Estate of Unrest: A Look Inside a Real Haunted House

by: Tony "RadarX" Jones

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For those of you who played the original EverQuest, the Estate of Unrest is a very familiar zone, known widely for difficult pulls and trains of mobs destroying anyone foolish enough to be in their path. It was home to zombies, skeletons, and just about every creepy beast in the original game. If you are unfamiliar with EverQuest, this Estate was the location of brutal murders claiming the lives of the entire Quellborn family. The motivations of Garathan Rucksif (if his name sounds familiar, think Dwarven Workboots) are something of a mystery based on what little lore I could dig up, but who knows what will be revealed. Does Unrest live up to the expectations of the original zone, and of EverQuest 2? I recently got an inside peek of this fight house, and can say firsthand, a lot of work has gone into it.

If you grew up on Adventure games like I did, you remember the Space/Police/King's Quest games where you ran around looking for clues, switches, and buttons in order to advance the story. Whether it was using a piece of glass to stop a laser beam, a radio extender to call back up, or magic powder to shrink yourself, the games required critical thinking and reading, both skills we aren't really used to in the MMO world. When Community Manager Craig "Grimwell" Dalrymple explained this was like an adventure game, I have to admit I was skeptical and conjured up visions of typing in "Go North" or "Grab wire."

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Unrest Entrance

Who is this zone going to be for? Unrest is instanced single group zone (sorry raiders), and intended for level 70 players with at least average gear. I would expect something just a little harder then the Crypt of Valdoon but not the brutalizing Nizara we saw in the Fallen Dynasty adventure pack. A little bit of trivia Grimwell shared with us was it took a test group 20 hours to complete the zone on their first try, and 8 the second. I would suspect even with a walkthrough, this will be a lot longer than the 90 minute Obelisk of Blight/Crypt of Valdoon runs we are all used to.

As we entered, the zone seemed very familiar to me, so it appears they went for a nostalgic feel. I saw the fountain, gazebo, and even the original hedge maze I used to play hide and seek with undead in. Grimwell made a point to state everything in the zone was original textures so nothing was recycled from other parts of Echoes of Faydwer. We hadn't been inside long, before we were taken to our first “clue.” Much to my disappointment, it was not a murder weapon. It also occurred to me that if you have twitchy hands from guzzling energy drinks, you might have to turn it down a notch so you can pay attention.

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Upstairs is Creepy Too

After a quick trip to the gazebo, we made our way behind the house to the graveyard. It was a somber placet, but as we disturbed this unholy ground. the undead began to rise. As I stood there watching them lumber toward us, I spotted it. Shiny! I dashed through the mob of creatures, spawning countless others as I reached for it. “MINE!” I screamed, as the others looked around the graveyard at other stuff. There appear to be at least 2 new collection quests, and two new tome quests for you collectors.

Something interesting Grimwell pointed out was that tradeskillers had been included in this content. What? How...when...? Apparently new recipes will be making their way into the game requiring components that drop off named creatures, or spawn in certain areas within the instance.

We were ushered to the front door and told in very big bold letters, we weren't welcome. So in we went! The house is 3 floors, and divided into sections you'll need to open up through clues and items. We walked through the foyer to the bar area and wiped out all the ghosts in sight. This spawned a very angry barkeeper, who was a little annoyed we had killed his patrons. He broke out the alcohol and proceeded to start swinging, and this is when I noticed something unusual on my buffs bars. It seems that special debuffs have been added just for this instance, and will provide some challenging effects. One called “zombie rot” sapped my strength something fierce and has no duration timer. Can a healer cure it, or is there something in the house? You'll have to find out for yourself.

The upstairs portion of the manor proved to be no safer than the ground floor. Room after room, provided creepier settings and more surprises than I would've thought SOE could put in an instance. The shock value might only last one or two trips, but some of it will be quite memorable indeed. One room in particular scared me so badly (thanks to Grimwell's suggestion we turn our sound up) that I actually I cried out in terror.

Our final destination was the basement, and proved to be the most horrifying of all. As we visited what appeared to be a torture chamber, an old familiar EQ1 friend proceded to beat the living poo out of us. They've got some nasty tricks up their sleeve, and I'm sure they'll fool a number of people at least once.

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What goes on Here?

If you've gotten this far, you might be annoyed at how vague I've been at some points, but you might thank me later for the surpises. There appears to have been a ton of work put into the Estate of Unrest, graphically, and quest wise. While we didn't get to see the loot that drops, I can't imagine it being anything less than spectacular and I'm sure the zone will provide hours of entertainment for a group of your choosing. I would recommend anyone in the level 70 range check this zone out, if nothing else to race for shinys. Keep in mind this is a part of the Echoes of Faydwer expansion, so if you don't have it, go buy it right now.