A big part of the new expansion is that players will return to Erudin where the first EverQuest took place. Level 87-89 characters can vist the Library and while you might think that libraries are boring this one is anything but. A clue like murder mystery takes place in the library and players must find the murder weapon, and even find the body hidden somewhere in the library’s furniture. A very innovative little touch. However, that’s not even the coolest part of the library.

In the middle of the room is a magical spiral staircase made of bookshelves. It’s an impressive sight and a lot of fun to watch it rise up and form the staircase. There is also a cool effect where the books fly off the shelf and fly over to another bookcase.

For those players level 88 and above you are going to want to check out the Research Halls dungeon. In the Research Halls the Erudites are trying to perfect a teleportation technology, unfortunately like any good teleportation gone awry story they have accidentally unleashed a powerful enemy.

When you first enter this dungeon you’ll notice that the end boss is already RIGHT THERE! Don’t worry though, you don’t fight him yet. First he must be freed from the beams of energy that hold him in place. You do this, by, well playing through the dungeon. Puzzles must be solved in the appropriate order, because you don’t want to get killed by the beans of energy that stand in your way. Players must make sure they solve one puzzle at a time and not get ahead of themselves.

The hardest of Erudin’s three dungeons and recommended for players at level 90 is the Royal Palace. The palace is designed vertically and opens up into a grand space where players fight the final raid boss in one of the most impressive encounters in all of EverQuest II.

The Palace does away with the previous instances puzzle solving and murder mysteries and gets down to raid boss fighting. The fights are complex affairs that will determine the fate of Norrath.

I’ve personally never played EverQuest II, but I do know my way around an MMO or two and the content I saw seems very exciting. The group I was with had some hardcore EQII players in it and they were all very impressed with the visuals and many of the character models we saw including an impressive dragon. The dragon is a boss inside the Vasty Deep Conservatory which had some pretty impressive water effects including a working fountain that the dragon sat on top of.

It was easily the most beautiful of the environments that I saw on the tour. You can see the water in that middle strip in between the pillars. The screenshot doesn’t do it justice, but it’s really neat looking.

Another area of the tour that showed how the worlds of EverQuest and EverQuest II were merging was The Hole. We briefly walked through the city of Paineel and were told to jump off the edge of a building. It seemed like we were headed for certain death, but we landed (somewhat) safely in The Hole. The Hole as you may imagine is massive. Filled with bosses and quests. It’s so huge that it’s recommended for characters level 82-90. There are at least 80 quests to do in this area.

In The Hole you will find Tower of Serilis a massive structure that appears to be made of crystals. Inside the tower is the The Vault of Living Stone which apparently was keeping all the bad stuff out of EverQuest II. However, over in EverQuest 1 the seal was broken, which is causing evil to enter The Hole and begin twisting it. Needless to say it’s up to you to cleanse The Hole of evil.

It sounds like EverQuest II fans are going to be plenty busy with tons of new instances, quests, a raised level cap, and some of the most impressive visuals in this or any MMO. Thanks to the fine folks over at Sony Online Entertainment for showing me around. I had a good time.