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| EverQuest II (PC) | |
| Publisher: Sony Online Entertainment | Developer: Sony Online Entertainment |
| Genre: Persistent Online RPG | Release Date: 11/08/2004 |
Although its market dominance isn't as assured as it used to be, the original EverQuest is probably the most influential MMORPG in existence. Every MMO that followed it owes it a debt, and even their developers will grudgingly admit this. That said, consider their debt repaid--EverQuest II has assimilated many of refinements made over the years to the formula that it helped established, and despite its association with the granddaddy of MMORPGs, it's very much a modern game. Those who haven't touched an MMO other than the original EQ will find its successor a game that's much more inviting, convenient, and forgiving. Likewise, those who left this one's predecessor for greener pastures might find within this a reason to revisit Norrath. It's still a young game, but given a solid launch, and an altogether slick presentation, getting into it is painless.
Norrath is a changed place. Displeased with the actions of their mortal creations (probably due to the incessant guild raids on their home planes), the gods unleashed a series of cataclysms upon the world. The landscape was razed, the moon itself was shattered, and most of the races were sundered from their ancestral homes. Only two bastions of civilizations remain: the cities of Qeynos and Freeport, home to Norrath's benign and evil races, respectively. This setup will inform much of your experience with the game, and where you stand in relation to it is one of the first decisions you'll have to make, not to mention among the most important. Both cities are identical in terms of the amenities they offer. What's different is their visual tone, and the attitude of its inhabitants.
Within Qeynos' walls, you'll find a populace that's generally hopeful of pulling through the recent tragedies, and welcoming of the bondless refugees (read: player characters) pouring into its bright streets. Conversely, the tone in Freeport is pretty much dog-eat-dog, and its people, at best, are wary and mistrusting of the flood of newcomers.
EverQuest II is here. Now quick, find something to kill.
You have to jump through some hoops before you can access the city proper, however. Characters are designated a starting "village" on the outskirts of the city based on their race, from which they can only enter the capital after performing a special mission that grants them citizenship. While many will no doubt be sorry that there are no racial cities, the implementation here both preserves a sense of distinction between each race's home, and makes the world's civilized sections fairly painless to travel through. As a result, the entire player base feels accessible at all times, which facilitates many of the things that one would need accomplish in a game of this type.
This is a good thing, as you won't be traveling too far from your faction's city for the first hundred hours or so. There seem to be no shortage of quests that characters of all levels can undertake, and thankfully, most of these involve the two very things that you'd be doing anyway -- running around, and killing stuff. I've lost count of the number of "kill X number of creature Y" quests I've completely, but luckily, they've been fairly rewarding so far. Most of my best equipment has actually been acquired by means of questing, and even as I get into the higher levels, this shows no sign of slowing down. Many players also seem to be hip to this fact, so it isn't too hard to find comrades to complete particular quests with.
It gets to the point where you actually feel a bit naked if you're in a hunting party without one of these quests active, especially since the information is readily available on the internet, or via word of mouth from fellow players. At the very least, if you bother to take the time to talk to the NPCs you encounter throughout the world, the journal that conveniently logs your active quests will be full in no time.
In any case, once you outgrow the low-level adventure zones within the cities' walls, you'll no doubt head straight for the great wide open -- namely, Antonica, if you're from Qeynos, or the Commonlands, if you hail from Freeport. Simply put, these areas are huge, full of distinct sub regions, and possessing no shortage of things to do. They also connect the starting cities to the rest of the world, so you should fully expect to continue coming back to them, to some extent, for the entirety of your character's career. The areas themselves, and the ones that immediately surround them, provide content for character of various level ranges, and the free-to-use griffon stables that dot them make travel through them fairly painless.
If nothing else, the new Norrath seems like it was designed with ease-of-travel in mind, at least when it comes to the areas near the starting cities. Even when you're far abroad, you can always warp back home with the teleportation spell that you gain upon acquiring citizenship. Apparently, someone realized that we all have better things to do run around for minutes at a time.
Similarly to how it created an environment that's forgiving in regards to navigation, EverQuest II does a decent job of guaranteeing that you'll have a character that you're continually happy with, as it progresses through its chosen career. The amount of choices you have to make at the outset are minimal--you choose a race, design your appearance, and select one of four basic archetypes: fighter, scout, priest, and mage. Once you reach level 10 in your chosen archetype, you choose an actual class, which brings you one step closer towards specialization. Finally, at level 20, you chose your subclass, which basically locks you into a specific role.
Wolves are prettier when composed of particles.
By the time you reach level 10, you'll hopefully have a basic idea as to the type of role you want to play in a party, as the three classes available to each archetype are fairly different. Your choices thereafter don't have implications as severe, and in some cases, you won't even have a choice; several of the subclasses are only available to characters of a specific alignment. In cases like these, there are betrayal quests that you can take on, which are fairly involved, and will most likely require the help of player characters of the opposing city. A small price to pay if you have your heart set on playing a Wood Elf assassin, or an Iskar paladin.
Regardless of what class and subclass you choose, however, you should expect EverQuest II's combat to be a fully active experience. For better or worse, combat in EverQuest II is very "spammy." Your characters acquire new abilities quite frequently, and most of them are designed for use in battle. This means that, regardless of your character's profession, you're most likely going to be hitting keys like crazy. Personally, I'm very much into this, despite some of the strategic mishaps it seems to encourage. Case in point: the "Heroic Opportunity" system.
Basically, "Heroic Opportunities" occur when you string certain spells or Combat Arts (spells' the melee equivalents) together in battle. Upon reaching level five, or soon thereafter, every archetype learns a "starter" ability that can initiate these chains, and once one of these is activated, activating specific spells and Combat Arts can progress them further. Heroic Opportunities can be performed solo, provided your character has enough abilities to progress one to the end, or they effected by entire group. Ironically, though, it's far easier to pull one off in a solo situation, since any interruption in the chain--i.e., if anyone executes an ability that won't progress the chain that's in effect--will nullify it. Teams hoping to pull off these chains had best be very efficient, lest one unwary player bungle any that they attempt. In my personal experience, players willing to coordinate to such a degree are few and far between, and this is understandable, given how frenetic EQII's keystroking can be.
Those preferring to focus on a more peaceful pursuit will find a thoughtfully-designed crafting system ready for them to dive into. It's in many ways analogous to the combat system, right down to the way that characters progress through their crafting careers. It works like this: characters have an artisan level right alongside their adventuring level, for which they acquire experience by practicing their craft. Similar to how adventurers evolve form their archetypes into their classes and subclasses, so do artisans: from generic artisans, to craftsmen, outfitters, and scholars, from there into specialized roles like carpenters, armorers, and alchemists. Players choosing to focus on this aspect of their characters will find a crafting system that is every bit as engaging as combat. As they get better at their chosen craft, they'll acquire abilities called "Tradeskill Arts" that play the same role in crafting as spells and Combat Arts do in battle.
The general consensus among serious crafters, at this point, is that it isn't entirely viable to focus solely on this aspect of the game. Primarily, the difficulty in gaining access to raw materials makes it so that they have to spend inordinate amounts of time harvesting them on the field, rather than directly practicing their craft. Furthermore, the relatively long amount of time it takes to increase harvesting skills, combined with the competition and danger inherent to seeking out locations at which to do so, make it prohibitively challenging, if you're not at least a moderately accomplished adventurer. But if the level of activity in the crafting chat channels are any indication, this hasn't stopped the more dogged players form soldiering on anyway. Indeed, if you browse the in-game market, you're sure to notice that player-crafted spell- and skill-scrolls are making quite a few of them modestly wealthy.
Count on good old Break Neck to get you to your hunting spot in record time.
Players whose priority is in competitive gameplay, however, will come up much shorter. In no uncertain terms, the following is true: if you're looking for player-versus-player content in the traditional sense, then EverQuest II probably isn't for you. Though the developers have implied that the game might feature some content geared toward this in the future, it's not in here yet. The closest thing to it is the guild system, which pits player groups in a sort of indirect competition with each other. Associations of players have the option of completing "writs" for their home city, and their guilds are awarded a special type of experience when these are completed. Higher guild levels allows its members to purchase special items through "City Prestige Merchants," which can take the form of honorific titles, or powerful pieces of equipment, or even the opportunity to participate in guild-wide raids. It's an intriguing system, no doubt, but it doesn't quite fill the role of PvP content in a way that will be satisfactory to players to whom that kind of thing is of paramount import. Players from opposing cities can even join the same guild, though they'll have a hard time attending meetings unless they're very good at sneaking past guards.
presentation--specifically, its audio. Every character in the game with something remotely important to say has dialogue that is entirely voiced, and though the quality is generally hit or miss, its hard to deny the effect that it has when it comes to immersion. I was generally skeptical about whether or not it would impact the experience, as many others were, but the effect is undeniable. When you're walking around town, it really helps to hear characters speak to you in words. It makes the world feel that much more real--at least as real as a traditional RPG. Of course, that all goes out the window as soon as you're assailed by a horde of rats upon stepping outside of town, but it's hard to dismiss how tangibly it contributes to the overall feel within its walls. The graphics look great, too, though I can't say I care too much for the EQII visual style. Whenever I find myself marveling at what I see onscreen, it's mostly a vista or spell effect. The animation still has a bit to go before it can compare with the more accomplished games in the genre, and the character models have an overall lifeless look to them, particularly in their eyes.
EverQuest II launched in a comparatively bulletproof state, to the surprise of a great many people, and it was fun to play and rewarding from the get go. Even though it's a relatively young online world, it feels like there's a good deal to do; much of the world is unexplored for a majority of the playerbase, and even simple things like traveling to new areas are approached with relish. Due to its brisk quest system, you feel like you're being rewarded enough to grind on once the experience starts to get slow, and the fast-paced combat system keeps things exciting (if a bit fast and loose) when you're in the midst of it. It kind of sucks to admit it, but we're used to games this young being much less stable and playable. As such, it's remarkable to see EQII in the state that it's in.
Wood Elf and Iskar--who said we can't overcome our differences?
Of course, there's still a lot left for it to do before it's truly worthy of its legacy, among these are resolution of the lingering PvP question, the ironing out of the combat system's kinks, and the alleviation of the crafter's current series of woes (give them a market system that allows them to hawk their wares without being logged in, for crying out loud!). Granted, all of these are minor problems compared to, say, servers that crash every two hours, but they're obstacles that will require a good deal of effort on the part of the developers before they're implemented in thoughtful and functional ways. But even as it stands now, EverQuest II is extremely fun to play, frequently rewarding, and designed with just the right amount of user convenience in mind. Let's hope it continues to develop along these lines, because it has some very stiff competition on the way.
