But, what’s this!? A challenger to the throne? No, better yet – the heir apparent. EverQuest 2 (EQ2) has been in development for quite some time, and from all indications it is a worthy inheritor of the franchise. What follows on this page is a brief description of my first impressions of the game, following my Dwarf Warrior, “Grumpy” from conception onwards – details on combat, skills, heroic actions, tradeskills, etc. are subjects of articles in their own right, so I won’t elaborate here.

Character creation has changed somewhat from the days of EQ 1. No longer do you adjust character stats up and down – you’re restricted to choice of race, basic class archetype (Warrior, Priest, Scout or Mage) and appearance (face, hair, tattoo patterns, etc.). There are a number of races to choose from – 16 at last count, with the last (Froglok) being available only after it’s unlocked as the result of a server-wide quest of some kind (it’ll be interesting to see how that unfolds!). The unlocked races will be largely familiar to long-time EQ players: halflings, dwarves, high elves, wood elves, iksar, trolls, ogres, dark elves, barbarians, Erudites, gnomes, half elves, and humans. The Vah Shir are gone, having been destroyed along with their moon home of Luclin, but are replaced by their racial cousins, the Kerra. The racial list is rounded out with a new entry, the Ratonga. These guys are best described as quintessential ‘Ratmen’.

OK, so you’ve got your toon created and you’ve entered the game world. Well, not really! First you’ll run through the tutorial sequence. Back in the day, you dropped directly into the EverQuest world and were expected to either learn from doing (a daunting task for those not familiar with MMO’s) or learn from asking around (which depends on the charity of players in the area). EverQuest 2 comes complete with an introductory ‘level’ that takes place on The Far Journey, a ship that runs refugees (that’s YOU) to the Isle of Refuge. While on the ship, you get basic instruction on the user interface including a brief combat with a goblin that escapes from its cage. Huzzah! Killing said goblin elevates you to Level 2 – congrats! Your first of many ‘Dings’, hopefully.

Arriving on The Isle of Refuge, you find yourself in the company of other players for the first time. The Isle is an extension of the tutorial, giving you a small, relatively easy environment in which to learn the basics of the game’s group dynamics, quest system, tradeskills, vendor interactions, etc. In effect, The Isle replaces the ‘newbie zones’ ala EQ1 that had hordes of garter snakes and bats flying around for Level 1’s to beat on. You can leave the Isle for your final destination (Qeynos or Freeport are the only two starting cities remaining) at any time, but it’s highly recommended that you take the opportunity to level up to 6 here on the Isle through the plotline quests, culminating in the death of an evil Orc Warlord that requires a group to achieve.

When you speak with the Ambassadors near the docks, you can choose to leave the Isle for either Freeport or Qeynos, depending on your race (good races to Qeynos, evil to Freeport, others than can go either way get to choose). Rather than being dropped into your starting city proper (in my case, Qeynos), you’re set down in a ‘satellite’ zone that’s usually particular to your race. Dwarfs, for instance, arrive in Graystone Yard, with lots of stone construction, armourers, weaponsmiths, etc. Wood Elves go to Willow Wood, etc.

The tutorial quests continue from here, introducing you to the additional game elements that aren’t present on the Isle. You get a tour of your first ‘home’, a basic room in the local Inn. The initial quests are mandatory – you can’t enter the city until you complete the Citizenship Quest, for instance. Once you do that, you’re free to go wherever you please, although the Citizenship Quest continues on for a bit after that. If you choose to complete it, you’ll pick up some additional equipment, experience, and a tour of the Antonica zone that will come in handy later in ‘life’.

That last portion of the Citizenship Quest, in my case a tour of Antonica, was amazing. The Antonica zone is larger than anything I’ve seen previously in an MMO game that uses the zone methodology, its scope is staggering! Equally staggering, however, is the persistant lag. The locals had begun referring to it as “Lagtonica” a while back – hopefully the development team will have this locked down by release.

Luckily, you don’t really need to leave Qeynos for some time to find worthy experience. There’s an underground catacomb filled with baddies, cave zones, Forest Ruins, the Oakmist forest… all kinds of places, always tied to multiple quests found in the city, where you can go to find creatures, loot and more quests. The quests are a real step up from what you might have experienced in the original EQ. Unlike their predecessor’s, these quests are (on the whole) ~fun~ to play through, give reasonable rewards appropriate to your level, and open up a whole new game experience. You can conceivably spend your entire game time online doing nothing but quests, solo and grouped, and not feel cheated. And, if you’re worried about Qeynos being crowded, don’t worry – it’s huge! Much larger than the Qeynos of old, split into multiple zones and instances, this Qeynos looks to be big enough to handle the extra traffic its sure to see when the game goes live.

In short order, you’ll find yourself at Level 10 with a choice. At this point in a character’s lifecycle, you get to choose to specialize beyond your original character class. This is done via a Class Quest that introduces you to the differences between the two options and let’s you choose at the end. In the case of the Warrior, there are a number of tasks to perform to prove your worthiness – I’m sure the same is true for the other archetypes. Once again, a well-designed transition that uses the quest system to full effect, adding to the immersive feel of the game that was missing in the first EQ.

Not the hack-and-slash type? Perhaps the world of the artisan is more for you. Tradeskills have seen a huge revamp compared to the old system, where now you can actually earn experience and level up as a smith, carpenter, etc.

The FAQ reads that, theoretically, you could spend your entire game existence in your original starting city doing nothing but levelling up as an artisan, as all the basic ingredients for tradeskill ‘recipes’ are available from vendors. Rare ingredients would be available only through quests or as dropped loot from creatures, and thus would come only from adventuring or getting it from someone who did. Having tried my hand a bit at smithing, I’m not sure it’s economically viable to dedicate yourself to tradeskilling over adventuring – but, then again, I’m nowhere near the point where anyone would want to buy anything I had created, unless there’s an untapped market for fossil tempers and tin spikes. Still, it’s a vast improvement over the old system and I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out!

Well, after numerous quests and countless trips throughout the zones of Qeynos, Grumpy is now a Level 11 Warrior and a Level 6 Artisan. I don’t suppose I’ll be progressing ~too~ much past these points, as it was recently announced that EverQuest 2 will be shipping on November 8th, 2004. I’ve got my copy pre-ordered – how about you? :-D

If this has piqued your interest in EverQuest 2 to a sufficient degree... would you like to win a free copy of the game? Yes? Well, just check out our ongoing EverQuest 2 pre-order giveaway where we award a pre-ordered copy of the full, retail version of the game every Monday right up to release day! Check the front page of the website for details.