I did enjoy the helms deep explosion too.

  posted 4 years ago

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  Liampie Offline

  The full zoomed in aerial is now available for this park.

  posted 4 years ago

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