Since its beginnings in 2004, numerous expansions, adventure packs and even a card game have been poured upon the land of Norrath in order to flesh out its appeal. This has all gone into making one of the more compelling MMORPG’s out there. Rise of Kunark assists the game further along this path, adding a decent amount for both fresh faces and experienced adventurers alike. One of the main additions is a new playable race called the Sarnak.
The Sarnak are a proud reptilian race who stand tall and warlike - their females even larger than their already towering male counterparts. Creating a new Sarnak character is a little underwhelming in terms of customisation. There’s little that can be done to alter the aesthetics of your avatar beyond the colour of their scales. That said the Sarnak do make for more interesting protagonists than the usual fantasy fare of dwarves, orcs and elves.
Strike a pose.
The island home of the Sarnak is Timorous Deep, a new area for all players. Craggy outposts punctuate its beaches. Plunging out of sand, surrounded by cliffs and unfriendly seas, these outcrops are where these lizard-like creatures have their encampments, the front line in the war against a birdlike race, the Spiroc. It’s unfortunate that when you begin the game as a Sarnak there’s little information as to why it is that these creatures are your mortal enemies. They therefore come off as just feeling like things to hit rather than enemies with characters with a place within in an immersive world.
There’s plenty of variety in the new areas introduced by the expansion, from the seaside to deserts, tropical mountainsides and snow-capped peaks. The new Sarnak city of Gorowyn is a sight to behold. A vertical tunnel, platforms clinging to its sides, the architecture is incredibly different to the other cities in the game. However different does not always mean better and due to its overly intricate design it can be a little hard to traverse. From these lands griffins, ships and magic carpets are all available to transport you to new areas and places familiar to those who have been playing the game for some time.
Much of the Rise of Kunark expansion is aimed at beginners, or those with a character who has had a truckload of hours poured into their questing lives. There are plenty of areas in the expansion to be explored solo, which makes it a great deal easier to learn the ropes for a new player without a team of friends ready to assist. Unfortunately for those somewhere in the middle there is little in the expansion and those looking for additions in the world of PVP are also out of luck.
Many of the new areas are incredibly stunning.
All of the side skills such as crafting are all still present with the addition of the expansion and indeed some have been improved or had their level caps increased, meaning there’s plenty more practice you can do to improve whatever specialities you’ve chosen for your character. Rise of Kunark also sees the highest player levels raised to 80. There is therefore plenty of reason to get out there questing again.
If you've tried World of Warcraft or similar MMORPG's, and endless quests involving fetching a certain amount of some item in order to get more weapons and armour to do more of the same all over again are not your cup of tea, there's still little else presented in Everquest.
Norrath is looking fantastic and, with some visual tweaking since its birth, it holds up well against other titles in the MMORPG space. It’s also a very scalable game which means players with newer PC’s can take fuller advantage of the newer visual modifications whilst older PC’s will still be able to play things well and still looking great. A new method of blending zones has been implemented which means that now rather than extreme changes in climate, musical score and overall feel areas now meld together more seamlessly and the world feels quite natural indeed.
Hot to trot (sorry couldn't help ourselves).
Everquest 2 is holding up quite well against its younger, but larger, brother’s onslaught. The servers that we were playing on had a decent share of players jumping their way around the many areas. Being the centre of an MMO, its pleasing to see that there’s a decent player base from which to draw friends and allies. Best of all, the new expansion can be purchased in a pack bringing all previous content together allowing what you've got in terms of world and features to be on par with those already playing.
Rise of Kunark pushes Everquest 2 that little bit further along the path to becoming what its developers originally intended. The new content is well implemented and it’s great to have a new character race to play as that isn’t one of the regular mainstays of fantasy style games. Unfortunately we can’t speak much to the new high level content, but if you’ve got a character that’s been twiddling their thumbs waiting for some new questing to begin it seems that there’s a good reason to plunge back into Norrath. If you’re new to the game there’s plenty to sink your teeth into too. Thankfully despite its main competitor having the population of a mid-sized nation there’s still many people to play with. Rise of Kunark illustrates that whilst it may not be the MMORPG that is on everybody's lips, it is still an incredibly well put together and enjoyable title that is definitely worthy of at least a look at.
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