EverQuest 2 GC Impressions
Previews

Everquest II (EQ II), by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) is the sequel to one of the first and most successful MMORPGs ever! You should think that a game of that scale, that already earned a lot of positive previews, should be presented in a big way on the biggest game show of Europe, the Games Convention (GC) in Leipzig, that took place from August, 19th until the 22nd.

Apparently, the European publisher of EQ 2, Ubi Soft, didn't think so: My team and I almost accidentally stumbled over the two small booths where the game could be tested out. Obviously, Ubi Soft thought that single-player titles like Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory or Brothers in Arms would interest the visitors much more – a grave mistake, in my opinion, since Everquest II is poised to be the only serious contender with "that other" MMORPG, World of Warcraft (WoW), which, by the way, was presented "big time" on the GC.

However, once we found EQ II and got to know it better, we seriously began to love it. It's not only that this game is just looking great – the graphics are stunning, the animation are perfectly smooth and the audio drives the atmosphere to a big level -, it has all the ingredients a fantasy-loving and MMORPG-proven gamer strives for without overwhelming a "newbie" (mind you, I've never played an MMORPG myself and I got hooked in no time and had no problems doing my first steps in Norrath).

We were able to chat for a long time with the Audio Director of the game, Heather Sowards, who we met while she was playing the game on a separate booth that could be found at SOE's partner, Nvidia. (As a footnote, we have to remark that the AUDIO DIRECTOR of EQ 2 was playing on a a PC without ANY SPEAKERS – next stop: Spanish Inquisition, I'd say). While talking enthusiastically and with a deserved amount of pride about the game, she guided us through the first steps, which gave us a great inside look into the powerful character creation tool (no character will ever look the same, believe me) and the very helpful tutorial – a small but exciting trip on a ship to the shores of the first "zone" that you will learn to know in the game, the Isles of Refuge.

As we found out, one of the major advantages of EQ 2 are the almost infinite possibilities to customize the controls and interface of the game. You can move nearly every dialogue box or window and drag a huge amount of action icons to your hotkey bars, thus giving every player the chance to configure the game right to his or her needs. In addition to that, EQ 2 has a very comfortable automap-option – something that players of the first part have been missing for a long time. The map gives a nice overview over the world, "zones" and areas (towns, forests, dungeons and so on) without giving away too much and thus spoiling the fun of exploring. Combined with the customizable waypoint system, the "wisps" that draw a visible line on your screen pointing to the next waypoint and the compass, you won't have a chance to seriously get lost in wide lands of Norrath.

However, we would have liked to have some sort of "fog of war" on the automap. Right now, every zone seems to be fully known to the player in the instant that he's entering the area for the first time. While very user-friendly, it would have been nice to get surprised a bit more by sudden discoveries while exploring unknown countrysides.

Another point that's bound to set EQ 2 above the fray will be the sounds, the musical score and – yes, no joke – the voice-overs. While the SFX-team went to great lengths to put every imaginable sound of nature into the game, making the world even more authentic, SOE commissioned the task of making a movie-like soundtrack to a movie and TV composer, Laura Karpman (Emmy-awarded composer for "The Living Edens", film works include "Annihilation of Fish", "Restless" and "Questions and Answers"). Check out the official site of Laura Karpman for some portions of the 90-minute score.

The voice-overs make EQ 2 unique in the MMORPG-genre: Ms Sowards and her team didn't just put some combat screams or standard sentences into the game- over 130 hours of speech will be spoken to the adventurers of Norrath, delivering a huge boost to the overall atmosphere. If you want to get a good first impression of what is bound to come in terms of speech, check out the newly released ingame-movie on the official EQ 2 site, "The Journey of Heroes – Part III".

Some more facts gathered while talking about and playing EQ 2:

EQ 2 plays in the same world as its predecessor, but 500 years later; the world got shattered into pieces by a natural disaster; veterans of EQ will stumble onto some familiar, though mostly changed locations
the game focuses on quests, story and community – PvP won't be a factor at first; thus EQ 2 treads a different path than competitors like Dark Age of Camelot, Lineage 2 and even WoW
players can choose between good (like Elves), evil (like the rat-like Ratonga) and neutral races (like Humans); decisions during the game push neutral species to the path of light or darkness
every new character has access to a one-room apartment that can be decorated with a huge number of different furniture; "housing" is also implemented in the game, though you will need a lot of time and money to get there
at first, character development stops at experience level 50; this cap will be extended over time
over 100 beautifully animated "emotes", easily activated with hotkeys, take social interaction to a new level (wait till you see the "Heart Attack")
the game is technically "over-the-top" meaning that today's top hardware won't be able to display the game at the highest performance settings; this was intentional – SOE wanted to release a game that doesn't look "outdated" half a year after its start but will still look extraordinary in two years when PC-technology has reached another level
servers won't be limited to one continent or one language version; thus owner of the US-version will be able to play on European servers and vice versa

EQ II is arguably a more "authentic-looking" MMORPG, compared to WoW. While both of them are bound to be very good – and successful – games, that push the genre to new levels in terms of playability, comfort and technical sophistication, I will set my eyes on EQ 2 since I just can't cope with Blizzard's comic-style world. Surely, that's a matter of taste, but that doesn't justify the virtual "non-existence" of EQ 2 in light of the hype surrounding WoW during the GC at all.

Sony got me – a long-time MMORPG-critic – all crazy about the world of Everquest. I can't wait for November 2004, when this promising game is bound to be released. And yes – I've already pre-ordered! If you want to do the same, there are already some special "Limited Edition"-offers and other goodies, for example a CD containing the original character creation tool of the game, on the lists of some online retailers.

Check out this offer at Amazon.com and this exclusive Limited Edition at Amazon.de.

See you in Norrath!

Sebastian "The Dark Messenger" Schmucker
ME Hell Writer (and EQ 2 - devotee)

Heather Sowards

Kudos to Tom "The Dark Templar" Wiegner and Jürgen "Mudde Headshot" Mutenzer for helping me compiling all the facts and infos for this essay and for making me survive another 48 hours at GC.

My dearest thanks go to Heather Sowards, Audio Director at SOE who, after having arrived from San Diego, patiently introduced us to the major aspects of the game in about two hours! By this we were able to get a great and informative first-look on the game and on her work! See you in San Diego in the near future!