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Gerald
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Everquest 2 was originally published in 2004 by Sony Online Entertainment as a subscription game. However because of many bugs when it was released as well as the rise of a new game, World of Warcraft, Everquest 2 never really took off like the original Everquest did. In 2010, Sony decided to add free to play servers that are separate from their subscription servers. Everquest 2 Extended was born and offers most of the Everquest 2 world to free to play.
Everquest 2 follows the world of Norrath a few centuries after the original Everquest. It has many of the same classes, races, and skills as the original as well as a few additional ones. Classes and skills have been revamped and retuned based on feedback from the players. Everquest 2 had great graphics in 2004 and while it is a little outdated, still competes pretty well with the newer MMORPGs.
Everquest 2′s world is huge. Since it opened in 2004, it has had 6 expansions, and 5 of those expansions (Sentinel’s Fate, the 6th, is only available as pay currently) are available in the free to play game. This provides a huge amount of quests and zones for the average player to explore. Everquest 2 has the typical group and raid areas, and is much more solo friendly than the original Everquest game. The crafting system is similar to the original but has been updated with a better UI to make it easier to use. Crafting in Everquest 2 is simple and rewarding.
Everquest 2 has also added better PvP options compared to Everquest 1. Everquest 2 features Battlegrounds, where players can join in instanced PvP action with different goals like capture the flag and tower control. These areas also allow players from other servers to play each other as the battlegrounds has its own servers. PvP is somewhat balanced though many players will need to have both a PvP skill set and gear and a PvE skill set and gear to be effective. Currently battlegrounds is only available to the highest level players but Sony plans to add lower levels to it.
Everquest 2 Extended does have heavy restrictions on its free to play servers though. Everquest 2 heavily restricts the races and classes that players can use with only 6 races and 8 classes available. The rest need to be purchased. There are also restrictions on the level of spells you have, bag space, and how much coin you can have. There are extra zones that aren’t available including the 6th expansion, Sentinel’s Fate. This also means that until you buy that expansion, your max level is 80 and not 90.
While there are many restrictions played on free to play servers, there is still plenty to see and do in the world of Everquest 2 available for those players. For those that have played the original or those that used to play Everquest 2, it provides a familiar setting and world that has been updated. For players not familiar with the Everquest series, Everquest 2 is a huge world to explore with many quests and lore and a game that has been a subscription game for free.
