I don’t know about the rest of you guys, but MMOs tend to have a very strange effect on me. When starting a new title I literally get sucked into them, spending hours upon hours of my free time just exploring, leveling up and having fun. But after a few weeks of playing something happens. I’m not entirely sure where things go awry, but sooner or later I come to the startling realization that I’m not having fun anymore. This has happened to me with Star Wars Galaxies, Vanguard and even World of Warcraft. But not with Everquest 2. Granted, I don’t play it constantly and often take entire months off it. But with SOE pushing out a new expansion every few months (at least it feels this way) I can’t help but being drawn back in to experience all the fresh content. The question is how long they can keep doing this – after all doing the same thing over and over again inevitably loses its pull.

Re-return to Norrath

If SOE followed the standard expansion logic this review would be useless to anyone who doesn’t already have a level 70 character in the game and those that do would probably pay no heed to what I say, since their experience with the game will be reason enough to get or ignore the expansion. As luck would have it SOE ignores convention however and each of their expansions come packed with the original game as well as with most (this time all) previous add-ons/expansions. Now, since this is a review of the expansion we are going to be focusing mostly on it, but just for the potential newcomers sake throw in a bit of extra information about the gameplay mechanics here and there.

For those of you living under rocks, Everquest 2 is the sequel to one of the most successful MMOs ever created. It takes place in the same land as the original did with only the timeline shifted forward by several hundred years. Much of the land has changed, due to a great cataclysm that almost ended all life. As a result save for a few landmarks, key cities and overall familiarity of the environments the land of Everquest 2 doesn’t share much with the original geography. At the same time however series veterans will be able to recognize specific landmarks that are scattered all over the world. This was true for the original Everquest 2 and it is true for Rise of Kunark. While parts of the expansion present areas that don’t have any direct links to the one of the original’s (or one of its expansions) areas there are dozens of places you’ll immediately recognize. And worry not, even if you haven’t played the original EQ the zones have enough character to mesmerize you all the same.

In terms of story MMOs are seldom very deep and the general rule of thumb is that save for the overlying story of the game world there is no story to speak of at all. Sure, there are plenty of minor side-story arcs that are told through quests, but for the most part the only global story introduced here is the origin of a new playable race and why Kunark is in the spotlight again. Now, if you hail for the singleplayer side of roleplaying this might sound like a huge shortcoming, but as far as MMOs go this is just how things work. On the Brightside, following the trend of MMOs delivering more focused gameplay several of the new quest arcs push forward more story than what we have grown used to. Most of this new “guided” content is limited to the new starting zones which help push new players forward while the new high level content relies on players having the know-how to find their way forward on their own.

The Sarnak

For players looking for an excuse to start anew the biggest highlight of the game is definitely the new playable race – the Sarnak. Before I can go on I feel I need to get this of my chest – they are without doubt the ugliest playable race I’ve come across in all my life. Granted, they fit in well with the new content and considering all the new artwork the authors had to come up with to dress these draconian creatures it’s not really fair to dismiss them outright, but man oh man are they ugly. I’ve had the opportunity to play with one after he joined one of my groups and I spent most of the time staring at him instead of dealing with the foes that were coming at us! Unfortunately for me half of the new content focuses directly on them. In other words, if you want to experience some of the new stuff that Rise of Kunark brings and you don’t have a level 70 character just itching to fight you’ll either become a Sarnak or be forced to watch their ugly mugs for the next few days.

As befitting a new playable race the Sarnak come with a new starting zone of their own, as well as a new city hub. Following the jungle like appearance of the entire island chain, Timorous Deep and it’s major settlements aren’t quite like anything you have seen before. The city of Gorowyn is perhaps even a bit too innovative in its design, making it very confusing and hard to navigate. That was partially the case with the previous expansions main hub, but at least there the new race was able to safely glide down form great heights whereas here a jump like that can prove fatal.

The duality of the expansion ends up hurting the whole game though. Veterans who just decide to start a new character probably won’t even notice this, but players who never played EQ2 before might find themselves a bit lost after they reach level 20 or so. In the core game, as well as in the previous expansion the low level content eventually pushed players into higher end zones, nudging them to other parts of the world. This was possible because the zones were connected in a fairly linear fashion to one another. Here however the expansion is broken into two halves – the low level and high level content. As a result a trip to the “old” content is required midway (and we are talking about a 50 level detour here), something which new players might not be aware of. Perhaps the biggest offender here is the fact that the game doesn’t try hard enough to bridge new players back to the old zones, so after spending days goofing around Timorous Deep (being led by their hand most of the way) they might not think about heading overseas on their own.

Kunark

What about the other half of the expansion? Well, before you can actually explore it you first need to get there. Thankfully SOE did the smart thing and tied in the new continent well with the rest of the game world. There are a couple of ways to reach it, but most importantly there are several NPCs which will point you in the right direction. Googling the directions up isn’t hard I know, but usually the lands expansions bring never feel like part of the whole world. With NPCs guiding you there and actual quests that tie Kunark in this is not the case here.

Once you land ashore be prepared to be literally swamped with stuff to do. Quests are abundant right of the bat. Obviously there are no revolutionary new approaches taken here, so you’ll end up collecting, killing, exploring and getting killed as before. Boring right? Well, as I have said to many people over the years when asked what keeps me coming back to EQ2 – even though you are basically doing the same thing over and over again (aka killing foes) the intensity of the combat, dozens of effective tactics and very dynamic group mechanics makes every single encounter a heart pumping affair.

There is one oddity about the new lands though. It is hard to pinpoint it exactly, but the new areas all feel more “linear”. Yes, I know that makes no sense at all. But bear with me for a second. The areas are still very open ended and you can try your luck and run all over the map right off the bad (just expect to get devoured by the mobs walking around), but unlike before it is usually aboundantly clear where your next quest hub will be found. Whether it is an earlier quest that drives you to it or just well guided (with the help of landmarks and map bottle necks) exploration, you’ll rarely be clueless as to where you should go next. While this is a welcome change for the low end areas it comes as a bit of a surprise in the high level zones, since players tend to prefer freedom to being guided by that stage.

I’m not going to waste my breath (or wear out my keyboard keys in this case) on describing the new zones since they are all exactly what you would expect from an expansion like this. Ranging from jungle themed environments to the frozen reaches of the north they all look good (though still perhaps a tad too artificial – a bane that EQ2 players have grown accustomed to over the years) and fit very well with the overall Norrath design. What is impressive about these new zones is that they are no longer split up into small and completely stand alone zones, but are actually connected. This results in a much more fluid experience, since you don’t just jump between two completely different environments. Instead the transition is gradual and might I say often spectacular. Yes, sometimes the transition is a bit too fast and doesn’t make much sense (fog color change or draw distance greatly reduced) but overall the new system is much better than the previous (still present in the rest of the world).

As for new monsters, there are plenty of them for all kinds of tastes. The main foes the expansion focuses around are the Iksar, who have started rebuilding their long lost empire, potentially threatening the other races. They are the main reason the Sarnak are having trouble and the high level quest arcs mostly focus on them as well. But the Iksar, being a playable race and all, can hardly be counted as new monsters. Well, several new drakes, giants and even a new flying mount (only used for automatic flight between flight stations) fill that part of the bargain. Personally I was more impressed with the new additions Echoes of Faydwer, but Kunark doesn’t do a bad job here either.

Epic weapons are another new feature on the long list of improvements. Though not available at launch, these weapons are the ultimate item every player wants to posses. Getting one is a long and tedious affair (big surprise!), requiring solo, group and even raid efforts along the way. You can add them to the long list of to-do’s every high level player must complete, but unfortunately also put them on the no-chance-I’ll-ever-get-one list casual players tend to maintain.

Last but not least, the social part of the game received an overhaul as well (available to non-Kunark players as well). The process of creating items has been simplified and streamlined, as was the often needlessly tedious resources gathering part of the whole thing. Don’t get me wrong, being primarily a crafter is still entirely possible, but the new changes make this aspect of playing slightly too easy, meaning you won’t have as much fun here as you would otherwise have.

Technical

I already mentioned that the new zones are a lot bigger than the old ones thanks to the new streaming technology. Well, other than that the graphics haven’t changed much. On a high end system (yes, even 3 years after it came out the game still needs a powerful rig to run at full details) the game looks stunning, though perhaps slightly too much because of pixel-shaders and not enough because of the artwork. Player models look good, but it is the new monsters that are the highlight – their design will sometimes leave you in awe just long enough that they manage to kill you. An unfortunate, but also very welcome change from the rather generic designs the original EQ2 had. And just to badmouth the Sarnak again, their models look worse than any other playable race model. Their reptilian faces are full of detail, but I couldn’t shake off the feeling that their bodies (and tails especially) could have used an extra polygon or two.

Conclusion

If you player Everquest 2 before and didn’t like it, you probably won’t like Rise of Kunark either. In fact, the only people who will absolutely love the new expansion are the ones who fell in love with the original already. Fell in love or would have fallen had they tried the game. It’s not often that an MMO expansion gives new players a reason to buy the game, but right now if you purchase Rise of Kunark you get access to absolutely every single piece of EQ2 content SOE has released until now (including the adventure packs). So the best piece of advice I have for you is to download the EQ2 trial and if you like what you get buy this “expansion”. As far as value goes, it is hard to get a better deal.