Genre:  MMORPG
Platform:  PC

I started playing EverQuest 2 the day it was released.  I lived in Hawaii at the time but was in Wisconsin visiting friends and family.  It was November of 2004.  I had long been an EverQuest 1 player and was excited for the upgrade.  I would not be disappointed and would end up playing this game for over 1,000 hours.

EverQuest 2 takes place hundreds of years after EverQuest 1.  The game is a massively multiplayer online role playing game, or MMORPG, or MMO for short.  You create a character from scratch and fight your way through the world, either on your own or with other players.  As you fight, you get better items and abilities.  New areas are available to you as you level up.  The character creation process is fun and they give you a good amount of customization.

EQ2 fixed many of the problems that plagued EQ1 such as, you know, QUESTS.  EQ1 was often called NeverQuest as the quests were fewer and hard to find.  There were no indicators showing who had something for you to do.  Instead, you were forced to talk to every NPC (non-player character) and see if they might have something for you.  EverQuest 2 fixed this.  There were icons above the NPCs that had quests to offer.  And there were thousands of them.  And I did thousands of them!

The graphics were also excellent for the time.  EQ2, however, would always be compared to another small game that came out at the time – World of Warcraft (WoW).  EQ2 actually came out a couple of weeks before, but WoW would eclipse EQ2 in the MMO community.  The result was actually positive for EQ2 players as a lot of the more novice players played WoW, leaving us with a more mature player base and a more enjoyable experience.  If you ever played WoW, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

The world of Norrath was huge and exciting.  They regularly added content and expansions.  I still play from time to time, but my character, a brigand (rogue) is currently level 95.  I’m not sure what the cap is now, but it was 95 the last time I played.  It is easy to level up, which some saw as a negative, but I thought was more fun.  It was also a more solo-friendly game than EQ.  Again, there is a lot of debate about whether this was good or not.  I personally preferred it, but others thought it ruined what made EQ1 so great – socializing with other players.

The crafting system in this game is also the best I’ve played.  It;s more like a mini game than a mundane crafting system.  And the items you create are actually useful and better than what you can get in most spots.  I have a chef that I leveled up to at least level 90.  There is also player and guild housing, which can be fun if you want to sink the time and (in-game) money into it.

As I stated, the game is still around and I believe it’s free to play now.  If you’re looking for a fun MMO with a LOT of questing and leveling, check it out.  I’d love to see others enjoy this game as much as I did and experience before it’s gone.  There was going to be an EverQuest 3, called EverQuest Next, but after Sony sold the franchise, it was scrapped.  That’s too bad, in one way.  In another, I’m kind of glad because I just don’t have the time and energy to go through another obsession like I did with EQ2.