EverQuest II Story

Game Description:

Centuries of war have left their mark on the continent of Kunark. Explore this massive region as your existing character or as the new playable race – The Sarnak – and discover a world full of intrigue and danger. Engage in all-new adventures as you embark on a crusade to reveal the truth of the wars between the reborn Iksar Empire, Sarnaks, and Dragons and uncover artifacts long since thought lost to history. The lush, nostalgic continent of Kunark begins your courageous path from the new starting city in Timorous Deep.

Rise of Kunark is the fourth expansion pack for the critically acclaimed EverQuest II franchise. With the introduction of the new playable race, the Sarnak, and new starting area, Timorous Deep, Rise of Kunark provides a full range of content for new player’s levels 1-20 as well as advanced, high level players whom can now achieve up to level 80 in high level zones, both increasing their Adventure and Tradeskill classes.

Rise of Kunark includes many highly-detailed areas that are fondly remembered from EverQuest as well as brand new areas only recently unearthed! Hundreds of new quests, dozens of new NPCs, brand new Epic Weapon quests for each class, and new armor sets await those who dare set foot on this fabled continent.

Feature Set:

All-New Player Race – Start up a brand new Sarnak – the classic dragon-like humanoid creature that now inhabits Timorous Deep. Exiled from your homeland and magically altered, discover how your new breed came to be, and eventually return home to help your race triumph over the evil Iksar.

New Starting Area – Begin your adventure from the new starting area in the islands of Timorous Deep. Conclude your day of epic quests and retire to new housing within the Village of Gorowyn.

Level Cap Raised – Continue your adventures on your existing character in Kunark, expanding on your achievements as Adventure, Tradeskill and Guild levels all increase to 80.

More Unique Zones – Advance your way through new massive regions, containing many zones filled with nostalgia and danger, such as the Emerald Jungle and the Skyfire Mountains

Hundreds of New Quests – The tale of Kunark is told through hundreds of new quests, aimed at gameplay of all types: solo, group, and raid.

More Weapons & Armor – New Epic Weapon quests for all 24 classes, with new weapons for both those who raid and those who choose not to. Battle through the opposition and acquire additional fabled and legendary armor sets as well.

New Mount – Explore the world on the shoulders of a new rampaging beast – The Kunarkian Rhinoceros.

New Deities – Recent activities on Norrath have again attracted the attention of the gods. Bertoxxulous the Plaguebringer, Karana the Rain Keeper, and the mysterious Tribunal return to exert their influences on planet. As with the existing gods of Norrath, players may pledge to these new deities to gain access to their Blessings and Miracles.

Dozens of New NPCs – Encounter and engage a wide variety of new enemies that inhabit the menacing lands of Kunark.

Antonica/North Qeynos – Scholar Demini

Ha! My back-mounted stick is way fancier than yours! N00b.

One thing I love about EQII (or, indeed, all MMOs) are the little idiosyncrasies that crop up due to the limitations of the gaming mechanics and the way my increasingly infertile mind interprets them. For instance, running around Antonica like a blue-arsed fly (paging Arsai players) on the Sage Of Ages quest I find myself in the odd position of hunting dozens of wolves and bears and scouring each and every critter den I can find for missing pages of a book. Which just paints the odd mental picture of packs of feral wolves sitting around in a circle discussing the latest works of literature. Maybe they read The Da Vinci Code? Maybe that’s why they’re always so angry?

Damn you, Lassie. How dare you say Asimov’s work will always be a pale shadow of H.G. Wells. Eat pain stick!

Nonetheless, I worked my way through it, covering most of Antonica in the process and picking up scraps of parchment, plenty of canine saliva (pre-packed in handy pouch-friendly bottles for your convenience!) and the odd piece of gnoll appendage, which helped immensely with my Know Your Cuts Of Gnoll Meat Lore & Legend quest (or whatever it’s called).

Also managed to pick up two Achievment Points along the way, which have gone into the Brawler tree and leave me needing one more to unlock some fancy-dan, kick-ass kung fu move or another that will flatten all around me like something out of a Jackie Chan chair-throwing movie.

Ultimately though, it’s left me with an obvious path into Thundering Steppes and at level 22 I think it might finally be time to leave the rolling fields and picnic spots of Antonica behind me once and for all. If only I wasn’t obssessed with clearing every last quest in my journal before I go. Hell, I’ve still got some Down Below greyed-out jobbies to take care of at some point and the anal retentive in me just can bring myself to delete them. So TS and the Sage of Sega will have to wait for now. There are some Shrillers and Bloodsaber Adepts with my name on them.

EverQuest and its sequel, EverQuest II are in the simplest definitions, Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG). They are large, expansive, immersive worlds based on high fantasy. Those familiar with the literary works of Tolkien and the Grimm Brothers will recognize familiar themes throughout the game.

In this fantasy world known as Norrath, one will find different types of Elves, such as the Dark Elf, the Wood Elf and the High Elf; the Human and its variations such as Barbarians and Erudites; a combination of the human and the elf – the Half Elf; also Trolls, Ogres, Gnomes, Dwarves and hairy footed Hobbi… err… Halflings. Also present in this world are a races of: Lizardmen known as Iksars, Catmen known as the Kerrans, Ratmen known as the Ratonga, and Frogs known as Froglocks. These are only the playable races. As players adventure in this world, they will encounter Gnolls, Orcs, Goblins, dragons and other sentient creatures, as well as dangerous animals and undead such as zombies and vampires.

The familiar professions from high fantasy will be there. The cleric, the ranger, the bard, the druid, the magician, and the wizard, to name a few: all will be there for you to play in some form. Perhaps you prefer to be a tradesman instead? Crafting magical swords and fine armor? Creating magical potions or baking foods that will grant courage and strength? That option will also be available to you in EverQuest II.

In any MMORPG, the challenge is in the game world, but learning to conquer it will involve making friends along the way. The “Multiplayer” part of MMORPG is there because of the great amount of interaction between the gamers in the world. There will be a thriving economy as players buy, sell and trade items that they collected in their hunts, quests or crafted.

Just as EverQuest did, EverQuest II promotes playing or adventuring in small parties. The game is set up to encourage players to “group” with other players in their quest to rid the land of evil (or good, as the case maybe) and obtain treasures. Each player profession has a role to play in this exciting adventure. The noble Paladin with the strict rules of his sect will be present in this world, as will be the Shadow Knight, his dark counterpart. Will you be the purest healer? Or perhaps more like Friar Tuck from Robin Hood? Or perhaps even a Shaman or Druid? An archer, a woodsman? A thief, a scout? An illusionist, a fire wizard? So many choices… how will you decide that that’s the role you want to play? Fear not… you do not have to make this choice from the first.

EverQuest II deviates from EverQuest not only in gameplay, but in the way characters are developed. Gone are the cookie-cutter templates of characters that many players of pen and paper role-playing games are familiar with. Instead, we see branching skill paths, where after an introduction of simply learning the game controls, where players actually gain levels, they then choose to play a base class such as Fighter or Priest. Once they attain a certain level and time to get used to that base class, players will select a profession, and ultimately a specialization.

In EverQuest II, as the name implies, are the hundreds of quests available to a player, some specific to their race and class. A Quest Journal function assists players in keeping track of the quests they have accepted to undertake, and the steps they have to do to complete the quest. Some quests may take steps, and as the character develops, each step yields an improved reward. Quest rewards may be as simple as coin and food, or a useful item such as a lantern or compass. More difficult ones may require several parties to band together to slay a dragon and the reward may be an artifact of epic proportions.

Gamplay in EverQuest II will mainly be Player versus Environment (PvE) in that you will not be able to harm your fellow players by attacking them. At launch, there will not be any servers dedicated to Player versus Player (PvP).

EverQuest II is more than just a computer game. It promises to be an even more immersive game than the original EverQuest. Gamers may choose to solo most of their character’s life, but the way the game is set up, it is those who will make friends and are helpful to others, who will take the time to learn the skills of their class and how they will complement others, who will progress farther. Playing EverQuest II is an experience of making friends and getting along with different people from all over the world in friendship or friendly rivalry.

In terms of community, it is developing even further. The game is built around the concept of guilds. Player guilds as well as in-game guild set ups. There are two major factions in the game. That of the undead evil entity, Lucan D’Lere based in the city of Freeport, and the representative of law and order, Antonia Bayle, based in the city of Qeynos. Players can build up status points for themselves as well as their guilds, and the greater their status and that of their guild, the better priviledges they receive – such as better merchant prices. The in-game guilds are those for the Artisan professions, similar to artisan guilds of medieval times. A player may apprentice there and obtain quests and learn crafting recipes from them.

Message board communities grow and sometimes friendships extend beyond the game. Gamers continue to visit and post on message boards long after they have stopped playing the game, sharing with friends their latest triumphs and news of their real lives, or even meet up for picnics and conventions.