PixlBit

If you aren't an MMO player then you probably don't care at all for the information that was announced today during SOE Live event regarding the latest EverQuest MMO game title "EverQuest Next". So much information was released that it would take quite a bit of time to sort through it all and condense it to a few paragraphs. So I won't try, but I'll give a short impression.

I've played quite a few MMOs, and still do quite frankly. Currently I'm playing a little SWTOR, LOTRO, The Secret World, EverQuest II, Guild Wars 2 and Final Fantasy: A Realm Reborn. The MMO closest to release is A Realm Reborn and while that game is full of improvements from the last version 1.0, it is still very much in the category of "last of the old generation of MMOs" in terms of game play. Although, I do think that what I played of A Realm Reborn and will be playing in the future was great, it doesn't really do anything new to evolve the MMO formula which is basically grind, grind, grind, fetch quests,walk, grind, fetch quest, level up, repeat. Most of the MMOs I've mentioned still use hotbars with actions that require cooldowns before reusing, and you are usually stuck with one class to level throught the game, unless you start an alt or new class from the beginning.  The Secret World and A Realm Reborn allow you to use all the different jobs in game by swapping weapons and have dynamic world events, but even this isn't really new any more.

So on to EverQuest Next. First it's "voxel" based. Meaning the entire world is destructible. Think of Minecraft or Terraria which has more of a sandbox environment to build and destroy. Most MMOs have static worlds that you can explore and items to interact with, but destroying the world is pretty new. In a demo of gameplay a Warrior and Mage blew up a bridge to keep a mob of orcs from reaching them, in another a the Mage used an Area Effect Spell that dug a whole into the ground and you can see a cavern open up beneath the ground.

Second. The game has layers. In most MMOs currently, crafting involves equipping the proper tool like a pick axe and interacting with certain parts of the environment for gathering or farming. In EQ Next, you can literally dig into the ground below until you reach these materials, actual mining. A map of the overworld was shown of Norrath and you can see the top layer and all the caverns underneath it as well as a core area made of lava.

Third. Free Running. This doesn't seem to exciting, but basically you can slide down hills, grab and pull yourself on ledges, jump over obstacles like fences and have more overall interaction with the world. Most MMOs today have limited running/walking animations and sometimes rely on mounts or other transportation to get around. Here there is more of a fluid and natural movement throughout the world. 

Last, Multiclassing. This isn't exactly new as you can do this with other MMOs, but in EQ Next you don't have to create alt characters to try different classes, simply look for trainers of other classes in the game and equip their weapon. There is also no leveling, so the growing in the game seems to revolve around leveling classes or weapons.

There is some other fun stuff regarding AI and world events that permanently change the world, basically enemies don't necessarily respawn from given points, the roam around the world freely and act depending environmental changes or pressure from NPCs that you alert. Alerting a NPC guard of the nearest city about Orcs harrassing travelers on the road for example might cause more patrol guards to secure the route. In game earthquakes and othe natural dissasters will affect the game permanently, so the game will look entirely different one to two years after launch. All interesting stuff.

Another thing I should point out about the combat is that in the demo videos, I didn't notice any hotbar actions and the game seems to have more of an action RPG feel. I'm not sure about this but it seems to be following the direction of Elderscrolls Online which is also supposed to be more of an action type game.

Over all I'm very excited about this game. I like the colorful cartoony look and feel of the characters and world too. Too much darkness all the time in Fantasy games is a bad thing. That's all from me.