It’s a fair bet that nearly every gamer on the planet has either played or heard of Everquest, and whether you love it or hate it the fact remains that it’s one of the biggest franchises in RPG history. After countless instalments on the PC and a single appearance on the PS2, the series is back and ready to destroy some more social lives.
The game comes on two discs and took around two hours to install, which is considerably faster than Final Fantasy XI, I might add. It’s all relatively smooth and idiot-proof, so for once no mice were harmed during the process. Getting started is slightly more complicated, you have to trawl through countless registration screens and before you can actually play the game it has to download all the previously released updates, which can take a while.
Clicking the big flashy “PLAY” button takes you straight into a elaborate and beautifully presented intro movie, which explains that the lands of Norrath have been shattered into several islands and divided straight down the middle by the forces of good and evil. You’re then prompted to create your character, choosing the basics first, like race and gender, followed by the more in-depth customisation options like eye colour and hair style. Lastly you choose your alliance; good characters reside in the city of Qeynos and evil in Freeport.
EQII uses a similar job system to many of the RPGs on the market, whereby different types of character have their individual specialities and responsibilities in a group. After initially choosing from the 4 main archetypes; Scout, Warrior, Mage and Priest, you then complete a series of quests which eventually allow you to advance your character. Each archetype is split into three sub-classes, which you’ll sooner or later be asked to choose from, and this choice will influence pretty much every aspect of the game for you, from the abilities you receive to the items you can wear.
The game is packed with features, quests and distractions to keep you engrossed for as long as possible, but it often feels like you have a little too much on your plate. In the early stages of the game, before I had even left my starting city, I had 36(!) active tasks in my “journal” that I’d picked up simply from chatting to the NPCs dotted around the towns. I imagine in the long-term it’s a blessing to have so much to do, but in the beginning it’s a bit daunting. Still, the opportunity to buy your own house, ride horses, command ships and practice various crafts and trades brings a healthy amount of variation to the gameplay.
Graphically the game is beautiful; textures are varied and detailed, characters models are solid and believable, the landscape is expansive and you’ll struggle to find two places that look the same. However, without a high-end PC you’ll have to sacrifice some of the quality to keep the frame rate up, as in the busier cities the game can literally grind to a halt sometimes. The amount that can be going on on-screen at one time is astonishing though, and the detail lavished on the characters is some of the best I’ve seen - it’s just a shame that it all becomes a shuddering, jerky mess as soon as you move.
The presentation of the game is very tidy, and considering the amount of stuff you have to deal with, menus are relatively easy to navigate. The sound is superb; nearly every NPC in the game is fully voice-acted and the music rises and falls to suit the situation or area you’re in. Despite feeling slightly overwhelmed to begin with, having some real trouble making the game run at more than 10fps and getting hugely stuck on one of my first quests, I did have some fun with EQII and you can’t feel to be impressed by the sheer size of the game. Definitely one for the MMORPG nut, but I can’t recommend it if you’re new to the genre.
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