EverQuest is known as one of the best Massive Multiplayer Online games (MMO) ever made, a dream to role playing gamers, and it wasn’t too long ago that I remember hearing some rumors about an EverQuest II. I imagined what it would turn out like and I couldn’t have grasped how amazing the game could be back then. You see, EverQuest II has completely exceeded my expectations, and since the game is so massive in scope, I decided that its best to give readers a taste of my experiences.
I grinned at the glory of the character creation system. I must have spent a good two hours altogether creating characters, giving them piercings, and things of the ilk. Even after experiencing many character creators in games like World of Warcraft,The Sims 2, Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed, to name a few, I’ve come to the conclusion that EverQuest II’s is the best seen, ever. The range of skin tones, eye colors, hair styles... there’s just so much depth to it. Personally, I thought having hair highlights is a sweet idea, since it allows characters to be almost completely unique. One thing that blew my mind away is the amount of races you could play as, because there’s just an incredible variety. I had watched friends play EverQuest in the past, but I never realized how many races there actually were. It took about thirty minutes to finally get a fix on what I wanted my character to look like, and that was a short and punky wood elf with the unclever name "Kliksterius".
The game’s tutorial is extremely informative - you wake up on a ship, the Captain explains stuff, and so on and so forth. It’s actually pretty cool, or at least the first time around. I’m not fond of how the tutorial cannot be skipped when creating other characters (or maybe I just missed something?). After the tutorial, you dock at the Starting Isle where your created character defines itself.
You have four general class categories to pick from: Warrior, Priest, Mage and Scout. Later on you get the chance to upgrade your class. Scouts become Assassins or Bards, whilst Priests become either Clerics or Druids. I don’t like how it makes everyone so generic in class, but I do realize it’s good in some way because it allows you to grow your character out during the game, instead of a pick you made in the first hour which would haunt that character for the rest of your subscription.
I’ve always had a fondness for sneakiness and bows – mainly because I’d rather be in the back shooting at the enemy, than upfront with his sword lodged in my mouth going out the other end of my skull, brains oozing out the cracks alongside the blade... (What, too much?). If you hadn’t guessed it, I chose Scout. Garven gave The Mighty Kliksterius a crude weapon and a small amount of rations, and so our adventure begins.
Your first objective is to kill one of the Gruttooth Goblins that are currently infesting the tiny island. I admit, I was kind of scared. I mean, Wood Elfs are small. When I hacked the living hell out of a Goblin with my crappy weapon, I realized how easy it was and quickly got caught up in the slaying of the green devils. Then as I remembered what I was doing, I headed back to Garven - after killing about twenty more Goblins, that is. Garven said he had no more use for me and told me to go to the island’s taskmaster of Scouts, Vladiminn. He also let me know that Assistant Draek might be able to help me out if I’m interested in learning crafting skills.
While I was going to meet Vlad, I noticed this huge tower. So I stepped inside. Ironically enough, I found Asst. Draek. Dealing with a little lag due to the twenty other people in this small circular room, I went to Draek to find out what he’d teach me. As per usual, he wanted my help before doing anything for me. Somehow, there was a big accident down in his workshop and he wanted me to clean everything up and put out the fires. It was extremely easy work. When I finished, Draek gave me access to the workshop, where I’m allowed to practice all trade skills. He also handed me a letter that would lead me to more specialized crafters later on.
Eventually, I made my way to Vlad. Ready to start some scout-training, I spoke to him. Vlad had favors he needed done. Gee... didn’t see that coming, eh? He needed me to go out and kill a bunch of Deer in the forest; because there’s a bit of a food shortage on the island and Vlad wants to help feed the refugees. One problem is, that some of the deer are diseased. One way to fix this is to take a Priest with me to cure the diseased ones. Another problem is, there were plenty of healthy deer mixed amongst the diseased, so I quickly chose to solo it.
A while later, I headed back with the Meat a la Deer. My reward for doing this is some pretty sweet looking Hunter Boots, which cause an increase in Agility. If you do more quests for Vlad, he rewards you with more Hunter gear. My next task: Scout a nearby Gruttooth camp. Using my awesome sneaking skills, I creeped in and out of the camp. Later on, things get harder when you fight the War Wolves that reside in the camps. But Vlad needs the War Wolves’ Harnesses, so I fought the oversized puppies from hell.
A few quests later, now with an almost-complete set of Hunter Gear, I talk to Vlad for my last task. He’s positive that there is more going on involving the Gruttooth invasion than what was otherwise thought. He orders me to Track Down and kill the Mastermind responsible for the Gruttooth invansion. He also says that if I wish to succeed, I should request the help of others. So I met up with a party of four, who were also on the same quest. United, we rushed in with swords flailing – except for the Mage-Girl, who was in the back casting spells – and easily slaughtered our opponents and their leader. With nothing else left, Vlad says I should consider finding a way off the island. Keep in mind: Vlad isn’t the only Quest-giver. There are several others to get quests and perform deeds from on the island: everything from searching for items to massively slaying Gruttooths.
I didn’t do all the quests, but I did a lot of them. Eventually, I decided this island was getting boring, so I embarked to find a way off the island and experience some different parts of EverQuest II. There are two recruiters in the Bar-like building sitting on a dock/pier; one sends the good players to Qeynos, the other sends the evil players to Freeport. The city you go to is determined by alignment, which is chosen during character creation.
Soon after, I meet with Duke Ferrin, who owns the island and the right to leave it. The Duke has a good business shipping castaways to the two cities. He tells me to meet the Steward when I reach Qeynos, then grants me passage off of the isle. I quickly headed to the ship and happily set sail for new adventures.
Well, that’s the opener of the game, pretty much what determines whether or not you’re going to keep playing it. I like it for the fact that it really breaks down and gives you a preview of the game and its engine.
The graphics of the game are unbelievable. I didn’t see a single flaw in them. I loved how fluent they were throughout my adventures. The integration between areas is well made. It’s easy to see the developers took their time on it. I was running the game on Medium settings and I was in awe. EverQuest II is one of those games that makes you wish you had a $5,000 PC, just so you could play it on the highest settings and take in everything the developers have worked so hard on to offer.
The sound detail is also well done. It seems almost like every other MMO. I mean, the sounds for all the weapons seem unique, but it doesn’t seem to feature anything out of the ordinary or particularly noteworthy. I think that EverQuest II, much like every other MMO, should have a M=music selector of some sort, so you could run your own music in it, but I guess that wouldn’t work with the EverQuest feel of things. They need the traditional medieval music to shape the game’s atmosphere.
The interface is quite unique in the way in which it has been created. It doesn’t look anything like the others I’ve seen from other MMOs. I’d say it was the best interface I’ve ever come across, but I think it’s likely connected with the one from World of Warcraft. They both have some flaws, but they make up for them by having an easy-to-use and easy-on-the-eyes interface. I liked how you could set transparency on selected and non-selected windows you had, plus how you could move them around, which is quite helpful in-game.
Almost every aspect of EverQuest II is unique in some way. I especially liked the monster grouping system because it allows you to see what monsters will attack if you were attack a specific creature. For example, let’s say there are a pack of monsters (seven of them). If you click on one, he becomes highlighted, then two others are highlighted, because they’re in his group as well. If you were to attack the highlighted monster, not would he attack you, but so would the other two in his group.
This grouping system, of course, relates to the combat system of the game, however, the actual aspect of combat in EverQuest II comes off as feeling a bit generic. It isn’t anything entirely impressive, except for the fluidity and style used to pull off some of the game’s weapon attacks and special animations. I found that these movements made the act of combat more colorful and enjoyable than it could’ve been otherwise.
Running around the locales of EverQuest II is incredible sense of adventure. There’s such a nice variety to scenery which makes one think that the archetypes for the game’s locales have been taken from one of Tolkien’s "Lord of the Rings" novels, including forests, deserts, seaside areas, snowy wastelands, swamps, and volcanic areas. Making all of this seem as if the scale of the game is grand, which it is, are the large amounts of players you’ll see wandering alongside you. There’s just such an incredible sense of community that you’ll never feel lonely in the game. Of course, interaction between NPCs is also entertaining, and this is mostly in thanks to the heavy use of spoken dialogue featured in the game.
If you’re an MMO fanatic looking for a game to get heavily addicted to, then you should do yourself a favor and try EverQuest 2. Or, if you’re a gamer who wants to try out those funky MMOs that you hear so much about, you should still try EverQuest 2. It’s one of those games you just don’t want to put down, no matter how many hours you’ve played it. It’s like a drug, but a good drug, one that you only pay once a month for, so it’s a win-win for everyone!
