"EverQuest II - It's a Brand new World!"

Some of you may be thinking "Another Everquest? NOO!" but fear not, this has nothing to do with the previous one; this one is a brand new game. The only relation it has to the expansion-happy original EQlive is by name and world -- which has changed very much. The game hasn't been out for more than a day prior to this review, but I was in beta testing, so most of the review will be a mix of the two.

Lore

One of the features is the lore of the game, which players can actually change and mold to a certain extent. The basic premise is this -- 500 years after the events in Everquest 2, A LOT has changed in the world. The Gods left Norrath to rot, due to mortals constantly challenging their avatars in the magical planes. Shortly after this, Luclin, the huge moon, exploded and rained down fiery Armageddon upon the world, shattering the huge continents into smaller islands and outright destroying others. With the world shattered and godless, Norrath slowly decays into oblivion...

Some time later, two human cities by the name of Freeport and Qeynos were improved and offered their benefits to whoever would reside and pledge allegiance to their rulers -- the benevolent queen of Qeynos, or the murderous overlord of Freeport. While the two forces oppose each other and wish to destroy another, they are having a cold war, a stalemate. They realize that rebuilding the world is more important than their differences... for the time being.

You take on the roll of a homeless citizen that was fished out from the ocean, and must pledge allegiance to one of the two cities.

Beginning Life

Before you even start your life, you must create your character. The character creation process is brilliant, but not quite on the level of City of Heroes' awesome system. Still, Everquest 2 offers thousands of combinations that you can use to customize how your character looks. In a world of thousands of players, this helps people stand out from one another.

After your character is made, you are automatically given a choice to skip or complete the tutorial. If you are familiar with MMORPGs, you may want to skip it, as it plays similar to them. You arrive on the Isle of Refuge, where you are immediately given a choice of which archetype you want to be -- fighter, priest, scout, or mage. Each has their own roll in the group, and further down the road, you much pick a sub-class and a final class to be. This is good for people who want to try-before-you-buy.

Say you play a fighter and find that you enjoy dealing damage more than you enjoy tanking. You may want to become a monk sub-class. After that choice, further along the roll you enjoy berserking and brutally harming your opponent rather than being a calm fighter who uses a variety of skills; you would then choose your final class, a Bruiser.

There are four archetypes, 12 sub-classes, and 24 final classes to choose from -- along with 16 races to choose, which can become any class.

So you can pick and match which you like. Want to see a gnome in full vanguard armor? Go ahead! Want to see an ogre with a spellbook? You can do that too!

Customization

Along with the game, you are given choices and options throughout your time in the world of Norrath which can add customization to your character. At certain levels, you are given the option to choose one-out-of-four abilities to add to your persona. Such abilities might raise HP, strength, magic resistance, and other factors that can help your character, depending on your style. The best thing is that you can choose which ones you want, so if you're a warrior, you would probably choose to upgrade your hit points or your armor class.

Along with these abilities, you are also presented with choices depending on what race you are. Racial abilities work similar to the previous ones, only they aren't as beneficial. You have the choice of extra stealth as a Dark Elf, or you could choose to learn a new dance, for example. Some choices are more for the social outlook, so it's kind of a mixed bag. There are also a variety of other features that offer unique and pleasant customization options for your character, but I'll let you figure them out for yourself.

Music

The music is simply brilliant. The kind and gentle music of Qeynos, and the dark and ominous music of Freeport. All of the music fits the situation and is simply a wonderful addition to the game. You also have the option of importing your own music into the game for certain sections. Like hearing a rock song while you do battle? You can change it so it plays every time you get into an encounter. Though I don't see why most people would want to change the already outstanding music.

Gameplay

Here it is, the make-or-break for most people looking for an MMORPG -- the gameplay category. You may be thinking all the previous features sound nice, but if the gameplay sucks, it's not worth it.

The battles are fast paced, which may or may not be to your liking. If you are dual wielding a weapon, you virtually wont stop swinging your swords throughout the whole battle unless you decide to stop attacking. Along with this, there is also a combat wheel known as Heroic Opportunity which pops up in every battle. The Heroic Opportunity is a system where players can link together their attacks to complete the wheel and trigger a 'super' effect depending on the combination used. When the wheel starts up, the name of the Heroic Opportunity is shown underneath it. "Divine Storm" is a powerful blast which hits all enemies you are fighting for a decent portion of damage, while say "Divine Bell" would heal all party members for a good-sized heal. Is it easy to trigger the wheel? Yes, but you must work as a team to complete it. The Heroic Opportunity is not very valuable early on, but in the later levels, it's a wonderful addition to have to your dungeon crawling experience.

Another thing people have complaints about is EXP loss upon death. Everquest 2 does away with this and implements a new system, spirit loss. When you die, you leave behind a piece of your spirit, which looks like a ghostly version of your character. You re-spawn at the nearby city or camp of your choosing with all your items, but you know have a condition which is known as 'spirit loss'. While you have this, your stats are decreased and you have an EXP debt; instead of losing EXP, you are hindered from making EXP. So in a sense, you never lose or stop gaining experience in this game, which is a very nice thing. Once you get your spirit back by going to where you die and clicking on it, most of your debt is lifted and you can get back to hunting. It offers a sigh of relief upon death, while making sure you act carefully and wise at the same time.

One thing is that if you are in a group, you 'share' in your teammate's experience debt. This may seem like a bad thing at first, but it forces you to work together as a team to make sure nobody dies. It also gives you an idea of who is not pulling their weight and you may choose to boot them from your group and find someone who does their job better. This forces people to learn their rolls and get good at them, because if you have a reputation of dying a lot and sucking, you won't be invited into very many groups. Take this as a positive or negative.

You also get an option to own homes and pets, which is a nice feature. You start out with a dinky apartment room, but you can eventually find mansions to purchase (which cost quite a lot, and are mostly reserved for guilds). You can customize your home with furniture and other accessories, even some things you find out exploring. You can also own a pet, but it requires attention and love from time to time. Break this tradition and you may come back to find it's corpse laying near the door, waiting for your return. So sad....

The trade-skill system is wonderful. Instead of the traditional "add components and click 'make'" you must find a workstation to work at. Once there, you pick from a list of recipes you know (you need to find or buy more) and if you have the ingredients, you can choose to make the item. Unlike other games, you can't just macro the trade-skill and walk away. During the course of making them item, you are presented with problems and options that may come up. You have a set of 'trade-skill skills' at the start of the game and must use them to counter-act the problems that arise through item creation.

Say you are making a piece of armor and suddenly it says the metal starts to come undone, you must then use a skill that can counteract it from your list before the 'creation round' ends. If you do, it will be counteracted. If you fail, it can do anything from damaging the item and preventing success, or causing harmful damage to the player -- yes, you can actually die from letting your items explode and cause too much harm to you.

While making items, you have a quality bar and a duration bar. You must wait for the duration bar to fill up, but in turn that makes the quality go down. If you're good at making an item, you can make it at its highest level with no problem. Try doing a harder item and you may be only to get it to level 1. (There are 4 levels)

This may sound like a bother, but it's actually a very fun piece of the game. You can be an artisan as well as an adventure, so if you don't feel like getting a group to hunt orcs, you can just stay at home and make items and build your your artisan skills.
Overall

Overall, I would say EverQuest 2 is currently the best MMORPG on the market right now. As a beta tester for other soon-to-be MMORPG games, which shall remain nameless, I would say Everquest 2 is the better out of of them and has numerous features that can appeal to the h4rdk0re gamer and the casual one at the same time. If you're new to the genre and looking for one to get you into it, pick this up and give it a try. If you're looking for a new MMORPG to replace your old one, pick this up too.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/09/04