EverQuest 2 review

It took approximately 40 seconds to load the first screen and immediately it was a wow ex-perience. I chose to play as a Dark Elf and I would begin my adventures in the city of FreePort. I picked my name which is always Trollo. At this point I was given the choice to have a crack at the tutorial.

The game began and I found myself waking up on a boat, there was a man speaking to me, the captain. This was part of the tutorial and this character explained how to move. A few more basic lessons, such as interacting with objects and characters on the boat followed. So here I began, making my first few steps into this new world, learning to live, to fight; and then the boat put me ashore at a place called The Isle of Refugees.

The story begins…

Arriving at the docks the player is involved once more with character development. Speaking to a character here gave me a choice of four professions; fighter, mage, priest and scout. Later in the game when you reach level ten you may choose again, and at level 20 you pick your final professional.

But that's for later. Here I chose my profession and received some basic items and my first level up. I was given some water, rations and a simple weapon. I also realised around this point why the game ships on two DVDs, there's so much non-player character speech recorded for the game – which adds a lot more depth and atmosphere.

It's here you'll begin your first quests. The game eases you into these adventures and it's not too difficult to complete these and earn valuable experience points (xp). One of the things I learned early on was to loot everything I find. But some chests can actually be traps, hurting the unwary or those without a sufficient character level to open them.

Tradeskills are another aspect of the game that I was introduced to on the island. Sure some people want to be an adventurer, but others have a certain career in mind. That's how this economy works. So some people will be out gathering resources, others convert these into something useful.

I spent my time on the Isle of Refugees learning all these new skills, getting to grips with the controls and reaching a sufficient level to continue the game. I took my level 6 character off to the port to gain my citizenship so I could finally enter Freeport.

Freeport, so good they named it once

They don't just let anyone into Freeport you know, I certainly got the impression they were looking down their nose at me. I had to complete some tasks (mostly of a violent kind) in sub-zones before reaching level 8, it was at this point that I received my citizenship ring and was finally a member of this fair city.

Now I had somewhere to call home, at a not unreasonable 5Sp per week, and could now stretch my legs, as a new citizen of the world. Ready to take on all that was before me, to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield, etc.

Feeling more confident now I set out into the common lands. Events pass at a slower pace now, but I'm in no hurry. I just enjoy talking to vendors and killing some of the easier targets around the West Freeport gate. After a few hours I thought I'd have hit level 10, but no. I had to visit a mage tower and speak to a lady that helped me along my mage profession. I chose the role of a Summoner (the path before becoming a necromancer) and completed a few easy quests.

It was around this time I gained my first pet, a Scarab. From this point I saw much more of the lands, travelled with a few groups and gained much more experience. When you're a newbie beginning at Freeport I found it best to stay in the northern area of the the common lands, and perhaps find some people to adventure with.

Group debt

One of the tricky aspects of questing and working in groups is that of group debt. Whenever you are killed you gain debt, and this must be worked off. If you die while in a group, the whole group receives debt. That makes it all the more important to find a good group of play-ers to work with. This means that you tend to play with the same people. The upside is that you die less, the negative aspect is that you don't really get to meet as many new people as you might expect.

If you're alone or don’t have a healer in your group that can resurrect you, you have to revive. That's not too bad, but you will get much more debt from it. This isn't always removed easily – you may even spend three days trying to work it off.

Guilds

A guild system is pretty much de-rigueur in games of this type. For the uninitiated it's very much like being a member of a clan. You can earn xp for yourself and your guild. Guild mem-bership brings many benefits such as access to more raid quests, cheaper items from vendors and a better price when selling your own items.

I certainly found that membership of my guild, the Scarab Guild, made playing the game easier. Certainly the access to items needed for crafting is very welcome. Some games let anyone just form a guild so they can feel like a big shot. But EQ3 handles guild creation in a much better manner. Creating a guild requires six people in the same zone, eliminating the creation of such trophy one-man guilds. Guilds are about co-operation and the guilds in EQ2 certainly help to foster that.

Closing thoughts

For a beginner EverQuest 2 can be difficult, but I would say it's well worth persevering. It's a rich expansive world, full of surprises, one that drags you in. It's not nicknamed EverCrack for nothing, you know. I particularly liked the guild raids with up to 24 people taking part. It's the co-operation and team playing elements that appealed to me most, especially as a member of a guild.

However it's not all sweetness and light. Sometimes guild raids can be tough due to the many different levels of players taking part. The economy needs some work too; items found out in the world are often worth more than objects you can create via your tradeskill – thus making a lot of hard work rather pointless. Of course EverQuest 2 is an ever expanding game, with fixes and changes being applied all the time. At least one can feel sure that problems that do show themselves will ultimately get some attention from the developer.

You won't see a better looking online RPG. Sony has gone for a photorealistic style with detailed textures and some very impressive architecture. There's so much detail in objects and individual characters. Animations are excellent too and the whole look of the game is yet another aid to immersion.

Best of all is the sound. The inclusion of voices for NPCs is no mere gimmick, it really adds to the atmosphere of the game. The rest of the sound effects are superb, with wind and weather effects being very natural. An orchestrated score rounds off an amazing audio/visual package.

All in all what we have here is an amazing package. Graphics, sound, atmosphere, characters, quests etc. all combine to create an amazing adventure that you will find yourself easily drawn into. The game is by no means perfect, but it's a wonderful evolving experience that it's a pleasure to be part of.