 When Everquest came out last March, the big question was whether
it could unseat Ultima Online as the benchmark of massively multiplayer RPG gaming. And after a few teething problems, the verdict
came in. The king was dead; long live the king. Everquest’s combination of in-depth
classes and races, first-person gameplay, 3D graphics, and massive gameworld left UO in
the dust, and EQ became an astonishing success story. In the last year over 200,000 gamers
have braved the dangers of Norrath, and the game has spawned a fanatic following,
innumerable websites, and a whole new way of gaming.
 But even EQ’s most hardcore defenders
would admit that the game has some problems. Some of them are built into the game system
itself—for example, the combat system is pretty mundane, and as many hardcore RPGer’s
have pointed out, there is precious little real “role-playing” in EQ. But ironically, the game’s biggest
shortcomings have stemmed from its popularity. Though Verant set the character level cap
at what probably seemed at the time a hefty 50, it wasn’t long before some devoted
gamers had maxed their characters out. And while EQ’s zones seemed plenty roomy at
launch, it wasn’t long before the game became very overcrowded. EQ’s servers
were designed to accommodate 1,500 players each—during peak hours many servers were
hitting 2,000 players. This overcrowding revealed the most egregious gameplay flaw in EQ’s
design—its emphasis on camping. For all of Norrath’s roominess, most of the
creatures in EQ spawned in set spots, and doing well in the game depended upon getting
into a group that was camping those spots. On a crowded server, gamers could spend a lot
of time looking for a place to hunt; very often everything worth hunting in every zone was
already camped, and frustration usually set in.
The Ruins of Kunark, Verant’s
Everquest expansion, successfully addresses some of these problems. Besides providing a
new race, a new continent, new creatures, thousands of new items and improved graphics,
Kunark also allows players to build their characters up to level 60, and the addition of
enormous new zones and more wandering monsters does a lot to alleviate the camping
problem.
 But the most obvious differences in
Kunark are the big ones—like a whole new continent, for instance. With over 20 zones,
many of them for higher-level players, Kunark is a sprawling and nasty place. A word of
warning: be very careful where you tread in Kunark. Some of the zones are insanely
dangerous, and even players in the high 40s have found it impossible to retrieve their
corpses from the hairier zones. But there are some very nice hunting areas for mid-levels
as well; zones like the Lake of Ill Omen or Warslik’s Woods are vast and provide good
hunting for levels from 15-35 or so. Even better, the zones are so large and the creature
spawns so prolific that camping is not a problem—at least yet. So far, you can always
find something to hunt in Kunark. And from what I understand, the exodus of adventurers to
Kunark has left many camps in the Old World open as well.
 Kunark also contains a new race: the
evil Iksar lizardmen. They’re an interesting bunch. If you choose to play Iksar, you
can be either a monk, warrior, shaman, shadow knight or necromancer. Though their
cold-blooded metabolisms don’t allow them to wear plate armor, Iksar have a suite of
nifty abilities. They regenerate damage quickly, swim like fish, have infravision, and can
learn to use deadly tail attacks. Their city of Cabilis is intricate and by far the
best-looking of all the home cities in Norrath, and their newbie zones offer some of the
best low-level experience and loot in the game. All in all, the agile Iksar look to be one
of the more interesting and powerful races in EQ. But they’re certainly not the most
popular. As an Iksar, you’ll be kill on sight in almost any other city; if you leave
Kunark, you’d best keep a wary eye out.
 By the way, Kunark looks great. I mean,
don’t expect Quake III graphics—at first glance, in fact, you may not notice all
that much difference between EQ’s and Kunark’s looks. But as you spend more time
in Kunark, you’ll begin to notice the subtle differences. Trees sway in the wind. The
polygon count is much higher, so Kunark doesn’t look nearly as sharp and blocky as
many of the original EQ zones. Best of all, the MoB models are excellent. For example,
little details--like the elaborate headdress and tongue studs that goblins in Kunark
wear--contrast them starkly with their plainish cousins in Butcher Block.
At least initially, Kunark had some
awful sound problems. The new sound files apparently weren’t ready for implementation
at launch, so for the first two months players had to suffer through some really terrible
placeholders—for example, sabretooth tigers who shouted and groaned like humans. That’s
all fixed up as of this writing, and while there still seem to be a couple of glitches,
most of the new sounds are pretty darn cool.
But besides that, Verant has to be
congratulated for orchestrating a nearly flawless expansion. Don’t get me wrong; if
you didn’t like Everquest, there’s nothing in Ruins of Kunark that will change
your mind. It’s still EQ. But if you’re an avid EQ player, you can’t afford
not to have Kunark. There’s nothing revolutionary about it—it just makes a great
game even better.
--Rick
Fehrenbacher |
