Product Reviews

EverQuest (EQ) was one of the first massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) to hit the big time and it's still hugely successful. Six years on, Sony Online Entertainment is hoping to capture a new generation of sword-and-sorcery fans with EverQuest II (EQII).

EQII is set 500 years after EQ.

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New players start in one of two cities, depending on whether they choose to be good or evil. There are 16 races and five basic archetypes to choose from, although the classes and sub-classes that become available later in the game offer several skill specialisations.

As in EQ, EQ2 allows players to pursue a broad range of careers, so you can be a blacksmith as well as a mere adventurer. Unlike EQ, the richness of EQ2's gameplay is now more than matched by its graphics. You'll need a PC well in excess of the game's minimum requirements to experience the improvements properly, though, and possibly a PC that has yet to exist to see the game at its best.

EverQuest is known as 'Evercrack' in some quarters and the average playing time is 20 hours a week. If games already occupy too much of your time, steer clear of EQ2. Experiencing all it has to offer may mean you never leave your PC again.