I’m a long-time fan of massively multiplayer online role-playing games, having played such games as Eve Online, Dark Age of Camelot, Earth & Beyond, City of Heroes and Asherons Call; to name a few. I currently play World of Warcraft and just recently picked up EverQuest II: The Shadow Odyssey. Some may call me an online gaming junkie; my wife calls me something else since I invest too much time playing them. Though in recent years, I’ve toned it down some.

What I’d like to do is write this review from the viewpoint of a new player. Learning a new role-playing game is an experience that can be daunting to a new player. Not everything is covered in the rulebooks, and you’ll need to interact with the community if you want to get the most benefit. You can have a decent experience or one that is not so nice. In the case of EQ II’s player base, they have been very helpful community.

Before I delve into more content, I’d like to state that I have EQ II: The Shadow Odyssey. While I should be reviewing the base game EQ II, I’m unable do it justice since my characters are at levels too low to participate in the high-level content. The expansion offers the previous four expansions and two adventure packs. This keeps you up-to-date with the game. It offers an enhanced trade crafting system with better player-made items. Additional content is provided for those higher-level players. There are tougher dungeons, and the action makes certain that you must group with others to play the dungeons.

As it stands, I have a level 39 ogre guardian that has seen lots of action, two level 20 characters and a level 9. When starting for the first time, you should create a few characters and try their styles of fighting. When you find one you’re comfortable playing with, you’ll finally make this your main character. I suggest you play till level 10 so you’ll get a feel for the character.

We‘ll begin with character creation, which can be fun. First, you have a choice of 18 different races broken down to three groups of six. These are good, neutral and evil races. Selecting one brings up an appearance selection screen where you can stylize the character by changing eyes, head, hair or body type, plus a shroud, which is a body tattoo. Next you’ll pick a character class — there are 13 in all. The 24 subclasses pertain to good, neutral and evil characters. These subclasses could be a warrior, bard or necromancer just to name a few. After that, it’s time to pick a starting town for your newly created character. Finally, name him and the server you wish to play on. Be careful of which server you wish to start on as a few are player versus player, and some prefer that type of action. Race selection is very important since you’ll need to pick a good or evil starting town. You’ll need to depend on them for resupplying or for selling of loot. There also are housing, guilds, town quests and crafting halls.

Such towns as Qeynoz are for good and neutral characters, while a town like Kelethin would be for gnomes and half elves. Neutral characters that start in either Freeport or Neriak are considered evil. Before you begin playing your character, you’ll get a cutscene showing you the general area that the character starts in. Once you begin, a few question marks pop up and can be clicked. These give you tips till you level high enough. Looking around, you’ll notice a nonplayer character (NPC) with a feather over its head. This will be your first quest. Clicking on that NPC will get you boxes that you interact with. Once you’ve read the storyline, either accept or decline the quest. Upon completing the assigned task, return to the NPC to accept your reward, or continue the storyline before receiving your reward.

Starting at level 1 and every level achieved, you’ll automatically receive your attack spells and defensive spells. Depending on the type of character you chose, there can be direct damage spells, area of effect type and even melee buffs. Be sure to read what each does. You can arrange them on your bars so they’ll be easy to access. Now we have your persona. These are your stats, skills, details, factions and options. By tapping the “P” key, you’ll bring up this screen. By looking at each subscreen, you’ll get information on your character that will show improvements as you level, get better equipment, or if you have favorable faction with groups and cities.

Guilds may be another thing you’ll want to look into. You can solo most content in this game, but there will come a time when you’ll need assistance in assaulting instances that are too tough for one person to handle. Good guilds will provide assistance in this respect. They can help with friendly advice, provide new material to keep you up to speed with your equipment. Mentoring is another thing members can provide. Higher-level players can mentor lower-level players by equalizing their levels so that all members can play roughly at the same level in an instance without penalizing the lower player in experience.

Housing is another fun aspect since you can add trophies, furniture or a broker window and place them anywhere there is room. You can start with a one-room apartment in an inn to bigger houses with multiple rooms. Guilds have their own houses and provide amenities to their members. What else can you look forward to? We have brokers who trade your goods for money. These are special vendors who will hold items that you want to sell and buy products from other players.

For those who are thinking of crafting, there are individual tables and vendors who will sell certain raw materials to complete player-made items. Crafting requires collecting, mining, fishing, foresting and trapping for other raw materials. The collecting process is quite simple. By clicking on the item you wish to harvest, your character will spend a few seconds picking up the raw material. Crafting by itself is a bit more complicated. You need to make sure you have the correct ingredients, the right table and press the correct spells to finish the end product. But after a few tries, you can get the hang of it quite easily.

Depending on your play style, whether casual or hardcore, EQ II: The Shadow Odyssey has a lot to offer. Quests, solo play, player versus player, helpful guilds, crafting, a rich lore and lush landscape to immerse you in a game that is highly competitive. I hope this has helped a tiny bit. I have enjoyed playing, and you will as well.