If you spend 5 minutes on the topic Everquest Next and especially on the sister project Everquest Landmark, you will be amazed!
40 classes? A destructible environment? Dynamic quest system with mob groups following artificial intelligence? A sandbox mode like in Minecraft? If only half of that is true and works, Everquest Next will be the new hot shit, that much is clear.
And the nice thing is: Behind Everquest Next are not just some dreamers, but veterans of the gaming industry with over 20 years of experience. We answer the most important questions about Everquest Next and Everquest Landmark.
- Everquest, Everquest – have I heard that before?
Oh, probably. The first Everquest was WoW before WoW became the new WoW. A hardcore MMORPG with a fantasy touch, which still exists today.
It was released in 1999, has since 16 races and 16 classes and was a huge success, it is still played by hardcore gamers. In October 2013, the twentieth expansion for the game was released. Yes, no typo: the twentieth expansion.
The successor project Everquest 2 went online in 2004 and was supposed to compete with the industry leader WoW – that didn’t quite work out. However, the two Everquest games are still considered by purists as an example of “real MMORPGs” with huge raids, guilds, character development, rare spawns, and all those hardcore things from which mainstream MMORPGs have turned away for quite some time.
- Who is behind the new Everquest?
Sony, this billion-dollar giant that designed this thing … I believe the kids call it Playstation? Some sort of cross between a toaster and a PC, but apparently a few people seem to be very keen on it. Everquest is being developed by Sony Online Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony. Major players in the gaming industry are involved in the project itself. SOE is also responsible for DC Universe and Planetside 2.
A new era is dawning
- Why is everyone losing it over Everquest Next?
Because it is supposed to be possible to manipulate the environment in the game quite freely. That is actually the feature SOE is advertising and exciting everyone because it changes the whole balance of a game. If everything works as promised, you could use spells to bring down a bridge where enemies are lying in wait, collapse entire caves, literally shoot your way free to the boss, and so on. A freely manipulable environment allows a return of creativity in problem-solving instead of boss kill after guide. An out-of-the-box thinking. It is just incredibly exciting.
While previous games have already attempted something like that, where you could slowly grind down the walls of a fortress until a passage formed, Everquest Next is supposed to go much further and be much freer. The fixed environment remains one of the biggest hurdles that separates MMORPGs from movies or other story elements.
The environment in previous games is simply a solid ground on which the exciting things happen. Something players don’t even think about. But if a cave, where you are hunting a spider or chasing a dragon, becomes important – and not just according to a script, but freely manipulable – a new era for MMORPGs would truly begin.
This is what many hope for from Everquest Next: The Next-Next-Gen MMORPG. A Guild Wars 2 taken even further.
Dynamic and organic as main design goals
- Do quests still fit into this universe?
For the quest system, Everquest Next will likely draw on Guild Wars 2. So no quest hubs with: Go there and kill 10 rats, when you are done, come back and I’ll make you a nice cloak out of rat fur, but dynamic events.
The magic words are “dynamic” and “organic”. When a group of goblins spawns somewhere in the world, they should pursue concrete goals: The goblins want to raid a neighboring village. Now an attack on the village is taking place – if a player is present, they will naturally try to protect the village, and next they might go on the counteroffensive, kill fleeing goblins, invade their nest, and slay the chief. Or the goblins withdraw in an orderly fashion and choose a new target. Or the goblins succeed in taking over the village; they become stronger and plan an attack on a trade caravan.
The quests should look roughly as dynamic and organic as this. The main design idea of Everquest Next is probably to break with many conventions of MMORPGs that players have come to take for granted.
With Landmark goes into the sandbox
- What about classes?
For Everquest Next, 40 classes are planned. The developers intend to work with highly specialized classes. For example, a mage is supposed to become a pet class, the next is also a mage but specialized in destruction spells.
The creators of Everquest Next believe there will be enough room for these 40 classes, and they expect that these highly specialized classes will then manage with only a few skills. Numbers like 8-12 main skills per class are circulating.
Yes, it’s getting complicated now. Everquest Landmark is clearly inspired by Minecraft and other newer games where players can unleash their creativity. It’s called sandbox – the box is provided, the sand and the shovel too, but what the kids build there is entirely up to them. And it doesn’t really make sense to build a sandcastle. The sandcastle is just a sandcastle; the journey is the destination, and creating something is its own reward. Until the zombies come at night… well, the sandbox term hasn’t really fit since Minecraft.
Everquest Landmark operates under the same basic rules as Everquest Next, only that content comes from the users. Any creative player can then build their own world and visit the neighbor’s world. Quests can also be designed freely – it all sounds almost too good to be true at the moment, and one can assume that the development phase and the launch will come with some problems. But just the prospect of creating an MMORPG within very free boundaries makes many fans’ mouths water.
Everquest Landmark is possible because of the manipulation of space also in Everquest Next, it has to do with voxel technology. It’s pretty complicated stuff that ultimately means that the world consists of smaller elements that can be manipulated more easily (there is also a further video about EQ Next Landmark). This could indeed usher in a new era for MMORPGs. And this is what both the industry and players hope for from Everquest Next.
Hype or for real?
- When does it start?
The alpha of Everquest Landmark is supposed to start on February 28. The closed beta at the end of March – and, well, with such an ambitious and revolutionary project, delays can certainly be expected.
At the moment, everything sounds almost too good to be true. Millions of fans sit in front of the clips with sweaty hands with every new video, imagining whether their dream castle will have two or three towers, and what color the lava flow should have that runs in the lowest caverns: Usually, this period of euphoria is followed by a harsh awakening when it goes into the alpha and beta stages.
- Is the hype justified?
There is definitely reason for cautious euphoria from Everquest Next. Just from the idea of dynamic mob hordes or destructible terrain, exciting games could have already been created. Combining this with the Everquest universe, the know-how of Sony behind it, and a strong hand in the sandbox box?
The hype is definitely justified.
Everquest Next, Wildstar, and TESO are the hottest candidates for the next few years. Whether Everquest Next will really be released in 2014 – that remains to be seen. One thing is already certain: It will be free-to-play.
