It's been a month now and EverQuest 2 is up and running like a train hurtling down the tracks. The beauty of an MMO is that it's an ever-changing world and SOE has proven with the first EverQuest that they can provide the entertainment that the player wants. While there are still a few bugs that need to be ironed out, EverQuest 2 is really an enjoyable game. The adventuring system has a lot of diversity with the ability to level from both questing and hunting. If you don't want to adventure, you can craft. While the crafting system still remains very buggy, it's a nice complex system that is much more than pushing a button and watching TV for five minutes.

As you may have read in my preview, EQ2 has very little in common EQ1. There are similar mobs and names but the gameplay is essentially different. Another thing that has changed is that rather than have eight character slots per server, you have four character slots worldwide. Choose wisely unless you want to "upgrade" and pay $21.99 a month for four more slots. There has been a lot of disappointment with this move on Sony's part. However, it's still early in the game. It could change.

A better change is that any race can play any class. All of you gnomes who've always wanted to play a strapping paladin can now do so. It really allows the player more diversity in playing their chosen class.

After choosing whether or not you will be an evil character or a good one, you land on a refuge island. This island is good for leveling up to level seven. You cannot level past seven until you do what they call Hallmark quests. In this case it's becoming a citizen of either Freeport or Qeynos. The refuge island is a good place to learn the game mechanics and quest system. This is where you will learn how to group, harvest, hunt and use your class skills and spells. It's a good idea to stay on the island until you've maxed out your experience gain before moving to your chosen city.

Once you leave the refuge island you end up in your home city. For instance, surrounding Qeynos are minor townships like Nettleville Hovel, Castleview Hamlett etc. These cities are where you will do most of your banking, crafting and where your first player apartment exists. Once you've completed your Qeynos or Freeport citizen quests, you will be allowed into the city proper. Let's talk about player housing.

Everyone in EQ2 gets a free apartment. The maintenance fee is due once every seven (real time) days and is five silver. In this apartment you will be able to sell dropped or crafted items on the market. The only time you can do this through the broker is in your house actually. It's not a convenient system but it gives the craftsman something useful to do. You can decorate your apartment with either vendor or craftsmen furniture as well. The housing systems in SWG and Horizons were better. They could have added a much needed community aspect in this game if they had been done a different way. Everyone in the game shares a communal door to their apartment rather than individual buildings.

Once you have settled into your city and gotten your citizenship, it's time to start leveling. Some feel that the adventuring, hunting system in this game has been seriously dumbed down from the first EQ. When encountering a mob, you will find their con and whether or not they are agro and grouped right away. There is no guess work in this game at all. When you come upon that griffawn, you know that he and his buddies are going to chase you down and slaughter your sad self if you're not properly grouped. By properly grouped I mean, you need at least two healers and two tanks in every group. The agro in the game is still not very smooth. Therefore you need one healer to heal the tank and one healer to heal the healer on the tank when he gets a group of mobs beating on him because the main tank cannot hold that agro. The two tanks should be self explanatory after the two healer comment. The rest of the group is consisted of DPS players. (Or the damage dealers) If you're lucky, you'll find a player who can successfully mez the monsters. That makes hunting a bit easier.

It may just be me, but I miss the art of pulling from EQ1. It was very exciting to go to TOV and pull one dragon out of an angry group of seven. It took skill and practice that this game does not utilize. You pull the group and pray that you can kill them all before they kill you. Good mechanics? Not yet but SOE is well known for fixing the game as they go along. I have faith.

If you choose not to adventure you can rely on crafting to pass the time. Don't expect it to be a job that you can solo with however. SOE has built a complex system of interdependency that nobody has quite figured out yet. From levels one to ten you are able to solo, and rather quickly at that. From ten to twenty the classes branch from one to three; Outfitter, Scholar, Craftsmen. From twenty to fifty they branch into nine separate classes that depend upon each other to level. I don't think that they had the crafting system quite worked out when they launched. There are still recipes that don't work, skills that don't raise and quests that don't make sense. However, with that said, it's still an interesting system. Rather than pushing a button and watching the tube, SOE has incorporated a system where you need to counter instances with buffs in order to craft an item successfully. YOU WILL DIE, if you don't counter some of these on the forge. I have a friend in my guild that has died to the forge three times so far because he wasn't paying attention. Beware the forge! There are a set of three different buffs that each ability gets to counter. Every tradeskill class gets two different crafting ability sets. The speed of your progress and the durability of your crafted item depends on these buffs. It's a good idea to read the description on them before crafting.

If you've read my preview you'll notice that I haven't mentioned the voiceovers for NPCs or the amazing graphics. The voiceovers are still amazing. As I mentioned before they have both Heather Graham and Christopher Lee doing Antonius Bayle and Luclin De'lere. It brings a new level of immersion to MMOs to hear the NPCs rather than just see the words. At times it feels as though you are in a real world with real characters. The graphics are still beautiful. However, with as many people in game as there is now, it's not practical to run your machine at a higher resolution rate. With 1 gig of RAM and a 9800 Pro in my machine, I can only run at Balanced graphics without massive lag. Hopefully, graphic cards will advance quickly enough so that we can see the amazing job that SOE did with the visuals.

Overall SOE did a decent job with EverQuest 2. It's not brilliant but it's entertaining. If you're looking for something to get your favorite gamer for Christmas this is an option. They will get hours of enjoyment from this game. My hope is that SOE can get the major bugs worked out that prohibit a more enjoyable playing experience. If they don't do it in a timely manner I'm afraid that there will be an exodus to the other major title that released this season.