Everquest: Champions of Norath

Preview - Brad gets hands-on with this latest addition in the series.

As I wandered happily through London on a brisk, yet not entirely unpleasant, Winters morning a strange individual approached me. As he came closer, his pixelated features became clearer. He looked not entirely dissimilar from Ferrago's very own Luke. But this man had a hat pulled down, and his collar was pulled up as to obscure his strangely familiar face. He beckoned me over. My brain was telling me not to go over, but it was too late. Before I knew what I was doing I was walking in his direction.
"Hey man, you want something to make you feel good?" he asked in a hushed tone.
I didn't know what to say, but my face managed to contort itself into a puzzled look which only encouraged this curious stranger further.
He thrust a package into my hands. The label clearly read "Everquest". I looked at the stranger "But I've heard this stuff is bad for you, once you play, that's it, you're hooked."
The stranger smiled "You got it all wrong kid, this stuff is new, it's better, all the highs with none of the lows."
I didn't know what to think, I looked back to my hands, the package still had Everquest written on it. I looked back up at the stranger, but he was gone. I rushed home, hoping nobody had seen this peculiar transaction in process.

I ran in the door and slammed it behind me, falling back against it, out of breath and dizzy from fear and excitement. I ran into my room, the words of the stranger echoing around my head; "...all the highs with none of the lows..."
I powered up the PlayStation 2 and inserted the disc, sat on the sofa and waited as the machine slowly digested the information contained on the disc. This was it, there was no turning back... I pressed the Start button and it began.

It seemed that this was not the Everquest that my Mother had warned me of all those years ago. No, this was much different. There was no monthly fee I could detect, yet online play was curiously present. There was also scant evidence of Massively Multiplayer aspects. Indeed it seemed to only facilitate 4 players offline, my lack of Broadband adapter prevented me from finding fellow adventurers to ally myself with however. With this knowledge of relative safety fresh in my mind, I began my Everquest.

Once I had chosen my character from the not so daunting choice of 8, allocated their statistics and hairstyles, it was time to enter this strange land. I held my breath as the disc span inside the PlayStation, the fear of being trapped inside this fantasy world was bouncing around my head, the horrible stories from Everquest widows and those whose lives were forever ruined by a simple piece of software. But this wasn't going to happen to me. I knew better. I knew when to stop. Before I knew it, it had finished loading.

Immediately I was thrust into a world of danger, Goblins and Orcs were attacking from all angles, using Sword and Bow they were dispatched, their treasure collected. It was so familiar yet so different. It looked nothing like the Everquest I knew, it was a top down dungeon exploring game, not the MMORPG that has so many in its vile clutches. This was more akin to Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, a game I have a great fondness for. With new vigour I moved onwards, after all, there was a kingdom to save, but should I go on alone? I noticed additional slots for other players, the decision was already made for me, all this time my flatmate had been stood watching and he too was eager to show the Orc hordes the sharpness of his steel. He joined me there and then, we continued to slay the Orcs and monsters together. Along the way we collected more powerful weapons and armour and feverishly equipped them, not only updating our stats but the very looks of our on-screen avatars. Searching these things out became more interesting than the quests themselves, to get them we had to slay everything we saw, something that we did with relish as it was as satisfying as it was brutal.

The worlds we discovered on our travels were lush and full of beauty, the spells mystifying. This looked so much better than the PC version of Everquest, so much so it was difficult to consider them part of the same family. Of course the switch in gamestyles only solidified this feeling. But online play was included, and something I was eager to try. But that was for another day.

Everquest: Champions of Norath was a surprise. A very pleasant one. Visually stunning, fun alone or with friends and with the promise of online play with voice communications, this was certainly something I could see myself becoming more involved with. But alas it was not to be. This was just a preview, the first one is always free, and now it had me, I wanted more, but I would have to wait until I saw the mysterious stranger. I needed to find out if it truly did have all the highs and none of the lows, I just hope the mysterious stranger that had introduced me to this game knew where to find me.