"Does EverQuest II live up to the greatness of EverQuest I? Let's find out."

EverQuest, started by Verant and now run by Sony Online Entertainment, is arguably the greatest MMORPG (and one of the greatest games) of all time. I personally spent over 100 DAYS of online play on my account, and it nearly consumed every part of my social life. Now while I could go on and on about how great EverQuest 1 is, this review is to focus on EverQuest 2, so let's move on.

When Sony announced it was making a sequel I was very happy, I hoped that it would live up to the original EverQuest and perhaps exceed it in many ways.

It was released early November 2004 and I was quick to get myself a copy and start playing it. I found that it was a great game in it's essence, but didn't quite live up to the standard brought to the industry by the original EverQuest. Let's examine the factors that bring any game together:

Graphics 10/10: The graphics in EverQuest II are without a doubt some of the most realistic graphics I have ever seen in a video game. Just looking at my Barbarian Defiler occupied my mind for minutes at a time. I loved the way everything flowed together so well and how I never saw two identical characters because of the overwhelmingly broad range of character customization features. The graphics in this game are definitely top of the line and will not be exceeded by any MMORPG for a long while.

Sound: 9/10: Sound is an important aspect in any game, and the people at Sony understand that. EQ2 boasts full NPC voiceovers which have yet to be seen in any MMORPG to date. These especially include Christopher Lee (Saruman from the Lord of the Rings movies) as the voice of Lucan D'Lere (You may remember this NPC from the Paladin Epic Quest in EverQuest). While the music in EverQuest 2 is sometimes lacking and the combat theme can get somewhat repetitive, the sound is still of very high quality and is definitely not EQ's tragic flaw.

Gameplay 7.5/10: While the gameplay in EQ2 is very good and the combat/quest systems are very involving, there seems to be some missing pieces to complete the puzzle. The class range is very broad, there are a total of 24 final classes from the original four archetypes (Fighter, Priest, Mage, Scout), however, the group can contain a member from each archetype and still have the same basic functionality (with a few exceptions). The tradeskill system is also very neat, it is vastly superior to any other system I've seen in a game, you can create thousands of items based on your skill level and artisan class. There are 9 different artisan classes as well, based on three archetypes (Craftsman, Outfitter, Scholar). While the combat system in EverQuest 2 has some cool unique features such as heroic opportunities (instances in combat where your group can start a chain of skills to create a greater effect at the end), the basic idea remains the same. A tank, a healer, some crowd control and some pure damage is all you need in a group, which can make things repetitive at times.

Replayability 6/10: Replayability is a very important factor in any MMORPG. EverQuest 2 starts of new and interesting but falls short in many gameplay areas where the game seems to slow down and the endless grind to 50 commences. The quests keep things going for a while but most are simply: "Go here, collect this, return, repeat" and many of the rewards seem minimal based on how much work you did.

Overall 8/10: Overall, EverQuest 2 is a great MMORPG, but it truly doesn't live up to the standards that EverQuest 1 set, and while EverQuest 2 still has potential (via expansion/adventure packs) to become a lot better, I wouldn't count on getting the same crack-like addiction to this as you did to its predecessor.

I hope this short review on EverQuest 2 was helpful to you in learning more about the game/genre. reviewing an MMORPG is very difficult because of the many aspects of the game that can change the mood at any time, but I'd suggest picking it up for its free month and if you don't like it... well... write a review as to why not :-)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/04/05