trial of the isle

I never thought I would see the day where a company like SOE would issue a completely stand-alone demo of an MMORPG that's only been out for four months. That's what you get in Everquest II: Trial of the Isle, a 16 MB client and close to 24 hours worth of updates. Now that World of Warcraft has reached 1.5 millions users worldwide, Everquest II is looking pretty meek in comparison - even next to its predecessor. It's also quite telling that Everquest II is now selling for about $39.99 CDN, while World of Warcraft is still at its launch price of $59.99-69.99. I thought I would give Everquest II the benefit of the doubt with this seven day trial, and try and get an idea about what it was offering. In a couple of words: not much.

During play I was constantly comparing it to both World of Warcraft and Star Wars Galaxies, two MMORPGs I've had the opportunity to experience and enjoy for each of their strengths. Where World of Warcraft follows an extremely basic gameplay model, it provides endless amounts of entertainment by making the levelling process as painless as possible. The depth of the character creation and development system in Galaxies allows you to experience the world of Star Wars from a commoner's perspective: it's a big galaxy, but everyone has their place. Everquest II seems to be an awkward middle; where in the character creation process it shares the same level of detail of Galaxies, you have almost no control to direct your character after the fact. The game's combat system is simple enough to learn and shares more in common with World of Warcraft, but quickly becomes uninteresting next to Blizzard's beautifully unique fantasy vision.

In Everquest II, there are a large number of races to select: some good, some evil and some can be either. The customization of your character's appearance is as good as Star Wars Galaxies, and combined with the unique looking races imparts the same amount of amusement. You choose your class after you arrive on the Island of Refuge, a kind of bunny hill for the uninitiated and the only place you'll be able to visit in the demo. You can be a fighter, mage, priest or scout - very basic sounding classes that will eventually lead to more specialized professions. What I didn't like was the act of levelling - you automatically gain new abilities as you progress. It's not like you can select specific spells or abilities and spend "points"; it's all predetermined. Furthermore, the first class you select will affect your sub class at level 9 and then the final "specialty" class at level 20 - there is no hope of creating a fighter/mage or something similar. The ability to mix and match skill sets was what I liked about Galaxies, as it made the game feel like you were learning actual professions and customizing your character, instead of simply levelling up.

The quests you encounter are not original, but the fact that every NPC has recorded lines of dialogue adds a lot to player interaction. Indeed, these NPCs will call out to you if you're in their vicinity, whether they are selling equipment or have a new quest for you to do. It was a small gesture, but appreciated in the face of the pedestrian monster slaying quests they dole out.

The visuals are impressive, and look like a tweaked version of the engine used with Star Wars Galaxies. Everquest is the template for which most modern MMORPGs are based on, so it was a little disheartening to see the environments look so plain and uninspired; it was hard for me to imagine this was an entirely different world. Further breaking the immersion is the amount of loading screens. I didn't encounter any in the island environment proper, but going indoors/into different rooms, and even respawning prompted a loading screen. World of Warcraft's graphical prowess may seem underdeveloped, but this allows the world to be completely seamless.

Everquest II's interface is very clean looking, and stays out of your way. Even though World of Warcraft's may be extremely efficient, it did tend to look cluttered at the bottom of the screen. Like Star Wars Galaxies, Everquest II also allows a significant amount of GUI customization. A major annoyance for anyone that wants to attempt crafting is the inital size of the inventory. You get five slots, and a small bag that holds an additional four. While trying to craft items for the first time I spent more time reorganizing my inventory than worrying about what items I needed.

What I liked about Everquest II's approach to crafting is that any player can do it. Being an Artisan is a passive ability that can be used by anyone, and doesn't require taking up an additional class like you would in Galaxies or World of Warcraft. You can gather any resource required by a recipe, and the nice thing is that all resources are clearly visible; what agitated me about about Galaxies is the need for wandering in the wilderness for hours with a Mineral scanner. New recipes are gained from purchased manuals or levelling up a type of crafting. All disciplines of crafting are available, whether it be tailoring or weaponsmithing - it just becomes a matter of practicing the art to advance and be able to create more complex items. What I liked about the basic items is that they required at the most three different materials, and only one of each. This makes it really easy for new players to get used to the system and practice their craft.

The actual act of crafting felt a little more drawn out than World of Warcraft or Star Wars Galaxies. You will need access to a workstation for your associated item: a forge for metalworking, a chemistry bench for chemicals or potions, or a loom for making clothing. Your recipe will automatically gather the required items from your inventory, and crafting begins. You proceed through various qualities of end product, hopefully ending up with a perfect item. Though through this process you're constantly toying with the item's overall durability, and you increase your chances of failure. In fact, you take damage occasionally for making an incorrect measurement or some unforeseen chemical reaction. You can stop the crafting process at any time to avoid these mishaps, but this also risks the creation of an inferior end product. In the end, crafting is less about taking advantage of a base material's stats or experimenting with the final product, and feels more hands off. After falling in love with Star Wars Galaxies' crafting system, this was very disappointing. Theoretically the game allows players to level up solely as Artisans, but the lack of a defined player driven market makes crafting seem more like an adventurer's hobby.

Though I appreciated the ease by which this preview is made available, there's something about it that seems like obvious damage control over Everquest II's indifferent reception. You're essentially given the first part of the game, but you can never leave the island or get past level 6. Both of these areas are skippable in the full version, since they are mainly intended for new players. In a seven day trial it hardly seems long enough to get a feel for your character, and instead focuses on learning the basic mechanics of the game. For most existing MMORPG players this should be nothing new.

From a gameplay perspective, there is absolutely nothing wrong with Everquest II. It contains everything you would expect from a MMORPG, and unfortunately that becomes its kiss of death. From what I saw of the player community, it's closer to Star Wars Galaxies and a much more tolerable group. I was surprised that Everquest is still being played, let alone new expansions for it being released. However after spending about 10 hours with Everquest II, I submit that there isn't much of a reason to make the upgrade. It's a pleasant graphical overhaul of the accepted definition of a fantasy MMORPG, but has none of the allure of World of Warcraft - a game that's just as easy to get into with personality to spare.

there's nowhere left to run