EverQuest is called "EverCrack" by many for its incredibly addictive gameplay. It's a fully immersive role playing game where you take on the personae of an elf, dwarf, barbarian, human, ogre, troll or many other types of characters. You can then choose what type of profession you want, from magician, paladin, ranger, warrior, and more. You can be another person, and live in another world. Isn't this something we've all dreamed of from childhood?

You can customize your gender, your face, hair style, hair color and eyes too, although the choices are few and the click-cycling gets annoying. A few more brief choices and you're in your starting town, ready to explore, learn, and kill some wildlife.

The graphics are rather nice, with each creature type having its own body shape and size. Look at a tall ogre standing next to a little halfling and the two really are quite different! Head out to attack small spiders and larger polar bears, or do some fishing and tailoring if that's more your speed. You can concentrate on combat, or magic, or making things, or just hanging out and talking. The world has it all.

The Planes of Power CD is good for those just starting, because it has everything you need to get going. It's also a nice expansion for experienced users, because it lets the higher leveled characters enter new, interesting worlds. The planes also let you easily move between towns, something that was a bit difficult before.

EverQuest, being an online RPG, requires a monthly fee to keep playing. It's $12.95/mo for the basic connection, and $39.95/mo for the "Legends" level. This gets you your own server with special weapons, armor, events and dynamic maps. With over 50 servers to choose from for regular gameplay, there are thousands of people on line at all times to interact with and work on quests with.

EverQuest has been played for so long by such a huge volume of gamers that just about every part of the system has been finely tuned. The animations for spells are gorgeous, as is the clothing for characters. You can customize just about any key you want, customize the music playing in the background, customize the background of the various status boxes, move them around the screen, fade them out when they're not in use. It's really a treat to play this if you've only played some of the older RPGs.

If you're a RPG fan, EverQuest is definitely a game to give a try to, either by buying the CD and doing the free-month, or playing it at a friend's house. Most regular games you buy on CD give you less than a month's gameplay anyway, and if you DO enjoy the game a lot, for only another $13 each month you get another full month's enjoyment. You can't say that for a lot of regular games you shell out your cash for!

Screenshots from EverQuest

Buy EverQuest: The Planes of Power from Amazon.com

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