EverQuest II Review

Where does fantasy end and reality begin? From hundreds of years ago starting with Plato’s Cave to the present day with films like The Matrix, mankind has been trying to find out not only what reality is, but whether or not our daily lives fit its definition. For some, reality is everyday experiences felt by their senses. Their reality ends at night, when their senses shut down and their imagination is left to run wild. What if there was a game that transcends this conscious boundary and alters its player’s understanding of reality. That game is here. Welcome to Everquest II, where fantasy becomes reality.

In Everquest II, the new MMORPG developed and published by Sony Online Entertainment (who also developed and published the original Everquest), the player assumes the role of a citizen in one of two major cities in the land of Norrath. Norrath consists of several large continents and rests in the middle of a large and encompassing ocean. It is a largely unexplored land, filled with monsters and scarred from centuries of battle. In the heart of Norrath are two cities – Freeport and Qeynos. Freeport, lead by the stern and ruthless dictator Lucan D’Lere, wants total control of Norrath and loyalty from every person in it. D’Lere rules with a stiff jaw, an iron fist, and captivates the Freeport masses with his predictions of ultimate victory. In contrast, Qeynos is lead by the beautiful and charismatic Antonia Bayle. Like the citizens that follow her, Bayle is interested mostly in the preservation of order in Norrath. She believes that accomplishing this can only happen with the removal of D’Lere from power, and she hopes that in doing so, the citizens of Freeport will be allowed to live as they choose to and not under the guidance of a tyrant who would otherwise lead them to bloodshed.

With 16 playable races and 24 professions, Everquest II gives the player a high degree of freedom when it comes to character creation. The races range from Dwarves to Kerras to Trolls, and the professions range from Beserkers to Wardens to Swashbucklers. Every race and profession combination is valid; there are no restrictions to the types of professions a character of a particular race can choose. Even if a Freeport character wants to be a profession that they can only learn in Qeynos, they can betray Freeport to live in Qeynos (and visa-versa). That means that there are over 350 different race/profession combinations that the player can choose from. In addition, the race of a character does not have a very significant impact on his or her overall effectiveness, so the player is free to choose a combination that they like, no matter how strange or odd it may seem (an ogre mage, for example). The individualism doesn’t stop there, however. The player can completely customize the looks of their characters, from the shape of their noses, to a unique pattern of scales or fur (when applicable), to head accessories like eyewear. In effect, the player can accurately create a character that matches a very wide range of personalities, which greatly helps immerse the player into the fantasy reality of the game.

As its predecessor did five years ago, Everquest II sets a new standard in graphical refinement and beauty. Not only is the terrain and atmosphere of the game immaculate, but the actual clothes that the players wear are very unique and drawn to a high level of detail. Every piece of clothing looks unique, and having clothes that look similar but with different properties are a thing of the past. Even some of the monsters of the same group have unique looks to them. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the graphics engine is its rendering of spell effects. Not only are they scaled to fit the size of the monster (a fireball against a giant is a larger fireball then one against a rat), but the unique colors and textures for each spell really gives the graphics a polished look and makes the player feel as though they are actually the character that they play. The fact the game cannot be run on the highest settings at acceptable frame rates with systems consisting of FX-55 CPU chips and GeForce 6800 GT graphics cards is testament to SOE’s attention to detail in Everquest II.

Like the graphics engine, the sound in Everquest II really helps make the environment come alive. The ambient noise is diverse and rich. Everything from birds chirping to water running to steel grinding can be heard in the background. Additionally, there is a special option that can randomly change the pitch of all sounds, which adds a near infinite variety of sounds to the game (at the cost of significant performance, however). The music to accompany the ambient sounds is also very refined. It has an orchestral feel and the traveling music is relaxing enough to relieve some of the stress of battle but upbeat enough to keep the player’s attention levels high. During combat, the music will shift to a more appropriate selection, and it helps to keep the player in the right mindset – namely, kill or be killed. Perhaps the only problem with the sound in the game is the lack of any character “greetings” using sound. For example, pressing a key and having a sound playing “Hello there” for other players to hear is not possible. Although it would have been nice to include for convenience purposes, the fact that it is not in the game adds to the individualism of the characters and prevents anyone from abusing such a voice system.
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The superb graphics and sound of Everquest II enable a very enjoyable combat experience. The player can choose to use the multitude of skills and special abilities at his or her disposal during combat, (a combat skill or spell is gained every time a player gains a level of experience, and sometimes at half way through a level) and every skill takes up a certain amount of power. Once a player has depleted their power reserve, they cannot perform any special skills, including the ability to sprint (although power and health do regenerate over time and can be increased by spells). This is why it is crucial to keep a watchful eye on not only the health of enemies, but at how much power the player has left. Like the character creation system, the combat system in Everquest II allows the player to express their own personality in a unique fighting style, due to the large amount of abilities at their disposal.

Since Norrath is so densely populated, players do not usually fight alone. Up to six players may participate in a single group, although players who do not have enough levels compared to the other players in the group will not receive any experience or items while in that group. The game has been set up to ensure that every type of player is needed in a group. For example, players of the fighter archtype are needed to have enemies focus their attention on them because they usually are the best at withstanding attacks, whereas players of the priest archtype are needed to heal all members of the party and resurrect fallen allies. Furthermore, players work together by completing special and powerful “heroic opportunities”. These heroic opportunities are combinations of spells and abilities from different members of the group that can be brought together to produce one devastating effect. They must be completed within a certain amount of time (about ten seconds) and must be completed in order. The group system greatly encourages teamwork and makes combat all the more rewarding. Groups also are very helpful in completing quests.
As its name implies, Everquest II has an enormous amount of quests. The quests range from important ones like class quests to enable the player to take on a certain type of profession, to trivial ones from a beggar on the street to receive a small monetary reward. Although there is a large quantity of quests, the quality of them is relatively crude. For the most part, they are very straightforward, and usually involve the same process – kill a group of monsters, take their items, and return to the quest giver. Of course, there is usually some type of story behind the quest, but the majority of them do not involve any critical thinking or problem solving. Despite this, the quests can be challenging, and are usually very fun and rewarding to complete.

The player does not spend all of their time in combat, however. Players can take on different artisan professions, ranging from carpenter to tailor to jeweler. There are nine total artisan paths that a player can choose from. Crafting items requires a special recipe of different base components. As players gain experience, they can craft more and more specialized things. These special products can only be bought from players (and not from computer controlled merchants), and the player can set up their own market. The markets are usually set up in the house of the player merchant, and other players can view their prices from special bulletin boards set up around the city. This system rewards players who spend a good deal of time trying to make a name for themselves in the merchant business, and is especially helpful to aid a player’s guild mates.
Like other MMORPGs, the game has a fully functional guild system. A guild is a large group of players who all share a common tag, similar to a gaming clan or a sports team. Every server has guilds, which all have different themes. Some guilds are serious and dedicated to having the most powerful players on their server, while others are more laid back or have different racial or profession requirements (for example, an all Wood Elf guild or an all Assassin guild). The guild system is a really excellent way to meet people who share similar interests and goals. Additionally, Sony provides a free web hosting service to enable guilds to share information about themselves to people all over the world. Guilds must compose of at least six players and must make a monetary donation (using in-game money, not real money) to the game bank to be recognized as a guild.
Despite the fact that Everquest II has excellent combat, crafting, and guild systems, some of the game’s problems arise in the actual mechanics and in analyzing the motives for getting to higher levels. For example, the “instancing” system really detracts from the realism of the game. While in combat, this system locks the player and his or her group into the encounter against the monster they are fighting. This means that no other player outside of their group can harm the monster they are fighting, or affect any player in the encounter. While this helps prevent “power leveling” and kill stealing, it also makes the game seem too mechanistic and unrealistic. Players can do nothing but watch when other players are losing health and are about to be killed by an overpowering monster. Although a player can “call for help” and break the encounter (and allow other players to attack the monster), doing so will not give the player any experience or any items from the monster that they were fighting. Again, it does prevent unfair leveling tactics, but at the same time, it detracts from the overall experience.

Another problem with the gameplay of Everquest II manifests itself in the targeting system. While there are keys to cycle through enemies and select closest enemies, sometimes the game will target inanimate objects such as fallen trees or rocks. Also, players cannot create a drag-box on their screen (by holding down the mouse button and dragging across the screen), so selecting a particular enemy must be done by directly clicking on them. This is not usually a problem, but against some of the faster moving and smaller enemies it can be.

Above everything else, the one thing that really puts a damper on Everquest II is the lack of any player versus player (or PvP) combat on every server. There is no way to harm other players, even if they are members of opposing cities. Not only is this unrealistic, but it eliminates direct competition. Players who are competitive in nature and love to play games to compete against others will start to long for competition after a few days of playing Everquest II. These players will also wonder why exactly they are trying to get to the very high levels and put the hundreds of hours into the game that it takes to make a great character. With no way to harm players, no way to attack opposing cities (the guards of the cities will throw players of opposite faction out), and nothing significantly different gameplay wise about having a high level character, players who are used to playing MMORPGs to reach a specific destination or goal will find themselves questioning their effort. They will start to wonder why exactly they are killing thousands of enemies and grinding through the tedious effort required to gain a level, especially if they are not in a guild and do not feel obligated to help anyone at a higher level then they are.

In the final analysis, Everquest II provides one of the best virtual fantasy experiences ever seen in a computer game. The fantastic graphics, pristine sound, and excellent guild and quest system make Everquest II a worthy sequel to the highly acclaimed original. However, some problems with game mechanics, the lack of PvP, and a slow XP leveling system can turn-off competitive players to the game. Players who like to play games for fun or to socialize, on the other hand, will greatly enjoy what the game has to offer. For that reason, one can best think of Everquest II as a virtual-fantasy experience, rather than a game. With a dedicated development team with over five years of experience in the genre, Everquest II is sure to only get better with time, and will likely remain the best virtual-fantasy experience for years to come.