EverQuest II Rise of Kunark

Expansions are expected to bring a new flavor to an existing game and often tweak existing nuances. So there were some expectations in place for Rise of Kunark for the massively multiplayer online vehicle known as EverQuest II, but Sony Online Entertainment’s title took an already terrific MMO and made it better.

Principal to the expansion is the inclusion of the dragon-kin race, the Sarnak, and their homeland of Timorous Deep. The Sarnak are a race that players had requested and it is evident that time went into both the look and animations. Particularly noteworthy is the counter (lizard-like, or think crocodile) animation of the tail when swimming. And the way the helmets are matched to the head, weaving around the horns, is also a nice creative touch.

The Sarnak fall into the alignment of evil races, and hereditary skills include breathing fire, which is rather cool to see. However, if there is a downside to this race, it would be in the vocalizations that accompany them. The vocals are decidedly human and just don’t work with the race.

No new classes or professions come into play and while the Sarnak quests follows a course that is suited to help divine the origins of the race, once you get into the meat of the game, it plays out pretty much like other characters.

With the Sarnak comes six new zones, catering to mostly to upper-level players of all levels. The zones are: Timorous Deep (levels 1 – 20), Kylong Plains (levels 65 – 70), Karnor’s Castle (levels 72 - 76), Kunzar Jungle (levels 73 – 78), Sebilis (levels 75 – 80+) and the Jarsath Wastes (levels 77 – 80+).

Now, if that was all there was to this expansion, it would not be that good of a thing, but the development team has done some major reworking of elements within the game, and these translate beautifully into more entertainment value in other areas of the game.

One of the bigger changes to come in with the new expansion is a re-working of the crafting system. No longer will players have to load tradeskills into their hotbars. The skills are displayed within the crafting window and attached to numerical keys. And should you get less than pristine results, you will get your fuel expenditure replaced so that you might try again, if you have the resources. Crafting was not really broken, but this facelift makes it more accessible and a lot more enjoyable. And that seems to translate into a system that makes it easier to level the skills – provided, of course, you level up your harvesting skills to keep pace.

Other changes to the tradeskills include:

• The level cap on all primary and secondary tradeskills has been raised to 80

• New level 70-80 tradeskill recipes are now available for all classes, as are level 70-79 tradeskill city writs for all starting cities

• Several optional new faction paths allow crafters to assist certain factions within Kunark and earn their trust

• A new tradeskill faction is in play with the discovery of Gorowyn: the Academy of Logistics, bringing more titles for players to earn and new faction furniture items to be purchased.

• Stack sizes of harvested items have been increased across all level ranges

• Tradeskill delegates now offer a new tradeskill tutorial quest series

• Tradeskill reaction arts auto-upgrade as you level up

• Tinkerers and transmuters now have six reaction arts like other classes, though they still need to be purchased from the appropriate vendors

• Harvesting tools no longer need to be equipped to be used

The map system has seen a bit of an upgrade, allowing players to zoom in and create mini-maps. The combat music has had a bit of an overhaul as well, and reacts more to the tempo of the battle.

As for racial traits, the game has revamped those as well and the new features include:

• Most races have had their racial traits improved to be useful from levels 1-80

• The traits and skills (and achievement) window has received a major overhaul and is much more user friendly

• As a part of the launch of this new system, every existing player will be able to review and change their character development choices one time.

All in all, the changes have been well received by the community and add to the game. But there is a downside to this, though, and hopefully it is a temporary one. With the release of RoK, a lot of players have returned to the game and some of the servers, like Antonia Bayle, are suffering from zone load lag, as well as the occasional crash. In short, the EQII dev team needs to create another RP (role-play) server and allow free account transfers to it to encourage a split from the AB server load. Lord knows that if you have a selection of characters that you wouldn’t want an arbitrary move one or two and leave the rest. Or if you were in a clan, you wouldn’t want to have your character removed to another server leaving most of the clan on another. However, there needs to be a fix for the server loads.

Rise of Kunark does what any good expansion should do, though – it adds to the depth of the game and modifies it to make it both more user friendly and more entertaining. This is definitely an expansion that EQII fans will want to have, and if not for the opportunity to play a Sarnak, then to explore the richness of the new lands.

Gameplay: 8.8
The changes to certain gameplay elements make for a better gaming experience and is much more user friendly.

Graphics: 9.0
The new vistas are well realized and this is still one of the consistently best-looking MMOs on the market.

Sound: 8.8
The combat music is more responsive and interactive in terms of mirroring the tempo of the fight.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 8.8
The changes to the UI, hereditary skills and tradeskills is welcomed. The Sarnak is a decent race, but the glory lies in the lands waiting to be explored.

Multiplayer: 8.5
As the community ages, it seems to get a bit friendlier – which is a very good thing.   

Overall: 8.8
While some of the changes will filter into the game anyway, what RoK does is revamp many areas as well as provide a solid race with a good storyline. The new lands are also worth exploring, with some nice surprises and rewards available to players.