General Discussion

Adele Caelia has had an opportunity to explore the new EverQuest II expansion, Rise of Kunark and today shares her impressions of the add-on with you.

Rise of Kunark is the fourth expansion for Sony Online Entertainment’s Everquest II. In this expansion a breed of Sarnak long forgotten, and banished centuries before from their homeland emerges to conquer at last their most hated enemy, the Iksar. Players will visit a world ravaged by war, and along the way meet many different factions that need their help to twist the tide. Rise of Kunark is a first-class expansion that will change the game for the better in the minds of many players.

A New Race

Players will find a new race, the Sarnak, available for play. The Sarnak are a vile and evil race made by the Iksar long ago using dark magic to mix Iksar with those of the Dragon race. The Sarnak that have now come to Norrath are a breed that has the power to destroy their enemy, a breed that was thought to no longer exist.

The Sarnak could easily be the best looking evil race in the game, especially for those who have a fondness for Dragons. They look more Dragon than Iksar, with hunched over bodies and huge hulking Dragon-like heads. On creation, players will find themselves able to choose from many styles of horns and scale colors, along with the width and length of their snout. A must play for those players who like the idea of breathing fire upon their enemy and eating them alive...

Read the rest here.

No more grinding a con?

Increased level cap a pro?



What i hate about level increase is it makes all the previous zones empty and completly useless. Also what i hate about mmorpgs is the fact you have to grind grind grind.......... so if they managed to get rid of the grind then how is that a con?

Originally posted by slannmage

No more grinding a con?

Increased level cap a pro?



What i hate about level increase is it makes all the previous zones empty and completly useless. Also what i hate about mmorpgs is the fact you have to grind grind grind.......... so if they managed to get rid of the grind then how is that a con?

Increased level cap is a pro to those who enjoy grinding - and there are plenty of those as well.

No one type of player has a monopoly on MMOs.

In all it sounds like an interesting enough expansion. I re-upped my account to check out EoF and thought the new areas were brilliant. I loved starting out in Lesser Faydark (or was it greater? I can never remember heheh); a really huge and sometimes confusing area but far more interesting than Commonlands or, even Antonica - at least to me.

Perhaps at some point I'll pick this up and give it another try.

I tried out the free trial for this game but was, frankly, unimpressed with the graphics and gameplay (the water did look good, I have to admit). WoW seems so much more polished and intuitive to me and looked better overall. It isn't a function of being easy to level so much as the interface itself. EQ's interface and combat felt very clunky and awkward to me.

Based on my (admittedly limited) experience with Everquest during the free trial, I would rate WoW more highly overall. I would be curious to hear from players who have played both WoW and Everquest extensively why they might feel Everquest is the better game. (I'm sure I didn't play EQ long enough to give it a fair test.) It's just hard for me to imagine wanting to play EQ. It felt (again this is just me) very dated, MMO-wise.

Nevertheless, this was a well-written and informative review. Thanks for posting it.

Originally posted by tmr819

I tried out the free trial for this game but was, frankly, unimpressed with the graphics and gameplay (the water did look good, I have to admit). WoW seems so much more polished and intuitive to me and looked better overall. It isn't a function of being easy to level so much as the interface itself. EQ's interface and combat felt very clunky and awkward to me.

Based on my (admittedly limited) experience with Everquest during the free trial, I would rate WoW more highly overall. I would be curious to hear from players who have played both WoW and Everquest extensively why they might feel Everquest is the better game. (I'm sure I didn't play EQ long enough to give it a fair test.) It's just hard for me to imagine wanting to play EQ. It felt (again this is just me) very dated, MMO-wise.

Nevertheless, this was a well-written and informative review. Thanks for posting it.

I agree that WOW is a better overall mmorpg, there are areas EQ2 is better in but overall WOW just has a much higher level of polish and doesn't feel soo dated like EQ2 does. 

Myself though i don't like any of them lol.

Well going by your review you didn’t play EQ2 on max graphic or you wouldn’t have said what you said. Also I believe your computer is on the low end. That is the reason WOW has done as well as it has. If you set the graphics on low on both games, WOW wins. But on max graphics, EQ2 is the clear winner. Not bragging, but mine is 4.2 Gig Processor, 4 gig of Ram and 2x 8800 GTS video cards (SLI). So a high end computer ( for now ) and I can play everything on max graphics including COD4 which I must say is the best game this year following with Bioshock.. But back to the games Wow’s game mechanics are very good and in my opinion the best. But on the graphics end and total role-play immersion, EQ2 is the best by far. There are a lot of NPCs that will talk to you for awhile. So of it is good and some of isn’t. There is just so much you can do, besides fighting. In my opinion only, EQ2 is the better of the two.

On the downside of EQ2 something I would like to see more of. More armor and weapon sets, and hair and beard customization, plus more tattoos/piercing.

I have not played the newbie island lately, so I don’t know how good it is. But I am sure that’s its close to the Mainland.

One last thing that EQ universe has on WOW. EQ has more lore and history that is quite interesting. WoW has it’s lore off of a strategy game, which doesn’t have the lore role-playing games have.

But like I have always posted, everyone has their own flavor. Right now mine is EQ2 until Conan and Warhammer come out.

Wish the reviewer would have done a bit more homework about these Sarnak.

1) They are not "evil and vile" and had they read any of the devs postings on them they would have seen that the Sarnak are only "evil" in the sense of distrust and misunderstanding. They are definitely NOT "vile."

2) They are also not the same Sarnak that the Iksar bred all those years ago. This is a new breed. The Di'Zok Sarnak's are from the original stock.

In all though, a good review. I won't comment on those who keep insisting on comparing EQII to the cartoon rendered WoW since in my opinion, there isn't one. I'll take EQII any day.

thanks stradden interesting review for a long time on this site.

the grind was the reason for me to quit eq2.

how is leveling from 20 - 70 any changes ?

and is there new content for this lvl ranges ?

WoW's lore is story based.  It doesn't matter that it stemmed from a strategy game.  There is a huge story with many plot lines if you only take the time to actually read the quest texts and all of the various books lying around the world.  WoW's lore is much more accessible and you don't have to be a hardcore raider to even enjoy the best of it.

I've played both games and even went back to EQ2 several times, but I always have felt more engaged while in WoW.  It has it's problems, there is no doubt about that, but it is still the superior game.

WoW is easy to play and understand so yes you probably would take WoW over any other MMO<