Review: EverQuest 2
by The Dark Messenger

Everquest 2: Where Questing becomes Reality

"Everquest" is still some kind of legend in the MMORPG-genre - for years it was the most popular and successful game of its kind, and its producer, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), proved its marketing prowess by publishing numerous add-ons thus making the world of Norrath even bigger and more lively.

It's a huge challenge to create a successor for such a game, but then, last November, "Everquest 2" (EQ 2) hit the shelves and set out to not only continue on the successful path laid out by its predecessor but also to stand its ground against Blizzard's hugely anticipated entry into the online-world, "World of Warcraft" (WoW).

Mission accomplished?

Fresh Faces for a New World

Before embarking on new adventures, you have to create a character out of 15 races (another race, the Froglock, is a "secret race" that will be unlocked later) and choose your alignment. The latter is as well a choice between Good and Evil as it is a choice between two major cities, Qeynos (Good) and Freeport (Evil), where you will settle down in the course of the game. Apart from those minor choices there's no real character creation in EQ 2 - attribution points and skills are automatically administered by the game, depending on the choice of classes you will make at certain stages (i.e. levels), and can only be altered by magically enhanced items or pieces of equipment. You can alter the appearance of your character by picking an individual hairstyle and "morphing" almost any facial characteristic. This creation tool is powerful and easy to use; it really makes you want to create a one-of-a-king and unique character that's easily recognizable in the world.

Your newly created Alter Ego appears in a new Norrath - 500 years after the events of the first game. The world has gone through a major war, that brought civilization to the brink of extinction. Moreover, due to the sudden explosion of the Moon of Luclin, the lands have been shattered by the Moons shards that rained down on the planets surface, giving Norrath a new appearance (it's now looking like some sort of giant archipelago). The survivors of those catastrophic events have huddled together either in the city of Qeynos, ruled by the just and compassionate Queen Antonia Bayle, or in Freeport, which is dictatorially governed by the cruel and ambitious Overlord Lucan D'Lere.



A Voyage and a Choice

The game starts with an insightful tutorial onboard a ship bound for The Isle of Refuge, the game's first real zone. On board of the vessel, newcomers learn basic controls, the concept of questing and the rules of combat and conduct with NPCs. These lessons are put together in a nice little plot about the final stages of the ship's voyage to the Isle, effectively introducing new players into the world of Everquest 2. For all those, who can't wait to play the real thing or who count themselves MMORPG-veterans, the tutorial can also be skipped entirely at character creation.

Having arrived at the Isle of Refuge, you are asked for the first time to pick one of four classes, Warrior, Mage, Priest or Scout. A lot of future events and developments depend on this decision like the focus on different attributes and skills, the gain of new combat moves or magical spells and even the course of some important quests. Later on in the game, you can pick even more specialized sub-classes: a Warrior can choose to be a Paladin, while a Mage can become a Summoner, a Priest can obtain the class of a Cleric and a Scout could tread the path of the sinister Assassin. EQ 2 offers 36 of those sub-classes which are often related to your general alignment.

Combined with numerous magically enhanced items and some other rewards that you can receive after accomplishing special tasks, your character will become an individual even if the game doesn't let you distribute skill points manually. While this may look too simple and lacking in depth, it still works for the game and doesn't make you long for more influence in your character's development (except for those number crunchers who won't be happy if they can distribute some more points on Harvesting, Fishing and Swimming).

Will you Quest with me?

The Isle of Refuge is the first area a new-born hero can more or less explore on its own. Though you have a general task (stopping a Goblin invasion), there are many NPCs in the area who offer you a variety of quests: you can uncover a Goblin conspiracy, find the missing parts of a mysterious submarine or collect bone chips of Undeads for a rather combat-hungry priest.

Stopping the Goblin invasion is a so-called Hallmark Quest, meaning you have to fulfil that quest to drive the general storyline forward. At certain stages in the game, these Hallmark Quests will become available and are essential for the further development of your character. For example, without having obtained the official Citizenship of either Qeynos or Freeport, you won't be able to elevate your character beyond level 6. Later, you have to visit a special trainer - depending on the class you've chosen before - to receive special instructions and your next sub-class-level.

The number of quests in EQ 2 is enormous - and it's even more impressive that there is not an inflation of those trivial "Kill 40 Rats"-missions. A whole bunch of different ideas went into the design of the numerous tasks - and nearly all of them are bound to get you to know Norrath even better. However, there are some pains as well: some descriptions in the Quest Journal leave a lot of unanswered questions like the location of a certain character or place. In addition there are too many "errand-running"-missions ("Bring item A to character B") in the game, which can be especially annoying if you don't even know where the recipient of your delivery really is. Lastly, it often happens that players die at the respawn spot from some powerful monsters making a resurrection of those unlucky ones an almost useless ordeal.

Since SOE didn't put PvP into the game, major quests and raids are the heart of
EQ 2. The concept of the game was to stress the RPG-elements and rather create an authentic fantasy world, where people could come together and explore the lands, than to set the focus on battles between player factions like in "Dark Age of Camelot" (DAoC) or WoW. Some players might scoff at this "outdated" idea, but it's really a matter of taste, because in this regard, EQ 2 lives fully up to its promise: it gives players a huge and fascinating world full of epic challenges - a perfect playground for a well-balanced adventuring group!