EverQuest Next Thoughts

So now that I've had time to process what we've seen thus far of EverQuest Next, I figured I'd just briefly give my initial impression. We really don't have much information yet. I'm still left with many questions, wondering a lot of things. I'm also pretty excited by what we've seen.

First off, the game looks great, gorgeous characters and armor, what we have seen is impressive but the first thing that came to mind was that they looked so 'Disney'. Very, very cartoonish, not a bad thing but not exactly what I was expecting. Overall they look lovely, the details on the armor were fantastic. When I saw the armor on the characters shown, I really was impressed, it is truly awesome. I was wondering what other types of armor we will be able to obtain! Would I play one of these? Yeah, I like them.

A world which you can break apart, where you can dig and one you can destroy. While this is really interesting, the first thing that came to mind was griefing! It could be annoying if someone really wanted to use it to bother another player. We'll have to see how this works and what limitations are included before anyone can really say. I also like this, think of all the neat things that could go along with this mechanic. Hunting for treasure?!

Love the music, I mean could you really find anyone better to do a killer MMORPG soundtrack? Looking forward to hearing more music from the game.

No split factions, as in no good/evil split between the sides. This is a good thing, good for a robust and healthy community (not sure how servers will work). When you split a community in half, it really makes the game feel smaller. I can't play with ALL my friends in WoW because they are on different sides, unless I change characters, but even so it is always an issue. I hate it. I detest it.

I'm very much wanting to see combat. Thus far what has been explained seems very similar to Guild Wars. And then the progression path. No levels? That is a hard one to adjust to, I really hope they can pull it off. TSW really turned me off with this, so we'll see. I don't like levels sometimes but you really need to feel as if you're progressing. Call it whatever you want but a player needs to really feel this part of the game.

Collecting classes? Not sure how I feel about that. When I pick up a game I usually want to play a certain class, usually it is one that suits me. Thus I don't want to play as something else to unlock it, I'd probably get a bit bored and lose interest if I can't be what I want to be. Neat idea, might be better for maybe expanding classes, then again that also depends on just how long it takes to obtain the play style you might be after.

Direction. EverQuest 2 got the addition of SOEmote not too long ago. Which basically causes your character to emote your facial expressions. Which is neat but I hardly see anyone when I play, much less look closely at their faces. Not really interesting to me, even if I group I'm not zooming in to see some dude's character's face to see what he may be feeling. Fun? Sure. Very frivolous and I wonder if it was more of a test in EQ2 for EQN. I would rather pick an emote (like SWTOR) and have it cycle through expressions. Yes, I like fluffy useless things but this crosses the line in my opinion. I want to see features that add to the world that I play in, spice up my character, not resources being spent on something most people won't bother using.

I think EQN will be a big contender for a new hit. But it also depends on how well it is updated and if the development team stays on the ball. I have hopes for it to do well and really shine. I just hope in trying to achieve this we don't forget the foundation that EverQuest started out with. I know a lot of people have been (mainly older EverQuest players) hoping for old style raids but I think this game is a very different game. Personally I hope this game pulls us away from the constant 'instance' game, as I thought Guild Wars would. If you're going all out, trying to break the mold, go big, take chances, really change things. Most of what I hope to see carried over is lore, a general feel of EverQuest, and the wonderful feeling these communities have always had.

Those are my initial impressions, I really hope we hear more, get a window on the release date and get to see the rest of the race and class line up- Soon! Until then I suppose we have enough to spark our imaginations as we wait. I wait patiently, I'll wait as long as I have to, I was born into the genre with EverQuest, so this is something that really hits home to me. I will always be an EverQuest girl  <3 i="">