This is what I would consider a modern/retro take on the old school MMORPG. It's creator Brad McQuaid is responsible for titles such as EverQuest and Vanguard Saga Of Hero's. Pantheon captures elements of both games and several other popular MMORPG's.

Unfortunately Brad passed in 2019. And his vision has been left to Chris Perkins aka Joppa. Joppa... started his professional life as a professional educator at a private highschool. He then joined visionary realms in 2014 as a music composer rising quickly to a creative direction and in 2020 the creative and programming producer for visionary realms and the title at hand Pantheon... This is important for later.

So far 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 minor punishment mechanics for added risk vs reward just like those games in the early years.

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. That being said as of 10/2025 we are missing the bard, and no classes have yet to have their mastery points system released. Many classes are still subject to redesign and heavy balance. (Necro/Wizard/Summoner)

As of 10/2025 only a handful of zones are available. The zones in game are well designed, feel natural and provide challenging content and scripting.

The most important part of this review is about the community. If you ever played Everquest, Everquest 2 or Vanguard: Saga of Hero's you will fit right in this community. This sometimes feels like the competitiveness of back in the day with the moderation of 30 and 40 somethings that are taking care of families and working full time making the game space a better place. Generally speaking little negativity, politics or toxic contesting of content.

If you enjoyed those games of yesteryear then you owe it to yourself to experience this half nostalgia half new era MMORPG. Make no mistake this game is incomplete, has a small staff calling it in remotely, but they are slowing making progress towards a releasable, enjoyable, and very playable game.

Key points:
* It's difficult enough. Not a cakewalk, but not nails on the chalkboard annoying if you catch a less than optimal pug. As of Dec 25 we are now seeing open and transparent communication that many of the holes in the game are being worked on thanks to the new studio lead and cash injection that have occurred.

*Experience is earned through a grind whether that is solo or group based dungeon crawling. You will not be subjected to yesteryear terminally online level and gear grinding as of 10/2025.

*Every class in a group has specific primary and secondary purpose. It feels quite polished for an Early release or even pre-launch alpha/beta.

*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. Your crafting max tier is tied to your current level. Beware.

*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.

I will stick with my 100 hour re-review verdict: This game is worth every penny of 39.99. It stays true to form of Vanguard, and Everquest. There is a lot of balance and content to be done still but the Unity engine and assets are in place. The "Perception" system which is 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 that Warhammer fantasy era mmo. 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.

Now for the negative or community "perceived" negatives that are just part of early release, alpha and beta:

The development team does not communicate as clearly as the community would like. (as of dec 25 this has flipped to clear and open communication and several devs in the community helping keep things on the level. I would say balance that with a measure of reality against this being a really really small fiscally limited development team who is for the most part all remote workers. (this too may be changing) For some reason people who have super over powered characters due to little to no, or just early passes at balance get extremely upset when over corrections are made. It's early release / alpha.

There is a discord where feedback is taken, there are surveys but ultimately players will need to learn that the vision belongs to the developers. Not the players. We can play anything we want if this is not hitting the mark.

Since February the population has fallen off as for most terminally online types there is not enough content to support 500-1000 hours a month of gameplay without staleness. I believe the average person is going to enjoy well beyond the 39.99 price tag and exceed 1k hours before staleness prevails as of 10/2025. *As of Dec 25 server merges have occurred and population for grouping is much better.

Overall 2026 is shaping up to be a great year for pantheon and its testers. My only personal complaint at this point is the lack of news about the remaining classes. We are waiting with baited breath for bard!

It's worth every of 39.99 as is. But keep in mind it is still early, many changes are coming. The up side is no wipes for the foreseeable future. Get your but in here and stop wasting money on eq tlp.

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.