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Fantastic value is one pack! Just be sure to have yourself checked out for any signs of addictive personality.

By now, if you haven’t heard of Everquest, you’ve either been in a coma, or extremely unobservant as a PCGamer. Evercrack, as it has been so affectionately referred to, is an online RPG that really set the world on fire.

The idea of the Massively Multiplayer game (as dumb as that sounds) really came into shape with Everquest, and there is such a cult following to this game it is darn near terrifying. That doesn’t mean it is a bad game. I think it comes down to a matter of taste, but there is no denying the success of this game. You can question its logic, but you cannot deny it.

What we have here with Evolution is not a new game. Give Sony credit; they have been quite proficient at releasing updates to the Everquest world, offering plenty in the way of new lands.

For those who do not already know, Everquest takes place in the land of Norrath, and there are fifteen different races to assume in the world. Evolution basically gives you the chance to get it all in one package, instead of buying the separate expansion packs.

Included in this collage are the Shadows of Luclin, Scars of Velious, Runes of Kunark, Planes of Power, and Legacy of Ykesha expansions. These expansions increased the playable area of the game over 300%, giving a wide variety of gaming experience to the world. Again, this is notable, and probably one of the reasons why this MMORPG has lasted this long.

The first expansion pack, Luclin, caused a little bit of anger over the necessity for 512MB of RAM. Back then, this was considered a lot, especially when the graphics were not that groundbreaking.

The graphics stay the same for this set of expansions, with what seems to be a bit of an improvement in character models and amount of clipping. Artifacts still abound, but this is to be expected in an endeavor this huge. In all, the graphics are more than acceptable.

The best thing about this collection is the shift to the Planes of Power interface. I found this interface to be far more streamlined, and now, this is used for all of the game. It’s little touches like this that make a game work. Happy to see Sony paid attention where it counts.

This collection seems to be aimed at newcomers to the game, offering them an astounding value for their dollar. Sure, I don’t completely agree with paying monthly for a game, but that’s just me. I know a lot of people do.

Hey, I don’t agree with throwing your life away over an online game yet I know of two people whose lives actually were destroyed by playing such games.

If you have never played Everquest, and would like to give it a shot, this is the place to go. For a small amount of money, you get an excellent amount of gaming. Just be sure to have yourself checked out for any signs of addictive personality.


Review by John Misak.